106 but not by the Jews § 108 A soldier pierced his side § 111 Joseph of Arimathea begged his § 112 〈◊〉 And buried id § 113 and the Rulers sealed the stone and set a guard § 114 But notwithstanding he rose from the dead as it was witnessed by the guards § 117 Divers women ignorant of his Resurrection come to the Sepulchre § 118 as did Peter and John § 119 our Lord appeard to Mary Magdalen first § 121 then to the other women § 122 who hasted to tell the Apostles § 123 He appeared also to S. Peter § 124 and to 2 more Disciples going to Emaus § 127 and to the body of the Apostles § 131 and to them again when Thomas was present § 135 again in Galilee when they were a fishing § 139 again to James § 141 and Lastly to them all at Jerusalem from whence he led them forth to Mount Olivet and in their presence ascended into heaven § 150 They returned to Jerusalem An Historical Narration OF THE LIFE OF OUR LORD JESUS PART 1. § 1 AFTER above two thousand years of the Worlds age run out before the Law and near another two thousand under it That the world from its beginning might successively move still to more and more perfection the remainder of its duration was to be spent under the Gospel Which time also as for the progress of the Gospel in conversion of Nations probably shall not surpass two thousand years more and then after these six great daies of the World the seventh Millenary day shall be a Sabbath a day of great rest peace and prosperity unto the Church of God see Rev. 20.2 comp 19.29 and Rev. 20.7 10 11. Rom. 11.25 26 29 31. and lastly on the 8th day a resurrection from the dead and so time swallowed up of Eternity For that this world shall not arrive to eight thousand years appears from the many texts intimating that in our Saviors and the Apostles daies it had already passed its middle age See Heb. 1.2 9.26 Rom. 13.12 1 Cor. 7.29 1 Pet. 4.7 2 Pet. 3.3 Phil. 4.5 Eph. 1.10 Gal. 4.4 1 Jo. 4.3 2 Thess 2.3 comp 1 Jo. 2.18 After the World therefore now was about 4000 years old and the Laws of Nature and of Moses had fulfilled their periods the appointed time approached for the coming of the Promised Messias and promulgation by Him of the Gospel § 2 At which time to verify Jacobs prediction Gen. 49.10 that upon the coming of Shilo the Civil Government and common-wealth of the Jews was shortly to expire and to be changed into the Spiritual and eternal Kingdom of the Messiah We find not only a subjection of the Jewish supreme Governors to the Roman Emperors and a new enrolment and tax just now imposed on that people by Augustus being such a submission as that Nation had never stooped to before therefore one Judas of Galilee and much people with him made an insurrection upon it Act. 5 17. Jos Antiq. 18. l. 1. c. we find I say not only such a subjection of the Governors but also the Government and the Scepter it self of the Jews to be now first put into the hands of a stranger Herod by race an Idumean A man who raged amongst Gods people like a Bear and a Lion devouring and wasting on every side One who slew their King Antigonus slew their High Priest Hircanus his great Friend and all the cheif Council of the Jews that sate with him save only one man see Joseph 14. c. 18. extirpated the race of the Macchabees and with them several of his intimate friends see Joseph 15. c. 9. One who changed the High Priest now of no authority seven times over in his reign deposing some killing others substituting in their roomes whom he pleased persons of little merit low condition that he might be less jealous of their power And what He did toward the High Priest the same also did his successors in this government Amongst whom Valerius Gratus Pilates Predecessor changed the High Priest in five years five times Joseph Antiq. 18. l. 4. c. which might sufficiently intimate to the Jews the approaching cessation of that office by the Aduent of the Eternal High Priest Again One whose rage entred even into his own family killed his wife most passionatly loved by him and his wives mother killed his three eldest Sons two of them men of great worth as is imagined causlesly One who when just vengeance would suffer him to live no longer imprisoned all the Jewish Nobility that he could assemble together and ordered that instantly upon his expiring they should also be slain to change the Jews fore-seen rejoycing at his death into a mourning for theirs Not here to name that superbarbarous slaughter of so many certainly-Innocent because Infants in the coasts of Bethlehem At this time therefore after the most cruel of Princes to make him the more acceptable was to come to his people the most merciful and mild and peaceful eternally to deliver them from their enemies and from the hands of all that hated them Luk. 1.71 When also this Ambitious man much given to magnificent structures being ore-ruled by the Divine Providence and thinking no other work so fit to eternize his own memory see Joseph Antiq. 15. l. 14. c. or to oblige to him for ever the Jewish nation had built and prepared a new Temple much more sumptuous then the former as it were for the more solemn entertainment of the suddain coming of this Lord into his Temple Malac. 3.1 § 3 And six Months before his Conception first preceded the conception of another most extraordinary Person One much more than a Prophet Luk. 7.26 one prophecied of by the Prophets and called by them Angelus Domini of whom the highest of the prophets Elias was only a Type 1. And this Person was ordained by God to be the Messenger and forerunner and proclaimer to the world of the coming of this Lord and of the instant approach now of the Kingdom not of Earth but of Heaven 2. Appointed also to prepare the way for this Prince to cause the levelling and making straight and plain all places before him as is usually done before great Princes but all this was with reference to mens spiritual condition which only is worth such a great design as we here speak of as also this great Prince that was to come was a spiritual Prince and this levelling and making straight was not ment of material Hills and high waies but of what was high and ambitious low and base perverse and crooked in mens lives and thoughts before such a Lord as was to be entertained and to rule not in mens palaces but in their hearts This Person therefore was sent to prepare the world that they should not with any secular state or external magnificent shews but with pure Souls and reformed manners with which entertainment only this heavenly King was taken meet and receive this most Holy Prince and
and words comp Mat. 3.2 with 4.17 declaring unto them a Kingdom in Heaven which the Lord that followed him would confer on the worthy and the everlasting torments of Hell-fire which he would inflict on the rebellious telling them of a kingdom of God to be erected not abroad but within them and of the Holy Spirit which this King would baptize them with upon their repentance preached by Him freeing them from the thraldom not of the Romans but of sin nor from their servitude under Herod or Tiberius but under the great Prince of all this lower world Satan their spiritual and only dangerous enemy whose captives and children and not Abrahams they unknowingly were till by this Prince delivered This was the great deliverance to come by Jesus which both Holy Zachary spake of in his Benedictus Luk. ◠77 To give knowledg of Salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins and the Angel in his message to Joseph telling him why he should be called Jesus or Savior Matt. 1.21 because he should save his people from their sins Such punishments and rewards liberty and royalty as the Baptist preached being the only that were here worth the speaking of or looking after Thus was the Baptist appointed to be the beginner of the Gospel and the first open promulgator of this new Spiritual Kingdom The Prophets saith our Savior Mat. 11.12 13. prophecied until John 1. of such a thing to come but from the daies of John the kingdom of heaven began to suffer violence people by troopes now pressing into it and every one striving to gain for himself a share thereof whilst they crowded in such multitudes to Johns Mat. 3.5 and our Saviors baptisms Joh. 3 26. Only John began the publishing of this Gospel afar off as it were not coming into the Temple or the cheif Cities to preach it but staying a loof off in the Wilderness and near Jordan leaving these honors to the Lord who followed Him by whom the Gospel was brought still nearer till it visited at last every small Town and Village § 6 And as John preceded our Savior in his new and Spiritual doctrine so he resembled him much what in his Heroical vertues Both in his magnanimity and courage and in his mansuetude and clemency and in his humility and self-denial which was never in any man so great as in our Savior 1 Using the same boldness toward Herod Luk. 3.19 20 as our Savior afterwards did Luk. 13.32 reproving him for all the evil he had done saith the Evangelist Luke 3.19 and particularly concerning his Wife not fearing the implacable wrath of a woman and a Queen tho this cost him his life Again treating the Scribes the Pharisees and Sadduces whose manners he knew by the Spirit and Revelation not having learnt them by experience at the first sight roughly and severely as their incorrigible Hypocrisy and malice deserv'd reproving them in the very same terms as our Savior comp Mat. 3.7 with 23.33 and calling them Generation of Vipers or Serpents they being the brood of the old Serpent the Devil in the resemblance of their manners see Jo. 8.44 in opposition to their boasting of their being Abrahams seed to whom they were nothing like in their lives 2 Meanwhile toward the soldiers the publicans and others notorious but relenting sinners using the same mansuetude as Christ teaching them their duty for the future without upbraiding their former faults This great Saint not bred in the Court or in ceremonial Society but in retiredness and solitude neither reverencing the secular porte and state of the Pharisee nor despising the meanness and low esteem of the Publican Only in general the Baptist seems to personate a greater austerity then our Lord both in his conversation and his preaching pressing mainly the discipline of repentance and threatning much the wrath to come hell-fire and damnation to the disobedient having something more herein of the Spirit of his type Elias whereas our Saviors language was more benign and indulgent publishing remission of sin and promising a Kingdom to the obedient and also telling his Disciples that the Spirit of Elias did not so well befit them Yet were both our Saviors and Johns dispensations suitable to their seasons the one answering to the beginning of an holy life the other to the end and consummation thereof the one laying the foundation with threats and terrors the other building it up with consolations and mercies the Lord doing the rough part by his servant the gentle and mild by himself 3 Again much resembling our Savior also in his great humility accompanied with such eminency of Sanctity He that was so far above the Prophets yet when the Jews sent to him and asked him whether he was Elias or whether he was a Prophet which is to be understood here as in Mat. 16.14 the Jews then holding a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He answered No without telling them that he was that typified Elias which was for to come or that he was more then a Prophet and expressed himself meanwhile by the most diminutive term that could be thought on that he was only Vox clamantis c. before a greater Person that was then coming after him He stood exceedingly upon his guard of lowliness and disparaged himself upon all occasions as the Jews and his Disciples magnifyed him Being conjectured by them for the Messias he nourished not the mistake for his own honor but saith the Evangelist Jo. 1.20 he confessed and denied not i. e. to speak this truth against his own reputation but confessed that he was not He. And Jo. 3.28 he takes solemn witness of such his confession In comparing himself with him he useth an expression to debase himself beneath the lowest of his servants that he was not worthy stooping to untie the latchet of his shoe Mar. 1.7 and Jo. 3.31 he saith that he being earthly did but loqui de terra speak of the Earth i. e. low and mean rudiments for which S. John useth this phrase see Jo. 3. v. 12. in comparison of Jesus who coming from Heaven above spoke of the greater misteries which he had there heard and seen He every where gave place to our Savior left Bethabara in Judea the more publick place of concourse for our Saviors disciples some of whom had formerly bin his to baptize in and retired himself North-ward toward Galilee to Enon near to Salim Jo. 3.23 He transmitted his Disciples to him Jo. 1.35 and resign'd his former Auditors and the multitudes to his conduct and when the people so soon as they saw his great Miracles and heard his divine words now admired and flockt after Jesus much more then they did after John He rejoiced to hear it with an humble acknowledgment Oportet illum crescere me minui and when his ambitious disciples made a complaint to him of it he answered them that he was but a waiter on this Bridegroome of the Church and his joy was
