instructions to the Judges of our times And I will begin with that Quaere of the Holy Ghost Are your mindes set upon righteousnesse O yee Congregation and doe yee judge the things that are right O yee sonnes of men Ps 58.1 that is according to the order rightnesse straightnes of that Law of God which he set and appointed you to judge by when he sayd unto Moses that Judges and Officers he should make in all the Gates throughout the tribes of Israel and they should judge the people with just judgement Deut. 16.18 quasi dicat as an expositor upon the place non tantum in ore habeatis justitiam sed in opere as if he should say it is not enough to talke of righteousnesse with your mouthes and in your words but you must practise it also with your hands and in your works Now then let us take notice that there are many things requisite to this right and just judgement which ought therefore to concurre and be found in all Judges whatsoever whether Ecclesiasticall or civill The first whereof is this that what they require of others they practise and performe themselves because as S. Peter saith It is but just that judgement should begin at the house of God 1. Pet. 4.17 and therefore they ought not to doe as the Scribes and Pharises which our Saviour speakes of which binde heavy burthens and such as are grievous to bee borne and lay on other mens shoulders when as they themselves will not moove them with one of their fingers Matth. 23.4 but they that are Judges of the Earth ought themselves to love righteousnesse as the wiseman exhorteth them Sap. 1.1 The second is that they keepe themselves close to the prescript and order of the Law and not presume to passe the bounds of that which is to be their directour and their guide according as it is commanded them by Gods Law saying when the King sitteth upon the throne of his Kingdome he shall write him a copy of this Law in a booke which shall bee with him and hee shall reade therein all the dayes of his life that so hee may not turne aside from the Commandement to the right hand or the left Deut. 17 18 19.20 verses That they doe throughly fift the truth and depth of the matter which they have in hand as Iob professeth that hee did saying Caussam quam nesciebam diligenter investigabam I was diligent to search out the cause which I knew not Iob. 29.16 That they be no accepters of persons For qui cognoscit in judicio faciem non bene facit saith the Wise man as the vulgar Latine reads it Prov. 28.21 He that in the time of judgement knowes a difference of faces does not well for such a one will transgresse for a piece of bread as there followes in the latter part of the verse and therefore elsewhere hee saith It is not good to accept the person of the wicked to overthrow the righteous in judgement Chap. 18.5 That they give not place to the clamors or favour of the multitude to doe contrary to law and their owne conscience as our Pilate here did for the crucifying of Christ for this likewise is flatly forbidden in Gods Law as you heard before where it sayes Thou shalt not follow the multitude to doe evill neither shalt thou speake in a cause to decline after many to wrest judgement Exod. 23.2 That they be not driven from the streightnesse and rectitude of their course of justice for feare of the mighty as another Wise man adviseth saying Seeke not to be made a Judge being not able to take away iniquity lest at any time thou feare the person of the mighty and lay a stumbling blocke in the way of thy uprightnesse Ecclus 7.6 That they be not too pitifull beyond that which is meet and fit according to that other precept of the Law Thou shalt not countenance a poore man in his cause Exod. 23. 3. i. e. in a bad cause For otherwise it is said but three verses after Thou shalt not wrest the judgement of the poore in his cause verse 6. That they be no bribe-takers as the same Law still goes on Thou shalt take no gift for the gift blindeth the wise and perverteth the words of the righteous verse 8. And lastly That they admit of no intreaties and perswasions to the prejudice or dammage of any other for justice is to be executed and judgement given consilio non prece by counsell and deepe consideration in a mans selfe not by request of other men For as Bernard saith well Vbi non licet facere quod volo quis locus rogandi Where it is not lawfull for a Judge to doe what he may have a desire it may be to doe himselfe there surely can be no place left for the sutes and requests of others And these are the nine things requisite to the performance and execution of right and just judgement which whatsoever Judge shall faithfully fulfill and keepe hee need not feare the censure of any