person and set him in the midst of the Assembly as an object of great pity before he cured him and that he might do it as it were with their good leave and consent or with the more shame and confusion to them asked them what they thought of it whether it was lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil to save life or to destroy it there being no medium between bene male facere in any necessity of our neighbour the non-releiving of which if in our power is a sin to which they being silent not only to let him go forward in his purpose but because they knew not what safely to answer he demanded further who among them having one Sheep faln into a pit would not streight go lay hold of it and pull it out on the the Sabbath and then how much a man better than a sheep and a greater charity this where less our own interest And thus saith the Text when he had looked round about on them with anger being grieved for the hardness of their hearts upon his only bidding the man stretch forth his hand and his doing so it was restored whole as the other Where it seems somewhat hard to find a breach of the Sabbath as to any corporal work Our Lord held his hands still touched him not only spake to him the man stretched out his hand and who doth not this on the Sabbath without guilt yet it appears they were though silenced not satisfied but rather more filled with madness § 249 So that they went presently upon it and joyned themselves with the Herodians whom we find also Mat. 22.16 combining with the Pharisees and questioning our Lord about the lawfulness of paying tribute And in Mark 8.15 Our Lord warns his Disciples to be-ware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of Herod i.e. of the Herodians where S. Mat. c. 16.6 saith of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Saducees It seems then they were a looser and more prophane Sect much what of the Saducee-opinions much more addicted to and complying with Herod and the present Roman Government than the Pharisees were and so sufficiently odious to them but yet these as siding with the Secular state able to do more mischief and so they were made use of by the Pharisees in the persecution of our Lord. With these then the Pharisees consulted how they might destroy our Lord and that presently as appears by his suddain removal out of that place which probably was Capernaum From whence he went as he used to the Sea of Tiberias giving order to his disciples that a small ship should wait upon him so to avoid the press of the people and more commodiously to teach them out of the ship For an infinite multitude of them from all Quarters from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon and of the other side of Jordan and from Idumea as well as Judea and Galilee followed him what way ever he moved Partly for hearing his most admirable and ravishing discourses and prudent answers partly for having their sick cured by him cured without suffering any repulse or delay and all diseases whatever equally remedied and no more necessary for it than only the touching of him Which thing also caused the greater press upon him and forced him to the help of a ship As for the possessed the unclean Spirits presently fell down and adored and with loud cryes confessed him to be the Son of God though rebuked by him for it and silenced Where S. Matthew who beheld these things in writing his Gospel takes occasion to set forth the meekness charity patitience humility and complyance of our Lords compassionate carriage towards every ones infirmity in the words of the Prophet Esay foretold concerning him Esay 42.1 Behold my Servant whom I have chosen my beloved in whom my Soul delighteth I will put my Spirit upon him and he shall shew judgment to the Gentiles He shall not contend or use rigor or violence in his Office nor imperiously command and cry ou ts nor shall any man hear his voice aloud in the streets A bruised reed shall he not break and the smoaking flax shall he not extinguish but treats his infinite supplicants with incredible tenderness and meekness and against his as weak adversaries no way shews his power until by his own patience and sufferings he send forth judgment unto victory and perfectly establish righteousness in the earth and in his name the Gentiles received to mercy shall also trust and believe and become Subjects to his Scepter § 250 In those daies not long after our Lords return into Galilee from the second Paschal feast and about a year of his preaching being in all about three years and an half Or half a week of years now run out and as some conjecture now about the time of Pentecost at which time also God promulgated his law on Mount Sinai to the children of Israel as appears in Exod 19.1 and 11. compared with chap. 12.18 from the 14th day of the first Month to the 3d day of the 3d Month being just 50. daies and at which very time also our Lord afterward sent his Holy Spirit upon his Apostles enabling them to keep the law formerly delivered and lastly when now also our Lord saw the multitudes that flowed to him from all Quarters still greatly increasing and more labourers necessary for so great an harvest at this time I say and on such a necessity our Lord thought fit to make a Solemn Election out of the number of his Disciples and followers of 12 persons according to the number of the 12 Tribes to whom they were to be sent that they might assist him in his Ministry and whom after some time of their instruction he might disperse abroad to preach the new Kingdom of the Gospel concerning him in the several Cities of that Nation and for giving the more authority to their Doctrine to cure all diseases and eject Devils but this not in theirs but in his Name that so all might believe in this their new Saviour and obey his Doctrine and Commands § 251 On the Night therefore preceding this his Election when in the Evening the people with whom he spent the day were departed to take their rest he retired into a Mountain probably not far distant from Capernaum for in the context Mark chap. 3. Luk. 6. chap. we find our Lord after his departing from their Synagogue by the Lake teaching the people out of a ship because they thronged him immediatly before this And there is an high hill a few miles distant from Capernaum westward towards Bethsaida described in Eugene Rogiers Terre Sancte Lib. 1. chap. 10. that is called to this day Mons Beatitudinum On the top of which was anciently built a Church the ruines whereof still remain We find also in Mark 1.35 mention of a Desert not far from Capernaum into which our Lord retired for prayer and so from thence went into
Christians being only six foot square and eight foot high and the entrance into it on the East-side about three foot high and three foot three inches broad On the right side of which Sepulcher from the entrance the Sacred body of our Lord was placed see Mark 16.5 compared Jo. 20.12 with his head toward the West After this the door or mouth of the Cave was shut up and fenced with a massy piece of rock cut out for the purpose not to be removed but by the help of many hands to hinder any violation of the Sepulcher or Body or robbing it of those costly linnen and spices that should be bestowed upon it Such a cave it was where Lazarus was buried Jo. 11.38 31 41. with a great Stone rolled upon the entrance into it which our Lord then commanded to be removed and our Lords raising of him a lively type of the same thing he would shortly after perform in raising himself Meanwhile those women our Lords former Disciples and Attendants that assisted not in this action keeping some distance perhaps in respect of these honourable persons with whom they had no acquaintance observed all that was done where their Lord was laid and how the Sepulcher made fast and it being now too late because night approached they intended after the Sabbath ended to express their last love and affection to ther dear Lord also in bringing some more sweet odours and spices for preserving and perfuming of his Sacred body and the narrow roome where it lay more to shew the honour and devotion they bare to it and once more to behold to touch and kiss those most holy Relicks than that there was now need of any more such cost § 113 Thus our so cruelly murthered Lord was now at rest whilst his glorious Soul meanwhile that was never separated from the Deity and now attended on with multitudes of Angels descended into Hell and the lowest parts of the Earth and of his Kingdom and there triumphed over the Powers of Darkness conquered as to their former Tyranny over man and over the lower part of this world by his late death and delivered also thence such imprisoned Souls as were capable of the mercy and favours of his Passion according to that of the Prophet Zee 9.11 Tu quoque in sanguine testamenti tui emisisti vinctos tuos de lacu in quo non est aqua and so with them entred into Paradise the place of joy and Repose for all happy souls till the resurrection of their bodies where he was adored by them as the Author of their Salvation and endless felicity and amongst the rest by the Soul of his late Fellow-sufferer though upon a just account the penitent Theif and so this its beatifical presence they there injoyed till the appointed time of its return to exalt also his crucified body to the state of glory Thus I say our so cruelly murthered Lord was now at rest but not so the consciences of the Pharisees and High Priests Whose seeing these two noble persons Joseph and Nicodemus thro so much popular hate to have so honourably interred his Body gave them a great jealousy and the predictions also about his rising again the third day much disturbed them Though a thing which was quite forgotten by our Lords Disciples and Followers who one would think had most cause to have remembred it and which he had so often told them of and they had upon hearing it from him also disputed amongst themselves what should be meant by it as they descended from the holy Mount after our Lord's Transfiguration and after this again were by him minded of it but the night before his passion as they went along to the Garden he telling them then also that when risen he would go before them into Galilee Mat. 26.32 I say this forgotten by them yet now very much troubled and disquieted the thoughts of the High Priests They could now call to mind how when they asked him a sign once and again Mat. 12.38.16.4 he alleged to them that of Jonah and that the Son of man as Jonah in the Whales belly should lye three daies in the heart of the earth and so be cast up again and the jaws of Death not be able to detain him And his saying that if they destroyed the Temple meaning his Body after three daies he would raise it up which speech of his though before they made it misconstrued by them an Article to condemn him yet now they could apprehend in another and its right sense and might thereby have condemned themselves Now also perhaps the words of our Lord spoken with so much Majesty before them at his arraignment ran in their mind that they should shortly see him sitting on the right hand of Power and lastly the obsequious respects they saw given to his body by those two eminent persons they conceived might arise from some such hopes and were performed from some such expectation Remembring therefore these predictions and perhaps not free from all fears of such an event after having beheld such wonderful things at and before his death they thought it meet