encourage these poor men to go and see and pay their duties to him where they should find no repulse at the Gates nor needed some great Patron to convey them into his Court or bedchamber the place the entertainers and all other accoutrements about the Babe being very suitable to such visitants § 35 And presently after the delivery of this message there came down into the Air above them a great Troupe of the heavenly Militia who rejoycing when repentance happens to one sinner Luk. 15.7 10. did now much more when salvation came to the whole world with great joy celebrating the new birth of their Masters son the Saviour of men and the Lord of Angels and singing his Nativity-song in the sight and hearing of these ravished Shepheards that others also might hear it from them § 36 The subject and matter of which Song was this Peace to the Earth under this new-born Prince not from a Temporal enemy but from the wrath of the Almighty Reconciliation between God and man formerly a child of wrath Eph. 2.3 by this Mediator-Babe God and man Cessation or war between Earth and Heaven the only war which men had cause to dread Mans former offences against God being now cancell'd And the Angel removed that formerly guarded Paradise against us with a drawn sword Gen. 3.24 thro this onlysinless Infant taking our part and being Emanuel God with us Good will towards men yea 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Good-will and well-pleasing such good will to man as God had to this Babe his own Son which he expresseth elsewhere in just the same terme 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mat. 3.17 such well-pleasing in man as to make his only Son not an Angel but a man Such peace and Good-will from God toward men below and Glory for it from men and Angels the welwishers of men to God on High But yet perhaps another Glory sung by the Angels to God on High with reference even to themselves For this Babe is said not only to be a Head of men Col. 1.18 but of Angels Col. 2.10 from which it follows that Angels are not only his subjects but also in some sense his members and God the Father is said to gather together in one in Him all things not only which are on Earth but also which are in Heaven Eph. 1.10 and further yet to reconcile unto himself by this babe making peace thro the blood of his cross all things whether they be things on earth or things in heaven Col. 1.20 Even those things in heaven receiving some benefit it seems tho we do not well know in particular what some further sanctification or illumination or recommendation to the Deity thro Him by whom as these Angels were created so it is said that they were created also for Him Col. 1.16 and they as all the rest of the Creation are acceptable and well-pleasing to God only thro Him being of themselves of no value without Him Besides the whole Creation being said Rom. 8.22 to groan under sin the whole Creation may be supposed to be some way or other releiv'd by this Expiatour of sin And Heb. 9.23 there is mention of a purifying even of the heavenly Sanctuary the habitation of these Blessed Angels by this Babe as if that had bin some way polluted by the faln Angels sin as the Earth by man's And 2 Pet. 3.13 T is said that as a new earth so new heavens shal-be made wherein dwelleth righteousness as if the present at least the lower regions of them retain'd some contagion of unrighteousness See Job 15.15 25.5 And Eph. 6.12 there is mention of wickedness dwelling now in heavenly places and Job 1.7 of that filthy Fiend Satan by Gods permission appearing there after his perambulation thro the earth in his presence amongst the sons of God And Rev. 12.10 we read of a war in heaven between the good and bad Angels and of the ejection from thence of the Evil Angels by the power of Christ Pardon this excursion for we can set no certain bounds to the benefit which the whole Creation hath receiv'd thro this Infant of God For whom therefore all the Angels of God as well as men are obliged to sing Gloria in excelsis Deo § 37 And what the Shepheards heard these sing at the same time sung all the rest of the whole Host of Heaven and went and paid their worship and adoration to the child in the Manger according to the Edict of the Almighty Psal 97.7 mentioned Heb. 1.6 Who when he brought in his First-born into the world said And let all the Angels of God worship Him And the Apostle in description of the mystery of the Incarnation 1 Tim. 3.16 after God manifested in the flesh adds seen of Angels perhaps with special relation to this solemn visit and doxology of theirs at his Nativity And S. Peter further saith 1 Pet. 1.12 That they even longed to look into this matter as if they could not be satisfied with seeing it it pleased them so well Of this honour done to the only begotten of God at his Nativity by the Angels how much was made visible to Joseph and Mary in the house besides this that appeared to the Shepheards in the feild we know not but meanwhile are bound gratefully to admire how free from envy the cause of some of their fall and how full of love and benevolence towards man these more noble Creatures were exulting and praising God for this honour done their Inferiours whereby these miserable creatures when sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death eternal objects together with the faln Angels of Gods wrath were now by this Babe advanced into their society and made sons of God and Heirs of Heaven nay in some sense advanced above themselves God passing by the substance of Angels Heb. 2.16 and making this babe his Son eternally to wear the form and fashion of man rather becoming flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone § 38 When the Angels had sung to the listening Shepheards this Song this Troop ascended into heaven again and went out of their sight and the believing Shepheards not valuing the harm which might happen to their forsaken flocks made hast toward Bethleem to see this Lamb of God shal I say or Shepheard of Israel for by both these titles he hath delighted to be stiled Jo. 1.29 10.11 Ezec. 34.23 where they found the Babe as described and fell down and did their homage to Him in a representation of the whole nation of the Jews and we may presume offered some small present as is usual to great Princes by their Subjects and as afterward we read the Magi did for the Gentiles Whom this Spiritual Prince rewarded richly for their pains in spiritual things in illuminating their minds and enflaming their hearts with a love and zeal of his glory for their faith not stumbling at the lowness of his outward appearance his poor lodging his hard bed his course swath his mean
16. chap. saying Rabbi thou art the Son of God for so the Baptist also before had several times stiled him thou art the King of Israel that hath bin so long expected by this Nation § 171 Our Lord upon Nathaniels mentioning his Kingship answered that they should hereafter see much greater Confirmation of this their faith and that the time should be when they should behold the Heavens opened and Angels ascending and descending upon the Son of man for so our Lord usually out of humility shall I say or rather a strong love to his Creature man stiled himself ascending and descending upon him as he being alwaies in Heaven as well as on Earth and the sole Mediator between Earth and Heaven who also only had traffick with Heaven and knew all his Fathers secrets there and again when they should see infinite numbers of them attending on him in his appearing at the last day in the full Glory of that his Kingdom which Nathaniel now confessed alluding in all this to the Honour that was done to their fore-father Jacob after his lying in the field alone so desolate and forsaken As also but a little before when our Lord was in the Desart the Angels had descended and ministred unto him In the same manner after this when his Judges asked concerning his being the Son of God he answered them that hereafter they should see the Son of Man coming in the Clouds of Heaven i. e Clouds of Angels flying and waving about him Mat. 26.64 Jo. 6.58 62. And elsewhere some of his followers wondring at his speech of his feeding them with bread which came down from Heaven What and if saith he ye shall see the Son of man ascend up into Heaven where he was before And so his young Schollar Nicodemus wondring at his Sermon of mans being born again of the spirit he tells him of things of greater wonder Viz. of the Son of Mans ascending up into Heaven again as he had descended from Heaven Jo. 3.9 44. and also was then in Heaven § 172 Thus our Lord often represented to his Disciples and others his future Glory his Resurrection Ascension Coming in great Majesty to Judgment and that their faith in him might not languish from the mean appearance of things present And also this suddain and resolute Confession of Nathaniel who but now disputed the matter must needs be a great corroboration and consolation to the four former Discipies gathered to our Lord. All these five being persons of much zeal and piety tho most of them not wealthy had left their daily imployments and trade for a season to come and hear the Sermons of John receive as his penitents baptism from him and some of them at least were admitted into some more familiar acquaintance with him and by this had more notice of our Lord and God looking upon such their sincerity conferred on them the honour after thus prepared by John to be the first Disciples and Attendants on his Son § 173 In this our Lords journey into Galilee he arrived at Cana Nathaniels Town not far distant from Nazareth and about a daies journey from Capernaum as may be gathered from Jo. 4.47 compared with vers 52. which Cana also our Lord took in his way in the second journey he made from Jerusalem into Galilee See John 4.46 Now so it fell out that on this day he came thither was solemnized a Marriage and hither also were assembled our Lords Mother and his Brethren invited to this wedding probably of some of their near kindred the care our Lords Mother had concerning the Wine and her colloquy with the Servants shewing she had some particular interest therein Hither therefore our Lord coming with his new chosen Disciples they were also invited to the marriage And all this seems punctually so ordered by the Divine Providence that whereas our Lord had led his former life so obscurely Now the dignity of his person and Mission from Heaven and his Father there might be manifested in the first place to these his nearer Relations according to the flesh for the rectifying any their former misapprehensions and their believing on this common Saviour and being made partakers of so great a joy and that also his inauguration into and entrance upon his Office might be celebrated with a festival and this marriage signify that which he was one day to consummate with his Spouse the Church and therefore is he very Emphatically by the Baptist stiled the Bridegroome on whom himself attended Jo. 3.29 that whereas John came with fasting he might enter upon his Office with a feast and the children of the Bride-chamber rejoyce with him therefore also his Miracle here was corresponding changing water and penance into Wine and mirth answerable to Johns baptizing with water and he with the Holy Spirit § 174 To give an occasion to our Lord's first Miracle whereby in this publick meeting he was to manifest who he was whether by the multitude of Guests more than were expected among which was our Lord and his company or by some other disappointment for there being a Governor of the feast besides the Bridegroom and a good attendance of Servants and Wine supplyed in so great a quantity for the Guests are signs that that the Married were no very poor or mean persons it happened so that at the end of the feast there wanted Wine Our Lords Mother perceiving it and solicitous of their credit to whom she had so near relation presently told our Lord of it expecting he should relieve them herein either from his doing formerly some such domestick and private miracles upon some necessity in his youth at Nazareth or from the Holy Virgin 's having some prerevelation concerning this future fact By our Lords reply we may conjecture that this was spoken by his Mother before some of his Disciples or Kindred and perhaps in the midst of some Discourse when as our Blessed Lady imagined some urgent necessity thereof Hereupon our Lord for their Edification returned this answer to her What is it to me and thee woman in this matter my Hour or time is not yet Signifying his already well fore-knowing by his omniscience this want or wine and the due time of supplying it and that he was not to be sweyed in his actions by any human relations or respects how near soever but must act all things only according to the will of his Heavenly Father And thus frequently he takes occasion to Vindicate his Divinity and heavenly Original to beget early in his followers a right apprehension of his person and authority and omniscient conduct Some such answer as here he gives also to his Kindred Jo. 7.6 when they minding him of going up to Jerusalem at the feast and shewing his strange works there saying my time is not yet come So after his desputing with the Doctors he answered his Mother when she told him that they had sought him sorrowing why did they so since he was
presume from his being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man of sorrows Esai 53. and full of tears see Heb. 5.7 Luk. 19.41 Jo. 11.35 fell a weeping as other Infants do but this not for the paines which that tender age then feels from the straines and crushings of the parturition or sudden chilness of an open Air not yet for his cold harbour and Straw-bed which miseries he foreknew and voluntarily chose and with a smiling patience underwent but for mans sin the cause of all our and his misery now beginning his Intercessions for mans offences and offering these first tears for the expiation thereof Thus come amongst us poor and naked his pious Mother whom we may imagine free from Eves curse to have brought forth without pain him that she conceived without sin and so who was enabled presently to perform the office of a Nurse after that of a Mother took him up Luk. 2.7 and cast such poor cloths about him as her fortune and so long a journy afforded and instead of a Cradle laid her Babe down to rest in the Manger of the Stable being but a cold and hard pillow for him if cut out of the Rock and this Cradle at his birth not much unlike his grave at his Death § 29 After this low manner if I may be permitted to stay a little in Contemplation of this great wonder of our Lords Exinanition to teach haughty man humility Digress and to confound his pride was the Son of God pleased to enter into the world Thus was he born because thus born he would be who alone amongst all Infants foreknew and preelected both the place and manner of his birth Thus was he pleased to be brought into it amongst beasts as afterward to be carried out of it amongst theeves Thus was the second Adam who might had he thought fit have bin created with the same preeminences as the first in a perfect and flourishing age pleased to oblige himself for his birth unto a woman and for his life unto the subjection and infirmities of youth and infancy and this place was the Paradise wherein he was put He not an Adam from the Earth hut the Lord from Heaven 1 Cor. 15.47 For the entertainment of whom when Salomon with all his wisdom and wealth had built his golden Temple yet was he ashamed that it was so mean and so unworthy to receive him Thus to expiate the former Adams Ero similis Altissimo Gen. 3.5 this Altissimus became similis Homini Like to man in every thing so far as to be conceiv'd and born of a Woman because his brethren were so That he might fulfil the Spouse's wish in the Canticles c. 8. v. 1. O that thou wert as my brother that sucked the brests of my Mother to please this his Spouse as her brother he was in every thing not leaving out nor skipping over that sleeping and unactive age in the womb and that loathsome and impotent condition of a new-born Infant of which see Ezec. 16.4 Tho he was not intended by his Father to be imployed in our affairs till 30 years of age yet Pudorem exordii nostri non recusavit saith S. Hilary sed naturae nostrae contumelias transcurrit He submitted himself to be imprisoned for so long a time in so dark and strait a cell as a womans womb Wherein some observe that he began his sufferings much earlier then the rest of the sons of men because supposed to have from his very first Conception from the Union of the human nature to his Divine person a perfect use of his intellectual faculties and sense of these his sufferings when as God in these first