we should be stirred up to meditate on what the Lord hath bestowed upon us As Paul saith We have received the Spirit of God 1 Cor. 2. that we may know the things which God hath freely given unto us Thus Christ saith to every Believer knowest thou what I have done for thee by Creation by Redemption by calling thee in particular This is that great and highest Knowledge of all which keeps us from being pufft up and alone commendeth us to God It is the most necessary of all for we may be ignorant of all other knowledge without any danger but not of this If any be ignorant let him be ignorant 1 Cor. 14.38 But let us return to the words of Christ Before he expresseth his meaning by washing their feet he first premiseth his own Dignity and Honour the more forcibly to draw them to his imitation seeing his Dignity on one hand and their own confusion on the other if they did not imitate him The actions of great persons most move to imitation and make mean men ashamed if they do not so too Ye call me Master and Lord saith he Christ might have spoken more and greater things of his worth dignity but he contented himself with those Titles which the Apostles gave him Nor need he mention more For if it be an honour for a Schollar to follow his Master who is but a man what great shame is it for a Christian to be proud when he sees God humble himself He saith Emphatically Ye call me Master and Lord. For the Pharisees also call'd him Master very often with the mouth only but not from the heart Matth. 22. Luke 10. So some of them call'd him Master only but not Lord for they never intended to yield obedience to him Yet there were of them call'd him Lord too but they heard him reply Why call ye me Lord Lord and do not the things which I say It was then no small commendation to the Apostles that he saith to them Ye call me Master and Lord Luke 6.46 1 Cor. 12. for as Paul saith No man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost The Apostles call'd Christ Master because they desired to learn of him and Lord because they were willing to obey him Therefore he saith Ye say well They only do truly call God Father who love and reverence him And they only rightly call him Lord who fear him as it is said if I be your Father where is mine honour Mal. 1. if I be a Master where is my fear And that men should not think that Christ had these two Titles of Master and Lord from men only and not of his proper right he addeth And ye say well for so I am There are many called of men Masters and Lords who know little and lack much But Christ is most truly a Master and a Lord. He received those titles from no man but had them naturally of himself 1. He is truly Lord of All he hath dominion over all men whose right it is for all to serve him 2. He is truly a Master He teacheth outwardly and not only so but spiritually and inwardly enlighteneth because he is the wisdom of the Father And even as he being the Life quickeneth all things that are capable of life so being the wisdom of the Father infuseth wisdom into all that will receive him which no man or Angel can do Therefore it is well said One is your Master even Christ Mark the strength of the Argument If I the Lord and Master saith he have washed your feet ye also ought to wash one another feet The meaning is if I am a Lord you by consequence must be servants Whence it might further be inferred that I ought not to wash your feet but you rather should wash my feet But t is not without cause that I have inverted this custom My intent hereby is to teach you charity and humility which I could not sufficiently inculcate with words nor so effectually fasten on you I have chosen to work upon by my own Example Now if I have not disdained to serve you in so mean a way no more should you scorn to do the like to others There is surely a great difference between me and you I am God you are but men There 's little difference between you and other men but a titular difference only One is call'd Master another servant but by nature they are equal and both alike miserable I therefore who am so much greater than any man have given you an Example that it should not be irksome to you to do the like to your equals which I a Master and a Lord have done to you that are but Disciples and servants Let the brother blush to over-top the brother and the servant be ashamed to domineer over his fellow-fellow-servant when I who might justly claim the height of this dignity to my self do yet abase my self even to wash your feet See how modestly Christ speaks these things As in the Antecedent part he mentioned his own Properties to wit I your Lord and Master so in the Consequent clause he might have cast them in the teeth with their former state and condition Ye men servants and sinners But he saith no more but this Ye also ought c. Hereby teaching us so to commend our selves where the case so requireth that we detract not from others nor swell with pride against others though we be greater than they This is that which Christ requireth of his Apostles and of all others who acknowledge him a Master and a Lord even to wash one anothers feet None is exempted from it of what state or condition soever he be But we must not understand it of washing the bodily feet only as though that were still necessary in every respect for so they that follow not Christ at all may wash the feet of others though they Lord it over them with never so much pride Now therefore 1. If we refer the washing of feet to the Apostles it enjoyns them so to exercise their Ministry that they know and really set forth to the view of all that they are not Lords over others but servants and Ministers to them and that they exercise their office for the benefit and good of men not with haughtiness and contempt that they prove it with pains and diligence and not maintain their authority by violence and force but with modesty and edification as Christ teacheth Matth. 20. He that is greatest among you let him be your Minister 2. But if we refer this word of Christ to all Christians in generall then to wash the feet is nothing else but to prefer others before himself to serve others or as Paul saith to bear their burdens and please others rather than himself Here then all our ambition which is wonderfull great is condemned Before Christ teacheth them peace and charity he first endeavours to root ambition and the thirst
of glory out of their minds Where ambition is Prov. 13. there even brethren fall together by the ears Proud men are ever quarrelling Never any thing so rent Christian unity in pieces like ambition when one will not yield to another The Words of Christ carry an Emphasis in them And ye ought c. to let us know that t is not so much his Counsell as his Command which must not be sleighted and that we shall incur great punishment if we obey it not Therefore he addeth I have given you an Example c. And truly a very excellent one worthy of all diligence Christ was Lord not only of men but Angels too Matth. 11. 28. to whom the Father had given to share with him in all things who had all Power in Heaven and in Earth who was one with the Father yet so he humbled himself John 14. even to the feet of fishers Who ever heard the like of any of the Kings and Princes of this world So great a price did the Son of God set upon us Let us then do the same Let us walk humbly towards one another Let us love one another If this Pattern of Christ will not work upon us nothing will do us good He must needs be obstinate and obdurate nay both blinded and desperate that is not softened with this Example of Christ Here let thy disdain proud man be confounded who art so proud thou canst not tell whether thou goest on thy head or feet thou knowest not what cloaths to wear or how to jett it out in thy gesture Doest thou not see Christ girt and going up and down among them serving with a Bason and water And who or what art thou to him Blush for shame wretched man saith he I have given you an Example I mean you Christians These things were not done and written for Turks but for us Whence comes so much pride so much loftiness so much pomp and state not only among Lay-Christians but even among the Bishops themselves the successors of the Apostles Is this to imitate Christ What Christ by all means endeavoured to prevent to wit ambition pride pomp especially in the Ministers of the Church this very thing is now grown to the height to the great prejudice and scandal of the Church c. Let us take heed then to this word of Christ I have given you an Example c. In this speech Christ is to be considered two wayes 1. As our Minister and as a gift given us of God For he did not only give him for us but he gave him also to us 2. 1 Pet. 2. Matth. 11. As our Example Thus Peter Christ hath suffered leaving us an Example And Christ himself saith Learn of me for I am meek c. So also are all Christs works and sufferings 1. They are the Ministries wherewith Christ ministred unto us they are the very gifts which he gave us For whatsoever he did and suffered he did it and suffered it for us and so he ministred unto us yea he hath given and by Faith still doth give all his works and merits to us 2. What he did and suffered are our Examples to which we ought to conform as here you expresly hear it They see but with one eye who respect Christ but only as a gift or only as an Example when his will is that we should consider him both wayes Whereas he addeth As I have done so do ye we must understand it according to our ability For there is no man that can do every way as Christ did nor doth Christ require it at our hands As a Master sets his scholar a fair Copy that he should imitate his hand to the utmost yet doth he not require or expect that he should at first essay write as well as he for he knows it cannot be This Word As I have done may be refer'd especially to those things which we have heard that Christ did when he washt their feet For herein if we diligently mark it is the office of the Apostles clearly exprest 1. They ought by Christs example to rise from the supper of Moses to the supper of Christ from knowledge to practice from meat to labour from letter to Spirit 2. They should lay by their garments cast aside whatever hindereth godliness and not be slothfull but serious in business 3. Gird themselves with a white Towel with a pure Life according to that Let your loines be girt Luke 12. 4. Gird themselves lest while they cleanse others they pollute themselves 5. They must pour water out of the pitcher into the Bason draw and pour forth the water of saving Knowledge out of the Bark of Scripture 6. Then presently wash but specially the feet first mend the heart and affections 7. Wipe with Linnen build them up whom they have washed with their own wholsome and clean conversation and what they cannot do by words let them effect with works and an exemplary Life 8. When they have so done let them retire to a private silence and look to their own salvation 1 Cor. 9. lest when they have preached to others they themselves become cast-awayes The like let other Christians do for themselves and those committed to them Now to make this his Example of more force to perswade Christ useth another Argument The servant saith he is not greater then his Lord q.d. There 's no reason why ye should be ashamed to follow my Example For what are ye but my Apostles and servants whose Lord and Master I am You are not above me And if hereafter either you or your Successors shall rise to any preferment yet ye will not then be greater or know and do more than I have done and known There is no cause therefore why you should blush at humility and charity who are but servants whereof I your Lord have not been ashamed So then Christ doth here beat down all proud and ambitious Church-men let them be either Popes or Bishops or Cardinals or Doctors c. What are they but servants And if they are servants as all will easily confess they should so do as not to climb above their Lord. How this may be let them well consider c. But I have not time now to pluck up this stinking weed Their own conscience will tell them wherein they are unlike Christ yea wherein they strive to be above Christ c. Christ doth often inculcate this saying Mat. 10. Luke 6. The servant is not greater c. But here he rehearseth it with great weight of words Verily verily I say unto you c. Every body knows that the servant is not greater than his Lord. But every word of Christ though he doth not swear it is more stedfast than Heaven and earth Luke 21. as himself saith Heaven and earth shall pass away but my words shall not pass away yet here he binds it with an oath First to make the deeper impression Secondly
