The Disabled Debtor Discharged, Part 35
VERSE 46. Mine Head with Oyle thou didſt not annoynt: Text. But this woman hath annoynted my Feet with Oyntment.
Paleſt inis mos erat in Feſtis caput u…gendi, Lyra.Here Simon failed againſt Hoſpitality. For the uſe in thoſe Countryes was to annoynt their Gueſts heads at Banqu…ts, therby to cheare and refreſh their ſpirits: To which cuſtome our Savi…ur doth allude, Mat. 6.17 In this Simon was wanting, for which he is checked by our Saviour. We note hence,
Doct. Firſt, That God allowes us not onelyonly for neceſſity, but likewiſe for delight and pleaſure: Not only alimonta, nouriſhment for our emptineſſe, but de lectamenia, that which is delicious to the ſence and Pallat, as ſhews the Pſalmiſt, Pſal. 104 14, …5. Thus he gave the Iſraelites Manna for their need, and Quailes for their luſt, Pſal. 78.29. And to the Prodigall he gave not onelyonly Indumenta, convering for his nakedneſſe, but Ornamenta, cloathing for his Comelineſſe, as J have ſhewed more largely in that my Expoſition on the Prodigall, Luke 15.22.
Vſe. And now, O man what doth God require for this rich bounty of his? Surely no more but that thou wouldeſt rejoyce in him, who ſo many waies hath given thee great cauſe of rejoycing; and be encouraged to ſerve him with chearfullneſſe of heart, wherof this annoynting at Feaſts was a ſigne; which is the next thing I meane to ſpeake off, laying downe this as a Concluſion from my Text,
Doct. Mirth and chearfullneſſe at Feaſts is a thing commendable and allowable.
Had it not bin ſo, I ſee not why Simon ſhould be blamed for this neglect. But without Queſtion it is a Truth, as may appeare by that we read, Deut. 14.26. & 16 15. Three times in the yeare did the Lord command his people to meet, and then to keepe a Feaſt for ſeven dayes together; at which Feaſt they muſt eat of the beſt and drink of the beſt, and in a ſpeciall manner it was required of them that they ſhould be chearful and rejoyce before the Lord; and why ſhould Feaſting be required of them if they might not be chearful…? Salomon tels us that there is nothing better for a man, then that he ſhould eat and drinke and that he ſhould make his ſoule enjoy good in his labour, Eccleſ. 2.24. Chapt. 8.15. He commendeth mirth and chearefullneſſe, becauſe a man hath no better thing under the Sunne then to eat and drinke and to be merry; yea although it be the bread of ſorrow that a man eateth, or the cup of affliction that he drinketh, yet it ſhall be a mans wiſdome to eate and drinke it chearefully.
Reaſon. The Reaſon is there rendered, That ſhall abide with him of his labour, the dayes of his life which God hath given him under the Sunne, that is, it ſhall make him to abide and continue though troubles aſſault him never ſo much, or it ſhall abide with him and keepe him company in his labour (as Arrius Montanus expounds it) and make him better able to abide his labour, which without chearefullneſſe he will ſoone ſinke under, and his ſpirit become broken (as Salomon ſhews elſe where, Prov. 15.13.) For ſuch is our frailty that if we were not ſtrengthened and refreſhed with baits in the way our minds would grow dull and ſluggiſh,Democrit. and our bodies be tired out: The Heathen of old could ſay that the life of a man without ſome delight was like a long way vvithout an Inne, in which all is travell and toyle, but no comfort or refreſhing; The ſoule of ſuch an one would be like a Flower that growes alwayes in the ſhade which is nothing ſo ſweet,Quis dabit hortulo meo hancaquā? quis dabit, ut tota hortuli mei facies irrigua ſit laetitia, et lucis rivulus nihil in eo ſterile nor lovely, as that vvhichwhich grows in the ſight of the Sun.
Hereupon one vvriting of Chearfullneſſe, ſaith thus: Who will give into my little Garden this water? Who will cauſe that the whole face or plot of my Garden may be watered with chearefullneſſe, ſo that by the Rivers of lightſomneſſe, ſit, aut quadam indevotione triſte Vicina ſterilitati videtur operatio triſtis & ſpirituali… gaudij carens irrigatione Gilbert Serm. 34. in Cant.there may be nothing in it either barren or els ſad by a kind of indevotion: For a ſad working, wanting the watering of a ſpirituall chearfullneſſe, ſeemeth to be neare unto barrenneſſe.
