take up his bed and walk Upon which the impotent man was instantly cured and carrying his bed on the Sabbath was presently questioned by the Jews probably these inquirers being either the Pharisees great zelots for the Sabbath or some of their Disciples for the breach of it in so doing who answered them that he was bid to do so by the person that cured him But our Lord there being a throng of people in the place he presently conveyed himself away and returned into the Temple All which occasioned the cure to be more taken notice of and the person looked after that had done it nor could the poor man give any account of him But a little after he repairing also to the Temple probably there to render more solemn thanks to God for his cure Our Lord now discovers himself to him and minding him of the mercy he had received exhorted him to amendment of life least a worse thing yet should happen unto him in die irae if not in this Rom. 2.4 5. yet after this life § 245 The man after he had paid his due adoration and thanks hasted to the former busy enquirers after the Author of his cure and told them it was Jesus doubtless thinking he should advance his honour and esteem with them thereby But it happened much otherwise for instead of this they sought his death for his own breaking in doing this cure and causing the other man also to break the Sabbath Our Lord then questioned by them concerning it as he was often for the like and made them great variety of answers and defences for it by which they were still silenced at this time answers them as absolute Lord of the Sabbath that he was to do the works for which God his Father had sent him among which was restoring the lame giving sight to the blind c. Mat. 11.5 whether this were on Sabbath or week daies or whoever should suffer scandal thereat But his answer now again was made by them worse than his fault collecting hence an higher accusation for destroying him because faith the Text he not only hath broken the Sababth Jo. 5.18 but said also that God was his Father and made himself equal with God which equality had the Jews miscollected from our Lords words as the Arrians say they did probably our Lord or the Evangelist would have reflected on it § 246 But our Lord well knowing his time not yet come of being delivered into their hands with the same undaunted courage and infinite charity and zeal after their salvation prosecuted his former discourse and took this opportunity to declare to them plainly and fully who he was his Union and intimacy with God his Father and why he was sent by and from him into the world and with what authority and power that all might provide for their Salvation by the believing in and the honouring of him as they did the Father See his Sermon made to them Jo. 5. The chief Contents whereof were these That in nothing he sought his own will our Lord having the same natural affections as other men but these in all things subjected to the Divine good pleasure and disposal but the will of his Father That he did nothing of himself but what he saw his Father do and that as he heard of him so he judged that all judgment also was by the Father committed into his hands see the like Mat. 11.27 Jo. 3.35 and the power of doing whatever the Father doth That every one who heard his words and believed that God had sent him should not come into condemnation .i. e. for his former sins now remitted in him but was passed from death to life speaking of death and life spiritual and eternal and of their regeneration thereto by the Spirit See 1 Jo. 3.14 that they who marvelled now so much at the present works he did namely in curing of diseases c. should yet hereafter see far greater from him namely upon the hearing of his voice by the Archangel all that are in their graves coming forth and receiving from him their final doome the good to the resurrection of life the evil to the resurrection of damnation the like things of his hereafter coming in the clouds c. he told to them before his passion Mat. 26.64 and to Nathanael Jo. 1.51 Angels waiting upon him and going hither and thither as he sent them that therefore it was the Fathers pleasure that all should believe in and do honour unto the Son as they did to the Father whose words and actions were the same and they saw and heard God the Father in the Son And concerning his being such a person and the words he spake to them Truth that they had an abundant testimony though considering his person his own was sufficient Jo. 8.14 16. First from his Father 1 both that which he gave them from heaven concerning him at his Baptism the like to which was done twice afterwards at our Lords tranfiguration before three witnesses Mat. 17.5 which is mentioned again by S. Peter 2 Epis 1.16 17. and at his solemn entrance into Jerusalem before his passion God the Father then from heaven speaking to him Jo. 12.20 23. perhaps for a testimony also to the Greeks or Gentiles see Jo. 7.35 who then first admitted by the Apostles came to worship and to make their humble addresses to him which foresignifyed salvation to be shortly after communicated to them by his now approaching death And a-again 2ly that testimony which his Father gave to him in the Miracles which he wrought by him which testimony he frequently urgeth See Jo. 10.25 38. 15.24 2ly A Testimony from John the Baptist though having that of God he needed not that of men which John was sent before him amongst them as a burning and shining light till the time he was to be eclipsed and silenced and they some of them at least were willing for a season to rejoyce in his light 3ly Testimony also from the Scriptures in which they thought were contained the way to eternal life which Scriptures had they duly searched they might have found them abundantly witnessing of him Lastly testimony from their lawgiver Moses in whom they had so much confidence who also spake clearly of him Jo. 1.45 Deut. 18.15.18 where upon petitioning that they might not hear again the voice of God nor see that terrible fire c he tells them that God would raise them up a Prophet like unto him and would put his own words into his mouth c and to him they should hearken whose words would sufficiently accuse unto God his Father their infidelity though our Lord should hold his peace But that notwithstanding such witness and evidences they would not believe because they had not the love of God in them nor as our Lord did sought the honour that only cometh from him through whatever worldly disesteem but was envious ambitious which shews he spake chiefly to the Pharisees and
baptism and to whom his commendation and testimony had procured so much reputation for which they thought he should have had the more respect for John fell on Baptizing also and gathering Disciples and that all people repaired unto him they meanwhile making no mention also of his miracles § 190 To whom the humble Baptist as one over-joyed to hear this news to allay their murmurings answers on this manner and took this occasion to make them a Sermon on this subject the last of his that the Gospel mentions wherein he first told them that no man could advance himself any higher than he had received favours from above to be Jo. 19.11 that they themselves could witness the witness which he had alwaies born to our Lord and how he taught that himself was not the Christ but one sent before to make way for him as a paranymphus to go before him that this indeed was the true Bridegroome of the Church and himself only the Bridegroomes friend who rejoyceth in seeing the Bridegroomes caressing of his Bride and in hearing all the sweet and gracious words he speaks to her and in her amorously gathering and adhering to and panting after him and that in this now his joy was compleated That himself was to decrease and cease this his office after a little time but not so the other but his Kingdom to be dilated and encreased more and more that he being an earthly man could of himself speak only low and earthly things to them but that this was the Son of God to whom his Father gave not the Spirit by measure as to others Col. 2.3 1.19 1 Cor. 12.11 1 Pet. 4.10 Jo. 5.19 20 30. Apoc. 1.1 but that he perfectly knew all his Fathers secrets and was now descended from him and from Heaven to reveal to the world what he had there heard and seen 1 Jo. 5.10 and that whosoever believed his words only set his seal to the truths of God but yet that many were so hard-hearted as not to receive his Testimony finally that God loveth this his Son and hath given all things especially touching mans salvation into his hands and that the whole world being sinners and lâ—ing under the wrath of God he came hither that so many as believed on him should not perish but have remission of their sin and eternal life Jo. 17.2 3. but for those who did not so Gal. 3.10 the wrath of God still remained upon them § 191 Much mitigated and lenifyed with this Sermon somewhat contrary to their expectation Johns Disciples acquiesced in their Masters Testimony Nor had any more contention in this matter But yet after this some scruples and controversy we find made by them concerning our Lords Disciples their non-observing some solemn times or hours of falling as they and those reputed the holyest persons among the Jews the Pharisees did they not knowing that our Lord the Bridegroomes Gracious presence and Virtue supplied to these his attendants all proficience in spiritual matters without the usual preparations and helps belonging thereto By which we see how prone men are even in spiritual things to partiality and siding and factions effects of some relicks of self-love in those who seem most perfect And lastly John after he was imprisoned thought fit to send some of them to our Lord himself to see and so report to the rest his great works for the more confirming their faith of his being the Messias § 192 The Baptist meanwhile a burning and shining light as our Lord calls him continued his preaching in the coast of Galilee not to draw men from but to send them in faster to the Saviour of the world Nor had he long remained in those parts nearer the Kesidence of Herod but that He being though an Idumean by his descent yet a Proselite of the Jews Religion and hearing of his same esteemed by all the people as a Prophet Mat. 21 26. 14 5. either came to his Sermons in the place where John taught and Baptized or which is more probable sent for him to his Court. Of whom the Evangelist further saith Mark 6.20 that he feared John knowing him to be a just and Holy man and that he heard him gladly and did many things according to his advice and directions § 193 Now Herod having bin very faulty in his manners and Government for our Lord calls him a Fox and at last he was for his crimes ejected out of it by the Emperour and died in Banishment the Baptist having access to him and being a preacher of penance and doubtless illuminated by the Holy Spirit to know those affairs and faults of his with which his Education in the Desart could have bin little acquainted freely reproved him for his many evil deeds and among other for his taking his Brother Philips wife contrary to Gods express command Levit. 18.16 20 21. and that whether his Brother were alive or deceased for that his Brother had had a child by her the Daughter that danced so well before Herod And in this thing Herod was still the more guilty because he had already a former wife the Daughter of Aretas King of Arabia whom in his falling in love with Herodias upon a new compact made with her he put away and so provoked Aretas in revenge of his Daughter to make war upon him wherein he was deservedly very unfortunate Josephus imputes the cause of such his ill success Antiq. Judaic l. 18. c. 10. chiefly to his slaughter of the Baptist but however this war happened very opportunely for affording Herod less leasure to look after the motions of our Lord or giving any disturbance to them But returning to the Baptists reproof we find by the words in the Text It is not lawful for thee c. that this was not spoken of Herod in his absence but made to himself whether publickly or in private or the one after the other both being lawful according to several circumstances and the former sometimes necessary 1 Tim. 1 20. is uncertain § 194 This reproof of Herod for marrying her soon came to the ears of Herodias who perceiving Herods good inclinations to John and his obsequiousness in several matters to follow his Admonitions from which she might have some fears of her being removed from his bed and so the troubles of the war also with Aretas declined was fill'd with an implacable wrath and hatred against the Baptist Who coming in the Spirit of Elias and shewing the same zeal tor observance of Gods laws to Herod as the other to Ahab found a like persecution from her as Elias from Jezabel when as the two Husbands were more indulgent Herod overcome with her importunity and the power she had over Him sent his officers and took John and bound him Matt. 14.3 saith S. Matthew and cast him into prison For which imprisonment he wanted not a more specious pretence of fearing from the concourse of people made to him some sedition and tumults
her water-pot behind her ran presently into the City which also was the intent of our Lords talking with her Viz. to communicate the Gospel also to these first fruits of the Samaritans who were half Israelites and Midlings between the Jews and Gentiles And told them that surely the Messias was come and was in the field or at least some great Prophet that had told her all things that ever she had done upon which the men of the City also hasted and came forth unto him § 202 Mean while his Disciples were returned from the Town with provision for dinner and as they came near perceiving his familiar discoursing with the Samaritan woman wondred not a little at it from the strangeness they knew was between the Jew and Samaritan and perhaps from the little converse our Lord had formerly used with wemen especially so alone and commonly his discourse only of the kingdom of God and spiritual matters which to a Samaritan seemed impertinent and such a one little capable thereof But standing in great reverence durst not ask him concerning it but when she was now gone away invited him to take his dinner To which well knowing this their wonder and so intimating to them what he had bin doing he told them transferring the discourse to higher matters as he did that with the woman concerning her water that he had meat to eat that they knew not of that it was his meat to do the will of him that sent him and in all places to finish his work toward those to whom he was sent Signifying to them that he was also among others to intend the conversion and salvation of these poor and despised Samaritans and of that foolish people in Sychem as they are called Ecclesias 50.26 that whereas they reckoned yet fower months unto harvest there appeared a great harvest every where to be gotten in as it were prenoting to them the conflux that would be made to him presently out of this City that the feilds were white already and the world prepared for the reapers the same Metaphor he used again afterwards when in Galilee great multitudes flocked unto him Mat. 9.37 sorry the labourers in this harvest were so few He proceeded also to tell them that they were chosen to be the reapers thereof and to enter upon the former labours and tillage of the Prophets and to gather much fruit to be stored up in life eternal where also both the former sowers and they the latter reapers should at last receive their full