SECT. I.

SAint Luke is styled by Saint Paul, the man whose praise is in the Gospel, 2. Cor. 8.18. And the gospel of Saint Luke dictated by Saint Paul (as some of the Greek Fa­thers are of opinion) is cal­led in one place Saint Pauls own gospel; Rom. 2.16. there being such an harmonie of expressions between the one and the o­ther. This elegant penne­man,Compend. Theol. pag. 66. plenus Evangelii com­mentator, (as Alstedius term­eth [Page 2] him) this beloved Physi­cian, Coloss. 4.14. imò & me­dicus & Theologus (as Eu­sebius said of Theodotus bi­shop of Laodicea) was not (as some think) Christs im­mediate disciple,Euseb. lib. 7. cap. 31. but onely sectator & condiscipulus A­postolorum, a follower and disciple of the Apostles. And this he himself in the proem of his evangelicall historie testifieth of himself;Luke 1.2. Prout tradiderunt nobis; As they have delivered unto us, which from the beginning saw them­selves: intimating, that he wrote his Gospel, according as he received relation from others; but the tract of the Acts of the Apostles accord­ing to that which he had seen himself. Which two [Page 3] treatises, howsoever dedica­ted to one man, toWhich name if we take for a common appella­tive, we must un­derstand that the Gospel is onely writ­ten to them who are lovers of God. Bois. Theophi­lus, are notwithstanding parted into two volumes, ut distinctio perspicuitatem affer­ret, brevitas taedium eximeret, varietas voluptate afficeret, saith Lorinus, Praefat. in Act.

In the seventh chapter of his Gospel is the storie on which I have now pitched my meditations, breviter & apertè, briefly, yet fully with each weighty circumstance described. No doubt but many an accurate quill on the wing of contemplation hath already taken an high flight, meditating on this ve­ry subject: My onely plea shall be,Ambros. Qui non potest vo­lare ut aquila, volet ut passer. The Scripture is every where [Page 4] full of varietie, like a gar­ment of severall colours; in veste unitas, in colore varietas. From the same woof of ho­ly Writ may divers work­men, according to their se­verall fansies, draw out most curious threads of ob­servation; and that brain is very unhappy that meets not with some traverse of dis­course more then it hath borrowed from anothers pen. Yet will I not, with Rehoboam, contemn the judgement of the wise; nor deny to take a good lesson out of any school. I never read but of a foolish cock, that refused a pearl, though found on a dunghill.

The laborious bee is the em­bleme of a working brain: which creature, ever set be­fore us for a copie of indu­strie, is not still droning up­on one flower, but throws her little airy body upon a second, so to a third, till her thighs be laden with a pret­ty spoil.Natur. hist. lib. 11 cap. 5. Propè ex umbra mi­nimi animalis incomparabile quiddam, saith Plinie; It is no lesse then a wonder, that almost of the shadow rather then substance of a very small living creature, nature hath made an incomparable thing. I had rather imitate this Hyblean bird, then alto­gether challenge to my self Arachne's motto, Mihi soli [Page 6] debeo; I had rather knit up in this little posie [...], some rare and choice flowers, which I have here and there sucked and culled from the gardens of severall authours; then boast with that little Arabian, that I have eviscerated my self, and spun a web out of mine own bowels. What can Ar­chimedes do without his sphere? what can an artizan perform without his instru­ments? To aim at knowledge without books, is with the Danaides, to draw water in­to a sive.Titus 4.13. Saint Paul himself, although so inspired, found as much want of his books, as his cloke in winter. Ha­ving therefore imposed this task upon my self, I will first [Page 7] of all visit my little librarie, and accost it with the poets salutation;

Into which having entred, and setting my self down with the best contentment that I know, I may, without all offense of Necromancie, call up some of the ancient worthies of learning; where being alone I am least alone, and can with ease attein to that height of happinesse, which Saint Hierome so much commends in one of his devout women,Hier. de laudibus Asellae, e­pist. 15. quae uni­us cellulae clausa angustiis, latitudine coeli fruebatur, though cloystered within [Page 8] the compasse of a narrow cell, can by divine contem­plation expatiate through the whole latitude of hea­ven.

To wave all other prefa­ces, I fall directly to the matter in hand; and, accord­ing to my poore abilities, in­tend to write something of this woman that was a sin­ner.

SECT. II.

WHo this woman was, is much con­troverted by interpreters; and it is sooner questioned, then answered. I know such problematicall disquisitions, quae plus habent subtilitatis [Page 9] quàm utilitatis (as Erasmus on this very Quaere) are su­perfluous: and of them we may passe the censure which the philosopher did of the Athenian shops, How many things are here which we need not?

Whether the thrice an­ointing of our Saviour was performed by three severall women;Orig. tract. 35. in Matth. as Origen (which Roffensis the beauclerk of his time confuteth in three books:) or whether the same Marie which anointed him here as a sinner, was she which afterwards anointed him as a Saint; as Aquinas on the twelfth of John: or, if we yeeld it to be Marie, whether Marie Magdalene; or, if Marie Magdalene, who [Page 10] this Magdalene was: Again, whether there were three Marie Magdalenes, as Theo­phylact, Stapulensis, and o­thers avouch; or whether two,Amb. lib. 10. in Luc. 24. Alb. in Luc. cap. 7. as Ambrose; or whe­ther onely one, as Albertus: or whether this Magdalene was sister to Lazarus and Martha, which three divi­ded the inheritance of their father betwixt them: (all the possessions in Jerusalem fal­ling to Lazarus, Bethanie to Martha, Magdalum castrum to Marie, from whence she was called Marie Magda­lene) All these as imperti­nent circuitions I omit; for in the silence of the holy Ghost I will not be curious. Whosoever she was, she still carries the name of what [Page 11] sometimes she was, Pecca­trix mulier, A woman that was a sinner.

Have you not seen some artificiall pictures drawn by the pencill of a skilfull op­tick, in the same part of the frame or table, according to divers sights and aspects, re­present divers things? Such an admirable piece with a double resemblance hath Saint Luke (an excellent limner, as the ancients write) here delineated in the most lively colours. Look on the one side, you shall see a lascivious wanton setting her self to sale in the most tempting fashion; step on the other side, you may be­hold an admirable convert attended by a retinue of [Page 12] graces: view it which way you will, here is an Ecce like a curtain hung before some exact and rare workman­ship, which likewise hath a double reference; to the mercy, and to the power of Christ: to his power, that thus drew this sinner; to his mercy, that received her.

In this noble historie are divers weighty circumstan­ces, like so many wedges of gold in a rich minerall. I shall dig for some. And one ingot I light on at the very head of the mine; Ecce mu­lier, &c. Behold is a word of emphasis and energie: and (as one pithily saith) if this starre stands o're the house, a Jesus is within. Here, like Janus, it looketh both back­ward [Page 13] and forward: and so will I treat of this woman; first, as a sinner; secondly, as a penitent. On these two staves, put into their severall rings, shall the ark of my dis­course be carried.

