importance of the word Ecce in this place as in many others is the present exhibition of that which was promised or portended The mystery foreshadowed or portended by the anniversary sacrifices of the Paschal Lamb by the daily morning and evening sacrifices by those sacrifices of the Atonement whose blood was brought by the high Priest unto the Sanctuary was in brief this that all these rites or solemnities should expire upon the death or sacrifice of the true Lamb of God and thus much and more is sealed unto us by that speech of our Saviour a little before his death Consummatum est All is finished Iohn 19.30 Now the rending of the vaile immediately after our Saviour had commended his Spirit into his Fathers hands did betoken that now and not before the entrance or passage into that most holy place which was prefigured by the materiall Sanctum Sanctorum was set open not to Priests onely but to all true beleevers That the coelestiall Sanctuary whether that be coelum empyr aeum the seat of our future blisse or some other place was now instantly to be hallowed or consecrated by the blood of the high Priest himself as the terrene Tabernacle or Sanctuary was by the legal high Priest with the blood of bullocks or goats c. 5. Whithersoever the soule of this our high Priest went that day wherein he offered the sacrifice of himself as whether into the nethermost hell or into the place where the soules of the righteous men did rest there is or should be no question among good Christians but that he was that evening in Paradise For so had he promised unto the penitent Malefactor who was crucified with him with an asseveration equivalent to an oath Amen dico tibi hodie mecum eris in paradiso Verily I say unto thee this day thou shalt be with me in Paradise As for those sophisticall Novelists to say no worse who thus mispoint the words of his promise Amen dico tibi hodie mecum eris in Paradiso Verily I say unto thee this day thou shalt be with me in Paradise to wit sometimes hereafter as at the generall resurrection of the just though not this very day they declare themselves to be in this particular as in most others more unfit to interpret sacred Oracles then Apes to be principall Actors in stately dolefull Tragedies For our Lord and Saviour did most graciously grant this poore soule more then he durst petition for and with better expedition then he could hope for to wit a present estate of blessednesse whereas he requested onely to be remembred with some mercy or favour without indenting any point of time after our Saviour had entred into his Kingdome And his entrance into that Kingdome was not upon the same day wherein he suffered nor within forty dayes after The Kingdom of heaven was not set open to any beleevers not to Abraham himself upon our Saviours passion or resurrection whether that Kingdome import the same place wherein Abraham before that time was or some other For it is one thing to say that the soules of righteous men deceased were in heaven before our Saviour ascended thither another to say they were in the Kingdome of heaven or Citizens of that Kingdome which upon the day of our Saviours victory over death was not erected And he who denyeth the souls of the Patriarchs to be partakers of the Kingdome of heaven before our Saviours death cannot be concluded to grant that they were either in Limbo or in any other region under the earth or under the stars 6. But to waive further dispute about this point for the present Our Saviours soule upon the same day wherein he dyed was in paradise and so was the soule of the penitent Malefactor yet not at the same instant perhaps not within the compasse of the same houre wherein our Saviours soule went thither in what region soever whether of heaven or earth this paradise was seated For it is evident out of the Evangelicall histories that our Saviour did surrender his soule into his fathers hand before either of them who were crucified with him did expire For as was before recited out of S. Matthew 27.50 immediatly upon the ninth houre our Saviour yeelded up the Ghost This testimony alone or this at least with the like Mark 15.37 had been sufficient to prove the Article of our Saviours death But for the more full satisfaction of all posterity as well of Jews as of Gentiles God would have the death of his onely Sonne to be remarkably recorded by the solemn testimony of the Roman Centurion taken upon examination before Pilat And now when the even was come that I take it was betwixt five and six of the clock because it was the preparation that is the day before the Sabbath Joseph of Arimathea an honourable Counsailer who also waited for the Kingdome of God came and went in boldly to Pilat and craved the body of JESUS And Pilat marvailed if he were already dead and calling unto him the Centurion he asked him whether he had been any while dead And when he knew it of the Centurion he gave the body to Joseph Mark 15.42 43 c. That our Saviour died before the other which