Job 6.4 The poyson of Gods arrows drinketh up my spirit and also for the superiour faculties of the soul in a regenerate man as there My Soul doth magnifie the Lâ—rd and my spirit rejoyceth in God my Saviour Luke 1.47 And then lastly of inferiour creatures it is taken two wayes too of living creatures The God of the Spirits of all flesh Num. 16.22 and of creatures without life other then a metaphorical life as of the wind often Ezâ—k 1.21 And of Ezekiels wheeles the spirit of life was in the wheeles Now in this place the Spirit of Christ may be taken either for his soul which is the substantial form of the body or for life it self because spiration is a sign of life and they that breath live and when the leave off to breath they leave off to live If by the spirit we understand his soul this caveat must be had we must not imagine that danger impending to it by leaving the body as is usual to dying men who commend their souls in pensive supplications because they go to the Tribunal of the Great Judg to receive glory or punishment Such a commend his soul needed not because it was blest from its creation as well in regard of its personal conjunction to the Son of God as because it left the body in a glorious triumph being a terrour to whole Legions of devils So that in this sense the words imply no more then that his soul which was formerly in the body as in a Tabernacle should be deposited in the hands of his father until he be restored when the time of restoring should come but it is more credible that by the spirit is here understood the corporal life as the meaning may be this I do now deliver the spirit of life by which I do leave off to breath and leave off to live and this spirit this life Father I commend to thee that thou mayst shortly regive it to my body for with thee nothing perisheth but all things live who by calling those things which are not givest them a being and those things which do not live givest them a life And this construction is most agreeable to the Psalmist Pull me out of the net Psal 31.4 that they have laid privily for me for thou art my strength into thy hands I commend my spirit Where by spirit is meant life for he humbly beseecheth the Almighty not to suffer him to perish by the malice of his enemies but that he would preserve his life the like is evidenced out of those Apostolical words Heb 5.7 Who in the dayes of his flesh when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death and was heard in that he feared These words cannot be referred to his prayer in the garden as some interpret for these Mark 14. the Lord prayed not with a loud voice neither was he nor would he be heard that he might be safe from death but to shew that he had a natural desire not to die thereby demonstrating himself to be a true man whose nature abhors death but they rather signifie that he desired not to be swallowed up by death and that he might only taste of it and so return to life And in that he was heard for he was not long detained in the black vaults of the grave but had a speedy and a glorious resurrection So that here the Lord was not troubled for his soul for he knew that to be safe as being beatified from its creation by a vision of God face to face but he was solicit ous concerning his body which seemed by the sting of death to be disappointed of life and therefore prayes that it might not long remain under its tyranny and in that his request was fully obtained Here then we may satisfy those Hereticks such as the Cerdonites the Euticheans the Manicheans were which brought Christ upon the stage to play a part and say he was born and lived and dyed in Phantasmate in apparence only and representation and not really For if he dyed not where is the contract between him and his father that Christ ought to suffer all this and so enter into his Glory is that contract void and of none effect where is the ratification of that contract in all the Prophets wherefore doth Esay say Esay 5 3.4 9 Surely he hath born our sorrows and he made his grave with the wicked in his death where is the consummation and the testification of all this doth not the Gospel here say And he bowed his head and gave up the Ghost immediately after this his last prayer is that fabulous God forbid in vain had we all been created if we had not a regeneration in his true death Christ truly dyed so as was contracted so as was prophecied so as was related But this I may boldly affirm that he did not die so as other natural men dye for there is this distinction between them Christ dyed because he would dye other men admitted to the dignity of Martyrdome are willing to dye but they dye by the torment of the executioners they cannot bid their souls go out and say I will dye as he did I lay down my life for my sheep 〈◊〉 10.15 17 18. sayes he No man taketh it from me I lay it down of my self And De facto he did lay it down he diddye before thetorments could have extorted it from him Many crucified men lived many dayes upon the Cross the theeves were alive long after Christ was dead and therefore Pilate wondered that he was already dead his soul did not leave his body by force Mar. 15 44. but because