If it shall seem distastfull unto any, that I insist, per­haps too long, on the parti­cular sinne for which this woman was publickly no­ted; let me put him in mind of an answer which the Co­micall poet gave; who, when one accused him that he brought a lewd debauched ruffian on the stage, and so gave bad example to young men; True (quoth he) I brought such a man on, but I hanged him before he went off; and so I gave them [Page 14] a good example. Here is a better lesson to be learned. All women may accept this woman as a pattern to imi­tate; that even they that can teach the finest stitches, may themselves take new works out of this sampler. For how sinfull soever she may appear at first, let us suspend our censure of her till the last act: then shall we find, how she became à lebete phi­ala, of a caldron seething and boyling in lust, a crystall vi­al of pure chastitie; how she that at first was running apace into the dead sea, did speedily turn her course into the streams of paradise. But I must take my rise at this womans fall; and make it my first task to consider her as she was a Sinner.

SECT. III.

A Sinner? Who is not? Had she not been a sin­ner, it had been [...], beyond all admiration. He that knoweth himself to be a man, knoweth himself to be a sinner; for in the loyns of our first parents we all sinned, and are deprived, [or,Rom. 3.23. come short] of the glory of God: So that it is a sinne, to sup­pose a separation of sinne from mans nature.Originall sinne. In our conceptions, through that originall pollution we were all warmed in unclean bloud; and still we do ponere Adam super Adam, as the Fathers say. This hereditary poison, virus paternum (as [Page 16] Paulinus calleth it) is inbred in every man; and that [...], the sullage of his clay cleaves fast unto us. Adam sinning, all his seed are be­come sinfull, and all his off­spring, tanquam serie continu­atâ, as in a continued line, do like corrupted branches of a rotten tree bring forth still corrupted fruits. The great­est and most perfect light in the world is the sunne in the firmament; yet hath he his [...], his parallax, his variation: And what sonne of Adam was ever found, through the zodiack of whose life an ecliptick line could not be drawn?Ambr. Da mi­hi aliquem sine prolapsione de­licti, saith a Father. Such an one is like the mountain of [Page 17] gold, or the philosophers stone, or the second intenti­ons in logick, which have no reall absolute existence, and indeed are nothing save in the theorie and operation of the understanding. In scho­lasticall speculations you may heare the noise of such a one, but you may look for him under the same roof with Quintilians Oratour, Xenophons Cyrus; and you shall no sooner find him then the echo in the poet; —quem non invenis usquam, esse pu­tas nusquam. Such Ʋtopicall perfection (as one hath it in a pretty expression) is but a dream of the idle Donatists of Amsterdam. In multis— (it is the voice of an Apostle) In many things we offend all. James 3.2 [Page 18] Certum est Jebusaeos habitare cum filiis Judae in Jerusalem, saith that allegoricall Fa­ther. Nothing more certain then the deep remainders of corruption even in Gods pe­culiar Israel. Even their best works (and they too, like Solomons sculpture,1. Kings 7.19. a lilie upon a pillar, a lilie upon a pillar, rare and few) will but weigh light in the scales of the sanctuary. As the courtizan Lais said, that Phi­losophers did sometimes knock at her gates as well as others: so the best-natured men are often taken with humane frailties. Let the best do their best, they are but like the ark of the cove­nant, a cubit and an half high, imperfectly perfect. It [Page 19] is with the most righteous man, as it was with David;1. Kings 15.5. who did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, save onely in the matter of Ʋriah: in some matter or other they step aside from Gods com­mandments. In remisse de­grees all contraries may be lodged together under one roof: Saint Paul swears that he dyes daily, yet he lives;1. Cor. 15.31. so the best man sinnes hourely, even while he obeys.

Who cannot easily play the oratour in so copious a theme? who cannot easily declaim at large against sin, against which it is a sinne not to declaim? But absolu­ta sententia expositore non in­diget: and 'tis a truth as clear, as if it were Solis ra­dio [Page 20] scriptum (in the proverb of Tertullian) written with a sunne-beam on the wall of a glasse, that which Solomon precisely affirmeth in the dedication of his Temple; God hath concluded all under sinne. 1. Kings 8.46.

Yet we must note, that the word Sinner is oftentimes taken in Scripture antono­masticè, in a more speciall sense. In the Old Testament, The Amalekites those sinners, 1. Sam. 15.18. In the New Testament the Gentiles are also called sinners, as like­wise publicanes and harlots; not so much because they had sinne in them, as that they were [...], transcendent sinners, out of measure sinfull. The [Page 21] seeds of all sinnes are in all men; the seeds, not the pra­ctice: there is not in all the same eruption, there is in all the same corruption: Some be not kites, others hawks, and the rest eagles from one and the same eyrie. He that bears man about him, he that's apparelled with flesh and bloud, cannot but [...], though he do not [...]. Though wickednesse cannot be kept from me be­cause of the tentation, yet may I be kept from it be­cause of the repulse. And here must I take up a distin­ction; Aliud est concupiscere, aliud post concupiscentias ire, It is one thing to dart and glance a wanton desire; an­other thing, to court and [Page 22] plead it. Though the motions of the flesh be alike in the carnall and spirituall man, yet the humouring of those motions is not.

Again, aliud est peccare, aliud peccatum facere, as the Fathers distinguish: It is one thing for a man to sinne; an­other thing, to give himself over to the commission of sinne: And the distinction is no idle one; for it is not one­ly grounded upon S. Johns phrase,John 3.9. but also upon S. James his gradation;James 1.14, 15. Men are enticed by their lust; then lust conceiveth, and bringeth forth sinne; and sinne being perfected, bringeth forth death. And this perfection of sinne is properly the doing of sin. And this doing of sinne, this [Page 23] perfection of sinne, this con­tinuance in any notorious sinne, is not onely a grave to bury the soul, but a great stone rolled to the mouth thereof, to keep it down. That which Erasmus saith of Paris, that after a man hath acquainted himself with the odious sent of it, hospitibus magìs ac magìs ad­lubescit, Of cu­stome in sinne. it grows into his li­king more and more; is too true of sinne, which by long entertainment becomes cu­stomary, and not easie of dismission. We know that [...]n Ʋrinator, an expert swimmer, being under wa­ter feeleth not the weight of a full-fraughted ship of a thousand tunnes riding per­pendicularly over his head: [Page 24] So while miserable men swim in the custome of any pleasing sinne, they are in­sensible of the burden of it. That which our Canonists say in another kind, is too true here, Custome can give a jurisdiction; neither is there any stronger law then it. The continuance of any known sinne gives a strong habituati­on, as Gerson phraseth it, and works an utter senseles­nesse in brawnie hearts: for frequency of sinning doth flesh us in immodesty; assi­duity, in impudence: and that sinne is almost incura­ble which is steeled by cu­stome. In this compasse of my discourse the needle pointeth right at this woman: for the Evangelist saith not, Be­hold [Page 25] a woman that had sinned; but, a woman that was a sin­ner. It is not a transient but a permanent condition that gives the denomination. Her long continuance in her trade had branded her with this title, Peccatrix mulier, A woman that was a sinner.