beginnings of our miserable life hath suspended in others the use of reason to hinder the sense of pain Now after that we once understand what a close imprisonment that of the womb is what evil would not we chuse rather then once more undergo it and what horrour had Nicodemus thereof when he thought our Saviour had prescribed it Jo. 3 Yet so fervent was our Saviours love unto mankind that he thought himself not sufficiently intimate and united unto him unless he took up his first lodging tho known to be so inconvenient even within his very bowels And as this he did at his coming into the world so again at his going out of it in the mysterious Eucharist he contrived a way how his Sacred body might enter again into us and he dwell again within us As soon also as freed from this first restraint he submitted himself to have his Hands and Feet whose omnipotent hands had formerly made the World taken and bound anew with swathbands which were at last when sufficiently grown for it to be bound with cords and fastned with nails Not to mention yet-another binding namely that of his Tongue to so long a time of silence no small misery to that feeble age which wants most help yet can ask none but a greater humiliation to the Son of the Almighty that this essential Word of God and Wisdom of his Father should empty it self into so long dumbness and silence being already an agnus ligatus se obmutescens non aperiens os suum Who also after he had the use of speech yet underwent so great a self-denial in this Kind that tho all his words flowed with wisdom Grace being poured into his lips Psal 47.2 and were all carefully laid up by his observing Mother yet it seemed good unto him that his Historians four of them should not mention one Word that came from this Word till he was 12 years old and that first word mentioned by them was a profession of his zealous obedience to the will of his Father Luk. 2.49 Again like to man he became so far as to be made under the same Laws with them Gal. 4.4 not only under the Moral but Ceremonial too which cost his infancy a bloody Circumcision not under God's but Cesar's Laws too the punctual obedience to which wherein it were strange if a woman so great with child might not have bin dispensed with had not God in his secret wisdom more exacted this submission of the child than the Mother cost him so many afflictions attending his Nativity Wherein he descended far below his servant the rigid Baptist who was born at home with great resort of congratulating neighbors And thus early began himself to give a pattern to his followers in leaving his house and his country and his Father in some sense out of whose bosome he came and the society of Angels into this place of Beasts Here look upon Him now at his very lowest and weakest And how well doth S. Pauls expression of his exinanition suit with it That he who was in the form of God and thought it no robbery to be equal with God yet made himself of no reputation in taking upon him the condition of such a forlorne Infant And that he that was so rich yet became to such a degree
that use the world as tho they did not use it and tho they be as big as Camels yet they must become as small as a thred to get into this Kingdom Mat. 19.16 21 23 24 26. which only admits the small things of this world Which thing since it is so hard to do tho possible therefore hath voluntary secular poverty ever since the times of the coming of this Prince bin had in such esteem because the poor only in spirit that remain still rich in Fortunes are forced to bear one heavy Cross more than any other poor which many of them sink and miscarry under and are not able to go through with it namely the trouble and anxiety of a prudent dispensing those goods and revenues of which God hath made them only his Stewards not Masters and by possessing living in a continual Temptation from them Now since this Kingdom hath such an Antipathy to this present world First none surely are more fit to entertain or be entertained by this King then those who have least of it Like adheres to its like and had the Great ones bin sent to the Stable to worship this Prince lying amongst their horses instead of the Shepheards likely their knees would have bin more stiffe and they that asked Can such a Prince come out of Galilee or Nazareth would much more Can such a Prince come out of a Stable and scorning to be subject to one so far below them would have become Traitors to Him as Great Herod was sooner then Disciples 2ly None so fit also to preach such a Kingdom to the world as the poor and those who were not themselves full of the possession of those things the contempt whereof they counselled to others § 41 Now to return to the Blessed Virgin and her husband We see how the same night that was so full of straits the joyful Shepheards coming in and relating see Luk. 2.19 as an occasion of their coming their vision the message and song of Angels revives their spirits and recreats their affliction Their heaviness endured not all the night but joy overtook it before the morning and the scandal of the Stable was removed by the glorious appearance in the feild whilst the child despised by earth was magnified by heaven And we may observe that this great humiliation of the Son of God was every where mingled with some state state beyond all other sons of men When conceived a great Angel of presence is sent before with the news of it the Virgin going to Elizabeth She inspired from heaven falls a-magnifying him and his Mother return'd to Joseph an Angel declares to Him the Holy Conception and greatness of this Prince Born in so mean a roome at Bethleem Angels appearing in the Air discover it to the Jews and sing a Gloria in excelsis to Him to counterpoise that ignominy in infimis And a new Star appearing in the heavens at the same time manifests it to the Gentiles And so hereafter when presented in the Temple Holy Simeon and Anna proclaim him The Infants life conspired against by Herod an Angel discovers the plot and afterward in Egypt reveals to them the death of his enemy Baptized by John the Holy Ghost in the shape of a Dove comes down and fits on his head Upon his fasting and humiliation in the Wilderness Angels come and Minister unto him Before his going up to Jerusalem to suffer Moses and Elias in great glory visit him In his greatest agony and faintings in the Garden an Angel is sent to restore strength to him And to shew the common intercourse he had with Angels and how he had these subjects of heaven continually at his beck and service see what he saith to Nathaniel Jo. 1.51 and to Peter Mat 26.53 Lastly when murthered by the Jews the Sun loseth its light and the earth so trembleth that the Rocks of it rent in peices when his body buried Angels sit at the Head and feet of his Grave After so shameful a death followed so glorious a resurrection and ascension into Heaven in a bright cloud of Angels Thus to great humiliations God not only giveth afterward after a resurrection or so but presently intermingleth great honours and like exaltations and hath given an example thereof in this Head that the same might be securely expected by the members § 42 Now whilst these honours were done Mary's Blessed Infant from on high in which honours of their children Mothers use to glory more then in their own the Evangelist noting the modest and silent behaviour of the Virgin saith that whilst all that heard wondred at and magnified these things she kept and pondered them in her heart Luk. 2.18 19. took great notice without much talk tho her glorying in Him had bin a right glorying being glorying in the Lord. 1 Cor. 1.31 covering all these things that had happened for the present with great taciturnity and humility and perhaps not without some presage of the hatred and envy which her Son was afterward to suffer which things in due time after our Saviours humiliation and resurrection was passed she revealed to the Apostles and other disciples from whom this Evangelist received them Luk. 1.1 Meanwhile we may imagine how these strange accidents still increased if capable of increase the silent and reverent deportment both of Joseph and Mary toward the child Jesus whilst the little Babe in the cratch by the secret influence of his divine power guided all these occurrences and made these persons so near him to do only such things as done might be acceptable to Him § 43 A compleat week was now passed over and the eighth day the number for all perfection was now come at which time the law required Circumcision of all male children Lev. 12.3 so to enroll them into the family of Gods Church and render them heirs of the Covenant made with faithful Abraham of redemption benediction and an eternal inheritance thro his seed that was to come our Lord Christ Of which Covenant Circumcision was from Abrahams time appointed in Gods Church as a Sacrament and seal Gen. 17. The Blessed Virgin therefore and her most â—â—us husband diligently performed to this Holy Babe the solemnities thereof Of which solemnity if we may make where the Law is silent any conjecture of the Ancient from the modern rites the manner of later times is that it may be done by any person even the Father of the Child and we see Moses his Sons were circumcised by their Mother Exod. 4.24 but yet is usually procured to be done by some person well experienced in the practice thereof may be done also in any place either more solemnly in their School or Synagogue or more privatly in their own house Two of the kindred or near relation are as it were a God-Father and God-Mother to the Child the woman bringing the Infant to the place of Circumcision The man sitting down and holding it in the Circumcision after which done with a
Gentiles to this Common Lord of Jew and Gentile was effected on this manner A new Star for some time before our Saviours birth had appeared in the heavens probably of an extraordinary splendor and brightness suitable to the person whom it prognosticated Which by the Orientals much given to Astrology was soon discerned and raised in them a great devotion and earnest addresses to the Divine Majesty Creator of the Universe to know for the presignification of what strange effect he had sent it Whereupon probably by some such Revelation made to them in the East as they received afterward in Judea concerning their return Mat. 2.12 they were assured of the Birth of this Messias or great King to whom all the world should become tributary and subject Of which Prince also it is likely in so general an expectation of the Jews as then was that they had heard or also read something formerly Therefore these first believers of the Gentiles crediting all things of this Prince worthy so supereminent a dignity and being persons of high condition as the Magi in those Countries ordinarily were if not Princes made hast to be amongst the first that should profess their subjection and fealty to Him And as the Orientals usually do not approach great Personages without some present prepared some small quantity portable in a journy of the richest Gifts their Country was famed for wherewith to present Him And so setting forth upon this divine Indication either from some nearer parts of Chaldea or of Arabia Felix which lies some six daies journy Eastward from Jerusalem whence also the Queen of Sheba Arabia also being called Ethiopia Numb 12.1 A type of them came with the like gifts to visit King Salomon 1 King 10.2 Within not many daies after our Lords Nativity they arrived in Judea probably the Star that incouraged their journey now disappearing that so they might repair to the Royal City in Quest after the place thereof and so by our Lords special providence be the first Promulgators of the Birth of the Messias and awaken the sloth of Gods own people to make a stricter inquiry after it And well might the Jews at least when our Lord afterward at thirty years of age publickly appeared to them have reflected on this Star and the search of these Oriental Sages and Herods slaughter punctually agreeing with his Nativity Come hither and supposing that what was manifested to them strangers about the time was not concealed to Gods own people they made inquiry in the Metropolis of the Nation concerning the place where they might have access to and adore Him For they imagined that either this Prince the Messias might be of the present Royal Stock or if otherwise was of such a transcendent Soveraignty and descent so favoured from heaven such a King Paramount and extending his scepter over the whole world according to the frequent prophecies made of Him as other inferior Kings should have no envy to but joy therein which conceit was also nourished in them by Herods professing his ready concurrence in the same Adoration so soon as the place of his Residence should be discovered § 63 They coming therefore to Jerusalem and making openly such an inquiry and also declaring their late beholding of the Star that was newly displayed in the Heavens as a publick Herald thereof Herod Himself was not a little startled for in those daies much discourse passed in the world either by the Jewish prophecies divulged and the time prefixed in Daniels weeks now expired or by the Sybils or otherwise of the coming of this Prince of Princes and the return of a golden Age and some called the Herodians named Herod for the person The people also were troubled wondring at this Relation from strangers confirm'd by such a Celestial Messenger at their High Quality their concernment in a King of Israel and their boldness in confessing Him before Herod And expecting also some great change of affairs shortly if their words and prognostications proved true § 64 Herod who was a stranger King to this Nation and that the very first an Idumean by birth sufficiently suspitious of a supplantation and therefore intending mischief became as it were to satisfy these Sages very inquisitive after the place of this new Prince the Christ his Birth whom he seemed to reverence as a Person sent from Heaven rather for advancing and dilating Sanctity and Religion than for pursuing secular Honours The place therefore of his birth he strictly enquired after that so by the Divine providence both time and place might be manifested and proclaimed as it were to the world the one by the Gentiles the other by the Jews The chief Priests and Scribes are assembled about it and readily return answer out of the Prophet Micha Mic. 5.2 that Bethleem Davids City was to be the Place thereof And thou Bethleem Ephrata saith he that art a little one in the thousands of Juda. Out of thee shall come forth unto me he that shall be the Dominator in Israel And his coming forth is from the beginning from the daies of Eternity Having an eternal procession from the Father and an Eternal decree of his Messias-ship This for the place But further whatever certainty they might have also from Daniels weeks or Gen. 49.10 or other places concerning the Time it was not safe for them to pronounce any thing Herod therefore for his better information in this returns to the Sages and very secretly requires of them a punctual account of the first appearance of the Star conjecturing from hence the Age of the Child Which having learnt he desires that after they had found this great Prince they would in their return give him Intelligence of it that He also might pay his Duty to this expected Messias and Heir of all Nations And so dismissed them as the Divine wisdom ordered it without joyning to them any further attendance of his own Court perhaps out of a Countenance to slight the matter and pass things with less noise as also least any such discovery made by persons more interessed than these Strangers might some way or other disappoint his Bloody purpose or have given some jealousy to the parents to have conveyed him away Tho indeed this his secrecy defeated his Design Who was also glad to see the Jews so supinely careless in this affair who began even at his Birth tho thus alarm'd and provoked by the believing Gentiles to neglect and deny this their Lord Except only this stranger Idumean that was vigilant how to dispatch Him § 65 But the Zealous Sages unwearied still pursue their Quest and being not far gone from Jerusalem have this their untired diligence rewarded with a new appearance of their celestial Guide the Star filling them with exceeding great joy Mat. 2.10 after its former so long disappearance because unbelieving Jerusalem was unworthy of such a light and with as much admiration that the day-light obscured not its splendor For Bethleem being not above