wages and rejoyce together in those Heavenly Treasuries § 203 By this time the woman was returned out of the City and a multitude of people with herto see our Lord the Prophet she told them of and to hear his further discourses concerning their Religion To whom our Lord in great compassion having preached as he did formerly in Judea the Gospel and Kingdom of heaven and remission of sins through belief in him the Saviour of the world with such his speeches he so opened their hearts for these were a part of these fields he spoke of that were already white unto harvest that the men overjoyed gratefully cold the woman that they had now received much more satisfaction from our Lord himself than from her relation concerning him and so much importuned him for a longer stay with them where having spent two daies more for their confirmation in the faith he thought fit to depart lest by such his longer conversation with them some scandal might be given to the Jews Among whom also as being the former Church of God the Gospel was in the first place to be published and therefore in sending his Disciples abroad he commanded them not to enter into any Towns of the Samaritans though himself was pleased in passing as it were to reap this first fruits thereof As also elsewhere he healed and converted to believe in him some other Gentiles and not Israelites Mat. 15.26 8.10 whom he saw extraordinarily prepared thereto And it is very observable for a further conviction of the ingrateful obstinacy of the Jews that this poor despised people were the first of his Auditors we read of that after his first called Disciples without also any Miracles of his shewed among them made such a noble confession of him saying We know that this is indeed the Christ and the Saviour of the world Which conversion of the Samaritans our Lord perfected some three or four years after as our Lord was now ascended into heaven by sending his Apostles thither before their spreading further to the Gentiles See Act. 8.5 6. At which time also we find the same credulity and alacrity in this people as is here And the people saith the Text with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake as commonly those more grosly erring are sooner convinced thereof and reduced to truth § 204 After two daies stay in this place Our Lord went on his journey for Galilee and returned to Cana where he had formerly done the Miracle of changing the water into Wine the Fame of which as also the Galileans in their going to the Paschal feast there having seen the great miracles he had also done at that time in Jerusalem made this people to entertain and welcome him with very great applause and concourse and much better prepared for receiving his Heavenly doctrine and counsels the chief business for which he descended from heaven And by the Divine providence so ordering it that our Lord also might be the more welcome and secure among the Capernaites in particular where he designed his chief Residence it then so happened that the Son of a Noble man and Royal Officer in Capernaum fell sick and his life at last utterly despaired of Whereupon his Father hearing of our Lords miracles and of his return into those quarters hasted to Cana and there humbly besought him that he would vouchsafe to come down speedily to Capernaum and heal his Son who lay at the point of Death which also afforded our Lord an occasion of declining Nazareth where he knew his former mean education would render the function of his office less beneficial and the miracle might make also his return to Capernaum much more acceptable and desired § 205 Our Lord making some delay and reprehending his Auditors that without miracles they were so slow to believe the Noble-man again importuned him to make some hast before his Son was dead Whereupon he presently dismissed him with this answer that his Son lived signifying to him that he would heal him as well without going to him Which thing as he believed so he found most true when taking leave of our Lord and departing presently upon it meeting his Servants the next day he perceived from them his Son 's perfect recovery punctually at the time our Lord spoke these words and so he and his whole family were converted to the faith of the Gospel some imagining him to have bin Cusa an Officer of Herod's
therefore He was ordered to appear not in feasting or in glorious array or in some rich and stately Court or populous City or Pallace but in that most rigid fasting and in rough apparel and in an uncultivated desert Thus was he sent before to baptize and clense the whole Nation and to purge them from their former sins by repentance that they might be rendred a people fit to entertain so Holy a Prince and capable to receive the large effusions of his Spirit And so we find Mat. 3.7 the whole Nation as it were upon his appearing and telling them that One followed who brought his Faun in his hand to purge his Floor and who would burn the chaff with fire unquenchable Mat. 3.11 12. flocking unto him confessing sins especially the meaner people Publicanes Soldiers and such as had no high opinion of their own righteousness and receiving baptism and inquiring of him concerning their several duty and amendment of life See Luk. 3.10 c. 7.29 And among others we find also repairing to this forerunner out of the remoter parts of Galilee several of those whom our Lord afterward entertained for his Disciples learning as it were their first rudiments from this Baptist As Andrew John Peter Philip Nathanaiel Jo. 1. c. and not unlikely Matthew also amongst other Publicans Luk. 7.29 Only the Pharisees and Lawyers much conceited of their own Holiness frustrated the Counsel of God against themselves and would not come to confession to or receive baptism from Him Luk. 7.30 and as they first refused John's principles and discipline so afterward they profitted as little under that of the Messias 3. Lastly this Sacred person was ordained to proclaim and bear witness of the Messias before his face to all the people so soon as he should appear and with his finger to point out unto them his very Person Jo. 1.26 Only because he came so near the time of our Lord no miracles were to be wrought by him lest he should turn mens eyes upon himself from him that followed Him to whom these were reserved as a Royal prerogative and therefore our Savior enumerated these to Johns Disciples questioning who he was Mat. 11.5 6. to shew them that he was the Messias and a greater Person then their Master See Mat. 11.5 § 4 St. John Baptist being designed to so high an imployment all things suitably in him were very extraordinary and transcending the common condition of other men His Parents were chosen by God persons eminently holy and near akin to the Mother of the Messias Luke 1.6 36. He was conceived miraculously as Isaac had bin formerly when concupiscence and lust was now ceased in his Parents being very old and past procreation of children as if he was not to be a child of the flesh but of the Spirit Gal. 4.29 He was sanctified and filled with the Holy Ghost even in the womb leaping there for joy saith S. Luke 1. c. 44. v. three Months before his Nativity at the approach of our Saviors presence as it were indicating thus early the Messias to his Mother His conception was first foretold to his parents by an Angel and that the same Angel Gabriel who six Months after annunciated our Lords conception to the blessed Virgin and who being singularly admitted into the secrets of God and one of the Angels of special presence Luk. 1.19 had long before those times revealed to the greatly beloved Daniel the punctual time of our Lords coming â—an 9.24 24. The Baptist thus miraculously entred into the world lived also such a life here as never any man lived before him after his infancy as one who was not like other Prophets taken for Gods service from leading a common life but from the womb filled with the Spirit He left his Fathers house who lived in a City in the Mountains of Judah and retired into the Wilderness was never corrupted with any acquaintance with men nor interessed in any affairs of human life nor learned at all the sinfully-compliant acts of ordinary society that so he might afterward as an equal stranger to all and independent on any for the necessaries of his life more freely reprehend the faults of every one whilst none could tax any in himself He lived in a remote Desert where doubtless he had much converse with God and holy Angels for what can we less imagine of him who was from the womb so singularly sanctified He used not at all the ordinary food of men at least after his sojourning in the Wilderness neither eating any Bread nor drinking any Wine so that the Jews seeing such abstinence affirmed he was possessed See Luk. 7.33 His raiment rough and suitable to his diet and such as he might receive from any dead beast for it was but Leather and woven Hair Of both which his diet and his Apparel our Savior pleased to take particular notice to the people as betokening an extraordinary person Mat. 11.8 Luk. 7.33 from whose unerring mouth he received such a testimony as never any had the like See Mat. 11.9 11 14. where tho the 11th verse there seems to intimate that the least of our Saviors disciples or followers should be made greater than he 1. in some sort more happy in hearing and seeing our Saviors words and works in enjoying clearer manifestations of the Gospel lastly in doing greater things than he namely all sorts of Miracles by the power of our Lord yet might they be notwithstanding and were most of them much inferior to him in the eminency of a continued Sanctity from his birth and the dignity of his office Who was chosen to be the first Minister of the Gospel and whose hallowed Tongue first shewed to the world the person of the Messias and whose Sacred hands baptized Him Elias the most eminent of all the Prophets as I said was his Type who prefigured him in his rough apparel and solitary abode and silvestrian fare living for the most part in the Forrest of Mount-Carmel as may be gathered from 1 King 18.19 42. comp 2 King 4.25 the habitation of his successor Elisha fed by Ravens in solitude and drinking of the Brook fasting beyond all others save Moses and Jesus typifying in his passing thro the divided waters of Jordan the baptism there of this his successor Bold in rebuking vice in Ahab as John in Herod and persecuted by Jezebel as he by Herodias § 5 And as the great Elias was the type of John so was John Baptist the most express and near Pattern and Semplar of the Messias both in the course of his life and in the manner of his doctrine and in his sufferings and death Miraculously conceiv'd in one kind as our Savior was in another and both foretold by the same Angel reserved in privacy and solitude all his younger years tho full of the Holy Ghost till about the 30th year of his age then beginning to preach and baptize as afterward did our Savior and preaching in the same new manner
a spiritual Kingdom and therefore that he was to come in a sutable dress not in pomp and state but in all self-denial and humility § 21 Joseph awaked yeilded a ready and undisputing belief to these things so incredible and new and saith the Scripture presently did as the Angel had bidden him and took the Blessed Virgin to perpetual cohabitation with him and sheltered her Honour And surely this Angel's apparition and that which he said was now enough to deter Joseph from ever approaching this Holy Virgins bed and to make him treat her ever after with that reverence and modesty which her Sacred person required As likewise the near neighbourhood and presence of this holy child must needs inspire his sanctified Soul with the same heavenly love to single life and with the same chastity and purity of thoughts which was in his Spouse and which many married persons tho much inferior to these Saints have bin endowed with since by the power of the same Holy Spirit long cohabiting without touching one another Thus therefore we may imagine these two lived together afterward in our Saviours family enjoying now a Spiritual union much more delicious then any carnal and doing all conjugal duties for the breeding up of their little Infant without tasting any of the fleshly pleasures thereof Meanwhile how many joyes at once ravisht this poor mans heart at his awaking who went to bed loaden with so much greif joyes for the coming of the Messias whom all men had so long expected for the Virgins innocency and honour one so nearly linked to him and loved by him for his being chosen so mean a man amongst all the progeny of David to be Guardian to Her and her Holy child How well he was now rewarded for his discreet proceeding and patience in not seeking presently publick revenge or satisfaction for his suppos'd violated Bed and again how great consolation the Virgin now received for her past affrights secured for ever under the protection of an husband from the obloquies of the wicked I leave you to meditate by your-self whilst I proceed § 22 And now this Blessed couple live securely and peaceably together at Nazareth providing as well as their mean condition to the uttermost was able for the conveniencies and decency if net the state of the approaching birth of this great Prince Abrahams promised seed in whom all Nations should be blessed and Davids Son who should sit on his Throne for ever without any successor And this small town of Nazareth so far remote from the Relations of David seem'd also specially chosen by the Almighty for the more privat birth and education of his Son wherein he might best ly hid and disguised till his manifestation to Israel But meanwhile the Prophecy and that a noted one see Joh. 7.41 strictly required that this Son of David should be born in no other place then Bethleem the Town of David where he also was born And the very name of this Town Viz. the house of Bread as also Ephrata fruitfulness or plenty was also of old ordained with relation to this childs birth there because the world should thence at the appointed time receive this bread of life and God out of it would bring forth him who should feed his people Israel as the Evangelist seems to allude Mat. 2. ◠And at this very place also or close by it see Gen. 35.19 the fair and beloved Rachel's painful birth and that in a journey of a Son who was called her Benoni but Jacobs Benjamin who was Jacobs only Son that was born in the blessed land of Canaan and whom his Father tho so dearly beloved was afterward forced to part with for the redeeming of his Brethren out of their prison in Egypt was promised two thousand years before for a type of the much-suffering travel of the Blessed Virgin which should be in the same place and for a type of this Son which she should there bring forth who was Her Benoni also see Luk. 2.35 but his Fathers Ben-jamin Whom tho he was much dearlier beloved then Jacobs Benjamin yet God his Father not importuned unwillingly gave up but unasked freely offered to suffer far greater hardships then the other Benjamin was exposed to for the redemption of his brethren and for the bringing home of many more sons unto this his Father Whom also after these his sufferings as a Benoni he took and set at his right hand for ever and so made him a Ben-jamin This therefore and no other place was preappointed for the Nativity of this Benjamin the Anti-type of the other And likewise because the eternal wisdom of God would have his Son from and I may say also in the womb to undergo the hardest condition which mortals are subject to and to descend in his exinanition so far below other men as in his honour and Majestie he was above them that in all things even in sufferings as well as in glory he might have the preeminence Therefore he would not indulge the Mother so much rest nor her Son so convenient a birth-place as their poor house at Nazareth But he who had suffered before a long journy forward and backward above one hundred and forty miles into the Mountainous country of Judah must now be carried another near as far to Bethleem before his Birth And this also that we may not think he was remov'd to get honour by his birth-place was but a small and poor Town and saving its relation to David and Christ of no greater account in Judea then Nazareth in Galilee as appears by the Prophet Micah 5.2 And thou Bethleem tho little among the thousands of Judah c. § 23 And to bring this about and that at such a moment of time as might most distress these beloved Servants of his God sendeth not now an Angel to Joseph or Mary to signifie to them to remove thither betimes before the approach of Winter and ere the Mother by her gravidity might be more unfit for travel or for providing for themselves there early a convenient lodging But according to his boundless fore-sight and providence he derives the cause of this removal as far off as Rome That his Son thus early might begin to practice obedience and subjection not only to his good pleasure but to the beck and command of earthly Princes he layes his design in the Vain-glorious Head of an heathen Emperor that he should devise an Edict such as formerly had not bin that all the world the subjects of his now all-peaceful Empire should be enrolled and amongst the rest that the Jews should be enrolled according to their Tribes in the Mother-cities thereof Amongst which Bethleem tho a poor place was the mother City of the Tribe of Judah and of David as Jerusalem was of Benjamin And then that this enrolling at Bethleem should be just at such a time as the Blessed Virgin was ready to ly down at which time there should be such a concourse of