SECT. IIII.

THis woman (as it is ge­nerally received) was noted for a luxurious and [...]ncontinent life; [...] habet em­phasim quasi ad­mirationis de excel­lentia scu enormita­te, Chem­nitius. so that Si­nons words might here take place, [...]; Quae & qualis est haec mulier? She was, as they conjecture, of a noble stock: and in those [...]oose dayes, wherein Herod [Page 26] erected his theatres and his amphitheatres, a gap was set open to much impiety and wantonnesse; Virorum exemplo mulieres & copiosae & honest is familiis natae im­pudicè vivebant, non ut quae­stum corpori facerent, sed in­saniâ libidinis, saith my Cardinal Conzen. in locum. Au­thour.

However wantons may flatter themselves with the devils dispensation, a detur aliquid aetati; however they take that for true doctrine, which the unwise Tutour sometimes spake in the Co­medie; Non est, crede mihi, adolescenti, It is no such fault in a young man to follow har­lots; yet shall their souls need no other conveyance to hell then this: For it is [Page 27] such a sinne as commonly drives two to the devil at once;Lust. a sinne which yeeld­ed unto, becomes a pleasant madnesse.Aug. de civit. Dei, lib. 21. cap. I reade in S. Au­gustine, of a certain well in Epirus, that when fire­brands are put into it, it will quench them; and yet when they are quenched, it will presently set them on fire again: Such a bewitch­ing water is a lascivious woman; when she quench­eth the lust of the bodie for a season, she sets it on fire afterwards a great deal more.Fonseca. Wittily therefore have some emblem'd forth this vice by the phenix, which doth revive and re­new her self by the fire which she kindleth by the [Page 28] motion of her wings. Thou mournest perhaps, and be­wailest, and repentest thee of the dishonest sinne thou hast committed, and desirest to give it over that it may die in thee: but with the wings of thy thoughts thou blowest those coals afresh, and makest them flame more then before. Thus in the midst of thy tears thou be­comest like the self-ena­moured boy in the poet,

For the wicked in circuitu ambulant, still walk the round: first they act a sinne, because the thought hath pleased them; then they think that sinne over again, because the act hath pleased [Page 29] them: Thus by a damned a­rithmetick do they multiply one sinne into a thousand.

Among such a deal of va­rietie of sinnes (for sinne is like a continued quantity that admits of infinite sections) there is no one more plausi­ble, more pleasing to nature, then wantonnesse. How ma­ny set their souls burning in the flames thereof, as Nero set Rome on fire, and behold them with affectation? How many a silly wretch, like the foolish lark while it playeth with the feather, and stoup­eth to the glasse, is caught in the fowlers net? For an harlot (to give a short but true character of her) is the devils pitfall,The cha­racter of an harlot. a trap to catch our souls. Her eyes, like free-booters, [Page 30] live upon the spoil of stragglers: she baits her desires with a million of prostituted countenances: her displayed breasts, and loose dangling locks wan­tonly erring over her shoul­ders, her artificiall comple­xion (the counterfeit of the great seal of nature) her curled and crisped hairs (the circles and sophistries of that old cunning serpent) her high washes, calamistra­tions, cerussations, & nescio quot pudenda mysteria, are so many lures to bring the a­dulterer to the fist. Chast thoughts will check and ne­ver stoup to such entice­ments: Where fire falls upon wet wood, it soon goeth out.

When Potiphars wife, [Page 31] one of the greatest Ladies in Egypt,The ad­mirable chastity of Joseph. did inordinately af­fect, impudently solicite and importune, and in a manner force the modesty of her good servant Joseph, how much rather did he leave his cloke then his vertue? Nor did he rescue himself from adultery and danger by vio­lence to her person, nor fail in other duties requisite; but with hazard of his name, life, and liberty, he made an innocent escape, cum melio­re pallio castitatis, Aug. to preserve his better garment of chasti­tie.

The Arabians proverb is elegant, Obstrue quinque fenestras, ut luceat domus, Shut the five windows, that the house may be lightsome; [Page 32] cleanse the limbeck of the senses, lest thence some pol­lution drop into the soul: If at once we would overcome both the tentation and the tempter, we must re­solve with Alipius, to shut our eyes when we come a­mongst vanities: for the eye is the first part that is over­come in any battel; upon the first assault it yeelds up our strongest fort.The vani­ty of the eye. The eye besides is the vainest of all the senses; it takes extreme delight to be coozened; one of the pleasures of the eye is the deceit of it: How ea­sily is that sense tempted, which delighteth to be de­ceived.

The ancient Philosophers before Aristotle, that held [Page 33] the sight to be by sending out of beams, imagined the eye to be of a fiery nature: wherein they were the ra­ther confirmed, for that they found, if the eye take a blow, fire seems to sparkle out of it. But certainly (it is the elegant observation of a learned Prelate) how wa­terish soever better experi­ence hath found the sub­stance of the eye,Episcop. Exon. it is spiri­tually fiery; fiery both active­ly, and passively: passively, so as that it is enflamed by every wanton beam; active­ly, so as that it sets the whole heart on fire with the inordinate flames of concu­piscence.Gen. 34.2. Thus Shechem saw Dinah, and defiled her:

Thus Amnon fell sick for Tamars sake,2. Sam. 13.2.

Thus when David walked upon the roof of the kings palace,2. Sam. 11.2. and espied from thence a beautifull woman washing her self,Mulier longè, li­bido pro­pé. his petu­lant eye recoyled upon his heart, and smote him with sinfull desire.

Yet it is not the eye of it self, (for what is that but the beauty of the face, the bright starre of that orb it moves in?) but the vicious­nesse of the eye, that I so condemn; quando cum ocu­lis fabulamur, as the Fathers speak.

I might easily here en­large my self: But to avoid that which was a noted fault in Marcellus the rhe­torician,Sueton. that lighting on a figure, he would pursue it so farre, till he forgat the mat­ter in hand; I fall back a­gain to treat more particu­larly of this woman, most sinfull for her life, most hate­full for her lust, [...], a woman given over to incon­tinency (as the word used by the Evangelist implies) commune scandalum, a gene­rall plague, a common scan­dal: For by her bad exam­ple she made the city so in­famous, that she might more fitly be called peccatum Hie­rosolymae, quam peccatrix, saith Petrus Chrysologus, [Page 36] because of that evil report that went of her; the whole city did suffer therein. Which brings me to ano­ther circumstance of the sto­ry, the Ʋbi, the place where she set up her trade; which addes much to the hainous­nesse of her sinne: Behold a woman in the city which was a Sinner.