Court here or the face of an angry Judge hereafter There might much more have beene added concerning these particulars but that I am not ignorant that Verbum sapientibus sat est A word to such wise men is enough in regard whereof I have chosen rather to leave this short caution and remembrance onely to our Honourable Judges and other subordinate Magistrates than to presume to give them either larger instructions or the least reproofes And this sufficeth for Christs sufferings under Pontius Pilate John 19. vers 16.17 18. Then delivered he him unto them to be crucified And they tooke Iesus and led him away And he bearing his crosse went forth into a place called the place of a skull which is called in Hebrew Golgotha where they crucified him and two other with him on either side one and Jesus in the midst c. WHen the sentence of death against our Saviour Christ was once given Curcified then presently in all haste the crosse was prepared and the condemned person brought out and the heavie tree as it appeareth by Saint Iohns Gospel in our Text verse 17. was at the first laid upon his owne shoulders which had beene unmercifully battered with whips before whereby they tormented him not onely with the sight but with the weight also of that which was appointed to bee the instrument of his death which painfull burthen notwithstanding together with the weight of all our sinnes he refused not for our sakes to take upon him but proceeded on his way with incredible alacrity both in love towards us and in obedience to satisfie his fathers justice as a true Isaack bearing the wood for the sacrificing of himselfe For mortem non coactus sed ultro subiit Christus ut voluntarium esset sacrificium nam sine obedientia nobis expiatio parta non esset In Iob. c. 18. saith Calvin Christ suffered death willingly and not by constraint that so his
ornaments and best deserts Fourthly let us take heed and beware of falling backe from Christ and the wayes of Christianity and Religion as repenting of those houres wee have spent in his service and of those holy and heavenly inspirations we have tasted of in his Temples for by our so doing wee doe nothing else but accuse him for a Seducer as if hee had beguiled us with these sweet baytes thereby to intangle and ensnare our soules And lastly let us beware of slandering and falsely accusing of our blessed Saviour himselfe which every one does that doth it to his neighbour or Christian brother Aut falsi aliquid imponendo aut malum verum exaggerando aut sine causa defectus illius aliis aperiendo as mine Author speakes Either when he slanders him wrongfully and unjustly or increases and exaggerates his faults and imperfections beyond the truth or lastly when hee layes open and declares his defects and infirmities to others without lawfull cause or calling thereunto For detraction may bee committed three manner of wayes saith another viz. Per falsi mali impositionem Hugo Car. â—n Ps 12 aut per veri mali ampliationem aut per veri boni diminutionem that is Either when a man speaketh of his neighbour some evill which is false or inlarges and amplifyes that which is true or lessens and extenuates that which in him and it selfe is good Solet enim mens livida manifesta mala multiplicius exaggerare de suo addere dubia quasi ad partem deteriorem invertere aperta bona quia negare non potest arte qualibet offuscare saith a third Phil. Grâ—v Canc. Paris An envious and malitious man and minde is accustomed to increase and inlarge his neighbours knowne and manifest weakenesses by still adding something thereunto of his owne invention and for those that are doubtfull and uncertaine whether so or not to interpret and construe them alwayes in the worser sense and such things as are evidently and plainly good in themselves because they cannot be wholly denyed to darken and blemish by casting some aspersion or other upon them Primum est obloquutionis Secundum derogationis Tertium detractionis The first which is to scatter and rayse an evill fame upon another is called obloquy The second which is utterly to take away his good name is called derogation And the third which is onely to lessen or diminish that good opinion which his neighbours and the world hath of him it is called detraction And thus you see the truth of that which Solomon delivered long since How that a man that beareth false witnesse against his neighbour is like an hammer and a sword and a sharpe arrow Prov. 25.18 which are three instruments many times of much hurt as of breaking in peeces cutting asunder penetrating and piercing deepe yea even to the very bowels and inward parts so that nothing is more pernitious then a false witnesse