he would when and how he pleased Besides Christ was not subject to the law of death which appertained only to them who were derived from Adam by carnal and sinful generation he being miraculously conceived of a virgin by the overshadowing of the holy Ghost and being he was not involved in a general rebellion and so had not incurred Gods displeasure it follows that he was not involved in the general penalty and so needed not to have dyed by the rigour of any law as we must And then when out of his own pleasure and to advance our salvation he would dye yet he dyed so as that though there were a disunion of body and soul which is truly death yet there remained a nobler and faster Union the Hypostatical Union of the Godhead to his body and soul to this I add death hath that dominion over men that they have no power to raise themselves from it Christ had for even in spight of death he retained in Almighty power and delivered his body and soul by a Victorious and Triumphant Resurrection So then as it is true Christ Jesus dyed else none of us could live so he dyed not as others dye not by the necessity of any law not
peace with all men but to live peaceably with those that are haters of peace And this is that Love the Wise man speaks of that many waters cannot extinguish Cant. 8.7 nor the floods drown it O duri durati obdurati nimis quos tunta flamma non emolliat Bern. As that deluge of sufferings could not quench the flaming charity of our Saviour so the rivers of persecution should not overwhelm Christian Love in his members A whiles after there issued out an imitating clemency flaming in the brest of S. Stephen the Proto-martyr which those showrs of stones could not quench but made him break forth into that sweet prayer Act. 7.60 Lord lay not this sin to their charge After him this divine virtue was propagated to divers holy Martyrs who burn'd with wonderful flames of charity notwithstanding the many torrents of sufferings and persecutions to overflow them I may ascend here from Christs Humanity to his Divinity great was his charity as man to his executioners but greater it was and is as God towards men who would war with him and if if they could pluck him from heaven and Crucifie him again Who can conceive the exceeding Love of God to men altogether wicked and unthankful God spared not the Angels in their offences 2. Pet. 2.4 neither was he so indulgent to them as to suffer them to repent but men sinning and blaspheming and being deficient in their services to him he often suffers and not only suffers them but in the mean time he feeds cherishes and supports them For in him we live Act. 17.28 move and have our being nay he accumulates many benefits upon them he adorns them with wit fattens them with riches prefers them to honors and sublimes them to Kingdoms and in the mean while he patiently expects their return from their wayes of wickedness and perdition Infinite are the presidents of Gods charity towards the wicked and enemies of his most Sacred Majesty 2. By this we are further taught to forgive received Injuries and to make our enemies our friends This remarkeable example of Christ should be a perswasive argument to draw us to it If he as well Pardoned as Prayed for his persecutors why should not a Christian do the same If God the Creator who is able both as Lord and a Judge to take a sudden revenge on sinners yet is pleased to invite them to favour and to offer them a free Pardon why should not a creature do the same But you will say It seems adverse to the rights of Nature that a man should suffer himself to be unjustly trampled and violated in words or deeds for we see brutish creatures who are led only by an Instinct of Nature sharply on the first sight to encounter and destroy their enemies And we have it experienced in our selves when by chance we espy an adversary our choler kindles our blood boyles and there naturally ariseth in us a thirst of revenge But he is altogether deceived who does thus reason and he confounds a just defence with an unjust vindication For to oppose an offered injurie no man forbids but to revenge it being done the Divine Law gain-saies for that appertains not to private men but to the publick Magistrate and because God is the King of Kings Deut. 32 35 Rom. 12 19 therefore he proclaims it Vengeance is mine I will repay Beasts which naturally rush upon their enemies cannot distinguish between Nature and the viciousness of Nature but man which is beautified with Reason should separate the Nature or Person which God created good from the Vice or Sin which is evil and an Abortive meerly proceeding from the Divel Love the Person but detest the injury imitate the Physic an who loves the Sick but loaths the Disease which that most holy Aesculapius of all souls hath taught us in the Gospel Mat. 5.44 Love your enemies do good to them that hurt you bless them that curse you c. pray for them that hate you and persecute you The reason why men stomack their enemies is because they are brutish and have a Community with Beasts But those that are Spiritual and can disband the Passions of the Soul will rather compassionate their enemies and by a Christian