The Trial and Triumph of Faith

(Mark 7:24) And from there he arose, and went into the borders of Tyre and Sidon, and went into a house, and would that no man should know it, but he could not be hid. (Matthew 15:21) Then Jesus went from there, and came into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. (verse 22) And behold a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried to him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, you son of David, for my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil. (Mark 7:25) For a certain woman whose young (little daughter) had an unclean spirit, heard of him, and came and fell at his feet. (verse 26) (The woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by nation) and she besought him, that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter.

This text being with child of free grace, holds forth to us a miracle of note; and because Christ is in the work, in an eminent manner, and there is here also much of Christ's new creation, and a floor planted and watered by Christ's own hand, a strong faith in a tried woman, it requires the bending of our heart to attention: for to any seeking Jesus Christ, this text cries, Come and see. The words for their scope, drive at the wakening of believers, in praying (when an answer is not given at the first) to a fixed and resolved lying, and dying at Christ's door, by continuing in prayer, while the King comes out and opens, and answers the desire of the hungry and poor. 2. For the subject, they are a history of a rare miracle, wrought by Christ, in casting forth a devil out of the daughter of a woman of Canaan; and for Christ to throw the devil out of a Canaanite, was very like the white banner of Christ's love displayed to the nations, and the King's royal standard set up to gather in the heathen under his colors. The parts of the miracle are,

1. The place where it was wrought (Matthew 15:21).

2. The parties on whom, the mother and the possessed daughter: she is described by her nation.

3. The impulsive cause, she hearing, came, and prayed to Jesus for her little daughter: in which there is a dialogue between Christ and the woman, containing Christ's trying of her. 1. With no answer. 2. With a refusal. 3. With the reproach of a dog. 4. Her instancy of faith. 1. In crying till the disciples interposed themselves. 2. Her going on in adoring. 3. Praying. 4. Arguing by faith, with Christ, that she had some interest in Christ, though among the dogs; yet withal (as grace has no evil eye) not envying because the morning market of Christ, and the high table was the Jews' due, as the king's children; so she might be among the dogs, to eat the crumbs under Christ's table, knowing that the very refuse of Christ, is more excellent than ten worlds.

4. The miracle itself wrought by the woman's faith, in which we have Christ's heightening of her faith. 2. The granting of her desire. 3. The measure of Christ's bounty, as you will. 4. The healing of her daughter.

Mark says, that the woman came to Christ in a house, Matthew seems to say, that she came to him in the way, as these words make good: send her away, for she cries after us. Augustine thinks, that the woman first came to Christ, while he was in the house, and desired to be hid, either because he did not (for offending the Jews) openly offer himself to the Gentiles, having forbidden his disciples to go to the Samaritans, or because he would have his glory hid for a time, or rather of purpose he did hide himself from the woman, that her faith might find him out, and then refusing to answer the woman in the house, she still follows him in the way, and cries after him as Matthew says. For Christ's love is, 1. Liberal, but yet it must be suited, and Christ though he sells not his love, for the penny worth of our sweating and pains; yet must we dig low for such a gold-mine as Christ. 2. Christ's love is wise, he holds us knocking, while our desire be love-sick for him, and knows that delays raise and heighten the market and rate of Christ; we under-rate anything that is at our elbow: should Christ throw himself in our bosom and lap, while we are in a morning sleep, he should not have the marrow and flower of our esteem: it is good there be some fire in us meeting with water, while we seek after Christ. 3. His love must not only lead the heart, but also draw; violence in love is most taking, and delays of enjoying so lovely a thing as Christ, breeds violence in our affections; and suspension of presence, oils the wheels of love, desire, joy: want of Christ is a wing to the soul. Interpreters ask what woman she was? Matthew says, a Canaanite, not of any gracious blood; a Syrophoenician, for Syrophoenicia was in the border between Palestine and Syria; and it was now inhabited by the relics of the Canaanites; a Greek not by birth, but because of the Greek tongue and rites brought there by Alexander, and the succeeding kings of Syria: all the Gentiles go under the name of Greeks in Scripture language, as (Romans 1:14; Galatians 3:28; 1 Corinthians 1:22, 24) not because they are all Greeks, by nation and blood; but because conquest, language, and customs stand for blood and birth; however it stands as no blemish in Christ's account book, who was your father, whether an Amorite, or a Hittite, so you come to him, he asks not whose you are, so you be his; nor who is your father, so you will be his brother, and be of his house.