were crucified with him is more apparant from the parallel testimony of S. Iohn 19.31 32 c. The Iews therefore because it was the preparation that the bodies should not remain upon the crosse on the Sabbath day for that Sabbath day was an high day besought Pilat that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away Then came the Souldiers and brake the legs of the first and of the other which was crucifyed with him But when they came to JESUS and saw that he was dead already they brake not his legs 7. And thus we may observe that aswell the malignant Jews as Christs Disciples of the Jewish Nation and the Roman Souldiers though unwittingly did strangely combine for the accomplishment of divers prophecies or prefigurations concerning the death of the Sonne of God Had hee not died before the other two which were crucified with him his legs had been broken with theirs and his body had not been interr'd before the setting of the Sunne as is probable from Pilats demand to the Centurion whether he had been any while dead before he would give Ioseph leave to bury his body Now if his body had not been interr'd before the Sun-set or at least before the starrs appeared the mystery prefigured by the imprisonment of Ionas three dayes and three nights in the belly of the whale could not by any Synecdoche have been exactly fulfilled by his blessed rest in the grave but of this hereafter Again if the breaking of his legs had not been prevented by his dying before the other two which were crucifyed with him the harmony betwixt the manner of his death and the death of the Paschal Lamb could not have been so exact for no bone of it
〈◊〉 in the forme of God the originall implyeth the very essence or nature of God As much as wee are taught to beleeve in the Nicene or Athanasius Creed where it is said Hee was of one substance with the Father c. He was so in the forme of God or so truely God that he thought it no robbery no usurpation of any dignity which was not his owne by right of nature to account himselfe equall with God It was no robbery so to account himselfe because hee knew himselfe so to be Yet saith the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he did as it were empty himselfe or sequester this his greatnesse and became lesse or lower than the sons of men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by taking upon him the essentiall state or condition of a servant being first made substantially man that hee might be for a time essentially and formally a servant For though every man be not a servant yet every servant must be a man Now the Son of God being thus found in the forme and garbe of a man and in the formall condition of a servant He humbled himselfe yet lower and became obedient unto death even the death of the Crosse And that was a kind of death unto which by the Roman Laws whereunto he yeelded obedience none but slaves or malefactors of servile condition were lyable And how ever many of this state or condition were put unto this ignominious death yet none besides the man Christ Iesus did ever suffer it out of obedience or willingly but for want of power to resist or eschew it Had it beene in the power of the most abject slaves that ever did suffer it to have called in but half so many Roman soldiers to their rescue as Christ Iesus could have commanded of celestiall Angels they would have sould their lives at a dearer rate than the Emperors did which were slain in battaile or mutiny 3. But the man CHRIST JESUS who was also the true Sonne of God and who in that hee was the wisedome of God did better know the horror or paines of a lingring death before he had experience of it as man than any creature man or Angell can doe when HE was afflicted and tormented yet he opened not his mouth but was brought unto his Crosse like a Lambe unto the slaughter and as a sheepe before his shearer is dumbe so opened he not his mouth Isa 53.7 This far exceeded all obedience of any man whether free borne or a slave His patience in all his sufferings did farre exceed the patience of dumb creatures of Lambs themselves of wormes or meaner sensible passives For none of them doth dye a violent death without striving or reluctance without endeavour to annoy such as afflict or torment them Whereas this Lamb of God to shew himselfe to be the mirrour of patience and obedience did pray for his persecutors after the pangs of death more then naturall had seized upon him after he had been buffetted spit upon scourged and every way most disgracefully abused whilst hee endured the lingring and cruell torments of the Crosse exasperated with bitter scoffes and revilings of his unrelenting persecutors uncessantly pouring vinegar in stead of oyle into his wounds gave not the least signification of discontent either by word or gesture towards God or man unlesse some haply will put a sinister interpretation upon that exclamation when he was ready to dye My God my God why hast thou forsaken me But of the purport of this