active nature spirit and judgment to return to be imprisoned for several years in such an impotent body as to be swathed cradled mute and for all conveniences or necessities wholly disposed-of by another that knows not his mind § 107 3ly Such a perfection and if I may so say man-hood of our Lords Soul and intellect being supposed in his infancy and so much vacancy from any serious external employments as accompanies child-hood we may imagine but Lord to have passed those his first daies continually in praier which also infers silence and Recollection and in Intercessions to his Father for Man's salvation and the business he came for into the world Which also may be inferred from this That when at 30 years of age he had entred on his Office of preaching and that his day-time was taken up with other business and great throngs of people who for their spiritual and corporal necessities continually flocked to him yet He used then to rise on nights and retire into some solitary place and there spend part or sometimes the whole night in Praier See Mark 1.35 Luk. 5.16 6.12 Till then that our Lords growth was capable of corporal Labours we may justly account his time at Nazareth spent much-what like that of S. John Baptist or also his own 40 daies sojourning in the Desart and that all this while he became a fervent Mediator for us now by his taking our flesh become his Brethren and negociated our business so much more with God when hindred by his age for doing it yet with men And his Father who was alwaies well pleased in him accepted his service in this time of nonage and sequestration from human affairs as more immediatly devoted to himself And if mankind is supposed to receive much benefit from the Praiers and Devotions of those Holy Hermits who without any conversation with men apply themselves wholly to these like Moses in the Mount praying whilst their brethren are fighting here with Satan and a thousand temptations how much more strength and succour may we be thought to receive from those infinitely-meritorious intercessions of our Lord in that his silent infancy Whose outward deportment also in this time corresponding with his mind must needs beget great reverence towards him and the like Devotion and silence in the Blessed Virgin and S. Joseph that daily beheld it and the oeconomy of this little family much exceed that of the strictest Monasticks Both these persons being before our Lords Nativity highly enriched with the Graces of the Holy Spirit and also by so near access to his person receiving daily new influences and recruits thereof from him who was full of Grace and Truth as the beloved Evangelist describes him Jo. 1.14 16 and of whose fulness we all receive Grace after Grace and all for and from this fountain of Grace § 108 In such silence and Devotion and conversation with Heaven our Lord seems to have spent his time till now he had run out â—2 years of his Age when happened a very strange accident concerning him It was a law that all Males should appear at the place which the Lord should chuse for his Residence in his Sanctuary or Temple there three times in the year at the three solemn feasts and that then none should appear empty or without an offering i. e. offerings of thanksgiving as God had prospered them to honour the Lord with their substance and first fruits of their increase See Exod. 23.15 17. 34.20 Deut. 16.17 Prov. 3.9 But women and children were dispenced-with and the males are said to be obliged thereto only from twenty years old to sixty or fifty But at the great Pascal feast it was usual from ancient times for the women and their children as well as men to go thither as appears by 1 Sam. 1.3 4. And so S. Luke saith of the Holy Virgin and her husband S. Joseph that they went to Jerusalem every year at the Paschal feast and we may presume took with them the Holy child Jesus after able to travel so far whom considering who He was and on such account how dear to them it would have bin a great affliction to have left behind them and to have relinquisht the Lord himself as it were to go to his house And there missing our Lord when twelve years old and hoping to find him gone before with some of their kindred argues that not to have bin his first journey In which also they would have bin more solicitous of his not straying froth them and their seeking him also in the Temple seems to have proceeded from some observation made by them of his former inclinations and practices there at these Feasts § 109 Now then when Jesus had completed the sacred Number of the twelfth year of his age All Gods works being exactly measured with a certain number of time among which the numbers of 12 and of 7 are very frequent in Scripture going up with his Parents as usually to this Feast it was the Divine pleasure after the Eastern Magi their having already proclaimed the birth of Him at Jerusalem and the Doctors of the Jews also by Herod's assembling and consulting them being then forced to take notice of it now again after 10 years more passed to manifest his Son to Israel and to the most learned thereof and to shew as it were a ray and glympse of his celestial Original and his Divine wisdom and Graces in an age as yet no way capable of acquiring these by studies or Human Art if so be they would now by comparing the Messias his Nativity and considering the transcendent knowledg that made them all astonished appearing in this child discern this Divine person and yeild him a due obedience and Adoration Which appearance also was made when Archelaus Herod's Son that Ruled in Judea and that might be dreaded as heir of his Fathers malice also to the new Messias was before this supposing our Lords stay in Egypt not above two years and Herod's reign according to Josephus De Bell. Judaic lib. 2. cap. 6. only nine ejected out of his Government by Augustus and banished to Vienna in France and a Roman President substituted in his place After therefore the Feast was now ended and the multitudes returning homeward Our Lord in obedience to the will of his Father in Heaven on a suddain with-drew himself from his Parents here on earth without giving them any notice of his purpose which made known to them might to their human reason have seemed somewhat extravagant and perilous and so have received some obstruction from their great solicitude for his safety Wherein He hath also shewed to us how little any Relations of Kindred many times great lets of Piety are to be regarded when any way hindring our service of God Of which disengagement from Kindred he also gave us examples afterward upon several occasions He therefore immediatly returned to the Temple carried hither with the same zeal and fervour of the Holy
some reluctance we may conceive of his Parent 's inclinations and their greater admiration of such an humiliation considering his person but this inclination checked with a most exact observance of him in whatsoever he seemed addicted to I say this sufficiently appears from the words Mat. 13.55 56. and Mark 6.3 where upon our Lords entring upon his office and after some time coming also to his own Town Nazareth with a train of his Disciples and a great fame of his Miracles following him there to preach the Gospel among his Kindred and acquaintance it is said the Citizens wondred whence he should have that wisdom and knowledg and those mighty works considering his mean education and Kindred among them stiling him there the Carpenter's Son and in S. Marke plainly Maries Son and himself called the Carpenter for before that time it seems S. Joseph was deceased Wherein we see it was his Fathers good pleasure the more to shew Our Lords wisdom and knowledg to descend from above and to be infused by him that sent him that he should neither be sent to the famous School in Jerusalem for teaching and learning the Law as S. Paul was Act. 22.3 nor to any of those Synagogues mentioned Act. 6.9 Nor educated in the Temple among the Priests as Holy Samuel was being from a child dedicated to the Lord nor should retire into the Desart for Solitude and Contemplation as the Baptist Lives surely our Lord if indulging his own will would much sooner have chosen but in this his state of Exinanition should descend far below John and take on him not the form of an Hermit or Contemplatist but of a Servant and a poor Apprentice to an ordinary Trade and herein should earn his own victuals and serve his neighbours also as any had use of him for the greatest part of his life And as it was appointed that at 12 years of age before such Divine knowledg could be acquired by Industry he should make an admirable discovery thereof among the Doctors in the Temple tho this was then ungratefully or also enviously not taken any notice of by them so it was ordained also that all his youth should be spent in this laborious handycraft Whereby it might be most evident he stood in no need of human Arts or Sciences and also he might give the world an example after so great an humiliation of his being Gods only Son not to disdain to serve our neighbour in the lowest manual offices in any necessities concerning his Body or also Estate as well as Spiritual but whereby also he might the better disguise and hide the Dignity of his person till he had descended yet further to the lowest step of his Humiliation and accomplished his Passion on the Cross sect 121 For we find this education and mechanick trade of his to have bin a main scandal and after that his admirable doctrine and works had given an occasion of his being more enquired after to have bin spread all abroad and well known not only at Nazareth or in Galilee but at Jerusalem For Jo. 7.15 in the third year of his preaching as he taught in the Temple it is said the Jews marvelled and said How knoweth this man letters or learning having never learned From which also may be gathered that in his Sermons like to that discourse of his in going to Emaus were mixed many profound and convincing Expositions of the Law and Prophets and such as were not attainable by others if at all without much study therein To whom our Lords answer in the next verse giving this reason Viz. that they might know that his doctrine was not his acquired by any his industry or Art but his that sent him Learnt and revealed from above and brought out of the bosome of his Father Jo. 1.18 And his very kindred from this mean exercise of his youth when afterward he began to open and discover the hidden treasures of his wisdom not believing on him saith the Text Jo. 7.5 asked him why if he was such as he made himself he staid amongst them in Galilee and went not into Judea to shew himself there among the Learned when indeed our Lords usual abode in Galilee was for the safety of his Life Thus our Lords Carpentership was made no small mortification to him § 122 But yet this is imagined such Carpentors work as was exercised at home Some think that of a Wheel-wright and making Ploughs and Yokes and other instruments of husbandry for the service of his Neighbors Aratra conficiens Juga boum saith S. Justin Martyr Contra Tryphonem a very ancient Father this suting much better with the retirement and Devotions of so Holy a family and also with the privacy of our Lord's education than seeking here and there work abroad in other men's houses And this trade it is probable our Lord followed for some time after Josephs decease by those words in S. Marke Is not this the Carpenter the Son of Mary and so a little after our Lords Baptism mention is made of his Mother only none of Joseph as Jo. 2.1 Matt. 12.47 It seeming good to the Divine wisdom to leave our Lord for some time before his manifestation without any reputed Father here on Earth whose true Father was in Heaven Thus our Lord the second Adam eat his Bread for many years in the sweat of his browes subjecting himself herein to the curse laid upon the first his sinning fore-father in a Trade requiring much strength and force And his Trade an Emblem if happily an house-wright of his rebuilding that house of God which the other former had destroyed § 123 4ly It may further be gathered from the many hardships suffered even in our Lords tender Infancy his being born in a poor Stable carried away presently after in so weak an age some hundreds of miles into a strange Country and again brought back from thence as also from what is prophetically said of him by David In Laboribus a juventute mea Again from his many times professing that he came not to do his own will but the will of his Father where his own will denyed intimates natural inclinations different from his Fathers appointments concerning him but yet exactly subjected thereto and that he came not to be ministred to but to minister and when he had so many attendants that his behaviour amongst them was as of one that served and as one that waited on and provided for them whilst they sate at Table See Luke 22.27 spoken upon occasion of their striving among themselves for Honour and about that time also his washing their feet and lastly from the Apostle's expression that he took on him the form not of a man only but a servant From all these I say we may well argue that his youth was not passed without many mortifications and hardships such as poverty and handy-labour affords many great self-denials an exact obedience of his child-hood to his Superiours according to the flesh
