No right attention or obedience to the Will of God without it The ear saith Aristotle is the Organ of Discipline and St. Paul saith That faith cometh by hearing Rom. 10. But there are some that be uncircumcised in heart and ears Acts 7.51 dead in the uncircumcision of their flesh Col. 2.13 The inner ear lies in the heart We must circumcise the fore skin thereof Jer. 4.4 For the true Circumcision is that of the heart Rom. 2.29 The heart is the fountain of filthiness Mat. 15.18,19,20 If this be not washed from wickedness by the washing of of regeneration we cannot be saved for it will wax gross and fat and make the ears dull of hearing Jer. 4.14 Tit. 3.5 Mat. 13.14,15 In the Levitical Law the sons of Aaron the Priests were to have the blood of the sacrifice put upon the tip of their right ear the Thumbs of their right hand and the great Toes of their right feet Lev. 8.24 Those whom Christ doth make Priests unto God 1. Pet. 2.5 Rev. 1.6 he doth cleanse and purifie from head to foot from top to Toe that he may present them to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinckle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish Eph. 5.27 He will sprinkle our ears that they mey be healed of that poysonous Dectrine of Disobedience those venomous Charms of the old serpent and be unstopt to hear what the Lord shall say He will sprinkle our right thumbs that we may be ready to do the Will of our Father which is in Heaven He will sprinkle our right Toes that we may walk circumspectly not as Fools but as Wise shewing out of a good Conversation our works with meekness of Wisdom proving indeed that we are indued with knowledge Eph. 5.15 Jam. 3.13 The cleanness of our feet must shew the cleanness of our head If our feet be clean it doth imply that our hands and our head are washed John 13.10 Pure Practice cannot be without true knowledge If we receive Christ for Wisdom we must receive him also for Obedience As ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk ye in him Col 2.6 Christ came to wash head hands and feet to cleanse our Infancy Youth and old Age to purifie the three essential parts of man to sanctifie us throughout in Spirit Soul and Body 1 Thes 5.23 Again 33. It is the best Guardian to the inner man The outward man is liable to many dangers but the inward is subject to many more The outward may have great assauls but the inner much greater We wrestle not with flesh and blood but with Principalities and Powers and spiritual wickedness in heavenly places or things Eph. 6.12 The War in Heaven is hotter and sharper then that on earth That on earth is with men that in Heaven is agaiust the old great red Dragon Rev. 12.7 A cut in the flesh is easily born and cured but a wounded Spirit who can bear The one lets out the blood the other poysons it the one lanceth the skin the other pierceth the heart Heart-wounds though not incurable yet are hard to be cured Most Combats of the outward man are in the day time when he can see to defend himself but the Conflicts of the inner man are in the night as well as the day and as often when that restless roaring Lion seeks to devour us 1 Pet. 5.8 Faith cannot be idle or sottishsy secure for it never wants an enemy As it is not without an enemy so it is not destitute of Refuge and Aid it hath the clefts of the Rock the open ribs of Christ to shelter and secure it self in Can. 2.14 This is the strong hold we are to flee unto the mountain and banner of safety His Banner over me was love Can. 2.4 He loved me and gave himself for me Gal. 2.20 34. This Ensign of the Cross is that which terrifieth our spiritual enemies the sight of it doth conquer and chase them away But then we must hold it in our eye and in our hand look upon him whom we have pierced and beholding his sufferings suffer with him smite our breasts and return let us search and trie our ways our works our thoughts and turn to the Lord. It is reported of Constantine that in one of his battles he saw the sign of the Cross over his head in the air with this Motto In hoc signo vinces this is that which shall give thee victory Luke 23.48 Lam. 3 4◠doubtless we cannot get the Day or win the field without it Our inner man cannot ride on prosperously except this march in the Van and beat down them that hate us Nor can we keep what we have got but by this means Non minor est virtus quā quaerere parta tuerl And therefore we find it recorded of Hester that she did the commands of Mordecai after she came to the Crown like as when she was brought up with him Hest 2.7,20 35. Hester and Mordecai were two captive Jews carried away in the Captivity by Nebuchadonezer into Babylon Hester was left an Orphan of whom her kins-man Mordecai took care after the death of her Father and Mother Now these things as the Apostle saith in the like case are an Allegory and have their mystical signification Hester is as much as to say Hidden and may imply the hidden man of the heart 1 Pet. 3.4 Mordecai is bitter contrition or teaching contrition and was Guardian to Hester Whereby we are instructed that affliction or the Cross is a good Protector Tutor Fosterer and Nurse to the inner man Ego in flagello paratus sum saith the vulgar Latin Psal 38.17 the scourge is our Sehoolmaster Foolishness is bound in the heart of a Child but the rod of Correction shall drive it far from him Prov. 22.15 Thy Rod and thy staff comfort me Psal 23.4 Our light Afflictions which are but for a moment work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory 2 Cor. 4.17 Though our outward man perish yet the inward man is renewed day by day verse 16. As the sufferings of Christ abound in us so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ 1 Cor. 1.5 Wherefore faint not when thou art rebuked 't is for thy profit and good that thou mayst be partaker of Gods holiness Heb. 12.5,9,10 Neither must we think that this Cross and Rod is of use unto us in our Non-age or Child-hood only but that it is profitable for us in our riper years also not only whilst we are children in understanding but when we are grown in Christ when we come to the Crown as well as when we lay in captivity Too many cast off the Cross too soon and so expose themselves to the snares of the wicked one Hadassa observed and obeyed Mordecai in her Royalty as well as in her slavery and this became the safety of her self and of all the Jews Twelfthly 36. It is the best
a greater and more inevitable cause of mans destruction to God irresistibly subjecting him thereunto then to the Devil who can but tempt and entice him to sin having no power at first to force him to commit it Again 45. Some of you suspect me to be an Arminian that I hold Free-will and a power in man to do good And this ye think is a departing from the Faith a denying of Principles a contradiction to what I wrote against Baker a forsaking my first Love which hath made you decline my Ministry I have waited now about two years to give you satisfaction and have solicited a private Discourse but could never yet obtain it Surely that opinion is much to be suspected that is unwilling to come to trial John 3.20 But I shall not now insist much on these things The Points in question have been and are in debate already between godly and learned men from whom you may expect further satisfaction All that I have to say if only this i. e. 46. Josh 22. When Joshua had sent the Reubenites the Gadites and the half Tribe of Manasseh unto their possession which Moses had appointed them in the promised Land their lot fell on the other side of Jordan and thither they go The rest of Israel stay on this side Jordan Shortly after the devout Reubenites c. build an Altar of which the Israelites have quick intelligence and grow jealous They conclude them Rebels without further examination they arm themselves against their brethren and resolves to deal with them as with Idolaters How easie is it for good men of the same Religion to mistake one anothers intention But when the Reubenites had given an account to the Ambassadors of Israel wherefore they erected that Altar and that tho reason and end thereof was not to divide from their brethren but to preserve a Vnion with them not to separate to other Gods but to preserve an interest with their brethren on this side the River in the worship of the true God unto posterity when their intention was cleared all thoughts of Hostility were laid aside and a brotherly league and amity joyfully confirmed So my friends I hope it shall be between us 47. I know ye are zealous for God and the glory of his Truth ye are jealous of the Blood of Christ and the Grace of the Gospel lest it should be undervalued ye suspect every notion that seems to detract from the Honour of it T is good to be zealously affected alwayes in a good thing Concerning the things for which ye have me in suspition I was alwayes ready and often offered to give you a reason of my Faith according to the Scriptures 48. And whereas ye impute a contradiction in my present judgement to what I formerly declared in my book against Baker in reference to the state of man both before and after his fall I suppose ye will not find my faith or opinion in that point to be changed but improved For I still affirm it as my belief That Adam even in his innocency and much less any man since his Delinquency had no wisdom power righteousness ability holiness or any manner of good whatsoever of or from himself Iam. 1.17 but what he received originally from God and 1 Cor. 15. that he was of the earth earthy from the beginning Nor is there any now 2 Cor. 3.5 sufficient to think so much as a good thought as of himself but by that sufficiency which is of God 49. Yet I say not that the first Adam was at first made a corrupt or sinful earthy man but rather that he was of so pure a mould that although he was not constituted in or of an Heavenly Nature yet be was created in such a capacity that he might have improved that earthy state unto an Heavenly if he had taken of the Tree of Life which he might have done with free leave and licence and not tasted of the Tree of Knowledge of which he was strictly commanded not to eat Gen. 2.16,17 This Adam in his primitiue state was a pure clean unpolluted earth and the Law of God which is of an undefiled Nature circled it about like the incorruptible Heavens To this innocent state we hope to be reduced and confirmed in with an addition of Heavenly glory by Christ 1 Cor. 15.22 who will change 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the body of our Humility or our humble body Phil. 3.21 For in and by Christare all things renewed Isa 43.19 Rev. 21.5 God will give a new heart Eze. 36.26 there is the new earth I will put my Law into their inward parts and write it in their hearts Ier. 31.33 there is the new Heaven this was promised Isa 65.17 chap. 66.22 So that according to his promise we look for New Heavens and a New Earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness 2 Pet 3.13 50. And therefore also do I not deny but that man even after his fall had sufficient succour and supply sent him from God in the incorporate inspoken or as I may so say the incarnate Word whereby he might and still may if he will convert and turn himself to God Gen. 3.15 Verse 8. Nor was God slack concerning the promise of the Seed but hastily pursued man with it and overtook him in the cool of the day not suffering the Sun to go down upon his wrath 51. T is true God first examined the matter of fact and shewed his justice displeasure and indignation against sin in sentencing Adam to death and casting him under the curse thus he was a God that forgave him yet he took vengeance of his inventions Psalm 99.8 And as Adam was to pass under the curse and death before he received the Promise and as our Fathers died according to the Faith Heb. 11.13 before they saw the personal appearance of Christ so must we first die unto sin and live unto Righteousness before we can see or enter into the Kingdom of God John 3. Rom. 6. If we live after the flesh we shall die but if we through the Spirit of God do mortifie the flesh we shall live Rom. 8.13 Heb. 4.1 Let us therefare fear lest a promise being left of entering into his Rest any of us should seem to come short of it 52. In wrath he remembreth mercy Hab. 3.2 Now I say when God had thus strictly and narrowly sifted out the business and had executed his Justice according to the mans demerit he presently runs after him with a Promise in his hand to comfort and recover his creature which he had cast down as if he thought it long before he shewed himself a God of mercy pardoning iniquity Exod. 34.6,7 His bowels seemed to be troubled ever since he spake against him Thus he that had torn did heal he that had smitten did bind up again Jer. 31.20 Hos 6.1,2 This is He that will revive us after we have lain one day dead in sin and another
his death was a passing to the Father therefore so shall ours be also even as Christ himself said John 20. I ascend to my Father and to your Father Note 1. He doth not say that his time but his hour was come to teach us that there is a certain hour appointed to every man as it is said Job 14. The number of his moneths are with thee thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass Note 2. Secondly To shew that his suffering would not last long So he saith to the Jews Matth. 26. this is your hour q.d. I have but one hour to suffer and you but one to spend your rage Thus the Scripture calleth the whole time of this life but an hour If thou dost well know that thou hast but an hours time here that is but a very little while do not therefore begrudge thy labour And even thy effliction lasteth but an hour let it not then be tedious Psalm 37. So the prosperity of the wicked continueth but an hour Fret not thy self because of the evill doers for yet a little and he shall be no more But as the feast of the Passover was Christs hour when he would suffer and dye so forty years after at the same feast was his hour when he inflicted vengeance on the Jews For when they were assembled at the Passover the Romans besieged them and shortly after ransack'd their City We also have two hours one of Mercy another of Judgement as certainly as there is a time of mercy so certainly may we expect the hour of Judgement Briefly the Evangelist John calleth the death of Christ a going away 1. That he might shew his power and might For he could pass over all those things which yet hindred his approach to the Father Psal 107.16 as it is said of him He hath broken the gates of brass and cut the bars of iron in sunder Before his death there was no clear passage out of this world unto Heaven And this therefore is the fruit of his death he opened thereby and prepared for us a passage to the Father It is significantly said not to God but to the Father that we should not be afraid to draw nigh unto God who by Christ is now become our Father 2. Again This going away may thus be understood viz. that John would hereby give an account of the Passover it self which signifieth a passing over as if he had said This feast hath hitherto been celebrated in remembrance of those things that were done in the passing or going out of Aegypt Now there is another passing out at hand even out of the world unto the Father In the former going out Moses was Leader in this second Christ Jesus is the Captain As they followed Moses so let us follow Christ The Jewish Passover is to go out of Aegypt the Christian Passover is to go out of the world to the Father But what did Christ when he knew that the hour of his going away was at hand surely he did not forget his friends He did not leave loving them for whose sake he was going to suffer such a bitter death And why should he withdraw his love from them who are so hated and contemned by and in the world What then doth Christ do When he had loved his he loved them unto the end He did truly love them and he continued this his love to them indeed unto the end In the first clause Christ sheweth the reason why he was made man and came into the world It was not our worthiness that was any motive thereof Psal 143.2 for we were not worthy to receive so much as corporall blessings from him much less were we worthy of eternall Nor had we any merit to move him for we were altogether born in sin Neither was it our righteousness that availed any thing for who shall be justified in the sight of God But it was his boundless love his infinite charity wherewith he embraced us that allured and invited him thereto For as the Father out of his great and abundant love sent his Son so the Son out of his abundant charity undertook and performed that Embassie of the Father So saith John herein his love 1 John 4. not that we loved him but that he loved us first Most significantly doth John say having loved his own which were in the world All creatures were his by creation John 1. It is said of the wicked He came unto his own and his own received him not But by his own is here meant those whom he chose to be his from Eternity of whom it is said Thine they were John 17. and thou gavest them me He saith further which were in the world lest any should think he spake here of the Angels who also are Christs But he took not the Nature of Angels but the seed of Abraham Heb. 2. Phil. 2. He did not appear in the likeness of an Angell but was found in fashion as a man And it is said in generall having loved his own which were in the world lest any should think that he loved none but his Apostles How he loved his own may be seen by this one thing in that he came down from Heaven for their sake to say nothing of the great tokens of his love which he shewed to them when he was in earth But what meaneth that He loved them to the end It was to shew why Christ took the Cross in his way as he went back again to the Father when he might have returned without danger His love constrained him He saw that his coming down from Heaven was not sufficient unless also he made satisfaction for the sins of men So that he loved them to the end i. e. he persevered in his love 1. First in that he left not loving them even to the death the ungodliness of the Jews did not hinder him he was not disheartened when his own fled from him and denyed him leaving him all alone to suffer by himself 2. He continued his love to them in that death it self did not put an end to it Many waters could not quench it Cant 8. 3. His love to them lasted to the end that is he sheweth signs of it to them in the very last day 4. He loved them to the end that is with the highest and most perfect love than which none could be greater Greater love hath none than that a man lay down his life for his friends which Christ did do John 13. Or 5. He loved them to the end that is he gave not over till be had perfectly saved them sully overcome sin death and all the curses of the Law Now then John doth so singularly commend the love of Christ and set it forth in the beginning or entrance of his Passion and his last Supper 1. To shew that all things which followed after proceeded from nothing but the