(Mark 7:24) And from there he arose and went into the borders of Tyre and Sidon. Christ, wearied of Judea, had been grieved in spirit with the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, and the provocation of that stiff-necked people. He was chased away to the profane Pagans: the hardening of the Jews makes way to Christ's first and young love, laid upon the Gentiles. Christ does but draw by a lap of the curtain of separation, and look through to one believing Heathen; the King opens one little window, and holds out his face, in one glimpse, to the woman of Canaan. So Christ's works of deep providence are free mercy, and pure justice interwoven, making one web: he departs from the Jews, and sets his face and heart on the Gentiles. Consider the art of providence here. 1. The Devil sometimes shapes, and our wise Lord sews: Babylon kills, God makes alive: sin, Hell, and Death are made a chariot to carry on the Lord's excellent work. 2. The providence of God has two sides, one black and sad, another white and joyful: heresy takes strength and is green before the sun; God's clearing of necessary and seasonable truths is a fair side of that same providence. Adam's first sin was the Devil and Hell digging a hole through the comely and beautiful frame of the creation of God, and that is the dark side of providence; but the flower of Jesse springing up, to take away sin, and to paint out to men and angels the glory of a heaven and a new world of free grace, that is a lightsome side of providence. Christ scourged, Christ in a case that he cannot command a cup of water, Christ dying, shamed, forsaken — that is black: but Christ in that same work, redeeming the captives of Hell, opening to sinners forfeited Paradise, that is fair and white. Joseph weeping in the prison for no fault is foul and sad, but Joseph brought out to reign as half a king, to keep alive the Church of God in great famine, is joyful and glorious. The Apostles whipped, imprisoned, killed all the day long, are sad and heavy, but sewn with this — that God causes them always to triumph, and spread the savor of the knowledge of Christ; and Paul riding on his iron chains and exalting Christ in the Gospel, through the Court of bloody Nero, makes up a fair comely contexture of divine providence. 3. God in all his works — now when he rains from heaven a sad shower of blood on the three kingdoms — has his one foot on justice, that wrath may fill to the brim the cup of Malignants, Prelates, and Papists, and his other foot on mercy, to wash away the filth of the Daughter of Zion, and to purge the blood of Jerusalem in the midst of it, by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning. And this is God's way and ordinary path-road (Psalm 25:10), and in one and the same motion, God can walk both to the east, and to the west, and to the north, and the south.

It is our fault that we look upon God's ways and works by halves and pieces, and so we see often nothing but the black side, and the dark part of the moon. We mistake all, when we look upon men's works by parts: a house in the building lying in a hundred pieces, here timber, here a rafter, there a spar, there a stone, in another place half a window, in another place the side of a door — there's no beauty, no face of a house here. Have patience a little, and see them all by art compacted together in order, and you'll see a fair building. When a painter draws the half of a man, the one side of his head, one eye, the left arm, shoulder and leg, and has not drawn the other side, nor filled up with colors all the members, parts, limbs, in its full proportion, it's not like a man. So do we look on God's works by halves and parts, and we see him bloodying his people, scattering parliaments, chasing away nobles and prelates, as not willing they should have a finger in laying one stone of his house; yet do we not see that in this dispensation, the other half of God's work makes it a fair piece. God is washing away the blood and filth of his Church, removing those from the work who would cross it. In bloody wars, malignant soldiers ripping up women with child, waste, spoil, kill; yet are they but purging Zion's tin, brass and lead, and such reprobate metal as themselves. Jesuits and false teachers are but God's snuffers, to occasion the clearing and snuffing of the lamps of the tabernacle, and make truth more naked and obvious.