determination in these particulars: this sense is pious, and nothing unreasonable, considering that all circumstances of the thing make the case particular. But the immature death of other infants is a sadder story; for though I have no warrant or thought that it is ill with them after death, and in what manner or degree of well-being it is, there is no revelation; yet I am not of opinion that the securing of so low a condition as theirs in all reason is like to be, will make recompense, or is an equal blessing with the possibilities of such an eternity as is proposed to them, who in the use of reason and a holy life glorify God with a free obedience; and if it were otherwise, it were no blessing to live till the use of reason, and fools, and babes, were in the best, because in the securest, condition, and certain expectation of equal glories.

12. As soon as Herod was dead (for the divine vengeance waited His own time for his arrest) the angel presently brought Joseph word. The holy family was full of content and indifferency, not solicitous for return, not distrustful of the divine providence, full of poverty, and sanctity, and content, waiting God's time; at the return of which God delayed not to recall them from exile; "out of Egypt He called His Son," and directed Joseph's fear and course, that he should divert to a place in the jurisdiction of Philip, where the heir of Herod's cruelty, Archelaus, had nothing to do. And this very series of providence and care God expresses to all His sons by adoption; and will determine the time, and set bounds to every persecution, and punish the instruments, and ease our pains, and refresh our sorrows, and give quietness to our fears, and deliverance from our troubles, and sanctify it all, and give a crown at last, and all in His good time, if we wait the coming of the angel, and in the mean time do our duty with care, and sustain our temporals with indifferency: and in all our troubles and displeasing accidents, we may call to mind that God, by His holy and most reasonable providence, hath so ordered it, that the spiritual advantages we may receive from the holy use of such incommodities, are of great recompense and interest; and that in such accidents the holy Jesus, having gone before us in precedent, does go along with us by love and fair assistances; and that makes the present condition infinitely more eligible, than the greatest splendour of secular fortune.

THE PRAYER.

O blessed and eternal God, who didst suffer Thy holy Son to fly from the violence of an enraged prince, and didst choose to defend Him in the ways of His infirmity by hiding Himself and a voluntary exile; be Thou a defence to all Thy faithful people, whenever persecution arises against them; send them the ministry of angels to direct them into ways of security, and let Thy holy Spirit

guide them in the paths of sanctity, and let Thy providence continue in custody over their persons, till the times of refreshment and the day of redemption shall return. Give, O Lord, to Thy whole church sanctity and zeal, and the confidences of a holy faith, boldness of confession, humility, content, and resignation of spirit, generous contempt of the world, and unmingled desires of Thy glory and the edification of Thy elect; that no secular interests disturb her duty, or discompose her charity, or depress her hopes, or in any unequal degree possess her affections, and pollute her spirit: but preserve her from the snares of the world and the devil, from the rapine and greedy desires of sacrilegious persons; and in all conditions, whether of affluence or want, may she still promote the interests of religion: that when plenteousness is within her palaces, and peace in her walls, that condition may then be best for her; and when she is made as naked as Jesus to His passion, then poverty may be best for her: that in all estates she may glorify Thee; and in all accidents and changes Thou mayest sanctify and bless her, and at last bring her to the eternal riches and abundances of glory, where no persecution shall disturb her rest. Grant this for sweet Jesus' sake, who suffered exile and hard journeys, and all the inconveniences of a friendless person in a strange province; to whom, with Thee and the eternal Spirit, be glory for ever, and blessing in all generations of the world, and for ever and ever. Amen.

SECTION VII.

Of the younger years of Jesus, and His disputation with the
doctors in the temple.

1. FROM the return of this holy family to Judea and their habitation in Nazareth, till the blessed child Jesus was twelve years of age, we have nothing transmitted to us out of any authentic record, but that they went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the passover. And when Jesus was twelve years old, and was in the holy city attending upon the paschal rites and solemn sacrifices of the law, His parents, having fulfilled their days of festivity, went homeward, supposing the child had been in the caravan among His friends; and so they erred for the space of a whole day's journey; "and when they sought Him, and found Him not, they returned to Jerusalem," full of fears and sorrow.

2. No fancy can imagine the doubts, the apprehensions, the possibilities of mischief, and the tremblings of heart, which the holy virgin mother felt thronging about her fancy and understanding, but such a person who hath been tempted to the danger of a violent fear and transportation by apprehension of the loss of a hope greater than a

miracle; her discourses with herself could have nothing of distrust, but much of sadness and wonder; and the indetermination of her thoughts was a trouble great as the passion of her love. Possibly an angel might have carried Him, she knew not whither; or it may be the son of Herod had gotten the prey which his cruel father missed; or He was sick, or detained out of curiosity and wonder, or any thing but what was right. And by this time she was come to Jerusalem; and having spent three days in her sad and holy pursuit of her lost jewel, despairing of the prosperous event of any human diligence, as in all other cases she had accustomed, she made her address to God; and entering into the temple to pray, God, that knew her desires, prevented her with the blessings of goodness; and there her sorrow was changed into joy and wonder; for there she found her holy Son, "sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions."

3. And when they saw Him, they were amazed," and so were "all that heard Him, at His understanding and answers;" beyond His education, beyond His experience, beyond His years, and even beyond the common spirits of the best men, discoursing up to the height of a prophet, with the clearness of an angel, and the infallibility of inspiration for here it was verified, in the highest and most literal signification, that "out of the mouths of babes God had ordained strength;" but this was the strength of argument, and science of the highest mysteries of religion and secret philosophy.

