The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the poor; He hath sent Me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them them are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

Spiritus Domini super Me, propter quod unxit Me; evangelizare pauperibus misit Me, sanare contritos corde, Prædicare captivis remissionem, et cæcis visum, dimittere confractos in remissionem, prædicare annum Domini acceptum, et diem retributionis.

We are fallen here upon Christ's first sermon, preached at Nazareth, and upon His very text. This I have read you was His text, taken out of the Prophet Esay, the sixty-first chapter, and first verse. There was no fear Christ would have ranged far from His matter, if He had taken none; yet He took a text to teach us thereby to do the like. To keep us [280/281] within; not to fly out, or preach much, either without, or besides the book.

And He took His text for the day, as is plain by His application. 'This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears.' 'This day this Scripture.' Our Master's Scripture was for this day; so would ours be.

For the day; and for the present occasion. For among the writers it is generally received, that when our Saviour made this sermon, that year it was with the Jews the year of jubilee. And that therefore He told them, it was fulfilled in their ears, they might hear the trumpets sound to it. If it were so, this text of 'the acceptable year' was as opposite as could be chosen. That, it seems, He turned the book purposely to find it; out of it to speak to them of the true jubilee.

And if it were so, the year of jubilee, it was the last that ever they held. For before fifty years came about again, they were swept away--Temple, sacrifice, jubilee, people and all. The jubilees of the Law then failing, being come to their period, comes Christ with His; with a new jubilee of the Gospel, the true one, as whereof those of theirs were but shadows only, which jubilee of the Gospel was 'the acceptable year' which Esay here meant.

Will ye then give me leave now to say of this text of our Saviour's, This Scripture suits well with this day, is fulfilled in it three ways? In the 1. coming of the Spirit; 2. the end for which, to send to proclaim; 3. the matter which, to proclaim a jubilee; 4. and a fourth I will add, of a present occasion, as fit every way.

First, it is of the coming of the Spirit. And this day the Spirit came. And the coming of the Spirit, in the text here upon Christ, was the cause of the coming of the Spirit, this day, upon the Apostles. From this coming upon Him, came the coming upon them super Petrum, super Jacobum, super all the rest; upon them, and upon us all, from this super Me. All our anointings are but drops from His anointing; all our missions and commissions, but quills, as we say, out of this commission here, misit Me. Sicut misit Me, Ego mitto vos. He sent Me, 'as He sent Me, I send you.' By that, and by no other commission, did they, or do we, or shall any come.

[281/282] That first, and this second; the misit and the ad. Why came the Spirit on Christ? To send Him. Send Him to what? Ad evangelizandum. And why came the Spirit on the Twelve this day, but for the very same end? And it came therefore for the purpose, in the shape of tongues. It is the office of the tongue to be a trumpet, to proclaim. It serves for no other end.

3. To proclaim what? 'The acceptable year of the Lord,' that is the jubilee. Now fifty is the number of the jubilee; which number agrees well with this feast, the feast of Pentecost. What the one in years, the other in days. So that this is the jubilee, as it were, of the year, or the yearly memory of the year of jubilee. That, the Pentecost of years; this, the jubilee of days. These three for the day.

4. And may we not add a fourth from the present occasion? I take it we may; and that not unfit neither, as peculiar to this very year, rather than to any other. There falleth out, lightly, but one jubilee in a man's age. 1. And this present year is yet the jubilee year of your Majesty's life and reign. 2. And this day is the jubilee day of that year. 3. And yet further, if we take not jubilee for the time, but for the joy--for the word jubilee is taken, as for the time of the joy, so for the joy of the time--and so refer it to the late great joy and jubilee, at your majesty's receiving hither to your Nazareth, the country where you were brought up, which then was fulfilled in your ears; our ears, I am sure, were filled full with it. So that, first and last, the text suits with the day, and both suit well with the present occasion.

To return to our Saviour, Who standing now with His loins girt, ready to go about the errand He came for, as the manner is, He was first to read His commission. This it is, the words I have read, drawn and ready penned for Him long before by the Prophet Esay here, who had the honour to be the registrar of this, and divers other instruments, touching Christ's natures, Person, and offices. And, upon the reading of this, He entered in His office.

You may plainly know, it was His inauguration, this, or first entering on His office, by the proclamation following, of opening the gaol, and letting the prisoners go free. So is ever the fashion of princes, to make the joy general, of their [282/283] coming to their kingdom: to release those who stand committed; to grant free and general pardons to all who will sue for them; to be at the charge of missilia, certain new pieces of coin, to be cast abroad among the people.

Accordingly, were this day of the Spirit's coming, by one sermon of St. Peter's, three thousand set a liberty who had been captives before under Satan. A largess of new tongues, as it were missilia, cast down from Heaven. A general pardon proclaimed, even for them that had been the 'betrayers and murderers' of the Son of God, if they would come in. That it was, indeed a right day of jubilee. And this is the sum of all.