c. ye shew the Lords death ill he come Thus ye see after what manner at what time and with what words Christ instituted the Sacrament all which are of such concernment that t is strange if they kindle not in us a desire of so great good inflame our love to God and encourage us to give praise and thanks unto him We commend and thank him that giveth us an estate at his death to make us rich Why should we not do so here But sometimes we may find ingrateful heirs in the world so alas for it doth Christ find by experience that we are too unthankfull unto him Now the sleighting what is set before us is no small cause of this our ingratitude And so that is too often fulfill'd in us which Elisha once said to the incredulous Noble man 2 King 7.2 Thou shalt see it with thine eyes but thou shalt not eat thereof Are not these things fulfill'd in us We see and have these great things before our eyes and in our hands yet we perceive them not we taste them not What greater evil can befall a man than to have riches and not enjoy them Two things yet remain to be considered about this Sacrament viz. to what end it was ordained and how it ought to be received It was ordained 1. That our heart should more closely cleave to the words and Promises of God The Prophets promised that the time should come when God would dwell in us and that Christ by his death would take away our sins c. All which and the like Promises are confirmed by this Sacrament He instituted this Sacrament that we should not doubt of these things 2. It is a standing Monument of his Charity that so we might never doubt of his good will to us Whensoever then our consciences are ready to flag and fail which often happeneth specially at death they should be strengthened by this Sacrament 3. It is a perpetual Remembrance and Representation of that only sacrifice which was offered for us upon the Cross The benefit of this Sacrament may be taken out of the words of Paul when he saith 1. The bread which we break is it not the Communion of the body of Christ c. 1 Cor. 10. Whereby he sheweth that by this Sacrament we partake of all the good things of Christ 2. Another fruit of it is that we also are made one bread and one body even all that partake of one bread and of one cup that is This Sacrament doth put us in mind that we are made one meat and one drink and that we should wholly devote our selves to the good of our Neighbours that we should make the poverty of others our own and account the faults of others as our own c. Therefore in Greek it is called Synaxis that is a communication Whence we may easily gather what is requisite to the worthy receiving of it which is nowhere more clearly exprest than in the figure of the Paschal Lamb and the Manna The Paschal Lamb. Both which figures I shall briefly open Concerning the Lamb consider 1. The house must be sprinkled with the blood of the Lamb in three places Exod. 12.7 on the door and both the posts So he that will come to the Sacrament must first be sealed with the Seal of the holy Trinity which is done in Baptism Or thus he must be marked in three places that is he should have the three Sacraments Baptism Confirmation and Repentance Or the blood of the Lamb must be on his doors i. e. he should alwayes have the remembrance of Christs Passion before his eyes when he goeth out and when he cometh in according to that of Paul 1 Cor. 11. As oft as ye eat ye shall shew the Lords death c. Or he should have the Lambs blood on the doors i. e. he must not be ashamed of the Cross of Christ nor blush to keep the Commands of Christ but openly confess that he doth believe and keep them To that which the Author hath here observed The Translators Supplement Heb. 10.29 concerning this first circumstance the Translator further addeth viz. They were not to strike any of the Lambs blood on the threshold nor should we tread the blood of the Son of God under foot But they were to strike the blood on the lintel So should we alwayes have the blood of Christ over our heads above our own reason in higher estimation than the reach of our natural capacity or growth and stature of our earthly man our carnal mind It should be over our head to be seen only by Faith lifting our heads upward from earthy things thoughts desires affections confidence righteousness c. unto heavenly things looking on it as a Propitiation a Reconciliation a Mediation something between Heaven and earth between God and man as that which reconcileth us unto God Heb. 12.24 and giveth us boldness at his Throne of Grace speaking better things than that of Abel Again they were to strike both the side posts one as well as the other We should have the blood of Christ on either hand that we may see God on the lest hand where he worketh and on the right hand where he hideth himself Job 23.9 that we may be kept in prosperity and adversity knowing how to want and how to abound both in respect of the outward and inward man preserved from excess and all extreams swallowed up neither with presumption nor despair but fighting the good fight of Faith having the Armour of Righteousness on the right hand 2 Cor. 6.7 and on the left Now we proceed with the Author 2. They must eat the flesh roasted with fire that night The flesh of Christ must be eaten by night It must be by Faith alone and the eyes of Reason must be shut T is true our flesh would eat it in the day that is it coveteth to see all things but all in vain The flesh of Christ is eaten invisibly and in a Mysterie And the flesh of our Lamb may well be said to be roasted for it is roasted with the fire of Tribulation as also with the fire and operation of the Holy Spirit 3. It was to be eaten with unleavened bread The flesh of the Lamb must not be eaten alone that is we must not only consider what Christ did but what we also ought to do 1 Cor. 5. we must first of all cast out the leaven of malice and wickedness the Sacrament must be received with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth For this food is not provided for dogs but for Children only not for filthy persons but such as are clean They sin therefore who come to it not having first repented of their sins 4. With wild Lettice so the vulg Lat. bitter herbs or as it is in the Hebrew with or upon bitternesses i. e. with a bitter remembrance of our sins Thus the
of glory out of their minds Where ambition is Prov. 13. there even brethren fall together by the ears Proud men are ever quarrelling Never any thing so rent Christian unity in pieces like ambition when one will not yield to another The Words of Christ carry an Emphasis in them And ye ought c. to let us know that t is not so much his Counsell as his Command which must not be sleighted and that we shall incur great punishment if we obey it not Therefore he addeth I have given you an Example c. And truly a very excellent one worthy of all diligence Christ was Lord not only of men but Angels too Matth. 11. 28. to whom the Father had given to share with him in all things who had all Power in Heaven and in Earth who was one with the Father yet so he humbled himself John 14. even to the feet of fishers Who ever heard the like of any of the Kings and Princes of this world So great a price did the Son of God set upon us Let us then do the same Let us walk humbly towards one another Let us love one another If this Pattern of Christ will not work upon us nothing will do us good He must needs be obstinate and obdurate nay both blinded and desperate that is not softened with this Example of Christ Here let thy disdain proud man be confounded who art so proud thou canst not tell whether thou goest on thy head or feet thou knowest not what cloaths to wear or how to jett it out in thy gesture Doest thou not see Christ girt and going up and down among them serving with a Bason and water And who or what art thou to him Blush for shame wretched man saith he I have given you an Example I mean you Christians These things were not done and written for Turks but for us Whence comes so much pride so much loftiness so much pomp and state not only among Lay-Christians but even among the Bishops themselves the successors of the Apostles Is this to imitate Christ What Christ by all means endeavoured to prevent to wit ambition pride pomp especially in the Ministers of the Church this very thing is now grown to the height to the great prejudice and scandal of the Church c. Let us take heed then to this word of Christ I have given you an Example c. In this speech Christ is to be considered two wayes 1. As our Minister and as a gift given us of God For he did not only give him for us but he gave him also to us 2. 1 Pet. 2. Matth. 11. As our Example Thus Peter Christ hath suffered leaving us an Example And Christ himself saith Learn of me for I am meek c. So also are all Christs works and sufferings 1. They are the Ministries wherewith Christ ministred unto us they are the very gifts which he gave us For whatsoever he did and suffered he did it and suffered it for us and so he ministred unto us yea he hath given and by Faith still doth give all his works and merits to us 2. What he did and suffered are our Examples to which we ought to conform as here you expresly hear it They see but with one eye who respect Christ but only as a gift or only as an Example when his will is that we should consider him both wayes Whereas he addeth As I have done so do ye we must understand it according to our ability For there is no man that can do every way as Christ did nor doth Christ require it at our hands As a Master sets his scholar a fair Copy that he should imitate his hand to the utmost yet doth he not require or expect that he should at first essay write as well as he for he knows it cannot be This Word As I have done may be refer'd especially to those things which we have heard that Christ did when he washt their feet For herein if we diligently mark it is the office of the Apostles clearly exprest 1. They ought by Christs example to rise from the supper of Moses to the supper of Christ from knowledge to practice from meat to labour from letter to Spirit 2. They should lay by their garments cast aside whatever hindereth godliness and not be slothfull but serious in business 3. Gird themselves with a white Towel with a pure Life according to that Let your loines be girt Luke 12. 4. Gird themselves lest while they cleanse others they pollute themselves 5. They must pour water out of the pitcher into the Bason draw and pour forth the water of saving Knowledge out of the Bark of Scripture 6. Then presently wash but specially the feet first mend the heart and affections 7. Wipe with Linnen build them up whom they have washed with their own wholsome and clean conversation and what they cannot do by words let them effect with works and an exemplary Life 8. When they have so done let them retire to a private silence and look to their own salvation 1 Cor. 9. lest when they have preached to others they themselves become cast-awayes The like let other Christians do for themselves and those committed to them Now to make this his Example of more force to perswade Christ useth another Argument The servant saith he is not greater then his Lord q.d. There 's no reason why ye should be ashamed to follow my Example For what are ye but my Apostles and servants whose Lord and Master I am You are not above me And if hereafter either you or your Successors shall rise to any preferment yet ye will not then be greater or know and do more than I have done and known There is no cause therefore why you should blush at humility and charity who are but servants whereof I your Lord have not been ashamed So then Christ doth here beat down all proud and ambitious Church-men let them be either Popes or Bishops or Cardinals or Doctors c. What are they but servants And if they are servants as all will easily confess they should so do as not to climb above their Lord. How this may be let them well consider c. But I have not time now to pluck up this stinking weed Their own conscience will tell them wherein they are unlike Christ yea wherein they strive to be above Christ c. Christ doth often inculcate this saying Mat. 10. Luke 6. The servant is not greater c. But here he rehearseth it with great weight of words Verily verily I say unto you c. Every body knows that the servant is not greater than his Lord. But every word of Christ though he doth not swear it is more stedfast than Heaven and earth Luke 21. as himself saith Heaven and earth shall pass away but my words shall not pass away yet here he binds it with an oath First to make the deeper impression Secondly
with the late miracle which he saw when Christ with a word hurl'd all his enemies to the ground and not thinking of Christs answer draws his sword and falls about him as if he would valiantly perform what he promised Who would not take Peter for a very stout and valiant man that durst signly incounter such a company of armed men If we consider him carnally then he did notably discharge his Engagement that he would die with Christ Did he not lay down his life for Christ when he hazarded it in charging an army of men But his Lord did not so construe it Peter did this more out of carnal confidence than of spiritual faith Now indeed he was bold so long as he saw a divine Power in Christ but presently after Christ hid his Power Peters courage quickly grew cold Whence 't is plain that this his valour proceeded not from faith if it had it would have held out in danger For Faith is most couragious in difficulties There was love and zeal in Peter but not according to knowledge Christians are forbid to fight Mat. 5. If we would overcome the world it must be with another kind of weapon we can do little or nothing with a corporal sword Peter saw that the sons of Zebedee were chid for saying Master Wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven and consume these Samaritans as Elias did Luke 9.54 Know ye not saith he of what spirit ye are of The son of man came not to destroy but to save mens lives This Peter heard and yet now he layes about him as if he would kill them all if he could The flesh ever loves fighting it seeks to revenge it self Peter did not yet understand that Christ must suffer Nay he did not know that Martial Discipline was never taught in the school of Christ but that patient submission was alwayes learned there Whereas Peter did that servant no more hurt no thanks to Peters good will but to Christs goodness who useth to do good to unworthy and unthankfull men otherwise fire from Heaven might more justly have consumed this servant or the earth have swallowed him up alive But whereas Peter did in special cut off this servants ear it was not by chance but by the Providence of God and that not without a Mysterie too 1. For First It signified that the Jews should from henceforth lose the true and right hearing or obedience of the Law and Prophets and should interpret all things in a wrong and not in a right sense which also is come to pass 2. But secondly Whereas Christ healed that servant it shewed that in due time they should be inlightned again by Christ when the fulness of the Gentiles was come in Rom. 11. 3. Thirdly Whereas he whose ear was cut off was the servant of the high Preist it she weth that this sort of men viz. the Parasites of great persons have for the most part but one ear only and that the left one whence it is that they only hear and report to their Masters those things only which are false wicked worldly c. but they will neither hearken to nor tell their Lords the truth the Word of God the Righteousness and good service of others 4. But lastly Whosoever is an enemy to Christ hath but one ear for he understandeth all things in a wrong sense and never cometh to the light of Truth The name also of this servant is exprest because of the miracle that was wrought on him in curing his ear again But let us return again to Peter who was now fallen under the power of the sword because he had taken up the sword And no doubt but he had felt the force of other swords if Christ had not protected him by his divine Power What doth Christ therefore do He reproved Peter and forbids him to use any such force or violence and that with many Arguments for Peter by this fact was many wayes to be reproved 1. First because every private person is forbid to use the sword 2. Secondly Because having been so long in the school of Christ he should have learned that the weapons of our warfar are spiritual mighty through God 2 Cor. 10. 3. Thirdly He was an Apostle yea the chief of the Apostles whose duty is to save not to destroy 4. Lastly Peter was most blame worthy in that he gave the first blow before any hurt was done either to him or to Christ Therefore Christ doth justly blame him more than the rest He speaks but one word to the rest Suffer ye thus far saith he q.d. It is a great work of Charity to preserve the life of our Neighbour and to defend him from violence but there is another business now in hand My Father hath appointed me to suffer and to die Let me alone therefore that I may suffer and accomplish those things which the Father hath determined to do by me for the salvation of men Suffer ye yet that I may be apprehended and perfect the work of your Redemption this he said to the other Disciples But he saith more to Peter at first Put up thy sword into his place q.d. Knowest thou not that I did chide thee before and called thee Satan for this very thing Mat. 16. Do not hinder my death but rather study to conform to it Throw away this thy sword with which thou dost kill and slay men My sword which I gave thee doth destroy and cut down sin but preserveth men Put up therefore that outward sword into the sheath or as the other Evangelists say into its place Now the proper place of the material sword is the ordinary Power Therefore hide thy sword here Let that Power use it not thou If the body be sick the Physitian is to cure it not the Plow-man So if any thing be amiss in the Mystical or rather the Politick body it concerns the Power to deal with it not every private person 1. Christ then doth hereby forbid all revenge to private persons as it is written Vengeance is mine I will repay it Deut. 32. 2. Secondly He teacheth us to overcome evil with good according to that Mat. 5. Ye have heard that it hath been said An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth But I say unto you Do good to them that hate you Christians ought not to defend themselves with swords and staves but with Humility Patience Gentleness Courtesies Learn of me saith he for I am meek and lowly in heart Mat. 11. 3. Again Christ doth hereby condemn our wrath and impatience who cannot put up and pass by a hasty word nor be content to requite with the like loss but must revenge our selves double and trebble contrary to that of Paul Be not overcome of evil but overcome evil with good Rom. 12. 4. Fourthly We are here taught that the Gospel is not to be fought for with worldly weapons and
this Counsel but brought him into the City that they might put him to the more disgrace and punishment What tongue can express what a wretched convoy this was they dragg'd him along with great shoutings in much hast and with many flouts as if he had been the most notorious villain that ever lived so fast bound that he could scarse fetch breath And although he would have gone to suffer of his own accord yet no doubt but they justled and thumpt and thrust him from one side to another for how should they favour when they first took him who had no pity on him when he was dying So truly might he say Is it nothing to you O all ye that pass by Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow Lam. 1.12 See I say how basely I am dragg'd how cruelly I am buffeted how patiently I take it Behold a company of mad Dogs merciless murtherers and me a most meek Lamb in the midst of them See what a face their fists have made me how it is besmeared with my bloody sweat and the Jews spittle how bedew'd it is with tears my feet galled and torn with stones c. Thus he who alone was able and willing to lead us to heaven was here led along in a most reproachful manner on earth First to Annas then to Caiaphas for these were the chief of the Priests and bare the sway in the Temple and spiritual things in all Ecclesiastical affairs Now because the matter concerning Christ was spiritual for it respected faith and doctrine therefore according to law they thought it belonged to that Court. Thus they deatl afterward with Paul when they brought him before Annanias the High Priest Act. 23. So they did to the other Apostles when they convented them before these same men Annas and Caiaphas John and Alexander Act. 4. And for this reason Gallio the Deputy of Achaia refused to judge Pauls case because it did not seem to be civil but spiritual These two men had an ill report and were suspected to have given Herod an yearly sum of money for the Priestly Honour and Office like true Simonists and Giezites yea the Father of all Simon acal men Nor would they pass this over in silence calling Caiaphas the High Priest not simply as the law required but only saith that he was the High Priest for that year For these two men did Farm the Priesthood of the Romans at an yearly rent Whence we may guess that they had little godliness but much arrogance and vain glory He was first led to Annas 1. For honours sake out of respect to him for he was the elder man and Father in law of Caiaphas 2. That Christs condemnation might appear more just if he were sentenced by more than one 3. But chiefly that this wicked crew might rejoyce together over the common enemy whom they had now taken Annas perhaps could not be present at the next Common-Council by reason of his age therefore would feast his eyes in the mean time with that desired object So had Christ foretold The world shall rejoyce that is it shall triumph in my Passion Thus the wicked rejoyce to do evil and delight in the frowardness of the wicked Prov. 2.14 But little do they think how short their joy will be Thus they would heap honour one upon another and secure their sacriledge by common consent lest if one should undertake to do it alone he might according to the Roman laws be impeached as the Author of that wicked fact 4. Therefore was Christ first brought to Annas that men might not hate and blame Caiaphas only if he being the first that gave counsel should also be the first that condemned him O Pharisees ye do all to be seen of men But whereas Christ was brought before many Judges it was not so much the plot of the Jews as the providence of God For in that he was examined by many his innocency was the more cleared Thereby he made even all his Judges to be witnesses of his innocency and profess it openly which is the strongest testimony of all And 't is not for nothing that John doth make mention both of Caiaphas and his counsel before Christ was brought to Caiaphas his house For this bare counsel only of Caiaphas was the chiefest cause why not only the Rulers conspired the death of Christ but also why the people fell out of conceit with him John therefore first nameth him as wondering that so vile a man should be in so good an Office and still continue so ungodly 2. He admireth that this High Priest did so greedily thirst after the blood of Christ that when others were at a stand he should presently proclaim and give his verdict for his death whereas nothing doth less become a Priest then to be a blood-thirsty man 3. John wondered that so true and divine a sentence should proceed out of the mouth of so wicked a man For what is more true What is more comfortable than that Christ dyed for the people And that wicked man was the first that uttered this sentence but much against his intention Therefore John saith that he spake not this of himself but by the holy Ghost Joh. 11. 4. Lastly John holds forth Caiaphas and his counsel to us that we might see the righteous and strange judgement of God concerning this man For in him we truly see the Scripture fulfilled that which the wicked do fear shall fall upon them Again they that fear the frost shall be covered with the snow Qui timent pruinam irruet super eos nix so the Vulg. Lat. reads that in Job 6.16 Caiaphas was afraid that Christ would get his place and Priesthood from him And because he endeavoured to hold his honour by unlawful means it was not long ere he lost his honour himself too and the whole Nation besides He feared a temporal loss and fell into an eternal and temporal both at once This Caiaphas then is a most notorious president of all impiety for he is not named by way of honour but infamy It was he and his Father in law on whom that word of Christ was principally fulfilled ye have made of the house of God a den of theeves Matth. 21. It were these two chiefly against whom Christ did more than once thunder out that eternal woe Mat. 23. Therefore they hated Christ and desired his death more than any For he was grievous to them to behold because he upbraided them with their offending the Law Wis 2. Wherefore Caiaphas by that his counsel endeavoured by all means to estrange the people from Christ They did not fear God but the people only And they did not a little prevail therein for by their means the people were fully satisfied that if they suffered Christ to live he would be an occasion of destruction to that place and the Nation of the Jews which when the carnal people heard who loved their present temporal in joyments