exclamation by Gods assistance in its due time and place In the interim without prejudice to any mans person or authority I rest perswaded that this speech beareth no character of discontent much lesse of despaire To conclude this point As there never was any sorrow like to his sorrow in his sufferings so was there no obedience nor ever shall be any obedience like to his from the beginning to the end of his sufferings This did farther exceed all his sorrows than his sorrowes did the paines and sorrowes of other men CHAP. 2. That the dignity from which the Sonne of God had descended and unto which the Sonne of man was to be exalted were testifyed by many signs and documents during the time of his humiliation 1. VNto this admirable lowlinesse of obedience God awarded a correspondent degree of exaltation For so the Apostle inferreth in the words immediately following Philip. 2.9 c. Wherefore or for this cause God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name that at the name of JESUS every knee should bow of things in Heaven and things in earth and things under the earth and that every tongue should confesse that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father The same Apostle Rom. 14.9 tells us To this end Christ both dyed rose and revived that he might be Lord both of the dead and living As man he was made Lord from his resurrection but as the Sonne of God and a distinct person from his Father he was Lord from eternity as to omit other places before cited our Apostles inference in the 14. of the Romanes ver 10.11 will make cleare to any Christian that can take it into due consideration We shall all stand before the judgement seat of Christ How is this proved or whence had our Apostle himself this revelation From the Prophet Isaiah Chap. 45. ver 10. For there it is written As I live saith the Lord every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confesse unto God Christ then not as man but as God was that Lord in whose name the Prophet speaketh this As I live saith the Lord every knee shall bow to me 2. Had this Lord the onely Sonne of God taken our nature upon him though adorned even from the first moment of its assumption with such majestie and glory as now it is yet the assumption of it would have beene an humiliation of the Sonne of God not physicall but rather as I said civill or ad modum civilis humiliationis an incomparable and unparalleld affabilitie an incomprehensible loving kindnesse But for this Lord to be incarnate for us of a Virgin to take our nature upon him charged with mortality and infirmities to surcharge our ordinary humane conditions with the extraordinary estate of a servant to burden this hard servitude with paine and torture with disgrace and ignominies more than servitude humane is capable of This was that unexpressible humiliation and incomprehensible loving kindnesse towards us miserable men which our Apostle so emphatically setteth forth for our patterne in submitting our wills to his most holy will as he did his unto his Fathers And our Lord himself requireth that we should be humble as he is humble not according to the measure of his humiliation for that is as impossible for us as to be as perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect or as holy as he is holy Yet must we be truely holy as our
busie himselfe about small matters It must be a thing either visible or invisible and if it bee comprehended under either part of this division why are wee taught to beleeve that God the Father Almighty is the Maker not onely of heaven and earth but of all things visible and invisible in them If all things were made by him what could be left for Satan to work or make The apparance of this difficulty moved that acute and learned Father S. Austin sometime to say that sinne was nothing and oftentimes to allot it a cause deficient onely denying it any true positive efficient And many good Writers since his time in our dayes especially overswaid with this Fathers bare authority will have sinnes of what kinde soever to be privations onely no positive entities But they consider not that the selfe same difficulties besides other greater more inevitable inconveniences will presse them no lesse who make sinne to bee a meere privation or to have a cause deficient onely than they doe others who acknowledge it to have a positive efficient cause and a being more then meerly privation 6. What then bee the speciall inconveniencies wherewith their opinions are charged which make sinne either nothing or but a meere privation First wee account it a folly in man a folly incident to no man but an Heautontimorymenon to bee angry or chasing hot for nothing Hence seeing the Almighty Judge doth never punish either man or Devill but for sinne we shall cast a foule aspersion on his wisdome and Justice by maintaining sinne to bee nothing But fewer in our times there be though some I have heard out of the Pulpit which under pretence of St. Augustins authority make sinne to bee