Christ and the impudence of this servant Who in reading this passage would not curse this fellow bitterly and wish that either fire might come down from above and consume him or that the earth might open and swallow him up alive But Christ would hereby teach us patience In like manner did they at another time more then once endeavour to stone him for telling the truth John 8. These servants of the Priests confest long since that never man spake like Christ John 7.46 yet now they buffet him on the face Thus the stout striker and the fawning flatterer bragged that he was the strongest of all the Champions of whom the Spirit of the Lord speaketh in the Prophet They lie in wait for my soul the mighty are gathered against me Psalm 59. Who are those mighty ones but they that thus rusht upon the strength of God The choycest and chief among them was he that fell so cruelly fowl upon the wisdom and power of God and all to please his good master and shew him how ready and diligent he was to serve him in that business Here we see what the Judge and what the Judgement was For 1. That cannot be righteous Judgement where every one domineereth over the accused before Judgement is passed upon him 2. The Judge was unjust in that he saw the accused party abused before sentence was pronounced against him and yet he held his peace and reproved them not much more in that he saw the guiltless wronged before his face 3. But the iniquity of this servant argued the unrighteousness of his Master For as the Ruler and Judge of the people is so are his officers Eceles 10. If a Ruler hearken to lies all his servants are wicked Prov. 29.12 Such a Judge such a judgement such accusers had Christ who would not forbear till the Judge had given sentence No marvail then if Christ be cast and condemned at the bar of mans tribunall So was it with Paul when he rendered an account of himself in the Court the high Priest commanded him to be smote in the face contrary to Law and right Christians when they confess the truth must generally expect nothing else from the world but to be smitten on the face Thus Christ who judgeth all men justly yea who doth mercifully forgive the wicked upon their repentance could find no justice when he was judged much less mercy See likewise the impiety of this servant who would spitefully misuse the innocent to insinuate into the favour of an ungodly Magistrate and to get the favour of man would forfeit the friendship of God Consider whom he smote and so hardly handled even the Lord of Majesty Him I say whose authority over the creature is such and to whom the obedience of the creatures is so loyall that they had all rather be turned into nothing then by their naturall actions transgress but the least ordination of their Creator This is he whom this vile slave did basely strike who if he were not saved by him whom he thus abused would perpetually be annihilated And if the Lord himself whom he smote had not with-held them every creature would have risen up against this ungodly wretch to have avenged the injury of their Maker For if the creatures have many times inflicted vengeance upon those who offended the servants of God as the earth swallowed up Dathan and Abiram the water overwhelmed Pharaoh the fire burnt up the Sodomites c. much more would the creatures have exercised vengeance over this vile vassall who behaved himself so malapertly towards the Lord of Majesty himself had not this Lord forbad them Consider this thou ungratefull heart who canst not bear so much as a rugged word but presently it sets thee all on fire that thou scorchest thy self with the fire of hell thou dost revile bann murmure and canst not stay till God avenge thy wrong but instantly plottest thy revenge by word and deed Thou art sorry if thou canst not requite an injury but thou boastest of thy revenge But here thou seest the King of all who took such an injury from so unworthy a fellow and that in a publick place and upon his most holy face which the Angels so much desire and love to behold The arm of the Lord could have smote the smiter again and not only him but that whited wall also I mean that wicked high Priest whom so churlish a clown bolstered up But he received the wrong put up the affront held fast his patience returned instruction All for our example Note that this servant did aggravate that notorious injury which he did to Christ with most reproachfull language Dost thou answer the high Priest so As if he had said Dost not consider what a base fellow thou art and what a gorgeous high Priest my Master is This servant is a figure of all flatterers as also of all such who abuse and smite Christ in his poor members in Princes Palaces I mean such as against Law and Equity grind the poor to gratifie their Lords Besides they do and threaten many things to the oppression of the poor for which they never had any Warrant or Commission from their Master at all But what doth the high Priest say to all this when he saw his own servant so sawcily behaving himself before he had past his sentence against him He is silent lets him alone and go on takes no notice of it makes as if he had not seen it and yet if any body had struck but his dog he should quickly have heard of it with a witness It is the nature of Tyrants to esteem more basely of the poor then of their dogs Thus Christ both then and now too hath none to avenge his wrong in the world Our own injuries we quickly revenge but as for God let him be wronged never so much we regard it not But mind a little with what face will that servant behold Christ at the day of Judgement whom he smote so outragiously how pale will he look with fear then But it was not this slave only that struck Christ we all smote Christ in him For if it had not been for our sins this fellow could not so much as have toucht Christ Our sins strengthened his hand and stretched it out to strike Christ Therefore how shall we appear before that Judge whom we have so abused and disgraced We see here how great our sins are and how justly we may tremble to think of the sufferings of Christ But let us not therefore despair but rather seek comfort of that very same Christ who endured all these things For he did not only suffer from us but for us too He took this reproach upon him to deliver us from eternall shame But what doth Christ here do He doth not strike again but patiently puts up the wrong He was more ready to turn the other cheek then to return like for like Matth. 5. And although he held his hand yet he did not
sorrow I know thy pitifull compassion thy Religion and thy Charity I know I sadly know thy pensive thoughts for as thou art not the least cause of my sorrow so I am the only cause of thy grief I know why thou dost stand here Thou wouldst fain anoint me with the Ointment of Piety Thou thinkest to comfort the desolate with thy presence thou couldest wish to die with me yea to die alone and excuse me by thy death All this I accept and take it in good part but it doth as much wound as mitigate For thy soul will not be solaced except thou hast me restored to thee again safe an sound O therwise all Plaisters Medicines Comforts are to no purpose whatsoever is offered to thee is but all in vain But thou hast long since been confirmed with such valour of Vertue anointed throughly with so much oyl of Grace and Favour compleatly accomplished with such perfections that thou art black without filthiness mourning without nastiness decently behaving thy self with all comliness in this thy bitter condition thou art troubled yet chearfull mournfull yet merry free from faultiness sobbing yet singing not utterly dejected thou art defective in nothing for thou canst smile when thou weepest abide most constant when thou art thrust thorow with so many Swords and preserve thy Life when thou art dying Wherefore thou most valliant woman in due time thou shalt receive a full Recompence and Reward nor shalt thou be destitute of all comfort for the present if a most miserable and afflicted man can give any solace and succour to an afflicted woman Seest thou in what Torments I hang here With what difficulties I struggle with what vexations and perplexities my strength is worn and wasted At what price at what rate may I purchase but one sinner With what charity shall I embrace mankind I have appeased my Fathers wrath it remaineth now that I forsake thee not Most dear Parent hitherto indeed thou hast shewed thy self a most tender and carefull Mother to me from the time I was born to this very last hour and hast discharged all Motherly affection and respect to me and now I am ready to dye thou art perhaps afraid that none will own thee but that thou shalt be left to the wide world But be not cast down with such thoughts lo here is that John thy near Kinsman standing by very dear to thee and also to me thou mayest expect and promise to thy self all assistance from him Behold thy Son He shall be thy Son in my absence he shall respect reverence honour and highly esteem thee all the dayes of his life And that thou mayest be assured of it behold I will speak to him before thy face I bequeath him to thee in my stead to serve thee watch over thee and instruct thee His chastity will suit well with thy Virgin and Superangelicall Purity and for his fidelity he will be as honest and as constant to thee as he hath been to me Wherefore Woman Behold thy Son And presently he turned about and spake to the Disciple Behold saith he thy Mother q.d. O John hitherto thou hast answered thy calling to the utmost Therefore thou shalt not go altogether unrewarded for thy singular Faith and constancy towards me yea thou shalt be honoured with more excellent gifts and Dignities then thou dost dare either to pray or look for Thou hast for saken thy Ship Parents Wife and thy own self too for my sweetest Love-sake thou hast cast all thy care hope and thoughtfulness upon me thou hast built upon me securely as on a Rock Nothing hath been so sweet neither Wife Parents nor Patrimony nothing hath been of that moment as to withdraw thee from my company Thou hast followed me through the High Priests wicked Houses and now thou standest by this infamous Cross full of compassion and deeply suffering with me It hath ever been thy delight to follow me to be in my company and to obey my commands Why then should I forsake thee who hast followed me How can I but take care for thee and nurse thee up all whose hope is seated in me Thy hope in me shall by no means be wholly disappointed I will not shew my self ungratefull to thee John Behold thy Mother Thou hast said to thy Parents for my sake I know ye not Behold the Mother of God is thy mother Thou hast forsaken thy Wife who might have proved unfaithfull to thee lo thou hast an intire and most pure Virgin Thou hast renounced thy fishers boat now thou art made master of a Merchants ship that bringeth her food from far Prov. 31. Thou hast despised small things thou shalt receive the greatest Thou hast refused doubtfull thou shalt have certain things thou hast found favour in my sight Thy course of life is more delicious to me There is no Mysterie concealed from thee thou sawest my glory in Mount Tabor thou didst see me cure Jairus his Daughter thou hast seen my misery last night in the Garden and dost now see it on the Cross Yesterday thou didst lean on my bosom at Supper and now I commend the dearest thing I have in the world to thy trust and care Behold thy Mother thou seest I am about to die thou seest my mother is left desolate thou seest there are many Adversaries to me and her I assign commend and make her over to thee as thy own Lo she that was mine is now thy mother Do thou therefore discharge the duty of a Son to her succour cherish love serve her If thou acknowledge her for thy mother I will acknowledge thee for my Brother Hitherto Christ comforted his mother by which Word 1. He shewed both his love and care toward his mother for an Example to us Nor is there a more clear and full Example of shewing Honour and respect to our Parents any where to be found then here although indeed this was not an unjust yet was it a very unequal Exchange that John should be given to the Virgin-mother instead of Jesus a servant for a Lord a Disciple for a Master the son of Zebedee for the Son of God and no doubt but this word was a sore affliction to that Holy Mother However she stands stedfast in her saith immovable and unshaken 2. The Mysterie But whereas Christ doth so carefully commend his mother to the Disciple when he was about to die it was not done without a Mysterie Mary signifieth the Church which is committed to John as the Minister thereof Now John taketh the Church for his own when he doth Rule it by the Word of God But Christ prefers the Church before the Minister Whosoever will be great among you let him be your Minister saith Christ Mat. 20. And Paul saith Let a man so account of us as of the Ministers of Christ 1 Cor. 4. Again let no man thrust himself into the service of Mary that is of the Church unless God hath committed the charge thereof