conjecture from the Signs Wonders which he wrought that he was sent of God as the blind man did If this man saith he were not of God he could do nothing John 9. The High Priest should not have questioned Christ for his Doctrine but said as Nicodemus Rabbi we know that thou art a Teacher come from God John 3. But this prophane Priest doth not so but with a proud heart and stern countenance he chargeth him that he did preach and get Disciples to follow him For he thought that either Christ would be daunted with his big words and so recant and crave pardon for his fault or if he were stiff in his way that then he would defend it and himself and that in his defence he might happily speak something to be taken hold of the better to accuse him This is that which this reverend and godly Priest hunted so much after Our most meek Lord replies nothing concerning his Disciples of whom he then knew but little good For one had betrayed him another denyed him all deserted him But he would not lay open their faylings teaching us not suddenly to disclose the faults of others Concerning his Doctrine he answered and told them where and before whom he preacht it but not what it was that he did teach For he knew that the High Priest askt it to an ill intent A good Judge will enquire out the Truth not listen to every base report but this fellow sought only to defame him As to his Doctrine then Christ is not silent lest he should seem to repent what he had taught but he stands to maintain it teaching to assert the Truth constantly The Truth of his Doctrine he proved by a double Argument 1. That he did not preach it in hid-lock or in a corner but openly in the publick place He that doth evil hateth the light but he that doth the truth cometh to the light John 3. 2. He is contented to be tryed by his hearers I spake openly saith he to the world and in secret have I said nothing which I am ashamed of or would not have come to light And he did plainly charge his Apostles What I tell you in darkness that speak ye in light Matth. 10. True he spake many things to his Disciples alone yet for no other reason but because others could not bear them Christ would have all that he taught should be published and made known to every one that none might excuse their ignorance Hence that of Paul If our Gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost 2 Cor. 4. Christ indeed doth speak openly to the world for now also doth Wisdom cry in the streets Prov. 8. so that none can find any shift for their ignorance For it is most certain that he taught in the Synagogues and Temple of the Jews where all use to meet And not only in the Temple and Synagogues but in the Ships and mountains and fields too Luke 6. Matth. 5. He preacht publickly in the greatest concourse of men So that they have no excuse at all left them If I had not come and spoken to them they had not had sin John 15.22 Thus far Christ sheweth in his answer where and to whom he spake It remained only that he should say something of his doctrine but that wretched Priest deserved not to hear it Christ therefore doth make no other answer here but that he appealed to his auditors and calls them to witness what he said a sure sign that he was clear in the truth of what he said False Teachers will not do so their own conscience would flie in their face and tell them that their doctrine would not endure the light Hereticks appeal not to their books or to their hearers but seek to maintain their errours by their slye and crafty wiles They can trust neither to their writings nor auditors But saith Christ Why askest thou me Ask them that heard me q.d. It is necessary that he should be examined whose fact is plain that he hath done but how he did it doth not yet appear So it was needfull that Joshua enquire of Achan what he had done That he had sinned was found out by lott but wherein he sinned was not yet known Josh 7. But I whose case thou now statest to refer wholly to doctrine did use to speak openly I taught not heresie but the truth I call my hearers to witness I did nothing in hugger mugger I am not ashamed to shew my face Why dost not thou ask them that heard me or why dost thou condemn before thou hearest and why dost thou ask me whom thou dost not think fit to be believed If it be an offence to teach then all that expound the Law are transgressors But if I have taught that which is not true yet thou oughtest not to judge thereof according to thine own suspition and malice nor receive information from my false accusers but from them that use to hear me I do therefore appeal to my hearers because by the Law and custom of Judicature it is not allowed in a legall proceeding that a man should be his own witness Ask them that heard me They can tell what I said I am not so much afraid or ashamed of my doctrine but that I dare refer my self to any that heard it Yea I fear it so little that I know what I have preach't will pass for current among my very adversaries Mark it he doth not say ask my Disciples or my friends but he appeals in generall to his hearers as if he had said I except none I fear not what any of them can say Here you see how confident the Truth is Truth only can say I fear no man No other doctrine is so perfect as to say so of it self besides that which God hath revealed by his Word Christ by this his answer did closely strike the conscience of that lend high Priest Why askest thou me saith he as if he had said why dost thou make such a fair pretence when thou dost not seek after the truth but to cavill with me But why dost thou ask that which thou dost already know I appeal to thy own conscience That hath answered for me long since A terrible word indeed when God shall produce our own conscience for a witness against us So he toucht the consciences of the ungodly Priests in the case of the woman taken in adultery when he said He that is without sin let him cast a stone first at her John 8. How truly and modestly did Christ answer hitherto But what followed What else but what usually proceeds from disdainfull persons Instead of an answer he had a cuff on the ear But it is better to take a box on the ear from an open enemy then a kiss on the lips from a false friend John saith one of the officers struck Jesus with the palm of his hand Let heaven and earth here tremble and stand amazed at the patience of
be the Son of God which Paradox our Jews strongly deny and oppose it thus If say they your Jesus were a Christ or a Messias yet he could not be the Son of God as he acknowledgeth he is c. These miserable creatures neither read nor confess the Scriptures For in the second Psalm the Messias is plainly called the Son of God The Lord said unto me thou art my son And in Jeremy the same Messias is clearly exprest and called by the great Name of the Lord Jehovah They shall call him our Righteous Lord Jer. 23. 2. This also is to be observed that wicked Caiaphas in the worst act did not presume to take the Name of God into his mouth without an addition of praise and Benediction How blame-worthy yea how ungodly then are they amongst us who not only rashly and irreverently name that dreadfull Name of God but most wickedly blaspheme mock and all to bespit it If God will not hold him guiltless that taketh his Name in vain what shall become of them that blaspheme his Name and most wickedly abuse it Let us even from this ungodly Caiaphas learn 1. To give more Reverence to Gods Holy Name for the honour whereof Christ could here no longer hold his peace lest he also should seem to despise and dishonour the Sacred Name of God otherwise he would never have answered that wicked man 2. Christ did therefore answer Caiaphas that the Jews in after ages should have no ground to excuse or defend their treachery saying That Nazarene was examined by our high Priest and was adjured by the holy Name of God to tell whether he were the Messias and Son of God or no but he held his peace and could not answer a word If he had told the truth we would have believed him And for this reason Christ would hold his peace no longer Wherefore in that Christ did answer now and not before it is not to be ascribed to any power of the exorcism for what conjuration can prevail against God Here we are likewise taught freely to confess the truth when we are questioned about it Christ denyed not who he was Let us also confess who we are Moreover Christ did so frame his answer that he might both insinuate the truth and also make it his business to with-hold them from their malice who sought to murther him with the fear of future punishment The truth he confesseth in two words Thou hast said it And I am The first whereof was somewhat obscure Thou hast said But the second was clearer then the Sun The meaning then is this Thou hast said as if he had said True it is as thou say'st Or I need not answer seeing thou thy self saist it Or he doth rather refer it and send him to his own conscience Thou hast said that is why dost thou ask that which thou knowest well enough already I need not tell thee what thy own conscience dictates to thee Nevertheless I ingenuously confess that I am what thou at once askest and acknowledgest even the Messias and the Son of God who is blessed for evermore Christ doth here first take Caiaphas himself for a witness Secondly he doth freely confess it Thirdly he doth prove his confession by his ascention into heaven which was shortly to follow and by his coming again to Judgement which is not yet come to pass For who can ascend into heaven and so sit at the right hand of God in equall power with him Also who can descend from the clouds but this one Jesus He therefore without all question must needs be the Messias and the Son of God however he was abased on earth and notwithstanding he did suffer so unworthily at the hands of men Then indeed he stood bound like a Malefactor before Caiaphas who yet was is and ever will be the best Benefactor to all men but shortly after they were to see him after another manner For the Apostles who were Jews saw him afterward go up into heaven Acts 1. Stephen who also was a Jew saw him standing at the right hand of God Acts 7. We all shall see him coming out of the clouds as a Judge and justly judging his unjust Judges Luke 21. How can it then be but that he must needs be both the Messias and the Son of God Therefore he doth now warn them of this Judgement to come if happily he might convert them with fear whom he could not win or reclaim with his courtesies and innocency The meaning then is this You do here accuse me indeed for a base fellow and endeavour with might and main to cut me off and destroy me but hereafter I will not shew my self to you so weak and despicable Behold ye shall see me that I am the Son of God sitting at the right hand of the power of God equall with God equally powerfull in the glory of the Father coming in the clouds of heaven to judge both the quick and the dead though now ye look upon me as the son of a man and so wickedly accuse me as a man plotting and purposing my death This Judgement I now tell you of beforehand I warn you of this day at present Here he doth fitly compare his first and second coming together The first coming of Christ was with much reproach and scorn among unbelievers but most saving to Believers His other coming will be glorious very comfortable and joyfull to the godly but to the wicked it will be most terrible But let 's hear what good Christ did these naughty men by this confession of the truth Caiaphas askt the question and answered it himself besides he heard the truth of Christ also as also the proof of the truth or of his true confession so that he might well have been satisfied But see his carriage He rents his cloathes and brawls at Christ as if he had committed some notorious and hainous crime He hath spoken blasphemy saith he that is he hath sinned against the holy Ghost There needs no further accusation or evidence All ye that are present here in this sacred Council have heard out of his own mouth this horrible and egregious blasphemy Is it not more then too much for any man to say and make himself to be the Son of God Judge ye therefore what punishment such a man is worthy to have c. The rending of the garments was a good custom among the Jews especially in extream troubles and amazements and when any thing befell them which they much dreaded and would by no means should have come upon them Examples of this kind we have in Jud. 11.35 and 2 Sam. 1. chap. 13. 2 Chro. 5. Thus this wicked Caiaphas doth here as if he had so abhorred the blaspheming of Gods name when there was no fear of God at all in him The wretched man perceived that Christ spake this from that Text in Daniel 7. where we read that the Son of man came with the clouds of
is that to us We bought and sold we paid what we promised Therefore there can be no flaw against us at the Law Look thou to it whom thou didst sell it nothing conterns us But hear O ye Heads and Rulers of the Synagogue Ye dealt either justly or unjustly with Christ If unjustly as t is plain enough that ye did then are ye Christ-killers that is such as murther your own Messias If ye did justly with him then ought ye to have comforted poor miserable Iudas and not have heaped all the guilt upon him and laid all the load on his back but ingenuously have confest that he was in no fault at all But whereas ye shift of the blame from your selves and lay it on Iudas certainly you acknowledge that he did very wickedly And if his Treason were a filthy fact doubtless your murther could not be lawfull nor just and so ye are manifestly convinced of unrighteousness and that out of your own mouth 1. Note here what wicked men will do against their conscience so they may but satisfie their lust They deny not but that it was guiltless blood that was betrayed Wherefore hence we may observe to whom the poor sheep may safely commit themselves These should have comforted his conscience that was driven into despair but they say what is that to us O tender hearted Shepheards Here we see little of that affection that was in Moses toward the people Exod. 32. And in Paul to his Brethren Rom. 9. They are indeed no Shepheards but Wolves rather seeking their own and not the good of the Lords Flock c. 2. Observe here that they who do evil to please men if the wind turn and things fall out contrary they shall be flouted and forsaken by those very men for whose favour they did it Let no man therefore at any time do evil to humour others c. What should Indas do now being terrified in conscience and finding no comfort from those men whose turn he had served against his own conscience What else I say should he do or what indeed could he do but despair Wherefore he cast down the pieces of silver in the Temple and went and hanged himself being forced so to do by that sorrow which is unto death 2 Cor. 2. and that by the righteous Judgement of God that so the wickedness which he fomented against the Head of all the Saints might fall on his own pate and that he should be his own judge and Executioner Now 1. He hanged himself to shew that he was hated of heaven and earth who would not only not reform and amend that sin of Treason but also added this horrid offence to be his own murtherer 2. He hung in the ayr died and burst a sunder in the midst and all his bowels gushed out as Peter saith Act. 1. for he was not worthy of a burial Indeed he was not fit for the company either of Angels or men Therefore he could finde no place in heaven among the Angels because he betrayed the Lord of heaven and of the Angels nor ought he to be buried in the earth amongst men because when he was on earth he was a companion of Devils justly then did he perish in the ayr which is the place appointed for the Devils until the day of Judgement A figure of this untimely death we have in Achitophel who plotted the death and ruine of David 2 Sam. 17. who came to the same end as Judas here did for he hanged himself and for no other reason but because he foresaw that David would get the Kingdom in that Chushi Davids Friend was come over to Absolon not cordially but only personally So Judas saw that Christs name would not be forgotten in that the Apostles yet live to keep up the remembrance thereof and would survive that his memory should not perish As therefore Achitophels hanging himself was a sad presage that Absolon himself also should come to an ill end So Judas hanging himself portended the end and destruction of the Jews for unto this very day they hang yet between heaven and earth because in heaven they have no hope and on earth have not any setled place and their bowels are gushed out for they are scattered over the face of all the earth Now whereas it is here said that Judas brought back the 30. pieces of silver to the Priests into the Temple it is plain 1. That some of the Priests and Elders tarried in the Temple because of the Feast whilst others of the chief Priests and Elders accused Christ before Pilate For the Sacrifices of the Feast must be taken care of and if no other yet the morning Sacrifice which was the daily offering must be lookt after that nothing might be now left undone but that in both they might hold up the Service of God both by their Oblations in the Temple and by condemning Christ that grand Seducer who is indeed the Saviour of the world Hence we see how justly their Sacrifices were rejected Isa 1. Because your hands saith he are full of blood 2. Here also we may see what a fearfull thing it is to be forsaken of God For he that is deserted of God hath indeed a sense of his sin but he dares not hope for any mercy or pardon for his sin nor can he finde any comfort from men but must necessarily run into despair 3. We see also what a miserable end they come unto who are the persecutors of Christ they hang between heaven and earth They lose earthly things and cannot obtain heavenly 4. But let covetous men principally mark well this passage for here they may see what becomes of their covetousness For what profit or pleasure had this miserable Judas by all the money that he took Surely he got nothing but grief and sorrow of heart Riches are a perpetual vexation although thou get them with distracting care and fill all thy Store-houses therewith scraping them together by all means right or wrong What becomes of all at last Thou losest thy money bringest thy body to poverty and betrayest thy soul to the Devil And therefore O Christian take better heed and let not money master thee but if thou hast got it honestly use it soberly if dishonestly be careful to dispose of it to good uses or make restitution to those thou hast wronged But whence had Judas all this money And what became of it at last Doubtless the Jewish Prelates being in a confusion were forced to pick up the money again which he scattered in the Temple inasmuch as it came from them at first but when they had it they could not tell what in the world to do with it But it was the least of their thoughts to take care for the preservation of the Traitor when he had cleared Christs innocency They saw that Judas repented and recanted what he had done and returned again the earnest and contract of the bargain which he made But they keep the