I. The parts as they lie, are these: 1. First, of the Spirit's being on Christ; 2. Anointing Him; 3. Sending Him. These three.

II Then, whereto He was so anointed and sent; to preach the Gospel, or glad tidings (glad tidings, or Gospel, both are one) and that even to the poor.

III. Thirdly, whereof the tidings is; of an excellent physician, a physician of the heart, one that can cure a broken heart.

IV. Of these hearts. 1. How they came broken first, and there are three ways here set down. 1. How they came broken first, and there are three ways here set down. 1. By being captives; 2. by being in a dark dungeon, where their sigh was even taken from them; 3. By being there in irons so as they were even bruised with them. Three, able, I think, to break any man's heart alive.

2. Then, how they came cured. And that is by good news. Two proclamations, for knrrÚxai, 'to proclaim,' is twice repeated: 1.One, containing a particular remedy of those three several maladies; 1. Of a party, one with a ransom, or redemption for the captives; 2. with an engine, or tool, to knock off their irons; 3. with the keys of the prison, to let them out. And this to begin with. 2. Then, to conclude, with a second proclamation, that makes up all--of a year of jubilee; and so of restitution of them to their former forfeited estates, by God's accepting them to favour, this acceptable time.

This is the sum of Christ's commission here read; and indeed, a brief of His offices, all three. 1. In preaching the glad news of the Gospel--of His prophecy; 2. In granting [283/284] pardon, and enlarging prisoners--of His kingdom. 3. In proclaiming a jubilee--of His Priesthood, for that the peculiar of the Priest's office. So all are in, that pertain to Christ. And all, that to Jesus too, Who sheweth Himself Jesus in nothing so much, as in being the physician of a broken contrite heart.

We cannot better begin, than with the Blessed Trinity. In the three first words, the three Persons reasonable clear. 1. The Spirit; 2. He, Whose the Spirit--Domini; 3. He, on Whom the Spirit, super Me.

'The Spirit,' that is, the Holy Ghost. He Whose the Spirit, God the Father. He on Whom the Spirit, our Saviour Christ. He the super Quem here.

These three distinct: 1. the Spirit, from the 2. Lord, Whose the Spirit is; 1. the Spirit That was upon, 3. from Him It was upon. Yet all three in one joint concurrence to one and the same work, the jubilee of the Gospel.

'Upon Me,' is Christ's person. But His Person only, according to one of His natures, His human. The Spirit was not upon Him, but as He was man. These three: 1. to be sent, 2. to be anointed, 3. to have a super Eum, savour of inferiority, all, to the Sender, Anointer, Superior. And so indeed for us, He became lower than in Himself He was. 'In the similitude of sinful flesh,' had a Spirit to anoint Him; in forma servi, had a Lord to send Him about the message here.

But, that Christ suffer not in His honour, we supply; that the Spirit Who is here said to be Spiritus Domini, is elsewhere said to the Spiritus Christi, 'the Spirit of the Father,' and 'the Spirit of the Son,' both. The Spirit that sent here, sent by Him elsewhere, 'Whom I will send.' This sets Him upright again. As the one shews Him to be Man, so the other, to be God. And as God He has no superior; no Lord to own Him, no Spirit to anoint Him.

And, if I mistake not, a kind of inkling of thus much is even in the very words. The word 'Lord; in Esay, is plural; and so more Persons than one, Whose the Spirit is, and from Whom He proceeds. And if you would know how many, in Esay the words be two: so, not a single proceeding from one, but a double from two, as the word is double. St. Basil saith it short, 'Wj QeÕj corhge èj ¢uqrwwpooj _cetai, [284/ 285] 'As God He sends it, as man He receives it.' Upon Him, as man; from Him, as God.

Of Him then, as man, three things here are said, 'the Spirit' 1. was 'upon' Him; 2. 'anointed' Him; 3. 'sent'Him. But it is said; 'The Spirit is upon Me because He hath anointed Me;' so as the anointing is set, as the ueekeu oâ, or cause, why He was upon Him. And then that, His anointing, as the cause, is first in nature. But it cannot be conceived but the Spirit must be also upon Him, to anoint Him; the Spirit is the Unction: the Spirit then was upon Him, two several times, for two several ends. 1. To anoint Him; 2. and after He was anointed, to send Him; the second. Of this anointing we are to touch: 1. when it was; 2. with what it was; 3. and how it comes to be termed anointing.

When was He thus 'anointed?' Not now, or here, first, but long before; even from the very time of His conceiving. When 'the Word became flesh,' the flesh with the Word, and by means of it with the whole Deity, was 'anointed' all over, and by virtue thereof filled with the fullness of all grace. For this we are to hold; that Christ was ever Christ, that is, ever 'anointed,' from the very first instant of all; He was never un-anointed, not one moment.

