again by St. James chap. 5.12 Above all things my Brethren swear not c. least ye fall into condemnation Swear not as for the former reasons so also for the surer avoiding perjury a great and dangerous sin a sin not only as other sins inheriting but also mocking Gods vengeance § 268 Having said this of the reverence we ought to bear towards God and also all his creatures in matter of Oaths and of the simplicity and innocency and moderation that ought to be of our words in all our Conversation and the prudent art of avoiding perjury by not swearing at all he proceeds to some other precepts regarding our carriage to our neighbour that was also much misinterpreted by the Pharisees and transgressed in Common practice That herein whereas it hath bin said formerly Exod. 21.24 Deut. 19.19 21. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth they should not take any such revenge or call for justice and satisfaction for the injuries or losses done to them but if they would be perfect remit and pardon them and to any evil done them make no resistance at least in smaller wrongs and damages a cuff on the ear losing a coat going a mile or two bearing opprobrious words c. or where the publick good was not concerned or their own absolute necessities That if any one should smite them on the one cheek they should out of the amity they bear him and love to peace rather turn the other than make a quarrel and strike again And the same behaviour here seems to be commended by our Lord in words which is in actions that in opprobrious language discourses disputes we should not make to them any replyes where these probably effectless and which may rather offend than edify expressed in this Sermon in his warning us not to cast our precious things before those who for them will only be more enraged against and sooner fall upon us and a lesson himself so eminently practised before his passion Propter te sustinui opprobrium Psal 68.7 And Like a Lamb dumb before his shearer So if one takes away their cloak they should give him their coat also Act. 8.32 forc't to go a mile in another employments go with them twain So any taking away by violence their goods not require them again of him at least when they can any way spare them rather than break friendship or make a quarrel for any of these things or go to law That also they should freely lend to every one not only friends or kindred that would borrow tho he not able to repay it and give to him that asked supposed necessitous though he never able to repay it Deut. 24.12 § 269 All these Lessons I say our Lord proposed though not as in all cases a Christians duty yet as a Christians greater perfection and this way far more beneficial to us than practising the Contrary though the Contrary may be done without any guilt whilst thus we preserve a firm peace and tranquillity in our mind by a little suffering when resistance and contention hardly can be without some degree of hatred toward our brother and desire of revenge Again thus many times we gain over our brother Mat. 18.15 and convert him to us and receive voluntarily from him by such our condescention that amends which we could not by contending at least we are recompensed abundantly by God for what we have with such an holy intention suffered from them Lastly all these are Heroical practises of Humility and do shew a true contempt of these temporal things not thought worthy our strife and a desire in us of sufferings in Conformity to our Lord and therefore such things by a right eye are looked upon as favours to be embraced when ever offered § 270 In the same matter also our Lord presseth further that they should not only patiently and without any revindication suffer evil from men but also inwardly love those who did it to them and again out of this Love do all good to those from whom they received such evil That indeed it had bin said among them formerly that they should love their Neighbour and hate their enemy See Luk. 10.29 the Lawyer harping upon it who to justify himself in this point asked who was his Neighbour and our Lord to instruct him herein instanced in one professed enemy shewing mercy on another a Samaritan on a Jew And perhaps the Pharisees and people were induced to such a perswasion from Gods commanding them to cut off the Nations who were by him sentenced to such a destruction that the severity thereof might be a warning to themselves if in like manner offending But herein the Israelites indeed were only Executioners of Divine justice and express Commands and without doubt ought to have done this thing with all pitty and without any hate toward these miserables or any men whatever or any other of Gods creatures who are all to be loved for his sake And the law plainly taught and the Saints under it practised the contrary to this Pharisaical corruption See Exod. 23.4 Job 31.29 Psal 7.4 35.14 Prov. 24 17.