meere nothing But many there bee who hold it to be a meere privation which is a meane betweene meere nothing and a positive entitie Yet admitting not granting the nature of sinne to consist formally in privation meere privations for the most part have causes truely efficient fewer causes merely deficient if there can bee any causality in deficiencie Blindnesse deafenesse dumbnesse are privations and yet more men lose the sense of hearing sight or feeling in some particular members by violent blowes or by oppression of raging humours than by meere defect or decaying of spirits And where one man drops into his grave for meere age as ripe apples doe from the trees they grow on to the ground without blasts of winde or shaking a thousand die a violent or untimely death by true and positive efficient causes either externall or internall 7. That which either hath deceived or emboldned many Divines to allot sinne a being onely privative is a Philosophicall or metaphysicall Maxime most true in it selfe or in its proper sphere but most impertinently applied to the point now in question The Maxime is Omne ens quà ens est bonum Every entity in that it hath a being is good Most true if wee speake of transcendentall goodnesse or bonum entis for every thing which hath a true being is accompanied with a goodnesse entitative But the question amongst Divines is or should be about moral goodnesse or that goodnesse which is opposed to malum culpae that evill which wee call sinne Now if every positive entitie or nature were necessarily good according to this notion of goodnesse every intelligent rationall creature should be as impeccable as his Creator and wee should truely sinne if to speake untruly bee a sinne when wee say the Devill is a knave or any man dishonest For if every nature or entity as such were morally good it were impossible any nature or positive entity should bee evill qualified should be laden with sinne that is with that evill which is opposed to goodnesse moral or to holinesse whether this evill be a meere privation or positive entitie For in as much as the sight or visive facultie is the property of the eye or in as much as this proposition is true Oculus quà oculus videt this conclusion is most necessary when the eye hath lost the sight or visive facultie it is no more an eye unlesse in such an equivocall sense as wee say a picture hath eyes though not so properly If a man cannot see as we say stime but with one eye we account it no solecisme to say hee hath lost the other The case in the former instances is more cleare If Satan or man were morally good because they have a positive entity or nature neither of them could possibly be morally evill neither of them sinfull creatures albeit wee should grant sinne to bee as meere a privation as blindnesse is 8. It is a maxime in true Logick that is in the faculty or science of reasoning absolutely true and therefore true in Divinity also for truth is but one and it is her property not to contradict her selfe though examined in severall subjects Quicquid convenit subjecto quà tale non potest abesse sine subjecti interitu No naturall property can cease to bee or perish but together with the subject which supports it Whence if that Angel which is now the Devill had been truely good quà Angelus or if goodnesse moral had belonged unto him as he was a positive entitie or rationall creature hee had ceased to be either a rationall creature or any thing else when hee lost his goodnesse 9. Of sinnes of omission it is most true that they finde place in our nature rather by deficiency than efficiency and yet even this deficiencie for the most part is occasioned by some formall positive act or habit For this cause it is questioned among Schoolemen Whether there is or can bee any sinne of meere omission that is not occasioned by the commission of some other sinfull acts precedent or linked with some such act present To deny all sinnes of meere emission in nature already corrupted would bee more probable than in the first sinne whether of man or Angel Neither of them could possibly have committed sinne or done that which they ought not to have done without some precedent omission of that which they ought to have done But of this elswhere more at large and somewhat of it briefly in the next Chapter 10. Sure I am that the work which Satan wrought in our first Parents and in our nature had a cause truely efficient hath a being more than meerely privative For it was a work so really great and so cunningly contrived that the strength and wisdome of the Sonne of God was required as being onely all-sufficient to dissolve or destroy it and is it possible that any so great a work could be wrought by deficiencie or a defective worker Not Satan onely but his instruments are as positive as industrious efficients as effectuall workers of iniquity as the best man which ever lived the man CHRIST JESUS onely excepted was or is of righteousnesse But it is true againe that neither Satan nor his instruments can produce or make any substances or subjects these