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
rejoicing at the presence of our Lord when he also yet in his Mothers womb and their acquaintance only before they were born after his infancy his leaving his Fathers house and retiring into the Desart and solitude his rigid dyet raiment and habitation in some grot there his non-conversation with men and so neither corrupted with their manners nor distracted at all with human affairs and the Holy Spirit supplying to him all that knowledg of men's persons that was necessary to his high employments the many resemblances he had to Elias and also to our Lord in his doctrine and in his Heroical Virtues and especially in his stupendious humility and sufferings these things I say have bin partly described before § 4. c. in the Relation of the Baptists Nativity where the inquisitive Reader may review them § 129 To this great person therefore as yet in the Desart being about 30 years of age the appointed age under the law Numb 4.3 23. for the Priests and Levits to enter upon the exercise of their functions and half a year elder than our Lord as who was to be his forerunner and to appear abroad sooner came the word of the Lord that he should now leave his solicitude and enter upon the Office for which he had bin thus prepared and which emploiment doubtless he had much expected and longed for Upon which John came forth not immediatly to Jerusalem or into the Cities of Judea this honour being left for our Lord himself and the Kingdom of Heaven being to approach still nearer by certain degrees but into the out-skirts of the Desart of Judea and from thence removing to Bethabara where also our Lord sojourned for some time a little before his Passion Jo. 10.40 beyond Jordan near to the great Road from the East for passing over the River into Judea by which way the Israelites when they came out of Egypt walking through Jordan a type of Baptism as also their passing through the red Sea entred into the Holy Land and by which way they were afterwards carried away Captives from it to Babylon where also Elias the type of John after passing this Jordan was taken up in a fiery Chariot Here then John in his Spirit began to appear again and to proclaim as it were at a distance and afar off the speedy coming of the Jew's Messiah and of his Kingdom and to fulfil the Vox clamantis in deserto spoken of in the Prophets Some conjecture also the beginning of Johns thus proclaiming our Lord to have bin in September or the feasts of Trompets which was the beginning of the Civil year of the Jews Lev. 23.24.25.9 and this same year also to have bin a year of Jubile which well agrees with Esay 61.2 Vt praedicarem annum placabilem Domini and in which year of Jubile also was a greater concourse of people from all Forraign parts but the various computations of the age of the world renders this thing very uncertain § 130 Now then the Baptist began for a due preparing of the Nation for the reception of so great and Holy a Prince to exhort the people to a Confession and repentance of their sins and the receiving Baptism to that effect which he had orders from him that sent him to confer on all such as were penitent and to a speedy reformation of their lives for that now shortly all flesh should see the salvation of God and for that this Lord would come with his Fann in his hand and would throughly purge his floore gathering the Wheat into his Garner but burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire and because that now the Axe should be laid to the root of the Trees and such as brought not forth good fruit should be hewn down and cast into the fire Which things delivered with such an authority and gravity put his Auditors into a great consternation and fright and suddainly alarmed the whole Nation and especially the Hierosolymites being at no great distance from the place of his preaching and much frequenting him Whose wonder also was encreased by his appearance in such a desolate place and not coming into their Cities And his strange Habit of hair-cloth and being tyed with a leather-Girdle like Eliah and several of the ancient Prophets Esay 20 2◠2 King 1.8 Zech. 13.4 and his strange abstinence not eating any bread nor drinking Wine nor needing at all any human supplies for his food one part of his diet being a kind of Locust or Grashopper to be found every where upon the grass and which it seems was a Fare sometimes of the poorer sort in a case of necessity eaten by them either raw or boyl'd or also salted and dried mentioned in Levit. 11.22 and allowed there for a clean food and another part when these Locusts not to be had wild honey such as the wood-bees wrought in the hollow parts of Trees plentiful in this Country See 1 Sam. 14.26 and his abstinence such as the Pharisees concluded supernatural and so effected by his being possessed with a Devil his lodging also the hard ground in some Cave or Grot By which things this Preacher of Penance appeared also the greatest Example thereof that as yet the world ever saw These things I say still advanced their great esteem and admiration of him and gave greater weight and credit to his words the Pharisees ostentation of fasting being quite eclypsed by it § 131 To this also may be added his discovering the secrets of their hearts that came to him and discerning their several sins and delinquencies Mat. 3.7 tho having no knowledg of or conversation with them The Counsels and advices he gave them high and sublime and like unto those of our Lord. As among others that given to the people for the larger extent of their charity that he that had two Coats should impart to them that had none and so also should do for Bread and Meat These his Counsels rightly also fitted to every ones condition whilst for the amendment of their manners each one desired to learn from him the several Duties of their calling the things belonging to which he knew not by experience but the Holy Spirit His admitting contrary to the Pharisees all persons with an equal mansuetude and affability and not keeping more distance from those esteemed greater Sinners Publicans or Soldiers this reprehending the greatest with all freedom and without fear before all the people and receiving the humble though great offenders without expostulation or reproach All these wrought in the people an Opinion of the Baptist that he was some eminent Prophet or also the Messias though himself sufficiently disclaimed it § 132 Upon this fame To this new burning and shining Light as our Lord stiles him a great conflux was made after some time out of the whole Nation not only out of the nearer parts of Judea but also of Galilee From which Countrey among others we find Peter and Andrew his brother intermitting their fishing 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
me to the people by the Holy Ghost in the shape of a Dove sitting upon him and I saw and now bear record that this is the Son of God c. § 167 Upon which speeches concerning him remaining at some distance t is probable that our Lord intending the disclosing of himself only by certain degrees without any nearer approaches to John presently left him and the multitude admiring but not yet following him and retired himself where God his Father had provided him an entertainment till the next day toward evening When as two of Johns frequent Auditors and Disciples were standing with him which Disciples our Lord meant to receive into his own service he again on a suddain shewed himself Jo. 1.36 Whom John beholding as he walked at a distance iterated his former testimony concerning him And joyfully said to them that there went the Lamb of God whom and not him the world was to adore and follow So that his two Disciples one of which was Andrew Simon Peters Brother the other not named by John is supposed to be himself especially since he so punctually relates the Circumstances as if himself present much moved herewith and perhaps also expresly directed by the Baptist to apply themselves to this most Holy Master so much excelling him with much reverence straight made toward and silently followed our Lord not presuming as yet to say any thing to him but observing his motions that they might not lose him and this perhaps might be because the day before upon Johns like Encomiums he had suddainly with-drawn himself from the People Our Lord looking back upon them asked them whom or what they sought for they calling him Rabbi a Title given to no ordinary person Mat. 23.7 desired to know his lodging and where they might repair to him it wanting then only two hours of night since they had heard from the Baptist such a Testimony of the supreme dignity of his person and were by him referred to his conduct He courteously invited them to it and there they staid with him the short remainder of the day where by his heavenly Discourse to them we may imagine such as to Nicodemus concerning the Kingdome of God and his comeing into the world for the Redemption of man they were exceedingly confirmed in the belief of John's testimony and had their hearts enflamed by his discourses in such a manner as those that went with him to Emaus as may be gathered from Andrew's language afterward to his Brother Peter Jo. 1.41 § 168 The next morning or perhaps the same night Andrew repairing to his Brother Simon Peter For it seems their extraordinary piety as also it seems a special Divine Providence had brought both of them from their fishing-trade for a time to hear and follow the Baptist told him the joyful news of their having found the Messias upon their Masters the Baptists indication of him and the familiar entertainment they had received from him Simon with his wonted fervour presently desired to be brought to him Our Lord at the first sight of him to increase his faith called him by his name and told him whose son he was and also then prophecied the fore-seen good pleasure of God his Father concerning him that he should be called Cephas and should be the principal Foundation-stone of his Church as our Lord more at large expounded it unto him afterward in Mat. 16.18 § 169 Here were now three Disciples gathered to our Lord sufficiently confirmed in their belief from his manifesting to them his knowledg of every thing concerning them the like to which they had not seen in the Baptist This day probably spent in instructing these Neophyts the next morning our Lord to check a little for the present the spreading of his Fame this Sun of righteousness being sometime to shine forth and then again to be veiled and so by degrees to discover his glories as not to hinder his sufferings which were also to be fulfilled and to leave John a more free Testimony of him in his absence purposed to withdraw himself for a while from so great a conflux of People and from these parts so near Jerusalem into Galilee for the consolation of his Holy Mother and kindred after a long absence and whither also the domestick affairs of his newly admitted Disciples Galileans as well as he made them most ready to accompany him Who also had already learnt either from himself or the Baptist his Name Parents Education at Nazareth c. § 170 Setting forth this day for his journey our Lord cast his eies upon Philip a Galilean also and fellow-Townsman of Peter and Andrew perhaps then found in their company as a familiar acquaintance and with whom they had already entertained some discourse concerning Jesus otherwise Philip could not have bin so punctual in that which he said to Nathaniel Our Lord seeing his faith and interiour inclinations presently called and admitted him into the Society who was afterward a chief person among the Apostles by whom the devout strangers that came to Jerusalem to worship Jo. 12.20 made their addresses to our Lord. He presently set all on fire to carry it more forward went to seek out Nathaniel an intimate friend of his and it seems also a man of letters Who is probably conjectured from his early calling here and from Jo. 21.1 14. to have bin one of our Lords twelve Apostles called Bartholomew so as Simon Peter is Bar-Jona in which Roll of them he is still coupled to Philip. See 2. Part. § whom espying alone under a fig-tree perhaps at his Devotions he called him to him and told him the Messias that Moses and the Prophets had spoken so much of was come into the world and that this person was Jesus of Nazareth the son of Joseph For thus much he and the rest had learnt concerning our Lord's secular condition Nathaniel as the more learned commonly are less credulous put a check to Philips forwardness especially when naming Moses and the Prophets to him telling him that surely there was no Prophet that foretold the Messias should come out of Nazareth which thing indeed was a great blind not only to Nathaniel here but generally to the learned Jews that they would not believe Jesus the Christ and so darkned in this proceeded to fulfil the other prophecies in working his death Philip without farther disute bid him but approach to him and he would be abundantly satisfied So soon as our Lord beheld him he manifested to him his exact knowledg whom he saw wavering in faith of all the former course of his life and that he saw him and what he was doing when alone under the Fig-tree before Philip called him To this omniscience of our Lord Nathaniel now as Simon Peter a little before astonished thereat yeilds up himself and contemning his scruple about Nazareth made a most noble Confession of our Lord doubtless from the same Spirit of God in him as S. Peter did afterward Mat.
