that he might justly complaine as in the Prophet Torcular calcavi solus I have trodden the wine-presse alone and of all the people there was none with me Esay 63.3 But I was a reproach not onely among mine enemies but especially also among my neighbours so that feare came among â—ine acquaintance and they that did see me without conveyed themselves from me c. Psal 31.11 12. O let us contemplate and admire then that so our thankefulnesse may be increased and our pride abated the infinitenesse and immensity of the love of Christ unto us that being the wisedome of his heavenly father would yet thus become the foolishnesse and scorne and ignominy and contempt of the world for our sakes and sinnes Taking upon him I say our foolishnesse tâ—at so he might make us wise unto salvation our scorne and contempt that so he might make us partakers of his glory as also our curse that so he might make us heyres of the eternall blessing and inheritance with the Saints of light Yea he would have his hands bound and his eyes blinded that he might neither take notice of nor see our sinnes no nor yet inflict vengeance upon us for the same but with great mercy and patience connive and winke at them expecting our repentance and returne from them beholding and punishing only in himselfe those great offences which we have perpetrated and committed O inaudita bonitas O verè paterna viscera O unheard of kindnesse and truly paternall bowels of pity and compassion who ever heard before of any one that would be content to be made a scorne to save them from scorne that scorned him or to be derided and flowted to keepe them from contemptand shame that jeat'd him or that would dye to save those alive that killed him Surely as there can be no more horrible and haynous offence imagined then for reasonable creatures to proceed so farre in irrationality and impiety as to lay violent and brutish hands upon their Creator and their God as these Jewes upon Christ so on the other side nothing can be conceived to be so excellent and eminent as the goodnesse and charity of that Creator which is contented to beare the punishments and scornes and scoffes of those his creatures by whom he is so assayled and assaulted vilifyed and abused as our Saviour Christ of these Jewes Let us then for use and application of this point be ashamed to be proud of any thing which we either have or doe whether it be wealth or wit learning or living greatnesse or goodnesse seeing the Sonne of God and glory of Heaven did not disdaine to become thus humbled for us and for our sakes And let us beseech his infinite goodnesse and mercy that although hee have permitted and suffered himselfe to be brought to such a low degree of humiliation as to have his divine and heavenly face to be thus sullyed and soyled by the foule and filthy impure and uncleane spawling and spitting of the Jewes and his holy eyes to be vayled and hiâ—selfe to be derided and scorned in such a contemptuous and disgracefull manner that yet he would be pleasâ—d to prâ—serve us from being accessaries to these their fearefull evils by giving unto us such a measure of his sâ—ving and sanctifying graces as whereby our soules made after his own image and likenesse may be kept so pure and cleane from all filthinesse of the flesh and spirit as that they may not be contamined or defiled with any the least foule or sinfull either thoughts words or workes And that he would also vouchsafe farther to remove and put away from our hard hearts that vaile of ignorance and ingratitude wherewith by reason of our sinnes and transgressions they have deservedly a long time been vayled and covered that so from henceforth we may carefully endeavour our selves to serve him with all love and diligence in righteousnesse and true holinesse all the daies of our lives For they first spit and spawle in the face of Christ which defile his image and similitude in their owne soules with impure and uncleane lusts and desires As also they doe the like secondly That reject and set light by his holy and heavenly motions and inspirations prâ—senting themselves oftentimes to assist and helpe them in the purging and purifying of their said soules from such uncleannesses And they likewise in the third place which with unhallowed hearts and hands doe offer to receive the most holy and sanctified body and blood of Christ in the Sacrament Comming thereunto without reverence or sense of piety and true godlinesse before they have throughly cleansed their soules from the sullage and filth of their sinnes by hearty sorrow and unfeined repentance for the same Secondly They veile and cover the eyes of Christ that doe not readily and willingly lay open their sinnes before him by confession but extenuate and lessen their weakenesses and imperfections with counterfeit pretexts and vaine and idle excuses as if they could dissemble and cloake them before the face of Almighty God our heavenly Father As also they that are so audacious and daring in their sinnes as to commit them with an high hand without either fear of God or shame of men ac si non videret Deus as if God either could not or would not or did not see them Thirdly They speake slanderously and scandalously of Christ which speak irreverently of holy things or when professing to be religious yet they speake like worldlings without either edification or profit to such as heare them And lastly they mocke and scoffe at Christ with scorne and contemne his messengers and Ministers or indeed any other his poore Saints and Servants whatsoever For he that despiseth you despiseth me saith he himselfe Luke 10.16 And therefore for conclusion let us pray From these and such like fearefull sinnes as were thus committed by these wicked Jewes against our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Good Lord deliver us Amen John 18.28 29 30. Then led they Jesus from Caiaphas unto the Hall of judgement or Pilates House and it was early And they themselves went not into the judgement Hall lest they should bee defiled but that they might eate the Passeover Pilate therefore went out unto him and said What accusation bring you against this man They answered and said unto him If he were not a malefactor we would not have delivered him unto thee WHat passed upon our blessed Saviour in the house of Caiaphas and Ecclesiasticall Conventicle rather then Councell of the Jewes you heard the last day So that now in the next place we are to see how he was handled before Pilate and the Temporall Judges unto whose Court and custody he was delivered and turned over after they had wrought their will and fill of mischiefe upon him among themselves where first we shall not doe amisse to observe the fulfilling of Christs owne prophesie and fore-telling of this very passage himselfe For in the 18. of Saint Lukes
