Even so,

wouldest thou leave her, for the time, to her sorrow. O Saviour, thou thoughtest fit to visit her, that bore thee, with this early affliction. Never any loved thee, whom thou dost not sometimes exercise, with the grief of missing thee; that both, we may be more careful to hold thee, and more joyful in recovering thee. Thou hast said, and canst not lie, I am with you, to the end of the world; but even while thou art really present, thou thinkest good to be absent unto our apprehensions.

Yet if thou leave us, thou wilt not forsake us; if thou leave us for our humiliation, thou wilt not forsake us to our final discomfort. Thou mayest for three days hide thyself, but then we shall find thee in the temples. None ever sought thee with a sincere desire, of whom thou wert not found. Thou wilt not be, either so little absent as not to whet our appetites, nor so long as to fainten the heart.

ever.

After three days, we shall find thee; and where should we rather hope to find thee, than in the Temple? There, is the habitation for the God of Israel; there, is thy resting place for O all ye, that are grieved with the want of your Saviour, see where you must seek him. In vain shall ye hope to find him in the streets, in the taverns, in the theatres: seek him in his Holy Temple; seek him with piety; seek him with faith: there shall ye meet him; there shall ye recover him.

While children of that age were playing in the streets, Christ was found sitting in the temple; not to gaze on the outward glory of that house, or on the golden candlesticks or tables, but to hear and oppose the doctors. He, who as God gave them all the wisdom they had, as the Son of Man hearkens to the wisdom he had given them. He, who sat in their hearts, as the Author of all learning and knowledge, sits in the midst of their school, as an humble Disciple; that, by learning of them, he might teach all the younger sort humility, and due attendance upon their instructors. He could, at the first, have taught the great Rabbins of Israel the deep mysteries of God; but, because he was not yet called by his Father to the public function of a Teacher, he contents himself to hear with diligence, and to ask with modesty, and to teach only by insinuation. Let those consider this, which will needs run as soon as they can go; and, when they find ability, think they need not stay, for a further vocation of God or men. Open your eyes, ye rathe ripe invaders of God's chair, and see your Saviour in his younger years, not sitting in the eminent pulpits of the doctors, but in the lowly floors of the auditors. See him, that could have taught the angels, listening in his minority to the voice of men. Who can think much to learn of the ancients, when he looks upon the Son of God, sitting at the feet of the doctors of Israel? First, he hears; then, he asks. How much more doth it concern us to be hearers, ere we offer to be teachers of others! He gathers,

that hears; he spends, that teacheth: if we spend before we gather, we shall soon prove bankrupts.

When he hath heard, he asks; and after that, he answers. Doubtless, those very questions were instructions; and meant to teach, more than to learn. Never had these great Rabbins heard the voice of such a Tutor; in whom they might see the wisdom of God so concealing itself, that yet it would be known to be there. No marvel then, if they all wondered at his understanding and answers. Their eyes saw nothing, but human weakness; their ears heard divine sublimity of matter: betwixt what they saw and what they heard, they could not but be distracted with a doubting admiration.

And why did ye not, O ye Jewish teachers, remember, that to us a Child is born, and unto us a Son is given: and the government is upon his shoulder; and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace? Why did ye not now bethink yourselves, what the Star, the Sages, the Angels, the Shepherds, Zachary, Simeon, Anna, had premonished you? Fruitless is the wonder, that endeth not in faith. No light is sufficient, where the eyes are held, through unbelief or prejudice.

The doctors were not more amazed, to hear so profound a childhood, than the parents of Christ were, to see him among the doctors. The joy of finding him did strive with the astonishment of finding him thus.

And now, not Joseph, (he knew how little right he had to that Divine Son,) but Mary, breaks forth into a loving expostulation; Son, why hast thou dealt so with us? That she might not seem to take upon her as an imperious Mother, it is like she reserved this question, till she had him alone; wherein she meant rather to express grief, than correption. Only herein the Blessed Virgin offended, that her inconsideration did not suppose, (as it was,) that some higher respects, than could be due to flesh and blood, called away the Son of God from her, that was the daughter of man. She, that was but the Mother of Humanity, should not have thought, that the business of God must for her sake be neglected.

We are all partial to ourselves naturally; and prone to the regard of our own rights. Questionless, this gracious saint would not, for all the world, have willingly preferred her own attendance, to that of her God: through heedlessness she doth so: her Son and Saviour is her monitor; out of his divine love, reforming her natural; How is it that ye sought me? Know ye not, that I must go about my Father's business?

Immediately before the Blessed Virgin had said, Thy father and I sought thee with heavy hearts: wherein, both, according to the supposition of the world she called Joseph the father of Christ, and according to the fashion of a dutiful wife she names

her Joseph before herself. She well knew, that Joseph had nothing but a name in this business; she knew how God had dignified her beyond him; yet she says, Thy father and I sought thee.

The Son of God stands not upon contradiction to his mother; but, leading her thoughts from his supposed father to his true, from earth to Heaven, he answers, Knew ye not that I must go about my Father's business? It was honour enough to her, that he had vouchsafed to take flesh of her; it was his eternal honour, that he was God of God, the Everlasting Son of the Heavenly Father. Good reason, therefore, was it, that the respects to flesh should give place to the God of Spirits.

How well contented was holy Mary, with so just an answer? How doth she now again, in her heart, renew her answer to the Angel, Behold the servant of the Lord, be it according to thy word!