SECT. V.

SInne is sinne wheresoe're committed, whether be­fore a multitude of behold­ers, or in a desert,

Yet the more publick the fact is, the greater is the [Page 37] scandal; and this womans offense was the more noto­rious, in that she was a City-sinner.

Tis true, I confesse,Tentati­ons. that no place is a sanctuary from tentations, which come too swiftly and unbidden, like rough winds from every corner of the skie, and in that numberlesse number, as if each minute were com­puted by them. We are apt to fall, because we are mu­table; but we do not com­monly fall except some oc­casion be given: and how full is the world of a world of such occasions. Our com­mon adversary the devil,

findeth how prone we are [Page 38] to our [...],Gal. 6.1. to stum­ble at something or other that lyeth in our way; he knoweth whither our cor­rupt nature bendeth; he sifteth out what will work our affections and dispositi­ons, and with that he plieth and wooeth our consent to sinne; like an expert mari­ner, he marks the wind, and accordingly hoiseth up, or striketh sail; like a cunning poet, he fits every actour with a part agreeable, and maketh perpetuall use of the bent of our nature. Thus hath he a wedge of gold for covetous Achan, a crown for ambitious Absalom, a Dinah for Shechem, &c.

And if those two, the concurrence of Time and [Page 39] Place, are his principall en­gines, which serve to give aim to such faults as our na­ture is too perfect in with­out a prompter; then sure­ly in a spacious city are more invitations to sinne, then in private cells. The concourse of much people affordeth many brokers of villany, which live upon the spoil of young hopes. Where many pots are boiling, there must needs be much scum; and where multitude of strangers meet, where vari­ety of delights and pastime daily take the eye, it is more difficult to avoid them. For our nature herein is like un­to fire, which, if there be any infection in the room, draws it straight to it self; [Page 40] or like unto jeat, which o­mitting all precious objects, gathers up straw and dust.

It was in a city where this woman lived, where by her lewd example she drew on others to offend. Her ex­ample was the more hurt­full, because ('tis thought) she was of good parentage. Satans infections shoot ma­ny times through some great starre the influence of dam­nation into lesser bodies.Examples. For an Example is like a stone thrown into a pond, that makes circle to beget circle till it spreade to the banks; or like a plague-sore, that infects the standers by, and lookers on.

I do not find the name of the city set down; yet many [Page 41] are bold to affirm that it was Naim; others, Jerusalem.Simon de Cassia. They that have travelled in the search of the latter,Jerusalem style it the glory of the world, the theatre of mysteries & mira­cles, the navil of the earth, being seated amidst the na­tions, like a diademe crown­ing the heads of the heads of the mountains. Honorificen­tissima praedicantur de te, ô ci­vitas Dei summè honorifica; Very excellent things are spo­ken of thee, thou city of God:Psal. 87.2.At ignominiosa facta sunt in te, But very hainous crimes have been committed in thee, saith a Father. Whether she lived there or no, I enquire not; where ever it was, she was too well known in her time. What her offense was, [Page 42] hath been already shewed: I will not lay my finger again on that blot.

Thus farre hath the black line of her life been drawn. Now look we on the other hemispere; now come we to consider her as she hath put off the Harlot, as she is a Pe­nitent, Behold a woman that VVAS a Sinner.

SECT. VI.

QƲi in aurifodinis labo­rant, they who dig in the veins of the earth, par­vum inveniunt in magno, find a little gold in a great deal of ore: But they who search into the mines of holy Writ, magnum inveniunt in parvo, [Page 43] within the compasse of a [...]ittle ground find a great deal of gold. Adoro plenitu­dinem Scripturae, with Ter­tullian: where the least par­ticle truly weighed hath mountains of matter, as the Rabbines phrase it; where­in every tittle, every iota is dogmatically full, and not to be passed over without a registring eye. In these words, [...], quae erat peccatrix, the verb erat, little in the sentence, but large in the sense, is like that [...] in S. James,James 3.4. which though it be small, yet it turneth about the whole ship. We have already ta­ken it in the worse sense: now let us consider it as it argues a change, as it points [Page 44] to the best, which is behind.

Scipio (as Livie writeth) never looked so fresh, nor seemed so lovely in the eyes of his souldiers, as after his recoverie from a dangerous sicknesse which he took in the camp: Nor doth the soul ever seem more beauti­full, then when she is resto­red to health after some de­sperate maladie. The Palla­dium was in highest esteem both with the Trojans and Grecians, not so much for the matter or workman­ship, as because it was catched out of the fire when Troy was burnt: And cer­tainly no soul is more preci­ous in the sight of God and his angels, then that which is snatched out of the fire of [Page 45] hell, and jaws of death: For hereby it becometh like the wood, which Seneca pro­nounceth to be eò pretiosius, Sen. lib. 7. de Benef. cap. 9. quò illud in plures nodos ar­boris infelicitas torsit.

And here justly may I take up an Ecce, and lead this woman in with a note of wonder. To see men per­verted from God to the world, from piety to pro­fanenesse, is as common as lamentable; every night such starres fall: But to see a convert come home to God, is both happy and wondrous to men and an­gels. O res novas & inaudi­tas! Behold, the first-fruits of them that come to Christ, are such as were most de­sperately enthralled to Sa­tan; [Page 46] Magi, Publicani, Me­retrices, Latro, Blasphemus. O the depth, or rather no depth of the goodnesse of Christs unspeakable mercies, who of the knottiest and crookedst timber can make rafts and cielings for his own house! Thus can he call a Zaccheus from the toll-booth to be a Disciple, and Matthew to be an Apostle.

