above measure" through their distinguished privileges, he reminded them that these were of comparatively little worth; and that it was a far greater cause of thankfulness and joy to be admitted into the family of God, and enrolled among the heirs of heaven, than to possess the most absolute dominion over the infernal spirits. ROBINSON. I thank thee, O Father, &c. See Matthew xi. 25-27, in § XXXIX. Blessed are the eyes, &c. See Matthew xiii. 16-18, in § XLIV. Thou shalt love, &c. See Matthew xxii. 37-40, in § LXXII. And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live. Should man go about to serve and keep the law of God divided into two tables, and so purchase to himself eternal life? Indeed, if Adam and his posterity had been able to satisfy and fulfil the law perfectly, in loving God above all things, and their neighbour as themselves, then should they have easily quenched the Lord's wrath, and escaped the terrible sentence of eternal death pronounced against them by the mouth of Almighty God. For it is written, Do this and thou shalt live; that is to say, fulfil my commandments, keep thyself upright and perfect in them according to my will; then shalt thou live and not die. Here is eternal life promised with this condition, that they keep and observe the law! But such was the frailty of mankind after his fall, such was his weakness and imbecility, that he could not walk uprightly in God's commandments, though he would never so fain; but daily and hourly fell from his bounden duty, offending the Lord his God divers ways, to the great increase of his condemnation, insomuch that the prophet David crieth out on this wise, "All have gone astray, all are become unprofitable: there is none that doth good, no, not one." (Ps. v.) In this case what profit could he have by the law? None at all. For as St. James saith "He that shall observe the whole law, and yet faileth in one point, is become guilty of all," (James iii.), and in the book of Deuteronomy it is written, "Cursed be he," saith God, "which abideth not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them." (Deut. xxvii.) Behold, the law bringeth a curse with it, and maketh us guilty, not because it is of itself naught or unholy (God forbid we should so think), but because the frailty of our sinful flesh is such, that we can never fulfil it, according to the perfection that the law requireth.-HOMILY ON THE PASSION. But he, willing to justify himself, said, And who is my neighbour? What effect was produced upon the scribe? He was neither humbled nor silenced, but, still desirous to stand upon his own defence, and perhaps in order to evade conviction, he proposed another question, Who is my neighbour? From this circumstance our Lord took occasion to confute the erroneous notion, then too prevalent, that neighbours included only particular friends, and such as were situated near to each other, or connected by the bonds of kindred or religion. The sense of the law was confined within a narrow compass, while it was thought that none but persons of this description have any claim upon our benevolence. Jesus, however, shewed that we are indispensably required to extend our utmost kindness to all our fellow-creatures in distress, of whatever nation or profession, though separated from us, or even incensed against us by party quarrels or distinctions. This he did in the parable of the good Samaritan, an affecting and instructive little history, the circumstances of which are so naturally combined, and related with such simplicity that it cannot fail to interest every reader. : The proper application is pointed out to each of us, as well as to the lawyer the Saviour says, "Go, and do thou likewise." There cannot be a more delicate or more forcible reproof of a cruel, covetous, and narrow mind; or a more striking representation of the necessity and happy effects of an enlarged charity. How unbounded, how active and generous, should our love be! But do we really appear to possess such a disposition? Where are the fruits? Do we not betray a proud, contracted, unfeeling spirit? Are we not restrained from doing good sometimes by selfishness, sometimes by malevolence? Alas! who can say that he has uniformly looked upon all men as his neighbours, and treated them with the same kindness which he would expect for himself in similar circumstances? How little do we resemble our great pattern, who has exhibited the most extensive and disinterested benevolence! The Lord Jesus "remembered us in our low estate," and though we were sinners and enemies, he not only stretched out his arm to rescue us from misery, but gave himself a sacrifice, and "died for the ungodly," Rom. v. 6-10. May the contemplation of this love excite us to "love one another, with a pure heart, fervently." 1 Pet. i. 22.-ROBINSON. HYMN. Father of mercies, send thy grace, All powerful from above, And weep for others' woe! When the most helpless sons of grief, Soft be our hearts their pains to feel, When throned above the skies, He felt compassion rise. On wings of love the Saviour flew, Jesus' feet, and heard his word. 40 But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me. 41 And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: 42 But' one thing is needful : and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her. John xi. I; & xii. 2, 3.-r 1 Cor vil, 32, &c.-s ch. viii. 35; Acts xxii. 3- Ps. xxvii. 4. READER. Now it came to pass, as they went, &c. We may read long enough ere we find Christ in a house of his own. "The foxes have holes, and the birds have nests:" he that had all possessed nothing. One while I see him in a publican's house, then in a Pharisee's; now I find him at Martha's. His last entertainment was with some neglect, this with too much solicitude. Our Saviour was now in his way; the sun might as soon stand still as he. The more we move, the liker we are to heaven, and to this God that made it. His progress was to Jerusalem, for some holy feast. He, whose devotion neglected not any of those sacred solemnities, will not neglect the due opportunities of his bodily refreshing: as not thinking it meet to travel and preach harbourless, he diverts (where he knew his welcome) to the village of Bethany. There dwelt the two devout sisters with their brother,his friend Lazarus; their roof receives him. O happy house, into which the Son of God vouchsafed to set his foot! O blessed women, that had the grace to be the hostesses to the God of heaven! How should I envy your felicity herein, if I did not see the same favour, if I be not wanting to myself, lying open to me! I have two ways to entertain my Saviour; in his members and in himself: in his members, by charity and hospitableness: "What I do to one of these his little ones, I do to him ;" in himself, by faith: "if any man open, he will come in and sup with him.” O Saviour, thou standest at the door of our hearts, and knockest by the solicitations of thy messengers, by the sense of thy chastisements, by the motions of thy spirit: if we open to thee by a willing admission and faithful welcome, thou wilt be sure to take up our souls with thy gracious presence, and not to sit with us for a momentary meal, but to dwell with us for ever. Lo! thou didst but call in at Bethany: but here shall be thy rest for everlasting. Martha, it seems, as being the eldest sister, bore the name of the housekeeper: Mary was her assistant in the charge. A blessed pair! Sisters not more in nature than in grace, in spirit no less than in flesh. How happy a thing is it when all the parties in a family are jointly agreed to entertain Christ.