4. Glad were the parents of the Child to find Him illustrated with a miracle, concerning which when He had given them such an account, which they understood not, but yet Mary laid up in her heart, as that this was part of His employment and His Father's business, "He returned with them to Nazareth, and was subject to His parents;" where He lived in all holiness and humility, shewing great signs of wisdom, endearing Himself to all that beheld His conversation; did nothing less than might become the great expectation which His miraculous birth had created of Him; for "He increased in wisdom and stature, and favour with God and man," still growing in proportion to His great beginnings to a miraculous excellency of grace, sweetness of demeanour, and excellency of understanding.

5. They that love to serve God in hard questions, use to dispute whether Christ did truly, or in appearance only, increase in wisdom; for being personally united to the Word, and being the eternal wisdom of the Father, it seemed to them that a plenitude of wisdom was as natural to the whole person as to the divine nature: but others fixing their belief upon the words of the story, which equally affirms Christ as properly to have "increased in favour with God as with man, in wisdom as in stature," they apprehend no inconvenience in affirming it to belong to the verity of human nature to have degrees of understanding as well as of other perfections: and although the humanity of Christ made up the same person with the divinity, yet

they think the divinity still to be free, even in those communications which were imparted to His inferior nature; and the Godhead might as well suspend the emanation of all the treasures of wisdom upon the humanity for a time, as He did the beatifical vision, which most certainly was not imparted in the interval of His sad and dolorous passion. But whether it were truly or in appearance, in habit or in exercise of act, by increase of notion or experience, it is certain the promotions of the holy Child were great, admirable, and as full of wonder as of sanctity, and sufficient to entertain the hopes and expectations of Israel with preparations and dispositions, as to satisfy their wonder for the present, so to accept Him at the time of His publication; they having no reason to be scandalized at the smallness, improbability, and indifferency of His first beginnings.

6. But the holy Child had also an employment, which He undertook in obedience to His supposed father, for exercise and example of humility, and for the support of that holy family, which was dear in the eyes of God, but not very splendid by the opulency of a free and indulgent fortune. He wrought in the trade of a carpenter; and when Joseph died, which happened before the manifestation of Jesus unto Israel, He wrought alone, and was no more called the carpenter's son, but the carpenter himself. "Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary1?" said his offended countrymen. And in this condition the blessed Jesus did abide till He was thirty years old; for He, that came to fulfil the law, would not suffer one tittle of it to pass unaccomplished; for by the law of the nation and custom of the religion, no priest was to officiate or prophet was to preach before He was thirty years of age.

Ad SECTION VII.

Considerations upon the disputation of Jesus with the doctors
in the temple.

1. JOSEPH and Mary, being returned unto Nazareth, were sedulous to enjoy the privileges of their country, the opportunities of religion, the public address to God, in the rites of festivals and solemnities of the temple: they had been long grieved with the impurities and idol rites which they with sorrow had observed to be done in Egypt; and being deprived of the blessings of those holy societies and employments they used to enjoy in Palestine, at their return came to the offices of their religion with appetites of fire, and keen as the evening wolf; and all the joys which they should have received in respersion and distinct emanations if they had kept their anniversaries at Jerusalem, all that united they received in the duplication of their joys at their return, and in the fulfilling themselves with the refection and

Mark vi. 3.

holy viand of religion. For so God uses to satisfy the longings of holy people, when a persecution has shut up the beautiful gates of the temple, or denied to them opportunities of access: although God hears the prayers they make with their windows towards Jerusalem, with their hearts opened with desires of the public communions, and sends them a prophet with a private meal, as Habakkuk came to Daniel; yet He fills their hearts, when the year of jubilee returns, and the people sing In convertendo, the song of joy for their redemption. For as of all sorrows the deprivations and eclipses of religion are the saddest, and of the worst and most inconvenient consequence, so in proportion are the joys of spiritual plenty and religious returns; the communion of saints being like the primitive corban, a repository to feed all the needs of the church, or like a taper joined to a torch, itself is kindled, and increases the other's flames.

2. They failed not to go to Jerusalem: for all those holy prayers and ravishments of love, those excellent meditations and intercourses with God, their private readings and discourses, were but entertainments and satisfaction of their necessities, they lived with them during their retirements; but it was a feast when they went to Jerusalem, and the freer and more indulgent refection of the Spirit; for in public solemnities God opens His treasures, and pours out His grace more abundantly. Private devotions and secret offices of religion are like refreshing of a garden with the distilling and petty drops of a water-pot; but addresses to the temple, and serving God in the public communion of saints, is like rain from heaven, where the offices are described by a public spirit, heightened by the greater portions of assistance, and receive advantages by the adunations and symbols of charity, and increment by their distinct title to promises appropriate even to their assembling and mutual support, by the piety of example, by the communication of counsels, by the awfulness of public observation, and the engagements of holy customsm. For religion is a public virtue, it is the ligature of souls, and the great instrument of the conservation of bodies politic, and is united in a common object, the God of all the world, and is managed by public ministries, by sacrifice, adoration, and prayer, in which with variety of circumstances indeed, but with infinite consent and union of design, all the sons of Adam are taught to worship God; and it is a publication of God's honour, its very purpose being to declare to all the world how great things God hath done for us, whether in public donatives or private missives; so that the very design, temper, and constitution of religion is to be public address to God: and although God is present in closets, and there also distils His blessings in small rain, yet to the societies of

m Habet semper privilegium suum ut sacratius sit quod publica lege celebratur, quam quod privata institutione dependitur. Leo, De jejun. vii. mensis. [Serm. iii. p. 83 b.] Idem Serm. iv. [p. 84 b.] Pub

lica præferenda sunt propriis, et tunc est efficacior sanctiorque devotio, quando in operibus pietatis totius ecclesiæ unus animus et unus est sensus.-Heb. x. 25.