on No man took it from him 1 Kings 20.11 John 10.18 21. Thus Christ when he was in the height of his perfection in perfect Glory filling all in all the fulness and end of the Law for Righteousness the Law-giver above the Law yet in the fulness of time was made of a woman made under the Law became a curse for us to redeem us from the curse of the Law Gal. 3.13 chap. 4.4 By this going back-ward of Christ unto the tenth degree of death we have hope of life to come His going back-ward was his progress to his journeyes end for his ways are not our ways but rather contrary to them Thus our true Joseph having been in prison and taken out from among men is afterward rightly called Zaphnath-paaneah i.e. a man to whom secrets are revealed or in the Egyptian tongue a Saviour of the world Gen. 41.14,45 Isa 53.8 John 3.17 chap. 12.47 Let us imitate our Lord for even hereunto are we called because Christ also suffered for us leaving us an example that we should follow his steps 1 Pet. 2.21 Let us resist unto blood striving against sin suffering in the flesh that we may cease from sin Heb. 12.4 1 Pet. 4 1. Ponder these things seriously 6. Sixthly 22. We cannot understand nor submit unto the Gospel unless we know and conform unto the death of Christ The sum of the Gospel is Christ crucified 1 Cor. 2.2 There is a dolefull doom denounced against all those that obey not this Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ 2 Thes 1.7,8,9,10 It is not enough for us to make our boast of the Gospel except we obey it no advantage comes by it Not every one that saith Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doth the Will of the Father Mat. 7.21 He that doth the Will shall know the Doctrine John 7.17 Now we must know that every man is brutish in his knowledge and born a wild Asses Colt Jer. 10.14 Job 11.12 Psalm 92.6 Wherefore it is necessary that every man take up his Cross dayly and crucifie this brutish man which is so ignorant of the Mysterie of God and altogether uncapable to understand it and put on the new man which is created after God in Righteousness Holiness and Knowledge 1 Cor. 2.14 Eph. 4.22,23,24 Col. 3.9,10 The old must be put off before the new can be put on Obedience is the best Vsher unto knowledge 7. Seventhly 23. The grand Mysterie of iniquity worketh in the contrary Doctrine When the Devil suspected what ruine and desolation was like to come upon his kingdom by the death of Christ he did what possibly he could to save his life by Pilates wife And so he is still stirring some to be enemies to his Cross Phil 3.18 The old subtile Serpent argueth with us as he did with our first Parents Yea saith he doth God require such strictness and circumspect walking doth he think ye delight to afflict his creature the work of his hands will he have thee die mortifie and crucifie thy self Far be it from thee These things shall not happen unto thee Mat. 16.22,23 Hath not Christ suffered for thy sins hath not he made full satisfaction and done all for thee Is there any thing left for thee to do Canst thou add to the vertue of his blood Wilt thou fall back again to the Law and be justified by the works thereof Is not this flat Popery Away away with these legal and pensive thoughts they make thee melancholy dull and indisposed to good things Wilt thou separate not only from the prophane Gentile but from the outward and formal Jew also Canst thou by taking thought add one Cubit to his stature Were not the works finished from the foundation of the world Mat. 6.27 Heb. 4 3. Be not righteous overmuch neither make thy self over-wise Why shouldest thou destroy thy self Eccles 7.16 24. Look upon the high and mighty professors of the world Are not the preud among them happy and they that tempt God by Pride Ambition Covetousness Hypocrisie Perjury breach of Promises Covenants Vows Oaths and Protestations Rebellion Domineering are they not delivered delivered to do all abominations Doth not their Bull gender and faileth not have they not more then heart can wish so that pride compasseth them about as a chain and violence covereth them as a Garment Mal. 3.15 Jer. 7.9,10,11 c. Job 21.10 Psalm 73.4,5,6,7 Take thine ease eat drink and be merry to morrow shall be as this day Thus the crafty Serpent insinnateth his damnable Doctrine by his false Prophets into the minds of simple ignorant presumptuous Gospellers themselves Whereas the true Believer saith It is his meat and drink to do the Will of his Lord and Master John 4.34 To beat down his body and bring it into subjection 1 Cor 9.27 Nothing is more glory to him then such tribulation he takes pleasure in such necessity and distresses for Christs sake and is glad that he can die dayly that the world may be crucified unto him and he unto the world Rom. 5.3 2 Cor. 12.10 1 Cor. 15.31 Gal. 6.14 8. Eightly 25. Without this knowledge and conformity there can be no perseverance in Godliness The Hypocrite will not pray always he cannot many begin to run well but are driven back from obeying the Truth Gal. 5.7 They are clogd with the care of preserving the worldly life they are full yet with their youthfull lusts and the sins of their riper years These youths shall faint and such young men utterly fail because they do not eat and drink the flesh and blood of the Son of man that they might have life and strength to persevere they do not by eating and drinking incorporate the living bread and drink by a lively faith that they might grow thereby Isa 40.30 John 6.33.35,48,51 unto verse 59. 1 Pet. 2.2 2 Pet. 3.18 But the righteous shall hold on his way and he that hath clean hands that hath washt them in innocency in the innocent blood of the Lamb he shall wax stronger and stronger his light shall be as the shining light which increaseth to a perfect day Job 17.9 Prov. 10.29 and chap. 4.18 But they that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength and mount up with wings as Eagles Psalm 103.5 Isa 40.31 The Eagle is sharp of sight swift and lofty in flight it can soar up and look upon the Sun So do all true Believers who have anointed their eyes with the spiritual eye-salve Rev. 3.18 which maketh them quick-sighted but then like Eagles they resort unto the Carkass Mat. 24.28 They have continual Recourse unto the crucified body of Christ refreshing themselves with that heavenly food turning it into the nourishment of their inward and new man and growing up therein unto a likeness and conformity unto that food These do not miscarry nor come short of their aim 9. Ninthly 26. There can be no due performance of any acceptable service
live on the earth 3. But specially let the Ministers of the Churches consider themselves who by the greatest contempt of worldly things ought to follow a poor Christ Let them consider I say how far they come short of the example of Christ and the Apostles and withall think of what Isay saith of such men Wo to them that joyn house to house c. and as it is in Habakkuk Hab. 2. Wo to him that coveteth an evil covetousness to his house that he may set his nest on high c. Is it not an unseemly thing for a Christian to build stately houses when his Lord had not where to hide his head in all the earth But let us hear what place Christ chose to sup in for though worldlings strive to scrape all to themselves yet Christ and those that are his find some place of Reception for so it followeth Luke 22.8,10 And he sent Peter and John saying Go and prepare us the Passover that we may eat Behold when ye are entered into the City there shall a man meet you bearing a pitcher of water follow him into the house where he entereth in verse 11. Mat. 26.18 Luke 22.11 And ye shall say unto the good man of the house The Master saith unto thee my time is at hand I will keep the Passover at thy house with my Disciples Where is the Guest-chamber where I shall eat the Passover with my Disciples 1. Here is first the place of the Passion to wit the City Jerusalem which Christ chose for his suffering as he did Bethlem for his Nativity Mâ—c 5. that the Scripture in all things might be fulfilled Micha prophesied that Christ should be born in Bethlem and Moses commanded to sacrifice nowhere but in the place which the Lord had chosen which was the Temple at Jerusalem Christ therefore in obedience to the Law would not offer his sacrifice anywhere but at Jerusalem Deut 12. 2. Again Christ would rather suffer in that City because there it was where the old Prophets did suffer as it is said in Luke Luke 13. Matth. 23. It cannot be that a Prophet should perish without Jerusalem Now this City had an ill report for this long since in that it killed the Prophets and stoned them that were sent unto it Let us now see in what order things were carried on 1. He sendeth two of his Disciples but specially Peter and John Luke 22. as Luke saith that is the chiefest of all the Disciples which is not without a Mysterie John 21. John 20. Acts 3. John 13. We often find these two Disciples coupled together Peter was a very great lover of Christ and John was more beloved of Christ than any other these two ran together to the Sepulchre after the Resurrection When the Holy Ghost was given they went up together into the Temple At the Supper t was Peter not the other Dsciples that beckoned to John to ask who should betray their Lord These two also left most excellent Epistles behind them viz. 1 Pet. 1 John in which they did and still do teach great Mysteries Peter sheweth that Christ is the Rock John teacheth that he is the Grace of God both of them according to their Name Peter signifying a Rock Iohn the Grace of God These two then are sent to make ready the Passover but for whom even for Christ yet not for him only but for his Church too Which they did with all industry For who but the Apostles framed and prepared for us the Communion-table and Altar of the Church viz. by their preaching and writings 2. But observe they do not this without command from their Lord. For unless the Lord call and send forth Teachers Jer. 16. 23. they run in vain and do no good Nor can we of our selves partake of the Lords Supper except God send us Apostles How shall they hear without a Preacher Rom. 10. 3. Whereas Christ so undoubtedly foretold all things that should happen concerning the Water-bearer and the readiness of the master of the house it was more than from his humane nature It was a sure sign of the Divinity of Christ before whose eyes all things past present and to come are naked and bare Heb. 4. Otherwise when he was at Bethany he could not have so well known that not a maid but man-servant should meet his Disciples with a pitcher of water much less could he know whether he was going c. By this therefore he would shew his Godhead as he did another time when he said to his Disciples Matth ye shall find an Ass tyed Chap. 17. John 1. And to Peter when thou hast opened the mouth of the fish thou shalt find a piece of money So to Nathaniel I saw thee under the fig-tree Every Christian should diligently observe all such things in Christ which surpassed the humane Nature for thereby he will come to think more highly of Christ notwithstanding he was like a servant and crucified 4. The Disciples are not commanded to say any thing to the Water-bearer but only to follow him and deliver their charge to the Master of the House A servant cannot deny or grant any thing that belongs to the Master only Let all things be done decently and in order 5. Christ tells them in express words what they should say to the Master of the House A Gospel Minister must not preach any thing but what his Lord commandeth him nor must add to or diminish from the words of his Lord else he doth not his Masters business but his own 6. He commandeth them to make him known by the title of Master and that he would come after who was then so called For the world had then no higher thoughts of him but as one who preached the Truth as Nicodemus and others said of him John 3. 7. Whereas he saith that his time was at hand it is to be understood of his death and the Redemption of Mankind as formerly he had often spoken John 2. 9. saying his hour or time was not yet come Whereby he doth again declare his Deity in that he foreknew and foretold what was to come For no man can of himself tell the hour of his death The times and the seasons God the Father hath put in his own power Acts 1. t is not for man to know these things 8. Again He doth not send word to the good man of the house by way of intreaty but as it were commandingly that he would keep the Passover at his House as when he sent his Disciples for the Ass Matth. 21. they were not to pray or ask leave to take him but as if they had authority to say the Lord hath need of him Whereby he would shew that he was Lord of all and could if he pleased command all No doubt but he to whom he sent his Disciples was a
another time upon the same ground he thrust Christ from him when he said Depart from me Luke 5. for I am a sinful man O Lord. Nay rather if thou art a sinner thou shouldest desire that the Lord would not depart from thee It hath indeed a shew of reverence but t is very preposterous arising only from the carnal mind as most think that by reason of their unworthiness they should dishonour God if they pray to him or receive the Sacrament But faith is of another mind and thinketh that he dishonoureth God that sinneth not he that begs pardon and useth such remedies against sin as God hath appointed He that submitteth to the work and Ministry of God doth not dishonour him but he that resisteth the same and preferreth his own wit before the will of God It is surely a great part of Piety to acknowledge our unworthiness and so we ought to do It is also a pious part to reverence Gods Majesty But this piety will run into superstition if we reject Christs Ministry because of our unworthiness Therefore there is no cause why we should be afraid to draw near unto God inasmuch as he himself commandeth us to come unto him and call upon him Come unto me all ye that are weary c. Caell upon me in the day of trouble Matth. 11. c. Psalm 50. Thou canst not honour God more then to pray unto him faithfully and thou castest the greatest scorn and contempt upon him that may be if thou slightest him by not coming when he calleth and promiseth his assistance Thou canst not attribute more honour to Christ than by bearing and suffering his work to be done in thee Hence Mary who sat still at the feet of Jesus and hearkened to Christs Ministry when he preached had a much more honourable commendation than busie Martha Luke 10. In short if thou desirest thy health thou must not drive the Physitian from thee Rather come with the more boldness the more frail and unworthy thou art as in outward necessities we do not regard our own unworthiness or the worthiness of others so long as they help us and do us good As a hunger-starv'd man is not ashamed or afraid to beg of the most noble Personage his necessity compels him Go thou and do likewise Second word The second time Peter speaks more sawsily with a shew of zeal indeed but not according to knowledge Thou saith he shalt never wash my feet And here again is the nature of flesh discovered which is alwayes obstinate in its own as it thinks good purpose and under a fair pretence stifly maintains its conceited opinion whether in jest or earnest whereof Christ most holily instructed Peter but all in vain The like obstinacy we see in David 1 Chron 21. when he was disswaded from numbring the people And in Josia when he was forbidden to war against the King of Aegypt 2 Chron. 