most unreasonably a further sign from him and urged that Moses had given them Manna from Heaven and there also in like manner our Lord presently told them of his Death and his feeding them with his Flesh and Blood and then of their having everlasting life by it and his raising them up at the last day things at which some of them also then took great offence So here also they whether misconstruing his words as if he had said first that he would destroy their Temple for this at his Death they urged against him and the false witness Mark. 14.5 to speak home interposeth that he said he would destroy the Temple made with hands and in three daies raise up another made without hands and then that he in three daies would build it again a Temple that they said was forty six years in building in the one made him impious in the other ridiculous and so turned his mention of this his greatest work for the salvation of mankind into a great scorn and flighting of him and into the cause of a quarel against him till at last they contrived his Death the destroying of the Temple he here speaks of and brought these his words against him to justify it and so He in raising up again this Temple of his Deity thus destroyed exhibited to the World this great Sign which at this beginning of his preaching he engaged here This was the success of our Lords first Sermon and appearance amongst them as to the Pharisees and their followers already much degusted with him and filled with envy § 183 Yet many others there were that seeing his Miracles believed on him at least that he was some great Prophet sent from God among whom was Nicodemus But our Lord saith the Evangelist did not commit himself unto them admitting them not into his familiar society nor relied on their fidelity for he knew well what was in them and that several of them would fall away and especially in his last tryal most unworthily desert him Therefore our Lord usually when at Jerusalem after his publick teaching them in the Temple and his daies work there done withdrew himself and had no private meetings and conferences as he said at his tryal that in secret he had said nothing and many times at night removed with his Disciples out of the City neither though several in the Country are mentioned do we hear of our Lords admitting any entertainments in the City though we may presume he wanted not some Invitations And all this was but necessary for deferring the Conspiracies of his enemies till the due time of his offering-up appointed by his Father § 184 Our Lord continuing his publick teaching in the Temple and doing Miracles during the Paschal feast Nicodemus a Pharisee a ruler of the Jews as he is stiled here vers 1. One of the Sanedrim and a person studied in the law for our Lord chap. 3. vers 10. stiles him a Master in Israel shewing also herein to him that he knew who he was and on that account blames his ignorance being already a Convert as it is said Jo. 12.42 many other among the chief Rulers were afterward but timorous to confess him came privatly to our Lord by night for fear of losing his Reputation with his fellow-Rulers which shews a great envy and hatred toward our Lord already kindled in them to be farther instructed of him in the matters of the Kingdom of God and life eternal confessing to him that his Miracles had convinced him that he was an extraordinary Teacher sent from God Our Lord very courteously received him and in a few words manifested to him fully who himself was and the whole substance of the Gospel At the first he began to acquaint him with the first Foundation of the Christian Religion Regeneration which at the beginning he proposed some what obscurely perhaps to humble Nicodemus his too much conceit of his own knowledg telling him that to enter into the Kingdom of God one must necessarily be born again which word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translated here again signifies also from above which Nicodemus much wondring at and speaking of entring again into our Mothers womb our Lord graciously explained it to him that he must be born again not of a woman or the flesh which would produce nothing but flesh but of water the external Ceremony appointed by God to be used in the new birth signifying a being cleansed and purifyed from former sin and of the Spirit which might render a man spiritual and enabled therewith to bring forth good works which spirit inspires as it pleaseth 1 Cor. 12.4 Mark 4.27 unperceived by sense and being as the wind of which we know not whence or whither it goes but by its effects do discern the presence thereof and then gently reflected on Nicodemus his ignorance so to render him more docible and humble that he being a Master in Israel should know nothing of this For this Holy Spirit and our Renovation by it is frequently spoken of in the Old Testament and so also many types of Baptism and of the Sacraments of the new Testament found there See Psal 50.12 13 14 9. 142.10 11. Ezec. 11.36 1 Cor. 10.2 3 4. Further told him that these things he now spake to him were the lowest matters but that there was much higher that he came to reveal to mankind from Heaven and from God his Father For that he was the only begotten Son of God descended from Heaven and again ascendeth thither and which also according to his Divinity remains alwaies there who spake nothing but what he knew and had seen with the Father See the like vers 32. and Jo. 8.38 5.19 30. Because God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that men might not perish but have everlasting life i. e so many as believed in him and that as Moses lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness so he was to be lifted up See the like Jo. 8.28 So acquainting him but obscurely with his death sufferings That whosoever stung with sin beheld and believed on him might not perish but that those whoso did not believe on him were already condemned by occasion of his preaching to them not for their former sins which he came to take away but for their disbelief See Jo. 9.39 12.47 48. without which belief in him no forgiveness of Sin That he was the Light that was come into the world avoided only by those whose works were evil and so who feared the discovery of them by it and therefore made such opposition to him But that he that did truth would come to it as not fearing the manifesting of his deeds by it § 185 All these things he gratiously revealed to Nicodemus which delivered with his accustomed Majesty and Power must needs elevate Nicodemus into the highest admiration and reverence of his person love and gratitude towards his mercy and familiar condescendence especially having already seen his mighty
for seasoning the insipidness and unsavoriness thereof towards God and for preserving it eternally from corruption and that they were the light of the world for illustrating its darkness And lastly a City or Society in which all the world were to be joyned and collected and to become Subjects and members thereof and one Body or Corporation one Faith one Spirit c being therein Eph. 4.4 that therefore they were to provide that this Salt should not become unsavory or insipid for then wherewith could that which is to season all others be seasoned it self And that this light should not be put under a bushel nor this their City hid as it were in a vale or such which should not be eminently discovered for then how could the world know where to joyn themselves to the communion thereof Lastly that also their light and their doctrine were to be accompanied with their good works that people might see the one as well as the other though such good works not done to be seen of men nor that themselves but their heavenly Father working such Sanctification in them might be glorified thereby 2 Cor. 8.21 Rom. 12.17 Their example and practising of their doctrine being much the more difficult and this much more effectually converting others than teaching doth 1 Pet. 2.12 3.16 And that at the last day many of them should come unto him saying Lord Lord and telling what great matters their preaching and prophecying in his name had effected yet should they be rejected on this account that their works were evil And that every tree thus bringing forth ill fruit should surely be cut down and cast into the fire § 276 He told them likewise and herein also gave a precaution to the people that there should arise among them many false Prophets and Teachers who should come in sheep's clothing and counterfeit much Sanctity and use much fair language c. but yet within were very wolves 2 Cor. 11.3.13 and that there was one sure test by which they might know them Viz. by the fruits they bare for that as the tree was bad or good so would the fruit certainly be Which rule our Lord seems to have given them upon a double account Both because truth and goodness or Holiness proceed from the same Holy Spirit within us the fountain of both and are eternally linked together and so errour and vice So that all things truely weighed no true doctrine can ever tend to an evil life nor errour to a good and Holiness alwaies suffers not gains by a lye Therefore also are truth and iniquity frequently opposed -1 Cor. 13.6 Rom. 2.8 1.18 So that no mans wickedness can be the effect or consequent of any truth he holds though who holds the truth may still be wicked from another principle in him That therefore thus true and false teachers may be known by the fruit of their doctrines in their Auditors if these tend to the infusing into them higher degrees of all kinds of piety and charity Or on the contrary do infuse any seeds of impiety injustice uncharitableness sensual liberty uncleanness or sedition and disobedience to Dignities and Superiors This as to the fruit of their doctrines But secondly because as to their persons the root in such false teachers alwaies is evil i. e. their affections and intentions are perverted which perverse affections at last manifest themselves in their lives and practices these either for secular ends teaching doctrines not believed and known by them to be false purposely to deceive which ends and hypocrisy will certainly discover themselves in their works or tho the doctrines taught are also believed by them yet there are some vicious inclinations respecting secular interests which do induce such a beleif especially where they depart from the Traditions of the Church and former Superiours and such secular interests will appear in their works and manners and the heart bad in one thing will be so in another Therefore the Apostles do describe frequently such false teachers as vitious in their lives and seducing with their fair speeches when in their sheeps clothing See Rom. 16.17 18. Phil. 3.19 -2 Cor. 11.3 13. -1 Tim. 4.2 Tit. 3.11 -2 Pet. 2.3 10. c. in which texts they are represented as Sibi placentes gloriae sitientes assentatores invidi maledici obtrectatores ventri dediti suis temporalibus commodis avaritiae servientes suum negocium agentes some way or other non veritati noting them specially as covetous sensual speaking ill of Dignities But here note that by false Prophets are chiefly meant those who know their doctrines to be false and intend to deceive and teach in Hypocrisy and live in disobedience to a Superiour Church-authority Otherwise some good man may teach an errour and some bad truth But as these have or want the Grace of God in their heart and have their will and affections sincere or corrupt so will their fruit mostly be good or bad and among other things their teachings and instructions will have a relish thereof After this our Lord concluded his whole Sermon thus that the Foundation of Happiness was their good works and their not-hearing or teaching but doing what he taught which was laying the Foundation upon a sure rock so that no storms should shake the building raised upon it But that the Hearer of his words and not practicer was like a fool building his house on sand Upon which a time would be when the raines should come and the winds blow and the floods arise and the storms beat vehemently upon it and the fall thereof should be very great and terrible And thus ends our Lords great and famous Predication in the Mount to his Apostles and to all the People who saith the Evangelist were much astonished as at his doctrine so at the manner of his delivery thereof For he spake to them all these things with a kind of Majestical Authority and not as the Scribes An Historical Narration OF THE LIFE OF OUR LORD JESUS PART II. Beginning after the prayer recorded Joh. 17. § 1 GREAT was the present malice of the Devil in this hour of trouble approaching against the rest of his poor Disciples to gain possession of them also as he had already of Judas Jo. 13.27 and Satan had desired Luk. 22.31 32. c. concerning them as he did concerning Job That God who keeps a continual restraint upon this hater of mankind not only for his hurting us after sin but also for his tempting us unto it would but now let him have the sifting of them a little after all the great works they had seen done by this their Master and all the gracious words they had heard from him to try their fidelity to him Our Lord therefore foreseeing the great temptation that at this time they also foreseeing his Fathers permission to these Powers of Darkness were to undergo and how greivously they might otherwise miscarry in it interceded to his Father