at least to prevent any cheat in the business and to hinder that his Disciples might not upon such rumour of his rising again to deceive the credulous people remove secretly his body and so shew the empty Sepulcher and suborn some to say they had seen him though indeed no reason they had to suspect any such thing but rather that his Disciples if finding his words false would at least recant their former error and confess him an Impostor and a false Prophet Therefore they hasted again to Pilat for all that it was the Sabbath it being late over night before they were informed of his solemn and sumptuous Burial and relating to him these predictions and the bad consequence that might be of them importuned him that there might be set a watch before the Sepulcher till the third day and as if jealous also of the corruption of the Watch that the Sepulcher might be sealed besides But why this seal because if the body were taken away there must be a breach of the seal and so this theft discovered But so would there be a breach of it if the body risen again For how could they imagine that that power which raised the body might or would not also throw open the door for its passage But this Seal served well meanwhile to save it from the pillage of the Soldiers and to guard it from the Guards Some Antients say that the stone was by them fastned to the Sepulcher with iron These things were done accordingly by themselves the Governour leaving this wholly to their own ordering and doubtless much wondring at these their extravagant jealousies and fears So to the Monument they go set this Guard and seal the stone and this with no regret that it was on the Sabbath of the breach of which but by better works surely than these they had so
presume from his being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man of sorrows Esai 53. and full of tears see Heb. 5.7 Luk. 19.41 Jo. 11.35 fell a weeping as other Infants do but this not for the paines which that tender age then feels from the straines and crushings of the parturition or sudden chilness of an open Air not yet for his cold harbour and Straw-bed which miseries he foreknew and voluntarily chose and with a smiling patience underwent but for mans sin the cause of all our and his misery now beginning his Intercessions for mans offences and offering these first tears for the expiation thereof Thus come amongst us poor and naked his pious Mother whom we may imagine free from Eves curse to have brought forth without pain him that she conceived without sin and so who was enabled presently to perform the office of a Nurse after that of a Mother took him up Luk. 2.7 and cast such poor cloths about him as her fortune and so long a journy afforded and instead of a Cradle laid her Babe down to rest in the Manger of the Stable being but a cold and hard pillow for him if cut out of the Rock and this Cradle at his birth not much unlike his grave at his Death § 29 After this low manner if I may be permitted to stay a little in Contemplation of this great wonder of our Lords Exinanition to teach haughty man humility Digress and to confound his pride was the Son of God pleased to enter into the world Thus was he born because thus born he would be who alone amongst all Infants foreknew and preelected both the place and manner of his birth Thus was he pleased to be brought into it amongst beasts as afterward to be carried out of it amongst theeves Thus was the second Adam who might had he thought fit have bin created with the same preeminences as the first in a perfect and flourishing age pleased to oblige himself for his birth unto a woman and for his life unto the subjection and infirmities of youth and infancy and this place was the Paradise wherein he was put He not an Adam from the Earth hut the Lord from Heaven 1 Cor. 15.47 For the entertainment of whom when Salomon with all his wisdom and wealth had built his golden Temple yet was he ashamed that it was so mean and so unworthy to receive him Thus to expiate the former Adams Ero similis Altissimo Gen. 3.5 this Altissimus became similis Homini Like to man in every thing so far as to be conceiv'd and born of a Woman because his brethren were so That he might fulfil the Spouse's wish in the Canticles c. 8. v. 1. O that thou wert as my brother that sucked the brests of my Mother to please this his Spouse as her brother he was in every thing not leaving out nor skipping over that sleeping and unactive age in the womb and that loathsome and impotent condition of a new-born Infant of which see Ezec. 16.4 Tho he was not intended by his Father to be imployed in our affairs till 30 years of age yet Pudorem exordii nostri non recusavit saith S. Hilary sed naturae nostrae contumelias transcurrit He submitted himself to be imprisoned for so long a time in so dark and strait a cell as a womans womb Wherein some observe that he began his sufferings much earlier then the rest of the sons of men because supposed to have from his very first Conception from the Union of the human nature to his Divine person a perfect use of his intellectual faculties and sense of these his sufferings when as God in these first beginnings of our miserable life hath suspended in others the use of reason to hinder the sense of pain Now after that we once understand what a close imprisonment that of the womb is what evil would not we chuse rather then once more undergo it and what horrour had Nicodemus thereof when he thought our Saviour had prescribed it Jo. 3 Yet so fervent was our Saviours love unto mankind that he thought himself not sufficiently intimate and united unto him unless he took up his first lodging tho known to be so inconvenient even within his very bowels And as this he did at his coming into the world so again at his going out of it in the mysterious Eucharist he contrived a way how his Sacred body might enter again into us and he dwell again within us As soon also as freed from this first restraint he submitted himself to have his Hands and Feet whose omnipotent hands had formerly made the World taken and bound anew with swathbands which were at last when sufficiently grown for it to be bound with cords and fastned with nails Not to mention yet-another binding namely that of his Tongue to so long a time of silence no small misery to that feeble age which wants most help yet can ask none but a greater humiliation to the Son of the Almighty that this essential Word of God and Wisdom of his Father should empty it self into so long dumbness and silence being already an agnus ligatus se obmutescens non aperiens os suum Who also after he had the use of speech yet underwent so great a self-denial in this Kind that tho all his words flowed with wisdom Grace being poured into his lips Psal 47.2 and were all carefully laid up by his observing Mother yet it seemed good unto him that his Historians four of them should not mention one Word that came from this Word till he was 12 years old and that first word mentioned by them was a profession of his zealous obedience to the will of his Father Luk. 2.49 Again like to man he became so far as to be made under the same Laws with them Gal. 4.4 not only under the Moral but Ceremonial too which cost his infancy a bloody Circumcision not under God's but Cesar's Laws too the punctual obedience to which wherein it were strange if a woman so great with child might not have bin dispensed with had not God in his secret wisdom more exacted this submission of the child than the Mother cost him so many afflictions attending his Nativity Wherein he descended far below his servant the rigid Baptist who was born at home with great resort of congratulating neighbors And thus early began himself to give a pattern to his followers in leaving his house and his country and his Father in some sense out of whose bosome he came and the society of Angels into this place of Beasts Here look upon Him now at his very lowest and weakest And how well doth S. Pauls expression of his exinanition suit with it That he who was in the form of God and thought it no robbery to be equal with God yet made himself of no reputation in taking upon him the condition of such a forlorne Infant And that he that was so rich yet became to such a degree
Priest that after their second Captivity at Babylon conducted the People again into the land of promise and rebuilt the Temple of the Lord formerly demolished Against whom in the visions of the Prophet Zachary cloathed in poor and filthy Garments Satan before the Lord bringing great Accusation God rebukes him Satan for it and commands Joshuahs filthy Garments to be taken away from him and him to be clothed with change of Raiment and a Miter and Crown to be set upon his head See Zach. 3.3 c. and 6.11 c. In both which places is joined a promise concerning this our Jesus called there by the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Oriens Or as the Hebrew Germen who was typified by the other and who is our everlasting High Priest That he should build the Temple of our Lord and should bear the Glory and should sit and rule upon his Throne and be a Priest upon his Throne c. § 59 But tho Jesuses these two were before him and both sent deliverers of Gods people after a Captivity and both reconductors of Gods people into Canaan yet far short they came of this Jesus who saved mankind from a far higher slavery and of another kind than those other were and indeed from the only Captivity that could make us truly miserable Viz from the Captivity of sin Satan and death Triumphing in his Cross and Resurrection and descent of the Holy Ghost over these three the only terrible enemies of poor mankind who before that this Saviour came sat in chains and darkness and in the shadow of death trembling under Gods wrath and appointed to eternal torments § 60 This great Saviour came saith the Apostle 1 Thes 1.10 that he might save us from the wrath to come 1 For our salvation from Satan By him saith the Apostle Col. 1.15 we are delivered from the powers of Darkness And 1 Jo. 3.8 for this was he made manifest that he might destroy the works of the Devil And Col. 2.15 He spoiled Principalities and Powers and made an open shew and spectacle and triumph over them both in his life and in a Resurrection from the death that they had most cruelly contriv'd against him 2 And so for our saving from sin Sermo omni acceptione dignus saith the Apostle 1 Tim. 1.15 a comfortable saying beyond all other sayings this that Jesus came into the world to save sinners Especially when our conscience adds Quorum ego primus 3 Lastly for the salvation from death O Death saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 15.55 where is now thy sting O Grave where thy victory Thanks be to God who giveth us the victory over these thro our Lord Jesus And for the manner also of our Salvation by this Jesus much more misterious miraculous and indearing it was as to the delivered than that of any other Saviour whatever hath or can be For this Jesus came if I may so say not so much with his power to save us as with his patience and conquered not by his enemies sufferings but his own 1 To conquer those powerful spirits he took upon him weak flesh by this flesh they conquered us and in this flesh he redeemed us 2 To conquer Death Himself under-went and suffered Death but it could not hold him Act. 2.24 and by this his death destroyed Him that had the power of death Heb. 2.14 To save our lives he laid down his own Jo. 10.15 and