Vſe You ſee hence how they are much miſtaken which imagine that there is no Joy nor mirth belonging to a Chriſtian life, and that in the Kingdome of Chriſt there is nothing but ſighing and groaning faſting and praying, &c. This is but an illuſion of Satan wherwith he diſheartens commers on from a Chriſtian courſe: For Religion is no enemy to honeſt mirth and delights; nor are there any merrier people in the World then thoſe that truly feare the Lord: And God allowes them to be thus merry at meat, and merry at worke, even in his preſence. Thou ſhalt rejoyce [before me] ſaith God, Deut. 14.26, Servants uſe to be moſt merry amongſt themſelves; the preſence of Maſter or Miſtres damps their mirth, but the ſervants of Chriſt be as merry in his preſence, as behind his back; yea they are more merry when he is with them, then when he is abſent from them, Mat. 9.15. And it is a great fault in any to condemne them for this Chriſtian liberty which God gives them (it being rightly uſed) as we find by that anſwer, which our Saviour there makes to the Phariſees in this very caſe.
Vſe 2 And let Chriſtians be rightly perſwaded of their liberty and uſe it accordingly. The counſell is paſſing good that is given by the Preacher, Go thy way eate thy bread with Ioy and drinke thy wine with a merry heart; for God now accepteth thy workes: Let thy garments allwayes be white and let thine head lacke no oyntment. Live joyfully with the wife, which thou loveſt all the dayes of the life of thy vanity, which he hath given thee under the Sunne; for that is thy portion in this life, and in thy labour which thou takeſt under the Sunne, Eccleſ. 9.7, 8, 9.Hieron. in loc. Which words S. Hierom tells us are in a ſpirituall ſenſe the voice of that Preacher, who in the Goſpell ſaith, If any man thirſt let him come unto me and drinke. But whoever be the Preacher we ſhall doe well to conſider, what is ſaid, and to whom it is ſpoken: It is not an eating to beget Ioy; nor a drinking of wine to breed a merry heart, that is ſpoken off by the Preacher, for as S. Hierom well obſerves, Non habeat veram laetitiam & cor bonum, qui creaturis ſupra moaum abutitur, He hath not true Joy, nor a good merry heart, who by exceſſe abuſeth the Creatures. That that is here ſpoken of is an eating with Ioy and drinking of Wine with a merry heart, ſo that the Joy and the mirth do as it were prepare the ſtomack, therby to make the nouriſhment to do the more good, and to make him that receiveth it the more forward and hearty in praiſing God for it.
Nor is this counſell given to every one, the words are ſpoken to the righteous man, to ſuch whoſe workes God accepteth, vade Iuſte, ſaith Lyra, Go thou righteous man, eat thy bread vvith Joy, &c. that is, vive in jucunditate mentis ex teſtimonio bonae conſcientiae procedente; live in chearfullneſſe of mind proceeding from the teſtimony of a good Conſcience, knowing thy ſelfe to be reconciled to God in Chriſt, and having a comfortable evidence of the pardon of thy ſins, and that God accepteth of thy labours and indeavours, be thou merry and chearfull (as David ſpeaketh, Pſal. 32.11.) and let not any thing cauſe thee to eat thy bread with ſadneſſe or drinke thy wine with heavineſſe. A healthfull and ſound body is fitteſt for mirth and freeſt in mirth; wherfore ſeeing God accepts thy workes, there is health and ſoundneſſe; let there be alſo freeneſſe of Joy; let thy Garments be white and thy head want no oyntment; ſee thy Diſpoſition be chearfull, and let no comfortable thoughts be wanting to thy mind.
As for ſinners they lie under the curſe and guilt of ſin, and are like condemned Perſons going to execution, and a man would thinke they have little cauſe to be merry, and if they be, yet the end of that mirth will be but heavineſſe, Prov. 14.13. Gaudet in prima ſeſſione (ſaith Gregory) hilareſcit in primo re…ubitu, inſlatur in primae ſalutatione: Sed hoc gaudium quid crit, Greg. Moral. l. 15 c. 2.quando irruente mortis articulo it a conſumitur ac ſi omnino non fuerit? At the firſt ſitting downe at the Feaſt of ſin, the wicked man is pleaſant, at the firſt lying downe in the bed of ſinne, he is merry, at the firſt meeting with his ſinfull companions, he is blowen up with Joy: But what will this joy be when the point of death ruſhing upon him, all his joy ſhall be deſtroyed, as if it never had bin.
And to conclude this Point, ſeeing it is eaſie for a man to ſurfeit with eating honey, Pro. 25.16. and that we are never more apt to forget our ſelves than when we are moſt merry. Let us in the midſt of our rejoycing beware that we riot not upon his aboundance: We are ſullen gueſts if we ſcant our ſelves, where he hath bin liberall, and depart away from his full Table hungry: We are unworthy gueſts if we turne his plenty into wantonneſſe; be not ſo merry as to forget God, nor ſo ſorrowfull as to forget your ſelves. The Philiſtins in the Feaſt called for Sampſon to make them ſport. Let not us do ſo: In the midſt of our mirth remember we Ieruſalem. It is a fault to forget her, but horrible impiety to remember her with a ſacrilegious frump. We come now to the Penitents ſupply of that wherin Simon was defective.