-25.21 quoted by S. Paul Rom. 12. If thine enemy hunger give him bread doubtless in the first place to gain our enemy to us as Mat. 18.15 though if not gained the issue would be heaping more wrath upon him but this contrary to our intention Our Lord therefore informs them that their enemies also without any distinction were to be reckoned amongst their Neighbours and so they were also to love them as themselves do good to those that hated them bless those that cursed which thing was punctually practised afterwards by these his disciples Being reviled we bless being defamed we intreat being persecuted we suffer it and resist not 1 Cor. 4.12 13. and that they should pray for those that despitefully use and persecute them as our Lord did on the Cross and St. Stephen in his lapidation For that if they loved only the lovers of them did good gave or lent mony to those returning to them again the like favours what extraordinary thanks or reward could they expect from God for this usual amongst the worst of men Publicans and Heathens but for doing this to others where nature so much relucts their reward should be great and they truely the children of the most high and much resembling him herein who every day makes his Sun to rise upon and his raine to descend for the unjust and his enemies and is kind unto the unthankful and evil and is the great reconciler of and peace-maker in the world and of peace-makers he said before that they shall specially be called his children § 271 Lastly for these matters he gave them this general rule that all things not that others should do but that they would that others should do to them that they should do to others For this was the summ of what the laws enjoyned as to our Neighbour Further to enforce
this Mary had bin the Blessed Virgin 's own sister her Name would not have bin also Mary this being not usual or convenient to call two sisters undistinguishable by the same Name There was also present Salome John's Mother and others and John likewise our Lords beloved Disciple whose confidence above the rest we saw in the High Priests Palace was there with them but likely none other of the Eleven at least so near affraid of being apprehended if they should have appeared and perhaps John more presuming here as in the Palace because known to the High Priest Here then stood the sad Mother of our Lord beholding and hearing all that was done to and said against her Son with the like patience and resignation as he suffered it and ready with Abraham for the love of God to have offered him up her self had he commanded it Here she and the rest heard also that admirable confession of our Lord by the penitent Thief and our Lord 's gracious answer to him which must needs be a great consolation to them After which Answer our Lord looking down upon his Mother and compassionating her condition as well as Grief spake to her first and calling her Woman perhaps for preventing those affronts to which her near relation to him hated of all if it had bin known made her liable recommended John his beloved Disciple to her love and affection instead of himself as one that thence forward would perform the duty and observance to her of a Son and then speaking to John recommended to him the care and providing for her now aged about fifty and a desolate widow Joseph being formerly dead and now also her only Son taken from her as his Mother he being a single person and Virgin as she and having no Wife or family of his own to take care of as many others had and by reason of his wealthy parents out of which wealth also Johns mother formerly made provision many times for our Lord having the command of so much maintenance as was necessary for their decent subsistance Which recommendation of our Blessed Lady to John shews that notwithstanding the mention we find of her sister and four of our Lords Brethren yet that they were not of so near a Relation as that our Lords Mother after the death of Joseph had any family of her own or these had any constant habitation with her so as that she might rather have bin committed to their care and provision in her now declining age § 101 Our Lord having thus made his Will and disposed of his onely charge his dear Mother whom St. John took to himself and served with all fidelity and supplied with all necessaries till her death spake not at all after this for near the space of three hours from about the sixth till the ninth hour a little before he gave up the Ghost but continuing in silence and prayer and his countenance lift up towards heaven went on finishing that Sacrifice which was to be the redemption of the world consuming and melting away in the flames of Gods wrath toward sinners now in its effects seizing on him in their stead for all the offences of all mankind that had or should be When as he grew nearer to his end the Sun now at midday see Amos 8.9 and when not capable of any natural Ecclipse the Moon being now at the full and at its greatest distance from it began to be darkned and to lose its light this noblest body of the Creation