part of our love being as the fuell to keepe that fire of his love still burning on the Altar of our hearts let us againe and againe consider what Christ hath suffered for us For the fruits and benefits of the frequent commemoration of Christ his passion nec pauci sunt nec parvi saith one are neither few nor small but these foure at the least custodia à peccatis spes firmior praesumptio infirmior charitas flagrantior it will keepe and preserve us from falling into notorious sins and delioquencies strengthen and confirme our hope weaken and abate our presumption and lastly kindle and inflame our love and charity as well among our selves as towards him and his heavenly Father which last I have especially chosen to inlarge upon at this time To which purpose therefore marke once more I beseech you how the Church speaketh to each faithfull soule saying Come forth yee daughters of Sion and behold King Salomon with the crowne wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his marriage and in the day of the gladnesse of his heart Cant. 3.11 So say I O yee faithfull soules daughters of your mother the Church Goe forth Egredimini de sensu carnis ad intellâ—ctum mentis Goe out of the sense of the flesh and come to the understanding of the mind come I say a little out of your selves and by holy meditation behold your King Salomon the true peace-maker and your King too Christ Jesus who though his Kingdome be not of this world yet is a King even in this world with the crowne wherewith his mother crowned him that is with the crowne of thornes upon his head wherewith his mother the Jewes Synagogue quae ei non sc matrem exhibuit sed novercam which herein proved not her selfe indeed a kind mother unto him but rather a stepdame crowned him i. e. fodicavit lancinavit saith Tertullian galled him and gored him In the day of his marriage i. e. in the day of his passion upon the crosse when he was married to his Church built out of his side as Adam to his Eve created of his rib In the day also of the gladnesse of his heart i. e. in the very season of his suffering which was as joyfull to him as a geniall and nuptiall day unto a bridegrome come forth I say see him consider him and meditate on him Et palleat sub spinato capite membrum fieri delicatulum and let us be ashamed under an head so crowned with thornes to become members of delicacy and wanton nicenesse sed studeamus ut membrorum vita capitis sit corona as Austin but let us rather indeavour that the austere and mortified lives of the members may be the crowne and glory of the head and freely acknowledge and confesse every one of us Et quantum valeat quantum debeat as the same Father as well his owne worth in that God would vouchsafe to suffer such things for him as his owne debt and obligation of love and thankfulnesse backe againe unto him for such his sufferings And this he expecteth and looketh for at all our hands crying out unto his Spouse in the Canticles to this purpose that she would set him as a seale on her heart and a signet on her soule Cant. 8.6 which is as if he should say Though I am now going from thee for a time yet forget me not but as a loving wife frames the Image of her deare husband in her heart and as a longing woman imprints the forme of the thing which shee longs for on the childe in her wombe so set me as a seale on thy soule thinke on me delight in me Figar tibi totus in corde qui totus pro te fui fixus in cruce let me be wholly fixed yea fastned in thy heart which have beene wholly fastned for thee on the crosse And as that famous Artemisia so much affected her dead husband Mausolus that she tooke the dead ashes of his urne and mingled them wâ—th her drinke and so intombed his dead carkas in her living body so do thou my Spouse let me live with thee and in thee even after my departure eat me drink me in the Sacrament let me be still in thine heart and on thine arme in thine intention in thine operation within thee without thee every where and at all times let me be beloved and thought upon on earth as I am and ever will be carefull of thee in heaven let us O let us then fulfill his desire now that he may accomplish all our desires hereafter And this sufficeth for Christs sufferings under Pontius Pilate and his crucifying Marke 15. verse 37. And Jesus cryed with a loud voyce and gave up the ghost Dead THe next circumstance to be handled after the crucifying of Christ is his death For so saith the Creed He suffered under Pontius Pilate was crucified dead c. which is the very same with the Text read unto you Iesus cryed with a loud voyce and gave up the ghost For to give up the ghost we all know in our daily and ordinary experience is as much as to dye or to have our soules separated from our bodies which before did live act and appeare together So that to say Christ is dead is as much as to say that after he had indured manifold torments as well in soule as in body here upon the earth that at the last per dolorum vulnerum violentiam as one saith through the violence of the said wounds and afflictions the naturall frame and complexion of his body the conserver of his life before being dissolved his said soule and body were separated asunder verè realiter as truly and really as when any one of us dies Serm. 131. â— Temp. so that sicut in veritate natus ita in veritate mortuus sepultus est saith S. Austin As he was borne a man in the truth of our humane nature so as truly as any man else does or ever did he againe died and was buried And thus we are come at the last to the summe of Christs obedience unto his heavenly Fathers ordinance when commending his spirit unto him in cruce expiravit hee gave up the ghost upon the crosse or as it is in the Creed He died For so saith S. Paul Hee humbled himselfe and became obedient unto the death even the death of the crosse Phil. 2.8 yea he was made a little inferiour to the Angels through the suffering of death that by Gods grace he might taste of death for all men Heb. 2.9 In which wee may behold as one saith Omnium Christi passionum ac afflictionum terminum i. e. the end and termination of all Christs sufferings and afflictions His consummatum est or small finishing of all that belonged to his paines and our peace to his sufferings and our satisfaction And till this was finished there could no peace be perfected nor satisfaction of our debts acknowledged