healed our wounds with his own stripes Esay 53.5 3 So for sin He came in the likeness of sinful flesh to condemn sin in the flesh Rom. 8.3 And to free us from a Curse became himself a Curse for us Gal. 3.13 Such was this Salvation of this Jesus and such the way of it worthy a God O Blessed Jesu O ever blessed Name A name and the mistery thereof hid from ages and from generations and now made manifest and revealed What comfort could any other name expressing perhaps the Majesty or power or holiness or justice or eternity of this Prince have afforded to a poor guilty sinner trembling and despairing for the judgment to come but only this Or what comfort would this have aforded if it had bin only a Jesus from some temporal Tyranny from a Pharaoh or a Nabuchadnezzar or a Cesar and not a Jesus from the Devil or Hell or the Grave to which these other deliverances though for a time never so glorious would have left us still in bondage and in fear all our lives after a few daies to be devoured and swallowed up by them for ever Blessed name at which all the Spiritual Apolluons and destroyers of mankind all spiritual Pangs and anguishes of souls all the corporal messengers and arrows of death are afraid and tremble and from which only pronounced they do so often fly away Blessed name a poor sinners only consolation on his death-bed when the Grave opens her mouth for him and these spiritual Foes on every side invade him and Hell-fire eternal burns before him Blessed therefore be this name Jesus and exalted above all names at which Name let every knee bow of things in heaven in earth and under the earth and every tongue confess this Jesus Lord to the Glory of God the Father Amen § 61 After our Lord thus had received Circumcision as a Son of Abraham and entered into Gods Covenant and the name of Jesus as ordained the Saviour of the World and whilst Joseph and Mary abode still at Bethleem because this City near to Jerusalem and their own country very remote expecting the appointed time of the Purification of the Mother and presentment of the Child in the Temple certain persons both rich noble and Learned and probably much addicted to the study of Astronomy being directed by a Star came from the Oriental parts much more famed for wisdom to adore and do homage to this new-Born King and to present him with the most precious things those Countries afforded in behalf of the Gentiles as the poor and simple Shepheards being instructed by an Angel had done formerly in behalf of the Jews The Divine Providence so disposing it that our Lord to the Gentiles more contemplating the Creature should be manifested by a Star rather and the Jew as acquainted with the true worship of the Creatour by an Angel For both Jew and Gentile were now to have an equal share and a General Union in this Prince of Peace And the event corresponding exactly to these beginnings hath shewed us that after some few for the most part poorer and meaner and so humbler sort of the Jewish Nation were for the present by our Lord and his followers converted to the Faith represented by the Shepheards the riches and wisdom of the Gentiles hath bin brought into the obedience of the Gospel represented by the Magi till a compleat harvest of both shall be reaped by the Addition to them of the full Body of the Jews § 62 Now the Adoration and doing homage of the
71 There had bin a Law from the beginning as appears from Abel's offering the firstlings of his flock Gen. 4.4 of offering to God as the Creator and Proprietor of all that men possess the first-born of every Creature both of Men to be consecrated to his more special service and Ministry in divine things and of clean beasts to be sacrificed the fat burnt and the flesh of them to be the Priests Numb 18.18 and of unclean to be redeemed for a certain price and this given to the Priests Numb 18.15 16. and of the first-fruits of the Earth and Trees to be presented to the Lord heaved or waved on the Altar and so to be the Priests Again upon the Lords delivering all the first-born of Man and Beast among the Israelites from the hand of his destroying Angel in the night when he slew all those of the Egyptians round about them the Lord also on this account lai◠a second claim of these things to his own service and disposal § 72 Thus the Ministry in Holy things by the first-born of Men except where some special election was made of another to the right of primogeniture as is thought to have bin of Abel and was of Isaac and of Jacob continued till the times of Moses and the law-written when God chose the Tribe of Levi See Exod. 19.22 24.5 of which was Moses in their stead as a reward for their abstaining at least the most of them from Idolatry to the Molten calf and for their adhering to Moses and valiantly at his command taking revenge of this sin in passing through the Camp and slaying all they met-with brother friend or foe that continued then in their prophane mirth and feasting § 73 And upon this Election of the Tribe of Levi to Minister before the Lord instead of the first-born Levits also were first offered to our Lord in such manner as the first-born were See Numb 8.11 yet God still retained a presentation and redemption of them The first-born of Man then being a Male was to be brought after a month old that this ceremony might be accompanied also with the purification of the Mother to the Sanctuary or Temple and there presented and offered by the Priest unto the Lord in such a manner as the heaved or waved offerings are by being passed from one hand to the other see Exod. 29.24 and being thus the Lords was to be redeemed with five shekels of silver the value of ten shillings or somewhat more The Mother also after child-bearing was to be held unclean as she was also when in her flowers See Lev. 12.2 15.19 If it were a Male child for seven daies or if a Female ' twice this time But the flux of her blood not stopping so soon was to remain thirty three daies more in all forty daies for her purification before she might come into the Sanctuary or the publick assembly there and if it were a Female the time of her purification was doubled because her flux in such a birth continued longer In presenting her self here she was to bring a Lamb or if poor a Turtle Dove or Pigeons for an Holocaust and Turtle-doves or Pigeons for a sin-offering such offering chiefly relating to the legal immundicities or also to many other sins committed in the procreation of children or otherwise as these are truely expiated by the all-meritorious sacrifice of our Lord the antitype of all these Legal offerings as also the offering of the first-born to God had relation to the only self-acceptable oblation made to his Father of this first and only begotten Son Christ our Lord. § 74 The Holy Virgin then with S. Joseph her husband punctually observed this law of Purification as before of Circumcision tho the immaculate Conception and Birth of our Lord really needed no such Ceremony And after the time of the forty daies were now expired and now their first-born above a month old took their journey to Jerusalem from Bethleem where they had sojourned and delaied their return to Nazareth till this Holy Ceremony was accomplished Arrived there the Holy Virgin at the time of the morning-sacrifice carrying her new-born Son to his Fathers house humbly waited in the first Court common for all sort of people clean or unclean Jew or Gentile till the two Turtles or Pigeons she had brought according to their mean condition for the Lamb which only renders all other oblations acceptable to God was that she carried in her arms her Son were offered by the Priest attending there the one for her cleansing the other for an Holocaust of Adoration and thanksgiving to God for her safe delivery and new-born Son Which done she was admitted into the inner Court of the Holy Congregation which compassed the Temple and Court of the Priests and where the people beheld the service of the Altar of burnt-offerings standing in this Court and together with the Priest at such time offered up their Praiers and Praises to God Here the Priest received the Holy Child from their hands and presented him to the Lord at or over the Altar with the usual Ceremony § 75 But we may justly imagine that our Lord himself who at this time had nothing of the infirmity of Child-hood or Infancy in his soul and understanding much more completed this oblation in now presenting himself with infinite joy and an infantine innocency and simplicity for the much longed for Redemption from Satan of poor man-kind by his taking their nature upon him now become his Brethren and freely devoting himself to fulfil his whole will in all things the Prophets had foretold concerning his great sufferings and at last the shedding his blood and laying down his life on the Cross After this Ceremony was paid the fore-mentioned price of his Redemption and so the Child returned to his Mother For he not descended from Levi but of the Tribe of Judah had not the happy Lot of Samuel which he and his Mother would most have desired to attend upon his Father and in his house continually from his youth but was to undergo abroad a thousand miseries and to be educated in obscurity in a part of the Countrey half Gentile and the most remote from this house for thirty years until the time should come of his manifestation And thus was he who came to redeem us first to be redeemed and bought of his Father the proper owner of all things for our use and need of him in all those labours and sufferings and merits of his life and death for us § 76 On this day was the prophecy of Haggai and Malachy Hag. 2.7 9. Malac. 3.1 fulfilled and made good wherein God promised that the desired of all Nations and the Messias of the new Covenant in whom they delighted and by whom they should have peace should come to his Temple and thereby the glory of the latter house that seemed so contemptible should be greater than the former Which Temple also was a litle before much more