'Anointed' with what? I have already told you, with the Deity, by virtue of the Personal union of the second Person of the Deity. Why then is the Holy Ghost called the Unction? Why is Christ expressly said to be anointed with the Holy Ghost? Why not with the Father as well?

Why not? to retain to each Person His own peculiar, His proper act, in this common work of them all; or as the Hebrews speak, to keep every word upon his right wheel.

Father, is a term of nature. So to the Father we ascribe what the Son hath by nature. For that He is the Son, is of nature, not of grace.

But that the manhood is taken into God, that was not of nature, but of grace. And what is of grace, is ever properly ascribed to the Spirit. 'There are diversities of graces,' all from the 'same Spirit,' And the proceeding of grace from it, not as by nature, but ubi vult, 'blows where it lists' freely. All then, of grace, proceeding from the Spirit: accordingly, the [285/286] conception of Christ's flesh and the sending it with the fullness of grace, or anointing it, is ascribed to the Spirit.

But this enduing with grace, how comes it to be called anointing? for nothing, but for the resemblance it has with an ointment. An ointment is a composition we know; the ingredients of it, oil and sweet odours. By virtue of the oil it soaks even into the bones, saith the Psalm; but it works upon the joints and sinews sensibly, makes them supple and lithe, and so the more fresh and active to bestir themselves. By virtue of the sweet odours mixed with it, it works upon the spirits and senses; cheers him and makes him 'glad,' that is anointed with it. And not him alone, but all who are about and near him, qui in odore unguentorum, that take delight in his company, to go and to run with him, and all for the fragrant sweet scent they feel to come from him.

Of which two, the oil represents the virtue of the power of the Spirit, piercing through, but gently, like oil. The odours, the sweet comfort of the graces that proceed from the Holy Ghost. Nothing more like. And this for His anointing.

Now the same Spirit That was thus upon Him at His conception to anoint Him, was even now upon Him again, to manifest, and to send Him. When? at His baptism, a little before. Not secretly, as then at His conception, but in a visible shape upon Him, before a great concourse of people, (to shew there ought to be an outward calling) what time the dove laid that, which in it is answerable to our hands, upon Him.

Not, to endue Him with aught--that was done before long--but to manifest to all, this was He; this, the party before anointed, and now sent, that they might take heed to Him. It was the Holy Spirit's first Epiphany this, He was never seen before; but Christ's second Epiphany. The other at His birth, or coming into the world; this now at His calling, or sending into the world. That first, to enable Him to His office; this, to design Him to it. By that, furnished for it; by this, sent, severed, and set about the work He came for.

But before we come to the work, let us first reflect a little upon these; they serve our turn, are for our direction. These both were done to Christ, to the end He might teach the Church, that the same were to be on them who in Christ's [286/287] stead are employed in the same business, ad evangelizandum. The Holy Spirit, to be upon them; upon them, to anoint them, and to send them, both; but first to anoint, then to send them. To be, and in this order to be. Unless they be first 'anointed,' not to be sent; and though never so 'anointed,' not to start out of themselves, but to stay till they be sent.

The Spirit to be upon them; the same That upon Christ, though not in the same, but in a broad and a large difference, or degree of being. Upon Him without measure; not so, on us; but on some less,--the measure of the hin; on some more --the measure of the ephah; but every one, his homer at least. Some feathers of the dove, as it were, though not the dove itself; not the whole Spirit entire, as upon Him.

On His head the whole box of ointment was broken, which from Him ran down upon the Apostles, somewhat more fresh and full; and ever, the further, the thinner, as the nature of things liquid is; but some small streams trickle down even to us, and to our times still.

This on-being shews itself first, in that which stands first--the anointing.

I shall not need tell you, the Spirit comes not upon us now at our conception in the womb, to anoint us there. No, we behove to light our lamps oft, and to spend much oil at our studies, before we can attain it. This way come we to our anointing now, by books; this book chiefly, but in a good part also, by the books of the ancient Fathers and lights of the Church, in whom the scent of this ointment was fresh, and the temper true; on whose writings it lieth thick, and we thence strike it off, and gather it safely.

You will mark, the anointing is set for the cause: 'The Spirit is upon Me because He has anointed Me.' Then sublatâ causâ, and a sensu contrario, the Spirit is not upon Me, `because He has 'anointed Me, He hath sent Me.' And then it follows, because He has not appointed Me, He has not sent Me. No speaking of the Spirit's on--being; no talk of sent by Him, without it. Where be they then that say, The less anointing, the more of the Spirit? Indeed, the more blind, the more bold; and so the fitter to go on some other errand perhaps, but not this.