The peni­tent thief on the crosse. But, O blessed Jesu! how shall I enough magnifie, a­mong other demonstrations of thy mercie, thy goodnesse and power in the conversion of the dying thief! Wander, my soul, in amazement, while I think hereon! The offender came to die; no­thing was in his thoughts but his guilt and torment; [Page 47] while he was yet in his bloud, thou saidst, This soul shall live. That good Spirit of thine so breathed upon him, that his last houre was his first houre wherein he knew his Saviour to be God. In ipso crucis candelabro sol resplenduit, The sunne did shine unto him upon the candlestick of the crosse; the light whereof was so power­full, that it awaked this drowsie and sleepie thief, snorting in the security of his sinne, leaving him so well instructed, ut corripit, confitetur, praedicat, precatur: corripit socium, Luke 23.40, &c. Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? con­fitetur peccata, We receive the due reward of our deeds; prae­dicat [Page 48] innocentiam Christi, But this man hath done no­thing amisse; postremò, cre­scente lumine gratiae precatur; Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdome. He that before had in his eye nothing but present death, is now lifted up above his crosse in a blessed ambition, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdome. Is this the voice of a thief, or a disciple? Dic, ô latro, ubi thronus ex sapphiro? ubi che­rubim, & exercitus coeli? ubi corona, sceptrum & purpura, ut eum dicas Regem? Say, O thief, Why shouldest thou style him King? where is his throne of sapphire? where are the cherubims, and the whole host of hea­ven? [Page 49] where is his crown, his sceptre, and his purple? Seest thou any other crown then that of thorns? any o­ther sceptre then strong iron nails, which were driven up to the head through the palms of those blessed hands? any other purple but his bloud? any other throne but his crosse? What dost thou see that thou shouldst style him King? O faith greater then death, that can look beyond the crosse, at a crown; beyond dissolution, at a remembrance of life and glory! As no Disciple could be more faithfull, so no Saint could be more happy. For, as Justin Martyr saith, juxta fluenta plenissima gratiam si­mul accepit & gloriam; grace [Page 50] & glory with a full tide both at once came flowing in upō him.Ambr. Magìs velox erat prae­mium quàm petitio, & uberior gratia quàm precatio, The re­ward every way outvied the request. It was a great favour from Christ, saith Leo, to put this so discreet and so humble a petition into this thiefs heart; but a greater favour, to give him so good and so quick a dispatch. Quid tu Do­mine, saith S. Cyprian, am­plius Stephano contulisti? O Lord, what could that pro­tomartyr S. Stephen enjoy more? or that beloved Di­sciple that leaned on thy bo­some? and (as Cyrill of Je­rusalem saith) what could the long services of those that en­dured the heat of the day, ob­tain [Page 51] more at thy hands? But God giveth them this an­swer; I do thee no wrong, didst not thou agree with me for a peny? Some labourers were working hard at the vineyard from the first houre; others, from the third; others began at the ninth when the sunne was setting. First came Adam, then Noah, after him Abra­ham, and the rest of the holy prophets: But this thief came at the sunne-setting: and he that in the morning was posting towards hell, is in the evening with his Lord in paradise: for no sooner had he cried, Lord, remember me, but Christ answereth him immediately, I say unto thee; and promiseth, thou [Page 52] shalt; and seals up his pro­mise, verily; and promiseth more then is asked, paradise; and promiseth presently, be­ing asked indefinitely, This day: Verily I say unto thee, This day shalt thou be with me in paradise.

The con­version of S. Paul.In the list of these admira­ble Converts I cannot omit the blessed Apostle S. Paul. When Saul wasted the church, dispersed the Disci­ples, destroyed the Christi­ans, following them from the synagogues into the streets, from the streets into their houses, when he breathed out threatnings and slaughter,Acts 9. when he was journeying with a commis­sion towards Damascus; the Lord might without any ex­postulating [Page 53] have poured down vengeance upon him, he might have summoned some punishment or other to have served the executi­on of wrath against him: But if ever mercy and judge­ment met together, there was judicium misericordiae, & misericordia judicii: a voice, and a stroke; the one striking down to earth, the other lifting up to heaven: a light shining from heaven, and a light shining to direct him to heaven; a light shi­ning to him that was in dark­nesse and in the shadow of death, to bring him from the snare of darknesse unto the glorious liberty of the sonnes of God. He that was the Way, met him in the way; He that [Page 54] was the Light, met him with a light; He that was the Word, met him with the voice of a word, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? It was a gracious favour of the Lord, to vouchsafe to questi­on with him; but to call him by his name, and to ingemi­nate that name,Lorinus. hoc indicat affectum commiserationis, it was a signe of his great affe­ction and commiseration. It was a voice indeed,Psal. 29.4, 5. the voice of the Lord mighty in operati­on; the voice of the Lord is a glorious voice; the voice of the Lord breaketh the cedar­trees; yea, the Lord breaketh the cedars of Libanus. This voice strook him to the earth, strook him from horse, strook him from his presum­ption, [Page 55] Persecutest thou Me? Maximam emphasin habet illud Me: Yet the voice was not more powerfull then mercifull: it was sua­viter fortis, & fortiter suavis. It was the heaviest fall, and yet the happiest fall that e­ver any had; it was his fall, and his rising. Thus as dumb­nesse unto Zacharie was not a dumb instructour; it taught him faith against another time: so blindnesse sent un­to Paul, took away his blind­nesse, making him to see more in the wayes of life, then all his learning gather­ed at the feet of Gamaliel could have revealed unto him.

Here, I confesse, I have hunted a little wide; & unâ [Page 56] fideliâ duos parietes dealbavi. Which the rather I was led unto, because I intended to have writ a treatise on the conversion of S. Paul; as likewise to have spent some oyl on the penitentiary thief. But second thoughts have taken place.

SECT. VII.

TO joyn issue with my former meditations, I will imitate the most curi­ous gravers, who look some­times upon green flies to re­collect their scattered sight again: I will fix my eyes through the glasse of con­templation on the picture of this penitent woman.

Repentance,Repen­tance. say the Fa­thers out of Numb. 35.11. is a city of refuge to flie unto: which again, out of Acts 27. they call secundam tabulam post naufragium, the happy plank which hath saved many a soul from the gulf of despair, the board that after shipwrack will carry us safe unto land, and bring us to those [...], the fair havens, as the Apostle speaks in the same chapter, in his voyage towards Rome.

Others do compare it to a Phenix-nest, A Phe­nix-nest. wherein the old Adam is consumed to ashes, and out of those ashes ariseth the new man of God. For conversion is a sacred riddle, a divine aenigma: A divine riddle. wherein when we are born, [Page 58] we are buried; and when we are quickened, we are killed; and when we are mortified, we are raised. Thus Ninive was over­thrown, and yet not over­thrown;Aug. de civit. Dei, lib. 21. cap 24. Eversa est Ninive quae mala erat, & aedificata bona quae non erat: it was o­verthrown by sinne, but builded again by repen­tance.

He that is a skilfull Peni­tent, doth cunningly play this after-game: and a sin­ner after his recovery, for the most part, seeketh God more fervently. For the Saints come out of the bed of their sinnes, as Hezekiah out of his sick bed, more humble, more holy, more pious, more penitent; as the [Page 59] Eagle that is wearied, comes out of the water into which she dips her wing, with a more surging ascent toward heaven then ever.

When Mutius Scevola mis­sed of his aim, and in stead of killing Porsenna, slew one of his scribes being as richly apparell'd as his prince, he presently offered that hand which gave the stroke, as a willing sacrifice unto the flame: In admiration of whose great spirit, the poet giveth this acclamation,

Without any inversiō I may apply it to this womans con­version;

Nor let this be taken for a paradox: For what an ene­mie would upbraid by way of reproch, is the greatest praise that can be, Faults that were. Their very sinnes do honour some: as the very devils that Mary Magdalene had, are mentioned for her glory, since we do not heare of them but when they are cast out: for repentance is a supersedeas that dischargeth sinne, making God to be mercifull, angels to be joy­full, man to be acceptable.