Affability win them to peace then plot their destruction To them the yoke of Christ is sweet and his burden feather-light and his commands not heavy but to the carnal and natural man they seem difficult and weighty through reason of the predominancy of their own corruptions and because the love of God is not in them for nothing is impossible to Charity It beareth all things believeth all things 1 Cor. 13.7 hopeth all things endureth all things In holy Writ we find how the Patriarch Joseph in those times afore the Law Gen. 45 37 marvellously loved his brethren who as enemies fold him to the Midianites And how patiently David took the enmity of Saul who did much covet his destruction 1 King 4 yet when it was in his power to have killed him he would not And in the law of Grace S. Paul speaks of himself and Co-Apostles Being reviled 1 Cor. 4 12 we blesse being persecuted we suffer being defamed we pray and intreat There is a known Story not impertinent to this purpose in Petrus Damianus of a man whom another most traiterously had pulled out his eyes and this Accident had confined him to a Monastry where he lived a pure and unspotted life yielding all offices of charity according to the ability of his person It fell out this cruel creature who had done this mischievous act sickned of a languishing malady and found himself enforced to be carried to that same place where he was whom he had bereaved of sight His heart gave him He would never endure him but for revenge put out his eyes But contrariwise the blind man being better instructed upon his earnest suit was deputed to the service of the sick man and he most willingly dedicated to him all the functions of his body but the eyes which the other had pulled out and you would think him all eyes all hands all heart to attend this sick man so much consideration vigor diligence and affection he used And what should they here say who upon the least affront burn with a revengful spirit But it may be the objection of some If we return a benefit for an injurie a benediction for a curse the wicked would wax insolent and the robbers of Gods glory would become much bolder the just would be oppressed and virtue contemned But the case will prove otherwise for oft times a soft answer breaks the jaws of anger Prov. 15 and the patience of a good man begets an admiration in the persecutor and by a religious Alchymy converts an enemy to a friend neither are there wanting on the earth Political Magistrates whose care it is according to the severe cords of the Laws to bind
are counted as sheep for the slaughter Nay in all these things we are more then conquerours through him that loved us From these holy presidents we may learn how to master our afflictions and to sweeten our persecutions and to deem them as the embrioes of eternal life We may bear them with all spiritual joy if we look not on them but on him that imposed them on us who without doubt was the Father Almighty without whose Providence not a hair can fall from our heads and therefore let us with Moses esteem his rebukes greater riches then the treasures of Egypt Heb. ii 26. having respect unto the recompence of the reward 1. ANd now O Saviour of the world how great a compass wentst thou in this act of our redemption before thou didst bring it to this happy Period from thy swathing to thy shrowding from thy cold lying in a manger to thy cold dying upon the Cross what didst thou do and suffer Nay what didst thou not do and suffer for us The work of our Creation was great but this far greater That was done with a Fiat with the breath of thy mouth thou speakest the Word and all was done here was a miraculous conjunction of God and man in one person maid and mother in another when it was but begun thy omnipotencie indeed appeared in the first but thy mercy and justice in the latter such a work didst thou finish here that neither Man nor Angels or thy deity alone could well accomplish Oh! Thou that didst so much for us teach us to do somewhat for thee Thou that madest thy self a perfect victime for our sins grant that we may sacrifice our sins and mortifie all carnal concupiscences that so our souls and bodies may be offerings of a sweet smelling Saviour in thy Nostrils Thou that didst conquer the Prince of this world and all the enemies upon the Cross assist us against the conflicts and temptations of our spiritual adversaries save us from the roaring Lyon that he may never prevail O thou that art the Lion of the tribe of Judah But because we are ignorant of our selves what to do aright 1 Cor. 12.6 we pray thee guide us with thy Spirit thou Isa 28.21 who workest all in all work thy work in us and bring to pass thy act thy strange act whatever it be Let us perform what thou requirest of us and that is let us do justly shew mercy and walk humbly with thee Mic. 6.8 and walk humbly with thee our God Preserve thy Church that issued from thy side on thy Cross thou art her husband O Christ save thy spouse thou art her head save thy body protect her as thine from infidels hereticks and schismaticks from bad men and Devils from all errours and dangers Make her unto thy self glorious without spot or