[287/288] No, no; the Spirit makes none of these dry missions, sends none of these same inuncti, such as have never a feather of the Dove's wing, nor any spark of the fire of this day, not so much as a drop of this ointment. You shall smell them straight that have it; 'the myrrh, aloes, and casssia will make you glad.' And you shall even as soon find the others. Either they want odour:--anointed I cannot say, but besmeared with some unctuous stuff (go to, be it oil) that gives a glibness to the tongue to talk much and long, but no more scent in it than a dry stick; no odours in it at all. Either odours they want, I say, or their odours are not laid in oil. For if they be anointed, not perfumed or washed, for such Divines we have. If it be but some sweet water, out of a casting bottle, the scent will away soon; water-colours, or water-odours, will not last. But if laid in oil thoroughly, they will; fear them not. To them that are stuffed, I know all is one; they that have their senses about them, will soon put a difference.

But what? If he be 'anointed,' then turn him off hardly with no more ado, without staying for any sending at all? Nay, we see here, only anointing served not Christ Himself. He was 'sent,' and outwardly 'sent' besides. Messias He was, in regard of His anointing; Shiloh He was too, in regard of His sending. If you love your eyes, wash them in the water of Shiloh, that is by interpretation 'sent.' Or, to speak in the style of the text, as He was Christ for His anointing, so was He an Apostle for His sending. So is He called 'the Apostle of our profession,' with plain reference to ¢p_stalke here, the word in the text.

Unction then is to go before, but not to go alone, mission is to follow; and no man, though never so perunctus, eo ipso to stir, nisi qui vocatus erit sicut Aaron, 'unless he be called, as was Aaron;' unless he be sent, as Christ here was; for fear of currebant et non mittebam eos, in the Prophet; or of 'How shall they preach unless they be sent?' in the Apostle. For his life he knew not, if neither Aaron nor Christ, how any might step up without calling, sending, ordaining, laying on of hands: all are one.

And mark well this, that the Holy Ghost came upon Christ [288/289] alike for both, that there is the Holy Ghost no less in this sending than in the anointing. The very calling itself is a 'grace,' expressly so called, Romans the twelfth, and Ephesians the third, and in divers places else. Every grace is of the Holy Ghost, and goeth ever, and is termed by the name of the Holy Ghost usually. And in this sense the Holy Ghost is given and received in Holy Orders, and we do well avow that we say, 'Receive the Holy Ghost.'

But we have not all, when we have both these; for shall we so dwell upon anointing and sending, as we pass by the Super Me, the first of all the three, and sure not the last to be looked after? A plain note it is but not without use, this situation of the Spirit, that He is super. If He be super, we be sub. That we be careful then to preserve Him in His super, to keep Him in His due place, that is 'above.' In sign whereof the dove hovered aloft over Christ, and 'came down upon Him;' and in sign thereof we submit our heads in anointing to have the oil poured upon, we submit our heads in ordaining to have hands laid upon them. So submit we do, in sign that submit we must; that not only mission, but submission is a sign of one truly called to this business. Somewhat of the dove there must be, needs; meekness, humbleness of mind.

But lightly you shall find it, that those that be neque uncti neque loti, 'neither anointed nor scarce well washed;' the less ointment, the worse sending, the farther from this submissive, humble, mind. That above? Nay, any above? Nay, they inferior to none. That above, and they under? Nay under no Spirit; no super, they. Of all prepositions they endure not that, not super; all equal, all even at least. Their spirit not subject to the spirit of the Prophets, nor of the Apostles neither, if they were now alive; but bear themselves so high, do tam altum spirare, as if this Spirit were their underling, and their ghost above the Holy Ghost. There may be a sprite in them, there is no Spirit upon them that endure no super, none above them. So now we have all we should; unction out of unxit, mission out of misit, submission out of super Me.

Forward now, 'Upon Me.' How know we that? 'Because He hath anointed Me.' 'Anointed,' to [289/290] what end? 'To send.' 'Send' whereto? That follows now. Both whereto and whom to. 1. Whereto? 'To bring good tidings.' 2. Whom to? 'To the poor.'

1. Whereto? If the Spirit send Christ, He will send Him with the best sending; and the best sending is to be sent with a message of good news; the best, and the best welcome. We all strive to bear them, we all love to have them brought; the Gospel is nothing else but a message of good tidings. And Christ, as in regard of His sending, an Apostle, the Arch-Apostle, so in regard of that He is sent with, an Evangelist, the Arch-Evangelist. Christ is to anoint: this is a kind of anointing; and no ointment so precious, no oil so supple, no odour so pleasing, as the knowledge of it, called therefore by the Apostle, odor vitæ 'the savour of life unto life,' in them that receive it.