which wounds a man not onely in his fortunes and his honour but often in his life too as these Jewes did Christ Yea lying lips and a deceitfull tongue as David likewise saith are as the sharpe arrowes of the mighty man and as the coales of Juniper Psal 120 4. Whereby he sheweth as our marginall notes expresse that there is nothing so sharpe to pierce nor so hot to set on fire as the slanderous tongue with which notwithstanding our blessed Saviour as you have heard was much afflicted both in his life and death But as his owne glory and our good is much increased by his patient bearing it so their sinnes and punishments are and shall be much the greater that did it as also shall bee all theirs that fall into the like foule transgressions towards their neighbours And therefore for conclusion of this circumstance let me use onely the Wise mans exhortation at this time Refraine thy tongue from slander for there is no word so secret that shall goe for nought and the mouth that speaketh lyes slayeth the soule Wisd 1.11 And thus much of their slandering of Christ by saying unto Pilate If hee were not a malefactour we would not have delivered him unto thee But in the next place Pilate perceiving by some passages and carriages of the businesse that it was for envy onely that the Jewes did thus persecute and prosecute Jesus and bring him unto him He therefore endeavours by three severall wayes and meanes if it be possible to deliver him out of their hands and to save his life As first by turning him over to Herod secondly by ballancing him with Barabbas and lastly by scourging and crowning him with Thornes And for the first hee tooke hold of the occasion of his being borne in Galilee a part of the jurisdiction belonging to Herod the Tetrarch to dismisse him from himselfe and to send him unto him who was also at that time abiding in Jerusalem as it is said Luke 23.7 Now Herod indeed was very desirous to see him and had beene so of a long season because of the great and admirable report and fame which went abroad of him Whereupon at the first hee was very jocund and joyfull of his comming Non pietate motus Not moved thereunto through any piety but hoping to have seene him wrought some of his Miracles in his owne presence of which hee had heard so much by others And to that purpose hee questioned with him concerning many things as it is said Verse 8. of the former 23. Chapter of Saint Luke But because hee inquired but upon vaine curiosity as one saith and with no true intent or end Christ answered him nothing Dr. Heywood Sanctuary of a troubled soule In locum answerable to that of Saint James Yee aske and doe not receive because yee aske amisse James 4.3 or rather as Calvin saith because hee was resolved to bee obedient to his fathers ordinance and to submit himselfe to drinke of that bitter Cup the doome of death with patience and silence which his said heavenly Father had tempered and provided for him and for which purpose especially hee came into the world in the similitude of our sinfull flesh that hee might suffer it and undergoe it in our stead and for our sinnes Therefore saith Calvin he would not seeme to pleade his owne cause nor defend his owne innocency in any kinde but sponte obmuâ—escit he was resolv'd for silence let his adversaries say or doe what they would because indeed he knew that we were guilty whose persons he then sustained though himselfe were not Vt sic etiam Adami excusationes in peccatis taciturnitate à bonis possit diluere saith another as also that by his silence from good words he might wash away and make satisfaction for the vaine and idle excuses of Adam when he would have cast his sinnes upon his wife by saying Mulier quam dedisti mihi the Woman which thou gavest to be with me she gave me and I did eate Gen. 3.12 Whereupon
it never so comely and hansome in our eyes as for the inward graces and endowments of his soule For what profit is there of all outward ornaments or presence Cum anima mendico sit omni miserius induta as our Chrysostome goes on When our soule is more miserably clad then the basest beggar as being wretched and miserable and poore and blinde and naked as is said of the Church of Laodicea Revel 3.17 There might be many more Vses made of Christ his being posted and hurryed too and agen from one Judges house and authority to another as first carryed to Annas from him secondly to Caiaphas from Caiaphas thirdly to Pilate and from him to Herod and lastly from Herod backe againe to Pilate As also of the scorne and contempt that was put upon him by the rude and raskall multitude in all these his severall passages too and fro from one place unto another men women and