sympathizing as it were with its Lord and covering its face at such a horrid Spectacle and indicating to the hard-hearted Spectators the true Sun of righteousness and that true Light that enlightneth every one that cometh into this world to be now setting and its glory ecclipsed so far as the malice of the Prince of Darkness and his Instruments could effect it and intimating now also the cheif reign of the power of darkness permitted by God to the Prince thereof § 102 All things were now full of terrour and amazement and mens hearts with fear began now to melt and relent and their former taunts and merriments to be changed into a deep silence and expectation what would be the Issue suspecting more miraculous things to follow when about the ninth hour or three of the clock in the afternoon the solemn time of offering up the Evening Sacrifice our Lord when now seeming to be quite spent and near his expiration cried out with a loud and strong voice and such as was not usual to such a manner of death exhausting all their spirits and strength before taking away their life to shew that he laid his life down not compelled but when he pleased though without shortning the time of the sufferings belonging to that cruel death and to testify also against Hereticks the Reality of his sufferings saying with great force that all the multitude heard him those first words of the Psalm penned by the Holy Ghost for a Description of his Passion Eloi Eloi lamma Sabbacthani My God My God why hast thou forsaken me expressing the last pangs of death now approaching and the inexplicable torments and anguish of Body and Soul due to our sins that now lay upon him which he calls his sins in the following part of this verse of that mourning Psalm longe a salute mea verba delictorum meorum and which sin of ours made this patient Lamb of God after three hours silence so break out into this complaint under them where more greivous than the corporal sufferings was the interior anguish of Spirit in his Divinity its suspending from his Humanity all those consolations which might any way relieve its sorrows and with which his Servants in their greatest sufferings are usually refreshed This like to that his Agony in the Garden but now without an Angel where the Apostles mention Heb. 5.7 of our Lord in the daies of his flesh offering up to God prayer and supplications with strong cryes and with tears may well be understood as of the tears and prayers and strong cryes made and shed in the Garden so of these now iterated on the Cross for the weight of Gods wrath lying on our sins which he assumed is inexplicable These words of that prophetick Psalm might have hinted to the learned High Priests and Elders that the Tragedy of this Psalm was just now acted and lively expressed in every part of it and they those miserable Wretches by whose persecutions this prophecy was fulfilled and so might have begotten some compunction in them But either they so blinded as not to understand those words or the other common-people at least mistaking them nor knowing them for the beginning of the Psalm and hearing them pronounced with such a loud voice thought from the similitude of the word Eloi twice repeated that our Lord called upon Elias that he would not forsake him in this his misery but come to help him For it was the common belief that
ship hazarded sinking by them no tempest rising as formerly in St. Peters passing thro the Sea to our Lord All things now made ready before hand here by our Lord for the Apostles Entertainment and they here feasted by him and eating of the fruit of their labours c The first of these therefore seeming more generally to represent in the present Sea of this world the gathering of Nations by the Net of the Preachers of the Gospel into the external profession of the Christian Faith where some also break these Nets and are lost and by their factions also hazard the Church the Ship that carries them c. But the latter seeming to represent at the end of the world when our Lord is on the shore the collection of the Elect the children of the right hand whereof there is a certain number none lost out of the Net all great and considerable the number of which also exprest viz. 153. which number as St. Austin observes is the summ of a computation of all the numbers from 1. to 17 and as S. Gregory the product of 17. multiplied by 9. or 3 times 3. contains in it some mystical signification which whether relating to the several Nations or to the most eminent Saints converted by them or to some other thing remains to be manifested hereafter where it is observed that the number of people of the Nations that were found in Israel in Salomons daies and by him made Labourers in the building of the Temple came to 153. thousand see 2 Chron. 