2.Send with this, and to whom? 'To the poor.' You may know it is the Spirit of God by this. That Spirit it is; and they that 'anointed' with It, take care of the poor. The spirit of the world, and they that anointed with it take little keep to evangelize any such, any poor souls. But in the tidings of the Gospel they are not left out; taken in by name, we see: in sending those tidings there is none excluded. 'No respect of person with God.' None of nations; to every nation, Gentile and Jew: none of conditions; to every condition, poor and rich. To them that of all other are the least likely. They are not troubled with much worldly good news; seldom come there any posts to them with such. But the good news of the Gospel reaches even to the meanest. And reaching to them it must needs be general, this news. If to them that of all other least likely, then certainly to all. Etiam pauperibus is, as if He had said, even to poor and all, by way of extent, ampliando. But no ways to engross it, or appropriate it to them only. The tidings of the Gospel are as well for 'Lydia the purple seller' as for 'Simon the tanner;' for 'the Areopagite,' the judge at Athens, as for 'the jailor' at Philippi; for 'the elect lady' as for widow 'Dorcas;' for 'the Lord Treasurer of Ethiopia' as for 'the beggar at the beautiful gate of the temple;' for 'the household of Caesar' as for 'the household of Stephanas;' yea and, if he will, for 'king Agrippa' too.

[290/291] But if you will have pauperibus, a restringent, you may; but then you must take it for 'poor in spirit,' with whom our Saviour begins His beatitudes in the mount; the poverty to found in all. As indeed I know none so rich but needs these tidings; all to feel the want of them in their spirits; no Dicis quia dives sum; as few sparks of a Pharisee as may be, in them who will be interested in it.

Well, we see to whom: what may these news be? News of a new physician, Kardatroj, Medicus cordis, one that can give physic to heal a broken heart. And news of such an one is good news indeed. They that can cure parts less principal, broken arms or legs, or limbs out of joint, are much made of, and sent for far and near. What say you to one that is good at a broken heart? make that whole, set that in joint again, if it happen to be out? So they understood it plainly by their speech to Him after, Medice cura Teipsum.

The heart, sure, is the part of all other we would most gladly have well. 'Give me any grief to the grief of the heart,' saith one who knew what he said. Omnia custodiâ custodi cor, saith Solomon, 'keep thy heart above all:' if that be down, all is down; look to that in any wise. Now it is most proper for the Spirit to deal with that part; it is the fountain of the spirits of life, and whither indeed none can come but the Spirit, to do any cure to the purpose; that if Christ, if the Spirit take it not in hand, all cures else are but palliative; they may drive it away for awhile, it will come again worse than ever. Now then to Medice cura, as Christ after saith, to this new cure.

In every cure, our rule is first to look to de causis morborum, how the heart can be broken; then after, de methodo medendi, the way here to help it.

How comes the heart broken? The common hammer that breaks them is some bodily or worldly cross, such as we commonly call heart-breakings. There be here in the text three strokes of this hammer, able I think to break any heart in the world.

1. Captivity. They be captives first; and captives and caitiffs, in our speech, sound much upon one. It is sure a condition able to make any man 'hang up his harp' and 'sit weeping by the waters of Babylon.' There is one stroke.

[291/292] 2. There follows another, worse yet. For in Babylon, though they were captives, yet went they abroad, had their liberty. These here are in prison; and some in blind hole there, as it might be in the dungeon, where they see nothing. That, I take it, is meant by blind here in the text: blind for want of light, not for want of sight, though those two both come to one, are convertible. They that be blind, say they are dark; and they that be in the dark, for the time are deprived of sight, have no manner use of it at all, no more than a blind man. Now they that row in the galleys yet this comfort they have, they see the light; and if a man see nothing else, the light itself is comfortable. And a great stroke of the hammer it is, not to have so much as that poor comfort let them.

3. But yet are not we at the worst; one stroke more. For one may be in the dungeon and yet have his limbs at large, his hands and feet at liberty. But so have not those in the text, but are in irons; and those so heavy and so pinching, as they are even teqravsm_uoi, 'bruised' and hurt with them. See now their case. 1. Captives; and not only that, but 2. in prison. In prison; not above, but in the dungeon, the deepest, darkest, blindest hole there; no light, no sight at all. 3. And in the hole, with as many irons upon them, that they are even 'bruised' and sore with them. And tell me now, if these three together be not enough to break Manasses', or any man's heart, and to make him have cor contritum indeed.

They be; but what is this to us? This is no man's case here. No more was it any of theirs that were at Christ's sermon; yet Christ spake to the purpose, we may be sure. We may not then take it literally, as meant by the body: Christ meant no such captivity, dungeon or irons. That He meant not such is plain. He saith, He was sent to free captives, to open prisons; but He never set any captive free in his life, nor opened any gaol, in that sense, to let any prisoner forth. Another sense then we are to seek. Remember ye not, we began with the Spirit? the business the Spirit comes about is spiritual, not secular. So all these spiritually to be understood. As indeed they are all three applicable to the case of the Spirit, and a plain description of all our states out of Christ, and before He takes us in hand.