quiet as we heard before in the house of Annas so secondly it doth as much complain of Christ that he will and must Raign The world is in bodily fear of losing its Kingdom Thus Herod was exceeding afraid when Christ was born Matth. 2. So here the Roman power is cast into a quaking fit lest it should be destroyed by Christ And thus Worldlings are still afraid that Christ will take away their Riches and Honours from them But there is no ground why these silly men should so fear it He that can give Heavenly Kingdoms will scorn those that are mortal He came not to take our earthly things from us but to give us Heavenly things with them Christ doth not deny us things terrene but teacheth us to make good use of them To Pilates Question Christ makes his answer so that he doth neither deny himself to be a King nor directly affirm it and this he did most wisely For if he had presently answered and said I am a King before he had distinguished his Kingdom from the kingdoms of men he had given Pilate occasion to revile him What then doth he reply Speakest thou this of thy self or did others tell it thee of me Which may be taken 1. By way of Admiration q.d. O Pilate what a great thing and how certain a Truth dost thou speak of which thou art altogether ignorant and unwitting Whence hadst thou it that thou shouldst call me a King whereas none can say that this Jesus is that is that I am the Lord but by the Holy Ghost Doubtless whencesoever thou hadst it whether of thy self or from others thou hast truly spoken a mighty matter if so be thou didst but understand thine own words and know what thou sayest In like manner Christ admired that noble answer of the Centurian who said Lord I am not worthy that thou shouldst c. Mat. 8. 2. It may be taken as a reprehension of Pilate as if Christ had said If thou wouldst fasten this upon me from thine own jealousie then thou dost not the part of a just Judge For a Judge must not judge according to his own private surmises but as the cese is But if others have told thee these Tales of me they must prove what they say let them make it appear that I went about to raise a Rebellion But 3. Christ did thus answer especially to give an occasion to speak what follows Am I a Jew saith he q.d. How should I say this of mine own head when I am no Jew but a Gentile What do we that are Heathens know of your affairs Thine own Nation and the High Priests have delivered thee unto me and have accused thee under this Notion before me They have thus aspersed thee I neither apprehended nor accused thee What is it which thou hast done let me hear it from thine own mouth do thou tell me thy self what hast thou done to cause so many and so great men yea thine own Prelates and Clergy and all the whole Nation to hate thee Christ made no answer to this For he had done nothing to deserve their spite and spleen But all that he did was rather worthy of commendation for he did all things well he did all good things and nothing but good and all good things were created by him But he did answer to the former question and distinguish his Kingdom from the kingdom of the World to shew that he had nothing offended against Caesar My Kingdom saith he is not of this World q.d. Pilate I acknowledge and confess that I am a King and this is all that I have done This is the crime that I am accused of But understand it aright T is true I am a King yet so as that I neither usurp or diminish the power of thy Caesar or intend to pull down the Power or Dominion of any King or Prince And that thou mayest fully know my meaning 1. I am not a worldly but an Heavenly King in whose hand are the hearts of all Kings though thou dost little see it 2. My Kingdom that it is my Principality and Administration or my Kingdom that is my Laws and Statutes or my kingdom that is my officers and subjects this my kingdom is not of this world that is it is not of men but of God I am saith he made a King by him upon his holy Hill of Sion Psalm 2. 3. It is not of this World that is it is not a Temporal but a Spiritual Kingdom For the World and the desire thereof passeth away 4. It is not of this world that is it doth not consist in the things of this world as in Riches Pleasures Pomp for whatsoever is of this world is the lust of the flesh the lust of the eye and the pride of life but in Spiritual things as Righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Ghost Rom. 14. 5. It is not of this world because it hath other Rights and Laws which a worldly Kingdom hath not 6. It is not of this world because it is not corporal but Spiritual 7. It is governed after another manner than the Kingdoms of this world For these are Ruled by a material Sword but my Kingdom hath no need of such a Sword The Sword of my Kingdom is the Word of God The Kingdoms of the world have Cities Towers Towns Villages Hosts Armies Ammunition but my Kingdom doth require nothing but the hearts of men The world doth rule over mens estates and persons but my Scepter swayeth only their hearts and consciences The world vaunts it with carnal power but must stoop to that which is Spiritual I care nothing at all for fleshly strength but I Triumph and Raign spiritually over sin death and hell See how lively Christ sets forth his Kingdom In the same manner almost doth Zachary speak of Christs Kingdom Behold saith he thy King cometh unto thee meek and lowly Zach. 9. Note also that he doth not say my Kingdom is not in this world For he is Lord of the world too All things were made by Christ and by him are they all governed and disposed All power is given unto him in Heaven and in earth Mat. 28. Now if the Kingdom of Christ be not of this world then it will follow that there is another world besides this And therefore 1. If thou dost not see the Promises of Christ fulfill'd in this world yet do not despair for there is another world wherein shall be made good whatsoever was not performed here 2. Whereas the Kingdom of Christ is not of this world therefore we are commanded to pray Thy Kingdom come So then Christ doth here free Pilate from all his fear And by his Example also he doth prove that he did not at all affect the Caesarean or regall power If my Kingdom were of this world saith he 1. I would not march with naked Disciples but would provide me armed men yea I would have my Counsell of War Souldiers an Army c.
Counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed Psalm 2. The Gentiles did rage indeed like bruit beasts for they knew not what they did The people to wit the Jews imagined vanity They laid their heads together as it is written Psalm 109. They compassed me about with words of hatred the Kings that is Pilate and Herod Hence the Apostles composed their mournfull prayer Of a truth Lord say they against thy holy child Jesus both Herod and Pontius Pilate with Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together c. Acts 4. To this may be added that of the Psalmist They are confederate against thee the Tabernacles of Edom and the Ishmaelites of Moab and the Hagarens Gebal and Ammon c. Psalm 83. They are like Sampsons foxes their tails be tyed together and like the scales of the Leviathan sticking so close together that no air can come between them Job 41. So when it comes to persecution of the godly and to propagate ungodliness now wicked men are easily reconciled and made friends But all this while Christ is not set at liberty but compel'd to the Cross and die he must Thus Tyrants for the most part now adays are quickly quiet one with another after they have robbed and spoiled and plundred and utterly undone the poor and not one amongst them all will restore or help the poor man to that which is his right Concerning this peace of the wicked David saith I was envious at the wicked when I saw the prosperity of sinners Psalm 73. But a little after he saith Thou didst set them in slippery places thou castest them down into destruction How are they brought into desolation as in a moment They are utterly consumed with terrors As a dream when one awaketh so shalt thou make their image to vanish out of the City Psalm 73. All this was fulfilled in these two men for both of them were banished It follows And Pilate when he had called together the chief Priests and the Rulers and the people said unto them Luk. 23.13 Ye have brought this man unto me as one that perverteth the people and Behold I have examined him before you and I have found no fault in this man touching those things whereof ye accuse him No nor yet Herod for I sent you to him and lo nothing worthy of death is done unto him I will therefore chastise him and release him And when Jesus was accused of the chief Priests and Elders Mat. 27.12 Mar. 15.3 he answered nothing Then saith Pilate unto him answerest thou nothing Behold how many things they witness against thee But he answered him to never a word insomuch that the Governour marvelled greatly Christ is now brought back again from Herod to Pilate but so as without doubt many godly men wept to see how miserably he was led along We use to say when innocent men suffer Thieves and Robbers should be thus dealt with not honest and just men But the Lord Christ was neither Thief nor Robber and yet he endured all this and was so tossed to and fro from one to another and with such disgrace too that it would have made one shed many a tear to see the veryest Rascal in the world so used Paul an Apostle of this Jesus was tost and tumbled up and down in the same manner For as the Lord Jesus had his Annas's Caiaphas's Pilates Herods so Paul had his Annanias's Felix's Festus's Agrippa's c. Why should the Scholler speed better then his Master And let it not repent thee Brother of the Cross be not thou ashamed of it for thy Lord and mine did never blush at it Holy truths can no otherways be brought to light Good men must look for no other usage Pilate and Herod have no better entertainment in their houses Innocency Humility Simplicity the Spirit Knowledge c. are nothing worth in their market they make but a piff of these Thou must be their Mocking-stock and make them fools sports yea though thou wert as good as Elias unless thou will say and do as they please that is to say and do the filthiest and basest wickedness in the world Satan knows his time and advantage and can tell well enough how and when to make wicked men friends but so as that their reconciliation shall be thy ruine and destruction But Pilate who was a little honester than the Jews and Herod that he may seem not to wrong any man doth once more call together the chief of the Jews and leaves no stone unturned but useth all means possible to set Jesus at liberty and release him safe and sound Ye have brought this man to me saith he and have accused him of many things and I have examined him as strictly and as narrowly as possibly I can to sift out the truth and sound the business to the very bottom to bring things to light I have taken him aside and asked him alone and examined him in private and now I have questioned him in your presence before your own faces and yet I cannot hear or understand any thing but that he is wrong'd exceedingly and all that I can do for my life and heart I can find no cause of death in him And if ye will not believe me behold Herod also his own Lord under whose jurisdiction he is doth think and say the same he is of one mind and opinion with me in this matter For he under whose power he is hath sent him back again without punishment which he would never have done if he had found him faulty What therefore will ye do seeing according to the truth of the business there is nothing to be found in this man worthy of reprehension or wherefore he should be put to death Will you use violence to him and kill him contrary to all Law and Reason Doth your Law teach you to serve men so Surely Solon Lycurgus Minos and the Roman Tables allow no such thing much less command it The chiefest Law of Lycurgus was that no man should be punished before he was convicted and condemned Nor did ever any Law-maker allow of so notorious a wickedness as to cut off and destroy the innocent How much less ought you to do any such thing who go under the name of Religion and are professors of the most holy Law Let me desire you therefore to hearken to my advice which I suppose may somewhat pacifie you I will chastise and scourge him after the manner of the Romans that it may not be said you have bound him and brought him before me without a cause but I neither can nor will I put him to death because I find no such fault in him See here Pilate doth again bear witness of Christs innocency against the impiety of the Jews that by the righteous Judgement of God their damnation might be the greater You shall shortly see the Sun and the Heavens the Earth and the stones testifie against them and proclaim
bounds and had done more then he could answer in scourging him For if the Judge could find no fault in him surely he must needs be whipt unjustly Here then was fulfilled that of the Psalmist Thou hast tryed me and shalt find nothing Psalm 17.3 Whence it is that Christ said at Supper The Prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me Iohn 14.30 Jesus therefore went forth wearing the crown of Thorns and the purple Robe He went forth without any Imperial splendor but full of reproach He went forth indeed without any form or comliness for what comliness was it for the Son of God to be crowned with thorns and to be mocked weltring in his own blood and exposed as a gazing-stock to his enemies Who would have believed that this was the Son of God But this deformity of Christ is full of consolation unto us For hence we are assured that he made satisfaction to the utmost for us What could not so great humiliation of his Son merit for us it being voluntarily undertaken for us Go forth also O ye Daughters of Sion ye believing souls and behold King Solomon the peace-making King who reconcileth all things that are in Heaven and that are in Earth Cant. 3.11 Col. 1.20 Behold I say your King with a crown of thorns a crown of grief and misery with a ludibrious Robe and reproaches wherewith his mother crowned him yet not his mother but his step-mother the wicked Synagogue Here is truly a most wonderfull spectacle indeed to be seen He that goeth forth hath indeed some likeness of a King yet is he over-loaden with the confusion of a most despicable servant he went along crowned but his crown was his torture wounding his glorious Head with a thousand prickles He is cloathed in Royal Purple not for honour but disgrace He bears a Scepter in his hand but is smitten with it on his head They worship and bow the knee to him and cry him up for a King but presently chase him to the Cross Think upon these things O Christian look on Christ in this hue and never despair of his Grace and Favour For doubtless as long as thou dost trust in him he will never forsake thee who hath already suffered so much for thee that didst not deserve the same at his hands To this end therefore is Christ held forth and set before thy eyes that thou shouldest not despair Whensoever therefore thou art in any tribulation either of body or conscience or mind look this way turn thine eyes toward Christ and thou shalt be comforted But Pilate the better to asswage these savage beasts and move them to some pity knowing what compassion there is in nature whereby as every creature loves its like so also doth every one naturally take compassion on its like Therefore he cryes out to them with a loud voyce Behold the man as if he had said O ye Jews be satisfied with the scourging of this man which yet I was forced to inflict rather out of necessity then any offence of his Behold what a man ye have made of him see how he is used mark if he doth look but like a man The sight of him is enough to melt and break an iron or flinty heart Ye see there is no whole skin left in all his body from top to toe No part or member of his body is free ye see nothing but wounds and gore blood all over him Have compassion therefore and take some pity upon him for he is not a dog but a man as ye are although indeed he hath been used worse then one would use a dog Let this punishment suffice be ye satisfied with what he hath suffered already and le ts dismiss him and send him going For if he hath formerly erred in matter of Faith this whipping will be a perpetual warning to him that he never more broach the like errours again If ye envy him as King yet forbear for ye see him abased and dejected the name of King is vanisht from him into the basest penance and highest mulct that can be exacted he hath been whipt crowned with Thorns put into a mock-habit scorned with bitter revilings beaten and buffeted sufficiently let his shame abound and let your envy abate All this Pilate spake very civilly indeed and religiously unto them but to little or no purpose with these men Most truly doth he say Behold the man Hearken Hereticks ye that deny the Humanity of Christ Behold the Man saith Pilate Hear this O Christian what did Pilate here see but a man If thou canst not see God yet behold this man who became so despicable for thy sake Hear it too thou sinner Behold the man See what man merited see how miserable man is made see what God-man suffered for thee that thou be not found unthankfull Take heed thou be not like the Iews who were more enraged at that miserable Spectacle of Christ and that whereby they should have been moved to compassion therewith was their wrath and malice more enflamed They cry out Crucifie him Crucifie him q.d. proceed and go on as thou hast begun If thou hast scourged him crucifie also T is not enough to have him whipt we are not contented with that we long to see him dying upon the Cross Thou dost shew us his wounds but we must have his life too We shall never be at quiet till we see him dead He shall never scape alive out of our hands though it cost us all that ever we have It shall be so thou cursed cruell wicked Jew It shall be as thou sayest but not because thou wouldest have it so but because God hath so disposed it Thou shalt see him on the Cross and there dying too But it had been better for thee to have suffered him to preach in the Temple and that Barabbas had been hanged on the gallows The Evangelist doth justly tax their impiety saying 1. When they saw him they cryed out Therefore they cannot excuse their sin For they have seen saith Christ and yet have hated both me and the Father Joh. 15. 2. Those wicked Blasphemers of Christs Passion are here taxed who have seen and do see know and confess that Christ did suffer all these things for us and yet will not cease still to blaspheme 3. It is spoken Emphatically that the chief Priests did cry out for happily the rest of the multitude might be moved with some natural pity and piety and begin to think upon the Miracles which he wrought among them and so might be a little ashamed of what was so wickedly done unto Christ The chief Priests therefore at least with their Officers cry out Servants are easily perswaded to do as their Masters do supposing that they shall be excused if they do but imitate their Lords In these High Priests was fulfilled that of Jeremy The Pastors are become bruitish and have not sought the Lord therefore they shall not prosper and all the flocks shall be