35. Therefore the Wise man saith There is a way which seemeth right unto a man Prov. 14. but the end thereof are the wayes of death Thus Peter is a figure of those who please themselves only with what seems to be good to them and which they do with their good meanings as they call them But t is not enough to do what seems good to us unless God also approve of it For most commonly so it falls out that what we think to be good is nothing so 1 Sam. 23 1 Sam. 15. as when Saul in sacrificing would needs usurp the office of the Priest So when he reserved the cattel taken from the Amalechites for sacrifice So that t is not enough to have a good meaning but chiefly to consider what the will of God is else they that persecute Christians may be excused John 16. for they did it with a good meaning thinking they did God service thereby But here Christ first reproveth Peters ignorance saying What I do thou knowest not now but thou shalt know hereafter As much as to say why doest thou withstand me seeing thou knowest not why or wherefore I do this What I do is no trifle though thou dost not understand Matth. 3. So he said to John when he was afraid to baptize him Suffer it to be so now for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness Indeed Peter knew not what Christ did then For 1. He thought his Lord did that service for some bodily Recreation as others used to do 2. He did not yet fully understand the Discipline of this his Master that he that would be greatest in his School must be as the least and specially that the great Lord of all would raign in the highest Tower of Humility of which we shall have occasion to speak hereafter Luke 22. concerning the strife among the Apostles for Precedency c. Again Peter knew not whereto this his pertinacy and disorderly respect would come in the end he little thought the issue of it would be his self-justification He that will not let Christ wash him what else doth he pretend but that he is righteous enough and hath no need of the Grace of God Peter did not consider this that his words tended to such a thing otherwise he would not have refused Christ yet doth not presently tell him the reason of this washing Eccl. 3. For there is a time to work and a time to speak we should observe God in both But tells him he shall know hereafter for by and by after he sat down again he explained this Mysterie to them And then this humility of Christ took such impression in Peter that he afterward exhorts others thereunto Humble your selves under the mighty hand of God 1 Pet. 5. c. Hence we also my learn not rashly to require a reason of Gods works but humbly to obey his will What is here said to Peter is spoken to us all For certainly we are ignorant and know not that God now worketh in us with us for us He washeth us sometimes with prosperity sometimes with adversity but we understand it not But we shall know hereafter when we are enlightened by the Spirit of God but specially in the world to come Thus of the answer to Peters first word To his pertinacy he hath a sharper answer If I wash thee not thou hast no part with me As if he had said if thou strivest for the preheminence and wilt not submit thy self to me thou canst not be my Disciple Christs school will have such schollars who resign their own will mortifie their own reason 2 Cor. 10. and lead all their understanding captive into the obedience of Christ Thus he that would not be pacified with a promise is quieted with a threatning It is indeed a great commination to say Thou shalt have no part with me Not to have part with Christ is to have our part with the Devil and all wicked men As there is nothing better can befall a
Repentance should never be omitted For the way we go as the vulg Lat. hath it is polluted saith David 1 Sam. 2â—…5 The filthiness of Jerusalem is in her skirts in her feet saith the vulgar Latine Lam. 1.9 Therefore saith Paul 2 Tim. 2.21 if a man purge himself from these he shall be a vessel unto honour That which Christ addeth is enough to melt and move any man But is clean every whit How is he every whit clean that must yet wash his feet Yea how can one baptized be said to be clean all over when the Scripture often saith there is none without sin Is 64. 1 John â— It is most true that there is no man without sin yet withall t is as true that whosoever is purified by Faith is clean every whit He that is planted into the body of Christ doth partake of and possess by faith the holiness and purity of Christ Thus Paul saith to Believers Ye are washed 1 Cor. 6. Rom. 8. ye are sanctified by the Name of the Lord Jesus Again There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus Those that be planted into Christ are called holy by Faith the Name and Blood of Christ But yet in themselves they are nothing but sinners and have yet many sins but no condemnation for God accounteth of them as clean by Faith in Christ So Paul saith of himself With my mind I serve the Law of God Rom. 7. but with my flesh the law of sin 1. Hence we conclude that the Apostles were baptized otherwise he would not have said to them he needeth not save to wash his feet 2. Baptism is not sufficient except also we wash our feet 3. Grace is of more force than sin Where Grace is a man is accounted just and pure before God notwithstanding he be not yet altogether without sin and imperfections in himself 4. Repentance is necessary to backsliders 5. That common cleanness by baptism and the profession of the Faith of the Gospel is not sufficient for a Gospel-Minister except his feet the affections of his soul also be purged from all the filth of this world from which a man shall find it a hard matter to keep himself pure unless he be still carefull to wash off the pollution contracted by converse with men with the blood of Christ Hitherto Christ spake in general He that is washed c. But presently he directeth his speech to the Apostles in special And ye saith he are clean but not all The Apostles were clean because baptized and cleaving close to Christ because they loved and followed him with unwearied desire But above all they were clean from the impiety and covetousness of the traytor Judas It soundeth sweetly when the Judge himself shall pronounce us guiltless But that which follows is full of terrour But not all whereby Christ doth not only smite Judas but also all such that live wickedly in the profession of Christianity For all is not Gold that glisters Judas had his feet outwardly washed and kept company with the Apostles he was with them in the body but not in the Faith Therefore he was cast with his filthy hands and feet into utter darkness It is also Emphatically added by John For he knew who it was that should betray him to let us know that Christ said this for Judas sake only ye are not all clean 1. Hereby he giveth us an Example of true charity and humility Christ saw the very heart of this wicked man he knew his bloody design yet he gave him like respect with others and washt his feet as well as the rest Hence learn to love your enemies and do good to them that hate you This wonderfull and absolute clemency is proper only to the nature of our Lord. Although he knoweth our sins yet doth he not presently punish us but many wayes recalleth us in his long-suffering patience Oft-times doth he good to his rebellious Traytors to make that good which he saith by the Prophet Ezek. 18. I will not the death of a sinner c. 2. He setteth forth the greatness of Judas his sin which Christ could not wash away because that wicked man resisted and withstood the same We admire at some mens sins and begin to examine their weight and hainous nature in that the Prophets could not cure them though they applied never so many Medicines as one of them complaineth Jer. 51. We would have healed Babylon and she is not healed How great then was Judas his sin who had so great remedies for it Christ the greatest Physitian of all and yet was never the better So after he had washed their feet and had taken his garments John 13.12 and was set down again he said unto them Know ye what I have done to you Ye call me Master and Lord and ye say well for so I am verse 13. If I then your Lord and Master have washed your feet verse 14. ye also ought to wash one anothers feet For I have given you an Example verse 15. that ye should do as I have done to you Verily verily I say unto you verse 16. the servant is not greater then his Lord neither he that is sent greater then he that sent him If ye know these things happy are ye if ye do them verse 17. I speak not of you all I know whom I have chosen verse 18. but that the Scripture may be fulfilled He that eateth bread with me hath lift up his heel against me Now I tell you before it come that when it is come to pass verse 19. ye may believe that I am he Verily verily I say unto you verse 20. he that receiveth whomsoever I send receiveth me and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me Here Christ performed what he had before promise to Peter when he washt his feet Thou shalt know it afterward Now he shews him what this washing of the feet did signifie Thus every thing is to be done in its season Let the work be first done in it self then let the exposition and interpretation of it follow what is meant by it Christ did not presently tell them the signification of this washing that the Disciples might the more diligently attend and the more admire it before they knew it or the reason of it Now be layeth by the Bason and Towel and sits down again and setleth himself to preach to them 1. And first he prepares their attention by an interrogation for when we are askt what we know not we are as it were jogg'd to listen more attentively So Christ here Know ye what I have done to you Doubtless they did not know They knew their feet were washt but why or wherefore they were altogether ignorant This then they had need to be instructed in 2. Let us all in general suppose that it is said to us Know ye what I have done for ye Whereby
here really shew for he had gathered the other Disciples under his wings Now 1. He labours to recall the wanderer and him that was ready to be destroyed And although he had hitherto admonished him in vain yet he doth not give him over to teach us that we should not too suddenly despair of our amendment 2. A wicked man is not presently to be cast off before all wayes and means are used for his recovery Gal. 6. So saith Paul If any be overtaken with a fault Matth. 18. c. instruct or restore him in the spirit of meekness So Christ If thy brother offend thee go and reprove him between him and thee alone As Christ here doth not forbear to prick Judas and set his sin before him although he knew that he would not amend so is it still by the righteous Judgement of God many that will not amend must feel the worm of conscience whether they will or no to make that of the Prophet true Is 48. There is no peace to the wicked Here he doth double his word Verily verily as well to stir up their attention as to shew the certainty of his word It is to be Noted that although Christ doth disclose the sin of Judas yet he doth conceal his person lest he should either break out into a rage against Christ being confounded by his or impudently presume to deny it Teaching us thereby what we should do to our brethren in the case of close sins even do as we would be done unto But he speaks to all that all might fear Rom. 11. And blessed is the man that feareth alwayes Be not high minded but fear Now in that he doth so clearly convince them that he knew all their sins never so secret he doth thereby deter both them and us not only from sinfull acts but also from evil thoughts and purposes Hence Boethius saith well There is great necessity for us to live godlily because he that beholdeth all things doth see all that we do What effect this word took in the hearts of the Disciples doth appear by what is there said They were sad they looked one on another And no marvell every one knew-himself guiltless and none thought any evil of the other Yet 1. They did not doubt but that Christ spake the truth They only wondered how the Devil could so far prevail as to be able to get away one of them and snatch him from the fellowship of Christ 2. Every one feared his own heart and though they knew no such thing by themselves yet they all suspected the frailty of their flesh They might say with Paul I know nothing by my self 1 Cor. 4. yet am I not thereby justified It is a sign of a good and godly heart to tremble at the Judgements and Word of God On the contrary t is the sign of an obstinate mind to be nothing moved thereat as here Judas he only is fearless and persists in the same impudence he dares sit with his brazen face at the holy Banquet But could he there endure the piercing eyes of his Lord which he knew saw all things and the secret machinations of his heart at that time 3. They were not a little troubled to think that so holy a consortship should be so much defamed by so vile and hainous a crime Here then t is plain that Judas durst not disclose what he plotted against Christ to any of his fellow-Disciples which made for their commendation but turned to his condemnation who could be so wicked among so many godly men Now the Disciples nothing doubting but that all that Christ said was true and yet could not suspect