[292/293] 1. There is captivity there, wherein men are held in slavery under sin and Satan, worse than that we now speak of. St. Paul knew it, speaks of it, and when he has so, cries out, 'Wretched man that I am, who will rid me of it?' Verily, there is no Turk so hurries men, puts them to so base services, as sin doth her captives. Give me one that hath been in captivity, and is got out of it, et scit quod dico, 'he can tell it is true I say.'

2. There is a prison too; not Manasses' prison. But ask David, who never came in any gaol, what he meant when he said, 'I am so fast in prison, as I know not how to get out.' And that you may know what prison that was, he cries, 'O bring my soul out of prison!' A prison there is then of the soul, no less than of the body. In which prison were some of those who Christ preached here to; St. Matthew says, 'they sat in darkness and in the shadow of death,' even as men in the dungeon do.

3. There are chains too;--that also is the sinner's case, he is even 'tied with chains of his own sins,' saith Solomon, 'with the bond of iniquity,' St. Peter; which 'bonds' are they, David thanks God for breaking in sunder. There need no other bonds we will say, if once we come to feel them. The galls that sin makes in the conscience, are 'the entering of the iron into our soul.'

But you will say, We feel not these neither, no more than the former. No. do? Take this for a rule: if Christ heal them that be broken-hearted we behove to be ere He can heal us. He is Medicus cordis indeed; but it is cordis contriti. It is a condition ever annexed, this, to make us the more capable; and likewise a disposition it is, to make us the more curable. That same pauperibus before, and this contritis now, they limit Christ's cure, His cure and His commission both; and unless they be, or until they be, this Scripture is not, nor cannot be fulfilled in us. In our ears it may be, but in our hearts never.

That, as such as come to be healed by His Majesty are first searched, and after either put by or admitted as cause is; so there would be a scrutiny of such as make towards Christ. What, are you poor? Poor in spirit?--for the purse it skills no. No, but dicis quia dives, 'in good case:' Christ is not for [293/294] you then, He is sent to the poor. What, is your heart broken? No, but heart-whole, 'a heart as brawn:' Then are you not for this cure. In all Christ's dispensatory, there in not a medicine for such a heart, 'a heart like brawn,' that is hard and unyielding.

Christ Himself seems to give this item, when He applies it after. 'Many widows,' 'many lepers,' saith He, and so many sinners. 'Elias sent to none but the poor widow of Sarepta;' 'Eliseus healed none, but only Naaman,' after his spirit came down, was broken. No more doth Christ, but such as are of contrite heart.

Verily, the case as before we set it down, is the sinner's case, feel he it, feel he it not. But if any be so benumbed, as he is not sensible of this; so blind as, dungeon or no dungeon, all is one to him; if any have this same scirrhum cordis, that makes him past feeling, it is no good sign; but it may be, our hour is not yet come, our cure is yet behind. But if it should so continue, and ever be otherwise, then were it a very evil sign. For what is such a one's case but, as Solomon saith, 'as the ox that is led to the slaughter' without any sense, 'or the fool' that goes laughing when he carried to be well whipped? What case more pitiful?

You will say; we have no hammer, no worldly cross to break our hearts. It may be. That is Manasses' hammer, the common hammer indeed, but that is not King David's hammer, which I rather commend to you; the right hammer to do the feat, to work contrition in kind. The right is the sight of our own sins. And I will say this for it; that I never in my life saw any man brought so low with any worldly calamity, as I have with this sight. And these I speak of were not of the common sort, but men of spirit and valour, that durst have looked death in the face. Yet when God opened their eyes to see this sight, their hearts were broken, yes even ground to powder with it; contrite indeed.

And this is sure; if a man be not humbled with the sight of his sins, it is not all the crosses or losses in the world will humble him aright.

This is the right. And without any worldly cross this we might have, if we loved not so to absent ourselves from ourselves, to be even fugitivi cordis, to run away from our own hearts, be [294/295] ever abroad, never within; if we would but sometimes redire ad cor, return home thither and descend into ourselves; sadly and seriously to bethink us of them, and the danger we are in by them, this might be had, and this would be had if it might be. If not, in default of this (no remedy) the common hammer must come; and God send us Manasses' hammer to break it; some bodily sickness, some wordly affliction, to send us home into ourselves! But sure the Angel must come down and the water be stirred; else we may preach long enough to uncontrite hearts, but no good will be done till then.

I have been too long in the cause; but the knowledge of the cause, in every disease, we reckon half the cure. To the healing now.

The word for heal in Esay, where this text is, signifies to bind up. The cure begins with ligature, the most proper cure for fractures, or aught that is broken. Nay, in wounds and all, as appeareth by the Samaritan. The flux is so stayed, which, if it continue running on us still, in vain talk we of any healing. It is not begun till that stay and run no longer. The sins that Christ cures He binds up, He stays--to begin with. If He cover sin, it is with a plaister. He covers and cures together, both under one.

