SERMON XIII.

LUKE X. 41, 42.

Jefus answered and faid unto her, Martha, thou art troubled about many things.

But one thing is needful: And Mary bath chofen that good Part, which shall not be taken from her.

T

HE Character given of our
Bleffed Saviour is this, that
He went about doing Good;
and this Character He came

His

up to in every Part and Circumftance of his Behaviour. Works were all of them Works of Mercy; his Words were all of them Words

of

;

of Inftruction: It was the Employment of his Life to teach Mankind heavenly Wisdom and this He did, not only by preaching publickly among the People, his whole Converfation was inftructive, and even while He treated about the Affairs of this World, He mix'd with his ordinary Discourse the Words of Eternal Life.

THUS, for Inftance, when He talk'd with the Samaritan Woman at Jacob's Well, the common Water of that Well it was which opened the Conference between them; but the Blessed Jesus soon improv'd it into the spiritual and divine Doctrine of those living Waters of Salvation, which whosoever drinketh shall never thirst; but shall have in him a Well of Water Springing up into everlasting Life. Thus likewise in the Passage now before us, our Bleffed Saviour draws an ufeful Piece of Inftruction from an obvious and natural Occurrence in common Life; and from what paffed at a friendly Entertainment, He takes Occafion to inculcate a most important Point of Do&rine, He takes Occafion, because what

is here faid, however properly, does nevertheless not neceffarily arife from what went immediately before it; for these Words do not, as it is frequently imagined, at the first View carry with them a comparative and fuperior Commendation of Mary for her devout Attendance on our Lord's Difcourfe, and a Reprehenfion of Martha for being over anxious about worldly Affairs; and that on the following Accounts.

THE Characters of thefe two Sifters are very different; in Martha we fee a Difpofition for active, in Mary for contemplative, Life; and, without doubt, each of them was a Pattern of Excellency in their several Ways: However therefore the Turns of their Tempers may be compared together with refpect to the Nature and proper Exercise of those Tempers, yet the Perfons themfelves with respect to Commendation, provided they come up to respective Characters, do not fo properly fall under Comparison.

BESIDES, Martha's main Behaviour was fuch, that he did not not in the

general

general deferve a a Reprehenfion of that Sort. We learn from St. John's Gofpel, that this was a Family wherein our Bleffed Saviour was converfant ; and we are told, that He loved Martha and her Sifter, and Lazarus: It was that Lazarus whom our Lord raised from the Dead; and in the Whole of that miraculous Tranfaction there is difcovered on our Lord's Side a great Degree of tender Concern for this Family, and on their Part a moft pious Veneration for the Bleffed fefus. This Transaction is too long to be entirely repeated; it is fufficient for our Purpose barely to mention, that Martha upon our Lord's coming to Bethany after her Brother's Death, agreeably to her more active Difpofition, while Mary, who was more fedentary, fat ftill in the House, went to meet him under thefe Terms of paffionate but refigned Grief, of modeft but fubmiffive Faith; Lord, faith fhe, if thou hadst been here, my Brother had not died: But I know that even now whatsoever thou wilt afk of God, God will give it Thee. She proceeds, on farther Difcourfe, to express a ftrong

ftrong and affectionate Belief of the Refurrection of the Dead (an Article in itfelf moft abftrufe, and at the fame time not fo fully promulged as it was afterwards); fhe likewife declares, that fhe did believe Jesus to be the Chrift, the Son of God, who was to come into the World. Now thefe Circumftances, but more especially fuch an ample Profeffion of Faith as this in the very Dawnings of Christianity, were the Indication of a Mind, not over-run with worldly Notions, but of one enrich'd with a great Degree of Divine Wisdom.

FARTHER yet, the particular Circumftance now before us was not in itself culpable, it was even commendable. Our Bleffed Saviour came to Bethany, and we read that a certain Woman named Martha received Him into her Houfe. She was probably the elder Sifter, and being more active in her Temper, took upon her the Management of the Family, and immediately applied herself to entertain fo great and worthy a Gueft. Mary, taking the Advantage of her Sifter's Dili

VOL. II.

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