such as a wise man suffers whose duty obligeth him to the service and sometimes undiscreet commands though in things lawful of a person of much less understanding unless we may rather think that the Holy Spirit by him guided his Parents in all those commands whereto it required his obedience § 124 And among such his mortifications this seems no small one that considering who he was the word and wisdom of God and by whom God formerly made the world he should have a law of silence for so long a time imposed upon him as to any function as yet of his ministry or discovery of his wisdom even when there was in his seeing the great follies of the world occasion shall I say or rather a great necessity thereof Nay in the Sabbaths when all frequented the Synagogues which were in every City and there the law and Prophets read to the people Act. 13.27 and among others his most devout Parents together with himself that after his forementioned dispute with the Doctors at Jerusalem and after he was now arrived to mans estate from 20 years old till 30 he should patiently stand there among the rest in the quality of a mean labourer and this the Law-giver himself in silence hear the expositions of it not alwaies free from errour by others which rendered his fellow-Citizens so astonisht when afterward he who had bin so long an Auditor with them now shewed himself a Doctor A stupendious Humility and Obedience this so long practised in so Soveraign a dignity and an hard lesson for those to imitate who have parts To our Lord therefore stooping by Obedience to such a condition seems principally to be applied that complaint of the Psalmist Psalm 38. Posui ori meo custodiam cum consisteret peccator adversum me Obmutui humiliatus sum silui a bonis sermonibus dolor meus renovatus est Concaluit cor meum intra me in meditatione mea exardescet ignis whilst he whom a fire of Zeal for his Fathers glory and for the salvation of mankind continually burnt and consumed See Jo. 2.17 Conversed among the ignorant and sinners without being permitted either to instruct the one or reprove the other whilst he who to use the expression of Elihu Job 32 was full of words and his belly as new Wine without vent and that breaketh new Vessels was so long to be dumb and as one that heareth not and in whose mouth are no reproofs No discourses I say saving such as did not transcend the appearance of his exteriour condition and manner of Education and emploiment and such conversation as in a private life gave good example to his few acquaintance and friends remaining so many years even whilst repairing in the State of his man-hood to Jerusalem and the Temple and the great Assemblies of the Nation at the publick feasts as it were a Candle hid under a Bushel and not suffered to diffuse its light walking in this most difficult obedience for so many years to the good pleasure of his heavenly Father as also the same obedience practised the like silence whilst he suffered so many false accusations before his Passion § 125 And the Nazarens rude and uncivil entertainment of him when visiting them afterward and his Brethren and kindred their not believing on him shew well how much he had in his youth ecclipsed and made himself of no account among them at least those that were not more intimately acquainted Wherein he gave the world a great lesson and example of trampling under foot any vain honour and Reputation save that with God and the Citizens of Heaven But indeed had our Lord sooner manifested himself to Israel supposed even from his youth we may conjecture such effect thereof either that the glory of his wisdom and mighty works with the envy of the Great ones accompanying these would have hastened his Death and brought it so much sooner Or such his Excellencies and Dignity of his person in a long time of Conversation with them better known to the Nation would have daunted his enemies and prevented his Death and deprived the world of the precious Benefits thereof and we may say his Father was pleased that he should be so long concealed to us that he might dye for us § 126 In this time of our Lords living at Nazareth and before the 30th year of his age is supposed to have happened the death of S. Joseph there being no more mention made of him as of his Mother and our Lord's Brethren after our Lords publick appearance either at the Marriage in Cana or else-where It seeming good unto his heavenly Majesty that after his Manifestation though a Mother did yet no Father real or reputed should appear that God might be the more looked-on as his Father who also was professed by him to be so no other being in sight nor receiving any honour as such Therefore also is our Lord in St. Mark probably after Josephs decease himself called the Carpenter and the Son of Mary But when ever S. Josephs Death happened doubtless it was undergone with great Resignation and content and after our Lord 's having first made known his heavenly Father's good pleasure both to him and his Mother in which all three most affectionately acquiesced though Joseph by his Death in some sense was to leave and lose his most beloved Jesus Viz. as to the presence of his Humanity wherein his Saints by death do now enjoy him § 127 Now that after so profound an Annihilation and latitancy of our Lord in so mean a fortune and obscure place the time drew near of his manifestation to Israel being God at last descended upon earth to reveal to men the whole Will of his Father and all the Secrets of Heaven A great person and one sanctified from the womb and Quo non major inter natos mulierum as our Lord saith of him was sent some time before to proclaim to the world the near approach and appearance of this heavenly Prince for begetting a greater reverence in them to his person And also to prepare all men by a due Confession of and repentance and doing penance for their sins and correction and amendment of their evil lives which is called the levelling Hills and filling Valleys and making the high waies streight and lastly by their being purified by Baptism for a more worthy and Honourable reception of this great Lord whose Kingdom was not temporal but Spiritual that so nothing in his Subjects at his coming might disgust or displease him And lastly was sent after his making such a proclamation of him before hand to shew also and demonstrate with the finger his very person to them for removing all possible mistake or just excuse § 128 The miraculous Nativity of this Forerunner of Christ in the old age of his Parents foretold by the same Angel as was our Lords and his being full of the Holy Ghost from his very first Being his leaping and
to qualify and lessen the great and suddain fame that might be of him which also was done for our example from that publick testimony they saw given by the other persons of the Trinity the Father and the Holy Ghost as also in the rest of his life he used frequent concealments of himself and enjoyned others silence for the non-preventing his future sufferings that so his six weeks absence and non-appearance might a little remit the former expectation and the Baptists immediatly sending all men after him whose manifestation was only to be discovered by certain degrees and therefore when returning from the Desart his stay with the Baptist much proclaiming him was only for two or three daies § 150 After his forty daies abode in this desolate place prostrated as Moses in his Fast before the Divine Majesty in praiers and intercessions and such Contemplations of God as his types Moses and Elias had formerly enjoyed and probably accompanied as they with a suspension of his natural faculties and a perpetual fast our Lord began when such his Devotions were ended and nature returned to its ordinary functions to be vehemently an hungred The Devil even the Prince of them as may appear from Matt. 25.41 Apoc. 12.9 who had narrowly watched Him hitherto and looked upon him with such an envious eye as he did on our first parents in their Innocency but could not attack him whilst in praier when this was ended and he saw also so great an hunger to pinch our Lord which our first parents had not when he prevailed with them to eat forbidden meats had entertained hence some hopes of prevailing upon his infirm humanity as he did on theirs viz. not to wait for his Fathers Provision for him in due time of such food as was necessary but with a power of Miracles presently in an extraordinary manner after such a meritorious Act of forty daies fast to supply himself with it In which Temptation also he hoped to make some advantage in reminding him of the dignity of his person and suggesting unto him that he was the Son of God Especially at this time the honour done him lately not only by the Baptist but from God himself both the Father and the Holy Ghost from heaven and now also the great Change of his life entring upon the office of the Messias might seem to have elevated his thoughts and ambitions above the temper of his former meanly entertained condition For tho the Devil had heard those glorious words pronounced from Heaven but lately at his Baptism and in his ranging every where for prey probably was well acquainted also with all the former miraculous passages of his life lead also hitherto without all sin and with all the prophecies concerning our Lord if we see how readily he afterwards quotes Scripture to him and how in his first accosting of him he pressed his being the Son of God yet since our Lord was also clothed with our infirm flesh he might not so perfectly discern the Hypostatical Vnion of such his lately assumed Humanity with the Deity nor how far it might be invested or assisted therewith and its weakness receive influences from it For this General enemy of mankind saw this his human nature clothed with all the infirmities as here in suffering hungar and passions or affections of it Whereby his flesh or sensitive appetite at that of others did naturally desire things delectable to it as meat drink rest sleep c. But yet these desires were alwaies such as were perfectly subjected to the guidance of right reason and wholly ordered and moderated by it and such wherein he had hitherto never sinned though it is most likely that Satan had not forborn before to tempt him as others to some exorbitancy therein even from his child-hood and again were such wherein he was also by reason of the Hypostatical Union of this nature to the Deity and perfect sanctification thereof by it utterly impeccable though this not known to the Devil Our Lord saith the Apostle not only felt our infirmities Heb. 4.15 but was in all points tempted like as we are i. e. by external objects occurring and inviting his nature to the use of them but without sin this sensitive nature was ever so overruled by reason as never by the least consent of his will to proceed to any excess beyond the bounds set by the Divine Commands Poterat quidem anima Christi saith S. Thomas 3. Q. 15. Art 4. resistere passionibus ut ei non supervenirent praesertim virtute divina sed propria voluntate se passionibus subjiciebat And In nobis quandoque hujusmodi motus non sistunt in appetitu sensitivo sed trahunt rationem quod in Christo non fuit quia motus naturaliter humanae carni convenientes sic ex ejus dispositione in appetitu sensitivo manebant quod ratio ex his nullo modo impediebatur facere quae conveniebant § 151 Therefore from this his liability to passions and the new change of his life Satan conjectured a fair opportunity for begetting in his humanity in his former life hitherto so poorly treated some Elation of mind and vain ostentation of its transcendent dignity and present advancement Or supposing Satan knew such an Union of this his humanity to the Deity as that our Lord could not possibly commit the least sin and that his present temptations were but in vain as all his former had bin yet was his malice to him so extream as it could not let him rest so far as God permitted and he rejoyced to give him some molestation though with a greater mischief to himself a quality we observe also in the Devil's children malicious men who do not forbear to afflict their neighbors in their own suffering much greater dammage § 152 He then as soon as God had relaxed his chain invades our Lord and probably appears to him in some comely and Glorious shape as we may conjecture from his last temptation wherein he desires Adoration from him Or as some think to be more sutable to the place shewed himself in the habit of some religious Hermite Or perhaps not disguising at all who he was which also was well known to our Lord subtilly desired some evidence of the supereminent Dignity of our Lords person as it were for his own satisfaction and that he might know his due subjection to him His request therefore was that if he were the very Son of God as he was lately proclaimed from heaven to be he would for the honour also of his human nature hitherto so meanly treated now shew an act of his Divine omnipotency and taking some pitty of its present necessities command those Stones that lay before him to become so many loaves of bread especially since in that desart place he could expect no other ordinary supply As indeed long ago in the like necessity the same Lord out of the stony Rock in the Desart brought forth water And the more kind
