O, Mary, is it possible that thou hast forgotten Je-
sus ? Faith has written him in thine understanding,
love in thy will, both fear and hope in thy memory ;
and how can all these registers be so cancelled, that, so
plainly seeing, thou shouldst not know the contents ?
For him only thou tirest thy feet, thou bendest thy
knees, thou wringest thy hands ; for him thy heart
tbrobbeth, thy breast sigheth, thy tongue complain-
eth ; for him thine eye weepeth, thy thought sorrow-
eth, thy whole body fainteth, and thy soul languish-
eth. In a word, there is no part of thee but is busy
about him ; and notwithstanding all this, hast thou
now forgotten him ? His countenance avoucheth it,
his voice assureth it, his wounds witness it, thine own
eyes behold it ; and dost thou not yet believe that this
is Jesus ? Are thy eyes, so sharp for seeing, become so
weak-sighted, that they are dazzled with the sun, and
blinded with the light ? But there in such a shower
of tears between thee and him, that though thou seest
the shape of a man, yet thou canst not discern him.-
Thine ears also are still so possessed with the melan-
choly echo of his last speeches, uttered in a faint and
dying voice, that the force and loudness of his living
words make thee imagine it the voice of a stranger ;
and therefore as he seemeth unto thee so like a stran;
ger, he asketh this question of thee - Woman, why
weepest thou ? whom seekest thou ?
O desire of her heart, and only joy of her soul ! why
demandest thou why she weepeth or whom she seeketh ?
It is but a short time since she saw thee, her only hope,
hanging on a tree, with thy head pierced with thorns,
thine eyes full of tears, thine ears full of blasphemies,
thy mouth full of gall, thy whole person mangled and
disfigured ; and dost thou ask her why she weepeth ?
Scarce three days have passed since she beheld thine
arms and legs racked .with violent pangs, thy hands
and feet pierced with nails, thy side wounded with a
spear, thy whole body torn with stripes, and gored in
blood ; and dost thou, her only grief, ask her why she
weepeth ? She beheld thee upon the Cross with many
tears, and most lamentable, cries, yielding up the
ghost ; and, alas ! asketh thou why she weepeth ? -
But now is her misery complete. She had still che-
rished one hope, which was, that, as some relief of her
afflictions, she might have anointed thy body : but that
hope is also dead, since thy body is removed, and she
now standeth hopeless of all help ; and demandest
thou why she weepeth, and whom she seeketh ? Full
well thou knowest that she desireth none but thee;
that she loveth none but thee, that she contemneth all
things beside thee ; and canst thou find in thy heart
to ask her whom she seeketh ? - To what end, O sweet
Lord, dost thou thus suspend her longings, protract
her desires, and martyr her with these tedious delays ?
Thou alone art the fortress of her faint faith, the an-
chor of her wavering hope, the very centre of her vehe-
ment love ; to thee she trusteth, upon thee she relieth,
and of herself she wholly despaireth. She is so ear-
nest in seeking thee, that she can neither seek nor
think of any other thing ; and her whole soul is so
busied in musing upon thee, that all her senses are
abstracted, and unable to discern thee.
Being, therefore; so attentive to that which she
thinketh, what wonder she noticeth not him whom
she seeth ? And since thou hast so perfect a know-
ledge of her thought, and she so little power to dis-
cover thee by her sense, why demandest thou, whom
she seeketh, and why she weepeth ? Canst thou ex-
pect her to answer, -that she seeks for thee, and weeps
for thee, unless thou wilt unbind her thoughts, that
her eyes may fully see thee ; or, while thou wishest to
be concealed dost thou expect that she should be able
to know thee ?
But oh, Mary, it is not without cause that he asks
thee this questions Thou wouldst have him alive, and
yet thou weepest because thou dost not find him dead.
Thou art sorry that he is not here, and for this very
cause thou shouldst rather be glad : for if he were
dead, it is most likely he would be here ; but not being
here, it is a sign that he is alive. He rejoiceth to be
out of his grave, and thou weepest because he is not
in it. Alas ! why bewailest thou his glory, and in-
jurest the reviving of his body, by considering it as the
robbing of his corse ? If he is alive, for what dead
man dost thou mourn ? and if he be present, whose
absence dost thou lament ? But she, taking him to be
a gardener, said unto him. Master, if thou hast carried
him from hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and 1
will take him away.
O, wonderful effects of Mary's love! If love be a
languor, how liveth she by it ? If love be her
how dieth she in it ? If it bereaved her of sense, how
did she see the angels ? If it quickened her sense, why
knew she not Jesus ? Dost thou seek for one, whom,
when thou hast found him, thou knowest him not ?-
Or if thou dost know him when thou findest him, why
dost tbou seek, when thou hast him ?
Behold, Jesus. is come! He whom thou seekest it is
that talketh with thee. O Mary, call up thy mind,
and open thine eyes. Hath thy Lord lived so long, la-
boured so much, died with such pain, and shed such
showers of blood ; and hast thou bestowed such cost,
so much sorrow, and so many tears, for no better man
than a gardener ? Alas ! is the sorry garden the best
inheritance that thy love can afford him, or a garden-
er's office the highest dignity that thou wilt allow
him ? - But thy mistaking hath in it a further mystery.
Thou thinkest not amiss, though thy sight be deceiv-
ed : for as our first Father, in the state of grace and
innocence, was placed in a garden of pleasure, and
as the first office piloted him was to be a gardener,
so the first man that ever was in glory appeareth first
in a garden, and presenteth himself in a gardener's
likeness, that the beginnings of glory might resemble
the entrance of innocence and grace. And as a gar-
dener caused the fall of mankind, and was the parent
of sin, and the author of death ; so is this gardener the
raiser of our ruins, the ransom of our offences, and
the restorer of life. In a garden, Adam was deceived,
and taken captive by the devil ; - in a garden, Christ
was betrayed, and taken prisoner by the Jews : - in a
garden, Adam was condemned to earn his bread by the
sweat of his brow ; and after a free gift of the bread
of angels, in the last supper, in a garden Christ did
earn it us by a bloody sweat of his whole body. By
disobediently eating the fruit of a tree, our right to
that garden was by Adam forfeited ; and by the obedi-
ent death of Christ upon a tree, a far better right is
now recovered.
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