wrinkle holy and without sin Ephes 5.7 And though like thee shee sorrows and suffers often while militant here yet make her triumphant with thee in the world to come Let every member of her profess thy name to the end with courage and constancy after thy glorious Examples let us not be carried away from our duties to thee with the vanities of the world or the enticements of the flesh or the suggestions of Satan O thou that art immutable without shadow of change Yesterday to day and the same for ever fix our fickle thoughts on thy fear and establish thy holy Spirit within us that we may alwayes praise thee who never ceasest to bless us By the grace and merits of him who finished the grand works of eternal redemption for us living and dying to save us Lord make us live and dye thy servants that we may be partakers of that happiness which by his blood he hath purchased for us in the Kingdome of Bliss Amen The seventh and last Word LUKE 23.43 Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit ANd well might he call him Father because he had merited the name of an obedient Son to the last minute of his life and therefore most worthy to gain attention But here a doubt occures what we are to understand by the hands of God are we with the Anthropomorphites to ascribe the form and lineaments of man unto God Theod. l. 4. c. 10. as if he had eyes and ears and hands and other parts and faculties like unto us far be it for God is a spiritual substance of an invisible and indivisible nature without body parts or passions of infinite power wisdome and goodness but for the better explanation of this and the like expression in holy Writ we must make use of that known adage of the Hebrew Doctors Lex loquitor linguam filiorum hominum That is the holy Ghost in the Scripture descends to the capacity of man speaks man's language that is so as he would be understood by man and therefore presents him in the faculties of the mind of man and in the lineament of the body of man not that he hath really either of them for he is a most pure and a most simple entitie without any corpority or composition And so the hands of God do denote unto us his wisdom and power or which fals into one meaning his intellect knowing all things and his will enabling all things for with these two as it were two hands God did all things The will of God is his power for all things whatsoever he would he did in heaven and earth My Spirit There are divers significations of this word Spirit in Scripture which if not rightly apprehended may occasion divers errours it is spoken of God or of Angels or of men or of inferiour creatures Of God it is spoken sometimes Essentially sometimes Personally God is a Spirit Jo. 4.24 and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and truth So also Isai 31.3 So also The Egyptians are men and not Gods and their Horses flesh and not spirit for if they were God they were Spirit so God altogether and considered in his essence is a Spirit but when the word Spirit is spoken not essentially of all but personally of one then that word designeth the holy Ghost Matth. 28 19. Go and baptize all in the Name of the Father and Son and the Holy Ghost Rom. 8â— 6 And the Spirit it self beareth witness c. And as of God so of Angels also it is spoken in two respects of good Angels sent forth to minister for them that shall be heirs of Salvation And evil Angels Heb. 1.14 The lying Spirit that would deceive the King by the Prophet 1 Kin. 22.22 Hosea 4.8 The spirit of whoredom when the people asked counsel of their stocks And spiritus virtiginis the spirit of giddiness or perversities which the Lord doth mingle amongst the people in his judgment Of man also is this word Spirit spoken two wayes sometimes for the Soul sometime for those animal spirits which conserve us in strength and vigour
by the violence of any executioner nor by the seperation of his best soul if I may so call it the Godhead nor by such a separation of his natural and humane soul as that he would not or could not nor did not resume it again From what hath been premised thou maist learn O man First How that Christ shewed his Power his Wisdom and his Charity even then when he seemed to be infirm and void of all consolation They who naturally dye do by degrees loose their voice and strength but he in the last passage of his dissolution used a louder acclamation then formerly And not only that but as arguments of his further power he caused the basis of the universe to tremble the stones to be cleft the Sepulchres to be opened and the vail of the Temple to be disjoynted All which want not their several mysteries as the earthquake and the Scision of the Rocks signifieth that by the passion and death of Christ men should be moved to repentance and the obdurate hearts of the obstinate should be cut in pieces as it appeared by those who went from this sad spectacle Luk. 23. striking their breasts the apertion of the sepulchres denote the glorious resurrection of the dead bodies which were to be raised by vertue of his The renting of the vail of the Temple whereby the Sanctum Sanctorum did appear did imply that for the merits of Christs death the