children of all rankes and conditions following him with howting and showting at him as is usuall in such cases especially when hee was arrayed in that scornefull and disgracefull habite spoken of last before and so carried through the more publike and eminent streets of Jerusalem for the nonce and of purpose onely to have him gaz'd upon as an Owle and bayted as a Beare when if ever any man then he much more might justly complaine as in the Prophet Factus sum in derisum omni populo canticum eorum tota die I am become a scorne to all people and their song all the day long Lament 3.14 But time and other occasions will not permit me to speake of all and therefore this shall suffice John 18.39 40. Yee have a custome that I should release unto you one at the Passeover will you therefore that I release unto you the King of the Jewes Then cryed they all againe not this man but Barabbas now Barabbas was a robber c. THese words beloved are spoken by Pilate the Roman President unto the Jewes that were Christs accusers and very urgent with him to have him crucified who because he knew that for envy they had delivered him unto him as it is said Matth. 27.18 Therefore he endeavours as I told you the last day by three severall wayes and meanes if it be possible to save his life and to deliver him out of their hands First by turning him over to Herod Secondly by ballancing him with Barabbas And lastly by scourging and crowning him with Thornes Whereas therefore he had prevayled nothing by the first meanes viz. by sending him to Herod as you heard then also at large related and dilated unto you Therefore in these words as you see He makes tryall of the second by propounding unto them whether they would have Barabbas or Jesus let loose at this their great solemne Feast of the Passeover For so saith the text Will you that I release unto you the King of the Jewes or as it is in S. Matthewes Gospell Whom will ye that I release unto you Barabbas or Jesus that is called Christ Matth. 27.17 O sweet Jesus now or never there is hope and comfort neare that after thy many tortures and troubles formerly recounted which thou hast so quietly and patiently put up and borne at the hands of thy malitious and unkinde Country-men yea Kinsmen according to the flesh Thy life notwithstanding shall be spared and thy person set free and at liberty again at the last For seeing thou art ballanced in the scales with Barabbas the greatest malefactour of thy time and a necessity laid upon the people of releasing either thee or him it cannot possibly be imagined but that thou must be taken and he cast thou saved and he condemned For whereas he hath beene a Theefe and taken away by violence the bread of the poore and needy Why thou hast beene a feeder of them and a supplyer of their wants and necessities upon all occasions whereas he hath beene a Cutter and Robber on the high-wayes and by that meanes wounded and mangled the peaceable passengers travelling as it were betweene Jerusalem and Jericho Why thou as the good Samaritane hast healed them again by binding up their wounds and powring in Wine and Oyle unto them whereas he hath beene a Murtherer as Marke 15.7 and slain the living Why thou hast beene a reviver and restorer of life unto them that have beene dead All these therefore and thousands more unto which thou hast beene helpfull and beneficiall in one kinde or other will call and cry out aloud Set free and at liberty unto us not Barabbas our cruell enemy but Christ our curteous friend yea our kinde and common benefactour For it is impossible even in the judgement of Pilate himselfe that any should be so ungratefull as to doe the contrary which occasioned him to make tender of the most notorious delinquent that was then in durance amongst them to be in competition with Christ that so he might be sure as he upon good ground and reason conceived and imagined not to faile of the freedome and release of Jesus And yet for all this They cry out amaine with one voyce and unanimous consent Not this man but Barrabbas as yee see in the text O unheard of impudency and iniquity thus to deny the holy one and the just and to desire a murtherer to be delivered unto them as Saint Peter afterwards cast in their teeth Acts 3.14 Commutatio infoelix saith one An unhappy exchange for you Jewes thus to desire the Wolfe before the Lambe the noxious and violent before the righteous and innocent the impious and ungodly life-taker before the peaceable and mercifull life-giver wretched men that ye are so to preferre death before life sinne before God and Barabbas nay the Devill before Christ with whom yee shall be sure for your paines to suffer eternall paines