Vagabonds upon the earth like Cain Gen. 4. And no doubt but ye have felt the smart of it long since how sorely this blood of Christ hath lain upon you But now 1659. years and opprest you and your Children now more than these fifteen hundred years Nor shall you ever have rest and quiet till ye be converted and turn to him and acknowledge your iniquity After Pilate had washt his hands and thought himself whiter than the snow then he gives sentence against Christ to put him to death He thought it a small matter to adjudge a poor mean man to die He thought no body would revenge his blood but he found it otherwise at last What matter is it if a godly man hath no man to take his part or none to revenge his quarrel so long as he hath God to avenge his wrong Vengeance is mine saith he I will repay Deut. 32. Thus Barabbas the Robber is let go without any punishment but innocent Jesus is whipt and judged to death even the death of the Cross The just for the unjnst So those sons of men Whose teeth are spears and arrows and their tongue a sharp sword did prevail and get the day because they stifly stood it out and held on their clamour so long till at last he was delivered to them to be crucified And so he that gives life to all bare the sentence of death for us For in the righteous Judgement and Court of God this sentence of death was due to us But Christ took it upon himself Thus I say He to whom the heavenly Father had committed all Judgement John 5. And who shall call to the Heavens from above and to the earth that he may judge his people Psalm 50. 2 Pet. 2. At whose Judgement the Powers of Heaven shall be shaken and the firmament shall pass away with fervent heat Hell shall give up its dead and every creature shall tremble he it this day set at naught and despised as the vilest fellow in the world and condemned to die But wo and alas 1. How were the hearts of his Disciples and the rest of his friends overcharged with sadness and grief when all hope of life was taken away and they heard that their faithfull Master their Lord and Helper was condemned by a most unrighteous Judgement 2. On the contrary what a frantick fit of jollity and howling exultation were these mad dogs put into when they had at last prevailed with the Judge by their importunate clamours to grant them their most abominable and horrid request which he had so often denyed them before when the wicked Judge delivered up Jesus the Saviour to the cursed and most cruel will of those who thirsted so much after his blood 3. How did the hopeless sadness of his friends and the furious mirth of his foes torture and afflict this meekest Lamb now in the midst of Wolves 1. Here we see Christians what we must have expected at Gods Judgement day even the Sentence of Eternal Death if Christ had not took pity on us and taken it upon himself 2. We see what little confidence we are to put in the World when Pilate who had hitherto so often stood in defence of Christ now to gratifie and please the Iews doth crucifie him without any other cause in the world So Herod heard Iohn willingly yet cut off his head at last Mark 6. This unrighteous Sentence Christ took and accepted of to free us from the most just Sentence of damnation and to teach us not to fear the unrighteous judgement of the World Let us alwayes remember this Judgement that we may with all our might and whole hearts give thanks to our Lord Christ who would be condemned to death for us and be delivered to the will of the wicked Iews yea he delivered himself that we might be able to stand before the Judgement of God And they took off the purple from him Mar. 15.20 and put his own cloaths on him and led him out to crucifie him And he bearing his cross went forth John 19.17 And as they came out they found a man of Cyrene Simon by name Mat. 27.32 who passed by coming out of the Countrey the father of Alexander and Rufus Mark 15.21 and they laid hold upon him Luke 23.26 him they compelled to bear his cross Mat. ibid. and they laid the cross on him that he might bear it after Iesus And there followed him a great company of people and of women which also bewailed and lamented him And Iesus turning unto them said Daughters of Jerusalem weep not for me but weep for your selves and for your children For behold the dayes are coming in the which they shall say Blessed are the barren and the Wombs that never bare and the paps which never gave suck Then shall they begin to say to the Mountains fall on us and to the Hills cover us For if they do these things in a green Tree what shall be done in the dry Luke 23.27 Dearest Brethren and friends of God you who wait to hear the end of the saving crucifying of the blessed Lord and beloved Jesus the good God imprint in your hearts the memory of this great suffering that thereby you may not only be more strengthened in your Faith but also animated and encouraged in patience to undergo the like if need so require Amen Invocate the Lords mercy and with most fervent minds pray for all Iews Pagans Hereticks sinners and sinneresses that God the Father and Creator of all would bestow his Grace and Mercy upon all men whereby they may be converted from unbelief to the Faith and from a wicked life to godliness O thou most high God remember this so infinite Passion and be not angry with us for ever These things I thought good to premise to stir up your minds and make ye more attentive to those things which now follow We have heard first what our Lord suffered before finall sentence was past upon him We have heard secondly what that sentence was to wit that he should be crucified Now thirdly we shall hear next how that sentence was put in execution Here then let us give all attention not so much with the ears of our body as of our mind The next thing to be done is to open the Veins of the Fountain of living Waters that that precious balsam which pierceth and softeneth the hearts of all the godly may flow out After that wicked sentence was pronounced those truculent and bloody Wolves took that meekest Lamb Jesus to rend him in pieces and destroy him utterly a thing which they had long desired and now at last had obtained So that what Christ had foretold was now fulfilled to wit that the world should rejoice in his sufferings Ioh. 15. Then is the world glad when it may do what it listeth without controul when there is none to reprove it when it hath those that rebuke it under its own power they took Christ
and irksome was it to Christ to depart out of that City which he so highly esteemeâ— as to make it as it were equal to Heaven in Wealth Power Dominion Religion but would neither now nor henceforth afford it either his presence or assistance because of the iniquity thereof and would leave the Vine which his right hand had planted to be devoured by the Bore and every wild beast Psalm 80. This was Christs last farewell to the Jews nor hath he ever since unto this very day returned again to them Never man went so willingly to serve God as he hasted to Calvery to be crucified Let us go forth with him at least thinking upon his reproach Heb. 13. Most truly is it said of him that he did bear his cross for he did not bear it outwardly only but inwardly too Nor was there ever man carried such a heavy cross as Christ did For 1. First he carried an outward cross which being made infamous by the curse and burdensome by the weight of it did grievously press and gawl his raw and wounded shoulders It may well be thought that by this carrying of the cross all the skin of his shoulders to the very raw flesh was so fret and feak'd and rub'd that either all his sores were renewed afresh or were so extreamly torn that they were made all but one wound For the cross being long and heavy and Jesus quite tyred out he could not carry it but one end on his shoulders and the other dragging on the ground so that the continual jogging and jolting of it as he haled along over stones and rugged ground must needs wound the wounded shoulders of the Lord more deeply and sometimes hitting against his head put him to fresh pain by beating the prickles of the Thorny crown into his head Indeed no Tongue can tell nor is any man able to express what pain and torment Christ endured under this Cross and no doubt but that he was so weary and weakened that many times he fell down under the load and weight of the Cross All these things were thus done and written to shew us that they used Christ most unmercifully And thus should we have been tortured eternally without any hope of pity if Christ had not taken all upon himself in our stead Now they lay this Cross upon him 1. To put him to the greater pain and shame For they were so impatent that they could not stay till they came to the place of Execution 2. They lay the cross on him because no body else would so much as touch that wood it was so odious by reason of the curse Thus all of us do still abominate loth and fly the Cross of Christ which we should bear for Christ whereas for the most part we are forced to endure greater things in and from the world But 2. Secondly It was not this outward cross only that oppressed Christ There was another spiritual Cross which did cruciate and lye heavy upon the mind of holy Jesus with no less bitterness from the minute he was born to the very hour of his death without any refreshment of joy This cross was our sins For the sins of all men were laid upon the cross of Christ It was he that bear our sins in his own body on the Tree 1 Pet. 2. and upon him the Lord laid the iniquity of us all Isa 53. This Talent of Lead these cords of impiety these faggots of Thorns which were heavier then any Mountain did grievously surcharge Christ This huge load that would have broken the strength of Heaven bowed all the Spheres Orbs and Regions of the Firmament mouldred the foundation of the earth and crusht in pieces all things here below this heavy and intolerable burden was bound to the back of holy Jesus Where by the way we may take notice of our ingratitude We sin but avoid the cross and suffer it to lye on innocent Christ and never so much as give him thanks for all his pains How great therefore must our condemnation be Although Christ alone felt the load and weight of the cross yet he did not bear it for himself who had no sin but he bare it to us and for us and that two wayes 1. He carried the cross before us Ministerially serving and ministring to us thereby For his cross is our cross which he took from our shoulders and laid upon his own Now the appurtenance of the cross is the curse Cursed is every one that hangeth on a Tree Deut. 21. And this is that which is most intolerable in the cross For happily the cross might have been endured in respect of the pain but when the curse was added that made it become most extreamly miserable Wherefore when Christ took our cross upon him he undertook the curse also of the cross For he was made an execration a curse for us that we might be delivered from the curse of the Law The cross and curse both were ours but Christ bare them both Ministerially before us When thy sins affright thee thy conscience tormenteth thee and the curse oppresseth thee do but consider and think upon this and thou shalt never despair 2. Christ bare the cross before us for our Example that we should follow his steps Christ hath suffered for us leaving us an example 1 Pet. 2. And Christ himself saith He that will come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross Matth. 16. Again He that taketh not up his cross and cometh after me he is not worthy of me Mat. 10. The cross must be born what ever come on 't For the Word is stedfast In the world ye shall have tribulation John 16. And through many tribulations we must enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Act. 14. Object But the cross is too heavy for us and more then we are able to bear we are too weak and cannot carry it in our own strength Answ What must we do then Throw away the cross or shun it In no wise but rather look upon and behold the cross of Christ But thou askest how is that how must that be done Lo Christ who was the only begotten Son of God and blessed over all it could not be but that he did bless and sanctifie all things whatsoever he did but touch For as filthy cursed sinfull flesh whatsoever as it did touch it so it did torture it for to the impure all things are unclean whence all things are cursed to the first man after he sinned Gen. 5. so that God himself doth shew himself froward with the froward Psalm 18. Hence the sinner under the Law is loaden with many curses Cursed shalt thou be in the City and in the field c. Deut. 28. So on the contrary by the touch of the ever and above blessed Son of God are all things blest and sanctified even those things which in themselves were cursed before Now Christ touched hunger cold persecution reproaches sweat of blood the
nameed because there lay the heads of slain men Nor did the Evangelists blush nor are we ashamed to confess that Christ was crucified in that place where Malefactors were wont to be executed yea we count it our glory For Christ did exceedingly honour this shamefull place with his holy death so that 't is no longer a place of condemned persons but a true Sanctuary for us inasmuch as there he shed his most holy blood for us To this place do they lead Christ accompanied with two theeves that the Banner of Martyrdom might be display'd where the Gallows use to stand As there is no place more filthy than that of Calvary so Christ being brought thither did descend into extream filthiness to purge and cleanse it away And by this his Descension whereby he threw himself into the utmost abominations he ascended unto the highest Glory Christ hath another ladder than what the world hath by which he climbeth up on high even into the heights of Heaven The world by climbing on high reacheth after high things but the higher it climbeth the lower it falleth and tumbleth head long into the bottomless Gulf. But Christ presseth into the heights above by descending into the depths beneath and the lower he sinks down the higher he riseth up For that saying stands firm Every one that exalteth himself shall be abased and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted Luke 18.14 When they had brought Christ to the place of his suffering before they would crucifie him they gave him drink but it was a most bitter potion mingled with Gall and Vineger or Wine mixt with Myrrh for they had nothing worse and more bitter to offer him O cruel impiety which tendreth nothing at all of pitty and comfort to the afflicted in his distress The Lord was toyl'd and wearied out all the night before and had no respit to refresh his spirit because of the loathsome and filthy spittle and furious buffettings all that while And now when he was quite spent and had wasted all his strength when he was parcht and drie when he was come to the place where he was willing to die that Wine which the faithfull and the godly were wont to give to them that are sad and heavy hearted Prov. 31. even to them that were going to execution that Wine those notorious knaves had drunk up and instead of it they offered Christ this most bitter potion to fulfill that of the Psalm 69. They gave me gall for my meat and in my thirst they gave me Vineger to drink Well might Christ take up that of Jer. 2. and Isa 5. My choice and noble Vineyard how art thou turned into bitterness unto me Now Christ did tast indeed thereof but he would not drink it and taste it he did to perswade us that death is not hurtfull but wholesom For as a Physitian doth first taste the potion to perswade his Patient to take it so Christ did first taste of death a bitter cup indeed that we might the more cheerfully pledge him Thus Paul We see Jesus saith he crowned with Glory and Honour that he by the Grace of God should tast death for every man Heb. 2.9 Here comes in that of the Prophet O death I will be thy death Hos 13. Again Death is swallowed up in victory 1 Cor. 15. Here now beginneth the very crucifying it self when the most holy tender and pure body of Christ was stript stark naked stretched out racked and fastned to the bare hard tree to the extream torture of the Lord Jesus We must not pass this over lightly but insist a little upon it for now we are come to the very sum and upshot of the Passion The Evangelists do very briefly even in one word express this matter viz. And they crucified him They say but little yet leave us much to meditate upon For 1. They spoil and plunder him again before they crucifie him They strip him of his cloaths who cloatheth the Heaven with stars and the earth with flowers and as the first man lived in Paradise so the second Adam entred into Paradise He suffered himself to be spoiled that he might recover the Robe of innocency for us again He did not refuse to be stript naked before men that we might not be found naked before God He indured Confusion that he might hide the guilt of our conscience Blessed is he whose sins are covered Psalm 32. 2. Here we see in him the deepest poverty that ever was for although as Paul saith 2 Cor. 9. He was rich yet for our sakes he became poor he descended and left the unutterable riches of Heaven he came down into the world and refusing all those riches in the world whatsoever yet he did not disdain to be nursed up by his mother the Virgin Mary nor refuse the service attendance of others For he had his food and rayment from them and although the son of man had not then where to lay his head yet did he not despise the Manger where his Mother laid him nor scorn the entertainment of Martha and others But now this day he lies under the greatest poverty and want that ever man did his mother is not permitted to do any thing for him no not so much as to come near him when he was thirsty he had nothing but Gall and Myrrh allowed him for his meat and drink All shelter and succour is taken from him he hath not where to put his head He is cast out of every Hovel House and City He is crucified under the open Heaven All his own cloaths are pluckt off and not one lends him so much as a rag to cover him And thus he is reduced into extream straits being not only deprived and rob'd of his propriety to the creatures but also denyed any necessary use of them unless you will reckon this for his riches that he was only allowed a most smart and bitter Cross which Cross John calls thâ— Cross of Jesus Never do we read of the like poverty any where no not in Lazarus himself when he was most scabby fore though no man bound up his wounds and there was none to wash or anoint him yet the Dogs licked his soars and did more for him than any man would do Luke 16. Although no man would give him any cloaths yet his own poor rags were not taken from him Therefore 1. What great misery Christ did indure when his cloaths were pul'd off him no tongue can express For when they did violently and hastily rap and rend his cloaths off him which were next to his most holy flesh being all gore weltring and sticking fast to those wounds which the whips had made as being impatient to delay the Lords death any longer they could not but renew the wounds afresh They tore off his cloaths so furiously that the Sanies or putrid matter gush'd out with the blood with much cruelty and greater pain than it was caused by the former whipping So that