Caelestial sanctuary should be opened and that the holy should be admitted to enjoy the beatifical vision Neither did he shew his wisdome only in these shadowy Mysteries but also in that he produced life out of death which was typified by Moses when he made the water flow from the flinty rock And Christ for the same cause compared himself to a grain of wheat Numb 20.8 9. that dying fructifieth abundantly Jo. 12.24 for as from the corruption of that grain sprouts a living stalk and eare so from his death on the Cross issued a life of grace to many nations as the first man being gull'd with the sweet apple infected his whole posterity with death so the second man swallowing the most bitter apple of death brought all who were in him re-born to eternal life And what shall we say of his charity which was divers wayes wonderfully demonstrated at the instant of his death His life which was the most precious of all lives the life of a King the most powerful of all the life of the wisest and best of all the life of God-man he voluntarily laid down for his enemies for the wicked for the unthankful From the flames of hell he frees them that he might make them his brethren and Co-heirs and empale them within the blessed territories of heaven Is there any then so transported with cruelty to himself and so insensible of his own good as not to enbosome Christ with a thankful love Is there any so negligent of his own eternity as not to embrace him with a sweet recordation of his mercies Lord melt our stony hearts that they may take the impressions of such divine and unspeakable favours 2. Here offers it self also to our consideration the great obedience of our Saviour to his heavenly father in this recommendation of his spirit to his paternal protection whereby is verified what the Apostle sayes Phil. 2.8 That he humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the Cross It was so admirable that it had its imitation from his very conception and without intermission like an indivisible line lasted to his very death Neither was it determinated to one kind of work but extended to all those things which it pleased his Father to command to this do those expression of his tend Jo. 4.34 Jo. 6. It is my meate to do his will that sent me and to finish his work I came down from heaven not to do my own will but his that sent me And because Quia per victimas aliena Caro per obedientiam propria voluntas muctatur Gregor mor. l. 35. c. 11. Obedience is the best of sacrifices therefore as many works as he did during his peregrination on earth so many most pleasing sacrifices he offered to God Almighty Hence such varieties of them that sometimes we find him fasting in the desart and lodging with wild beasts sometimes in the frequency of men eating and drinking sometimes at home obscure and silent and that not for few years sometimes glorious as well in wisdome as eloquence and unclapsing his power of doing miracles sometimes with great indignation throwing the buyers and sellers out of the Temple sometimes as it were weak declining from the company of the multitude all which did require the noble qualities of an excellent soul which shewed him no way subject to the swayes of any passionate will of his own And as he practised so he taught the rule of perfect Obedience He that will follow me Mat. 16.24 let him deny himself Man must renounce his own before he can submit to the will of Christ The Celestial orbs do not resist the Angels that move them whether they be driven to the East or to the West because they have no proper propensitie either to one part of the heavens or to the other and the Angels themselves are at Gods beck to observe all his mandates because there is no repugnancy between their wils and his but seem to be so happily consolidated to him as if they and he were but one spirit And certainly if we will become Christs true disciples we must disband our own desires and natural affections and wholly resign our selves to his dispose and so become one with him 3. And lastly We may make this benefit of this last prayer of the Lord to use it as a holy Ejaculation upon all emergencies more especially at the hour of death for if the soul then leaving the body fals into the clutches of the Devil Ab inferis nulla redemptio there is no possibility of its redemption for as the felicity of the Saints so the torments of the damned are eternal but if it happily comes into the paternal hands of God the potency of enemies is not to be feared but it will be re-united to the body and both of them shall in the end enjoy a blessed and a glorious resurrection And herein lyes an ocean of comfort to all believers for as Christ the head did rise so shall every member of his mystical body be raised from corruption to incorruption 1 Cor. 15. 42 43. from dishonour to glory It is storied of an Indian King that when he had been Catechised so far in the articles of our Christian Religion as to come to the suffered and crucified and dead and buried impatient of proceeding any father asked only is your God dead and buried then let me return to the worship of the Sun for I am sure that will not die whereas if he had but