for them and in especial manner for Peter their cheif and Leader whose forwardness he saw would expose him to so much more tryal and danger that his faith however shaken in this storm yet might not utterly fail and that in his deficiency to confess him he might not also cease to believe in him and that speedily recovering of his lapse he might also be an instrument of confirming the rest § 1 Whilst our dear Lord continued thus partly comforting his sad Disciples and partly recommending them unto his Father and petitioning him for their perseverance in the faith of him in this great time of tryal Meanwhile Judas was departed before out of this holy Society either upon the violent instigation of Satan that he should not omit the present fair opportunity to perform his Treason or also perhaps because he was disgusted that our Lord should discover before the company though this done out of great compassion to him if he would yet perhaps repent of it his purpose of acting that which yet he had already proceeded in so far as to have agreed with the Jews on the very price of his Masters liberty if not life or also because after his silly fancy that he had carried his matter so secretly as that our Lord knew nothing thereof he now perceived by our Lords open discourse of this treason and also his direct answer to his impudent question Master is it I whereby he expected to have bin cleared together with the rest that his plot was already known and without much hast would have bin prevented and so both the reward thereof and his credit be lost Judas I say thus having left the company was gone in all hast to the cheif Preists and Pharisees to give them notice of this opportunity both of the time in the setting of the Evening and covert of the Night and place whither he presumed according to his custome our Lord would resort a private Garden remote from the City his Attendants very few onely Eleven persons the solemn Festival of the next night not affording the same conveniency of a numerous company to apprehend him and if this deferred till after the Feast that he would suddainly retire again out of the way as he had done twice formerly § 3 The High Preist and the Councel in their Assembly called together Jo. 11.47 upon our Lord 's raising of Lazarus from the dead not long before this and such a multitude of people converted to him by it had formerly concluded upon apprehending and putting him to death lest the Romans should make a quarrel upon it and question the whole Nation for a conspiracy against the Empire and setting up a King of their own and had given a strict charge Jo. 11.57 That if any man knew where he was he should shew it that they might take him Which made our Lord also to forbear appearing in publick and to absent himself from the City Jo. 11.54 till his entring in triumph thither upon Palme Sunday when was the time preappointed for offering up himself for the sins of the world But now after his publick appearance again in such a manner and such new acclamations given to him they were by this still more enraged and confirmed in their purpose And it seems from Mat. 26.3 compared with vers 57. and from Luk. 22.4 That upon Judas his repairing unto the High Priests Palace or also before they were met again and in serious consultation how they might apprehend him before the Feast lest done in the time of the Feast it should raise some tumult as also that thus might be prevented the peoples concourse to him in the Feast time And all this they did out of zeal to the safety of the state in shew but out of meer malice and envy to him in truth And for this Judas his arrival was no unwelcome accident with whom also they sent some of the Councel together with the Tribune and Soldiers for his apprehension and meanwhile attended the success see Luk. 22.52 § 4 And now very busy Judas and the Officers are in gathering sufficient forces to apprehend him which consisted partly of the Roman Soldiers or cohort with their Tribune guarding the Temple at these great Festivals and concourse of the people for preserving the publick peace which Guard the Roman Governour it seems permitted the Sanhedrim to make use of see Mat. 27.65 Jo. 18.12 And partly of the Jews own Officers and Serjeants called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ministri of whom we find frequent mention see Jo. 7.32 45 -18.3 12 22 -19.6 Mark 14.65 Act. 5.22 26. Together with their Commander see Act. 4.1 5 24. and partly of the servants and other adherents of the cheif Priests and Pharisees with whom also as is said were some Zelots of the cheif Priests and Elders themselves Luk. 22.52 in all a great multitude some armed with swords and other weapons some also with staves or clubs as the hast of the business would permit they having not above an hour or two's warning Who carried also with them some Lanthorns and Torches because of the darkness of the night it seems extraordinary suitable to this great work of the Prince of Darkness for this was the time of the full Moon unless We will say these lights were to make a more narrow search if need were in the grots or other Garden-houses § 5 This Garden where they expected to find their Prey was situate beyond the brook Cedron on the Ascent of the Mount of Olives not altogether so remote as Bethany which also stood on the side at the foot of the same hill and probably belonged to Lazarus or some other Disciple of Jesus whither our Lord was wont to retire at night with his twelve Disciples see Jo. 8.1 2. as he had formerly done also at the Feast of Tabernacles partly for his security the Jews now more vehemently seeking his life see Jo. 7.30 8.59 10.39 and partly for his Prayers and Devotions being private and disengaged of those crowds of people with which he was environed on the day time in the City and Temple and sometimes here as other times in Bethany it seems he with his Disciples took all the night-repose they had otherwise Judas his Troops would not have come so late with Torch-light to have sought him here It being night already as S. John saith Jo. 13.30 when Judas left our Lord. Nor would he have bin so confident or have informed them that there they should find him if his Nights lodging was in Bethany which being about a mile further was somewhat too remote from the City or elsewhere And it seems also his Disciples expected no other lodging in their betaking themselves there to their rest See below § And perhaps from hence it was though called Bethany because not far from it see Luk. 24.50 compared with Act. 1.12 That our Lord returned in the morning so hungry that he went as he passed to get some figs. And from thence
again very early in the morning Luk. 21.37.38 he returned to teach the people in the Temple the whole body of the Nation as it were being then at Jerusalem whither also saith the Evangelist the people came early to hear him See for these things Jo. 18.1 2. Luk. 21.37 38. Mark 11.11 12 19 20. well compared This he had done now for several daies together after his humble triumphal entrance into Jerusalem riding on a little Asse-colt on Palme-sunday All the day shewing himself in the Temple to all the Nation assembled at this great Feast and teaching them publickly and using now greater authority than ordinarily there Mat. 21.12 Luk. 19.45 healing also there the corporally diseased that were brought unto him Mat. 21.14 and afterward retiring to this garden or to Bethany every night From whence one of these mornings as he was travailing towards the City being an hungred he went to gather some fruit on a fig-tree in his way and finding none thereon to shew to his Disciples the great power of a strong faith in God that is joyned with purity of life Mat. 11.25 he cursed it and as they passed by it the next morning following the Disciples saw it withered away Probably in this Garden also it was that as he and his Disciples were sitting in one of these dayes after his coming from the Temple on Mount Olivet and beholding the Temple over against them and the stately structure thereof he made to them privatly there now before his approaching death and departure from them that large prediction of the final destruction of it and of Jerusalem c. Mat. 24.3 Mark 13.1 2 3. set down Mat. 24. Mark 13. and Luk. 21. After he had spoken of it formerly weeping when he entred into the City in his humble Triumph on Palm-Sunday Luk. 19.41 and again in his Sermon in the Temple Mat. 23.37 And our Lords Ascent into heaven also upon Mount Olivet seems to have bin somewhere hereabouts For it is said Luk. 24.50 That our Saviour at the time of his Ascension led his Disciples forth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not to be taken strictly as if he carried them thither Now Bethany was almost fifteen furlongs that is almost two miles from Jerusalem on the side of Mount Olivet Jo. 11.18 And his Ascent is said Act. 1.12 to have bin upon Mount Olivet which was a Sabbaths-daies journey from Jerusalem which Sabbath daies journey is ordinarily accounted seven or eight furlongs i. e. about a mile Now his ascent being not in the village of Bethany where can we more probably conjecture it to be than in or nigh to this Garden the former usual place of his privat resort with his Disciples That as Grotius observes Qui locus submissionis istius testis fuerat idem esset Gloriae That where he had his Agony there he should begin his Glory Again the vally between this place and Jerusalem being called the vally of Jehosaphat where it is thought the last judgment shall be 't is probable that here also on that day our Lord will descend in Glory where he was with so much unjust violence apprehended and bound and carryed away to judgment § 6 This then was the place where Judas and his Troops intended to surprize him Our Lord also chusing rather to be taken in this place of retirement at his prayers than in his Inne at a Feast For our Lord well knew this design of Judas and all his preparations and therefore could easily have disappointed it by withdrawing himself elsewhere as he had done twice formerly because his hour was then not fully come Yet as before when he saw this wicked Servant unreclaimable by any kindness he had resignedly and fearlesly bid him that what he was resolved to do he should do it as speedily as he could so now thirsting extreamly to accomplish his Father's Will the Prophecies that were made of him and the full Redemption of mankind out of the hands of that mortal Enemy who had thus also even now carried away his own Servant he now riseth up leaves the house and marcheth over the Brook Cedron through the vally of Jehosaphat straight towards the place where he knew he should be looked-for chearfully resolved to meet his approaching sufferings and presenting this Lamb in that piece or ground where he knew these Butchers would look for it to hurry it to the slaughter Such Resolution he shewed when he took his leave of Galilee half a year before Luk. 9.51 Dum complerentur dies assumptionis ejus ipse faciem suam firmavit ut iret in Jerusalem And such an order of finishing this his passion he discovered in that speech upon mention of this his Baptism in sweat and blood Luk. 12.50 Baptismo habeo baptizari quomodo coarctor donec perficiatur and discovered but now at the Table again saying Desiderio desideravi c. Luk. 22.15 § 7 His Disciples followed him sad and dismayed yet hitherto well resolved not to quit their Master two of them armed with Swords one of which was S. Peter Our Lord by the way gently told them That they all that night should be offended in him not expressing their future fault in its worst terms i. e. should take offence at such things as they should see happen unto him and so forsake him whom they had formerly confessed for the Son of God For that now the time foretold was come that he the Shepheard should be smitten and the Sheep be scattered making use here of prophecies and his fathers good pleasure declared therein as a consolation and an unviolable prescription in all these sorrowful events And after this prediction of their miscarriage instead of reproaching he comforts them and bids them take heart again for that he had like a careful Shepherad prayed for them to his Father and there should be no final revolt in them nor their faith in him suffer more than a short Eclipse and that after his Resurrection he would render himself before them in their own Countrey Galilee and that there after his sufferings were past they should with great gladness again enjoy his presence Galilee being the place both where he had most Disciples and where was most privacy for its remoteness from Jerusalem the divine Wisdom having Decreed for leaving the more reward to faith that his appearance should not be to all the people or Nation that saw him dy and therefore a certain Mountain therein Mat. 26.32 28.7 probably that of his Transfiguration which St. Peter calls the Holy Mount 2 Pet. 1.18 was appointed by him and probably also the Particular time set when and where he would make the most publick Manifestation of his Resurrection which his Father 's good pleasure admitted where also above five hundred of his Disciples assembled together had at once this beatifical Vision 1 Cor. 15.6 To return § 8 To this the Disciples more looking upon their present love and affection to their dear Master than
considering their human infirmity when his divine Society or his fortifying grace is never so little suspended or also already being faln into Satans temptation elevating our abilities by Grace into presumption which is the usual forerunner of every fall returned an hasty and confident Answer against the infallible Word and prophecy of their Master that they would never forsake him viz. That as they had abode with him hitherto in his temptations twice followed him of late when he fled for his safety and when he returned to his dangers when also one of them Jo. 11.16 that was afterward as backward in his faith as any resolutely said Let us also go that we may dy with him so they would still be faithful and constant to him But especially Peter as more affectionatly loving our Lord so more forward in expressing it now also carrying one of the two Swords said That though all the rest should possibly withdraw themselves and he stand alone yet he would never leave him would go with him into prison and to death would dye with him and for him To whose confidence our meek Saviour replyed onely to this purpose That though it was now already night yet before the Cock-crow of the very next morning he that was so forward now to dye for him should not once but thrice deny him And indeed amongst others at the questioning of a silly Maid he did not onely say but swear and curse not onely that he was none of his followers or company but that he not so much as knew him A Passage very punctually related by all the Evangelists though Peters friends That this example might remain for ever upon Register to shew the world what the best of men what the very chief of the Apostles of God is when in an hour of temptation God's supporting grace is for never so little time withdrawn from him that the highest Saints to keep themselves from falling might learn to walk in profound humility and perpetual fear of falling and might also learn to compassionate the falls they daily see of their weaker Brethren and to bear with them their burdens Gal. 6.2 3. whilst as the Apostle if any man whatever thinketh himself to be something except only our Lord who stood in his temptation and by his standing we also stand when he is nothing he deceiveth himself Yet after this which was said by our Lord to Peter we find that Peter replyed again more vehemently That if he should dye with him he would not