which of them should be so base to do so they look one on another to see if any would discover the same by his blushing And every one of them saith to Christ Lord is it I Their Faith thought better of Christs words than of their own consciences Therefore they do not say Lord I am not the man excusing themselves saying t is not I but Lord is it I or no by way of Quere q.d. God forbid that ever we should commit such a horrid fact against our good Lord and Master with whom we have gone thorow fire and water suffered good and evil whom we have followed rather than any man and for whom we have forsaken all things Surely there was little worldly mirth and jollity at this Supper where both Lord and servants were so sadly sorrowfull Here could be no laughter or lightness when those godly men heard what a horrible thing should break out from among them but could not tell who should act or contrive it in which uncertainty they were held in suspence for a time the Lord so ballancing what he before had spoken for their comfort And that which made them yet more sorrowfull was that Christ would not answer when they askt the question but leaves them still in suspence repeating the same word again with greater vehemency One of the twelve I say which dippeth his hand with me in the dish he shall betray me q.d. It is one of the twelve who is so familiar with me that he puts his hand into the same dish with me and for this freedom and respect which I shew him he doth thus requite me Mark it he doth give no other description of the Traytor Psalm 41. but what David gave long since when he spake in the person of Christ Vir pacis mine own familiar friend in whom I trusted which did eat of my bread he hath lift up his heel against me But the words following are very heavenly The Son of man indeed goeth as it is written of him q.d. there is nothing concerning me happened contrary to my expectation but as it was long since foretold by the Prophets so it cometh to pass I must die indeed that I may mercifully redeem mankind according to the counsell and fore-purpose of Gods Divine Majestie And it is expedient for many that I should be betrayed but wo be to the man for all that by whom I am betrayed He will thereby procure salvation for others but he will bring perpetual destruction upon himself The day of other mens Nativity is commonly solemnized with great joy but this mans birth-day deserves to be noted with a black coal Nay it had been better for him if he had never been born For it is better not to be at all than to be in perpetual torments which is all one as to have a death without death Christ would hereby afright Judas to terrifie him from his evil purpose with threats of eternal damnation whom he could not recall by so many courtesies But all the while for bearing to name him to teach us that we should admonish sinners but not traduce them And if there be any good in them t is better hinted by a Periphrasis or circumlocution than to particularise them But Judas was past repentance yet Christs goodness is exceedingly commended
yet because Luke hath inserted it in the Passion of our Lord we will not pass it by For it doth fairly picture out the humane nature and disposition that was in the Apostles who contended for primacy at that time when they saw such great Patterns of Humility and Modesty and when the greatest tribulation was at hand But what our Translation renders strife or contention that Luke calleth Philoniciam i. e. Love of Victory We read more then once how the Apostles contended about Primacy Matth. 18. 20. After the payment of tribute they askt Christs opinion and desired him to decide the matter which of them should be the greatest So when the sons of Zebedee sought the uppermost seat in Christs Kingdom then they strove about this thing And here in this place 1. Perhaps Judas his going from them gave the occasion For till his hatred was discovered they suspected one another and so from hence quickly fell to quarrelling every one disdaining to be inferiour to other and to be or but thought to be less faithfull to Christ 2. Their Lords own withdrawing which he spake of before to them might happily give them occasion to enquire what they should do and who should have the chief management of things when their Master was gone from them Here now as commonly it is none could well bear to submit to another and so as he thought be undervalued which is no strange thing that it should be so with the Apostles who were men and not yet confirmed by the Holy Spirit nor fully understanding the Kingdom of Christ Now Christ neither will nor can he endure by any means this Philotimie or greedy desire of Glory which is the root of Philonicie or love of Victory whence all contention ariseth For where one will rule and none submit where all will be Lords and none subjects there Christ hath no more to do What then My Disciples and Children saith he do not do thus it is very unseemly and doth not at all become you I would not have it so among you Consider I pray what think ye Do you not desire to Lord it like the world but do you see any such thing in me where got ye this thought whence came this great desire ye that are servants would ye once more be greater than me your Lord Indeed the Romans and other Gentiles go about to compass to themselves worldly glory and greatness and above all things desire to domineer and rule over others They hunt after great Titles not only to be called Kings Princes Euergetae Pater patriae and Rulers but also Benefactors and Fathers of their Country as if they did help do good and provide for all and were more like Fathers than exactors and oppressors when indeed they do generally behave themselves otherwise And ye fisher-men of Galiles will you be like these and do as the Heathen do Indeed ye are very fit for that glory such honour would well become you which the Gentiles have and so much aspire unto But if the name and profession of a Jew will not beat you off from following the Gentiles yet at least let my Example take ye off Ye see what I do For I am your Lord and Master I might command I might Lord it I might call every creature to serve me yet I forbear I abase my self so far as to serve and let you sit still I wait on you as your hired servant John 6. The Kingdom was mine and 't was offer'd to me but I would none of it I refus'd it What I might have had Angels as well as men to serve me but you see I do not so See I say and consider well how low and how abased I am I have put off the form of God wherein I was and have taken upon me the form of a servant Phil. 2. Psalm 8. I have made my self a little less than the Angels What a shame then would it be to you to grow proud under so humble a Master After this manner Christ checks the ambition of the Apostles and elswhere also he useth almost the same expressions But every where he doth smartly nip them knowing what a Tyrant Ambition would be and what mischiefs it would bring in if it were not restrain'd and kept under If ever any King or Prince might be called Euergeta a Benefactor surely never any better deserved the name then our Lord Jesus the King of Israel Pliny writing of Trajâ—n saith Thou of all men dost least esteem thy own courtesies whereas thou livest in the City as a Parent with his Children But what was that Paternal love which Trajan shewed to his Citizens in comparison of Christs charity to the Apostles and to us all But what follows Ye are they which have continued with me in my Temptations And I appoint you a Kingdom c. There is a good coherence between these and the foregoing words As he had sharply reproved them before so now he doth smooth them with Promises and stroke them with Praises yet so directeth his speech that the Apostles might well desist from their ambition q.d. Why do ye so hunt after worldly power and domination Stay a little I will promote you to Heavenly Power John 6. There are better and greater-things laid up for you than ye are aware of For ye are they that have stood it out with me when many others turned their backs upon me being offended at my approaching Passion but Judas especially Acts 1. he went to his own place but ye have not flincht at any of my Temptations those many which Satan hath raised against me these three years For this your doing be assured that I will prepare a Heavenly Kingdom for you by my Passion where ye shall raign with all power and glory as true Kings and Princes And because earthly Kings abound with all delicacies of meat but specially of drink Lo I provide so for you too that there ye may eat and drink with me at my Table as my fellow-heirs Rom. 8. Which we must not so understand as if there were eating and drinking in Heaven but Christ speaketh anagogically or as Theophylact saith Metaphorically because there is most of that in Kings Courts Lastly saith Christ lest ye should want any thing to compleat your Government whereas worldly Kings use to sit upon stately Thrones 1 King 10. and Judge others as we read of Solomon Behold I prepare this also that ye my Apostles may sit hereafter with me upon Royal Thrones and Judge all the Tribes of Israel which believe not in me If ye seek to rule over Israelites lo they shall be subjected to you What look ye for more Can ye wish or desire more Is there the like again in all the world What 's the glory of the world the kingdom of the world the delights of the world to the Glory Kingdom and delights of heaven Who then would not willingly despise the glory of the
Christ doth not simply require Love of those that are his but so as without it he will own none for his Disciple And if it be so or rather because it is so truly there are but few true Christians to be found in these dayes for Charity almost among all men waxeth cold and faith and mercifulness faileth every where and is withered instead of which hatred envy discord deceit treachery is sprung up 2. We see how much they are out of the way who would fain be taken for Christians by I know not what Tokens when Charity towards God and their Neighbour is nothing regarded 3. Here we find the difference between Faith and Charity Faith maketh a Disciple of Christ Charity maketh him known to be a Disciple It followeth Simon Peter said unto him Lord whither goest thou John 13.36 Jesus answered him whither I go thou canst not follow me now but thou shalt follow me afterwards Peter said unto him Lord why cannot I follow thee now verse 37. I will lay down my life for thy sake Jesus answered him wilt thou lay down thy life for my sake verse 38. Simon Simon Satan hath desired you Luke 22.31 that he may sift you as wheat But I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not verse 32. and when thou art converted strengthen thy brethren And he said unto him Lord verse 33. I am ready to go with thee both into prison and to death And he said I tell thee Peter the Cock shall not crow this day verse 34. before that thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest me It was a sign of great fervency in Peter that he only should interrupt Christ and ask his Lord whither he was going when all the rest held their peace sure he was astonished at the word which Christ spake whither I go ye cannot come and fearing that he should be separated from Christ he could hold no longer but must needs ask the question To whom Christ very sweetly answered Whither I go thou canst not follow me now but thou shalt follow me afterwards which may be understood two wayes 1. He could not follow Christ to Heaven who was now going thither but he should follow him afterwards when he was made a Citizen of the City above he with the rest of the Saints should raign with Christ 2. He was not yet indued with power from on high neither had he that strengthening Spirit to reform him and his Nature therefore he could not scorn the dangers of death nor wholly overcome the terrour thereof 1. The power to break the force of death was only in Christ Therefore thou canst not follow me now because that to go by the Cross is yet very hard and difficult Psal 77.19 As t is said Thy Wayes are in the sea and thy Path in the great waters and thy Foot-steps are not known 2. Again secondly Thou canst not follow me yet because of the imperfection of thy love Rom. 5. There had need be a great fire of Love which so many waters of afflictions cannot quench but hereafter when the Spirit shall shed forth more Love into thy heart then shalt thou follow me 3. Lastly Thou canst not follow me yet It is not in the power of thy carnal will to conquer Death this it the work of Gods Grace his Grace alone must do it I must first set upon it by my death and overcome it I will grapple with it in my Passion and conquer it by my Resurrection Till this be done thou canst not follow me thou canst not but tremble at death T is too strong for thee to conquer and contemn Inded our nature shrinks at death croucheth under it Our Saviours Passion was the first dissolution of Death 1. To this end the Son of God did take upon him the seed of Abraham Heb. 2. that by the death of his flesh he might make Death of none effect and might deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to bondage 2. Again the contempt of Death had its first original from the Resurrection of Christ 1 Cor. 15. From that very time we may say with Paul O Death where is thy sting O grave where is thy Victory Thanks be to God who hath given us the Victory by Jesus Christ our Lord. And that Peter might not think that he should for ever be separated from Christ he saith But thou shalt follow me afterwards alluding to Peters death and tels him in a Riddle what death he should die q.d. as I will