some reluctance we may conceive of his Parent 's inclinations and their greater admiration of such an humiliation considering his person but this inclination checked with a most exact observance of him in whatsoever he seemed addicted to I say this sufficiently appears from the words Mat. 13.55 56. and Mark 6.3 where upon our Lords entring upon his office and after some time coming also to his own Town Nazareth with a train of his Disciples and a great fame of his Miracles following him there to preach the Gospel among his Kindred and acquaintance it is said the Citizens wondred whence he should have that wisdom and knowledg and those mighty works considering his mean education and Kindred among them stiling him there the Carpenter's Son and in S. Marke plainly Maries Son and himself called the Carpenter for before that time it seems S. Joseph was deceased Wherein we see it was his Fathers good pleasure the more to shew Our Lords wisdom and knowledg to descend from above and to be infused by him that sent him that he should neither be sent to the famous School in Jerusalem for teaching and learning the Law as S. Paul was Act. 22.3 nor to any of those Synagogues mentioned Act. 6.9 Nor educated in the Temple among the Priests as Holy Samuel was being from a child dedicated to the Lord nor should retire into the Desart for Solitude and Contemplation as the Baptist Lives surely our Lord if indulging his own will would much sooner have chosen but in this his state of Exinanition should descend far below John and take on him not the form of an Hermit or Contemplatist but of a Servant and a poor Apprentice to an ordinary Trade and herein should earn his own victuals and serve his neighbours also as any had use of him for the greatest part of his life And as it was appointed that at 12 years of age before such Divine knowledg could be acquired by Industry he should make an admirable discovery thereof among the Doctors in the Temple tho this was then ungratefully or also enviously not taken any notice of by them so it was ordained also that all his youth should be spent in this laborious handycraft Whereby it might be most evident he stood in no need of human Arts or Sciences and also he might give the world an example after so great an humiliation of his being Gods only Son not to disdain to serve our neighbour in the lowest manual offices in any necessities concerning his Body or also Estate as well as Spiritual but whereby also he might the better disguise and hide the Dignity of his person till he had descended yet further to the lowest step of his Humiliation and accomplished his Passion on the Cross sect 121 For we find this education and mechanick trade of his to have bin a main scandal and after that his admirable doctrine and works had given an occasion of his being more enquired after to have bin spread all abroad and well known not only at Nazareth or in Galilee but at Jerusalem For Jo. 7.15 in the third year of his preaching as he taught in the Temple it is said the Jews marvelled and said How knoweth this man letters or learning having never learned From which also may be gathered that in his Sermons like to that discourse of his in going to Emaus were mixed many profound and convincing Expositions of the Law and Prophets and such as were not attainable by others if at all without much study therein To whom our Lords answer in the next verse giving this reason Viz. that they might know that his doctrine was not his acquired by any his industry or Art but his that sent him Learnt and revealed from above and brought out of the bosome of his Father Jo. 1.18 And his very kindred from this mean exercise of his youth when afterward he began to open and discover the hidden treasures of his wisdom not believing on him saith the Text Jo. 7.5 asked him why if he was such as he made himself he staid amongst them in Galilee and went not into Judea to shew himself there among the Learned when indeed our Lords usual abode in Galilee was for the safety of his Life Thus our Lords Carpentership was made no small mortification to him § 122 But yet this is imagined such Carpentors work as was exercised at home Some think that of a Wheel-wright and making Ploughs and Yokes and other instruments of husbandry for the service of his Neighbors Aratra conficiens Juga boum saith S. Justin Martyr Contra Tryphonem a very ancient Father this suting much better with the retirement and Devotions of so Holy a family and also with the privacy of our Lord's education than seeking here and there work abroad in other men's houses And this trade it is probable our Lord followed for some time after Josephs decease by those words in S. Marke Is not this the Carpenter the Son of Mary and so a little after our Lords Baptism mention is made of his Mother only none of Joseph as Jo. 2.1 Matt. 12.47 It seeming good to the Divine wisdom to leave our Lord for some time before his manifestation without any reputed Father here on Earth whose true Father was in Heaven Thus our Lord the second Adam eat his Bread for many years in the sweat of his browes subjecting himself herein to the curse laid upon the first his sinning fore-father in a Trade requiring much strength and force And his Trade an Emblem if happily an house-wright of his rebuilding that house of God which the other former had destroyed § 123 4ly It may further be gathered from the many hardships suffered even in our Lords tender Infancy his being born in a poor Stable carried away presently after in so weak an age some hundreds of miles into a strange Country and again brought back from thence as also from what is prophetically said of him by David In Laboribus a juventute mea Again from his many times professing that he came not to do his own will but the will of his Father where his own will denyed intimates natural inclinations different from his Fathers appointments concerning him but yet exactly subjected thereto and that he came not to be ministred to but to minister and when he had so many attendants that his behaviour amongst them was as of one that served and as one that waited on and provided for them whilst they sate at Table See Luke 22.27 spoken upon occasion of their striving among themselves for Honour and about that time also his washing their feet and lastly from the Apostle's expression that he took on him the form not of a man only but a servant From all these I say we may well argue that his youth was not passed without many mortifications and hardships such as poverty and handy-labour affords many great self-denials an exact obedience of his child-hood to his Superiours according to the flesh
such as a wise man suffers whose duty obligeth him to the service and sometimes undiscreet commands though in things lawful of a person of much less understanding unless we may rather think that the Holy Spirit by him guided his Parents in all those commands whereto it required his obedience § 124 And among such his mortifications this seems no small one that considering who he was the word and wisdom of God and by whom God formerly made the world he should have a law of silence for so long a time imposed upon him as to any function as yet of his ministry or discovery of his wisdom even when there was in his seeing the great follies of the world occasion shall I say or rather a great necessity thereof Nay in the Sabbaths when all frequented the Synagogues which were in every City and there the law and Prophets read to the people Act. 13.27 and among others his most devout Parents together with himself that after his forementioned dispute with the Doctors at Jerusalem and after he was now arrived to mans estate from 20 years old till 30 he should patiently stand there among the rest in the quality of a mean labourer and this the Law-giver himself in silence hear the expositions of it not alwaies free from errour by others which rendered his fellow-Citizens so astonisht when afterward he who had bin so long an Auditor with them now shewed himself a Doctor A stupendious Humility and Obedience this so long practised in so Soveraign a dignity and an hard lesson for those to imitate who have parts To our Lord therefore stooping by Obedience to such a condition seems principally to be applied that complaint of the Psalmist Psalm 38. Posui ori meo custodiam cum consisteret peccator adversum me Obmutui humiliatus sum silui a bonis sermonibus dolor meus renovatus est Concaluit cor meum intra me in meditatione mea exardescet ignis whilst he whom a fire of Zeal for his Fathers glory and for the salvation of mankind continually burnt and consumed See Jo. 2.17 Conversed among the ignorant and sinners without being permitted either to instruct the one or reprove the other whilst he who to use the expression of Elihu Job 32 was full of words and his belly as new Wine without vent and that breaketh new Vessels was so long to be dumb and as one that heareth not and in whose mouth are no reproofs No discourses I say saving such as did not transcend the appearance of his exteriour condition and manner of Education and emploiment and such conversation as in a private life gave good example to his few acquaintance and friends remaining so many years even whilst repairing in the State of his man-hood to Jerusalem and the Temple and the great Assemblies of the Nation at the publick feasts as it were a Candle hid under a Bushel and not suffered to diffuse its light walking in this most difficult obedience for so many years to the good pleasure of his heavenly Father as also the same obedience practised the like silence whilst he suffered so many false accusations before his Passion § 125 And the Nazarens rude and uncivil entertainment of him when visiting them afterward and his Brethren and kindred their not believing on him shew well how much he had in his youth ecclipsed and made himself of no account among them at least those that were not more intimately acquainted Wherein he gave the world a great lesson and example of trampling under foot any vain honour and Reputation save that with God and the Citizens of Heaven But indeed had our Lord sooner manifested himself to Israel supposed even from his youth we may conjecture such effect thereof either that the glory of his wisdom and mighty works with the envy of the Great ones accompanying these would have hastened his Death and brought it so much sooner Or such his Excellencies and Dignity of his person in a long time of Conversation with them better known to the Nation would have daunted his enemies and prevented his Death and deprived the world of the precious Benefits thereof and we may say his Father was pleased that he should be so long concealed to us that he might dye for us § 126 In this time of our Lords living at Nazareth and before the 30th year of his age is supposed to have happened the death of S. Joseph there being no more mention made of him as of his Mother and our Lord's Brethren after our Lords publick appearance either at the Marriage in Cana or else-where It seeming good unto his heavenly Majesty that after his Manifestation though a Mother did yet no Father real or reputed should appear that God might be the more looked-on as his Father who also was professed by him to be so no other being in sight nor receiving any honour as such Therefore also is our Lord in St. Mark probably after Josephs decease himself called the Carpenter and the Son of Mary But when ever S. Josephs Death happened doubtless it was undergone with great Resignation and content and after our Lord 's having first made known his heavenly Father's good pleasure both to him and his Mother in which all three most affectionately acquiesced though Joseph by his Death in some sense was to leave and lose his most beloved Jesus Viz. as to the presence of his Humanity wherein his Saints by death do now enjoy him § 127 Now that after so profound an Annihilation and latitancy of our Lord in so mean a fortune and obscure place the time drew near of his manifestation to Israel being God at last descended upon earth to reveal to men the whole Will of his Father and all the Secrets of Heaven A great person and one sanctified from the womb and Quo non major inter natos mulierum as our Lord saith of him was sent some time before to proclaim to the world the near approach and appearance of this heavenly Prince for begetting a greater reverence in them to his person And also to prepare all men by a due Confession of and repentance and doing penance for their sins and correction and amendment of their evil lives which is called the levelling Hills and filling Valleys and making the high waies streight and lastly by their being purified by Baptism for a more worthy and Honourable reception of this great Lord whose Kingdom was not temporal but Spiritual that so nothing in his Subjects at his coming might disgust or displease him And lastly was sent after his making such a proclamation of him before hand to shew also and demonstrate with the finger his very person to them for removing all possible mistake or just excuse § 128 The miraculous Nativity of this Forerunner of Christ in the old age of his Parents foretold by the same Angel as was our Lords and his being full of the Holy Ghost from his very first Being his leaping and