in hell fire except you can and doe repent and be heartily sorry for the same Non quod per Pascha liberatis nocentem Tract 11â— in Ioh. c. 28. sed quod occidistis innocentem as Saint Austin speaks not so much because through the opportunity of your Passeover you have freed and spared the life of him that was a wicked theefe and robber but because you have slain the innocent and harmelesse Lambe who was undefiled and without spot Quod tamen nisi fieret verum pasca non fieret as the Father goes on which yet if it had not been done he could never have been the true Passover pointed at by all the legall sacrifices and shadowes of the old Law And therefore it shall not be amisse for us Christians to looke to another to an higher hand and cause of this choyce then only to the mischeivous mallice of these Jewes which if we doe we shall find that it was not Christ the second Adam onely that was layd in the scale against Barabbas but the first Adam also which was a greater murtherer and theife then he Yea and the
Evangelists declare Let a Poet then make the application Poem vocal Christs Triumph pag. 49. by G. Fletcher What better friendship then to cover shame What greater love then for a friend to die Yet this is better to asselfe the blame And this is greater for an enemy But more then this to die not suddenly Nor with some common death and easy paine But slowly and with torments to be slaine O depth without a depth far better seene then sayne Secondly breadth For here we may justly take occasion to behold how many were the crosses which he indured upon this one crosse for us First his legs and hands by rude and boysterous hands are violently pulled out at length to the places fitted for his fastening then pierced thorow with sharpe yron nayles which were so bigge Lib. 1. c. 17. that as Socrates in his Ecclesiasticall History reports Constantinus eos accèptos in fraena galâ—am mutavit ad bella usurpavit Constantine having received them from his mother made of them a bridle and an helmet for his owne use in the time of war which if it were so it is no marvell if the Prophet in his person complaine Foderunt manus meas pedes meos as the vulgar Latine reads it Psal 21.17 They digged as it weâ—e or pierced deep into my hands and feet as it is in our English translation Psal 22.16 Then in the next place hee is raised from the ground upon his crosse where by the weight of his body his wounds are opened and inlarged his nerves and veines rent and torne asunder and his blood gushed out abundantly Thirdly his body exhaust of spirit and blood is exposed naked to the cold ayre the Sunne during all the time obscured with a strange and unusuall ecclipse as it were with horror impatient at the sight of those indignities which were then offered â—o the Sonne of God Fourthly he is afflicted with a wonderfull exceeding drought which Cyril sayes was Vnum ex gravissimis tormentis one of his greatest sharpest and most grievous torments occasioned by his former wearisome travel his sweating agony and the effusion of so much blood His fifth paine was the want of the use of both his hands and feet whereby he was infoâ—ced to hang immoveable upon the crosse as being unable to turne any way for his case or to change the position and site of his body upon any termes The sixth and last the blasphemous and contumelious words which the Pharisees Scribes and Priests breathed out against him which is more piercing to an ingenuous and noble nature than any corporall punishment whatsoever as I have in part shewed you before And in regard whereof it is said of Alexander the great that he forgave many sharpe swords but never any sharpe words But the length and bredth of our Saviours crosse is not greater than the heighth and depth of it That passion may be said to be deepest which surpasseth other passions in the sharpnesse and intensivenesse thereof Now that our Saviours passion did so it will easily appeare by this first That it did not surprize him suddenly but was long before fore-seene and expected of him For if you search the Evangelists you shal find his arraignment and death often repeated from his owne mouth as Matth. 17.22 and againe Matth. 