if Christ had suffered nothing before this only misusage of him had been sufficient to redeem the world For we see by experience that if a little woollen cloath be clapt on a green wound it will make it fester and if it be suddenly snatcht off it puts the party to far greater pain and torment and is intolerable in comparison of the pain when it was first inflicted 2. It was no small aggravation of the pain that his most tender body being again wounded a fresh and dyed blood red all over should be exposed naked to the wind and cold with the skin all flea'd off 3. To say nothing of that confusion which doubtless was most exceeding great thus to be stript bare and naked before all his friends and foes too Most truly therefore may he say to every one of us For thy sake have I suffered reproach shame hath covered my face Psalm 69. See here O man what thou hast stood thy God in and what it cost him to save thee But hearken and I will tell thee more yet listen and thou shalt hear greater things When they had thus stript the Lord naked they make ready the Cross before his face to increase his sorrow and the floor or place is prepared and fitted where the true Lamb is to be offered for the whole world The wicked Officers then bore holes in the Cross And then presently in a mad rage they sling up Christ to the top of the Cross naked and nothing upon him but the crown of thorns O Heaven O Earth O Sea never did ye see a more sad spectacle before First They catch his left hand and with an Hammer and sharp nail of an inch thick they fasten it to the Cross so that the nail carried with it the very palm and flesh of his hand into the hole that one would think it rather soldered with the Iron than nayled With like cruelty but more cruel torture they serve his right hand The holes were made too far asunder so that his hands could not reach to them when his arms were stretched forth Besides The sinews as is usual did so contract and shrink up to assist each other that when his right hand was to be put against the hole in the cross it could not come to it by much Therefore they use other Instruments of cruelty and with cords fastened thereto they extend and rack out his arms Some bind his left hand again and hold it with all diligence that it may not slip Others stretch out his right hand till it come to the place where the nail was to be put in and then peirce and fasten it Then they torture and rack his feet with the same cruelty drive in the nail extend rack stretch him till all his joynts and Ham-strings break so that one might tell all his Nerves Veins Fibers Strings and Bones and there was not a wrinkle to be seen in all his body Thus Davids Prophetical Harp is scrued up and tuned and that fulfilled here which he prophesied They peirced my hands and my feet I may tell all my bones Psalm 22. This immaculate Lamb did not in the least bleat or open his mouth when he was led to the slaughter to be offered upon the Altar of the Cross fast bound and fastened thereunto Isa 53. Listen then O Christian and observe with all diligence Christ hitherto suffered many things but it was only in the flesh Now we come to the very extremity to the marrow and in most pain and grief of Christ Now his Nerves and Bones are tortured which is a most vehement pain in the hands and feet where the sinews and bones are so near together that they cannot be disjoyned without extream torture But this way must Christ cure our sins because there was no soundness in man from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot neither outwardly nor inwardly therefore must Christ be exposed to suffer in all parts of his body He spread forth his arms to shew that he did voluntarily and out of the highest love indure all these things He let his feet be pierced and fastened to shew that he would never stand still or give over till he had made full satisfaction for us He offered up his whole body for a burnt Offering to reconcile the Father unto us and to teach us to give up every Member unto the obedience of Christ How well then might Christ here speak and complain against the Jewish people O my people What have I done unto thee or wherein have I wearied thee I smote Aegppt with its first born for thy sake and thou in Requital hast delivered me to be scourged I fed thee with Manna in the wilderness and thou hast beaten me with Cuffs and Scourges I gave thee water of life to drink out of the Rock and thou hast given me Vineger Call to drink I smote the Kings of the Cananites for thee and thou hast smitten my head with a Reed I gave thee a royal Scepter and thou hast set a Crown of thorns upon my head I exaited and lifted thee up in great strength and thou hast hanged me on the Gibbet of the Cross What should I have done more that I have not done for thee I planted thee indeed my noblest and choicest Vineyard and thou art turned into the greatest bitterness against me c. But let us leave the Jews and come to do our own business Consider therefore O man this holy spectacle Those hands which in Wisdom founded the Heavens which were wont to loose the Prisoners to raise up the fallen and to cure all men wich their touch are now stretched out upon the Cross His feet with which he walked upon the sea whose very foot-stool is to be reverenced those feet I say which never stood in the way of sinners but ever walked in the Law of the Lord are now peirced with picked nails His purest body in which the hid treasures of all Grace are laid up and kept is stript quite naked and bare and fastened to the Tree His face that is fairer than the sons of men which did comfort all afflicted and sorrowfull Ones that face which the Angels desire to behold is now turned into the paleness of a frightfull death Sweetest Babe what was thy offence that thou shouldest be thus judged and so unmercifully dealt with What was thy hainous fact What was thy Crime What was the cause of thy sorrow 'T is I I am the cause of all thy pain and grief I did eat the sower grape and thy teeth were set on edge I wretched Creature wretch that I am do now laugh prate c. whilst thou dost lament suffer thirst c. for me I run after merry meetings and love jovial Pastimes when thou dost hang fast upon the Cross for me I anoint powder and perfume my head I paint my face adulterate my skin when thou dost hang like a Leper all to besmeared with filthy spittle
gore blood and rankled wounds My hands still work wickedness as if I could never sin enough whilst thy most harmless hands are fastened to the Cross for me O ingratitude worthy of all manner of punishment to be inflicted Do we return thanks after this fashion How ought this crucifying of Christ to terrifie us from sin For what hope can we have of pardon if we be not only unthankfull here but do moreover crucifie Christ again with our sins Now there may be many reasons given why Christ would be crucified For 1. Being thus set between Heaven and Earth he might shew that he was the true Mediator of God and Man 2. Because sin was first committed by eating of the fruit of the Tree therefore would he expiate sin upon the Tree 3. Because the Devil overcame man by the Tree therefore would Christ conquer him upon the Tree 4. Christ would be crucified after this manner that by the very posture and form of his crucified body we might learn what we are to expect from him He stretched out his hands to shew that the way to his Heart and tender Love was open to us He let his feet be fastened to shew that he would not go back till we were fully Redeemed He stretched out his right hand because he came to bestow good things upon us and his left hand that he might take away all evil from us He let his right foot be nailed because he came to confirm and establish the good and his left because he would suppress all evil thoughts 5. He would be crucified to shew the fruit of his sufferings by the very fashion of the cross For as the cross hath four corners so there are four principal effects and fruits of the Lords Passion The upper end which points towards Heaven signifieth that the Angelical Ruin was repaired by the Passion of Christ and that Heaven was open for us The lower end signifieth that thereby the Fathers were redeemed out of Limbo Let not this expression offend thee but attend the weightier things or from the borders of hell The right corner sheweth that the dispersed children of God were by it gathered together in the world The left horn shews that by the cross even his enemies were reconciled 6. Christ would be crucified thereby to shew of what fashion the Christian life is to be For as the cross hath those four Dimensions to wit Length Breadth Height and Depth Thereby are signified the four principal Virtues in which the Life of Christianity doth consist By the Depth is signified Faith which is laid first in the bottom of the heart as a Foundation in Gods building by the secret and hidden Call of the Divine Will Perseverance is intimated by the Length by the Height is Hope signified and by the Breadth Charity For of these may that of the Apostle be understood Ephes 3. That ye may be able to comprehend what is the length breadth height and depth c. 7. He would be crucified to teach us that our whole body should be put forth to the utmost in the service of God and that we should crucifie the flesh as Paul saith I am crucified with Christ Gal. 2. Again I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus Gal. 6. To offer up a mans self is the most acceptable service unto God Rom. 12. Thus much for the fastening of Christ to the cross which when they had so done they rear up the cross with great shoutings with most bitter railings and revilings There was a hole cut out of the Rock to fasten the foot of the cross in Into which place they do not let the cross slide gently in but they jolt it in with great violence on a sudden that they might add one more and that the greatest torture too to all his other sufferings to shake his very entrails and to widen the wounds of his hands and feet again with so great and sudden a jogg which were filled before with the bluntness of the Nails causing those full and fertile Rivolets of his blood to gush out and overflow again Thus that Spring of Paradise the Fountain of Christs blood brake out from that pleasant Garden the place of pleasure even the body of the Lord dividing it self into four parts to wit into the clefts and holes of his hands and feet Gen. 2. By its plentifull and most abundant flowing it watered the whole earth washing away the sins of all Believers Here then was fulfilled that of Christ And I saith he when I am lifted from the earth will draw all unto me John 12. Again As Moses lifted the Serpent in the Wilderness so must the son of Man be lifted up John 3. that whosoever believed in him might not perish but have everlasting life Here that figure of the Brazen Serpent was fulfilled Numb 21. Here was Christ standing before God as the true Mediator between God and man as the High Priest offering himself for us and taking up that saying in Psalm 40. Sacrifice and offering for sin thou wouldest not then said I Lo I come in the Volume of the book it is written of me that I should do thy will as if he had said inasmuch as no other Sacrifices have hitherto been able to Reconcile thee unto man Behold I thine only begotten Son do offer up my self unto thee for man And we Brethren let us stand close to our High Priest with great devotion whilest he offereth himself for us Let us lift up the eyes of our mind and look upon his Sacrifice and from the bottom of our heart let us say Holy Father look down we beseech thee from thy Sanctuary and holy Place and from the height of thy heavenly Habitation Behold this sacred Sacrifice and Oblation which our great High Priest thy Holy child Jesus offereth unto thee for the sins of his Brethren and be thou appeased for the multitude of our wickedness which we have committed Behold the blood of our brother cryeth to thee from the cross Gen. 4. Behold the spotless Lamb which was dumb before the shearers Behold he that did no sin he hath born and taken away our sins Behold Lord the face of thine Anointed thy Christ who was obedient to thee even to the death and never do thou turn thine eyes away from beholding the marks of his wounds that thou mayest never forget what great and full satisfaction thou hast received from him for our sins Look O most mercifull Father upon him that doth suffer and remember gracious Father for whom he suffereth Most meek Maker look upon the Humanity of thy beloved Off-spring and take pity on the frailty of thy feeble workmanship Have respect to the torn members of thy most tender and acceptable Progeny and remember whereof I am made and what my substance is Look upon the penance and take notice of the sufferings of God and Man and relieve the misery of thy poor creature man Consider the Torment of
of Hebrew Greek and Latine Then said the chief Priests of the Jews to Pilate Write not the King of the Jews but that he said I am King of the Jews Pilate answered what I have written I have written The Cross was now raised and lifted on high it stood strait upright Christ hung on it many wept to see it wickedness and injustice abound and yet Pilate would fain carry the business without suspition of injustice or wrong And therefore being a subtile and crafty man in the worldly Wisdom he invents some new device and writeth a Title or scroul wherein he signifieth in four words the whole Tragedy with the crime annexed for which he was thus judged and Executed For now his conscience began to twinge him for what he had done he was afraid that he should be complained upon to Caesar for delivering such and so great a man with whom God appeared to be to the covetous greedy and malicious desire of the Jews without shewing any cause or reason of so doing And therefore that he might clear himself that what he had done besides the course and order of Law he did it justly and upon weighty reasons he feigneth this because he could not think upon or invent a more hainous Title for his excuse and defence relying upon it to be saved harmless with Caesar as if he had not put Christ to death as he was the Son of God or a Prophet of the Jews but as a seditious person and an enemy to Caesar and as one that had a mind and intended to be King This he thought would secure him inasmuch as no power can bear a Competitor This was Pilates intention when he wrote this Title For he was banished and killed himself but what stead it stood him in he very well knew and had sufficient experience shortly after But God or the holy Spirit of God intended something else that is to give unto Christ a Name above every name as the Apostle saith Phil. 2. and the Title of a Kingdom which shall last when Heaven and earth are past away because Jesus of Nazareth that is the Saviour and the truly Holy One is made King of the Jews by his suffering upon the Cross not of those who say they are Jews and are not but are the Synagogue of Satan Rev. 2. But of those who confess and acknowledge God in Truth In these four words JESVS of NAZARETH KING of the JEWS the whole effect of the cross is expressed First he is called Jesus 1. because having made satisfaction and paid the price of our Redemption he is become the Author of our salvation Secondly he is Jesus of Nazareth 2. that is flourishing or full of Flowers because the Blossoms of his Godliness are the Example and Pattern of an honest conversation unto us He is also the Heavenly Odour of that sweet Sacrifice which the Father did smell and accept for us He is the Hope of Eternal fruit by which we shall enjoy the sweetness of his God-head Thirdly he is called a King 3. because of his Government and Guidance For he doth Rule us in the Life of Grace and direct us to life of Glory Christ is King in Life and Death which cannot be said of any other Fourthly 4 he is King of the Jews to inform us to whom these Benefits do belong to wit to those that do confess and believe them Behold such great Mysteries as these hath God opened unto us by so vile an Instrument as Pilate was which very thing doth set forth the wonderful Counsell of God For he can tell how to turn the counsels of wicked men to his own praise and glory This Triumphant Title doth not a little confirm and comfort us that are Christians who glory in the cross of Christ and count it our highest honour which Title was not set at the feet but at the head of Christ to shew that his Kingdom is not base and earthy but high and Heavenly For it is and ever will be most true that this Jesus which was born in Bethlem and brought up at Nazareth is King of the Jews their own Prophets being witnesses Psalm 2. 45. Cant. 1. Hos 3. Zach. 9. And because they cast off their King we Gentiles do joyfully receive him Act. 14. as King of all that do acknowledge and confess him Pilate hit the Nail on the head when he wrote this Title and reached the very Truth it self whatever his meaning and intention was And this he would have all people to read understand and therefore he wrote it in the three principall and most general Languages which were then and still are the chiefest Languages over all the world to excuse himself in all Countries and Nations of the death of so eminent a man He wrote it in the Hebrew Tongue because of the Jews who made their boast of the Law In the Greek because of the wise Philosophers of the Gentiles And in the Latine for the Romans to read it Every Kingdom in the World all the wisdom of the World all the Mysteries of Gods Law do witness in spite of the Jews whether they will or no that this Jesus is King of the Jews that is he is the chief Ruler and guide of all that confess and believe in God All these things came to pass not so much by Pilates contrivance as by Gods Providence 1. For first God did hereby provide for all mankind that all men might know that this was he whom God had anointed King over all Nations as it is said Dan. 7. All people Nations and Languages shall serve him So saith Paul At the Name of Iesus every knee shall bow Phil. 2. 2. Secondly that all Nations might know and understand how treacherous and perfideous the Iews were who crucified their own Messias 3. Thirdly that even thus it might be known that Christ dyed for all men whether they be Iews Greeks or Romans 4. Fourthly to shew that the Gospel and the Grace of Christ do equally and alike belong to all men to one as well as another 5. And lastly that all Languages and every Tongue should glorifie Christ which was then fulfilled and is so now For in these three Tongues the Church alwayes hath had read and sung the Scriptures For every Tongue must confess that Iesus is the Christ to the Glory of God the Father Phil. 2. But this Title the chief Priests of the Iews did begrudge Christ and could yet wish that it were changed or abolished but God forbid that Pilate should alter the least jot or title of what was written He had leave enough given him already against Christ This Title must never be blotted out The Iews were ashamed that Strangers and Forraigners should read and understand this Title They were afraid lest one time or other it should be cast in their teeth that they had crucified Christ their own proper and lawfull King and therefore they
are ye condemned All these things did those wicked men do that they might not only stain and blemish but wholly pluck up by the roots and extirpate out of the hearts of all men all the good Report Doctrine Authority Reputation and Miracles of Christ and on the contrary deeply imprint and inwardly fasten this weakness of Christ in the rude people that the memory of him might be totally blotted out as if they had said Good people ye all now see that he was a plain Deceiver for he cannot so much as save himself How much less can he do any thing for you Now therefore be no longer seduced but believe us and not him You see that he doth now hang on the Tree which could never be if he were not accursed of God For cursed is every one that hangeth on a Tree And therefore he cannot trust in God nor will God deliver him Thus they thought that they had casheir'd and cancel'd all his Miracles and made them of none effect so that none would dare hereafter so much as lightly remember or make mention of them This they did most earnestly desire to do and to accomplish it they rage so inhumanely against him This kind of derision is spoken of in many Psalms Many saith he there be that say of my soul there is no help for him in his God Psalm 3.2 Again They did tear me and ceased not With hypocritical Mockers at feasts they gnashed upon me with their teeth They said Aha aha our eye hath seen it Psalm 35. It is as we would have it it liketh us well we are pleased 't is done as we desired So in Job They that are younger then I have me in derision Job 30.1 But Oye Jews you work in the fire you wash a Blackmoor you do but labour in vain in going about to suppress and extinguish the Renown and Glory of Christ For by how much the more ye curtail and lessen the Authority of Christ so much the greater will it grow You mocked him before Caiaphas Pilate Herod and now ye do the like as ye pass by stand and sit under the Cross and what O ye malicious men have ye omitted and not done that might any ways tend to darken and ecclipse his honour for ye apprehended him as a Thief ye manicled him as one condemned of some notorious villany ye spit on him and at him as if he had been a poysonous Toad ye desired the Judge to put him to death without any more ado as one that was not fit to have so much as an accusation brought against him besides ye prefer'd the egregious Thief Barabbas before him ye made him carry his own Cross ye hanged him naked in the midst of Thieves in a filthy loathsome base place at a most solemn sacred and festival time in the view of a huge multitude of people ye envyed him any Title or Badge of Honour and now ye bespatter him with all the base Reproaches and bitter revilings that ye can possibly devise and imagine But your wickedness is confounded your design is blasted you have not prevailed He is saved from his enemies and from the hands of all that hated him By how much the more you sleighted and despised him so much the more did the Father glorifie him For the Cup which you denyed him he hath obtained the Heritage of all the heathen of all Nations and people and when ye lifted him up from the earth he drew all things unto him Joh. 12. For the honour which ye thought to darken and extinguish he now sitteth at the right hand of the Father all Power in Heaven and in Earth is given to him he is made Judge both of quick and dead Note that there are five sorts of men here pointed out who then did and now still do mock and deride Christ 1. The first are They that passed by they that go by pass over or tread besides the Law and Commandments of God that walk in the way and counsell of the ungodly The light is odious and offensive to the sick and sore eyes and he that is troubled with an Ague cannot rellish or taste the sweetness of most delicate dainties 2. The Princes and Rulers who esteemed Christ no better then the vilest thing in the world they cannot indure to hear him they have tender ears soon offended quickly wounded yea they are wounded and hurt with a touch they were always bred and brought up among fawning fellows they use to be shaved with the smooth tongued Razors of flatterers and to be bolstred and propt up with the soft pillows of Parasites such as these they love cherish hug imbrace and bestow the highest preferment that may be upon them But if a righteous man come among them and admonish them exhort to Repentance and preach the Truth freely he is loathed hissed at beaten whipt imprisoned c. Nature is indeed a state or condition that hath a love to Truth written in the breasts of all men all men by Nature are convinced that Truth is a lovely thing but this state of nature and the desire of hearing the truth is too much depraved diverted and corrupted in most men They commend and speak well of the Truth they feign and profess that they have a perfect love to the Preachers of it but yet they cannot they will not they love not to hear the Truth Like Herod they love to hear John preach but at the request of a dancing Damsel they will chop off his head Mar. 6. They like the sound of a tinkling Cymbal but their head is so weak they cannot sit to hear it out Such were the Rulers of the Jews But wo be to thee O Land whose Princes are those boyes that scoffed not without punishment at the bald head of Elisha 2 Kin. 2. 3. The Priests and Pharisees who although they seemed to reverence Righteousness for they pray publiquely Tythe Mynt and Cummin c. yet none sin more licenciously nor dare any reprove their evil manners Do not they mock Christ who practise not what they preach and lay heavy burdens upon others not to be born But themselves will not touch them with one of their fingers Mar. 23. Are not they scoffers at the Divine Majesty who come from the stews and half-peny harlots and yet press with unwashed hands that is without repentance for their sins unto the service and Table of the Lord Obscene and filthy fellows dare presume to come to the Altar and stand before the Virgin-like and pure Jesus with crisped and frizled locks before the crucified one sinners before the severest Judge who not long after even presently return again to their whoredoms and adulteries Are not these mockers yea Traytors of Christ 4. The fourth sort of scoffers at Christ are the thieves These are covetous men who by hook and crook scrape up and heap to themselves the goods of the poor by usury theft fraud c. carking and caring both in getting and