of the Apostle more true then in the death of Christ Virtus in infirmitate perficitur Power and strength is made perfect in weaknesse 2 Cor. 12.9 De duplici Martyrio For as Cyprian saith Ibi fracta est Satanae Tyrannis ibi devicti sunt inferi ibi triumphatum est de Diabolo ibi dejectus orcus coelum apertum c. Therein is the tyranny of Satan broken and the infernall powers overthrowne the Devill subjected the Principalities of Hell dejected and Heaven it selfe opened to all true and faithfull beleevers So that as hee goes on Quid homine mortuo contemptius quis enim vel Caesarem mortuum metuat sed Christi morte quid efficacius velum Templi scissum est terra concussa saxa discissa monumenta aperta c. Although nothing be more contemptible then a dead man no man fearing no not Caesar himselfe when he is once dead yet nothing is more efficacious and powerfull then the death of Christ whereat the vayle of the Temple was rent the earth did quake the stones did cleave and the graves did open of themselves so that many bodies of the Saints which slept arose as it is said Mat. 27.51 52. verses A reason of which powerfull effects is this that although the soule and body of Christ were separated asunder by his death à neutro tamen horum recesserit divinitas yet his divinity was separated from neither But Tam Dei virtus in Christo ex operibus quae fecit apparuit quam fragilitas hominis ex passione quam pertulit as Lactantius speakes Inst l. 4. cap. 14. The power of his God-head manifested it selfe in these his powerfull workes aswell as the frailty of his man-hood in those other things which he suffered So that Factus est homo suscipiendo quod non erat non perdendo quod erat as Saint Austin speakes Although Serm. 60. in Iohan. by being made man he tooke that which before he was not yet he did not loose nor let goe any thing of what hee was Sed manens Deus factus est homo But continued God although hee was likewise made man Accepit te non consumptus est in te as he goes on He indeed tooke thee unto himselfe O man but yet did not consume or spend waste or diminish himselfe in thee So that wee must hold and beleeve as that most Reverend Incarnat of Christ the Sonne of God learned and painfull Archbishop of Armagh well observes That there are two distinct natures in Christ God-head and manhood which are so distinct as that they doe not make one compounded nature but still remaine uncompounded and unconfounded together And yet though never so distinct in their natures they are as firmely and fully united againe in the person as can possibly be imagined and conceived seeing in him dwelleth all the fulnesse of the Godhead bodily as the Apostle affirmeth Colos 2.9 that is by such a personall and reall union as doth inseparably and everlastingly conjoyne that infinite Godhead with his finite man-hood in the unity of the selfe same individuall person So that by reason of the strictnesse of this personall union of these two natures in the person of Christ whatsoever may be verified of either of those natures the same may be truly spoken of the whole person from whethersoever of the natures it be denominated so farre Doctor Vsher Which if it be so beloved then by this time I hope you are as well satisfied in the Quis as the Quid Who it is that suffered and dyed as what he suffered viz. even Jesus Christ the Son of God which was conceived by the Holy Ghost and borne of the Virgin Mary as you have heard out of the former Articles even he also is the He which suffered under Pontius Pilate was crucified dead buried c. the worlds Creator and mans Redeemer the Almighty God himselfe Totus Christus though not Totum Christi whole Christ though not all of Christ was the Quis which was the passive Agent and active Patient in all these things for Jesus cryed with a loud voyce and gave up the ghost Neither let it seeme strange to any man that that should be predicated and spoken of the whole person of Christ which can be verified but of one of his natures seeing without any note or thought of strangenesse at all we do the like dayly in our owne and ordinary discourses even concerning our selves and proper actions For whereas the whole person and compound of man consists of two parts and those very different in their qualities and operations as of a soule and a body whereof the one is carnall the other spirituall and each hath his proper actions and imployments accordingly by themselves as the body to eate drinke sleepe walke runne ride suffer hunger thirst heat cold and the like and the soule to understand conceive remember forget to be chearefull or sorrowfull angry or well pleased and such like either of which cannot truly be verified of the different part as not the bodies actions of the soule nor the soules operations of the body And yet we usually referre both and all to the whole person and that without any incongruity or unpropernesse of speech considering the firme union that is betwixt them So by reason of the hypostaticall union and communion of properties that is betwixt the two natures in Christ Divine and Humane That which is proper but to one may safely be predicated and spoken and applyed to the whole Vigilius As also if man whole man may in himselfe have two such contrary qualities as to be able to dye and not to dye To dye in his body and not to dye in his soule as our Saviour himselfe hath taught us saying Feare not those that can kill your bodyes but not your soules Then much more may Christ whole Christ dye in one nature and yet live in another And in him God be said to dye too and Man to live for ever In him I say the second Person onely of the Trinity For to speak it of any of the other two persons whether Father or Holy Ghost it is no lesse then blasphemy and that which never came so much as in the thought of any orthodoxe Christian much lesse divine although some Hereticks there have beene called Patro-passioni which have seem'd to atribute suffering to the Father Dr Clarke But a learned Clarke of our owne calls it an unlearned heresie sprung of Scriptures misconstrued Christs speech especially I and my Father are one c. and therefore I will not so farre trouble my selfe or Readers as to goe about to confute it Sed his perplexioribus disputationibus praecisis as Chitraeus speakes but leaving all such intricate and perplexed discourses as Hereticks did usually beat their braines about we will fall to use and application Fides enim dum simpliciter proponitur intellectum illustrat dum autem altissima ejus mysteria