We are all the sons of God, in another kind. Nature, and the world, thinks we should attend them. We are not worthy to say, "We have a Father in Heaven," if we cannot steal away from these earthly distractions, and employ ourselves in the services of our God.

CONTEMPLATION II.-CHRIST'S BAPTISM.

MATTHEW III.

JOHN did, every way, forerun Christ; not so much in the time of his birth, as in his office. Neither was there more unlikeliness in their disposition and carriage, than similitude in their function. Both did preach and baptize : only John baptized by himself; our Saviour, by his disciples: our Saviour wrought miracles by himself, by his disciples; John wrought none by either: wherein Christ meant to show himself a Lord, and John a servant; and John meant to approve himself a true servant to him, whose harbinger he was.

He, that leaped in the womb of his mother, when his Saviour, then newly conceived, came in presence, bestirred himself, when he was brought forth into the light of the Church, to the honour and service of his Saviour. He did the same before Christ, which Christ charged his disciples to do after him, Preach and baptize. The Gospel ran always in one tenor; and was never but like itself: so it became the word of him, in whom there is no shadow by turning; and whose word it is, I am Jehovah, I change not.

It was fit, that he, which had the prophets, the star, the angel, to foretell his coming into the world, should have his

usher to go before him, when he would notify himself to the world. John was the Voice of a Cryer; Christ was the Word of his Father: it was fit this Voice should make a noise to the world, ere the Word of the Father should speak to it.

John's note was still, Repentance; the axe to the root, the fan to the floor, the chaff to the fire: as his raiment was rough, so was his tongue; and if his food were wild honey, his speech was stinging locusts. Thus must the way be made for Christ in every heart. Plausibility is no fit preface to regeneration. If the heart of man had continued upright, God might have been entertained without contradiction; but now violence must be offered

to our corruption, ere we can have room for grace. If the great Way-Maker do not cast down hills and raise up valleys in the bosoms of men, there is no passage for Christ. Never will Christ come into that soul, where the herald of repentance hath not been before him.

That Saviour of ours, who from eternity lay hid in the counsel of God, who in the fulness of time so came that he lay hid in the womb of his Mother for the space of forty weeks, who after he was come thought fit to lie hid in Nazareth for the space of thirty years, now at last begins to show himself to the world, and comes from Galilee to Jordan. He, that was God always, and might have been perfect man in an instant, would by degrees rise to the perfection both of his Manhood and execution of his Mediatorship; to teach us the necessity of leisure in spiritual proceedings; that many suns and successions of seasons and means must be stayed for, ere we can attain our maturity; and that when we are ripe for the employments of God, we should no less willingly leave our obscurity, than we took the benefit of it for our preparation.

He, that was formerly circumcised, would now be baptized. What is baptism, but an evangelical circumcision? What was circumcision, but a legal baptism? One both supplied and succeeded the other; yet the Author of both will undergo both. He would be circumcised, to sanctify his Church that was; and baptized, to sanctify his Church that should be: that so, in both Testaments, he might open a way into heaven. There was in him neither filthiness nor foreskin of corruption, that should need either knife or water. He came not to be a Saviour for himself, but for us; we are all uncleanness and uncircumcision : he would therefore have that done to his most pure body, which should be of force to clear our impure souls; thus making himself sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

His last action (or rather

His baptism gives virtue to ours. passion) was his baptizing with blood; his first, was his baptization with water: both of them wash the world from their sins. Yea, this latter did not only wash the souls of men, but wash

eth that very water, by which we are washed: from hence is that made both clean and holy, and can both cleanse and hallow us. And, if the very handkerchief, which touched his apostles, had power of cure, how much more that water, which the sacred body of Christ touched!

Christ comes far, to seek his baptism; to teach us for whose sake he was baptized, to wait upon the ordinances of God, and to sue for the favour of spiritual blessings. They are worthless commodities, that are not worth seeking for. It is rarely seen, that God is found of any man unsought for. That desire, which only makes us capable of good things, cannot stand with neglect.

John durst not baptize, unbidden: his Master sent him to do this service; and behold, the Master comes to his servant, to call for the participation of that privilege, which he himself had instituted and enjoined. How willingly should we come to our spiritual superiors, for our part in those mysteries, which God hath left in their keeping! Yea, how gladly should we come to that Christ, who gives us these blessings, who is given to us in them!

This seemed too great an honour, for the modesty of John to receive. If his mother could say, when her blessed cousin, the Virgin Mary, came to visit her, Whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? How much more might he say so, when the Divine Son of that mother came to call for a favour from him! I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me? O holy Baptist, if there were not a greater born of woman than thou, yet thou couldest not be born of a woman, and not need to be baptized of thy Saviour. He baptized with fire; thou, with water. Little would thy water have availed thee, without his fire. If he had not baptized thee, how wert thou sanctified from the womb? There can be no flesh without filthiness neither thy supernatural conception, nor thy austere life, could exempt thee from the need of baptism. Even those, that have not lived to sin after the similitude of Adam, yet are they so tainted with Adam, that, unless the second Adam cleanse them by his baptism, they are hopeless.

There is no less use of baptism unto all, than there is certainty of the need of baptism. John baptized without; Christ, within. The more holy a man is, the more sensible he is of his unholiness. No carnal man could have said, I have need to be baptized of thee; neither can he find, what he is the better for a little font water. The sense of our wretchedness, and the valuation of our spiritual helps, is the best trial of our rege

neration.

Our Saviour doth not deny, that, either John hath need to be baptized of him, or that it is strange that he should come to be baptized of John; but he will needs thus far both honour John