he that I forbear cursing and oaths, though it is my custom to use them? Yet I must offer violence to my custom, and go against the stream of all their customs that are round me, to obey his will, who wills all things justly and holily. Will he have my charity not only liberal in giving, but in forgiving, and real and hearty in both? Will he have me "bless them that curse me, and do good to them that hate me, and love mine enemies?" Though the world counts it a hard task, and my own corrupt heart possibly finds it so, yet it shall be done; and not as upon unpleasant necessity, but willingly and cheerfully, and with the more delight because it is difficult; for so it proves my obedience more, and my love to him whose will it is. Though mine enemies deserve not my love, yet he who bids me love them does; and if he will have this touchstone to try the uprightness of my love to him, shall it fail there? No; his will commands me so absolutely, and he himself is so lovely, that there can be nobody so unlovely in themselves, or to me, but I can love them upon his command, and for his sake.-LEIGHTON. with this ruler, lest he should confirm him in an opinion of measuring his power by conceits of locality and distance: but he doth that in absence, for which his presence was required, with a repulse: "Thy son liveth," giving a greater demonstration of his Omnipotency than was craved. How oft doth he not hear us to our will, that he may hear us to our advantage! The chosen vessel would be rid of temptations; he hears of a supply of grace: the sick man asks relief, receives patience; life, and receives glory. Let us ask what we think best; let him give what he knows best. With one word doth Christ heal two patients, the son and the father; the son's fever, and the father's unbelief. That operative word of our Saviour was not without the intention of a trial. Had not the ruler gone home satisfied with that intimation of his son's life and recovery, neither of them had been blessed with success. Now the news of performance meets him one half of the way: and he that believed somewhat ere he came, and more when he went, grew to more faith. in the way; and, when he came home, enlarged his faith to all the skirts of his family. A weak faith may be true, but a true faith is growing: he that boasts of a full stature in the first moment of his assent, may presume, but doth not believe. Go thy way, thy son liveth.-The rulers request was, "Come and heal:" Christ's answer was, "Go thy way, thy son lives." Our merciful Saviour meets those in the end, whom he crosses in the way. sweetly doth he correct our prayers, and, while he doth not give us what Great men cannot want clients; we ask, gives us better than we their example sways some, their asked! authority more; they cannot go to Justly doth he forbear to go down either of the other worlds alone. How whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had. 5 And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole? 7 The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me. 8 Jesus saith unto him, "Rise, take up thy bed, and walk. 9 And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked; and "on the same day was the sabbath. 10 The Jews therefore ¶ said unto him that was cured, It is the sabbath day: 'it is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed. 11 He answered them, He that made me whole, the same said unto me, Take up thy bed, and walk. 12 Then asked they him, What man is that which said unto thee, Take up thy bed, and walk? 13 And he that was healed wist not who it was: for Jesus had conveyed himself away, 'a multitude being in that place. 14 Afterward Jesus findeth him in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole sin no more, things that himself doeth and he will shew him greater works than these, that ye may marvel. 21 For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; "even so the Son quickeneth whom he will. 22 For the Father judgeth lest a worse thing come unto no man, but "hath committed all judgment unto the Son: thee. 15 The man departed, and told the Jews that it was Jesus which had made him whole. 16 And therefore did the Jews persecute persecute Jesus, and sought to slay him, because he had done these things on the sabbath day. 17 But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. 18 Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God. k i 19 Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. 20 For 'the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all 23 That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him. a Lev. xxiii. 2.-Deut. xvi. 1 ch. ii. 13.- Neh. iii. I; & xii. 39.- Or, gate.-c Mat ix 6. Mark ii. xi. Luke v. 24. d ch. ix. 14.-e Ex. xx. 10. Neh. xiii. 19. Jer. xvii. 21, &c. Mat. xii. 2. Mark ii. 24; & iii. 4. Luke vi 2; & xiii. 14.- Or, from the multitude that was.-f Mat. xii. 45. ch. viii. 11.—g ch. ix. 4; & xiv. 10.