recompence and reward of all such his spirituall labours And thus farre Chrysostome of the Great Week And thus farre I of the sufferings and death of Christ in the same Weeke or his giving up the ghost Buryed THe utmost point and period of the sufferings and death of Christ and the last degree of the dejection and humiliation of his assumed humanity is reckoned by the generall consent of most and best Divines to be his buriall that is when after his death his body like other mens was laid into the ground that so men might see and know that hee was dead indeed according as it was foretold of him That he should make his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death though he had done no wickednesse neither was any deceit in his mouth Esay 59.3 For as Jonas was three dayes and three nights in the Whales belly so shall the Sonne of man be in the heart of the earth saith he of himselfe Matth. 12.40 For the better record of the truth of which prophesies all the foure Evangelists have reported and set downe the manner of it as yee may finde in them if you please to have recourse unto them Saint John shall serve for my purpose in this place as being somewhat larger in some circumstances then the rest who describes the order of Christs buriall in this sort After the death of him saith he Joseph of Arimathea besought Pilate that hee might take downe the body of Jesus and Pilate gave him licence He came then and tooke Jesus body And there came also Nicodemus and brought Myrrhe and Aloes mingled together about an hundred pound Then tooke they the body of Jesus and wrapped it in linnen cloathes with the odours as the manner of the Jewes is to bury And in that place where Jesus was crucified was a Garden and in the Garden a new Sepulchre wherein man was never yet layd There then layd they Jesus because of the Jewes preparation day for the Sepulchre was neare John 19.38 39 40 41 42. verses Where yee see then a large description of the solemnity of his buriall in which wee may observe that though his enemies did crucifie him and put him to death yet his friends onely take care to bury him and have him decently interred Which argues the sincerity of their affection towards him though as yet they durst not openly confesse him for feare of the Jewes And it was more fittingly done by these then it could have beene done by his knowne Disciples because as Saint Austin saith Ser. 117. de Temp. Si Apostoli sepelirent eum dicerent non sepultum quem Judaei nunciaverant raptum The world might have beene apt to beleeve that he had never beene buried at all seeing the Jewes gave out that he was stollen away And because he dyed to save other men it was but reason he should be laid in another mans grave Vt quid enim illi propria sepultura qui in se propriam non habebat mortem saith the same Austin Ser 133. de Temp. For why should he have a Sepulcher of his owne to whom death nor buriall did not properly belong Vt quid illi tumulus in terris cujus sedes manebat in coelis Or why should he looke for a Tombe on earth whose habitation and abiding place was onely in Heaven neither indeed had he any For Saint Matthew tells us that Joseph laid him in his owne new Tombe which hee had hewne out in the Rock Matth. 27.60 And thus much briefly of the manner of Christs buriall The causes thereof is the next thing to be considered which are assigned by Writers upon this subject to bee diverse I wi l prosecute onely some few of the chiefe and so conclude The first whereof shall be this viz. That the truth of his death might thereby be manifested and confirmed For living men use not to be buried but only such aâ— are dead To which purpose also some other parts and passages of his Passion may be urged and alleadged As that a Souldier thrust a speare into his side That he was taken downe from the Crosse so soone as they perceived him to be dead indeed That they annoynted and imbalmed him to the buriall and wrapped him in linnen clothes and the like For as by touching handling and seeing of him as also by his eating of broyled fish afterwards and part of an honey-combe we conclude the truth of his Resurrection so by these other circumstances the truth of his death Secondly that in his Grave he might bury all our sinnes for which that curse was imposed on us In pulverem reverteris Thou shalt returne to dust Compend Theol. c. 49. Gen. 3.19 For as Aquinas well observes Sinne hath brought upon us not onely infirmities and afflictions in the time of our lives but defects also even after our death aswell in our bodies as our soules In our soules to descend to the lowest Lake contrary to the nature of spirituall essences which should ascend rather to the highest heavens and in our bodies to returne againe to the earth from whence they were taken contrary to the Law of our Creation which was to have beene so quickned by the spirit of life as not to have died at all but to have liv'd together with the soule for ever Now this defect of our bodies is to bee considered as our School-man speakes Secundum positionem secundum resolutionem either according to its position or resolution It s position is onely to be laid in the ground Its resolution is also to be dissolved into the first elements of which it was compacted and composed The former of these Christ would did undergoe but not the latter according to that of the Psalmist Non dabis sanctum tuum videre corruptionem Thou shalt not suffer thy holy One to see corruption viz. by the putrefaction of his body Psal 16.10 The reason whereof is this because as the matter or materials of Christs body comming from the nature of man was in regard thereof to be returned to ' its proper and accustomed place under the ground Locus enim corporibus debetur secundum materiam praedominantis elementi that is Place is due to bodies according to the matter of the predominant element which is Earth So the frame and composure of his body comming not from man but from the vertue and power and workemanship of the Holy Ghost was not to be dissolved neither would he or did he undertake it because herein he was singular and differed from other men Thus farre Aquinas Thirdly hee was therefore buried to shew that wee by Baptisme are buried with him into death as the Apostle speaketh that like as hee was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so wee also should walke in newnesse of life Rom. 6.4 Fourthly he was buryed and rested in his grave the whole day of the Jewes Sabbath that he might sanctify an