go by the Cross to the Father so thou shalt follow me by the Cross Very truly did Christ say Thou canst not follow me now which thee vent of the matter shew'd not long after When poor feeble Peter could not follow his Lord but denied him the third time for fear he should be forced to follow him with the loss of his own life But afterwards he did follow him when he stretched forth his hands and was crucified like a worthy Disciple of his Master But Peter not well weighing what Christ said and too much trusting to his own strength doth reply again Why saith he can I not follow thee now q.d. Dost thou think that I will prove so ingratefull for all thy kindnesses as to desert thee Thou hast chosen me for one of thy Apostles I had a taste of the joyes of heaven upon Mount Tabor I have wrought miracles in thy name indeed what favour hast thou denied me how then can I forsake thee at the greatest pinch of death when my own life shall be never so much in danger Nay I will engage my self and this I promise I love thee so dearly that I will lay down my life for thee I esteem so much of thy love that I value not my own life Indeed Peter thou dost make large promises but thou dost not well understand what thou saist thou hast a good conceit of thy own abilities but art altogether ignorant of thy weakness thou hast not yet tryed nor tasted the force of death if thou hadst thou wouldst not have spoken as thou dost nor wondred why Christ said thou couldst not follow him now I know there are examples enough of such as hazarded their lives for their country or kindred but this proceeded from their carnal affection But if God may be Judge it is not a work of the flesh but of the Spirit to dye for a stranger or to lay down ones life for his enemies Yet such is the property of humane reason that it will not acknowledge its own weakness Peter should have believed what Christ said and not so boldly contradicted him Let it be granted that be did it out of his great affection yet he ought to have believed Christ before himself and have thought with himself thus Surely he knows all things and understands better then I what he saith but what doth Christ reply to this presumptuous confidence
Faithfull against the Armies of Devil and Hell He that hath not this Sword let him buy it In the Spiritual battel none can stand without it But mony will not it cannot buy it t is to be had only by Resignation and Self denial The spiritual Sword saith Ambrose is to sell our Patrimony and buy the Word Matth. 13. This is hinted in the Parable of buying the Field and Pearl The Disciples did not yet understand what Christ said For soon after Peter fals upon their enemies with his Sword and here they bring Christ two Swords Now as there Christ rebuketh Peter for smiting with the Sword so here he saith It is enough intimating that he did not speak of the material sword for what could two swords do against so many enemies an hundred had not been sufficient Alas silly Souldiers what can yee do with your rusty Swords We must not fight but suffer and our sufferings can be conquered by nothing but the Word of God But there is a Mysterie in those two Swords which the Apostles brought and Christ said they were sufficient Ambrose expoundeth those two Swords to be the two Testaments But we may understand them otherwise one Sword may be the Word of Promise the other the Word of Precept The Apostles had both these Swords with which they subdued all the world to Christ To have these two Swords and use them well is enough to obtain everlasting life If thou wouldest stand it out against Satan and save thy soul stedfastly believe all that a Christian ought to believe and constantly practise what a Christian should do and thou shalt be secure and sure But why doth he so strictly charge his Apostles to sell their purse and scrip and coat to buy this Sword Because saith he that which is written must yet be fulfilled in me And he was reckoned among the Transgressors There is saith he a great temptation not far off I your Lord and Master shall be extreamly disgraced For I shall not only be named and numbred among the worst of men but shall be hanged too between two notorious and open Thieves You had need be armed with the Word of God against this scandal or else yee will hardly continue long in my Faith Suppose this to be spoken to us also that we may give all diligence to arm our selves with the Word of God beforehand For although we have no temptations at present at least very rare and faint ones yet we must look for greater at or before our death which we shall not be able to overcome except we be armed with the Word of God This is that which Paul saith We wrestle not against flesh and blood but against Principalities the Rulers of darkness c. Stand therefore having your loins girt about c. Ephes 6.13,14 Lastly he addeth For the things concerning me have an end i. e. Whatever was written of me will be presently fulfilled My suffering will fulfill and put an end to all Prophesies What my Body the Church shall suffer will also have an end I will suffer first the Church shall follow me but not with equal pace or measure Many imitate but few or none equal the sufferings of Christ And he said unto them John 14.1 Let not your heart be troubled yee believe in God believe also in me In my Fathers House are many Mansions c. See John the 14 15 16 17. Chapters Here the Heavenly mind begins that Sermon which he preacht at Supper penn'd and left written by none but John only to shew that t was not for nothing that he alone leaned on his Lords breast 1. The first thing Christ doth handle in this Sermon is to comfort his Disciples who were much cast down under manifold troubles as the sudden suffering of Christ Judas his fall Peters danger and the desolate condition they themselves were like to be in very shortly 2. In this Sermon Christ doth manifest and open himself plainly that we might know what great good there is to be had in him If there be never so great a Treasure we are nothing the better for it so long as it is conceal'd and kept close from us Christ had done us no good if he had not discovered himself to us by his Word For we cannot see him with our eyes of flesh Therefore now he cals himself the Fathers equal Sometime a Vine Sometime the Light Sometime the Way Truth and Life c. All which Names and Appellations discover the exceeding great good that is in and to be had by and from Christ 3. Then he concludes his Sermon with Prayer after he had bequeathed all his goods to the Faithfull For he prayed that they who believed in him might all be Sanctified that they might be one in him that his Love might abide in them c. In which Prayer he was heard in that he feared as Paul saith Heb. 5. And thus much for the Supper of the Lord. Here endeth the first Part of our Lords Passion Here beginneth the second part of our Lords Passion Dearest Brethren HItherto we have heard some Preludes or Introductions of our Lords Passion which were many and various as the Unction of Jesus the Passover washing of Feet Institution of the Sacrament the business of Judas and Peter the Contention of the Disciples together with their manifold and frequent Admonitions and Consolation But nothing as yet was actually attempted against Christ only he was fairly promised to be betrayed but nothing perfected and put in Execution Christ at his last Supper had Elegantly expressed that Mystical Attire of the high Priest Exod. 28.33 of which we read in Exodus And beneath upon the hem of the garment of the high Priest saith the Lord to Moses thou shalt make Pomegranates and bells of Gold c. So shall Aaron be arrayed in the Office of his Ministry c. The skirts of the Priests Rayment signifie the latter times of our Lords Life The Pomegranates are his fiery works of Charity which he shewed at his last Supper the Bells are his shril-sounding words of Love with which he instructed and set them in good order at that Supper and with which he intreated the Father for their salvation The Bels of his Doctrine and the Pomegranates of his works thus intermixt make nothing more beautiful to the eye nothing more pleasant to the ear nothing more desirable or delightfull to be experimented Having now seen the beauty of the Pomegranates and lately heard the sweet Musick of the tinkling Bels Heb. 9. Next let us attend and see how that high Priest entred in and stood in the presence of God with the order of his Oblation how he offered up himself to God First then John affirmeth that he said John 14.31 Arise let us go hence By which word 1. He would fix it in his Disciples hearts that he was to suffer something which he knew beforehand and was willing
when the senses are darkened the understanding strangled Faith staggereth the memory is lost prayer omitted godliness cast off dangers sleighted and no care to avoid the Judgement to come This is truly a most pernitious and dangerous sleep of which Paul saith Rom. 13. It is now high time to awake out of sleep Again Eph. 5. Awake thou that sleepest Christ therefore doth now mock and deride them with a sharp taunt or ironie whose drowsiness he had hitherto reprehended in vain Sleep on now saith he and take your rest As if he had said yee have chosen a very fit time and place indeed to sleep and take your rest Sleep soundly and sweetly especially seeing ye are so safe and secure I could not prevail with yee to watch a little with me Go to therefore satisfie your sense and lust Sleep on See how long yee will lye quiet What I could not obtain at your hands the business it self or the present danger will force you to c. A cutting jeer indeed of which the Wisdom of God speaketh to those that contemn him I have called but yee refused I also will mock at your destruction Prov. 1. c. But after this Ironic Christ comes to speak more seriously to them It is enough saith he yee have slept long enough already yee have loytered too long We have none but enemies about us every where and do yee yet sleep it out Do yee not see or regard what is come upon us Did not I sufficiently warn yee of all this before And now yee see it is fallen out just as I told yee The hour is come I must now suffer The hands of sinfull men are armed against me The Traytor of whom I spake ere now is hard by Rise therefore let us go meet them lest they should say that we are afraid or run away from them c. Here we are put in mind not to think of Death as a terrible or fearfull thing For being all baptized into the death of Christ Rom. 6. certainly by that death of Christ our death will be unto us but a passage unto life and therefore may rather be called life than death For he that believeth in me saith Christ John 11. shall not dye for ever The Philosophers opinion of death exploded Therefore let that opinion of the Philosophers be for ever banisht from the ears and minds of Christians which affirmeth that death is the most terrible of all terrible things But grant it that it is true of the wicked to whom death is truly terrible yet to a Christian there is nothing more pleasant and desirable than death whereby he is freed from all evil and inseparably united to Christ his Lord. Phil 1. Psalm 119. Hence it is that Paul desired to be dissolved and to be with Christ Another holy man complaineth that his Pilgrimage was too long here Psalm 120.5 Thus much for those things which Christ suffered in himself for before he was outwardly tortured Christ endured much sorrow and pain and that of his own accord that so he might apply a full Remedy for those sins which we commit in our heart and thoughts For which let us also be grieved with our Lord and bewail them giving thanks to our Redeemer And withall let us behold and hearken to these things which yet remain to be spoken and prepare our selves with all devotion thereunto For thus it follows in the History And immediatly while he yet spake le Judas one of the twelve Mat. 26.47 Mar. 14.43 Luke 22.47 John 18.3 having received a band of men and Officers from the chief Priests and Pharisees and Elders and Scribes going before a great multitude came thither with Lanthorns and Torches with Swords and with Staves and with Weapons for Judas knew the place And he that betrayed him had given them a common sign saying whomsoever I shall kiss that same is he hold him fast and lead him away safely Give attention Brethren let it not be irksome to you to hear those wonderfull things that were done concerning our Lord and Saviour Prepare your hearts with all readiness It will be for your advantage as in due time ye shall willingly acknowledge We have heard of the pro-Passion already or what skirmishes Christ met with beforehand Now we draw nearer to the main Battalia While Christ yet spake to his Disciples 1. Behold a company of armed men rusht in upon them as if they had been going out to war when indeed there was no need of such warlike preparations 2. A band of men cohors is a military word and contains certain select and choyce Souldiers This was not a band of Jewish Souldiers but of Caesars which perhaps were sent from the President to gratifie the Jews in this business or else were hired for this service by the Jews themselves who promised them payment that so they might do what they intended under colour of the civil or ordinary Power and so none seeing the Romane Souldiers might dare to oppose them 3. The Magistrates of the Temple also were among that band of Souldiers whose place was to look to the repairing of the Temple and to get those things that were necessary thereunto 4. That this battel-array might be made more considerable the Officers of the Priests and Pharisees joyn themselves to it who having nothing else to do fill'd up the number and served to incense others 5. There were some of the high Priests themselves there present as appeareth by Luke chap. 22. 6. The Elders also of the people were there For none of them that hated Christ would be absent 7. They that had not other weapons took up clubs and staves as the unruly and frantick vulgar sort of people use to do in such like seditions whose fury will quickly help them to one sort of weapon or other 8. They come also with Lanthorns and Torches both because of the darkness of the night and because Christ should not hide himself from them 9. When these were thus armed Judas Iscariot goeth before them not as a Captain of Souldiers but as a Traytor of his Lord who a little while since was one among the twelve but now is one out of the twelve or none of the twelve Apostles For he had now got him more Masters than one In this place let us consider both viz. Judas and the Jews 1. Many things are to be taken notice of in Judas But above all his miserable Apostacy as one who of a Disciple became a Traytor of a companion of Christ a Captain of Thieves And he that even now supt at the same Table with Christ who did eat of his hallowed bread with the rest who heard Christ exhorting to godliness both by word and work but now slinking from that Table he joyned himself with ungodly men for a little pelf not remembring the Piety of Christ and forgetfull of all hope not regarding