reward promised there to them we may also gather the generality of this their fact § 209 With them then he returned into Capernaum and there on the next Sabbath day according to his custome wherever he was see Luke 4.31 he entred into the Synagogue and there taught the people In which Synagogues or Jewish Churches built in all places even in Jerusalem were exercised first the Reading of Moses and the Prophets Acts 15.21 Luk. 4.16 Then an expounding of them and Sermons of exhortation by the learned the Priests Scribes Lawyers c. See Act. l3. 14 15 16. Luk. 4.20 1 Cor. 14.31 In these also were used Praier Hymns and Psalms some entiteled pro Sabbato Collections also for the poor Only no sacrificing save at the Temple in Jerusalem Here as our Lord taught the people saith the Evangelist were astonished at his doctrine for that his words were with power and he taught them as one that had authority Mark 1.22 Luk. 4.32 and not as the Scribes authority both internally with more satisfaction and conviction and power over mens spirits by the Holy Ghost at the same time working in their understandings and hearts enlightening subduing enflaming and setting them on fire and externally also with more assurance and asseveration Amen Amen dico vobis Qui habet aures audiendi audiat Quodscimus loquimur telling them who sent him and strengthening such testimony with miracles and doing these also commandingly and with authority with authority commanding the evil Spirits saith the Evangelist Mark. 1.27 Luk. 4.36 Increpans rebuking the diseases the Seas the Winds all done with great Majesty This teaching with authority is in the Gospel frequently noted of our Lord Mat. 7.29 after his long Sermon in the Mountain This made the High Priests Officers in hearing him say Never man spake like this man and the woman in his Sermon cry out Blessed is the womb that bare thee and the brethren going to Emaus reflect afterwards upon it that whilst he spake their hearts burned within them And the men of Nazareth that had so much prejudice against him there meanly and illiteratly educated Luk. 4.22 are said to have wondred at the words of grace that proceeded out of his mouth And many times his Adversaries were so a mated with his speeches Psal 45.2 that they would not reply one word to him All this according to the prophecy Diffusa est Gratia in labiis â—uis and Esay 49.2 Os meum quafi gladius acutus And this Power and Spirit he communicated also to his Apostles whence S. Paul 1 Cor. 2.4 My preaching was in demonstration of the Spirit and of power And 1 Thes 1.5 out Gospel came to you in power and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance and so he directs Titus Chap. 2.15 Loquere exhortare argue cum omni imperio Now if the Holy Spirit such in the servants what was it in the Lord § 210 As he was speaking thus in the Synagogue to the people a man that was possest with an unclean Spirit all Devils being ordinarily called thus because delighting in all impurity therefore they desired rather to enter into Swine standing amongst them all possessed not being continually agitated or molested by the evil Spirits but by fits perhaps when the disposition of the Body the humours at such times do also concur with it The Devil that was within him either not able to endure the presence of our Lord or also having received some secret command already from him as those Mark 5.7 8. to quit his prey or terrified with his words speaking of the destruction of the Kingdom of Satan cryed out desiring that he would let him or them alone and not destroy them sometimes speaking in the singular number and sometimes in the plural the like request to which we find elsewhere Mat. 8.29 and Luk. 8.31 and Mark â— 10 where in Matthew the Devils beseech him that he would not torment them before their time and in Luke that he would not send them into the Abysse and in Mark that not send them out of the country We find also several other passages in Scripture that may further explicate the present condition of these miserable and cursed creatures unto us As their being said by S. Peter 2 Pet. 2.4 Jude 6. and S. Jude to be reserved in chains under darkness or as S. Peter to be cast down to hell unto or until the judgment of the great day Eph. 2.2 6 12. and S. Pauls calling Satan the Prince of the power of the Air and these evil Spirits the Rulers of the darkness of this lower world and Satan being said that He goeth about here seeking whom he may be permitted to devour 1 Pet. 5.8 and the like is said in Job 1.7 and the evil Spirit cast out of a man his being said to walk in dry and defart places and so finds no rest there Mat. 12.45 till permitted to return to his former lodging by new finning better prepared for him their crowding also so many of them as they get leave into one person and so much more mischevous there than a single one could have bin as we hear of seven cast out of Mary Magdalen and of the Spirit returning with seven more worse and fiercer than himself and of a Legion in the furious Gadaren and we have them answering our Lord sometimes in the singular sometimes in the plural number by what is spoken Apoc. 20.3 Of a closer imprisonment of Satan and so of his Regiment of evil spirits that shall be before the worlds end than is yet for the present § 211 Now I say by all these well considered it seems first That the evil Angels suffer not such torments now as they shall hereafter when they shall be judged at the last day by our Lord and also by his Saints 1 Cor. 6.3 Apoc. 20.10 compare 3.7 And 2ly that Though they are cast down to hell or the inner bowels of the earth full of darkness as their proper Prison and place of present sufferings whither also the souls of wicked men descend and are tormented with them yet both they and the chief Prince of them are permitted by God to come forth of this lower prison upon the earth such of them and for such duration of time and extension of place as the Divine Majesty pleaseth for the greater exercise and trial of the just here and for the afflicting and executing of Gods justice on the obstinatly wicked sometimes even to the possessing and inhabiting them even many of these evil Spirits in one man After the same manner as the good Angels descend from heaven their place of Bliss for the Protection of the just and regular government of this lower world against the malice of these malign Spirits Which evagation of evil Spirits and their inhabiting here a less darkness and especially the hurt they can do to any men seems by some of the former expressions to afford some solace
from out Lords first coming from the Baptist to Cana in Galilee did together with his Holy Mother never part from him See before § 177. § 254 The particular calling of 7 of these 12. i. e. to our Lords attendance though now first to their Apostleship hath bin mentioned before in the Gospels Namely of Peter and Andrew James and John Philip and Bartholomew for him I take for Nathanael these called in Jo. 1. and Matthew to whom we add also hit three Brethren James Judas and Simon his constant followers and companions from his first residence in Capernaum So that there remain only two Thomas and Judas Iscariot of the time of whose beginning to be his Auditors and Disciples we are uncertain § 255 Among these to Simon Bar-jona he gave the priviledg to be the first and chief leader and President of this Sacred Colledg Foretelling at the very first sight of him Jo. 1.42 as foreknowing his Fathers good pleasure herein and the particular Revelation he would honour him with Mat. 16.17 as also foreseeing his extraordinary Love towards himself though not he but his Brother Andrew was his first follower and James and John were his Kinsmen foretelling I say this his pre-election and then changing his name which also he now reiterates Luk. 6.14 into Cephas a Stone or Foundation the meaning of which he expounds Mat. 16.18 to him also in a more particular manner Ibid. v. 19. committing the keyes of the Church and more specially praying Luk. 22.32 for the not failing of his faith The two next Disciples that were most intimate with him were James and John the Sons of Zebedee whom he sur-named Boanerges sons of Thunder or Thunderers probably from an extraordinary Valour appearing in their Spirit striking terrour into their Auditors Which mettal and forth-putting beyond others perhaps was discerned by their Mother when that confident request was presented by her or also by them to our Lord concerning their sitting next to himself in his Kingdom and when also asked whether for sharing with him in his honours they were able first to undergo his sufferings they returned that confident answer we are able And indeed one of them was he that first drank of our Lords cup and suffered Martyrdom the first of all the Apostles which seems to have happened from his great forwardness and fervid zeal in his Sermons against the murtherers of our Lord. Something also of S. John's but just severity towards Hereticks and Seducers and refractory seems to appear in his 2 Epist v. 9.10 and 3d. v. 10. and in our Lords Epistles penned by him Apoc. 2. and 3. chapters And his confident behaviour in the High Priests Pallace pressing in there after our Lord and introducing Peter then more timorous shews him a person of much spirit and courage Lastly that speech of these two brothers Luk. 9.54 where saith he When James and John saw this they said Lord wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven and consume them as Elias did and in the same place v. 49. Johns hasty forbidding one that cast out Devils in our Lords name to forbear it for the future shews such appellation of Boanerges not given by our Lords omniprescience without just ground And indeed an extraordinary valour and height of spirit appears in all these three Disciples chosen for a nearer attendance on our Saviour which valour also S. Peter the third of them manifested on many occasions To these three our Lord gave honorary Names to none of the rest § 256 The order wherein they are ranked by the several Evangelists is much what the same Simon Peter alwaies retaining the first place and our Lords three Kinsmen being put last except Judas Iscariot And among them there being two having the name of James and of Simon and of Judas for distinction sake the latter James is called Jacobus Alphei as is supposed brother to S. Joseph viz. his Son and Mark. 15.40 called James the less son to Mary i. e. Alpheus or Cleophas his wife Jo. 19.25 who is said therefore to be our Lords Mothers sister So the latter Simon is called the Cananite or Cananean or of Cana it seems from his living there formerly which Hebrew word signifying zeal in the Greek he was also called Zelotes See Mat. 10.4 and Luk. 6.5 Jude also the brother of James is called Thaddeus Mark 3.18 and Lebbeus Mat. 10.3 for variety of names to the same person was very usual with the Jews so Matthew had another name of Levi and Thomas is called also Didimus this Greek word signifying the same as the Hebrew Thomas viz. Geminus As for Judas Iscariot he is thought to be called so from the Town where he was born But Issachar signifying Merces see Gen. 30.18 seems also in this sense a name very proper to him After the Election of these twelve out of the turba discipulorum all the rest of his Disciples who were also as appears in the History of the Gospel to stay with him yet for some time to be better instructed before their Mission abroad and the multitudes also now again gathered about him he preached unto them that famous Sermon in the Mount delivered in Mat. 5th 6th and 7th Chapters and in Luk. 6.20 containing all the most high and noble precepts and Counsels of Christianity and his new Gospel which it is said the people heard with much admiration and astonishment Mat. 7.29 far transcending all those of former Philosophy or also many of those expresly and explicitly delivered in the former Law of Moses and these new Evangelical Commandements given as I have said much what at the same time as the law before was and as the Holy Spirit was to be viz. about Pentecost and in a Mountain also as was the Law and this his Sermon also vindicating the Law to a tittle and being a most perfect Exposition of it which was then in many things much misunderstood and the true sense thereof much relaxed This his speech he directed more chiefly to his new chosen Apostles to whom some part of it and especially the begining is more particularly applyed First acquainting them in what things for the present consisteth their true felicity much contrary to the imagination and designs of the world and prearming them to the Hardships and sufferings to be met with in their Office from which they were not therefore to withdraw or desist they being the light and salt of the world and a City set on an Hill but were publickly to appear against all opposition especially giving every where good example exhorting them to dependance as to all temporal necessities without taking thought for them on the Divine providence Then in the next place expounding to them but so also to all the multitude the true sense of the law much contrary to the then ordinary Glosses of the Pharisees and which law unless his Disciples kept and observed better than the other they should not enter into the
Kingdom of heaven which law also he told them he came not to destroy or to relax as he was traduced but to fulfil and vindicate even to the least tittle thereof Lastly He instructs them in their behaviour and in the right performance of the three great Christian Duties of Praier Almes and Fasting § 257 Concerning Beatitude thus he teacheth them that as to this present life It consisted 1 In Poverty poverty either outwardly in their Estate and temporal fortunes or at least in Spirit and without having joy and consolation in wealth and riches possessed which hath made many having in the reaping no benefit to quit also the trouble of them and to make his Disciples and other Auditors happy in this way tend those Counsels of his following in Mat. c. 6.11 19 24. c. to the end and chap. 7.11 The Beatitude of which poor he declares to be their enjoying hereafter a Kingdom in heaven 2 Again consisted in weeping and mourning for the present a beatitude opposed to sensual pleasures and delights as poverty is to riches the frequent occasion of which mourning in this world our Lord shews in his Relation of the eighth Beatitude because men good and virtuous and lovers of him the world will certainly hate and a thousand waies molest them and so for the prefent Job 16 20. Mundus gaudebit saith our Lord vos autem contristabimini And Omnis disciplina with which God exerciseth here his Servants in praesenti quidem saith the Apostle videtur non esse gaudii sed maeroris and lastly All being sinners it must be a continued penitential sorrow here Heb. 12 11. that shall attain Bliss hereafter Now the felicity of these present mourners is promised hereafter to be perpetual Consolations 3ly Consisted in Meekness humility and lowliness of mind a sure companion of poverty and mourning To which meekness appertain those lessons and Counsels of our Lord following in Mat. chap. 5. from vers 21. to 27. and from vers 38. to the end of that chapter and chap. 6.12.14 and chap. 7.1 the observance of these Counsels being an effect of lowliness of heart And as the reward in the other Beatitudes is said to be the Kingdom of heaven so of this the inheritance of the earth alluding to Psalm 36.11 Mansueti haereditabunt terram perhaps partly because the good things thereof are seldom gotten or at least not long preserved or quietly possessed by turbulent contentious and litigious spirits But the ultimate and eternal inheritance of these meek souls is the new Heaven and Earth spoken of Apoc. 21.1 2. to which this promise relates 4ly Consisted in hungring and thirsting after and pursuing with our whole design the Kingdom of God righteousness and Holiness Lessons and advices tending to the which happiness are those following chap. 6.19 c. and from vers 24. to the end of the Chapter and chap. 7.11 But yet by the woe in S. Luke that is opposed to this Blessed here Woe unto you that are full for ye shall hunger and thirst this beatitude like the former seems to include also a great temperance and abstinence and the not satiating themselves with or having any thirst after secular pleasures and contents These two hungers after earthly and after heavenly things not consisting well together For which see what our Lord saith Mat. 6.24 33. Now to this present hunger and thirst the felicity promised hereafter is a full satiety of all good things § 258 From these our Lord passeth to the Beatitudes attainable here in our behaviour toward our Neighbours and placeth the fifth Beatitude in shewing all mercifulness charity and compassion toward them in all their necessities