of men and by the death of the Crosse not by the immediate power of Satan That the conflict in the garden was extraordinary that in this houre the decretorie battle betwixt the old Serpent and the womans seed was to be fought at least the brunt of it the letter of the Scripture is to my apprehension very plaine As first from that speech of our Saviours after his Maundy Ioh. 15.13 Hereafter I will not talke much with you for the Prince of this world commeth with greater violence surely than at any time before had been permitted him to use For our Saviour uttered these words immediatly after Satan had entred into Iudas at which time his Commission to enter the lists with the holy seed of the woman was first to bee put in execution It hath alwayes seemed to me a mystery or secret whereof no reason can bee given in nature how Satan gaines greater power of doing mischiefes and harmes to men by secret compact with others of their owne nature as with Witches or other of his owne worshippers than is permitted him to use by his owne immediate power or strength Iudas though hee was no Witch yet was hee a worshipper of Satan one who had made Mammon his God for whose service he had resolved to betray his Master into the hands of his enemies It is pregnant againe frō that saying of our Saviour immediatly upon the cessation or intermission of his Agony and bloody sweat that Satans assaults were at this time extraordinary When I was dayly with you in the Temple you stretched out no hand against mee sed haec est hora vestra potestas tenebrarum But this is your houre and the houre appointed for the powers of darknesse to try their strength against mee But after they could get no advantage of him by grapling with him in the garden being not able to move him to the least signification of any impatience or overture of discontent as Satan had done Iob in his second temptation they leave him unto the malice of his mortall Enemies being assured they should get advantage enough over their soules and prevalently tempt them to cruelty and hatred towards this holy One more than naturall The houre of his terrible combat with Satan was but newly expiring when thus he spake to the chiefe Priests and Elders And howbeit this word houre sometimes imports more than an houre as wee say by the clock some larger indefinite time or season yet that in the forecited place it is to bee taken for a just houre and no more many circumstances of the Text perswade mee this especially when hee saith to his Disciples Could yee not watch with mee one houre As if he had said Of all the time that I have been with you this was the onely houre wherein your watchfulnesse and attendance on me had been on your parts most requisite and to me most acceptable And the effect of his petition as S. Mark expresseth it was thus that if it were possible the houre might passe from him This was the houre wherein hee tasted the bitter cup whose present bitternesse upon his prayer was if not altogether taken away yet asswaged and the houre it selfe wherein hee was to tast of it perhaps shortned 2. This conflict with Satan and the issue of it our Saviour apprehended at his triumphant ingresse into Jerusalem immediatly after his future glorification was avouched by a voice from heaven three dayes before hee entred into his Agony Now is my soule troubled and what shall I say Father save mee from this houre but for this cause came I unto this houre Father glorifie thy Name Then came there a voice from heaven saying I have both glorified it and will glorifie it againe c. Now is the judgement of this world now shall the Prince of this world be cast out And I if I be lift up from the earth will draw all men unto me Ioh. 12.27 28 c. In what sense or how farre the world at this time was judged exhibits plentifull matter of controverse Divinity not immediatly emergent from the positive points of Divinity now in hand And for this cause I must request the ingenuous Reader for the present to take a matter which before was proposed into deeper consideration The point is briefly this Our first Parents in the selfe same fact by which they became rebellious ipso jure committing high treason against their God and Creator did subject themselves and their posterity unto the tyrannicall dominion of Satan His vassailes and slaves all of vs were by right most soveraigne amongst the sonnes of men by right of conquest in Duel Now albeit the Conquerer was a Traytor and rebell against God although he did first commit or at least accomplish this his rebellion and treason by withdrawing our first Parents from that allegiance and obedience which by law of nature they and wee ought perpetually to have borne unto our Maker Yet so observant of all rules of equity and just forme of proceedings was he who is goodnesse equity and justice it selfe that unto Satan the professed Rebell against him and implacable Enemy towards man he did