a pollution to go into the judgment-hall, no pollution to murder the Lord of Life. There cannot be a greater argument of a false heart, than to stumble at these straws, and to leap over the blocks of gross impiety. Well did our Saviour know, how heinously offensive it would be, to turn in to this publican: he knows, and regards it not. A soul is to be won; what cares he for idle misconstruction? Morally good actions must not be suspended, upon danger of causeless scandal. In things indifferent and arbitrary, it is fit to be overruled by fear of offence; but if men will stumble in the plain ground of good, let them fall without our regard, not without their own peril. I know not, if it were not David's weakness, to abstain from good words, while the wicked were in place. Let justice be done in spite of the world; and, in spite of hell,

mercy.

Ignorance was, in part, guilty of these scruples. They thought Christ either too holy to go to a sinner, or in going made unholy. Foolish men! to whom came he? To you, righteous? Let himself speak: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Whither should the physician go, but to the sick? the whole need him not. Love is the best attractive of us; and he, to whom much is forgiven, loves much. O Saviour, the glittering palaces of proud justiciaries are not for thee; thou lovest the lowly and ragged cottage of a contrite heart. Neither could here be any danger of thy pollution. Thy sun could cast his beams upon the impurest dunghill, and not be tainted. It was free and safe, for the leper and bloody-fluxed to touch thee: thou couldest heal them; they could not infect thee. Neither is it otherwise in this moral contagion. We, who are obnoxious to evil, may be insensibly defiled; thy purity was enough to remedy that, which might mar a world. Thou canst help us; we cannot hurt thee. Oh let thy presence ever bless us; and let us ever bless thee, for thy presence. Pride was an attendant of this Ignorance. So did they note Zaccheus for a sinner, as if themselves had been none. His sins were written in his forehead; theirs, in their breast. The presumption of their secresy makes them insult upon his notoriousness. The smoke of pride flies still upward; and, in the mounting, vanisheth : contrition beats it down, and fetcheth tears from the tender eyes, There are stage sins, and there are closet sins: these may not upbraid the other: they may be more heinous, though less manifest. It is a dangerous vanity, to look outward at other men's sins with scorn, when we have more need to cast our eyes inward, to see our own with humiliation.

Thus they stumbled, and fell; but Zaccheus stood. All their malicious murmur could not dishearten his piety and joy, in the entertaining of Christ. Before, Zaccheus lay down as a sinner; now, he stands up as a convert. Sinning is falling; continuance in sin is lying down; repentance is rising and standing up. Yet, perhaps, this standing was not so much the site of his constancy, or of his conversion, as of his reverence. Christ's affability hath not made him unmannerly; Zaccheus stood, And what if the de

sire of more audibleness raised him to his feet? In that smallness of stature, it was not fit he should lose ought of his height. It was meet so noble a proclamation should want no advantage of hearing.

Never was our Saviour better welcomed. The penitent publican makes his will, and makes Christ his supervisor. His will consists of legacies given; of debts paid: gifts, to the poor; payments to the injured. There is liberality in the former; in the latter, justice: in both, the proportions are large; Half, to the poor; fourfold, to the wronged.

This hand sowed not sparingly. Here must needs be much of his own, that was well gotten; whether left by patrimony, or saved by parsimony, or gained by honest improvement: for when he had restored fourfold to every one, whom he had oppressed, yet there remained a whole half for pious uses; and this he so distributes that every word commends his bounty:

I give; and what is more free than gift? In alms, we may neither sell, nor return, nor cast away. We sell, if we part with them for importunity, for vain glory, for retribution: we return them, if we give with respect to former offices; this is to pay, not to bestow: we cast away, if in our beneficence we neither regard order nor discretion. Zaccheus did neither cast away, nor return, nor sell, but give :

I do give: not, "I will." The prorogation of good makes it thankless. The alms, that smell of the hand, lose the praise. It is twice given, that is given quickly. Those, that defer their gifts till their death-bed, do as good as say, "Lord, I will give thee something when I can keep it no longer." Happy is the man, that is his own executor:

I give my goods; not another's. It is a thankless vanity, to be liberal of another man's purse. Whoso gives of that, which he hath taken away from the owner, doth more wrong in giving, than in stealing. God expects our gifts, not our spoils. I fear there is too many a school and hospital, every stone whereof may be challenged. Had Zaccheus meant to give of his extortions, he had not been so careful of his restitution: now he restores to others, that he may give of his own :

I give half my goods: the publican's heart was as large as his estate. He was not more rich in goods, than in bounty. Were this example binding, who should be rich, to give? Who should be poor, to receive? In the strait beginnings of the Church, those beneficences were requisite, which afterwards, in the larger elbowroom thereof, would have caused much confusion. If the first Christians laid down all at the apostles' feet, yet, ere long, enough for the believing Corinthians, every first day of the week to lay aside some pittance for charitable purposes. We are no disciples, if we do not imitate Zaccheus, so far as to give liberally, according to the proportion of our estate. Giving is sowing: the larger seeding, the greater crop. Giving to the poor is fœneration

was

to God: the greater bank, the more interest. Who can fear to be too wealthy? Time was, when men faulted in excess: proclamations were fain to restrain the Jews; statutes were fain to restrain our ancestors. Now there needs none of this: men know how to shut their hands alone. Charity is in more danger of freezing, than of burning. How happy were it for the Church, if men were only close-handed to hold, and not lime-fingered to take :

To the poor; not to rich heirs. God gives to him, that hath; we, to him, that wants. Some want, because they would; whether out of prodigality or idleness: some want, because they must; these are the fit subjects of our beneficence, not those other. A poverty of our own making deserves no pity. He, that sustains the lewd, feeds not his belly, but his vice.

So, then, this living legacy of Zaccheus is free, I give; present, I do give; just, my goods; large, half my goods; fit, to the

poor.

Neither is he more bountiful in his gift, than just in his restitution: If I have taken ought from any man by false accusation, I restore it fourfold.

It was proper for a publican to pill and pole the subject, by devising complaints, and raising causeless vexations; that his mouth might be stopped with fees, either for silence or composition. This, had Zaccheus often done. Neither is this if a note of doubt, but of assertion. He is sure of the fact; he is not sure of the persons their challenge must help to further his justice.

The true penitence of this holy convert expresses itself in Confession, in Satisfaction.

His Confession is free, full, open. What cares he to shame himself, that he may give glory to God? Woe be to that bashfulness, that ends in confusion of face. O God, let me blush before men, rather than be confounded before thee, thy saints and angels.

His Satisfaction is no less liberal, than his gift. Had not Zaccheus been careful to pay the debts of his fraud, all had gone to the poor. He would have done that voluntarily, which the young man in the Gospel was bidden to do; and, refusing, went away sorrowful. Now, he knew, that his misgotten gain was not for God's corban: therefore he spares half; not to keep, but to restore. This was the best dish in Zaccheus's good cheer. In vain, had he feasted Christ, given to the poor, confessed his extortions, if he had not made restitution. Woe is me, for the paucity of true converts! There is much stolen goods; little brought home. Men's hands are like the fishers' flew; yea, like hell itself: which admits of no return. O God, we can never satisfy Thee; our score is too great, our abilities too little but if we make not even with men, in vain shall we look for mercy from thee. To each his own, had been well; but four for one, was munificent. In our transactions of commerce, we do well to beat the bargain to the lowest ; but in cases of moral or spiritual payments to God or men, now there must be a measure, pressed, shaken, running over. In good

JOHN BAPTIST BEHEADED.

offices and due retributions, we may not be pinching and niggardly. It argues an earthly and ignoble mind, where we have apparently wronged, to higgle and dodge in the amends.

O mercy and justice well repaid! This day, is salvation come to thine house. Lo, Zaccheus, that which thou givest to the poor, is nothing to that, which thy Saviour gives to thee. If thou restorest four for one, here is more than thousands of millions for nothing. Were every of thy pence a world, they could hold no comparison with this bounty. It is but dross, that thou givest; it is Salvation, that thou receivest. Thou gavest in present, thou dost not receive in hope; but This day, is Salvation come to thine house. Thine illgotten metals were a strong bar, to bolt heaven's gates against thee; now, that they are dissolved by a seasonable beneficence and restitution, those gates of glory fly open to thy soul. Where is that man, that can challenge God to be in his "Lord, this favour I did to the least of debt? Who can ever say, thine, unrequited?" Thrice happy publican, that hast climbed from thy sycamore to heaven; and by a few worthless bags of unLuke xix. righteous mammon, hast purchased to thyself a kingdom incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away.