because Myrrhe was wont to be used in the sacrifices of the old Law but also because the body of Christ was so embalmed before his buriall as we may see John 19.39 40. Verses Or because the Jewes even just before his Crucifying dederunt ei bibere vinum Myrrhatum gave him Wine to drinke mingled with Myrrhe Marke 15.23 which as Cyrill saith Fellis instar amara est â—atâ—eiâ—â—si 13 is even as bitter as gall But I must confesse that Mercerus a learned expositor upon the place doth not approve of the bundle of Myrrhe in this sense but acknowledging Quòd quidam nostrorum c. that some did so expound it upon the same reason yet concludes himselfe That Nil necesse est c. there was no need of such an interpretation But saith he simplex sâ—nsus est c. the plaine meaning of the place is that the Spouse saith her bâ—loved was most sweet and gratefull unto her even as a bundle of Myrrhe is pleasing and delightfull to the sent and he addes his reason too because Christus in ecclesiam odores spargit suavissimos c. Christ doth as it were strow sweete odours of his gifts and graces upon his Church and chosen But beloved the truth is it may safely be taken and expounded in both senses For Myrrhe may be said after a sort to resemble the Physitians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is it is both bitter and sweet sweet in the smell bitter in the taste And so is the sacrifice of â—hrist sweet in the offering bitter in the suffering sweet in the nostrils of God his Father that injoyned it that accepts it and sweet unto his spouse the Church i. e. the whole number of his faithfull ones wheresoever dispersed throughout the whole world for whom it was performed and to whose comfort it is applied in regard whereof she hath reasâ—n to say as followes in the text inter ubâ—ra mea commorabitur he shall lye all night bâ—twixt my brests in the same verse Yet it is bitter yea most bitter unto him that for his sake is content to sustaine and endure it Which diversitie of the apprehension and relish as I may so speake of the sacrifice of Christ is by one well exprest after this manner when he saies Patitur Christus ex hoc dolor patitur pro nobis ex hoc laetitia patitur ad suam mortem ut videatis hominem patitur ad nostram vitam ut ametis Deum patitur in cruce ecce miseriam patitur ut resurgat ecce gloriam And as well Englished by another a Divine moderne Poet of our own truely I am sure whether intâ—ntionally or no I know not in this sort Christ suffers and in this his teares begin C. Fletâ—â—â— Poâ—â—◠〈◊〉 Ciâ— sâ— Triumph Suffers for us and our joy springs in this Suffers to death here is his manhood seen Suffers to rise and here his god-head is c. And thus you see how Christ our blessed Saviour may be said to be a bundle aswell of bitter as of sweet myrrhe A sweet bundle to his heavenly Father aâ—d his beloved spouse the Church but a bitter bundle to himselfe in regard of his continuall sufferings which were so knit and bound together throughout the whole course of his life that there was no intermission or release betwixt them and therefore justly termed and styled a bundle If therefore Solomon could say of man in generall That cuncti dies ejus delâ—ribus aerumnis pleni All his daies are sorrowes and his travaile griefe as Eccles 2.23 Then much more might the Prophet say of this man in particular that he was Vir dolorum sciens infirmitates Esay 53.3 i. e. A man so composed of sorrowes as that he had a taste and sense of all humane infirmities I meane all that were naturall not sinfull And that together with our nature he tooke all that belonged thereunto sinne onely excepted as all our weakenesses our wants our sicknesses our sores our griefes our sorrowes yea all our common infirmities though not Personall defects both of body and soule as is solidly discussed and plainely proved by a learned Tutor of mine preaching upon the same subject D. Sa. 〈◊〉 The Life and Death of Jesus Christ whither I referre you for further satisfaction in this point But I take the meaning of the Creed to stretch no farther then to those great and grand sufferings that went immediately before his crucifying on the Crosse because it sayes He suffered under Ponâ—ius Pilate that is in the time of his jurisdiction and by authority derived from and under him so that whatsoever things were publikely done and acted against him about this time and by this meanes are properly hereto be handled and no more For the name of Pontius Pilate is not here mentioned ad personae dignitatem Sâ—â— 81. de 〈◊〉 sed ad temporis significationem as Saint Austin speakes That is not for any honour or credit given or intended to be given to the person but onely to expresse and declare the time of Christs suffering here mentioned and set downe For hee was Judge Governour Deputy President Viceroy or whatsoever else you please to call such a Magistrate as had the supreame authority of life and death at this time in the land of Jury Judea and in the City of Jerusalem where Christ was to and did suffer death upon the Crosse for the sinnes of the whole World although indeed his said authority were but subordinate and derived from the Roman Empire For you must know beloved that Jerusalem at this time was in bondage with her children i. e. in servitude and subjection to the Emperor of Rome Who as he had under his government the most part of the neighbouring world and bordering countries round about him so among the rest this country of the Jewes in which Jerusalem stood commonly called and knowne by the name of Judea or the land of Jewry Now as our King of England hath his Deputies Presidents and Governours in Scotland Ireland Virginia and other places of his more remote Jurisdictions and Dominions where he is not personally resident himselfe so the Emperour at this time had the like in his severall Provinces abroad And amongst the rest Pontius Pilate in this City and Country where Christ now suffered and was put to death and therefore is it said He suffered under Pontius Pilate that is at that time when Pontius Pilate was the President of the place and before whom he was convented arraigned condemned and the like Which beloved was a very necessary circumstance to be known ne ex aliqua parte velut vaga incerta gestorum traditio vacillaret In loâ—um saith Ruffinus Lest the mindes of men should stagger and waver at the report and tradition of their doings and Christs sufferings if in the smallest circumstance they were left doubtfull and uncertaine And therefore it was thought fit not to be omitted by