This word 'broken-hearted' the Hebrews take not as we do: we, broken for sin; they, broken off, from sin. And we have the same phrase with us; to break one of the evil fashions or inclinations he hath been given to. So to break the heart. And so must it be broken, or ever it be whole. Both senses: either of them doth well, but both together best of all.

This done, now to the healing part. The heathen observed long since: Yucàj uosoÚshj eiisiv iatroi lÒgoi,. 'the soul's cure is by words;' and the Angel saith to Cornelius, of St. Peter. 'He shall speak to thee words' by which thou and thy household shall be saved.

And by no words sooner, than by the sound of good tidings. Good news is good physic sure, such the disease may be, and a good message a good medicine. There is power in it both ways. Good news hath healed, evil new hath killed many. The good news of Joseph's welfare, we see how it even 'revived' old Jacob. And the evil of 'the Ark of God [295/296] taken.' it cost Eli his life. Nothing works upon the heart more forcibly either way.

What are these news, and first how they come? By khrÚxai they come; no secret-whispered news, from man to man in a corner; no flying news. They be proclaimed, these; so authentical. Proclaimed; and so they had need. For if our sins once appear in their right form, there is evil news certainly; let the devil alone with that, to proclaim them, to preach damnation to us. Contraria curantur contrariis, we had need have some good proclaimed, to cure those of his.

Two proclamations here are, one in the neck of another. Of which the former, in the three branches of it, applieth in particular a remedy to the three former maladies, is the topic medicine, as it were; the latter is the panacea, makes them all perfectly whole and sound.

The first proclamation. To the captive first, that there is one at hand with a ransom to redeem him. This will make him a whole man.

2. To them in the dungeon; of one to draw them forth thence and make them ¢uabl_yai, see the light again.

3.To them in chains; of one to strike off their bolts and loose them, to open the prison door and let them go; ¢posteilai, to make Apostles of them, and send them abroad into the wide world. It is the fruit of Christ's ¢pe/otalke, this ¢postelai, Christ's Apostleship was, and is, to make such Apostles.

Now this is nothing but the very sum of the Gospel: 1. Of one coming with a ransom in one hand, to lay down for us the price of our redemption from Satan's captivity. 2. And with 'the keys of hell and death' in the other. Keys of two sorts: 1. One to undo their fetters and loose them; 2. the other to open the dungeon and prison door--both the dungeon of despair, and the prison of the law, and let them out of both. There can be no better news, nor kindlier physic in the world, 1. than word of redemption to captives; 2. than to see the light again, to them in the limbo; 3. than of enlargement to them in bands; but specially, than of a dismission from prison, dungeon, irons and all. All this is proclaimed here, and published by Christ in His sermon at Nazareth; and was after performed and accomplished by Him, at His passion in Jerusalem.

[296/ 297] This is good news indeed, but here comes better. It is seconded with another proclamation, that makes up all. For in very deed, they that by the first proclamation were so released; for all that, and after that, what were they but a sort of poor snakes turned out of the gaol, but have nothing to take to? Coming thither, they were turned out of all that they ever had. That their case, though it be less miserable, yet is miserable still; the languor morbi still hangs upon them.

We lack some restorative for that. Here comes now physic to cure that and make them perfectly well, a second khrÚxai, that they shall be restored to all that ever they had. How so? For hark, here is 'the acceptable year,' that is, a jubilee proclaimed. And then even of course they are, by force of the jubilee, so to be. The nature of the jubilee was so, you know. Then not only all bond set free, all prisons for debt set open; but beside, all were restored then to their former mortgaged, forfeited, or any ways aliened estates, in as ample manner as ever they had or held them at any time before.

A restitution in intergrum, a re-investing them in what they were born to, or were any ways possessed of; that if they had sold themselves out of all, and lay in execution for huge sums, as it might be ten thousand talents, then all was quit, they came to all again, in as good case as ever they were in all their lives. There can be no more joyful news, no more cordial physic, than this. The year of juibilee? why that time so acceptable, so joyful, as it hath even given a denomination to joy itself. The height of joy is jubilee, the highest term to express it is jubilate; that goes beyond all the words of joy whatsoever.

And this come well now; for the jubilee of the Law drawing to an end, and this very year being now the last, Christ's jubilee, the jubilee of the Gospel, came fitly to succeed. Wherein the primitive estate we had in Paradise, we are re-seized of anew. Not the same in specie, but as good, nay better. For if the terrestrial Paradise by the flood destroyed we have a celestial, we have our own again, I trow, with advantage.

'A year' it is called, to keep the term still on foot that formerly it went by, Only this difference: the year there was a definite time, but here a definite is put for an indefinite.