But because I have almost every where fair occasion given to treat of this divine grace of Repentance, which like Miriam leads the dance [Page 61] before the daughters of Is­rael, I will not stand to ga­ther the fruit in this orch­yard as clean as I might: I now onely give the shaking of a tree, two or three berries from the upper branches. I now come with speed to this womans good speed; to her accesse, and to her successe: For, ut cognovit, venit; when she knew where Jesus was, she came.

SECT. VIII.

The noble beast of chase, the subtle cerffage, the [Page 62] wind-footed Hart, hearing the deep-mouthed hounds to vent his secret leyr, and listning to the loud and deep yellings wherewith the for­rest rings, lifts up his high-palmed head, rusheth out rouzing, driveth the brakes, trusteth his speed, and get­teth ground, the kennel cast arere; at length imbost with heat, he beateth the brooks and ponds for sweet re­freshing soil. Without stretching the metaphor, the Sic doth here punctually an­swer the Sicut. This wo­man now touched with re­pentance for her former va­nities, like the thirsty and panting Hart in the extre­mitie of drought, desiderat ad fontes aquarum, doth ea­gerly [Page 63] long for the cooling springs. Infixa erat in corde ejus sagitta, saith Salmeron, her soul was deeply wound­ed with the arrow of her sinnes,— & haerebat lateri le­talis arundo, it stuck so fast, she could not shake it out: therefore with the strucken Deer she cometh to the so­veraigne dittanie to expell it. Turbata erat piscina con­scientiae, saith that same Au­thour sweetly; The pool of her conscience was troubled with that descending angel, and instantly she steps in for a cure: for — ut cognovit, ve­nit; when she knew where Jesus was, without standing upon terms of circumstance, she makes a speedy recourse unto him.

And here may we stand a while, as at a pillar or mo­nument in the high-way-side, viewing with admira­tion the zeal of her accesse. Christ was now at dinner in a Pharisee's house; Where by the way I will take up an observation,Christ many times fre­quented feasts. That many times he frequented feasts. And I do not find, that he was ever bid to any table and refused it: if a Pharisee, if a Publicane invited him, he made not dainty to go; not for the pleasure of the dishes, but for the benefit of so winning a conversation, [...], non propter micas, sed ut animas Deo faceret ami­cas; not to eat, but to gain souls to God: For which [Page 65] end he was sent from the bosome of his Father. And at whose board did he ever sit, and left not the host a gainer? When Zaccheus en­tertained him,Episcop. Exon. salvation came that day to his house with the Authour of it: when the poore bridegroom entertained him, his water-pots were filled with wine: and when this Simon the Pharisee entertained him, his table was honoured with the publick remission of a penitent sinner. It was our Saviours trade to do good; therefore he changed one station of earth for another; therefore he came down from heaven to earth. And now, O blessed Saviour, now thou art lifted up, thou [Page 66] drawest all men unto thee. There are now no lists, no limits of thy gracious visita­tions; but as the whole earth is equidistant from heaven, so all the nations of the world be equally open to thy bounty. At haec obiter.

Into this Pharisee's house doth this woman thrust her self.Pet. Chry­sol. Et quid est quod haec mu­lier ignota, imò malè nota, quid est quod ibi quaerit non vocata? O woman, me thinks I see this austere se­ctarie (though of the better mould of Pharisees) looking overly on thee, darting from his eyes disdain and scorn, espying so noted, so notori­ous a strumpet, to come to the upper chamber where he kept his feast, especially to [Page 67] come into Christs presence; who well knew her wicked life, and (as it might be sup­posed) offended at her acti­on.

O woman, great was thy faith! No disadvantage could affright thee from co­ming unto Jesus; not the frowns, not the censure of a rigid host; not the inconve­niency of the place (an un­likely place it might have seem'd in a Pharisees house to find a Saviour;) not the unfitnesse of the time (an unproper time to serve in tears at a banquet.) Cer­tainly the Spirit moved on those waters: Doubtlesse this woman had often heard from our Saviours lips (in those heavenly sermons) [Page 68] many gracious invitations of all distressed and sinne-bur­dened souls; and now at length was entangled in the net of his heavenly doctrine, For our Saviour (saith that Oracle of the Greek Church) hath a twofold net,Chrysoft. in Luc. 22. [...]: the net of wonders, & of words; by the first he caught those many who beleeved on his name: John 2.23 by the second he en­closed his very enemies, those officers who were sent to apprehend him,John 7.46 and bring him before the high priests. And still doth our blessed Sa­viour thus spinne out the thread of his love to an un­measurable length, to trie whether we will lay hold on it: he doth angle for us, he [Page 69] sits in heaven, lets down the line of his love, and baits it with his mercy, to prove whether we will swallow it, that he may catch our souls. With such an hook was this woman taken: she had treasured up his sayings in her memorie; she had ob­served that he not onely pardoned sinners, but enter­tained them into his pre­sence; she had noted the passages of his power and mercy; and now deep re­morse wrought on her for her misspent life. And sure­ly had not the Spirit of God wrought upon her e're she came, and wrought her to come, she had neither sought nor found Christ. For those good graces which [Page 70] God finds in us, are like the silver which Joseph found in Benjamins sack, of his own putting in. If his hand do not move the golden cymbal, it will yeeld no pleasant sound: For our will herein is like a lowersphere, —quae — non nisi mota movet. In the 20. of S. Johns gospel it is observable, that there was first a flavit Spiritus, then a flevit Maria: the Spirit first breathed, and then that blast begat the showre; Marie mourned: Rabboni there called Marie, before Marie was able to cry, Rab­boni. And this woman being first moved by the Spirit of God, now comes in and finds that Saviour whom she sought.

SECT. IX.

SHe comes in, but how? Not empty-handed, but having got a precious con­fection of ointment, of Nar­dus, the chief of all oint­ments; which was for the making true, [...], and for the value, costly: that she intendeth to bestow. The ointment was choice, and the choice of her ointment is commendable. Every E­vangelist hath a severall at­tribute to honour this oint­ment: nay, Judas himself giveth the ointment praise enough, though he con­demns the act, though he casts in his dead flie, and mur­mures out, Ʋt quid perditio [Page 72] haec? To what purpose is this waste? yet Judas did praise this ointment, nay praise it more then any other; yea, he esteemed it far more worthy then he esteemed his Master: for he sold his Master for thirty poore silverlings;Matth. 26.15. John 15.12. but he valued this ointment at three hundred pence.

This delicate odoriferous perfume she brings in as rich a vessel, a box of alabaster: which was a solid, hard, pure, clear marble.

But note we here this wo­mans good decorum: She doth not presently poure out her ointment on the feet of Jesus, but (observing a comely order in her repen­tance, and this laudable acti­on) first she gives the sacri­fice [Page 73] of a broken heart, then she breaks her box of spike­nard.