further explained in his Lessons following in chap 5.44 -6.12 14. -7.1 12. viz. in performing such mercy to them as we in our needs would desire from them freely forgiving without wrath and expostulating which is a degree of revenge all their faults and trespasses toward us Nay even loving them when they hate us blessing when they curse us doing good to them when they evil to us The reward of which our mercy to others is promised hereafter Gods like mercy to us in pardoning all our trespasses against him that excludes us from his friendship and from Glory § 259 The sixth Beatitude consisteth in cleanness and purity not only of our actions abstaining from any wicked deeds against our Neighbour but also in heart opposed to the Pharisees munditia carnis abstaining from Lust and concupiscence and irregular passions there towards him explained in these following Lessons in his Sermon chap. 5.19 observing the little commandments again vers 22 28 29. chap. 6.22 -7.1 2 21. Keeping not only our hands from killing but hearts from any passion of anger against our neighbour not only from committing adultery or fornication with but lusting after a woman not only from accusing our neighbour falsly but making any sinister judgment in our hearts of him wherefore think ye evil in your hearts said our Lord to the Pharisees Mat. 9.3 4. when they said none of him And out of the heart proceed the things which defile us Mat. 15.18 19. For out of the heart saith he proceed because in the heart they are transacted murthers adulteries fornications thefts false-witness blasphemies and out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh and how can ye being evil speak good things Mat. 12.34 and there begining every evil and good work And therefore it is on this part that God chiefly casts his eye 1 Sam 16.7 and there sees the breaches of both tables and the beauty or deformity of the soul And the happiness promised hereafter to such purity of heart is their eternal seeing and beholding of God according to Apoc. 22.4 for without such purity none may see him Heb. 12.14 Apoc. 21.27 And an extraordinary fruition and sense of his Divine presence in such pure hearts also here in this present life Jo. 14.23 § 260 The seventh is placed in the zeal on all occasions of making and preserving peace amongst all first negociating the peace of all men with God which was the Apostles employment 2 Cor. 5.10 to reconcile men to God and especially our own peace with him keeping all quiet and in due subordination within our selves in the obedience of the flesh and inferiour appetites to the Spirit 2ly Again procuring by all means the peace of men among themselves where either they have given us or we them any offence endeavouring a speedy reconcilement contributing here even so far as not to resist the evil received from them patiently to put-up quarrels and endure affronts suffer wrong from rather than go to law with them 1 Cor. 6.7 Taking all things said or done in good part and the best sense See 1 Cor. 7.15 Rom. 12.18 the likelyest waies surely to gain every ones peace with us and lastly making them also friends as much as we can one with another as Christ came down from heaven and shed
to God calling him Father in the midst of that severe handling of him and meekly resigning his dying Spirit into his hands Lastly in his dying before the other two and sending out a loud voice at his expiring which shewed his Divinity and that he gave up his life not upon any constraint of torments but voluntarily and when he pleased § 88 Seventhly This manner of death by the lifting up of the body in it towards heaven seems very significative that we now after and in imitation of it should exalt and remove our eyes and affections henceforth from the Earth towards Heaven Therefore our Lord gives it this honourable name of his Exaltation And I saith he if I be exalted from the Earth will draw all unto me Jo. 12.32 And the Apostle calls it his triumph having taken out of the way the Decree that was contrary to us he fastned it to his Cross and having despoiled the principalities and potentates triumphed over them in it Col. 2.15 So also in the nailing and fixing of the flesh of our Lord to the Cross significative of the mortifying and crucifying of the flesh and its lusts that is required of us in imitation of our Lord so disenabling it to stir hand or foot as it were any more to the breach of Gods commands and signifying our now dying to sin as he for it and this death of the Cross is often thus alluded to by the Apostle § 89 Eightly and Lastly the posture of this death carryed in it a lively Representation of his love to mankind with his arms stretched out as it were to embrace and receive all those who would come to him and his head declining to kiss them Having made this Digression upon the Jewes so often vehement demanding and at last Pilats consent to our Lord's Crucifixion to shew the multiplicity of the divine wisdom in the choice of this manner of death rather than any other I proceed now in the relation of the story after Pilats having committed to the Roman Guards the execution thereof § 90 The time now after Pilats four or five returns into the Praetorium and Exits to the Jews whilst he endeavoured by all means to have preserved our Lords life i. e. so far as his own safety with Cesar and his reputation with the Jews would permit and after our Lords being sent to and returned from Herod and the soldiers scourging and dressing him so as to be made a fitter object of the hard-hearted Jews Pity drew well towards Noon Jo. 19.14 Luk. 23.44 about the sixth hour saith St. John and St. Luke though called as yet the third hour by St. Mark because the sixth hardly yet begun The scoffing Soldiers then seizing on our Lord after some further abuses which both in words and actions by Satans instigation were committed both in the way and at the place of Execution as we may gather from the very Theif in the midst of his torments not tempering himself from reviling of him with the rest stript our Lord of his Purple and put on him his own garments whose prize shortly they were to be and so making all speed laid a cross already prepared upon his torn shoulders and so led away this only Isaac of God carrying the wood of his Sacrifice upon his back § 91 And to fulfil a second time after his being coupled with Barabbas the Prophet Esay's cum sceleratis reputatus est Esay 53.12 and that there might be some greater appearance of Justice and our Lord mingled with company whom the people might think like himself there were two notable Thieves on either hand one joined with him and haled along to their Execution but these also or one of them at least railing at him even when suffering with him and such companions he was to have of his greifs as offered him no solace therein And indeed if we consider the person he now took on him what Malefactor or crimes so great as could match him or his for he carried on his shoulders all the sins of the whole world present and past and to come and even those too of these Malefactors and so also this Anathema as the chief was crucified in the midst and the reason in the Prophet of his cum sceleratis reputatus seems very apposite quia ipse peccata multorum tulit Graced with this company and laden with an heavy Cross the long beam thereof being probably more than twice the length of a man for his body was to be stretched at its full length upon it and to be exalted to such a convenient height as might render him a spectacle to all the multitude and de facto so high it was that the Soldier to pierce his side used not his Sword but his Lance and to give him drink they tyed a spunge to the end of a long reed and so reached it to his mouth It was also to carry a Title over his head and to be fastned in the ground and the cross Beam of it also was to equal the breadth of his body and length of his arms I say thus laden he made a painful but most chearful march under it through a good part of the City the Governours Palace being near the Temple on the East side of it and Calvary the place of Execution at the North-West side thereof till when coming without the Gate he fainted away under it his body being now grown very feeble and his spirits exhausted by reason of his cruel scourging and other base usage of the three Guards of Officers Caiphas's Herod's and Pilats he had passed through and of his being kept all night without the least sleep or repose or refreshment or his former temperance having any superfluous humors to feed on Because our Lord alone was unable to bear it any further and it was an ignominious thing to carry or touch the instrument of the Execution of a Malefactor whence the word Furcifer was a common name of reproach by chance a poor man that came then out of the countrey one Simon a stranger of Cyrene in Africk where was then a great Colony of the Jews Act. 2.10 6.9 Joseph de Excid Hieros l. 7. c. 38. meeting them the Soldiers laid hold on him and forced him to bear our Lord's Cross after him either the whole or the heaviest end thereof whose sons Alexander and Rufus are particularly named by the Evangelist Mark 15.21 which shews that they were not only Converts to the Christian Faith but persons of some note amongst the Primitive Christians see Acts 19.33 Romans 16.13 it those the same And it is to be presumed that our Lord rewarded this service done him to their Father also in making him a Member of the Church and of his Kingdom and that he was saved by the Holy Cross he bore who thus had the honour even in the truest sense to take up the cross and follow our Lord and to partake of his reproach and ignominy But the divine Counsel
Earth that are then or ever were shall appear before him and that then in flaming fire he shall take revenge on all those who have not obeyed him who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from his presence and from the glory of his power and them also that he shall be glorified in and together with all his Saints whom after having made their peace with his Father and by this preascent prepared a place for them at this his second coming according to his promise Jo. 14.3 he will receive unto himself that where he is there may they be also and remain with him Partakers of his glory for ever For thus the Scriptures have described his coming again see Mat. 24.27 30 31. 25.31 2 Thes 1.8 9 10. 1 Thes 4.16 c of which majes and coming of his to judgment he charitably had told the High Priest and his other Judges and forewarned them of what would follow when he was arraigned before and so cruelly treated by them Mat. 26.6.4 Hereafter shall ye see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of Power and coming in the Clouds of Heaven § 149 And in this very place also where he ascended it is thought his Descent shall be For since in some particular place it must be what more likely and more proper place for this Triumph and glory of our Lord than that of his sufferings and ignominies and where all those personsly interred that exercised such cruelties on him whose eyes also as he told them shall then behold him whom they pierced Apoc. 1.7 Again than this place which is the very Navel or middle of the great Continent of the inhabited world This place is conjectured to be spoken of in the last chapter of Joel where it is said that the Lord will come down with his mighty ones verse 11. answerable to Zachar. 14.5 and will gather all Nations and bring them down into the Valley of Jehosaphat verse 2. and there he will fit to judg all the Heathen round about This Valley between Jerusalem and Mount Olivet which was the common Caemitery of the Hierosolimites and where also was Gehenna and Topheth is said to be called by this name because there was erected a Triumphal Arch and Pyramid after Jehosaphats wonderful victory over the Ammonites c. but perhaps called also by this name here in the Prophet because Jehosaphat signifies Judicium Domini named also here the Valley of Concision or Decision verse 14. and seeming to allude to the valley of Berachah or Benediction 2 Chron. 20.26 where Jehosaphat and the People assembled to give thanks to God for his miraculous victory without fights over all the Nations round about But God's being said also to roar of Sion verse 16. shews this valley to be near to it Such a Descent of our Lord also is spoken of in the last chapter of Zechariah where verse 3.4.5 it is said the Lord shall come and all his Saints i. e. holy Angels with him and shall fight against the Nations and that his feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives which is before Jerusalem and before the foresaid Valley of Jehosaphat on the East Which Mountain it is said shall be cleft with a terrible Earthquake compared to that in the time of Uzziah to make then thro it as it were a plain and level way for the concourse of the multitudes thither See Zachar. 14.4 5. Joel 3.11 12 14. which chapters in Zachary and Joel though they do seem primarily to relate to Apoc. 19.11 c. compared with Apoc. 16.14 16. and 14.16 19. our Lord 's coming to judgment upon the Beast and false Prophet and their numerous Army which was followed with a Thousand years reign of the Saints or prosperous and flourishing condition of the Church see Joel 3.17 18 20 21. Zach. 14.9 10 11. c. yet may they have a second completion in the coming of our Lord to the Judgment also of Gog and Magog Apoc. 20.9 agreeable to Ezechiel chap. 39. and a third in the final Judgment of the whole world § 150 Hearing such things from those two glorious Messengers who presently disappeared they were filled with great Joy Acts 1.12 Joy as well for his incomparable Glory conferred by God the Father on this his only Son who was crucified through weakness 2. Cor. 13.4 but was now exalted by the Power of God as also for his promised Return to take them for ever unto himself Jo. 14.3 Perhaps apprehending also this his return much more speedy than indeed it was to be So leaving the Mount they return to Jerusalem where first having chosen by lot another Apostle to compleat the number of twelve Witnesses the Apostles with the Mother of our Lord and the women that accompanied her and our Lord's Brethren and many others for their number was about one hundred and twenty see Acts 1.13 14 15. continued with one accord in the large upper roome mentioned before in prayer and supplication till Pentecost the time appointed and expected for the Descent of the Holy Ghost upon them which our Lord promised to procure of his Father upon his arrival into his presence where now he is our Precursor Jo. 15 13. Heb. 6 20. 1 J◠2 2. Rom. 8 33. our Eternal High Priest our Advocate and Intercessor and where may he reign in Glory at Gods right hand King of Kings and Lord of Lords till all his Enemies be made his Footstool Amen Tu autem Domine Jesu Qui sedes ad dexteram Dei Patris miserere Nobis FINIS SUPPLENDA PAg. 122. line 32. not above twenty miles pag. 125. lin 15. see Part. II. Sect. 136. pag. 214 lin 14. see below Sect. 9.