deny him in any wise Mark. 14.31 § 9 Thus he passed through the vally of Jehosaphat the vally of Judgment as some think it shal be and over the Brook Cedron an Emblem of the torrent of Gods wrath of which he was now to drink to the full Psal 110. and so came to the garden a Garden of sorrows to expiate herein what the first Adam had trespassed in a garden of pleasure Of which Passage of our Lord David in some manner seems to have bin a Type when he passed over the same brook toward Mount Olivet flying from the face of his ungrateful son Absalon conspiring against him and seeking his life see 2 Sam. 15.23 Where also he worshipped wept and prayed vers 30.32 And was heard and delivered from death but not so our Lord Where Ittai also his friend vers 21. promised like St. Peter and the Apostles to live and dye with him but was more faithful and stedfast herein than St. Peter was And where Hushai another friend vers 34. departed from him to the adverse party that sate in Concil against him as also Judas did but it was to betray them not him Here arrived this careful Shepheard seeing this great storm now ready to fall first thinks on the safety of those poor sheep whom his father had committed to him and seeing greater danger toward their souls from Satan who was now permitted to invade both them and their Master with all his powers of darkness and who had gotten one sheep from him already by his wiles not by any defect of this vigilant Pastor Jo. 17.12 but by his own naughtiness and Gods permission than toward their bodyes from their Fellow-Disciple and his Troops our Lord sets no sentinels nor provides no defence against these corporal Enemies but the better to prepare his Disciples for the tryal and sufferings approaching so soon as entred into the Garden straitly chargeth them not to sleep that night but to spend it in watching and prayer that they might not fall into or at least in their Temptation Thus leaving eight of his Disciples who perhaps might have bin apt to take some offence at the sight of his Agonies to their devotions near the entrance of the Garden and foreseeing his own great desolation of spirit approaching he takes those three of them more especially loved and familiarly treated by him and conducts them to the further part of the Garden that those whom he had formerly as it were to forearme their faith against this hour taken apart into Mount Tabor to behold his Glory might now be Spectators also of this his great Eclipse and exinanition § 10 And thus far all things being managed with most divine calmness readiness and courage now the combat begins not onely with his followers but himself Righteous Job yet not altogether sinless was delivered into the hands of Satan and Powers of Darkness but with a Reservation of his life But this Righteous and sinfree Person was delivered into the hands of that Enemy of Mankind and of his cruel Instruments life and all Abraham was strongly exercised and tempted by God concerning the loss of his onely Son but in fine his sons life was preserved and there was a commutation of the Sacrifice Isaac the Type proceeded so far as the carrying of his Wood but escaped the being burnt upon it But now the bowels of God his Father for the yearning of his bowels upon us had no compassion on this righteous Job stript first of all he had even to his innermost vesture nor on this onely Son the King and heir of Heaven and Earth but dy he must and the manner thereof to be committed to the malitious contrivance of the Enemy of God and man § 11 And in his entrance thereto first begins a spiritual combat far more sharp and desolate than those corporal ones that followed As in all afflictions commonly the first assault is the most grievous and least supportable Where we are to imagine that not only a natural fear of Death seized on our Lord by the suspending of other thoughts and considerations that might counterpoise it but also a most extraordinary and supernatural desolation and terror was brought upon his Spirit and that those divine consolations which God sometimes withdraws from his Saints which hath left them in very great perplexity heartlesness and aridity whereof they also make sad complaints as of even the greatest of mortal sufferings the same but in a much
meo custodiam cum consisteret Peccator adversum me Psal 37.13 Opprobrium insipienti dedisti me And obmutui non aperui os meum quia tu fecifti Qui inquirebant mala mihi locuti sunt vanitates dolos c. Ego autem tanquam surdus non audiebam sicut mutus non aperiens os suum And Factus sum sicut homo non audiens non habens in ore suo redargutiones Ego in flagella paratus sum dolor meus in conspectu meo Quoniam iniquitatem meam That of the whole world taken upon me annuntiabo cogitabo pro peccato meo i.e. meorum § 34 This silence as the High Priest much wondred at so he little imagined the reason of it seeing the great advantages he had of a Reply And convinced already without his Plea of the vanity and contradiction of the accusation deviseth another way that might succeed better and being the main matter upon the stage that had bin many times undoubtedly heard from him and which either affirmed or denyed must equally ruin him And that he might no way be defeated by his silence he solemnly adjures him by the living God a custome amongst the Jews in their Courts where wanting some other Evidence see 1 Kings 8.31.32 Numb 5.19 1 Thess 5.27 to declare then openly whether indeed he was the Messias and the Son of God Which if he now denyed having before professed it he might pass for a grand Impostor and Deceiver formerly or if he confessed it with the Court it amounted to blasphemy and the punishment thereof Death and which the divine Wisdom then so ordered That what our Lord had so often declared in his life and confirmed with Miracles he might also witness before all the world at his Death and seal this great truth with his blood for the greater confirming of true Believers and greater conviction of all Opposers at the day of Judgment § 35 Thus therefore our Lord presently confessed openly what he was without those qualifications with which formerly he was wont sometimes to veil it thereby not to prevent or anticipate his sufferings His answer there Thou sayest that I am being amongst the Jews a modest way of Asseveration concerning a thing that includes some self-dignity or commendation Thou sayest that I am being as much as thou sayest that which I am See the same language used by our Lord before to Judas Mat. 26.25 and the High Priest his renting his clothes for Blasphemy shews our Lords Answer to be understood as a clear confession Therefore S. Mark puts instead of it more breifly I am And it may be here observed that when as he said the same thing often in his life time and they upon it had charged him with blasphemy and so went about to stone and kill him see Jo. 5.18 Jo. 10.32 c. He there confuted them and stopped their mouths by many proofs that this was no falshood or blasphemy viz. by his so many miraculous works by the Testimony of the Holy Baptist by the immediate testimony of his Father from heaven lastly by the infallible Scriptures calling those Gods to whom God had given some extraordinary commission or authority whereas himself had received beyond them such a Plenitude of Sanctification appearing by the Descent of the Holy Ghost upon him at his Baptism by the Purity of his life and Doctrine and mighty works see Jo. 5.20 21 33 37. the 10.33 37 yet here at their crying Blasphemy he repeats no such defence notwithstanding all the Nation could witness the truth of it but retireth again to his former silence as loath to disappoint their purpose now his hour was come § 36 Only in great pity and charity to his impious oppressors and to remove the scandal taken at that which ought to be infinitely admired his present voluntarily-assumed humiliation he modestly tells them that although these titles he owned might seem somewhat disfutable to his present low condition yet one day their eyes should behold this now so mean a Son of man exalted to sit on the right hand of Power as David had foretold of the Messias Psal 109.1 which Messias his sitting on the right hand of Power and so being Davids Lord the Pharisees could not reconcile with the Messias being also Davids Son when our Lord asked them this question Mat. 22.44 No more than they could now his bonds with it and that they should also see him come in the clouds of heaven as Daniel had foretold of the Messias Dan. 7.13 to judg the world and even them his then Judges Of which he had also in his preaching told his auditory many times before see Mat. 16.27 Where advising them not to mind the gain of this world but to save their poor Souls in the next he tells them that the Son of man for so he stiles himself also there shall come in the glory of his Father which shewed him the Son to another higher than man with his Angels and then reward every one according to his works And this his premonition here given to his unjust Judges shall again bear witness against them in that his day of Judgment when saith the Prophet Zachary chap. 12. Aspicient in eum quem transfixerunt And Ecce venit in nubibus videbit eum omnis oculus qui eum pupugerunt saith S. John Apoc. 1.7 Nay a-modo saith S. Matthew chap. 26.64 very suddenly within three daies after his saying this they should see the beginning of this his Exaltation and Glory He being exalted by the right hand of God saith S. Peter Acts 2.33 after his Resurrection and Ascension hath shewed forth this ye now see and hear In which speech of our Lord thus standing at the bar we may observe that his singular modesty was accompanied with a great freedom Authority and Majesty Nor had their treatment any way daunted him or remitted the resolution and courage belonging to an innocent person to the dignity of his office and to the necessary confession of truth as appears in his whole carriage at his apprehension Are ye come out as against a Theif c. I sate with you teaching in the Temple c. And here at his appearance before the High Priests and Jewish Courts Askest thou me ask them that heard me And afterwards before the Roman Governor sayest thou this of thy self c. And for this cause come I into the world c. And every one that is of the Truth heareth my voice And Thou couldest have no Power against me but what is given thee from above Jo. 19.11 § 37 But this forewarning them of his Exaltation and judgment to come which should have struck some fear into them and in which his Servant S. Paul had better success Acts 24.25 their malice made also ill use of and improved it so much more to compleat his blasphemy And presently the High Priest fell a rending his clothes as it was the manner
cepissent jam spacium crucibus deerat corporibus cruces and this misery brought upon them when at this great Festival the whole body of the Nation as it were was gathered together in Jerusalem and so was encompassed and shut up there by the Romans See Euseb Ecclesiast Hist lib. 3. cap. 5. and Joseph de Bell. Judaic lib. 7. cap. 17. Ab omnibus regionibus ad Azymorum diem festum congregati bello subito circumfusi sunt c. Thus they devoted themselves here to God's Justice and thus it happened to them But their words taken in a better sense and as the divine goodness and pity is pleased to interpret them for all Penitents are a Prayer piously offered not only by them but the whole world to his offended Majesty to be saved through the sprinkling upon them of the blood of Jesus Our Lord's blood also crying to God from the Earth not as that of Abel or any other just Person 's shed by the impious for vengeance but for Mercy Nor hath the whole world any salvation or shelter but from his blood being upon it and its children for ever who also all had a hand both Jew and Gentile in offering it and in this sense God also will admit this prayer to be fulfilled see Rom. 11. but in the last place upon this most miserable Nation § 80 The Governour after having thus washed his hands sate down again and gave the final sentence upon our Lord released to them their precious choice Barabbas and committed Jesus to the Centurion and his Soldiers to be crucified according to their request § 81 Now this death on the Cross which our Lord was sentenced to and the Jews with so great clamour called for as it was often foretold expressly by our Lord see Mat. 20.19 Jo. 18.32 and other-while called by him his Exaltation Jo. 12.32 And I if I be exalted from the earth will draw all men unto me signifying saith the Evangelist what death he should die and by the context vers 34. it appears the people well understood his language And again Jo. 8.28 When ye have saith he exalted the Son of man then shall ye know that I am he So was it foresignified by many expressions in the Old Testament See Psal 21.17 The Council of the malignant hath besieged me they have digged my hands and my feet they have numbred in that racking posture all my bones they have beheld and considered me every limb of me stretched out before them and then speaking of his being stript of his cloaths They have divided my garments amongst them and upon my Vesture they cast lots To which stripping of him also that expression seems chiefly to relate where he saith Psal 68.8 That Confusion covered his face See Zachary 13.6 where the Prophet mentions this smiting of his Pastor and the man that clave to him and so scattering of his sheep vers 7. speaking thus of his being treated by his nearest relations as a false Prophet that he shall be asked What are these wounds in the midst of thy hands and he shall answer with these was I wounded in the house of my friends To which wounds also is applied that loving expression Esay 49.16 Ego tamen non obliviscar tui in manibus meis descripsi te I have engraven thee upon the palmes of my hands See Zech. 12.10 where speaking of the conversion of the Jews in the latter times and the great sorrow they shall then have for their crucifying their Messias the Prophet saith Et adspicient ad me quem confixerunt plangent eum planctu quasi unigenitum c. See Jer. 11.19 Ego quasi agnus mansuetus qui portatur ad victimam cogitaverunt super me consilia dicentes mittamus lignum in panem ejus for his bread eradamus eum de terra viventium To it likewise seems to relate Esay 52.13 Ecce intelligit servus meus exaltabitur elevabitur sublimis erit valde For it follows Sicut obstupuerunt super te multi inglorius erit inter viros aspectus ejus forma ejus inter filios hominum like to vers 2. of the next chapter Iste asperget gentes multas And Esay 11.12 Et levabit signum in nationes Concerning his thirst also in the violent and fervorous heat of such lingring pains see Psal 21.16 Aruit tanquam testa virtus mea lingua mea adhaesit faucibus meis And Psal 68.22 Dederunt in escam meam fel in siti mea potaverunt me aceto Typified also this death of the Cross was by many instruments of the peoples preservation in the Old Testament By the Tree of life provided to remedy the mischiefs done by the Tree of Good and Evil by the blood of the Lamb sprinkled upon the posts of the door that the destroying Angel seeing it might pass-over Gods people by Moses his Rod smiting the Rock and bringing out of it a fountain of water for refeshing the people By the Brasen Serpent listed up on high and fastned to a pole curing all that looked upon it of the other fiery Serpents bitings which our Lord also mentions as a Type of his own Elevation and drawing the eies of all upon him Jo. 12.32 Jo. 3.14 Sicut Moyses exaltavit serpentem in deserto ita exaltari oportet filium hominis ut omnis qui credit in ipsum looks upon him with the eie of faith non pereat By the Expansion of Moses his Armes and Hands on high made in the Mount for the conquest of Amalek which posture of his also by others help was continued for several hours and being any way altered changed presently the fortune of the battel By Elias his lying with armes stretched out upon the Child to raise him again to life By marking with the letter Thau the form of a cross the foreheads of those that were to be saved from the slaughter of the six destroying Angels Ezech. 