[297/298] This year is more than twelve months. In this 'acceptable year,' the Zodiack goes never about. On this day of salvation the sun never goes down. For in this the jubilee of the Gospel passeth that of the Law; that held but for a year, and no longer; but this is continual, lasts still. Which is plain, in that divers years after this of Christ's, the Apostle speaks of it as still in esse; even then makes this proclamation still. 'Behold this is the day, behold now is the acceptable time.' Whereby we are given to understand that Christ's jubilee, though it began when Christ first preached this sermon, yet it ended not with the end of that year as did Aaron's, but was Evangelium æternum; as also perpetuiæ jubilæi, everlasting good news of a perpetual jubilee that doeth last and shall last as long as the Gospel will be preached by Himself, or others sent by Him, to the end of the world, 'the time of restoring all things.'

It is called 'acceptable,' by the term of the benefit that happened on it, which was our acceptation. For then we and all mankind were, not dekt_oi, that is 'acceptable,' but as the word is, dektoi, that is actually 'accepted' or received by God, out of Whose presence we were before cast. And being by Him so received, we did ourselves receive again, 'the earnest of our inheritance,' from which by means of the trangression we were before fallen.

There is much in this term 'accepting.' For when is one said to be accepted? Not when his ransom is paid, or the prison set open; not when he is pardoned his fault, or reconciled, or become friends; but when he is received with arms spread, as was the lost child in the Gospel, ad stolam primam--as the term is, out of that place. Three degrees there are in it: 1. Accepted to pardon.--that is sugguèmh. 2. Accepted to reconciliation.--that is kattallag». And further 3. Accepted to repropriation, that is, lasmÕj, to as good grace and favour as ever, even in the very fullness of it. They shew it by three distinct degrees in Absalom's receiving. 1.Pardoned he was, while he was yet in Geshur; 2. Reconciled, when he had leave to come home to his own house; 3. Repropriate, when he was admitted to the king's presence, and kissed him. That made up all, then he had all again. And that is our very case.

[298/299] Nay, indeed, that is not all. It is more than so; dektÕj here is in the text of Esay {{ zzX{r... Heb. and that imports more. For that word is ever turned by eÙdoka, and that is Christ's own acceptation, 'In Whom I am well pleased,' and the very term of it. And he that is so accepted, I know not what he would have more.

This is the benefit that fell at this time; and for this that fell on the time, the time itself it fell on is, and cannot be but acceptable; even eo nomine, that at such a time such a benefit happened to us. And in this respect, it ever hath and ever shall be an acceptable welcome time, this, and holpen as a high feast; like as the benefit is high, that befell us on it. Festum, as a feast, for the pardon; Festum duplex, for the reconciliation; Festum magis duplex for the being perfectly accepted to the favour of God, and by it re-accepting again our prime estate.

Nay last, it is called not only Annus acceptus, but Annus Domini acceptus. or acceptus Domino: not only 'The acceptable year,' but 'of the Lord,' or 'to the Lord;'--for so the Hebrew read it, with the sign of the dative, as if to God Himself it were so. And to Him so it is, and to His holy angels in Heaven so it is. For if the receiving any one contrite sinner, by repentance, be matter of joy to the whole court of Heaven--if the receiving of but one; what shall we think of the general receiving of the whole mass, which this day was effected?

Now if to Heaven, if to God Himself it be so; to earth, to us, shall it not be much more, whom much more it concerneth, I am sure? God gets nothing by it; we do: He is not the better for it; we are: ever the receiver, than the giver. The giver more glory, but the receiver more joy. That if it be the joy of Heaven, it cannot be but the jubilee of the earth, even of the whole earth. Jubilate Deo omnis terra.

The jubilee ever it began with no other sound, but even of a cornet, made of the horns of a ram. Of which horns they give no other reason but that it was so in reference to the horns of that 'ram that in the thicket was caught by the horns,' and sacrificed in Israel's stead, even as Christ was in ours. To shew that all our jubilee hath relation to that [299/300] special sacrifice, so plainly prefiguring that of Christ's. Which feast of jubilee began ever after the High Priest had offered his sacrifice, and had been in the Sancta sanctorum. As this jubilee of Christ also took place, from His entering into the holy places 'made without hands,' after His propitiatory sacrifice offered up for the quick and the dead, and for all yet unborn, at Easter. And it was the tenth day that, and this now is the tenth day since.

The memorial or mystery of which sacrifice of Christ in our stead is ever caput laetitiæ, 'the top of our mirth,' and the initiation of the joy of our jubilee. Like as accipiam calicem salutaris, our taking 'the cup of salvation,' is the memorial of our being accepted or received, and taken again to salvation. Wherewith let us also crown this jubilee of ours. That so all the benefits of it may take hold of us; specially the reintegration of the favour of God, and the assurance or pledge of our restitution to those joys, and that jubilee, that only can give content to all our desires, when the time will come of 'the restoring of all things.'

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