you want comfort here are ye disburdened of your sins and whatsoever separated is safely disposed of Dost thou fear like a slave to be punished for them Behold the punishment is taken away Art thou afraid to be dis-inherited as an hireling Lo here is a Thief received into Paradise Finally If thou dost thirst after and long for pregnant and full Sentences plenty and abundance of most wholesome Precepts or the very Fountain it self of all Knowledge then come hither and draw near to it here is brought to remembrance all that ever Christ taught at any time Here we are taught what to pray for what to sear what to hope for what to do what to avoid And that which thou shalt never find any where else here is a Doctor who at the same instant also infuseth what he teacheth one that rooteth out Vice and planteth Vertue that chaseth away errour sparkleth out the light of Faith inkindleth Charity and bestoweth all the gifts of Grace so that a man would wonder that so great a Treasure should lye hid under so few words and that seven drops should cause such mighty floods to flow from them But here that of David is fulfilled The Voyce of the Lord is powerfull the Voyce of the Lord is full of Majesty Psalm 29. And that of Paul The Word of God is quick and powerfull and sharper then any two-edged sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joynts and marrow Heb. 4.12 Whosoever is of God let him hear keep honour and reverence these words of God Let the ears hear the words of him that created them let man keep those words that will preserve him let man honour those words from which mans Salvation doth arise Christ would be lifted up high in the ayr 1. that all might see and behold him He lifted up his Voyce like a Trumpet 2. that all might hear him He chose Jerusalem 3. that famous City in all the East to shew such great Mysteries in that from thence his sound might go forth into all the earth 4. and his words unto the ends of the world Psalm 19. Lastly He would suffer on the Jews Feast-day in a wide and open place without the City before such an Assembly of so many Citizens so many Forraigners before so many of so many several Tongues that the so great Mysterie of his Passion and farewell Speech might not be concealed from any of any Countrey State Language c. The Grace of God certainly is not in us nay we do very wickedly and therefore Wo be to us if either with Peter we betake us to our heels and run away from Christ or with the Jews fall a scoffing at him or with the Souldiers crucifie him and not with Mary the Virgin-Mother of God and John the Evangelist we hasten with all speed to this Sermon standing at the foot of the cross attentively listening hearkening with all diligence and let us treasure up those golden Words in a broken heart We are Christians whither shall we go but to that Master who hath the words of Life Iohn 6. By whom can we better stand to whom can we more justly cleave then to Christ our Lord and Friend hanging on the cross And if the very Heathen observe and keep those commands as religious holy and almost divine Precepts which are given in charge by parents and friends upon their death-beds how much more strictly ought we to mark and observe these last words of Christ and fasten them most deeply in our breasts For our greatest and chiefest Philosophie is To know Jesus Christ and him crucified 1 Cor. 2. For there is perfection of Righteousness to be had there is plenty of Knowledge there is the very Truth of Wisdom there all our Riches Righteousness Merits Mercies Salvation Life and Resurrection do consist Thus much by way of Preface Now let us hear every Word by it self Of the first Word viz. Father forgive them for they know not what they do WHen the Lord Jesus became that true and only Sacrifice and when he was now about to finish the work of our Redemption and Salvation although he lay under the pressure of unutterable distress and misery yet he did not forget why and for whom he suffered such Torments even for our sakes for which cause he went out to meet his Fathers wrathfull displeasure with his prayers as not minding his own pain and punishment he sets upon the Work and Office he begins to take the work of a Priest in hand he stands in the place of a Mediator between God and man he becomes an Intercessor a Protector for us and puts himself wholly as an invincible wall to withstand the Fathers anger For he could not possibly but remember his native and inbred goodness And therefore when others did curse blaspheme and bitterly revile he doth pray and make Supplications not for himself but for others and not for others only but for his most cruel enemies and crucifiers who yet were indeed most worthy to be destroyed and devoured with fire from Heaven or that the earth should swallow them up alive Hear and see how he doth stand and pray for us and thrust himself between the revenging God and us sinners saying Father forgive them for they know not what they do The meaning Father A short prayer indeed but very pithy and full of matter containing much in it It is all one as if Christ had said O Father I am thy Son begotten out of the womb of thine own Substance before Lucifer or the morning Star Psalm 110. I am the devout religious and devoted observer of thine Honour diligently doing all thy will and performing all thy pleasures although I hang here as the Prince and chief of all notorious Malefactors and as a blasphemer and enemy of thy glorious Name yet in the midst of all these so many calamities tortures torments deaths I cannot but think upon my duty and what I am to do forgetting all the wrongs which these of the City have done to me It is my part and office to interpose and stand between thy most righteous displeasure and the hainous sins of man It lyeth on me and t is my work to piece up make whole and firm reduce bring back and Redeem mâ—… the work of our hands a broken vessel a stray-sheep a poor captive creature It is committed and given in charge to me to Reconcile both the things that are in heaven and that are in earth At thy beck and command I came forth from thee and came into the world whom thou hast appointed and made the Mediator and the Peace-maker a Priest and Intercessor And that justly too For 1. I partake of both Natures I am one God equal with thee as also with men I am a true man and therefore I am the most worthy and fittest Mediator I can lay my hand upon both I can reach and touch thee the beginning
of all things with my Divinity and I can lay hold on man the workmanship of our hands with my Mortality So that I am neither coy nor strange to man that doth desire thy Grace nor unequal or inferiour to thee who art the giver of all Grace 2. Besides I am the fittest Priest the worthiest High Priest of any for I am holy harmless undefiled separate from sinners I am made higher then the Heavens Heb. 7. I pay that I never had I have no need to start or shrink back from reconciling my Brethren no man hath any thing against me none can lay ought to my charge no not thou Father nor yet these my Brethren which crucifie me I have wronged none I owe no man a farthing I possess no mans estate I am out of debt to all the world I have no need to make satisfaction or offer Sacrifice for my self Therefore I enter the Holy place bearing the Golden Censer and carrying much incense of prayers I lay down a price for many of my own blood I offer up my very self that unspotted Sacrifice and Priest for the people For certain I am never any whole burnt offering came up before thee more holy more acceptable more successfull then this Wherefore O Father I knowing thy mercies very well that they are over all thy works in the midst of these very Sacrifices I come forth to meet thee with strong crying and tears in Faith nothing doubting I humbly crave beseech intreat and beg this at thy hands pardon thy people spare thy people blot out the iniquity of thy people with this my blood Forgive Forgive them Father forgive them q.d. I confess Adam hath sinned Gen. 3. and all his posterity is become abominable Psalm 13. it is prone to evil from their youth Gen. 6 and wickedness is multiplyed upon the earth Charity is grown cold long since and will do more and more and iniquity will abound Our own people also whom we have chosen out of all Nations hath committed a great and grievous sin in tormenting me thy only Son with so many and so great Tortures they little regard whether I be thine or do belong to thee or no although I am about to give a clear Testimony make full proof of it to which one crime and horrid offence if all their other villanous acts and all the rest of their wicked deeds were compared they would seem as little as nothing How great is thy Majesty which is despised and my Dignity which is derided That people despiseth both and do heap up horrible iniquities to their Fathers Transgressions I acknowledge thy wrath hath hitherto justly raged by the offence of that one Adam Heaven was justly shut up the jaws of Hell opened and death entered into the world Thou hast justly armed the Heavens and all the Elements for vengeance against sinners justly hath fire from Heaven burnt up some alive justly hath the distemper of the ayr and the pestilence destroyed others justly hath the Sea over flown and drowned others with all the encrease of the fruit of their Land justly hath the earth with open mouth devoured others Righteous art thou and just are thy Judgements In Justice thou mightest have continued thy displeasure till thou hadst utterly destroyed and exacted the utmost farthing for full satisfaction And if all the men that ever yet lived to this very day had never so profusely and prodigally lavished out all their blood they could not have expiated or blotted out the least transgression Such and so great is the weight and hainousness of the unspeakable wickedness that no man could make satisfaction for it but God and none ought to have done it but man who had sinned Now I am he I am God and I am man In me only the whole salvation of man dependeth For that cause I became an exile in a strange Country I have been wearied and tired out with cold heat hunger thirst nakedness watchings weariness I have been tempted oppressed afflicted What pains what torments have I not endured in this poor slender thin body What sorrows what straits what disturbances and perplexity of mind have I not had experience of Was there ever any sorrow like to this of mine when there is no soundness from the sole of the foot to the crown of the head What remaineth therefore O Father but that thou lay aside thy anger appease thy diseleasure abate thy wrath forgive them take pitty on them pour out the abundance of thy Graces upon them seeing I have and do make such abundant satisfaction for them I invocate and pray unto thee as a Father not as a Judge I intreat thee not to punish but forgive them for my blood doth not cry for vengeance as Abels did Gen. 4. unless happily there shall be any that will not be saved by it I have forgiven them already who am now tortured for them do thou also pardon them whom that thou mighest pardon thou didst of purpose send me into the world Forgive Them those that are thine own Them whom thou didst promise to have mercy upon before the world began whom thou wilt also call and sanctifie in time Of which number are these that have crucified me and not only these Roman Souldiers and Jews and the rest of the Standers by but all men in the world besides Alam crucifieth me who sinned in Paradise David crucifieth me who offended in Jerusalem Every man crucifieth me for there is not a man but is a sinner I supplicate for all I suffer for all I sacrifice for all do thou pardon and forgive all that by my death it may appear that neither thou nor I do desire the death of sinners but rather that they should be converted and live Ezek. 18. But in a more special way of love I beseech thee for those my honest plain hearted Brethren for whose sakes thy pleasure was that I should be made a Gentile forgive them this grievous Crime The Fact I cannot excuse I confess they have sinned most exceedingly yet this I must plead for them that their mind was not so abominably mischievous They know not c. They know not what they do Wilt thou then destroy an ignorant Nation They are a blind and unthankfull people they do not yet see what they do but ere long they shall look on him whom they have peirced They cannot tell who I am they know not that I am thy Son The Devil yet by our permission and counsel hath hid from them those great Mysteries of my Divinity and Humanity Forgive them therefore for they know not what they do For had they known they would never have crucified the Lord of Glory 1 Cor. 2. Likewise forgive the rest too for they also know not what they do for all that work iniquity have been and are deceived In Adam they did proudly desire to know as much as we justly therefore are they become as ignorant as the bruit beasts
thy Kingdom And Jesus said unto him Venily I say unto thee to day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Here we are first to take notice that the Cross of Christ was not only a torment to the condemned but as it were a Tribunal also of the Judge For it did mercifully receive one of the thieves and justly refuse the other just as it is now the Cross of Christ is to some a stumbling block but to others it doth become their salvation 1 Cor. 1. As in the beginning of the Passion we had an example both of Mercy and Judgement in Magdalen and Judas so now in the close we have another example in these two thieves whereby it was shewed before that the Passion of Christ would not be profitable to all not that it was in it self insufficient but because many refusing Grace when it was offered do yet sin with a stubborn will The first of these Thieves who blasphemed Christ it may be out of desperation and impatience as such men use to do may be a figure of all wicked wen who although they see Christ hang close by them yet they murmur and blaspheme under the Cross nor are they instructed by the example of Christ who took all things patiently But in vain do they rage and vex themselves for they are released never the sooner let them blaspheme never so long and never so much they get nothing by it but they die in their desperation without any Mercy as this Thief did The other Thief is a figure of the godly who do both patiently undergo whatever befall them imputing it to their own sins and labour what they can to reduce others to a sound and sober mind who blaspheme and repine This thief then hearing and seeing what would be done with Christ and being divinely inspired did not question that Christ thus suffered upon another account than he was to suffer for he saw Miracles wrought in Heaven and Earth and he easily conjectured that they were not wrought for any goodness or honesty of the Jews therefore he began to rebuke and blame his fellow as one that made no conscience so to blaspheme Christ And then turning about to Christ he doth beg for Grace and Mercy at his hands which petition of his was not in vain for he obtained more than he asked The Lord doth always give more than he is desired His prayer was after this manner Lord Remember me when thou comest into thy Kingdom q.d. The Reason why I so highly esteem thee and run with such boldness unto thee is because I see what tender compassion thou hast of thy Creatures and with what unheard of patience thou dost undergo such great sufferings But especially because I now hear thee pray for them that despitefully use thee and dost excuse their heinous sin These are not humane but spiritual and divine things Remember me therefore I dare not ask more or greater things at thy hands I am sinfull unworthy of any favour do but only think on me let me not be quite forgotten let me at least with thy dogs eat of the crumbs that fall from the table of thy Grace I desire no temporal thing in this life But when thou comest into thy Kingdom let me be remembred there c. 1. See here the wonderfull Judgements of God A Thief makes confession of Christ when all his Disciples did distrust him Therefore do not rashly condemn any though never so wicked For God can turn him in a moment of time 2. Observe here the Ingenuity and Faith of this Thief He had nothing at command but his heart and tongue Both these he presenteth to Christ that he might believe in his heart and confess with his mouth Rom. 10. He did not desire a Kingdom of which he thought himself not worthy but only that he might not be forgotten and then he did not care what he did indure And if you take good heed you may see in this Thief whatsoever is requisite in a Christian He consessed his sin he acknowledged Christs righteousness and though he were a Thief yet did he not despair of his salvation no marvel then if he obtained Justification and salvation 3. Here is also the fruit of his faith to wit Confession and Charity which he shewed to his brother when he reproved him and would have him acknowledge his sin and seek salvation in Christ Wherefore he was thought worthy to hear that truly comfortable and sweetest word Verily I say unto thee to day shalt thou be with me in Paradise as if he had said The meaning My only Companion although thy great faith doth not crave the greatest things yet I am not ignorant what becometh me to give or what is fit for thee to receive I will reward that exceeding and admirable Vertue of thine with the best and choicest good For what is more wonderfull more pure than thy faith I am forgotten of all men as a dead man out of mind My Neighbours stand aloof off mine acquaintance will not own me Psalm 31. My friends are become mine enemies my Disciples forsake and flee from me Peter the stoutest of my Apostles was daunted at the voyce of one silly woman denyed and forswore me Judas whom I trusted with my self and all that I had is inticed with a little money and hath sold me The rest are scattered like stray sheep without a Shepherd destitute both of hope and faith But thou O Thief art come hither out of the lurking places of the thickets and woods and dost run to meet me with great affection more faithfull than my friends more constant then my Disciples thou dost believe hope adore confound the unthankfull rebuke the blasphemous bear witness to him that is condemned without a cause plead with thy tongue fighting for me with all the weapons thou hast Thou seest me used like a most notorious Villain and yet dost acknowledge me as the most holy Redeemer Thou seest me as thy Companion in punishment and yet dost pray to me as to the Lord in Heaven Thou seest nothing but the misery as it were of the vilest and worst of men yet thou confessest the infinite blessedness of my Kingdom in another world Surely flesh and blood hath not revealed these things unto thee but my Father which is in Heaven Mat. 16. Truly thy faith is great greater I have not found in Israel Mat. 8. Abraham believed me but 't was when I spake from heaven Gen. 15. Moses believed but I spake to him out of the midst of the fire Exod. 3. Isaiah believed but then I sat upon my Throne of Glory Isa 6. But thou believest now I am hanging on the most shamefull Cross and can hardly fetch breath as well as if I were working some extraordinary Miracle I never met with such a faith before Nicodemus and Nathaniel believed being instructed out of the Scriptures The woman of Canaan believed being perswaded thereto by clear and convincing signs Mat. 15.