9.4 Lastly by Abraham's only Son Isaac carrying the wood upon which he was afterwards laid and destined to be Sacrificed But God was more favourable and kind to Abraham if I may so say than to himself § 82 And as this manner of death was often foresignified and typified in the Old Testament so doth it seem before all other to have bin chosen by the Divine Counsel and our Lords designment who as he voluntarily suffered for us so what death he pleased for many special reasons First because his suffering being to save us and we by our sins having incurred the curse of God and so he for us taking this curse upon himself this was that special death which had Gods curse annexed to it Deut. 21.23 when upon some grievous crime God required the Malefactor to be hanged up upon a Tree before the Sun and as it were openly in his sight to be hanged up as unworthy to touch or tread upon the Sanctified land and not to be dispatched in a moment as by stoning or
carnal Sacrifices any more but in spirit and in truth 3. To signify that God was now departed from the Jews and left the place of his former residence amongst them as also Josephus saith that a little before the destruction of the City a voice was heard in the Temple Eamus hinc because they had forsaken his laws refused the Gospel and crucifyed his Son for which this Garment of the Temple was also rent as in a time of Mourning § 105 Whilst these things happened the Roman Centurion that stood over against the Cross of our Lord and commanded the Guards which watched him having learnt before both from their mocking and from his accusation in the Court that he made himself the Son of God and hearing from him such a loud and strong Cry at his giving up the Ghost and considering the darkned Sun the Earth-quake that followed it and the renting the very rock he stood upon Luk. 23.47 surprized with great fear in the midst of these hard-hearted Spectators Glorified God saith St. Luke and said that certainly this was a righteous man Nay further confessed that surely he was the Son of God as he had in his arraignment confessed himself to be and the Guards also that attended there sore affraid made the same confession with their Commander saith another Evangelist Mat. 27.54 that truly he was the Son of God The common people also that came together to this sight filled with terror and their hearts accusing them for what they had either done or consented to not shaking their heads at him as they had done a few hours before in derision but smiting their breasts Mat. 27.39 went away mourning and sorrowful as they came full of jeers and merriment § 106 Our Lord 's blessed Mother and the other Galilean women his former Attendants and St. John stood there still by him though not having so much as his dead body in their power nor knowing how to recover it out of the hands of Justice but waiting on the Divine providence and good pleasure concerning it To whom it was some consolation to see his heavenly Majesty shew himself by these strange accidents so sensible of the cruel execution of his only Son and to hear after that of the penitent Malefactor the confession of our Lords Deity come from those strangers the Roman Centurion and Soldiers and to behold the peoples resentment at last of their former cruelties done to him though now too late for the preservation of his life Meanwhile of the repentance and relenting of the Governors of the Jews we hear nothing who probably in seeing these wonders said of these at his death as they had of those in his life that all came from the Devil That this darkness Earthquake and renting the Rocks were effects of the rage of Satan thus deprived by their Justice of his prime Minister and Instrument for overthrowing of their law or else that they were expressions of the Divine displeasure against such an Impostor and Blasphemer as almost all prodigies and strange accidents receive a double and contrary interpretation as the person wisheth their prognostication and so predictions hinder not events though after these they manifest the divine predisposal of them wherein also they were the more confirmed by that high affront that seemed to be done to his Divine Majesty in the renting of the Sacred Veil that covered his Sacred presence in the Temple For otherwise if this man had bin so dear and nearly related to God why did he not rather save his life And if these things were done by his power why not he rather by it unfasten his nails and descend from the cross § 107 These Governors therefore nothing dismayed and as religious observers in every thing of their law hasted to Pilat to request him for the taking down of the Malefactors from the Cross assoon as might be lest their hanging longer might pollute that great high Festival that approached which began over night at the Vespers of the former day On which day also being the Sabbath they might not be taken down which also was desired according to what God had expresly commanded in Deuteronomy chap. 21.23 that the body should not remain all night upon the Tree but that they should in any wise bury it that day for he that is hanged is accursed of God that the land might not be defiled Thus the Text. They besought him therefore that though some of them not yet dead they might by all means be taken down having their legs first broken to hinder if any strength yet left in them their escape from the Guards well knowing also that their cheifest prize our Lord was made sure and dead already the mangling of whose body also thus though no torment yet might be a further disgrace The Roman Governour at their request presently sending such order to the Soldiers of breaking the Malefactors legs and taking them away they executed it upon the two Thieves who they saw as yet have some life in them but when they came to our Lord already deceased they forbare this because indeed it was his Fathers good pleasure that his body should not be mangled nor a bone of him broken which was also punctually observed in the rosted Paschal Lamb the Type of him This thing was done saith St. John Jo. 19.36 Exod. 12.46 that the Scripture might be fulfilled A bone of him shall not be broken to which end also his death was hastened inflicted on the others in whom they perceived some life § 108 Thus our Lord's Body in which were to remain the scars of his Passion being not disfigured by any bone broken only one of the Soldiers wantonly with his Lance pierced his side from the opening of which gusht out a stream of blood greater doubtless then what the piercing of a dead body could naturally send forth falling down and poured out as that of the Sacrifices was at the foot of this Altar on which this Lamb of God was laid Our Lord by this precious stream washing away all our filthiness and this his blood spilt not as Abels calling aloud for vengeance but pardon Of which what can we imagine less than that it was though invisibly received and recollected by the Angels and so afterwards presented by our ascending Lord in the Sanctum Sanctorum not made with hands above when he entred into it before the Throne of God his Father whereby the Celestials themselves are said to be purified and prepared for our Lords Pontifical service of Intercession for us there Heb. 9.23 which sprinkling of the blood of Jesus upon us saith St. Peter 1 Pet. 1.2 Sanctifieth us with his spirit And we are now come to the Mediator of the new Testament and to the sprinkling of blood that speaks better things than that of Abels saith S. Paul Heb. 12.24 and by which blood we also have confidence of entring into the Sanctum Sanctorum now with our prayers hereafter
res varias omninoque diversas versaretur For that naturally one action hinders another at least as to the highest intention of it which hindrance might also be in our Lord so far as his Divinity pleased to leave in his humanity also these sinless infirmities as a resemblance of the constitution of other men § 145 We read of a like thing done by our Lord afterward That before the solemn election of those persons who were to be chosen by him for the promulgation of the Gospel through the world after his departure hence that he retired alone into a solitary Mountain the evening before and there continued all night in praier Luk. 6.12 As also when he was in Capernaum being much followed and pressed upon by the people he is said to have made use of the solitude of the night and to have risen a great while afore day and to go into a solitary place to his praiers Mark 1.35 and said Luk. 5.16 to have withdrawn himself into the Desart for performing this duty But however this be stated concerning the advantage our Lords Devotions might receive from Solitude doubtless one principal end of this his forty daies and all his other retirements afterwards was that he might give us an example herein and shew us the great necessity of solitude fasting and withdrawing from secular affairs for our enjoying a nearer conversation with God and our overcoming of Temptations and especially for our better Preparation in the undertaking any weightier affairs such as is in the first place the Ministry and predication of the Gospel And another end seems to be this also that He who as other Teachers sent from God must necessarily spend the most of his time in an active life and common conversation yet might also in these his practices and especially this his for so long a time inhabiting the Desart allow also and countenance and recommend to those that have more need of and are more disposed to it the other life that is more addicted to solitude fasting continual praier and contemplation In the same manner then as our Lord is said to have passed that whole night before the Election of his Apostles and the other times of his repairing to Mountains and Desarts Viz. in praier and contemplation so may we rationally imagine him to have spent these forty daies and nights and his fasting in so great a suspension of his natural faculties to have bin an individual companion thereof § 146 In which forty daies fast and Devotion Moses as a type had preceded him once and again both first in his receiving the Law from God Exod. 24.18 34.28 which he was to communicate to the children of Israel as our Lord now was the Gospel and a second time in his making intercession for the people and obtaining their pardon Concerning which he saith Deut. 9.18 That he fell down before the Lord as at the first forty daies and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water because of all their sins which they sinned and that the Lord hearkned unto him And in his then being admitted also upon his earnest supplication to see Gods glory Exod. 33.18 34.5 and as also according to this action of Moses before we may suppose our Blessed Lord to have thus also prostrated himself before his Father in these forty daies and forty nights for the sins of the world and to have offered himself as Moses to be made a curse for our sakes see Gal. 3.13 and Exod. 32.32 compare Deut. 9.26 and so to obtain pardon for all true believers Of whom also the Goat sent into the Desart laden with the peoples sins was herein a type And as this type Moses in the Law so another preceded in the Prophets in Elias their Head his fasting forty daies in the same desart and Mountain as Moses and He there having also the Vision of and extraordinary communion with God As also our Lord's humanity afterward in the Holy Mount was admitted to behold his Fathers Glory in a bright cloud descending upon the Hill and to partake of the splendours thereof and also these two Men Moses and Elias representing the Law and Prophets were there present to do him Homage in whom both these were to be compleated Such exact resemblance were the Law and Prophets to have with the Gospel § 147 The similitude also here is not to be passed by which our Lords being here first conducted by his Father into the Desart before his beginning to take his possession of the inheritance both of the Jew and Gentile promised him by his Father hath to that former divine conduct of the Israelites Ps 2.8 first into the Wilderness after our Lord also as they had bin called out of Egypt Mat. 2. and the correspondence also which his forty daies abode there hath to their forty years Yet in this much unlike that he in this Desart being pressed also with the same necessities as they I mean as to hunger and thirst after so long a fast and upon it by the Devil much urged to the like offending of God Viz. not by not waiting his good time Yet he stood where they fell and with all patience contrary to them though having Miracles in his own power attended the time of the Divine good pleasure for his relief and here also He receiving at length the supply of his hunger from Angels sent to him may be said in some sense as they to have bin fed with their food § 148 This then was another end of our Lords withdrawing into this desolate place that he might be there tempted of the Devil saith S. Matthew chap. 4.1 and fulfil his Fathers good pleasure in his being exposed also like unto us unto the encounters and strangely-rude treatments of the enemy of mankind Satan For who hath bin in his temptations so rudely handled and carried about by him as our Lord was and that he might thus be as the Apostle observes Heb. 2.17 4.15 a more merciful High Priest to succour and assist us in those our temptations the like to which he had experimentally suffered himself and again that He might also in his fasting solitude and praier shew to us the armes by which we also may obtain the Victory over this Tempter It was also most congruous that the second Adam should undergo the same combat with him as the first who was foiled in it and ruined by it that so he might recover mankind after the same way as he was undone and having first mastered this strong man who could find nothing in him Jo. 14.30 no pride of life no disobedience no lust of the eyes or of the flesh he might proceed to spoil his house and his goods and the long possession he had gotten of wretched mankind as indeed our Lord did triumph over him in his following Life Death and Resurrection § 149 To these I may add yet another reason of our Lords withdrawing himself from John and the people namely