vouchsafe the benefit of the Law of Armes or Duel Now seeing Satan being not Omnipotent but of power force and subtilty limited had thus subdued our first Parents whom their Creator had endowed with freedome and power sufficient to dispose of their actions for the future good of themselves and their posterity his gracious goodnesse would not take us out of this Rebels hands by the Omnipotent power or irresistible force of his Godhead Man being conquered by his sometimes fellow creature was in the wisdome of Divine equity to bee rescued from this bondage by a Creature by a man of the same nature and substance subject to all the infirmities sinne excepted to which wee are subject as taking his substance from that man whom Satan had conquered As Satan did not appeare in his owne shape or likenesse when hee subdued our first Parents for so no question they would have been more wary to have closed with him but disguised in the similitude of a Serpent which was a creature more subtill than all the beasts of the field yet a creature every way farre inferiour to man So the Sonne of God did not enter this combat with Satan in the glory and strength of his Godhead but in his Godhead as it were disguised or clothed upon with the true nature and substance of man and of a man whom Satan upon triall before had knowen to be throughly subject to the infirmities of mortality Otherwise hee had more wit than to have entered the lists with him in the second conflict 3. How much dearer this conflict with Satan cost our Saviour than Iobs second temptation cost him hee onely knowes and this knowledge hee learned by patience and obedience in suffering these paines of what kind soever they were The ancient Greek Liturgies expresse them best by
heavenly Father is holy and sincerely humble as the Sonne of God our Lord and Saviour was humble Our humiliation or obedience to his will though it must be true not hypocriticall yet in this life at the best and in the best of men is imperfect in comparison of the obedience of heavenly Angels though theirs be but finite But the depth of the humiliation of the Sonne of God is as he is immensurable truely infinite Higher than God he could not be but so high he was in glory and dignity from eternity yet lower than man than the most abject of the Sons of men he vouchsafed for a time to be that we might be at least made equall to the Angels even Lords and Kings unto God of slaves by birth and condition unto infernall Tyrans 3. But could hee not have thus advanced us without any depression or humiliation of himself could not we sonnes of men be made happy without the misery and sorow of the Son of God The answer to this Quaere will finde place hereafter That which for the present deserveth our consideration is that in all the severall degrees of his humiliation God the Father was still pleased to exhibit some visible documents or sensible manifestations of that glory and dignity whereof his Sonne for a time had devested himselfe and of that glory unto which as man for his faithfull service done in our nature he was to be exalted His birth we know was meane in the eyes of men his entertainement at his first comming into the world for lodging especially more despicable than the lodging or entertainement of poenitentiary Pilgrimes Yet then welcomed into the world by an hoast of Angels sounding out gratulatory Hymnes unto God for the comfort of us miserable men for whose sakes he who was their supreme Lord did vouchsafe to descend thus low and while they congratulate us they doe truely adore him But seeing the ditties of their congratulatory hymnes were heard onely by some few and those men of meaner rank in Jury God would have his glory proclaymed by those wise and potent men which had seene his star in the East and from the glorious appearance or secret significations made to them of it came in person first to Ierusalem then to Bethleem to tender that homage and service to this Infant which they scorned to performe to Herod or Augustus Caesar of whose greatnesse no doubt they had heard but did not admire or esteeme it in comparison of this late borne King of the Jews These and other glimpses of that glory which was due unto him perpetually as man though publiquely manifested did not so much affect the stubborne hearted Jews as the meanness of his ordinary condition or state of life did offend them No question but that voice which came from heaven at his Baptisme This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased was heard by more than by Iohn Baptist and both testifyed and proclaimed by him to them that heard it not and yet forgotten by most within three yeares space so deepely forgotten that they did not call to memory at least not lay it to heart upon the second publication of his glory For some few daies before his sufferings the like encomiasme of that glory which was due unto him as he was the Son of God was proclaimed from heaven upon his prayers to this purpose when his soule was