no way moved upon the prospect and glory of this City or advance also of his own soon meekly returned him a second answer out of the Scriptures out of the Law too as the former and out of the same book of it prohibiting such a fact upon any such Motive or promsie the text being corrupted by the Devil as to the true sence and due circumstances thereof telling him that it was written that we may not tempt the Lord our God The Text is found in Deut. 6.16 and the instance there made is not to tempt him as in Massah where the Israelites suffering some thirst had not the patience of expecting the time wherein God thought fit to relieve them but irreverently and ungratefully expostulated with and importuned Moses for a Miracle in their supply for drink after they had but now seen that Miracle for supplying them bread in the former Chapter So patient and resigned our Lord remained still in the place and posture as Satan had set and held him in for he who was permitted to place him there had not the power to cast him down thence so to try what would be the issue of it till he confounded thought of changing the Scene again and like Balak of trying his experiments upon him in another place and in a contrary manner § 158 Having therefore now attacked our meek Lord in two of the three ordinary and most effective sorts of temptations as S. John reckons them Concupiscentia carnis as to eating which meat was rendred more alluring by extreme hungar and Superbia vitae some vain glory or Honour when so mounted on the top of a Pinnacle of one of the stateliest buildings of the world by there shewing himself supported and born up by Angels in the Air he now thought of assaulting him with the third Concupiscentia Oculorum and wealth and Coveteousness that that Temptation might not be omitted toward our Lord with which we are most frequently over-thrown and by which wealth and honour once admitted he could at least sooner work his ruine these instruments of his temptation being also great tempters § 159 Now laying aside therefore the glorious suggestions to our Lord of his being the Son of God as in the two former Satan begins now to treat him not as God's but as the Carpenter's Son and to take more upon him and magnifie himself instead of our Lord and to see if he could trample upon our Lords humility in whom he could not beget any pride So taking him from the Pinacle and from the prospect of Jerusalem he transported him to yet a greater and statelier height the top of a very high Mountain as if to a place where himself was Prince and Lord of all and there makes a Scheme and representation unto him of the great and spacious Kingdomes of the Earth and of all the Glory and beauty as it were set forth and spread before him in a large Map and shewed too all at once as it were in a moment saith S. Luke as all lying at his his feet the more to surprize him Then tells him that all these are his and to whomsoever he pleaseth he can give them and the prosperity and flourishing of the wicked for a time in this world seem'd to make good his words that therefore if he would but bow his knee and give him the honour due to such a Patron and Benefactor All should be our Lords and he presently possessed of them Whence our Lord might see that for all the high titles that might be given him he had been in the world but poorly treated hitherto in being advanced no higher than a Carpenter § 161 It is likely that Satan set forth this last Temptation with many more words and shewed the many honours he had formerly bestowed upon his true Servants Hoping also that the sight and view of such worldly Pompe might much work upon such a Novice and one so meanly educated As our first Parents that fell were taken with the gloss and beauty of the forbidden fruit Gen. 3.6 and as the Israelites brought out of the Desart into the land of Canaan were by the plenty thereof Deut. 32.15 drawn away from God Incrassatus impinguatus dilatatus dereliquit Deum Factorem suum But very imprudent and no less silly was such a proposal of his to our Lord and full of Pride and lies Whenas indeed himself was a miserable Bankrupt and prisoner tied up in chains not able to help a poor witch for all her not only worship of but Contracts and giving her Soul to him to a single farthing nor to take his lodging in a filthy Swine without an extraordinary leave and permission and when as most contrary he to whom he spake was the very person to whom all these things were given by the Father and who was the true Lord and heir of all And therefore Satan in this third assault saith nothing of his Son-ship and having all things in heaven earth and under earth to adore and submit to him as such will they nill they even Satan himself And this perhaps was one way how Satan hoped his Temptation might fasten upon our Lord if he could thus at least provoke him unseasonably at this time to the challenging of these things to himself and so some little stain of ostentation and vain glory might possibly run along and mingle with it § 162 But our meek Lord replies no such thing to him takes no notice of his shameful lies nor the cheat of his deluding appearances but after he had shewed the highest detestation of his endeavouring to rob his Father of his due worship and of taking this to himself in those words spoken to him Get thee hence Satan as if his last impudent and blasphemous proposal had clearly discovered to him who he was he with the same spirit of meekness as before answers him a third time out of the Scripture and the Law that we are commanded to worship the Lord our God and him only to serve and in what ever condition we are placed of poverty and want may do no prohibited thing to make our selves rich great or Honourable Which it indeed we would yet by this way we cannot make our selves so And the Devil so oft as he saith this doth but lye to us Thus our Lord stoutly repelled the last temptation also the lust of the eyes the surprisal of which must be greater too in so barren a Desart And so this being the uttermost bait he had with which to have caught our Lord and not able to disobey our Lords words Get thee hence Satan by the power of which words our Lord at last manifested that which he was not pleased to shew at Satans request Viz. that he was the Son of God this evil Angel departed And now after the temptation as usually follows a Consolation as also before the great Honour done our Lord at his Baptism was streight pursued with a great humiliation and for the
cepissent jam spacium crucibus deerat corporibus cruces and this misery brought upon them when at this great Festival the whole body of the Nation as it were was gathered together in Jerusalem and so was encompassed and shut up there by the Romans See Euseb Ecclesiast Hist lib. 3. cap. 5. and Joseph de Bell. Judaic lib. 7. cap. 17. Ab omnibus regionibus ad Azymorum diem festum congregati bello subito circumfusi sunt c. Thus they devoted themselves here to God's Justice and thus it happened to them But their words taken in a better sense and as the divine goodness and pity is pleased to interpret them for all Penitents are a Prayer piously offered not only by them but the whole world to his offended Majesty to be saved through the sprinkling upon them of the blood of Jesus Our Lord's blood also crying to God from the Earth not as that of Abel or any other just Person 's shed by the impious for vengeance but for Mercy Nor hath the whole world any salvation or shelter but from his blood being upon it and its children for ever who also all had a hand both Jew and Gentile in offering it and in this sense God also will admit this prayer to be fulfilled see Rom. 11. but in the last place upon this most miserable Nation § 80 The Governour after having thus washed his hands sate down again and gave the final sentence upon our Lord released to them their precious choice Barabbas and committed Jesus to the Centurion and his Soldiers to be crucified according to their request § 81 Now this death on the Cross which our Lord was sentenced to and the Jews with so great clamour called for as it was often foretold expressly by our Lord see Mat. 20.19 Jo. 18.32 and other-while called by him his Exaltation Jo. 12.32 And I if I be exalted from the earth will draw all men unto me signifying saith the Evangelist what death he should die and by the context vers 34. it appears the people well understood his language And again Jo. 8.28 When ye have saith he exalted the Son of man then shall ye know that I am he So was it foresignified by many expressions in the Old Testament See Psal 21.17 The Council of the malignant hath besieged me they have digged my hands and my feet they have numbred in that racking posture all my bones they have beheld and considered me every limb of me stretched out before them and then speaking of his being stript of his cloaths They have divided my garments amongst them and upon my Vesture they cast lots To which stripping of him also that expression seems chiefly to relate where he saith Psal 68.8 That Confusion covered his face See Zachary 13.6 where the Prophet mentions this smiting of his Pastor and the man that clave to him and so scattering of his sheep vers 7. speaking thus of his being treated by his nearest relations as a false Prophet that he shall be asked What are these wounds in the midst of thy hands and he shall answer with these was I wounded in the house of my friends To which wounds also is applied that loving expression Esay 49.16 Ego tamen non obliviscar tui in manibus meis descripsi te I have engraven thee upon the palmes of my hands See Zech. 12.10 where speaking of the conversion of the Jews in the latter times and the great sorrow they shall then have for their crucifying their Messias the Prophet saith Et adspicient ad me quem confixerunt plangent eum planctu quasi unigenitum c. See Jer. 11.19 Ego quasi agnus mansuetus qui portatur ad victimam cogitaverunt super me consilia dicentes mittamus lignum in panem ejus for his bread eradamus eum de terra viventium To it likewise seems to relate Esay 52.13 Ecce intelligit servus meus exaltabitur elevabitur sublimis erit valde For it follows Sicut obstupuerunt super te multi inglorius erit inter viros aspectus ejus forma ejus inter filios hominum like to vers 2. of the next chapter Iste asperget gentes multas And Esay 11.12 Et levabit signum in nationes Concerning his thirst also in the violent and fervorous heat of such lingring pains see Psal 21.16 Aruit tanquam testa virtus mea lingua mea adhaesit faucibus meis And Psal 68.22 Dederunt in escam meam fel in siti mea potaverunt me aceto Typified also this death of the Cross was by many instruments of the peoples preservation in the Old Testament By the Tree of life provided to remedy the mischiefs done by the Tree of Good and Evil by the blood of the Lamb sprinkled upon the posts of the door that the destroying Angel seeing it might pass-over Gods people by Moses his Rod smiting the Rock and bringing out of it a fountain of water for refeshing the people By the Brasen Serpent listed up on high and fastned to a pole curing all that looked upon it of the other fiery Serpents bitings which our Lord also mentions as a Type of his own Elevation and drawing the eies of all upon him Jo. 12.32 Jo. 3.14 Sicut Moyses exaltavit serpentem in deserto ita exaltari oportet filium hominis ut omnis qui credit in ipsum looks upon him with the eie of faith non pereat By the Expansion of Moses his Armes and Hands on high made in the Mount for the conquest of Amalek which posture of his also by others help was continued for several hours and being any way altered changed presently the fortune of the battel By Elias his lying with armes stretched out upon the Child to raise him again to life By marking with the letter Thau the form of a cross the foreheads of those that were to be saved from the slaughter of the six destroying Angels Ezech. 