In the manner of her re­pentance are many circum­stances, all which like the shafts of the holy candle­stick, every one bear sundry knops of flowers.

To take up the story as it lyeth in order, ever treading in the steps of the Evange­list; in this part of the story I find six things observable: foure whereof belong to the bitter of Repentance; two, to the sweetnesse and com­fort thereof. To the bitter­nesse; 1, Shame, She stood behind him; 2, Fear, At his feet; 3, Sorrow, She wept; 4, An abjection or neglect of her self, She wiped Christs [Page 74] feet with the hairs of her head. To the sweet, two things: 1, Her love, She kissed them; 2, Her bounty, and anointed them with the ointment.

Through these heads, all of them being of high and singular importance, my dis­course shall passe.

It is not here, as in the 68 psalme; where the singers go before, and the minstrels follow after. Here the mourn­ers go first, like the captives in their ancient triumphs; as Shame, and Fear, and Sor­row, and her Neglect of her self: then come the Min­strels and Singers; her grate­full Devotion towards our Saviour, our Saviours Mercy towards her.Shame and Fear.

First, Shame and Fear go [Page 75] hand in hand; Shame goeth before as the needle, and Fear followeth after as the thread. Shame is a little Fear, and Fear is a great Shame. Fear is [...], (as it is well called) of the nature of a bridle to our nature, to hold us in to refrain from e­vil, if it may be; if not, to check and turn us about, and make us turn from it. There­fore, fear God, Prov. 3.7. and depart from evil, commonly go to­gether, as the cause and the effect; we seldome find them parted.

This fear is called, and truly, (for truly so it is) the beginning of our wisdome, when we begin to be truly wise. And Shame, albeit the daughter of sinne, becomes [Page 76] sometimes the mother of conversion. Of which we may say, as the Romanes did of Pompey the Great,Plut. in vit. Pomp. [...], that it is a fair and happy daughter brought forth by an ougly and odious mother: Sinne in­deed, objective worketh Shame, and Shame effectivè causeth Repentance. Young Ephraim smote his thigh in detestation of his sinne,Jer. 31.19. I was ashamed and even confound­ed. This was his inducement to repentance. For sinne ma­keth the sinner to be to God, like Absalom to David; he may not dare to see the kings face, 2. Sam. 14.24. Philo the most famous phi­losopher that ever that Jewish nation bred (of [Page 77] whom it is said, Philo was a Jewish Plato,Philo, de profugis. or Plato an Athenian Philo) setteth down three principall cau­ses for which usually one fleeth from another; Hatred, Shame, and Fear. Thus Ja­cob hating Labans injustice and idolatry, forsook him; For fear Jacob conveyed himself from Esau; For shame and fear Adam skulk­ed in the grove of paradise: And here both fear and shame set this woman in this deportment.

Stetit retrò, She stood be­hind. A wonderfull and strange kind of change! When this woman did cast her sinnes behind her back, God did set them before his eyes: but when she set [Page 78] them before her eyes, and grew fearfull and timorous to look him in the face, and had not the heart to presse into his presence, who was to be her souls best physici­an, God did then cast her sinnes behind his back. S. Augustine toucheth upon this string, upon those words of David,Psal. 51.9. Averte faciem tu­am, Domine, à peccatis meis; O thou sinner (saith the Fa­ther) I will give thee a good remedie for this; Tu indè non avertas, Do not thou turn thine eyes from off thy sinnes, and God will turn away his. When God is moved in pity towards any, whom he is not ignorant to be sinners, he is said to turn away his face; Non advertit, quia non [Page 79] animadvertit, saith S. Augu­stine: His indisposition to punish it, is meant by hiding his face from it. So likewise his blotting out, is not Gods having no record of our sins; but not to use it as an indict­ment against us in judge­ment; according to that rule in law, Idem est & non esse, & non apparere: that where­of no use is made, is proper­ly said to be blotted out. So that the words in that place are not to be understood ab­solutely, but metonymical­ly: and Ruffinus doth well qualifie them with a quasi, Quasi abscondit faciem suam, & quasi delet; God so deal­eth with a penitent, as if his face were hid, and as if his book were razed in regard [Page 80] of the sinfulnesse of his per­son.

But I must turn back to this woman; and in the next place consider her Sorrow: She stood behind him weeping.

SECT. X.

SUch is Gods goodnesse to man, that he hath placed in the eye both the maladie, and the remedie; visum, & fletum; the faculty of see­ing, and the sluce of tears: that they who offend by seeing, may be recovered by weeping. Such a sorrow seasoned and sanctified with grace and faith, is not that sorrow in morall philo­sophy, which is affectus de­structivus [Page 81] subjecti, an affe­ction or passion destroying the subject;Godly sorrow. but affectus per­fectivus, & salvativus subje­cti (as the School speaks) an affection perfecting, or pre­serving the subject; or ra­ther, to speak in the phrase of the Apostle, a godly sor­row, which causeth repentance unto salvation; a sorrow not to be repented of.

Tears be the favourites that have the eare of the King of heaven:Tears. They are our bills of Exchange which he allows, and returneth them with what summes of blessings we desire. They are our quit-rents, our ho­mage, our suit-fines; by this service we do hold our e­states in his favour. So long [Page 82] as we pay him these rents of devotion, so long is our te­nure safe, and our title to his goodnesse unquestionable. So precious is this liquour distilled from penitent eyes, that while we stay here, God keeps all our tears in a bottle; Psal. 56.8. and because he will be sure not to fail, he notes how many drops there be in his register. This soveraigne water will fetch a sinner a­gain to the life of grace, though never so farre gone. These coelestes pluviae, these heavenly showres are the streams of Jordan to cure our leprosie; the Siloam to cure our blindnesse; the Bethes­da to cure all our lamenesse and defects of obedience. Never was the poison of any [Page 83] sinne so cold, but the hand of repentance could thaw it; never was the flame of any sinne so hot, but the tears of repentance could cool it. The bleeding heart,Magìs fru­giferae la­crymantes vineae. Bern. like the dropping vine, is for the most part most fruitfull.

I cannot here expresse my thoughts in a better strain, then by applying that which the poet hath in his epigram De lacrymis Mag­dalenae. I will therefore take her picture as it is exquisite­ly drawn by him, and set it in my own frame; I will be bold to borrow some chara­cters from his presse, the better to imprint them in my own and my readers me­morie.

It was a precious ointment wherewith she anointed the feet of Christ: but her tears wherewith she wash­ed them, were more worth then her spikenard. Her tears were her best advocates to [Page 85] plead for mercy at the throne of grace;

Never a word she spake; for she knew it was unto the Word, who knew her speech that was retired into her in­ner cabinet, the private withdrawing-chamber of her heart. What need her tongue speak, saith one, when her eyes spake, her hands spake, her gesture, her coun­tenance, her whole carri­age was vocall? Her eyes suf­ficiently testified her godly sorrow, which dropped down tears as fast as the A­rabian trees their medicina­ble gummes. She wept, & in that abundance, as that with those streams of penitence [Page 86] she now began to wash his feet with her tears. She began, as if she durst not go on, but did often retract and pull back her hands. She began to wash the lowest part of his body, his feet, with her tears; though the water of the brook had been humanity e­nough: and did wipe them, not with the lap of her coat, but with the hairs of her head. Which brings in the next link, her abjection, or neglect of her self.