heavy and troubled with expectation of approaching sorrows Iohn 12 26. c. If any man serve me let him follow me and where I am there shall also my servant be If any man serve me him also will my Father honour Now is my soule troubled and what shall I say Father save me from this houre but for this cause came I unto this houre Father glorifie thy name Then came there a voice from heaven saying I have both glorifyed it and will glorify it againe This document of his glory was more publique than the former and the end and scope of it more solemnly avouched by himself ver 29.30 The people therefore that stood by and heard it said that it thundred Others said an Angel spake to him JESUS answered and said This voice came not because of me but for your sakes 4. Yet even this gleame of his glorious brightnesse wherewith the peoples eyes were for the present dazeled was shortly after so overclouded with the ignominies and indignities done unto him at his attachment arrainment and execution that his very Disciples had almost quite forgotten it For so two of them give this and other glorious documents of his dignities for lost after they had heard the news of his resurrection We trusted say they that it had beene he which should have redeemed Israel Luke 24.21 And what reason or pretence had they not to trust so still Onely because the chiefe Priests and Rulers had delivered him to be condemned to death and had crucified him ver 20. A strange drowsinesse had fallen upon them in that they could not foresee that the day of his glorious Raigne over Israel thus foretokened by these and the like scattered rayes or dawnings was to be ushered by a troublesome night of sorrows and sufferings and with this stupidity himselfe upbraids them Then he said unto them O fooles and slow of heart to beleeve all that the Prophets have spoken Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to have entred into his glory Luke 24.25 26. Now all the sufferings and other Eclipses of this Sunne of righteousnesse were as clearely foretold as his future glory both by expresse testimony and typicall matter of fact By expresse testimony Isaiah 53.1 2 3. Who hath beleeved our report and to whom is the arme of the Lord revealed For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a roote out of a dry ground He hath no forme nor comelinesse and when we shal see him there is no beauty that we should desire him He is despised and rejected a man of sorrows and acquainted with griefe and we hid as it were our faces from him He was despised and wee esteemed him not 5. But were those other interposed flashes of this day starrs brightnesse exhibited at his birth or first arising at his Baptisme and at his passion as clearely foretold as the Eclipse of it in his sufferings That the Angelicall song or service of Angels at his nativity were foretold by the Psalmist Psal 97.7 I ever tooke it following the paths of the ancient as a plaine case void of scruple untill Ribera stumbled me in my course with a criticisme upon the Apostles allegation of this passage Heb. 1.6 And againe when he bringeth in the first begotten into the world he saith And let all the Angels of God worship him So our English so Erasmus and some of the most accurate Greek Interpreters according to the sense and meaning of our English But this learned Commentator renders it thus I must confesse verbatim according to
surprisall of David and his traine about the same place or not farre beyond it 2. Sam. 17. 4. When I behold my Saviour in that heavie plight and dejected posture described by the Evangelist prostrating himselfe on his knees and face to the earth yet sending out these ejaculations unto heaven Father if it bee possible let this Cup passe from mee Me thinks I see the exquisite accomplishment of the Psalmists complaint charactering his owne wofull case for the present yet by way of prophecie or prefiguration of more just cause which the promised Messias should have of uttering the like complaint who was as hee saw to partake more deeply of his grievances and afflictions though not of his passion or impatience in them For this Sonne of Righteousnesse was willing to suffer with all submission to his heavenly Fathers will whatsoever any of his forerunning shadows had suffered either immediatly from the hand of God or by the violence of men and to suffer them without any token of grudging or impatience The complaint of the Psalmist who did foreshadow the dejected estate of the Sonne of God in that houre of temptation wee have set downe Psalme 38.14 My sinnes are gone over my head and they are like a sore burden too heavy for mee to beare But the heavy burden not of the Psalmists sinnes alone but of the sinnes of the world were now laid upon the Sonne of man in the garden and did deject him to the ground But how patiently soever he did beare or fall downe under this burden yet he stood in need of comfort from heaven as his forerunners in farre lesse anguish had done And if wee