2.17 not reckoning the Fraction Lastly after all follows our Lords entertaining these his Servants with eternal Joyes and Festivals prepared by him for them See such a fishing alluded to by our Lord Mat. 13.47 in his comparing the Kingdom of Heaven to a Net which at last is drawn to shore and the good gathered into Vessels but the bad cast away And see such an Entertainment mentioned Mat. 12.37 The Lord of the Feast ministring to his Guests Mat. 26.29 8.11 Apoc. 19.9 Assoon as landed they all saw clearly it was our Lord but in great reverence and fear perhaps his appearance being also more full of Majesty than formerly durst not ask him any curious questions who he was where he abode from whence he came thither concerning his stay with them his kingdom c. There also they saw a fire already kindled on the shore and fish of our Lords own providing laid thereon and bread all things miraculously prepared for their entertainment without any necessity of their provision or assistance and that our Lord could feast them from his own store and called to them from the shore to supply their wants not his But also he bad them to bring some of the fish they had taken that they might partake of their own labours and he also receive an Entertainment from them so after his usual Benediction he took the bread and fish and divided and distributed these unto them sitting with him in very great reverence and silence And of this taking their repast with him or that on the night after his Resurrection it seems to be that St. Peter speaks to Cornelius and his company Act. 10.41 That they did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead § 137 After Dinner and our Lord 's thus by a Miracle feeding of them as it was his usual manner to transfer the Discourse to spiritual matters see Jo. 4.10 6.27 7.37 8.34 38. 9.5 he began to speak of their feeding his sheep as also after their former great and miraculous draught of fishes Luk. 5 he discourseth of their catching of men and here he addressed his speech also particularly to Simon Peter as he did after the other miraculous draught Luk. 5.10 Simon fear not from henceforth thou shalt catch men and frequently elsewhere see Luk. 22.31 32. Mat. 26.40 Simon Peter being both the cheif of them and also one who now had shewed an extraordinary love and devotion to him when being as yet hardly discovered by him he threw himself into the Sea not minding his fish for hast to come to him Him then he kindly bespake on this manner Simon Bar-Jona lovest thou me more than these As thou hast often Mark. 14.30 31 Luk. 22.33 and now particularly by this last action of thine made great profession of it To whom the Apostle modestly answered passing by any companion with others That our Lord well knew he loved him If thou dost saith he now I the chief Pastor am quitting this world and leaving them to others feed my Lambs these little ones who as yet are but Neophytes in and newly acquainted with the Christian Faith our Lord shewing herein the bowels of his affection not only to the twelve but also those others formerly instructed by him And Qui redempti sunt pretio magno 1 Cor. 6.20 Now to St. Peter our Lord commits here more particularly the feeding of them because he was ordained by God his Father to be the chief and prime Pastor of them under Christ And therefore elsewhere at the first sight of him no doubt from the divine ordination he gave him the name of Cephas Stone or Foundation Jo. 1.42 though Andrew the first called and some say the Elder Brother And again upon the Catholick Confession he made by God the Fathers revealing it to him Mat. 16 17. of our Lords Divine person he further expounded the reason of this name that upon this Cephas he would build his Church And again at his Passion Satan being permitted by God to tempt our Lords Disciples he made some particular intercession for the not failing of S. Peters Faith in such temptation For though Satan laying his closest siege to this cheif Apostle he failed in his confession of our Lord out of fear which was a great fault yet not in his heart out of any infidelity and his conversion from this fault immediatly followed with bitter weeping And as here he enjoines him the feeding of his sheep so there also he recommends to him the confirmation of this faith in the other his Fellow-shepheards of these sheep Tu conversus confirma fratres And to this special Commission here given to Peter over our Lords Flock S. Paul seems to relate Gal. 2.7 where he saith that the Apostles saw the Gospel of the Circumcision committed to Peter which we see it was in this place our Lord then having no sheep or flock when he said this to Peter save the Circumcision in which respect also our Lord himself is stiled by the Apostle signifying his first employments Mat. 25.24 the Minister of the Circumcision Rom. 15.9 and God also more eminently wrought by St. Peter than by the rest the great signs and wonders in converting of the Circumcision as appears in the Acts as he did by S. Paul more than by any other for the conversion of Gentiles Tho for the Gentiles also the honour of the first conversion of them was given to S. Peter