the compilers and composers of the Creed as well for the confutation and conviction of the Jewes that would not beleeve in him as the confirmation and setling of Faith in the hearts of the Gentiles unto whom they were to preach him and proclaime him in that they were able and did so punctually designe the time and place and person under whom he suffered such and such things as conventing arraigning condemning buffâ—ting beating rayling at reviling mocking scoffing scorning scourging crucifying dying burying and the likâ— All which and a great deale more he suffered under Pontius Pilate as I shall have occasion at large to shew you in the sequell of this discourse To omit therefore the basenesse of his birth and the manifold miseries of his whole life wherein he tooke upon him the shape not onely of a servant as Saint Paul saith Phil. 2.7 ut subesset that so he might be in subjection but also of a sinner mali servi ut vapularet that is of an evill servant that so he might suffer correction as Saint Bernard Both which are expressed together by the Prophet when he saies Fecisti me servire in peccatis Thou hast made me to serve with thy sinnes Esay 43.24 Let us a â—ittle consider of the time onely and manner of his death wherein most especially he may be said to suffer under Pontius Pilate And herein howsoever I shall be able to say no more for substance then what you heard read unto you in the forenoone out of the Gospell for this day Palme Sunday yet by a little amplifying and aggravating the circumstances it may so fall out that your affections may be moved and stirred to suffer a little in your soules with him that suffered so much boâ—h in soule and body too for you And in my weake handling of these great passions of our most great Lord and Master Inspiret aspiret qui pâ—ssus est he that suffered such things for me I beseech him to be assistant untâ— me and to strengthen me And as Saint Chrysostome upon the same oâ—casion bespake his auditors so let me you Ser. 6. Fer. 5. Pas Orate fratres ut dignatione qaâ— passus passionis suae revelet arcanum pray with me O my brethren unto this our blessed Saviour and Redeemer that as he hath vouchsafed to suffer for us so he would likewise vouchsafe to reveale the secrets and mysteries of his said sufferings unto us that so by my unfolding and your apprehending of them his name may bee glorified and our soules saved at the day of Judgemâ—nt To begin then with the treasâ—n of Judas He suffered in that first that one of his owne company his owne society one that was numbred among his twelve Apostles and had fellowship with them as Acts 2.17 should become an agâ—nt and an instrument to betray and deâ—iver him into the hands of his enemies So that it was not a Disciple onely but an Apostle not one of the Seventy but one of the Twelve that wrought this mischiefe towards him Quod auget delictum detestabile proditoris saith Chrysostome which increases aswell the sinne of the traytor as the sufferings and sorrowes of our Saviour In regard that the Seventy were neither so neare nor deâ—re unto him as he goes on not so f rre intrusted with his secrets and inward counsels and decrees as the Apostles the twelve were they being as it were his tryed men his â—aterva regaâ—is as he styles them i. e. his regall and royall company I meane that royall Priesthood and chosen generation which Saint Peter speakes of 1 Pâ—t 2.9 in whom he had already began to build and to lay the foundation of his Church Of which number to have one prove a Traytor it is no marvaile if it make the Kingly Prophet his type in this to complaine saying It was my familiar friend whom I trusted and which did eate of my bread that hath lifted up his heele against me Psal 41.9 And to shew that this very circumstance did aggravate and make an addition to his sufferings as I say he goes on in his complaint yet further after this manner If it had been an open enemy that had done me this dishonour why then I could have borne it or if mine adversary had magnified himselfe against me why then peradventure I would have hid my self from him but it was thou my companion and my familiar friend which took sweet counsell together with me and we walked in the house of God as friends Psal 55.12 13 14. Verses Which must needâ— be the greater griefe the greater paine unto me For indeed Illud amicitiae sanctum venerabile nomen The name of a friend is and ought to be the most venerable and sacred name amongst us among all sorts all societies of men Sine quo pater mater uxor filii affines quid nisi vana nomina without which the names of Father Mother Wife Children Kinsfolke and the like are but vaine and empty titles And therefore saith one Amicum me dici malo quam patrem I desire not so much to bee accounted a Father as a Friend Patres enim sine benevolentia inveniaâ— multos sine hac amicum nullum For it is too easie a matto finde many Fathers some that are not kind others that wish not well unto their Children whereas there is none that is not that doth not so unto his friend Because indeed Amicus est alter ego A friend is a mans otherselfe nearer unto him then either marriage or naturall kindred of the same bed or the same blood For love true love without these Ceremonies and respects is the more to be admired and so by consequent the more to be esteemed yea dearer to a man saith one then either his armes or legges as being indeed his whole body and soule together answerable to that also of the Scripture Or thy friend which is as thine owne soule Deut 13.6 For verae amicitiae proprium est saith Granatensis unam mentem unamque animam in duobus esse corporibus It is a most true property of true friendship to have but one heart and one soule in two severall and divided bodies Et idem velle idemque nolle as hee goes on ea demum firma amicitia est That being true friendship indeed when a man is ready to will and not to will according to the necessity and occasion of his friend Now Christ for his part had performed all the offices of such a friend unto Judas he had called him to be his Apostle made him his friend his familiar caused him to eate of his bread fit at his table suffered him to be of his owne messe and to dip his hand in the dish with him And if Saint Austins intelligence be good and his tradition true Hee had farther delivered him often from death and for his sake healed his Father of a palsie and cured his mother of a leaprosie borne with many sinnes in him