up the ghost He bowed his head First as taking his leave of the world Secondly he would thereby comfort us by letting us know that he is not cross or froward towards us First it is very significantly expressed in that it is not said that he died but that he gave up the ghost for he had power to lay down his life John 10. Secondly he is said to give up the ghost to let us know that when our souls are loosed from the flesh they should be commended to the Divine Goodness as into the hands of a most dear Father Thus innocent Abel is slain by his brother Thus is Isaac offered Gen. 4. 22. Thus Joseph escapes naked to his fathers protection being spoiled of his garment of flesh by the Adulteress Synagogue Thus our High-Priest hath finished his evening Sacrifice Thus the Life of the world died the Fountain of true Light was ecclipsed thus the Spring of all Life in whom all things live waxed dry that he might deliver them that were subject to death Thus that celestial Wedlock between the holiest soul and the purest flesh was dissolved and divorced by the sword of Death that we who were condemned might be recovered to the indissoluble Union of his Beatitude Thus the Organ of Divinity the Harp of the true David the most melodious Voyce of Jesus sunk into the silence of cruel Death Thus those Heavenly Lights of his most gracious Eyes were darkened by Death Thus that most sacred Breast of Eternal Wisdom and the Store-House of the Treasures of Grace is deprived of his life Thus he Redeemed us from our sins with so great a price a greater then which is not to be found among all the creatures in the world thus did he satisfie the Father for our disobedience with such obedience as was even unto death O how great was that grief when that most holy Soul which was Wedded and United to that most holy Body with an indissoluble bond of Love must be separated now and torn asunder by a violent death and that most holy Life die Never was there death more bitter because never was there man so sensibly sensible of it 1. Wo be to thee therefore O thou ungodly Synagogue who art more fierce and cruel then any wild beast thou hast devoured the life of Jesus who out of the Paternal Piety was sent unto thee to be thy Father and thy Husband 2. O how grievous will thy Accusation be for rending and tearing the body of Christ And wo be to thee thou ingratefull heart thou hard heart harder then any stone who dost not break and melt at the remembrance of so great a Sacrifice for the expiating thy hainous sins how strictly will that innocent blood be required at thy hands Here then O man O generation of Adam here knock thy bosom and beat thy breast consider well and think of this death The chiefest and choisest good doth here hang upon the Cross Here the Eternal Wisdom offereth it self to be seen naked Here the tree carried the Treasure and Price of the whole world O sinners here dieth the Son of God I say here the Son of the most High the King of Heaven and Lord of Earth dieth Nay he dies on the Cross like a Malefactor in the midst of Thieves in greatest misery and anguish and shame It was we O ye sons of men that brought this just One to this unjust and unworthy suffering Our sins were the cause of this his great Passion Here the word of the Sacrament is made good This is my body which is given for you This is my blood which is shed for you for the remission of sins Here now we understand what Christ meant by these sacred and holy words because all things are here seen with the eyes Here that Article of our most holy Faith hath its Foundation He suffered under Pontius Pilate was crucified dead and buried Think on this O man imprint these things in thy heart that thy very inward parts may be made sensible how that we men we sinners were guilty of this death We should have hung on the cross and died yea and have been eternally scorcht in Hell but that our most holy Lord stept in and said I will hang on the cross and die for all men Take me and smite me the Shepheard but let the sheep go free I will pay what I own not I will undertake other mens debt I will even all accounts I will make peace and bring all things to a good end and issue Think seriously on these things Believers Be pleased to accept this Ministry of Christ and highly prize it For this his death is your life For us thus to die is to live and escape death This weakness is our strength and fortitude These wounds and scars are our health and soundness This malediction is our benediction this cursing is our blessing This shame is our glory This cross is our celestial Court and Palace These Nayles are our Salvation Lift up your hearts O ye Faithfull lift up your hearts in consideration of these wonderfull things There was War between Christ and the Devil the field was pitched the battel set and Christ got the Victory Let us therefore give him thanks who was pleased through his infinite love with such hazard and hardship to Redeem us 1. In this expiation of Christ first we see that verified which he said before in John 10 I have power to lay down my life 2 Here we see that the works of God are against reason For who ever hearing that Christ was the son of God and seeing such great Miracles which he had done before could at all believe that God should so far wink at wicked men as to let them kill so great and so worthy a man Again who would believe that the true had then its beginning seeing him die so shamefull a death But this is the ancient and usual custom of God to promote and carry on his works by strange unlikely and contrary means It was indeed the pleasure of God to cause great and mighty boughs and limms to grow on this tree of Christ He intended to build up and quicken the Church This he did by a work disagreeable and repugnant to life and nothing of kin to it to wit the death of Christ by which he quickened and made the Church alive Hence is that of John 12. Except a grain of wheat die it bringeth forth no fruit but if it die it beareth much fruit The Edifice or building of the Church did not then indeed appear while Christ yet hanged on the cross for here you see nothing but his death and burial as at Seed-time there is no shew of Harvest But as in Summer the seed that was sown doth spring up so after the Resurrection the living Church sprouted out of the dead and dry body of Christ 3. From this Expiation of Christ we are diligently to confider what punishments we shall endure if we
persevere in iniquity inasmuch as God did suffer his innocent Son to be so cruelly and inhumanly dealt with for others sins Daughters of Jerusalem saith he weep not for me but for your selves i.e. Learn ye by my suffering what ye have deserved If this be done to me who am guiltless and harmless and blameless what shall be done to you who are faulty and guilty The Text follows 〈◊〉 27.51 And behold the Vail of the Temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom and the earth did quake and the Rocks rent and the graves were opened and many bodies of Saints Which slept arose and came out of the graves aster his Resurrection and went into the Holy City and appeared unto many Hitherto we have seen the weak things of Christ Now his Majesty shines forth and shews it self discovering who what and how great a one he is that now hangeth on the tree Here then consider what mighty Signs and Wonders were wrought at the death of Christ For those signes do shew the Righteousness and Innocency of Christ and withall do reprove and condemn the hard hearts of unbelievers Men would not be troubled at the death of this man but lo the Elements are much disquiered at it Flinty stones were here softened yea broken and thou heart of flesh art thou turned into a stone dost thou stand gazing on the Passion of thy Lord and art nothing afflicted or moved thereat There are some who say we should be jocund and jovial laugh and be merry at the Passion of Christ Surely it was then no time for the Inhabitants of Jerusalem to laugh when Heaven and Earth were thus disturbed and moved at the death of Christ Indeed afterwards we may well rejoyce for the saving death of Christ as that by which we are redeemed from eternal death But nevertheless the same Passion ought to affect and move us as we are men unless we should altogether become inhumane and from men be degenerated into stones to say nothing of what great joy it might be unto us if we did but consider the cause of this miserable Death even our sins which ought bitterly to be bewailed in this Passion of Christ Now all these terrible Signs which are here described were both within and without the Temple and did manifestly declare the wrath of God against the unrighteousness of the whole world for the purging where of the most High Majestie gave his only begotten Son to die And because men would not acknowledge the same therefore the Elements publish it If these saith he should hold their peace the stones would cry out Besides by the Passion of Christ and after it God intended to make a great alteration in the world Which alteration these Signs did foreshew and usher in 1. The Vail of the Temple was rent to shew that by the death of Christ the Holies of Holies are revealed that by Christ there is an open entrance for us unto God that the way to the Temple of God is made open and plain that the flaming Sword is removed from Paradise that the Wall of partition is broken down that those things that separated us from God are taken out of the way that what was hid and kept close before Ephes 3. is now made known to wit that the Gentiles should be co-heirs copartners and incorporated and become one body with the Jews Finally that all shadows and figures were now ceased and that the Truth it self was come and did shine forth Therefore the Vail of the Temple was rent So that now we may look into the Sanctuary which the Vail hindered before The Mysteries of the Kingdom of God which in the Old Testament were vailed and covered are now brought to light by Christ who came a Light into the world Henceforth therefore the Gentiles may behold the Mysterie of God that is they may acknowledge and learn the word and truth of God because the Vail is rent and the Jew is not better then the Gentile Would to God also that Vail that is upon the hearts of the Jews were spiritually rent that they might truly both hear and understand the Scripture 2 Cor 3. And that they also might acknowledge Jesus Christ Origen speaks of a twofold Vail as Paul also doth the first of which is rent already and taken away but the second yet remaineth and hideth those things which we shall see in the life to come For now we know but in part only but then we shall know perfectly 1 Cor. 13. I say the first Vail is taken away so that we may know many things of God which before were kept close from us But the second Vail yet remaineth therefore at present we cannot perfectly know the things of God In brief Moses and the Prophets are now made clear and plain but as to the Historical part the vail of the Temple is rent already Therefore the Romans might enter as also they did The High Priests of the Jews were wont to rent their garments when they heard any thing that was wicked or blasphemous This doth the Temple of God also now do renting its garment being as it were amazed and taking in great indignation the wrong and injuries offered to Christ 2. A second sign was the Earth-quake the earth abhorring as it were that such wickedness should be committed upon it and abominating the impiety of the Jews done to the Universal Creator of all things It did also foreshew that the whole Earth should be moved and shaken at the preaching of the Apostles as was foretold in Haggai I will shake the Heaven and the earth and the desire of all Nations shall come Hag. 2. 3. A third sign was the renting of the Rocks This was somewhat more then the other For we read of many earth-quakes but not of any Rocks rent before which was now done to reprehend the obstinacy and hardness of the Jews And it did foreshew either that the writings of the Prophets should be so rent at the coming of Christ that all might see what was in the inside of them Or rather it did signifie that the hard hearts of the Gentiles should be rent that they might receive the seed of Gods Word For the Word of God and his Divine Power was now about to pierce all things that were never so hard never so fast and firm 4. A fourth sign was the rising of some dead bodies This exceeded all the foregoing signs In this sign there was a special kind of Gods power seen These dead Joh. 5. heard the voyce of the Son of God when he with a loud cry gave up the ghost At this cry their graves opened that the dead which yet lived might again go out of their graves not before but after the Resurrection of Christ For he was the first born of the dead and the first fruits of them that slept Whereby was foreshewed first that the hope of our resurrection is only by the death of Christ secondly
that every man shall rise again in his own time The Evangelist doth Emphatically add that they who thus arose came into Jerusalem and appeared unto many that none might think it was a phantasme or delusion By this likewise was foreshewed that many snners should rise out of their sins and the death of their souls to a new life Rom. 6. so as to be seen afterward in the holy Church exercising themselves in the works of Life and Spirit to wit good works whereby others may be moved to glorifie the Father Mat. 5. The graves were therefore opened to shew that death was swallowed up by the death of Christ for so it was foretold by the Prophet O death I will be thy death Hos 13. Thus we see 1. That when Christ died every creature suffered with him Only the Jews hearts remained hard whom obstinate sinners also do now imitate who by their sins do still crucifie the Son of God notwithstanding they have heard and seen so many signs and wonders they do not yet fear nor rend their hearts so far are they from rising again and confessing Christ to be the Son of God 2. Here we see that the glory or glorifying of Christ did begin presently upon his death so also will our glorifying begin immediately after our death and we who now seem to be despised in this life shall then appear gloriously in glory as may be seen in the begger Lazarus who when he lived was hated of all men but when he died he was carried by the Angels into Abrahams bosom Luke 16. It is to be noted that at the death of Christ there were seven Signs which do yet likewise concur in every justified person For the Sun is darkened at noon the vail is rent the earth shaketh the Rocks cleave asunder the Graves open the Dead arise and the Gentiles make a good confession For 1. Whosoever will be justified must have no hope or confidence in any worldly thing he must loath and cast them out of his sight this is to have darkness made when worldly things seem to be colourless and dark unto us 2. Internal things must be revealed to him that is he must have a true sight of his sins acknowledge his own filthiness this is to rend the Vail under which such sins were hid that they did not appear so foul and filthy as they are 3. Then he must fear and be astonished at the sight of such ugly sins and so defiled a conscience this is for the Earth to quake for no man is afraid or troubled in conscience but he that sees his sin and feels the weight thereof 4. The rending of the Rocks is next to wit Contrition Hatred and dislike of sin and he that before was a Rock is now cleft and broken and so the Rock sendeth forth waters of weeping and tears 5. The Graves are opened when the mouth maketh confession and discloseth what was before concealed 6. He must come forth by Absolution and go into the City Jerusalem i. e. the Holy Church and be again reconciled unto it by a spiritual Life 7. Lastly He must confess and witness by word and work that Christ is the Son of God as the Centurion here did concerning whom it follows Now when the Centurion which stood over against him Mat. 27.54 Mar. 15.39 Luke 23.47 and they that were with him watching Iesus saw that he so cryed out and gave up the ghost and saw the Earth-quake and those things that were done they feared greatly and glorified God saying Truly this was a Righteous man and the Son of God And all the people that came together to that sight beholding the things that were done smote their breasts and returned And all his acquaintance and the women that followed him from Galilee stood afar off beholding these things Among whom was Mary Magdalen and Mary the mother of James the less and the mother of Joses and Salome the mother of Zebedees children who also when he was in Galile followed him and ministred unto him and many other women which came up with him from Galile to Jerusalem Hitherto of the Signs which happened at Christs death Now we shall see what fruit followed from thence First the Centurion and they that were with him which were Romans were hereby converted to the Faith glorified God confessed that Jesus who was crucified was a just man and the Son of God consequently that he was put to death wrongfully And what wonder Should such great Miracles which were wrought in Heaven and in Earth and in the Temple and on the Dead have no effect and bring forth no fruit Blessed therefore are they that search out his wondrous things Psalm 119.18 Now if Christ could do these things with the Elements at his death what might he have done upon them that crucified him What Iew can say but that God did here manifestly shew himself Great were their ancient Miracles in Aegypt in the red Sea at Mount Sinai and in the Wilderness But compare them with those that were here wrought at the death of Christ with those at his Resurrection which was the greatest Miracle of all with those for forty dayes after at the Ascention and sending of the Holy Ghost and you will see that the rise and beginning of the New Testament was far more excellent and glorious then that of the Old Testament 1. The Centurion and they that were with him could think no other but that all these signs were wrought for the sake of this Jesus Therefore they excuse his innocency pronounce him Righteous and do not conclude him to be such a one as the Jews accused him to be and as Pilate had condemned him And which is more they confess him to be the Son of God which they gathered and concluded from the signs which they saw Lo this did the Gentiles believe who had neither the Law nor the Prophets 2. The people which came together to that sight for so is Christ truly with those that are his made a Spectacle to the world 1 Cor. 4. A sign and wonder Isa 8. smote their breasts and returned as if they had said O God what strange and new things have we seen and heard to day Truly truly this shall be our Messias O how basely have we used him to whom we did owe and should have done all honour and respect This innocent blood will be required of us and our generation Here then was fulfilled what Christ had foretold When ye have lift up the son of man then shall ye know that I am he John 8. even the Messias Here we see that he that dieth for the Truth doth more at his death then when he lived Thus Christ converted more at his death then in his life For when he shed his blood it never ceased crying Whence it is that the Elect who do through ignorance afflict the godly yet obtain they mercy but the Reprobate are damned His acquaintance especially those Women