9.4 Lastly by Abraham's only Son Isaac carrying the wood upon which he was afterwards laid and destined to be Sacrificed But God was more favourable and kind to Abraham if I may so say than to himself § 82 And as this manner of death was often foresignified and typified in the Old Testament so doth it seem before all other to have bin chosen by the Divine Counsel and our Lords designment who as he voluntarily suffered for us so what death he pleased for many special reasons First because his suffering being to save us and we by our sins having incurred the curse of God and so he for us taking this curse upon himself this was that special death which had Gods curse annexed to it Deut. 21.23 when upon some grievous crime God required the Malefactor to be hanged up upon a Tree before the Sun and as it were openly in his sight to be hanged up as unworthy to touch or tread upon the Sanctified land and not to be dispatched in a moment as by stoning or
to God calling him Father in the midst of that severe handling of him and meekly resigning his dying Spirit into his hands Lastly in his dying before the other two and sending out a loud voice at his expiring which shewed his Divinity and that he gave up his life not upon any constraint of torments but voluntarily and when he pleased § 88 Seventhly This manner of death by the lifting up of the body in it towards heaven seems very significative that we now after and in imitation of it should exalt and remove our eyes and affections henceforth from the Earth towards Heaven Therefore our Lord gives it this honourable name of his Exaltation And I saith he if I be exalted from the Earth will draw all unto me Jo. 12.32 And the Apostle calls it his triumph having taken out of the way the Decree that was contrary to us he fastned it to his Cross and having despoiled the principalities and potentates triumphed over them in it Col. 2.15 So also in the nailing and fixing of the flesh of our Lord to the Cross significative of the mortifying and crucifying of the flesh and its lusts that is required of us in imitation of our Lord so disenabling it to stir hand or foot as it were any more to the breach of Gods commands and signifying our now dying to sin as he for it and this death of the Cross is often thus alluded to by the Apostle § 89 Eightly and Lastly the posture of this death carryed in it a lively Representation of his love to mankind with his arms stretched out as it were to embrace and receive all those who would come to him and his head declining to kiss them Having made this Digression upon the Jewes so often vehement demanding and at last Pilats consent to our Lord's Crucifixion to shew the multiplicity of the divine wisdom in the choice of this manner of death rather than any other I proceed now in the relation of the story after Pilats having committed to the Roman Guards the execution thereof § 90 The time now after Pilats four or five returns into the Praetorium and Exits to the Jews whilst he endeavoured by all means to have preserved our Lords life i. e. so far as his own safety with Cesar and his reputation with the Jews would permit and after our Lords being sent to and returned from Herod and the soldiers scourging and dressing him so as to be made a fitter object of the hard-hearted Jews Pity drew well towards Noon Jo. 19.14 Luk. 23.44 about the sixth hour saith St. John and St. Luke though called as yet the third hour by St. Mark because the sixth hardly yet begun The scoffing Soldiers then seizing on our Lord after some further abuses which both in words and actions by Satans instigation were committed both in the way and at the place of Execution as we may gather from the very Theif in the midst of his torments not tempering himself from reviling of him with the rest stript our Lord of his Purple and put on him his own garments whose prize shortly they were to be and so making all speed laid a cross already prepared upon his torn shoulders and so led away this only Isaac of God carrying the wood of his Sacrifice upon his back § 91 And to fulfil a second time after his being coupled with Barabbas the Prophet Esay's cum sceleratis reputatus est Esay 53.12 and that there might be some greater appearance of Justice and our Lord mingled with company whom the people might think like himself there were two notable Thieves on either hand one joined with him and haled along to their Execution but these also or one of them at least railing at him even when suffering with him and such companions he was to have of his greifs as offered him no solace therein And indeed if we consider the person he now took on him what Malefactor or crimes so great as could match him or his for he carried on his shoulders all the sins of the whole world present and past and to come and even those too of these Malefactors and so also this Anathema as the chief was crucified in the midst and the reason in the Prophet of his cum sceleratis reputatus seems very apposite quia ipse peccata multorum tulit Graced with this company and laden with an heavy Cross the long beam thereof being probably more than twice the length of a man for his body was to be stretched at its full length upon it and to be exalted to such a convenient height as might render him a spectacle to all the multitude and de facto so high it was that the Soldier to pierce his side used not his Sword but his Lance and to give him drink they tyed a spunge to the end of a long reed and so reached it to his mouth It was also to carry a Title over his head and to be fastned in the ground and the cross Beam of it also was to equal the breadth of his body and length of his arms I say thus laden he made a painful but most chearful march under it through a good part of the City the Governours Palace being near the Temple on the East side of it and Calvary the place of Execution at the North-West side thereof till when coming without the Gate he fainted away under it his body being now grown very feeble and his spirits exhausted by reason of his cruel scourging and other base usage of the three Guards of Officers Caiphas's Herod's and Pilats he had passed through and of his being kept all night without the least sleep or repose or refreshment or his former temperance having any superfluous humors to feed on Because our Lord alone was unable to bear it any further and it was an ignominious thing to carry or touch the instrument of the Execution of a Malefactor whence the word Furcifer was a common name of reproach by chance a poor man that came then out of the countrey one Simon a stranger of Cyrene in Africk where was then a great Colony of the Jews Act. 2.10 6.9 Joseph de Excid Hieros l. 7. c. 38. meeting them the Soldiers laid hold on him and forced him to bear our Lord's Cross after him either the whole or the heaviest end thereof whose sons Alexander and Rufus are particularly named by the Evangelist Mark 15.21 which shews that they were not only Converts to the Christian Faith but persons of some note amongst the Primitive Christians see Acts 19.33 Romans 16.13 it those the same And it is to be presumed that our Lord rewarded this service done him to their Father also in making him a Member of the Church and of his Kingdom and that he was saved by the Holy Cross he bore who thus had the honour even in the truest sense to take up the cross and follow our Lord and to partake of his reproach and ignominy But the divine Counsel
Elias was yet alive in his body and was to return among them to rectify all things before the coming of the Messias the darkning of the Sun also filled them full of wonder and expectation of some other strange things their hearts also now being somewhat mollified and beginning to entertain another opinion of our Lord than not long before § 103 After this our Lord entring into his last Agony said I thirst as if it were to accomplish the drinking up the last dregs and portion that remained of the cup of Gods wrath against sinners remembring the words that follow in the same prophetick Psalm vers 16. Aruit tanquam testa virtus mea lingua mea adhaesit faucibus meis in pulverem mortis c. and Psalm 68.22 potaverunt me aceto And there being a vessel of vinegar or small sour Wine with which mingled with water the Soldiers and common people used to quench their thirst one of the By-standers running and drenching a sponge in it put this upon the top of a long reed and so applied it to our Lords mouth the darkness now diminishing to refresh him and prolong his life a little in expectation of what perhaps Elias would do for him whether he would come at last and take his Fellow-prophet down from the Cross After our Lord had received the Vinegar which was as it were the last dregs of the bitter cup prepared for him by his heavenly Father to drink he said those precious words so full of consolation to poor sinners consummatum est that all was finished a Passiones consummavi now as he said an opus consummavi before he entred on his passion Jo. 17. All the prophecies being now fulfilled the Sacrifice offered and the Ransome of mankind from Gods wrath and the Prince of Darkness and from eternal Death fully paid And so with another loud and strong voice like the former recommending his now departing Spirit into the hands of his celestial Father in the words again of the Psalmist changing Domine there into Pater and exhibiting this as the last act of his dutiful submission to all his Will he pronounced those last words of his on the Cross In manus tuas Pater commendo spiritum meum Psal 30 And so meekly bowing down his head which perhaps hitherto was held erected towards heaven in prayer see Heb. 5.7 gave up the Ghost not when the torments of death forced it away but when he pleased seeing all now fulfilled voluntarily to regive it Shewing in his strong out-cries his miraculous power and strength to have kept it longer in being about the ninth hour the time of offering up the Evening Sacrifice and in the end of the sixth day of the week as entring into his Sabboath of rest The two Malefactors that suffered with him being both yet alive not that our Lord any way abbreviated for himself the torments of this cruel death but that the barbarous usage of him all that day and the night precedent without any sustenance refreshment or repose and the loss of so much blood under his coronation and scourging had so debilitated and exhausted him which was also seen in his fainting under the Cross that these his last torments on the Cross must needs have a speedier period unless he should have continued his life by miracle § 104 All the passions of our Lord thus at last come to an End and his bloody Sacrifice for our redemption finished the