20.17 as also Luke 9.44 And in the 18. of the same Gospel He reckons up all the particulars as his delivering to the Gentiles mocking reviling spitting upon scourging putting to death and the like as you have heard before Now as long as he foresaw he suffered For the expectation of evill is not lesse than the sense but as to looke long for a good thing is a punishment so for evill is a torment And as for those proverbs or sayings Expectatio minuit dolorem expectation doth diminish and lessen griefe and Iacula praevisa minus feriunt darts fore-seene doe wound the lesse They are true of such evills as may be avoyded and averted either in whole or in part But not of those which cannot be eschewed by the utmost of our Art and industry For for a man to be blasted with a flash of lightning or smitten with a thunderclap troubles him lesse to take him on the sudden when hee thinkes not of it then if it were told him before that at such an houre he should perish by such a means for this lingring expectation of it doth possesse the soule continually with horror and sad affrights Adde to this as adding more measure unto this That the body of Christ was of a most perfect temper and sound constitution as being the immediate workmanship of the Holy Ghost by whom it was composed and framed in his mothers wombe without any the least help or assistance of man at all now the stronger and purer the complexion is the more lively and vigorous are the senses and so the more sensible either of paine or pleasure according as the objects are diversified Thirdly to make it yet more full such was the excesse of Christs love to man intending a plenteous Redemption that hee would not suffer his strength as in a dying man to languish and decay by degrees that so in the close nothing at all should remaine but even to his last breath he would retaine that vigor in him that he might fully feel the smartnes of his pains à principio passionis usque ad finem from the first of his passion to the last which that strong cry of his when hee gave up the ghost doth witnesse For the Text sayes that clamavit voce magna expiravit He cryed with a loud voyce or great cry and gave up the ghost Marke 15.37 which strong cry shewes that nature was strong in him For non solent moribundi exclamare dying-men are not accustomed to cry out so loud So that there is no questino to be made he might have lived longer but that all things being once accomplished to make our Redemption perfect and intire he would now die Thereby to shew himselfe to be Lord both of life and death The rarenesse and strangenesse of which act wrought as rare and strange an effect in the Centurion which heard it For the hearing of him cry thus made him to cry out too verè hic homo filius Dei erat Truely this man was the Sonne of God verse the 39. of the former fifteenth chapter of Saint Marks Gospel And so Auditus invenit quod non visus saith S. Bernard oculum species fefellit veritas auri se infudit Ser. 28. iâ— Cantica His hearing found out that which his seeing could not by reason his meane outside and exernall forme deceived his eye when as the truth infused it selfe into his eares answerable to that of the Apostle Faith commeth by hearing Rom. 10.17 The fourth and last is the depth thereof which consists in this That Christs passion was a full and solid passion that is an absolute and pure
passion not mixt with any comfort to mitigate and ease it Our cup of sorrowes is never in that extremity of bitternesse but that there is still some sugar mingled with our gall some sweet cast upon our sower some consolation tempered with our affliction As for instance it is deemed one great comfort in adversity to have some of our friends about us to condole and lament with us in our sorrowes But alas in the very entrance of his troubles Christ is abandoned of all His Disciples as you have heard when this heavie storme begins to fall upon him forsake and leave him one of them forswears him another runs away naked rather than he will stay and confesse him who then shall comfort him Himselfe Sometimes indeed our owne thoughts find a way to succour us unknowne to others as my Lord Bishop of Exeter well observes but alas with him at this time it is not so For his soule is filled with evill as the Psalmist speaketh in his person Psal 88.3 who then shall doe it His Father Here here was his hope sed proh dolor but out alas no comfort as yet appeares from him For hee delivers him into the hands of his enemies and when he hath done turnes his backe upon him as a stranger shewing no compassion on his passion but rather wounds him as an enemy Because indeed the Lord would breake or bruise him as it is said of him Esay 53.10 B. Andrews non sicut It is strange yea very strange saith one that of none of the Martyrs the like can be read to this of our Saviour when he sayes My God my God why hast thou forsaken me who yet indured most exquisite paines in their martyrdomes yet we see with what courage with what cheerefulnesse joy and singing they are reported to have passed through their torments Videor mihimetipsi super rosas incedere saith Tiburcius I seeme to my selfe to walke upon beds