so he might mollifie his mind and teach us to do the like The meaning is Friend wherefore art thou come q.d. I invite thee to be friends For as I foreknew what thou wouldst do so now I am ready to forgive thee and to receive thee into former favour and friendship again though thou hast thus sin'd against me Do not sleight my offer but consider what thou art attempting how wickedly thou dealest with me who have deserved no such thing at thy hands Friend wherefore art thou come Who did bring thee to me who forc'd thee hither Was it my fault Have any of mine offended thee But thou art come willingly of thy own accord The rest are commanded and compelled but thou comest and therefore thou hast the greater sin O Judas I pitty thee how doth thy destruction trouble me for whom I now suffer in vain Lo thou art the first on whom my blood hath no effect Why art thou come Surely not to my destruction but thine own because thou art come to destroy me by whom thou shouldest be saved For how can he be saved that would destroy the very Truth Righteousness and Salvation it self And these we may suppose were not spoken to Judas only but to all such as intend mischief to their Neighbours For truly he that wrongs his Neighbour doth first ruin himself Therefore Brethren let us look to it and give all diligence that we be not found false but reall friends of God and Christ As Abraham was called the friend of God James 2. and Lazarus the friend of Christ Joh. 11. And Christ doth not call his Apostles servants but Friends Joh. 15. But Judas was never the better for all Christs counsell It may be he thought that Christ spake this out of fear Therefore after he had kist him Christ cals him yet once more the last time and that with great expression of love and goodness Judas saith saith he dost thou betray the son of man with a kiss Now he doth lay open his sin and touch him to the quick he aggravateth the sin it self that so being terrified therewith he might forbear O Judas what a horrible sin dost thou commit What man durst ever do the like Dost thou only strive to out-strip all other men besides in malice and mischief Beware what thou dost Thou thinkest to cheat me with thy fawning flattery and to hide thy hatred from me But I knew long ago what thy purpose was and what bargain thou drovest with the Jews and what thou meanest by this thy treacherous kiss thou betrayest the Son of Man But consider what an hainous crime it is to destroy the innocent Consider also who and what he is whose life thou huntest after Grant it hitherto I have called my self only the son of Man but I will make thee see and know who this son of Man is Thou dost not destroy the son of man only but the Son of God too Thou betrayest them both at once Thou betrayest him that is thy Father by creation thy Lord by preservation thy Saviour by Redemption thy Brother by incarnation thy Master by instruction thy Friend by election and lastly him that will be thy Judge by a finall Retribution See how many sins thou committest at once and all by one kiss Thus thou woundest him by a shew of Love thou sheddest his blood by a seeming work of charity thou seekest his death in a way of peace what can be more odious then this horrid fact We see here how unwilling God is that any man should perish and how grievously they sin who are the occasion of others ruin and destruction As on the other side how honourably they deserve who are the means of others Salvation Jam. 5.20 Here Christ instructeth by his Example and Word By this Example he teacheth us 1. Patiently to bear with wicked men yea to bear the guil and treachery of false Friends as Christ did patiently bear the falshood of Judas for we that are servants ought not to be greater than our Lord. 2. So to love our Neighbour that we wink not at their faults as Christ here calleth Judas Friend yet withall he rebuked him for his sin By those two words which Christ here spake be would warn every man not to be like Judas lest they suffer as he did It were to be wisht that there were but one Judas in the Church of Christ We all indeed cry out against his malice but mean while we do the same things which we blame him for Judas was a covetous man and for filthy lucre he sold Christ He rob'd the poor of their Alms and gifts of charity He did not make it his business to preach Christ He was not converted at the preaching of Christ He took the Body of Christ in his sins He betrayed Christ under a colour of peace He was an hypocrite He was obstinate and impenitent c. How oft do we see these and such like things in a Church Is not he a Traytor that confesseth Christ with his mouth but denyeth him in his works Also he that doth contrary to righteousness truth charity c. for money or any other temporal advantage Likewise he that makes a shew of Love to his Neighbour but hateth him in his heart O cursed generation of Judas how many and deep roots hast thou fastened in the earth But the time will come when all the followers of Judas shall perish together with their Jewish frowardness Mean while let the godly like Christ bear and have patience with wicked men Now when Judas had kissed him no doubt but the rest run upon Jesus to lay hands upon lest the traytors sign being observed they should let him escape Therefore it follows in the Text When they which were about him saw what would follow Luke 22.49 they said unto him Lord shall we smite with the sword Then Simon Peter having a sword drew it John 18.10 and smote the high Priests servant and cut off his right ear the servants name was Malchus And Jesus answered and said Suffer ye thus far Luke 22.51 John 18.11 Mat 26.52 Then said Jesus unto Peter Put up thy sword into the sheath for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father and he shall presently give me more then twelve Legions of Angels The cup which my Father hath given me shall I not drink it John 18.11 Mat. 26.54 Luke 22.51 But how then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled that thus it must be And he touched his ear and healed him The Apostles understood not what Christ said at supper when he spake of buying a sword Christ meant the sword of the Spirit but they thought that he had spoken of a material sword Therefore they presently brought him two swords and now when they saw their enemies they asked whether they should fight in his defence But Peter as one hotter then the rest and flusht
with the late miracle which he saw when Christ with a word hurl'd all his enemies to the ground and not thinking of Christs answer draws his sword and falls about him as if he would valiantly perform what he promised Who would not take Peter for a very stout and valiant man that durst signly incounter such a company of armed men If we consider him carnally then he did notably discharge his Engagement that he would die with Christ Did he not lay down his life for Christ when he hazarded it in charging an army of men But his Lord did not so construe it Peter did this more out of carnal confidence than of spiritual faith Now indeed he was bold so long as he saw a divine Power in Christ but presently after Christ hid his Power Peters courage quickly grew cold Whence 't is plain that this his valour proceeded not from faith if it had it would have held out in danger For Faith is most couragious in difficulties There was love and zeal in Peter but not according to knowledge Christians are forbid to fight Mat. 5. If we would overcome the world it must be with another kind of weapon we can do little or nothing with a corporal sword Peter saw that the sons of Zebedee were chid for saying Master Wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven and consume these Samaritans as Elias did Luke 9.54 Know ye not saith he of what spirit ye are of The son of man came not to destroy but to save mens lives This Peter heard and yet now he layes about him as if he would kill them all if he could The flesh ever loves fighting it seeks to revenge it self Peter did not yet understand that Christ must suffer Nay he did not know that Martial Discipline was never taught in the school of Christ but that patient submission was alwayes learned there Whereas Peter did that servant no more hurt no thanks to Peters good will but to Christs goodness who useth to do good to unworthy and unthankfull men otherwise fire from Heaven might more justly have consumed this servant or the earth have swallowed him up alive But whereas Peter did in special cut off this servants ear it was not by chance but by the Providence of God and that not without a Mysterie too 1. For First It signified that the Jews should from henceforth lose the true and right hearing or obedience of the Law and Prophets and should interpret all things in a wrong and not in a right sense which also is come to pass 2. But secondly Whereas Christ healed that servant it shewed that in due time they should be inlightned again by Christ when the fulness of the Gentiles was come in Rom. 11. 3. Thirdly Whereas he whose ear was cut off was the servant of the high Preist it she weth that this sort of men viz. the Parasites of great persons have for the most part but one ear only and that the left one whence it is that they only hear and report to their Masters those things only which are false wicked worldly c. but they will neither hearken to nor tell their Lords the truth the Word of God the Righteousness and good service of others 4. But lastly Whosoever is an enemy to Christ hath but one ear for he understandeth all things in a wrong sense and never cometh to the light of Truth The name also of this servant is exprest because of the miracle that was wrought on him in curing his ear again But let us return again to Peter who was now fallen under the power of the sword because he had taken up the sword And no doubt but he had felt the force of other swords if Christ had not protected him by his divine Power What doth Christ therefore do He reproved Peter and forbids him to use any such force or violence and that with many Arguments for Peter by this fact was many wayes to be reproved 1. First because every private person is forbid to use the sword 2. Secondly Because having been so long in the school of Christ he should have learned that the weapons of our warfar are spiritual mighty through God 2 Cor. 10. 3. Thirdly He was an Apostle yea the chief of the Apostles whose duty is to save not to destroy 4. Lastly Peter was most blame worthy in that he gave the first blow before any hurt was done either to him or to Christ Therefore Christ doth justly blame him more than the rest He speaks but one word to the rest Suffer ye thus far saith he q.d. It is a great work of Charity to preserve the life of our Neighbour and to defend him from violence but there is another business now in hand My Father hath appointed me to suffer and to die Let me alone therefore that I may suffer and accomplish those things which the Father hath determined to do by me for the salvation of men Suffer ye yet that I may be apprehended and perfect the work of your Redemption this he said to the other Disciples But he saith more to Peter at first Put up thy sword into his place q.d. Knowest thou not that I did chide thee before and called thee Satan for this very thing Mat. 16. Do not hinder my death but rather study to conform to it Throw away this thy sword with which thou dost kill and slay men My sword which I gave thee doth destroy and cut down sin but preserveth men Put up therefore that outward sword into the sheath or as the other Evangelists say into its place Now the proper place of the material sword is the ordinary Power Therefore hide thy sword here Let that Power use it not thou If the body be sick the Physitian is to cure it not the Plow-man So if any thing be amiss in the Mystical or rather the Politick body it concerns the Power to deal with it not every private person 1. Christ then doth hereby forbid all revenge to private persons as it is written Vengeance is mine I will repay it Deut. 32. 2. Secondly He teacheth us to overcome evil with good according to that Mat. 5. Ye have heard that it hath been said An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth But I say unto you Do good to them that hate you Christians ought not to defend themselves with swords and staves but with Humility Patience Gentleness Courtesies Learn of me saith he for I am meek and lowly in heart Mat. 11. 3. Again Christ doth hereby condemn our wrath and impatience who cannot put up and pass by a hasty word nor be content to requite with the like loss but must revenge our selves double and trebble contrary to that of Paul Be not overcome of evil but overcome evil with good Rom. 12. 4. Fourthly We are here taught that the Gospel is not to be fought for with worldly weapons and