Sun which seemed this while to have sympathized with his sufferings began to recover its strength and now the infernal powers of darkness their hour expired to quake and tremble and with them the Earth also to shake in such a manner that the Rocks were rent asunder with it and particularly that of Mount Calvary where our Lord suffered cleft asunder some two or three foot from the hole wherein our Lords Cross was fastned from one side of the Hill to the other to be seen at this day gaping about an hand breath and the depth of it not to be sounded Yet the infinit mercy and long-suffering of God who to shew his displeasure rent the rocks forbare to take present vengeance on the Murderers of our Lord giving them longer time to repent as some of them also did The veil of the Temple also remote from this place and standing at the other side of the City was rent in two saith the Evangelist from the top to the bottom Which veil divided the Sanctum Sanctorum where was the Ark the symbol of Gods presence from the outer Temple and into which the High Priest entred only once every year carrying in thither the blood of the Sacrifice to sprinkle it before the Ark on the solemn day of Expiation The renting of which Veil at this time was very significative of the effects of our Lords passion 1. To shew now an end and consummation and so Abolishment of all the former Typical Ceremonies of the Mosaical Law this new High Priest succeeding and abrogating now the former Aaronical Priesthood who having offered the only pleasing Sacrifice to God on the Altar of the Cross was to enter with the blood of it into the celestial Sanctum Sanctorum and there with it sprinkled before God's Throne to make an atonement for the sins of the whole world Who saith the Apostle much prosecuting this matter in his Epistle to the Hebrews took away the first covenant that he might establish another following and dedicated to us a new and living way of access to the throne of Grace and entrance into the Holy of Holies through the veil of his Deity that is his Flesh which veil also was rent on the Cross the members of the body rent first and at last his soul also rent from the Body And chap. 9.11 c. Who saith he an High Priest of good things to come by the Holy Ghost offered himself unspotted to God and so by or through a more ample and more perfect Tabernacle not made with hands i. e. the Heavens vers 24. nor by or with the blood of Goats or Calves but by his own blood entred into the Holies eternal redemption being thus found and effected 2. Again to shew that the Partition was now taken away between Jew and Gentile and his service no longer confined to his Temple at Jerusalem but that it was to be every where equally accepted of him and his Church to be spread over the whole world and a general and free access admitted for all people to God the Father and to the Divinity through this veil of our Lords humanity Neither Jew nor Greek saith the Apostle Gal. 3.28 neither bond nor free c. now But all one in Christ Wherefore our Lord foretold to the Samaritan woman Jo. 4. That the time was coming when they should neither in that Mount of Samaria the Temple of Garizim nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father but the true worshippers should worship him every where not with
miraculously fed the Multitudes Mat. 15.29 and which was more convenient for the assembling of his Converts of which see what is said before § 251. P. 1. And such a place our Lord seems to have chosen for the greater Eminency Solitude and Privacy thereof free from Buildings High-waies or Passengers he purposing no general manifestation of himself to the Jews or to the World but only to some chosen Witnesses that some contradiction might add the more virtue to the Christian Faith Here then were assembled with many others the eleven Apostles with the Mother of our Lord and doubtless the other Galilean women who carried the first message both from the Angel and afterwards from our Lord himself to the Apostles of his meeting them in this place To whom our Lord first shewed himself at some distance from them upon which they presently fell down and adored him Mat. 28.17 but some of them saith the Evangelist unless he intimates here the doubt not that was then but had bin formerly viz. not of the Eleven but of the company had some doubt whether it was he i. e. at the first yet which by his nearer approach and discourse with them was presently after removed Our Lord then approaching told them that the time of his Exinanition being now finished all Power the exercise of which was suspended before see Mat. 11.27 Jo. 3.35 was given to him by his Father in Heaven and in Earth and upon this he renewed his charge unto his Apostles that they should go forth in his name and by his authority and proclaim him Lord of all and deliver his Laws and Commandements taught to them not only to the Jews but all other Nations that they should baptize Believers in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost declaring to them that such as believed and were baptized should be saved but the unbelieving damned then further promising them That he though corporally departing yet in his Grace and Holy Spirit would remain with and assist them and their Successors to the end of the world that he also gave them Authority over all the Power of the Enemy of mankind and in his name to do all sorts of wonderful works repeating here again what he had formerly said to them in his first Apparition at Jerusalem which see before Sect. 127. P. 11. Lastly commanding them to bid an Adieu to their country and return to Jerusalem in which place they were first to begin their work Where they should also after a few daies re-enjoy his presence and take their last leave of him his so often-foretold Ascension into Heaven to his Celestial Father being now at hand and necessary as for his own Glory so for the further promoting with him the business of their's and the world's salvation § 141 After this publick manifestation of our Lords Resurrection made not only to the Apostles but to the general Body of his former Converts and Believers most dwelling in Galilee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 15.7 afterward our Lord appeared singly to St. James i. e. our Lord's Brother shortly after made Bishop of Jerusalem perhaps out of a singular honour to him or also for negotiating something with him relating to his office whose constant residence was to be at Jerusalem and who was a Person of special Eminency among the Apostles as appears Gal. 1.19 2.9 and Acts 15.13 19. But the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used by the Apostle perhaps may not signify afterward in that Text as denoting a Posteriority of time to the appearance in Galilee But only besides as it is used by him 1 Cor. 12.28 and the apparition to James be rather in some part of the day of his Resurrection see St. Jerome de viris Illust in Jacobo between whom as being a Domestick in the same family and our Lord passed a more intimate familiarity and from his appearance to James we may also much more presume of his frequent particular apparitions to the Blessed Virgin his Mother though none mentioned § 142 Forty daies was the time predesigned of our Lord's stay upon Earth for the manifestation of his Resurrection and for the preparing of his Apostles for their future employment of propagating the Gospel and advancing the Kingdom of Christ in mens hearts over all the world A number frequently observed in Scripture for the accomplishing of any great work made up of six the number of the daies God spent in creating the world seven times multiplied as the number of 7. is a number of perfection and rest after the finishing such a work answering to the 7th day the Sabbath only in 42. the last two are usually cut off to make it a round number So Gen. 7.4 in the flood the rain descended for forty daies and after the abating of it Noah stayed forty daies and opened the window of the Ark Gen. 8.6 For thrice forty years God had patience with the old world before he destroyed it with the flood Ten times forty years the children of Israel were to sojourn in Egypt Forty two Generations were to pass between the coming of the Messias and the promise made to Abraham thereof of which forty two generations two sevens were to run out before the Kingdom of David and two sevens again in this Kingdom before the captivity and two sevens till the coming of Christ See Mat. 1.17 Acts 7.23 Moses when forty years old visited his Brethren and would have undertaken their protection and ibid. vers 30. after forty years more was sent by God to them for this purpose Again forty daies he stayed in the Mount for receiving the Law and for this time was continued his fast as also that of Elias and of our Lord. During forty daies were the persons deputed to view the land of Canaan Numb 13.25 and during forty years were the children of Israel appointed to do penance and bear their Iniquity for the Evil account given of it and murmuring concerning it Numb 14.33 34. Forty daies were allowed to the Ninevites for a time of Repentance before their City was to be destroyed Forty daies after the womans bearing of a Male child and twice forty daies after a Female were to be accomplished before their coming into or presenting their Son in the Sanctuary In the Judges we find whether rest or troubles given to the land of Israel ordinarily for the space of forty years The Prophet Ezekiel Ezek. 4.5 6. is appointed to do penance by lying on his side for forty daies for so many years of God's patient suffering the iniquities of Judah and for so many years again God forbare the wickedness of the Jewish Nation after their crucifying our Lord and persecuting Christianity until the destruction of Jerusalem And forty two Months i. e seven sixes of Months is the time prescribed for the duration of Antichrist and the last great affliction of Gods Church This to shew that all Gods works are pondered before hand and contrived in