-HALL. But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, &c. It could not but trouble 1 devout Mary to hear her sister's impatient complaint-a complaint of herself to Christ, with such vehemence of passion, as if there had been such strangeness betwixt the two sisters, that the one would do nothing for the other, without an external compulsion from a superior. How can she choose but think, If I have offended, why was I not secretly taxed for it in a sisterly familiarity? What if there had been some little omission? must the whole house ring of it before my Lord, and all his disciples? is this carriage beseeming a sister? is my devotion worthy of a quarrel? Lord, dost thou not care that I am injuriously censured? Yet I hear not a word of reply from that modest mouth. O holy Mary, I admire thy patient silence: thy sister blames thee for thy piety; the disciples afterwards blame thee for thy bounty and cost; not a word falls from thee in a just vindication of thine honour and innocence, but in a humble taciturnity thou leavest thine answer to thy Saviour. How should we learn of thee, when we are complained of for well-doing, to seal up our lips, and to expect our righting from above! And how sure, how ready art thou, O Saviour, to speak in the cause of the dumb! "Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things, but one thing is needful, and Mary hath chosen the better part." What needed Mary to speak for herself, when she had such an advocate? Doubtless, Martha was, as it were divided from herself with the multiplicity of her careful thoughts: our Saviour, therefore, doubles her name in his compellation, that, in such distraction, he may both find and fix her heart. The good woman made full account, that Christ would have sent away her sister with a check, and herself with thanks; but now her hopes fail her; and though she be not directly reproved, yet she hears her sister more approved than she: "Martha, Martha, thou art careful, and troubled about many things." Our Saviour received courtesy from her in her diligent and costly entertainment; yet he would not blanch her errors, and smooth her up in her weak misprision. No obligations may so enthral us, as that our tongues should not be free to reprove faults where we find them. They are base and servile spirits that will have their tongue tied to their teeth. This glance towards a reproof implies an opposition of the condition of the two sisters: themselves were not more in nature, than their present humour and estate differed. One is opposed to many, necessary, to superfluous, solicitude to quietness: "Thou art careful and troubled about many things, one thing is necessary." How far then may our care reach to these earthly things? On the one side, O Saviour, thou hast charged us to "take no thought what to eat, drink, put on," on the other, thy chosen vessel hath told us, that "he that provides not for his family hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel." We may, we must, care for many things, so that our care be for good and well; for good, both in kind and measure; well, so as our care be free from distraction, from distrust; from distraction, that it hinder us not from the necessary duties of our general calling; from distrust, that we misdoubt not God's providence, while we employ our own. We cannot care for thee, unless we thus care for ourselves, for our's. Alas! how much care do I see everywhere, but how few Marthas! Her care was for our Saviour's entertainment; ours for ourselves. One finds perplexities in his estate, which he desires to extricate; another beats his brain for the raising of his house; one busies his thoughts about the doubtful condition, as he thinks, of the times, and casts in his anxious head the imaginary events of all things, opposing his hopes to his fears another studies how to avoid the cross blows of an adversary. "Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things." Foolish men, why do we set our hearts upon the rack, and need not? Why will we endure to bend under that burden, which more able shoulders have offered to undertake for our ease? Thou hast bidden us, O God, to cast our cares upon thee with promise to care for us. We do gladly unload ourselves upon thee: O let our care be to depend upon thee, as thine is to provide for us. Whether Martha be pitied or taxed for her sedulity, I am sure Mary is praised for her devotion: "One thing is necessary." Not by way of negation, as if nothing were necessary but this; but by way of comparison, as that nothing is so necessary as this. Earthly occasions must vail to spiritual. Of those three main grounds of all our actions, necessity, convenience, pleasure, each transcends other: convenience carries it away from pleasure, necessity from convenience, and one degree of necessity from another. The degrees are according to the conditions of the things necessary. The condition of these spiritual necessaries is, that without them we cannot live eternally. So much difference, then, as there is betwixt temporary and eternal, so much there must needs. be betwixt the necessity of these bodily actions and these spiritual : both are necessary in their kinds; neither must here be an opposition, but a subordination. The body and soul must be friends, not rivals; we may not so ply the Christian, that we neglect the man. O the vanity of those men, who, neglecting that one thing necessary, affect many things superfluous ! Nothing is needless with worldly minds but this one, which is only necessary, the care of their souls. How justly do they lose that they cared not for, while they over care for that which is neither worthy nor possible to be kept! Neither is Mary's business more allowed than herself: "She hath chosen the good part." It was not forced upon her, but taken up by her election. Martha might have sat still as well as she: she might have stirred about as well as Martha. Mary's will made this choice, |