false friend to betray him and therefore hee goes out unto them without either counsell or advise of any other save of his owne lewde heart and sayes What will yee give me c. answerable to that of David When thou sawest a Theefe thou didst runne with him Psal 50.18 yea Thy feet are swift to evill and thou makest haste to shed innocent bloud thy thoughts are wicked thoughts desolation and destruction are in thy wayes saith the Prophet Isaiah 59.7 That is thou intendest such things to others but the truth is they in the end will light upon thine own pate and the pit thou diggest for another thou wilt fall into thy selfe as the Wise man affirmeth Prov. 26.27 And therefore let not men be too forward and hasty in wicked and sinfull courses especially in treasons and treacherous designes either against Christ himselfe or any others that are in any kinde annoynted of the Lord as are Kings Priests and Prophets but let them advise warily and looke charily to themselves before they goe on For howsoever the title of a volunteere be honourable in a good cause shewing mens freenesse and forwardnesse thereunto yet in such trayterous and treasonable practises as this of Judas and all other base and bad actions and expeditions whatsoever it is ignoble and inglorious But Judas sinne and our Saviours suffering stayes not stints not here for the truth is the Traytor hath a bagge and if that be empty it is little worth and therefore his Master must be sold that so he may have something wherewithall to fill it For Ser. 15. Anima ejus febricitat curis ut sacellus iste impleatur nummis as Saint Austin speaks of the covetous in generall His soule is even sicke with care untill his satchell be filled with coyne And rather then it shall continue so long he will Perdere fidem ut acquirat aurum He will get and acquire gold though he let slip and lose his faith and therefore cryes out unto the Priests Quid mihi dabitis What will you give me and I will deliver him unto you Oh the wickednesse the wretchednesse of this base sinne of covetousnesse which makes those that are possessed with it not to startle at the most horrid acts that either the malice of an enraged and infernall Devill can invent or the sinfulnesse of mans corrupted and depraved nature perpetrate and commit the least hope of gaine being thought title just enough and armour strong enough for all either injurious trayterous or murtherous assaults and the fruition thereof held a sufficient recompence and reward of all such impious and diabolicall designes And therefore no marvaile if the Holy Ghost have taught us by the pen of the Apostle That covetousnesse is the roote of all evill 1 Timothy 6.10 Ser. 11. in Cap. 6. ad Rom. Mor. Propter hanc enim saith Chrysostome naturae leges invertuntur cognationis jura pelluntur atque ipsius humanae suâ—stantiae justa debita corrumpuntur That is For this the Lawes of nature are inverted the rights of allyance and friendship perverted and the just dues of our humane substances and beings corrupted The tyranny of money urging and constraining us to lift up our violent hands not onely against the living but the dead too as he further insisteth and proveth in the same place Yea and for this not onely Cities and Countries but Highwayes Mountaines Hils and Woods Orbis etiam inhabitabilis sanguine seatent caedibus Yea the very inhabitable World it selfe doe abound with murthers and bloodshed Because indeed as the Poet saith Rem faciâ—as remsi possis recte si non quocunque modo rem Meanes and moneys must be be had Legally if it may be but if not by any meanes whatsoever Jure vel injuria be it by right or wrong So fearefull a sinne is Covetousnesse making a man to become Iniquum in deum in proximum in seipsum injurious and unjust not onely against his neighbour and himselfe but against his God too For usque ad mortem domini amor lucri se ingerit nec vitae salvatoris quaestus desiderium pareit That is the love of profit puts forth it selfe even to the death of the Lord neither doth the desire of gaine spare the life of the very Saviour of the World And therefore our Saviours advise and charge to his followers is Cavete ab avaritia beware of Covetousnesse Luke 12.25 Which counsell if his Apostle Judas had well heeded and followed hee never would have come here with his Quid dabitis What will yee give me and I will deliver him unto you Vâ—ncent Brâ—mi medit But O scelerate negotiator as one styles him what a wicked Merchant is this Qui aestimas illum nummis qui aestimari non potest To set a price a value of mony upon him whose excellency is unvaluable as it is said of a faithfull friend such as he was Eccles 6.15 in the last Translation or if you desire it rather in the vulgar Latine which is as well to our present purpose Cui non est digna ponderatio auri argonti The weight of Gold and Silver is not to be compared to him the same place in the Genevah Nay to esteeme so vilely and so basely of him as to set no rate no value upon him at all but to referre the price to the pleasure of the purchasers Quid dabitis What will you give which is all one if you transpose the words you shall finde it so as to say Give what you will so as you give something and I will deliver him unto you Oh! it was never heard before that he that was a seller although never so petty a chapman would give the buyer leave to set the price upon his wares Nisi de re nullius pretii agatur saith mine Author unlesse it were of such wares as were not worth the buying And so surely Judas did estâ—eme of Christ or else he would never have been thus base to have exposed him to sale as at an outcry Quid dabitis What will you give What is this but as the Prophet speaketh To sell the righteous for silver and the poore for shooes Amos 2.6 Nay which is worse to sell a Saviour at a lower price than a payre of shooes if both the shooes and the penny too were rated as in these dayes a goodly price to have him valued at as another Prophet exclaimes Zachariah 10.13 But O Judas thou dost little consider that one drop of his blood that thou sellest at so low a rate is sufficient to redeeme and purchase infinite Worlds yea and thine own soule too if thou wert not worse than an Infidell a revolting despairing Apostata and backslider from thy first faith But I have undertaken to expresse and aggravate rather the sufferings of Jesus than the sinnes of Judas and therefore I must not dwell here onely a few words more for use and application and so I will finish this