the infinite Graces and love and sweetness he discovered in that look all which upbraided his unkindness the posture he left that innocent Lamb of God in sorrounded with and ready to be torn in peices by so many Wolves and also his leaving him so and hasting to save himself all these we may presume so galled and wounded him as that had not the High Priests Gate bin shut upon him he would now have reentred to recant there publickly his former act and run through all hazards whatever with his dear Lord. But the divine Providence had appointed this for one of our Lords sufferings the clear desertion of all his Followers and that he should tread the Wine-press alone § 41 Yet something may be said on the other side in the lessening of the lapse of this prime Apostle That his love and courage seems to be greater than most of the rest in his following his Master to his trial and venturing into the High Priests Pallace when it was he that just before had cut-off the ear of his servant In his denyal its being without any great scandal not in publick but to some idle people standing about a fire and medling with a matter of no concernment to them In that it was done upon a suddain surprisal not done with premeditation or put to any formal Trial of his fidelity and where perhaps hazarding also the reputation of the other Disciple that brought him in might run in his mind and much more his being questioned for Malchus And as it seemed a shame to deny our Lord at the accusation only of a poor Maid-servant so it might seem a thing of no great consequence to confess him before such a mean person But which is most to be noted he denyed not that Jesus was the Messias or the Son of God he renounced no part of his faith no such thing was he asked nor if put to it would he ever have denyed it but he denyed only his knowledg of or acquaintance with such a person Lastly the Fall of this great Apostle God permitted besides for the aggravation of our Lords sufferings by his cheifest Disciple denying as another of them betraying him for many other good ends As to beget a perfect humility in him a little before too confident of himself to shew us what frail things we are the best of us when our Lord leaves us a little to our selves and hath not his eye upon us To comfort poor sinners in their great miscarriages since the greatest Saints as David and Peter have had their falls To shew the infinitness of Gods mercy to Penitents in his pardoning such great offences and that to persons most obliged to him and from whom he had reason to expect the greatest fidelity Lastly to teach Peter the cheif Pastor of his sheep the more compassion to sinners in reflecting on his own infirmities and faults and to bear with those who are tempted and fall in as much as himself stood not when he was so § 42 What became of the other Disciple no mention is made T is probable that better acquainted with the house he went up into the Court and was present at our Lord's trial and seeing the severe proceedings against him after the Council rose quitted the Pallace with the rest where he saw was no safe staying any longer for any friends of Jesus when also he might take Peter presently after his third misadventure there along with him § 43 Now to return unto our Blessed Lord committed to the custody of the High-Priests Officers and Servants until the morning and the reassembly of the Council in the same place in a fuller body These Officers one would think since the time that being sent to apprehend him they returned to their Masters with a Nunquam sic locutus est homo sicut hic homo should now have treated him with some ordinary civility especially no final sentence being yet passed upon him and the Judges being to reexamine his cause the next morning The ear also our Lord restored but two or three hours before to Malchus and his reprehending Peter for his cutting it off might not have bin so soon forgotten by them But indeed now was the Power of Satan and of Darkness and his chain never so much loosened as at this time before the approaching ruin of his kingdom who therefore ceased not by all those his Instruments to act his utmost malice nor to suffer our Lord to rest one minute § 44 The Ministers therefore having as yet no order for the executing of any higher corporal punishment and because our Lord also was to proceed gradatim through all sorts of sufferings instead of indulging him or themselves any repose in which our Lords servant S. Peter was more civilly used Acts 12.6 after their watching all the fore-part of the night compass him about in a ring and notwithstanding his modest silence no way provoking them fall on abusing him both with their tongues and hands as far as was permitted They spit on his face being the greatest note of ignominy and disgrace that was amongst the Jews see Deut. 25.9 where the man was to be used so that would not raise up seed to his brother And they abhor me saith Job in his typical complaint Chap. 30.10 they forbear not to spit in my face when his tyed hands also could not cleanse it They smote him also on the face with the palmes of their hands They punched and thumped him with their fists and by the Prophecies Esay 50.6 it seems they also plucked off his hair being not tondentes but vellentes of this meek Lamb. These Jews also treated him this night as a Mock-Messias as the next day the Gentiles abused him as a Mock-King and after their cruelty wearied in this way and his rare faculty in Prophecying coming into their mind they remembred a Boys-play to this purpose and got a cloath and blindfolded him whereof the Philistines abusing blind Sampson was a Type and fall on beating him a fresh thus hood-winked that he being the Messias and the Christ and the great Prophet that was to come into the world should now so hooded prophecy and tell them who it was that smote him § 45 Cruel and causeless malice for which of his sweet words or mighty works as he once said to you Jo. 10.32 who left heaven to save you and in whom you never saw fault and who went about every where doing good for which of these do you thus treat him And how could the blessed Angels at least that waited on our Lord have the patience to suffer such vile wretches and the dregs of the people to strike and spit on their Creator the Lord of Heaven and Earth but that they well knew it was the pleasure of their great Master out of his infinite charity to suffer this even for the salvation of those his Tormentors and to receive these blows for the satisfaction of their fault that gave them
All this while our meek Lord stood silent nor was a Reproof found in his mouth but to those that struck him on the one cheek he turned the other and received without reply such derisions scorns and contradiction of sinners of which St. Luke intimates that the Evangelists mentioned only some part Et alia multa saith he blasphemantes dicebant in eum Luk. 22.65 and they that could not hold their hands off him before the Judge what would they not do to him left to their Guard § 46 Of all this usage as David in Spirit had before drawn it up this only Son of God makes in the ears of his Father this innocent complaint Neque iniquitas mea neque peccatum meum Domine sine iniquitate cucurri direxi igne me examinasti non est inventa in me iniquitas Psal 58.5 Non locutum est os meum opera hominum propter verba labiorum tuorum custodivi vias duras Psal 16.4 Jer. 11.19 Ego quasi Agnus mansuetus qui portatur advictimam non cognovi quia cogitaverunt super me consilia dicentes mittamus lignum in panem ejus eradamus eum de terra viventium Jer. 12.7 Reliqui domum meam dimisi haereditatem meam dedi dilectam animam meam in manu inimicorum ejus facta est mihi haereditas mea quasi Leo in sylva c. Psal 68.8 9 21. Propter te sustinui opprobrium operuit confusio faciem meam factus extraneus fratribus meis to my own People and to my own Followers affrighted at my troubles Peregrinus filiis matris meae opprobria exprobrantium tibi in all thy merciful designs for their salvation ceâ—iderunt super me Sustinui qui simul contristaretur non fuit qui consolaretur non inveni c. Psal 108.1 c. Os peccatoris super me apertum est sermonibus odii circumdederunt me expugnaverunt me gratis Pro eo ut diligerent me detrahebant mihi Et posuerunt adversum me mala pro bonis odium pro dilectione mea non sunt recordati misericordiam sed persecuti sunt hominem inopem mendicum mortificaverunt compunctum corde superadded affliction to affliction Ego autem pro eis orabâ—m § 47 All these things also were particularly foretold of the Messias by the Prophets Deus aperuit illi aurem saith the Prophet Esay chap. 50.5 6. to become obedient in all things to the extremity Non contradixit retro non abiit corpus suum dedit percutientibus genas suas vellentibus faciem suam non avertit ab increpantibus conspuentibus in eum Et virga saith the Prophet Micha 5.1 percutient maxillam Judicis Israel dedit percutienti se maxillam saturatus est opprobriis say the lamentations of the Prophet Jeremy Lam. 3.30 And factus opprobrium hominum abjectio plebis saith Psal 21. and with these insolencies so disfigured the Prophet Esay chap. 53.2 c. describes him that Non erat species ei neque decor that vidâ—runt eum non erat aspectus ut desiderarent eum And again Quasi absconditus vultus ejus despectus unde nec reputavimus eum Thus the Prophets And whatever they said his obedience was resolved to go through with it and make it good without a contradixit or a retro abiit and therefore he foretold also to his Disciples several times Mat. 16.21 20.19 Luk. 18.31 a little before his last return to Jerusalem that all things spoken by the Prophets of his sufferings must be accomplished even to this now acted his being mocked spightfully intreated and spit upon and that they should do unto him as they had done unto the Baptist what ever things they would Mat. 17.12.13 And at his apprehension his last words to Peter were after his having told him that he could procure of his Father more than twelve Legions of Angels to his rescue But saith he How then will the Scriptures be fulfilled that thus it must be Thus all this night under these barbarous Guards whilst they were acting cruelties he was fulfilling Prophecies § 48 And well had it bin if our Lord's sufferings had ended thus or that they had carried him hence immediatly to Execution But these are but the Prologue to much greater cruelties before the final taking away his life and the Jews their not having power as now the divine Wisdom had prepared things of inflicting death served to double our Lords torments because as the Jews and the Gentiles were to have an equal share in the benefit of his sufferings and his death so were they to have in the inflicting of them that as on the one side all receive the mercy of being saved by his blood so on the other none should be freed from the guilt of shedding it § 49 This barbarous treatment of the Jewish Guard lasted till the morning when very early assoon as it was day saith the Evangelist Luk. 22.66 the Council met again and as appears by St. Matthew chap. 27.1 and Mark 15.1 in a much fuller body than over night The Antients of the people the chief Priests and the Scribes and the whole Council say they consulted together against Jesus And probably Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea were there also who St. Luke saith Mark 15.1 compared with the 2 Chron. 30.2 and Acts 5.21 23.50 consented not to the Council and deed of them God having reserved these here to represent to the rest their injustice as also to bestow on our Lord so murthered an honourable funeral Our Lord being already precondemned by them over night the chief design of their consult now was how to put him to death by the Roman Governour who had the sole power thereof this being taken from the Jews not long before Jo. 18.32 so that the stoning of S. Stephen seems rather to proceed from a popular Tumult than a legal course of Justice But had the Jews now bin possest of this power our Lords sufferings had bin much abbridged for so he had bin stoned to Death for Blasphemy as is intimated by S. John chap. 18.31 32. see Levit 24.16 which death would both have prevented all the cruelties afterwards inflicted on him by Pilat and the Roman Soldiers and had bin speedily dispatcht it being neither so dolorous and painful nor of so protracted a duration nor so solemn and conspicuous and exposed to shame and opprobry as that of the Cross was and so also all those sweet speeches he made upon it had bin lost There was a sort of death the hanging of the Delinquent on a Tree inflicted by the Jews sometimes under the law upon the special Divine command and it was the only death that was solemnly accursed by God see Deut. 21.22 23. who commanded when the crime was such as incenst his wrath against the whole Nation whereof the Delinquent was a Member that for the diverting this from them they