of roses when he was forced to walke upon hot burning coals bare-foot will you know the reason Saint Austin sets it downe Martyres non eripuit sed nunquam descruit He delivered not his martyrs indeed neither did he forsake them but as he delivered not their bodies so he forsooke not their soules but conveyed into them the dew of his Heavenly comfort which was an abundant supply for all they could indure otheâ—wise Not so heere but Vindemiavit me saith he in the Prophet as the vulgar Latine reads it Lament 1.12 that is he hath left me bare and naked as the vintager leaves his Vines when he hath gathered and plucked off the Grapes It is fathered upon Leo to be the first that sayd it and all antiquity allowes of it Non solvit unionâ—m sed substraxit visionem The Union was not dissolved but the beames and influence of comfort were for this time restrained so that his soule was as a dry thirsty parched heath ground without any the least moysture or refreshing of Divine consolation Lib. 5. de Eccl. c. 17. p. 16. yea he was destitutusomni solatio as it is in Doctor Field destitute and voyd of all that solace hee was wont to finde in God in this fearefull houre of darknesse and time of this his dolefull Passion The Wrath of God and his indignation furiously marching against him to require of him as who had undertaken it The full recompense and satisfaction for our sins as saith Doctor Robert Abbot that learned and painefull preaching Bishop of Salisbury L. 3. Contra Bishop p. 114. And now by this time I doubt not but that you plainly perceive how that Christs paine and crosse was the deeper and wider by all these crosses and torments thus considered And therefore behold and see all yee that passe by sayth he himselfe if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow which is done unto me Lam. 1.12 the very Chapter and Verse cited last before For I am like unto water powred out all my bones are out of joynt my heart like Wax is molten in the midst of my bowells My strength is dried up like a potsheard and my tongue cleaveth unto my jawes so that thou hast brought me even to the dust of death For Dogs have compassed me and the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me yea they have peirced my very Hands and my Feete saith the kingly Prophet in his person Psal 22.14 15. verses c. And yet for all this Amor tenebat in cruce quem mors non potuit tenere in Sepulchro His love still held him on the Crosse as you have heard already whom the violence and strength of death could not hold in his grave as you shall heare hereafter And thus you see not onely how but why also Christ was crucified aswell in his adversaries as his owne counsell and decree They out of malice and hatred towards him Hee out of love and pity to us suffered under Pontius Pilate and was crucified upon the Crosse A word or two for use and application and so we will conclude these two circumstances of this Article Did Christ then suffer such things yea and farre greater then those that you have heard related unto you The afflictions and anguishes of the soule being much worse then those of the body These being but love trickes sayth one to what his soule indued which notwithstanding wee have but slightly toucht upon as not altogether in my judgement so properly appertaining and belonging to the Creed why then we shall doe well a little to examine and consider the end and causes why he did so which if wee doe we shall finde that it was not his owne but our sinne that brought all this evill upon him according to that of S. Peter Christ suffered for us leaving us an example to doe the like who did no sinne himselfe neither was there guile found in his mouth but they were our sinnes which he bore in his body on the tree 1 Peter 2.21 22. verses as the Prophet likewise had foretold saying he hath taken upon him our infirmities and he hath caried our sorrowes Esay 53.4 We have an usuall saying amongst us that Charitas à semetipsa incipit charity begins at home but Christs charity yee see did not for it began proceeded and ended all in us so that whatsoever our Saviour either Ferebat or gerebat as one sayth either did or abid it was for us both Natus nobis datus nobis Esay 9.6 Doctor Clarke Hee was delivered out of the wombe for us and he was delivered up to the Crosse for us For for us men and for our salvation Incarnatus est saith the Nicene Creed hee was incarnate of the Holy Ghost and was made man and for us men also Condemnatus est he was condemned to die upon the Crosse so that he was bred for us and shall be dead for us all that he suffered being for our sins The Iewes then are not the onely actors in this tragick story of