SECT. XI.

ANd here behold one strange circumstance in this act of her anointing, never done to any but our Saviour, and never to our [Page 87] Saviour but by this woman; She wiped his feet with the hairs of her head. The greatest humility that might be. As if her shame, her fears, her godly sorrow were not e­nough, she still seeks farther to make her self yet more vile, and of no price before Christ. She her self is the ser­vant that waiteth on him; from her self do fall the dews of water that wash his feet; & (as one pithily saith) as her eyes were the ewer, so her hairs were the towel to wipe them. But what? was her ointment so precious, & she so poore, that she could not bring a napkin, a cloth, or handkerchief? Certainly she wanted not fine linen to have dried them: but to ap­prove [Page 88] her humble homage, her hearty devotion, and sin­cere humility, she bestows the chiefest ornament of her head on the meanest office to our Saviours feet.

And here (as every where) behold a wonderfull altera­tion! S. Bernard saith, that she climbed up to heaven by the same rounds, by which she went down to hell.Hugo, lib. De Ani­ma. Su­perbia in coelo nata est; sed ve­lut immemor quâ viâ indè ce­cidit, illuc redire non potuit: Pride (as Hugo prettily speaketh) was bred in hea­ven;Pride. but having forgotten which way it fell, could ne­ver afterward find the way thither again.Humility. Whereas hu­mility wrastleth and striveth with God, according to the [Page 89] policie of Jacob, that is, winneth by yeelding; and the lower it stoupeth to­ward the ground, the more advantage it getteth to ob­tain a blessing. Thus cun­ningly in abasement of her self, doeth this humble peni­tent like the Syrophenician woman; tanquam canis lam­bit vestigia Domini. And at the feet of her Saviour she makes a generall sacrifice of all those things wherewith she had offended him;Greg. Quot habuit in se oblectamenta, tot de se fecit holocausta. Her eyes, her lips, her hair, her ointment, all the instruments of her death were turned at her conversion into the means of life.

The Philistines being pla­gued1. Sam. 6. [Page 90] with emerods, offered emerods unto the Ark. The Israelites being stung with serpents, erected a serpent in the wildernesse;Numb. 21 Serpens momordit, serpens curavit. They that gave their jewels to the making of a calf, did afterward bestow them up­on the Lords tabernacle. And such was this womans pra­ctice; who having now gi­ven a bill of divorce to her former vanities, & disrobed her self of all sumptuous weeds and alluring paluda­ments, doth, like an expert apothecarie that knoweth how to mix and temper his triacles, make a most sove­raigne antidote of a most deadly poison. She had wont to send forth her alluring [Page 91] beams into the eyes of her lascivious paramours: there­fore now she weepeth a de­luge of tears, which is little enough to bear the ark of her sorrow. She had made her lips the weapons of lust, and gates of vanity; but now they sanctifie themselves with her deare respect unto the Sonne of God. Her hair, which she had so gently kembed and braided cun­ningly against the glasse, doth now serve in stead of naperie to dry his feet. Her odoriferous perfume, where­with she was wont to make her self pleasing to her amo­rous companions, she now bestows on those hallowed feet, which her eyes had watered, her hair had wi­ped, [Page 92] her mouth had kissed. Which brings me to the two last circumstances of this part of the Story: First, her Love; Secondly, her Bounty & devotion. Which two shall seal up her repen­tance, and my discourse.

SECT. XII.

AMong other things ob­servable in the greater and more solemn feasts of the Jews, we are here to take notice of some ceremo­nies used by them as prepa­rative to the feast; which I find in our English Josephus to be three: 1, salutation; 2, washing the feet; 3, pou­ring oyl on them.

First, their Salutations were testified either by words, or some humble ge­sture of the bodie: as some­times by prostrating the whole body; sometimes by kissing the feet, as in this passage of the storie; com­monly by an ordinary kisse: This S. Paul calleth an holy kisse, 1. Cor. 16.2. S. Peter, a kisse of charity, 1. Pet. 5.14. The kisse of the cheek was a pledge of their welcome to their guests, ut ostenderent ingressum pacificum, saith Stella.

The second ceremonie was Lotio pedum ante discu­bitum: Of which we reade Gen. 43.24. and 1. Sam. 25.41.

The third complement [Page 94] was their pouring out of oyl upon the head: Of which the prophet David giveth an hint, Psal. 23.5. In all which meet rituall obser­vances, Simon (though of the formall sect of the Phari­sees) was defective, inso­much that our Saviour gi­veth him an Item, and chal­lengeth him of his neglect­ed office in his entertain­ment; Oleo caput meum non unxisti.

And well might the Pha­risee reade his own taxation in the praise which Christ gave of this Jewesse, so well seen in the customes of her countrey.

In her redoubling her kisses of an humble thank­fulnesse on those sacred feet, [Page 95] is implied an inclination wherewith she was affect­ed, a desire wherewith she was ravished, a joy where­with she was quieted.

To repent, is to kisse the feet of Jesus Christ; and it is all one to be sory for our sinnes, and to love him. This truth I gather from our Sa­viours words, who deno­minates this whole action from love: He saith not, She wept much, She sorrowed much; but, She loved much, vers. 47. And by all means she sought to expresse her multam dilectionem propter multam remissionem: For, [...] nothing she had was too deare. With her most precious and fra­grant [Page 96] ointment she anointed our Saviours feet: that rich and costly testimony of her love she bestowed freely; for (as we gather from this and the other Evangelists) she did not drop, but poure; not a dramme or two, but a whole pound; not reserving any, but breaking box and all, and that three severall times one after another. All that went before was the sacrifice of a broken heart: now she breaks her box of spikenard. With that first sacrifice of her heart she ad­ored the Divinity of Christ; this last she tendereth to his Humanity. The first showre of her tears, were tears of sorrow and repentance; the [Page 97] latter showre which over­took the first, were tears of joy and love.

Thus like the Spouse in the Canticles,Cant. 4.9. did she wound Christ with one of her eyes, and with the chain (a chain of graces) about her neck. For so pleasing unto him were all the actions of this perfect Penitent, of this gratefull Convert, that he not onely made her apologie against the Pharisee, in preferring her kindnesse before the entertainment of his house; but against Satan and the powers of hell, in forgiving her ma­ny sinnes, without any enu­meration of them.

I cannot leave my Rea­der [Page 98] better then in the contemplation of so gra­cious a dismission. And thus at length I take my work out of the loom.