heaven and was brought before the antient of daies and had power to judge given to him It seem'd impossible to him that this Jesus of Nazareth should be that Son of man Therefore he doth so rave and rage and so earnestly press and call for sentence to be past upon him But see the malice and hypocrisie of this high Priest They had often heard Christ say that he was the Son of God and that he came down from heaven and they had as often strove and contended with him about it as is clear in John 10. and many other places But here this Caiaphas exclaims at it and tears his cloathes as if he had heard some new and strange thing from him And all this he doth in ostentation and to stir up others more eagerly against Christ This was done by the counsel of God that Caiaphas the high Priest of the Jews should rend his own cloathes at the Passion of Christ when all the enemies could not tear the coat of our Lord whereby was signified that the Jewish Priesthood should be torn in pieces for the wickedness of their high Priests as it is now too much to be feared that our Priesthood will be shattered and torn for the sins of our high Priests What Caiaphas did hypocritically do in renting his cloathes counterfeiting great sorrow That let us do really and unfeignedly to wit grieve heartily for the blasphemy against God and not only be troubled at it but use all means to withstand forbid But such means only as God hath appointed and punish it What great confusion are we in who daily hear blasphemings and yet are not a jot troubled at it nor seek to vindicate and withstand the wrong offered to the name of God whereas wicked Caiaphas trembles at that which he did but think was blasphemy Let us now hear the sentence of the Council against Jesus It is said They all condemned him saying he is guilty of death Who pronounced this sentence The Priests and Pharisees the Scribes and Elders the blindest of all men But why did they pass this sentence Because Christ answered well and proved the same before by signs and miracles and afterward with reall proof They were swift and made haste to shed blood Therefore they were called to the Council Caiaphas knew very well where and of whom to get votes enough He knew they would all vote as he would have them Therefore the Evangelist saith plainly that they all condemned Christ not one among so many learned wise and grave men opposing it There was none stood up for the innocent there was no patron for him there none made his appeal no man craved further time for him to make his defence so wholly were they made and addicted for Caiaphas They all agreed in evil who could never accord in good And how oft amongst us also is sentence given in favour of Princes Potentates and great men against the innocent Thus Christ who sought the glory of his Father in all things is said to blaspheme and he that was free from all sin is proclaimed worthy of death Who sees not what shame they here cast on Christ when they condemn him to death for a blasphemer and so impiously disgrace that most holy Name which Phil. 2. is above every name at which every knee shall bow and by which only we must be saved whereas there is no greater loss than of a mans name and good report nor is there any thing that can be outwardly inflicted will so grieve a wise man as disgrace and shame A good name is better then great riches Prov. 22.1 Here then is fulfilled what Christ in David foretold long ago The reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me Psalm 69 We were and are Blasphemers and by consequence guilty of death These reproaches were ours but Christ transferr'd them and took them on himself lest our consciences should be tormented with them for ever Beware therefore O Christian that thou dost never blaspheme Christ for that reproach redounds on God himself For he that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father John 5. Wherefore Christ upbraideth the Jews saying Say ye of him whom the Father hath sanct fied and sent into the world Thou blasphemest because I said I am the Son of God John 10.36 Let us rather give thanks to him who was judged to death as a blasphemer for us It followeth And the men that held Jesus mocked him Buke 22.63 Mat. 26.67 and spit in his face and buffeted him and covered his face Mark 14.65 and smote him with the palms of their hands saying Prophesie unto us thou Christ who is he that smote thee And many other things blasphemously spake they against him Luke 22.65 They have condemned Christ to death for a blasphemer Now they mock him as a fool and handle him most shamefully and exercise all kind of devilish spite upon him When wicked men have extreamly defamed and impiously dealt with a man at last they jeer him so they first make a man a blasphemer and then use him like a fool And although nothing doth more scandalize and offend carnal men then the infirmity of Christ yet the Evangelists esteem it the greatest honour of Christ to record this injury offered to him For his goodness and mercy doth so much the more appear by how much the more he was abased and humbled for us And it is so much the sweeter to us by how much he was made more despicable for us For we may truly glory in his affliction And hence ariseth our greatest Consolation to see that he hath so abundantly expiated our pride and rebellion against God Therefore O my soul who art redeemed by the blood of Christ betake thy self into thy chamber and retire into the closet of thy heart and meditate on those great things which thy Lord endured for thee in that shadow of the night Consider the words of the Evangelists which though they be few yet they do fully express the huge affront and indignity offered to Christ The men saith he that held Jesus mocked him c. These were the servants of the High Priests and the Souldiers of the Romans which held Christ intangled in their snares To these he was now delivered to do with him as they listed after the Council had examined him And they to gratifie their masters who stood by loaded him with all the scorn and shame they could possibly devise and invent and exercised all the fury of their malice without any controll and no doubt but they received a special reward after from the High Priests for their great pains taken and their good service done in mocking Christ In expectation whereof these lewd servants and Souldiers did so much the more glory the more they could revile afflict and lash him So that they did cruelly and most miserably use the King of Glory all that live-long Night For 1. They did childishly fleer at him as they use
Counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed Psalm 2. The Gentiles did rage indeed like bruit beasts for they knew not what they did The people to wit the Jews imagined vanity They laid their heads together as it is written Psalm 109. They compassed me about with words of hatred the Kings that is Pilate and Herod Hence the Apostles composed their mournfull prayer Of a truth Lord say they against thy holy child Jesus both Herod and Pontius Pilate with Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together c. Acts 4. To this may be added that of the Psalmist They are confederate against thee the Tabernacles of Edom and the Ishmaelites of Moab and the Hagarens Gebal and Ammon c. Psalm 83. They are like Sampsons foxes their tails be tyed together and like the scales of the Leviathan sticking so close together that no air can come between them Job 41. So when it comes to persecution of the godly and to propagate ungodliness now wicked men are easily reconciled and made friends But all this while Christ is not set at liberty but compel'd to the Cross and die he must Thus Tyrants for the most part now adays are quickly quiet one with another after they have robbed and spoiled and plundred and utterly undone the poor and not one amongst them all will restore or help the poor man to that which is his right Concerning this peace of the wicked David saith I was envious at the wicked when I saw the prosperity of sinners Psalm 73. But a little after he saith Thou didst set them in slippery places thou castest them down into destruction How are they brought into desolation as in a moment They are utterly consumed with terrors As a dream when one awaketh so shalt thou make their image to vanish out of the City Psalm 73. All this was fulfilled in these two men for both of them were banished It follows And Pilate when he had called together the chief Priests and the Rulers and the people said unto them Luk. 23.13 Ye have brought this man unto me as one that perverteth the people and Behold I have examined him before you and I have found no fault in this man touching those things whereof ye accuse him No nor yet Herod for I sent you to him and lo nothing worthy of death is done unto him I will therefore chastise him and release him And when Jesus was accused of the chief Priests and Elders Mat. 27.12 Mar. 15.3 he answered nothing Then saith Pilate unto him answerest thou nothing Behold how many things they witness against thee But he answered him to never a word insomuch that the Governour marvelled greatly Christ is now brought back again from Herod to Pilate but so as without doubt many godly men wept to see how miserably he was led along We use to say when innocent men suffer Thieves and Robbers should be thus dealt with not honest and just men But the Lord Christ was neither Thief nor Robber and yet he endured all this and was so tossed to and fro from one to another and with such disgrace too that it would have made one shed many a tear to see the veryest Rascal in the world so used Paul an Apostle of this Jesus was tost and tumbled up and down in the same manner For as the Lord Jesus had his Annas's Caiaphas's Pilates Herods so Paul had his Annanias's Felix's Festus's Agrippa's c. Why should the Scholler speed better then his Master And let it not repent thee Brother of the Cross be not thou ashamed of it for thy Lord and mine did never blush at it Holy truths can no otherways be brought to light Good men must look for no other usage Pilate and Herod have no better entertainment in their houses Innocency Humility Simplicity the Spirit Knowledge c. are nothing worth in their market they make but a piff of these Thou must be their Mocking-stock and make them fools sports yea though thou wert as good as Elias unless thou will say and do as they please that is to say and do the filthiest and basest wickedness in the world Satan knows his time and advantage and can tell well enough how and when to make wicked men friends but so as that their reconciliation shall be thy ruine and destruction But Pilate who was a little honester than the Jews and Herod that he may seem not to wrong any man doth once more call together the chief of the Jews and leaves no stone unturned but useth all means possible to set Jesus at liberty and release him safe and sound Ye have brought this man to me saith he and have accused him of many things and I have examined him as strictly and as narrowly as possibly I can to sift out the truth and sound the business to the very bottom to bring things to light I have taken him aside and asked him alone and examined him in private and now I have questioned him in your presence before your own faces and yet I cannot hear or understand any thing but that he is wrong'd exceedingly and all that I can do for my life and heart I can find no cause of death in him And if ye will not believe me behold Herod also his own Lord under whose jurisdiction he is doth think and say the same he is of one mind and opinion with me in this matter For he under whose power he is hath sent him back again without punishment which he would never have done if he had found him faulty What therefore will ye do seeing according to the truth of the business there is nothing to be found in this man worthy of reprehension or wherefore he should be put to death Will you use violence to him and kill him contrary to all Law and Reason Doth your Law teach you to serve men so Surely Solon Lycurgus Minos and the Roman Tables allow no such thing much less command it The chiefest Law of Lycurgus was that no man should be punished before he was convicted and condemned Nor did ever any Law-maker allow of so notorious a wickedness as to cut off and destroy the innocent How much less ought you to do any such thing who go under the name of Religion and are professors of the most holy Law Let me desire you therefore to hearken to my advice which I suppose may somewhat pacifie you I will chastise and scourge him after the manner of the Romans that it may not be said you have bound him and brought him before me without a cause but I neither can nor will I put him to death because I find no such fault in him See here Pilate doth again bear witness of Christs innocency against the impiety of the Jews that by the righteous Judgement of God their damnation might be the greater You shall shortly see the Sun and the Heavens the Earth and the stones testifie against them and proclaim