—h ch, vii. 19.-i ch. x. 30, 33. Phil. ii 6.-k ver, 30. ch. viii, 28; & ix. 4: & xii. 49; & xiv. 10.-/ Mat. iii. 17. ch. iii. 55. 2 Pet. i. 17.-m Luke vii. 14; & viii. liv. ch. xi. 25. 43.- Mat. xi. 27; & xxviii 18. ver. 27. ch. iii. 35; & xvii. 2. Acts xvii. 31. 1 Pet. iv. 5.-0 1 John ii. 23. READER. O all ye that are spiritually sick and diseased, come to the pool of Bethesda, the blood of Christ! Do ye complain of the blindness of your ignorance? here ye shall receive clearness of sight: of the distemper of passions? here ease of the superfluity of your sinful passions? here evacuation : of the impotency of your obedience? here integrity of the dead witheredness of good affections? here life and vigour. Whatsoever your infirmity be, come to the pool of Bethesda, and be healed.-HALL. Behold thou art made whole; sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee. As when our Saviour healed the impotent man who had lain a long time at the pool of Bethesda without the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve," Matt. iv. 10; which shows, that he judged it to be utterly unlawful to worship any but the true God, and detested the very mention of it; and yet he himself had such worship often performed to him. A leper worshipped him, Matt. viii. 2; a certain ruler worshipped him, Matt. ix. 18; the woman of Canaan worshipped him, Matt. xv. 25; the man that was born blind worshipped him, John ix. 32; his own disciples worshipped him, Matt. xiv. 33; the women that came to his sepulchre after he was risen worshipped him, Matt. xxviii. 9; his apostles also worshipped him after his resurrection, Matt. xxviii. 17; and again at his ascension, Luke xxiv. 52. All these, and doubtless many others, worshipped him, and yet he never rebuked them for it; as he would certainly have done, if he had not been the true God, to whom alone such worship was due, according to his own words. All acknowledge him to be a good man; but no good man, nor any good creature whatever, would have suffered himself to be thus worshipped as a God, without reproving those who did it. When Cornelius fell down to worship Peter, he took relief, he gives him this caution, "Behold, thou art made whole; sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee," John v. 14: so when God hath healed these mortal wounds, which sin hath made in our souls, by his pardoning grace, it highly concerns us, with our most exact circumspection, to beware that we be not again entangled in guilt, and with our most fervent affections to pray that we may not be exposed to the fiery darts of the devil, to wound us anew; for relapses and backslidings are always most dangerous and fatal: new wounds received upon old scars are most difficult to be healed. And indeed, without this preventing grace of God, all his pardoning grace would be but in vain; it would be fruitless to forgive sins, if God did not withal secure us for the future from running upon the score with his justice; for such is the force and fraud of the tempter, and the corruption of our own natures so prone to comply with whatsoever he offers and suggests to us, that did not God as well give us a stock to live upon, as forgive us our former debts, we should soon run ourselves as deep in arrears as ever, and make ourselves liable to be seized on by justice, and con-him up saying, "Stand up, I myself demned to the infernal prison.HOPKINS. That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. When Satan would have had Jesus fall down and worship him, "Jesus said unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship also am a man," Acts x. 25, 26. When the Priest of Jupiter, with the men of Lystra, would have done sacrifice to Paul and Barnabas, the apostles rent their clothes, and ran in among them, crying out and saying, "Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men of like passions with you," Acts xiv. 14, 15. When St. John would have worshipped the angel, the angel said to him "See thou do it not; I am thy fellowservant; worship God." Rev. xix. 10; xxii. 9. But we find nothing of this in Christ. When people worshipped him, he never forbade them, nor reproved them for it; but accepted of it, and shewed himself to be well pleased with it, by working miracles for them that did it: which he would never have done if he had not been the true God, whom all the creatures in the world are bound to worship. But it is no wonder that he accepted of Divine worship when it is the Divine command, that "all the angels of God worship him," Heb. i. 6. "That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father," John v. 23. And, "that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Phil. ii. 10, 11.-BEVERIDGE. 27 And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man. 28 Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, 29 "And shall come forth they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, |