would take St. Lukes relation of the Angels comming to support and comfort him in this his weaknesse into serious consideration we may have a briefe yet a most true and punctuall Commentary upon that Prophecie Psalme 8. Thou hast made him for a little while lower than the Angels to wit as he was the Sonne of man though never ceasing to be the Sonne of God For the most valiant Generall that is which stands in need of Support or helpe from his meanest Souldier is for the time being lower then hee is which lends him his hand or helps him up being throwen downe or prostrate Now this our chiefe Leaders Agony and the time betweene his apprehension and his death was the onely time that little while whereof the Psalmist speakes wherein CHRIST JESUS as man was made lower then the Angels lower then the ordinary sonnes of men For hee was as another Psalmist in his Person complaines a worme and no man But immediately after this bitter Agony the strength and vigour of the Sonne of righteousnesse which for a time was eclipsed or overcast with a bloody sweat did breake forth afresh and though in the night time did no lesse dazell and astonish the armed band which came with Iudas to apprehend him then the light which shone at mid-day did S. Paul when he was armed with authority to attach his Followers For immediatly after that Cup which he prayed against was passed from him Hee knowing all things saith St. Iohn that should come upon him went forth and said unto them that came to apprehend him Whom seeke yee They answered him Iesus of Nazareth Iesus saith unto them I am hee And Iudas also which betrayed him stood with them Assoone then as hee had said unto them I am hee they went backward and fell to the ground Then asked hee them againe Whom seeke yee And they said Iesus of Nazareth Iesus answered I have told you that I am hee If therefore yee seek me let these goe their way That the saying might be fulfilled which hee spake Of them which thou gavest mee I have lost none Joh. 18 4 5 6 c. Here was a true document both of his royall and spirituall power of his royall power in that hee could command them to forbeare any violence towards his Disciples yea not to oppose violence offered unto one of their company For Simon Peter as St. Iohn saith having a sword drew it and cut off one of the servants of the high Priests right eare the servants name was Malchus 10 11. verses c. St. Luke recordeth that hee touched his eare and healed him so farre was he from all desire of revenge upon his enemies This was an act of his power spirituall so was that likewise in protecting his Disciples from danger as well of soule as of body For as S. Iohn to my apprehension intimates if they had been put unto the same fiery triall unto which hee himselfe was exposed they had denied him and their former faith Therefore hee commanded his Apprehenders to let them goe their way that the saying might be fulfilled which he spake some few houres before Of them which thou gavest me have I lost none John 18.10 So he had said Iohn 17.11 And now I am no more in the world but these are in the world and I come to thee Holy Father keepe through thine owne Name those whom thou hast given me that they may be one as we are While I was with them in the world I kept them in thy Name those that thou gavest mee I kept and none of them is lost but the sonne of perdition Either Iudas was never one of them whom his Father had given him or at least at this time had given himselfe to his Father the Devill 5 But as one and the same prophecy may be often filled by events much distant in time so may divers prophecies much distant for time be accomplisht in one and the same event in the same point of time as in this dismission of JESUS his Disciples both his owne praediction as Saint Iohn tells us was fulfilled and another prophecy likewise as we may gather from S. Mark or rather from our Saviours exposition recorded by the Evangelist Mark 14. Iesus saith unto them All yee shall be offended because of me this night For it is written I will smite the Shepheard and the sheepe shall be scattered This smiting of the Shepheard was amongst other prophecies both foretold and prefigured as is probable by the death of Iosiah unto which most referr that of Ieremiah Lamen 4.20 The breath of our nose-thrills the Anointed of the Lord was taken in their pits of whom we said under his shadow we shall live among the heathen Some there are which referr this complaint unto the Captivity of Zedekiah but not so pertinently or considerately as most other of their meditations or observations would occasion the Reader to expect For the Prophet Ieremiah did never conceive such hope of Zedekiah or Iehoiakim as the deepe straine of this particular threne or throb doth import No sonne of good Iosiah was either in life or death such a type of the Lords promised Annointed as himself had beene From the houre of his death untill the return of his people from Babylonish Captivity Jerusalem and Judah did not