what they were afterwards to instruct the Jews and all other Nations expounding to them the Law and the Prophets shewing them the many predictions concerning the Messias his Sufferings Resurrection and so entrance into his Glory a many of which they mentioned afterward in their Sermons in the Acts opening their understandings to understand the Scriptures § 128 Afterward more particularly addressing himself to his Apostles he told them in this and several other apparitions made to them before his Ascension that he was very shortly to go into Heaven to his Father and leave them here behind him That all power both in Heaven and Earth was given to him that therefore by this his Authority he also sent them to preach the Gospel to all Nations and witness to them the things they had seen and heard from him but beginning their predication first at Jerusalem and to Gods former people the Jews That they should preach to them repentance and remission of sin thro his name and also the observation of all those things which he had commanded them And that they should also Baptize them In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost instructing them that who so believed in him and were baptized which was the Sacrament instituted for washing away their sins for conferring on them the Spirit of regeneration and for initiating them into his Church should be saved and the unbelieving damned And that great signs also should follow them that believed and were of the Christian profession which signs should bear witness to the truth of their faith and Religion That in his name they should speak strange languages cure the sick cast out Devils and have a special command over all the powers of the Enemy as they are called Luk. 10.19 in taking up or treading on Serpents or in hapning to drink any poison not to receive any hurt from them Not that all Believers should do such Miracles but that these should still remain in the Church or Congregation of true Believers Testimonies and Evidences of Gods special favours to and presence with them § 129 At last he proceeded to their solemn Ordination wherein after he had pronounced a second Pax vobis and a sicut misit me Pater ego mitto vos He breathed upon them with his most Sacred mouth and said these words used ever since by them and their Successors in the ordination of others Receive ye the Holy Ghost whose sins ye shall forgive i. e. by Baptism or for those committed afterwards by Absolution upon confession and repentance or penance they are forgiven them and whose sins ye shall retain i. e. by not baptizing or absolving or further binding with Church-censures the impenitent and obstinat they are retained And so solemnly promised to be with them and their Successors with his power and protection till the end of the world and the time of his return to judg it § 130 This said he disappeared also to them as he had done several times already to the other which caused in them now less wonder at the former leaving their hearts replenished with great consolation After this done on the second day of the Feast and the first of his Resurrection he absented himself from them till the Eighth when that solemn Festivals Octave was fully ended and the people were upon their return to their own countreyes and habitations Where for this time our Lords glorious Person was together with those other Saints whose Bodyes were raised with him till his Ascension would be too much curiosity to inquire It seems he was pleased to observe the fixed laws of the Divine wisdom for Souls or Persons already translated to the next life viz. to have no more familiar or long-during converse with those of this for so neither did Elias and Moses make any long stay with our Lord in the Holy Mount. As for other good ends so perhaps for this the greater merit of our faith here concerning the life and affairs of the world to come § 131 S. Thomas one of the eleven was absent when our Lord thus appeared where some imagine from the fear he formerly bewrayed John 11.5 that he might not be as yet returned to the Society since their dispersion on Thursday night at our Lords apprehension and so might not have heard as the rest of our Lord 's former appearings at all to the women and to Peter c He whether the same night or afterwards being come to them and informed of their having seen our Lord yet for a greater manifestation still of our Lords Resurrection and for begetting in this Apostle more humility continued in the same incredulity as to their relations though so many as they had done to the other likely perswaded by the Circumstances of his appearing in the night coming through Doors shut and making scarse any stay at all with persons to whom he had formerly shewed so much affection but suddainly vanishing again that it might be some airy spirit subject in his motions to the order of a Superior power And though they related to him also their having seen his scars and touched his body or at least invited to do it yet he fancied that this was not done to purpose but ought to be better examined and that if he had bin there he would have thrust his hand into the Gash in our Lords side and his fingers into the holes made by the nails c Notwithstanding that this person besides his hearing our Lords many predictions to them of his Resurrection was present with the rest at our Lords raising from death after laid upon the Bier the widdows son at Naim and again at his raising of Lazarus out of his Sepulcher when he had lain longer time there than our Lord had done But this too-much suspicious and despondent inclination of his had appeared also several times formerly that we may see what materials our Lords Grace wrought upon and not to be discouraged as in those words of his at our persecuted Lords return into Judea for the raising of Lazarus Jo. 11 16. He then presently resolving that there our Lord and they must lose their lives and in his words again John 14.5 where our Lord telling his Disciples of his departure shortly and that they knew the place and the way whither he went Thomas dejectedly replied that they knew not whither he went and how could they know the way thither To whom our Lord answered that his Journey was a Return to Heaven to his Father whence he came and that He himself believed-in was the way thither Yet after the descent and renovation of the Holy Spirit this Apostle especially was made choice of to be a most eminent Assertor of the same Resurrection and Propagator of the Gospel throughout India and the remotest Nations of the East fulfilling our Lords words Acts 1.8 Et usque ad ultimum terrae and there at last laid down his life for it § 132 Our Lord then
on the eighth day of his Resurrection observing punctually the same day of the week as before thus to recommend the solemnity thereof to all Posterity for which it hath ever since been solemnly honoured also in the Church and called the Lords Day see Apoc. 1. when this great Festival was now concluded and the Disciples were all together again at Even whom perhaps business in the day time had divided purposing now their return into Galilee and Thomas now with them being also a Galilean where we find him afterwards going on fishing with St. Peter and others our Lord I say about the same time of night and the doors shut as before appeared again in the midst of them and after his usual salutation Pax vobis He according to his zeal John 17.12 Quos dedisti mihi custodivi nemo ex eis periit particularly addressed his speech to St. Thomas and when shewing his omniscience he had repeated to him the incredulous words spoken by him in his absence with a most gracious condescendence to his weakness invited him to examine his body freely to put his finger hardily in the holes of the Nails and his hand into the larger wound made in his side and at last become a true Beleiver and joine his Testimony thereof to the world with the rest of his Apostles St. Thomas doubtless upon such an appearance and speech to him much confounded and being already sufficiently perswaded and convinced of his error and fault needed now no further experiment for the confirmation of his Faith had not our Lord pressed him to it After which as it were elevated into another extreme he cried out My Lord my God and acknowledging more than these scars evidenced to him not only the Resurrection of his true body but the Divinity of his Person which effected it equalled that confession of the highest Apostle Mat. 16.16 Upon which our Lord gently reprehending such an obstinat and resolute unbelief as had formerly lodged in him uttered those gracious and comfortable words for all those that by reason of his suddain removal from the Earth could not have St. Thomas his lot to see feel or touch him that he indeed believed because he had seen him but Blessed they who have not seen and yet have believed leaving this Benediction on the greater virtue of their faith for ever who in latter times not having the like Evidence should nevertheless persevere in the like faith and adherence to him In the constitution of which faith a pious affection of the will is indeed a principal ingredient according to Quod volumus facile credimus and that which God most valueth and rewardeth § 133 Thus our good Lord in condescension to our weakness and for laying a foundation of the Christian Faith the freer from all contradiction and dispute was pleased to retain the breaches of his sufferings still in his glorified body and to suffer one of his dear Disciples to fall into such a gross and obstinate incredulity as the searching of these only could cure And these honourable marks received in that infernal and bloody war with the powers of Darkness are still retained by him at this day with these he appeared before the Throne Agnus tanquam occisus saith S. John Apocal. 5.6 and with those he will appear in Majesty at his second coming to Judgment for the greater confounding of those Beholders who inflicted them and of all the wicked when he then represents to them the great things he suffered to have saved them See Zach. 12.10 and 13.6 compared with Apoc. 1.7 Behold he cometh with Clouds saith St. John and every eye shall see him and they that pierced him and they shall bewail themselves upon Him and those his scars he now sitting at Gods right hand perpetually shews to his heavenly Father for mitigating his wrath to sinners and these himself also daily looks upon to mind him how much out salvation cost him and so the more to perfect preserve and take care of so dear a purchase For which gracious ostentation of them they seem also to have bin placed in the most visible parts of his body so that he cannot now stretch forth an hand or move a foot without shewing these holy Relicks of his infinite love to mankind Therefore are they so quickly observed by the Prophet Quae sunt plagae istae in medio manuum tuarum Zach. 13.6 These also remain to be hereafter to all his Saints in the beholding of these plagae quibus plagatus est as he answers in the Prophet in domo eorum qui diligebant eum wherewith he was wounded in the house of his friends or who had reason to be so an eternal incentive of their love and gratitude toward him as also now the meditation of them an excitive of a penitent grief in us for our sins that caused them as the same Prophet foretold chap. 12.10 alluded to by St. John Aspicient in eum quem confixerunt plangent eum planctu quasi super unigenitum dolebunt super eum ut doleri solet in morte primogeniti the only begotten Son of God slain for us Magnus planctus sicut planctus Adadremmon in campo Mageddon i. e. like the mourning for the pious Josiah the great Darling and last good King of Judah shortly after which the Nation of the Jews was delivered up into captivity as it was also after our Saviour slain Yet here we may not imagine that these piercings of our Lords Flesh that now still remain unclosed are any Deformity to that Sacred Body but rather are represented therein with some extraordinary splendor and beauty and become a singular ornament to it § 134 These scars then were thus perused by St. Thomas and after such his confession and Doxology he honoured with the same Commission for publishing this Gospel to the world as the other Apostles had bin that day sevennight After which our Lord appointed a certain day and place in Galilee see Mat. 28.16 when he would yet more publickly shew and manifest his Resurrection from death not only to them now well confirmed therein but also to the rest of his Disciples and Converts most numerous in that Countrey of his most frequent residence and preaching and where also such a concourse of them might be with the least noise or notice of the State And so the Paschal Feast ended the Apostles as also our Lords Mother and the other Galilean women that had 〈◊〉 on him returned with great joy to their ordinary abodes there expecting the time of this happy revisit and publishing to all his Followers especially the glad news of the revivification of our Lord and at what time and place they also might be made eye witnesses thereof § 135 Though the Apostles had already received a Commission from our Lord of publishing the Gospel and our Lords Resurrection and kingdom to the Jew and Gentile of Baptizing them yet were they not to enter upon this