often so heavily accused our good Lord. But all this their diligence by the Divine providence was turned quite contrary to their intents and rendred our Lords Resurrection much more clear and evident whilst this very Guard were the first witnesses of it and that to the High Priests themselves and quite took away the pretence which else they might not only have reported but verily believed of his Disciples carrying away his body Which witness of the Watch doubtless confirmed the faith of many who would not give so easy credit to the Disciples Testimony of it and was a means of converting some of the High Priests also And their testifying likewise our Lords prediction of it before Pilat still added more to the truth and reputation of this Event Of all which Daniels being cast into the den of Lyons and the entrance into it being sealed by his Enemies that no fraud might be used in his deliverance out of it seems to have bin a prerepresentation and type § 114 The Sabbath the day of rest thus passed over the time was come that the grave the belly of the Whale that had swallowed him could detain our Lords body no longer nor the sealed Sepulcher or Guards hinder his Resurrection according to his many predictions early in the morning of the third day that is after the six daies wherein the world was created and the seventh wherein was to be its rest the eight day or the first day of the new Creation of all things the day wherein after a week of daies compleated all things shall be perfected in the general Resurrection that shall be A day advanced ever since this act into the solemn Festival of Christians in an eternal memory of the joy of this day Early on this day our Lord resumed and clothed with immortality that most Sacred body of his that had before so highly merited it by passing through so many cruel torments Here also great Multitudes of Angels attended on this our Lord in their white and shining Robes as may be gathered by their frequent apparitions within and without the Sepulcher and the women's discription of them And since a multitude of the heavenly Host appeared praising God at our Lords Nativity and the beginning of his Humiliation we cannot imagine less solemnities at the beginning of his Exaltation and triumph whom also we had found before waiting on him at his former conquest over Satan with prayer and fasting in the Desert And if they shew their Joy at the conversion of a sinner how much more now did they at the Redemption of the world And by these or by our Lord at his rising and for a clear argument also of it the linnen clothes wherein our Lord lay the only prey which a Robber would have looked after were decently folded up and the Napkin about his head as if taken off after them laid in a diverse place from the rest At the same time as before at our Lords death happened a terrible Earthquake And an Angel of great Majesty his countenance like lightning saith the Evangelist and his raiment white as Snow was seen by the astonished Guards to descend and roll away the stone so to expose the open Sepulcher to every ones view after our Lords glorious Body had already passed through it when yet shut up and sealed The All-glorious Angel when he had done this sitting down upon the stone that he had rolled away as if he would now be the sole Guarder of that place So terrible was this sight as also the Earthquake that the Soldiers though they fell not into a sleep as they afterward reported yet fell into a swoon and became for a while saith the Evangelist as dead men Mat. 28.4 After some time recovering a little strength and seeing the Sepulcher thrown open the body gone and only the linnen clothes and spices wrapt up and left behind which though it had bin much for their interest or excuse in raising a report of its being stolen away as well as profit to have taken and their necessity but two daies before had shared his former garments yet they durst not touch but from the Angel's presence speedily fled away and in a great fright some of them came to the chief Priests and related all that had hapned our Lords Body gone the Sepulcher empty the linnens and spices left behind touch them he that durst the terrible apparition of the Angel with an Earthquake breaking their seal and rolling away the stone and there staying and sitting upon it § 115 The chief Priests not a little concern'd in this news of our Lords being revived to which also his Predictions now added some credit who had their hands already embrewed in his blood now repent their late diligence to prevent it whereby the very Soldiers could witness it against them and presently assembled all the Ancients of the Jews before whom on this occasion the Guards relate the like things the Divine Providence thus effecting a great divulging of it and that by such Witnesses as they could not but believe The result of this consultation was that a large summ of mony probably taken out of the same Church-Treasury as also Judas his was should be given to them to report that in the night whilst they were asleep our Lords Disciples came and stole away his Body And because the negligence of these Guards confessing themselves to sleep when they should have watched if coming to the Governours ears was highly punishable the chief Priests engaged also that in any such accident they would satisfy the Governour and secure them considering well if they could not smother and hide the truth in this matter the publick odium and loss of reputation which they should incur both with the People and the Governour in their prosecuting so vehemently against the inclinations of both these the death to say no more of so just and innocent a person Thus one sin to justify it self where no repentance engageth us on another and still makes the sinners condition more desperate Thus were the wily taken in their own craftiness and by their setting the Watch those truths are now declared both to the people and themselves not by the Followers of our Lord but their own Officers and Servants which otherwise they might with some shew of a good conscience have disbeleived and endeavoured to suppress but now acted purely against it § 116 This of the Soldiers flying from the Sepulcher and testifying in the City our Lords Resurrection but besides these were also some other extraordinary witnesses thereof For in the great Earthquake and at the same time as our Lord's were other Sepulchers and graves about the city opened and out of them also by vertue and in honour of our Lords Rising came forth the revived Bodies of many other formerly deceased Saints That as his triumphant Soul entring into the innermost bowels of the Earth brought a multitude of other overjoyed Souls attendants upon it from thence
so his glorified Body should not remain alone but have also a great train of other glorified Bodies whom he thought meet to wait upon him and with it ascend to Heaven Who to shew his conquest not only over his own but our death and to confirm to us also our resurrection by vertue of his were together with him the Primitiae dormientium and the primogeniti ex mortuis in whom the divine Wisdom thought fit then to foreshew what is to be performed and made good to the rest of the bodyes of all his Saints now lying in their dust at the great day And some of these Saints also in these their new restored bodyes came into the Holy City saith the Evangelist stiling it so as if now sanctified with their presence and in alluding to the celestial Jerusalem of which these glorified bodyes were now to be eternal Inhabitants and there these also appeared to many saith the Text according as the Divine providence disposed testifying to them the Resurrection of our Lord and further confirming it with their own and so presently disappeared again Now what glorified persons these should be whether some holy men or also Disciples of our Lord that were lately before deceased as the Baptist S. Simeon Anna Zachary S. Joseph or others whose Sepulchers were near the City and well known and now viewed to be opened and empty by such as remembred their interment appearing to such to whom their persons were formerly well known or also whether most of the more eminent former Patriarchs and Prophets that had lain now so long a time in the dust and whom our Lord would gratify with a more early Resurrection we not knowing how far his favours now at this his entrance into his glory might be extended though what S. Peter saith of David Act. 2.34 seems somewhat to weaken such an opinion here I say it would be too curious to inquire further into such a matter hidden from us to whom several things of the Oeconomy of the next world for certain reasons of the Divine Wisdom are as yet but very sparingly revealed § 117 Amidst these extraordinary discourses of our revived Lord by the Guards and by the Saints risen with him the Galilean women who on the Eve of the Sabbath had observed where his Body was laid and knew nothing of the Guards that were set there the next day and having now prepared a more choice composition of spices and odours than the former hast of his burial would permit to Nicodemus in which women also used to be better skilled rose up very early in the Morning to go to the Sepulcher there to visit his precious Body and pay this last office of their duty and love unto it These were Mary Magdalen and Mary our Blessed Ladyes sister-in-law and mother of our Lords Brethren Salome the mother of James and John Joanna the Wife of Herods Steward and some others besides But no mention is there of our Lords Mother the Blessed Virgin amongst them and the reason why she who had a much greater love to and grief for her Son than any other yet was not so active as they in expressing it seems to be either that John to whose prudent care she was committed had restrained her return to the Sepulcher so to put some bounds to her grief and that this might not add sorrow to sorrow or rather because both the faith of his Resurrection before it came to pass was never diminished or ecclipsed in her who also full of Grace laid up in her heart all our words and well remembred what others forgot and also because most probably our Lords consolation of her so soon as he was risen was not at all deferred but that by his immediat apparition to her he afforded her an early recompence of her former suffering those sword-points of sorrow at his Cross and also of the faith which in her alone withered not at that time as in the rest Though our Lord mean-while did not think fit to use her having so near a relation to his person for a witness to others of his return to life which she also might then understand from him was to be discovered by certain degrees for the greater trial of his Disciples and evidence of the fact and so whilst others went to and fro she remained after this beatifical sight all this morning in the posture of so great a Mourner retired continuing in a rapture of joy and uncessant praises and thanksgivings to God For none can here rationally imagine that our Lord who vouchsafed to honour Mary Magdalens love and tears and S. Peters primacy and extraordinary affection to him with a gratious sight of him before the other men or women omitted this to his own Mother more loving and beloved by him § 118 The most Holy Virgin thus retired and the other women as yet busy in ordering their Provisions Mary Magdalen more regardless as formerly Luk. 10.42 of such by-businesses more fervorous and impatient in her affection to be with what was yet left her of our Lord whom only the devout observation of the Sabbath could have restrained from the Sepulcher so long ran before the rest whilst it was yet dark saith S. John with a valour more than a womans to this place there rather to expect and stay for her company For this S. Johns particular story of her as also our Lords appearing to her alone before the other mentioned also by S. Mark Mark. 16.9 He appeared first to Mary Magdalen seems to intimate But here some of the Evangelists writing things more compendiously in which others are more copious and some with more others with fewer circumstances and so for persons also some mentioning more than other do wherein yet is no contradiction whilst I give the substance of what these Sacred Historians have delivered I desire your pardon if I do not or cannot punctually observe the order of every thing done in this so small a time and yet so very full of various occurrences since as S. Jerome on Mat. 28. observes particularly of these women there seems to have bin several excursions to and returns from the Sepulcher made by them and perhaps not of all of them together Crebro abeunt saith he recurrunt non patiuntur a Sepulcro Domini diu abesse aut longius Mary Magdalen then coming thither thus alone when the soldiers were already fled away of whom she knew nothing saw the great stone rolled from the Sepulcher and our Lords body taken thence at which surprized with great wonder and grief she ran back into the city to the house where S. Peter abode with S. John and the Blessed Mother of our Lord probably all the Disciples not lodging together to tell them the sad News See Ink. 24.9 12 24. that the Monument was thrown open and no body there These two the chief of the society and between whom seems to have bin a more particular friendship who also had