JOHN BAPTIST BEHEADED.

THREE of the Evangelists have, with one pen, recorded the death of the great harbinger of Christ, as most remarkable and useful.

for the way He was the forerunner of Christ, as into the world, so out of it: yea, he, that made way for Christ into the world, made name of Christ into the court of Herod. This Herod Antipas was son to that Herod, who was, and is ever infamous, for the massacre at Bethlehem. Cruelty runs in a blood. The murderer of John, the forerunner of Christ, is well descended of him, who would have murdered Christ, and, for his sake, murdered the infants.

It was late, ere this Herod heard the fame of Jesus; not till he had taken off the head of John Baptist. The father of this Herod inquired for Christ too soon; this, too late. Great men should have the best intelligence. If they improve it to all other uses, of either frivolous or civil affairs, with neglect of spiritual, their judgment shall be so much more, as their helps and means were

greater.

Whether this Herod were taken up with his Arabian wars against Arethas, his father-in-law, or whether he were employed in his journey to Rome, I inquire not; but if he were at home, I must wonder how he could be so long, without the noise of Christ. Certainly, it was a sign he had a very irreligious court, that none of his followers did so much as report to him the miracles, of our Saviour; who, doubtless, told him many a vain tale the while. One tells him of his brother Philip's discontentment; another relates the news of the Roman court; another, the angry threats of Arethas;

another flatters him with the admiration of his new mistress, and disparagement of the old: no man so much as says, "Sir, there is a prophet in your kingdom, that doeth wonders." There was not a man in his country, that had not been astonished with the fame of Jesus; yea, all Syria and the adjoining regions rung of it: only Herod's court hears nothing. Miserable is that greatness, which keeps men from the notice of Christ.

How plain is it from hence, that our Saviour kept aloof from the court! The austere and eremitical harbinger of Christ, it seems, preached there oft, and was heard gladly, though at last, to his cost; while our Saviour, who was more sociable, came not there. He sent a message to that Fox, whose den he would not approach: whether it were that he purposely forbore, lest he should give that tyrant occasion to revive and pursue his father's suspicion; or whether, for that he would not so much honour a place, so infamously graceless and disordered; or whether, by his example to teach us the avoidance of outward pomp and glory.

Surely, Herod saw him not, till his death; heard not of him, till the death of John Baptist. And now, his unintelligence was not more strange, than his misconstruction; This is John Baptist, whom I beheaded. First, he doubted; then he resolved: he doubted, upon others' suggestions; upon his own apprehensions, he resolved thus. And though he thought good to set a face on it to strangers, unto whom it was not safe to bewray his fear; yet to his domestics, he freely discovered his thoughts; This is John Baptist. The troubled conscience will many a time open that to familiars, which it hides from the eyes of others. Shame and fear meet together in guiltiness.

How could he imagine this to be John? That common conceit of transanimation could have no place here. There could be no transmigration of souls into a grown and well-statured body, That received fancy of the Jews held only in the case of conception and birth; not of full age.

What need we scan this point, when Herod himself professes, He is risen from the dead? He, that was a Jew by profession, and knew the story of Elisha's bones, of the Sareptan's and Shunamite's son, and, in all likelihood, had now heard of our Saviour's miraculous resuscitation of others, might think this power reflected upon himself. Even Herod, as bad as he was, believed a resurrection. Lewdness of life and practice may stand with orthodoxy in some main points of religion. Who can doubt of this, when the devils believe and tremble? Where shall those men appear, whose faces are Christian, but their hearts Sadducees?

Had

Oh the terrors and tortures of a guilty heart! Herod's conscience told him he had offered an unjust and cruel violence to an innocent; and now he thinks that John's ghost haunts him. it not been for this guilt of his bosom, why might he not as well have thought, that the same God, whose hand is not shortened, bad conferred this power of miracles upon some other? Now, it could be nobody but John, that doth these wonders: "And how