once found him comming and gaind his consent and assent unto his wicked and lewd suggestions he presently enters into his soule Rapit hominem circum-agitat phantasmata non jam sub Cortice virgas sed detectas oculis probet videndas he violently possesses the man compasses and canvasses his troubled and distracted thoughts and wandring and unsetled imaginations and manifests his stratagems to the view of the world without any cover any care to hide or conceale the same For as the Scriptures testifie soone after he had received the sop Satan entred into him Iohn 13.27 that is tooke full possession of him as the marginall notes expound the place so that he led and carried him into what desperate and sinfull courses he would himselfe Vse Oh then let me entreat you to take heed and beware of the inticements and occasions of sinne in its beginning in its first entrance before it lay too violent hand and hold upon you For the longer you shall give entertainment thereunto the surer and faster hold the Devill has of you and tâ—e harder you will finde it to vanquish and overcome at the last if ever you be able to master it at all which Judas you see could never doe but was quite overthrowne and undone by it both body and soule for ever And therefore I say Principiis obsta let it be your care to resist beginnings of evill and to kill the Serpent in the egge As Bernard Cura in ipso utero pessimae matris praefecari germen so say I take care to strangle the seed of sinne whilest it is in the wombe i. e. in the heart in the thought before it come into action or ever it doe see the light For Satan knowes how to make a nâ—st wherein to nourish and cherish sinne even of our smallest thoughts and cogitations if we neglect them too long and permit them to take their owne sway their owne swing within us And therefore as it is his continuall care to suggest unto us Cogitationes mali thoughts of evill so let it be ours so to resist and withstand them as not to permit them to become Cogitationes malas not to proceed so farre as evill thoughts i. e. not to nestle or roost within us For as Luther said well Howsoever he could not hinder the birds and foules of the ayre from flying over his head yet he would be sure to keep from them building nests and making harbour in his beard so howsoever we cannot hinder Satan from buzzing and suggesting into our hearts and soules wicked and ungodly thoughts yet we may so withstand him and them too as that they shall never burst forth into actions and become wicked and ungodly d eds Because as he that cuts off the head of the Serpent slayes the Serpent it selfe so he that resists sinne in the first motions and beginnings of it destroyes it so throughly as that it can never rise up againe to prevayle against him either in in this world or that which is to come For as the conception of lust brings forth sinne so it is the finishing of sinne that brings forth death as the Apostle speaketh Iames 1.15 And he that can thus resist sinne it selfe when it begins to seize and take hold upon him doth therewithall resist also the author thereof that is the Devill Et prosternit inermem and so confound him as that he takes away his weapon from him James 4.7 and leaves him naked and without defence according to the same Apostles direction Resist the Devill and he will fly from you Chap. 4.7 But all this Judas did not he did not withstand the first motions of evill in his covetous heart but gave full and free way and consent thereunto and so is brought Gradatim ad hanc miseriâ—m as it were by degrees unto this height of sinne and misery as to meditate first of the meanes how to betray his Lord and then secondly not to meditate it onely but to put it in practise also by seeking opportunity to doe it as the Scripture testifieth And having found it he cryes Quid dabitis What will ye give me and I will deliver him unto you Once more therefore let me entreat every one of you to beware of covetousnesse of too much care to fill the bagge lest Loculus prove Laqueus quo capiaris traharis ad interitum the bagge prove but a baite to ensnare thee and to draw thee to destruction both of body and soule And to finish this point and say no more of this subject let me also advise you all and oft n to take this into your considerations That none of Christs Apostles perished but he that bare the bagge And therefore looke to it you that are masters of the bagge not onely in the singular but in the plurall number for if Judas perished that had but one what danger are you in that are masters of so many there being many shrewd temptations and that in severall kindes in mens inordinate and over-much care and desire to fill their bagges so that this onely hath beene the occasion of many if not most sinnes in sundry others besides Judas As of Theevery in Achan Bribery in Gehezi Murther in Ahab most notorious lying in the Souldiers that were set to watch the Sepulchre of Christ hypocriticall dissembling in Ananias and Saphira Simony in Magus besides as I say Treason in Iudas What will you give me and What shall I give you corrupting all conditions and callings both in Church and Common-wealth But I list not to particularize hoping that all my hearers and readers of what ranke and condition soever they be will make application themselves and inferre that Si junguntur in culpa non separabuntur in poena If they joyne with these mâ—n in their sinnes they must looke to be partakers also of their plagues as it is threatned Revel 18.4 Which consideration may be a meanes Cohibere manum etiamsi non animum if not out of conscience of sin to restraine all mens hearts from affecting as I desire yet out of feare of punishment to hold backe some mens hands from effecting such monstrous and prodigious impieties as I hope And this sufficeth for the first circumstance in the sufferings of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ viz the treason of Iudas THe second Circumstance which I intend to take notice of in the sufferings of Christ for a large volume would not serve to discourse of all shall be that which he took notice of himselfe and taxt his adversaries for it in the 26. of S. Matthew Gospell saying Ye be come out to me as it were against a theefe with swords and staves to take me Verse 25. of the same Chapter For the Text tels us that after Iudas had compacted with the Iewes for thirty pence to deliver him into their hands he received a band of men and officers of the High Priest and came thither with lanthornes and torches and weapons saith Saint Iohn Chap.
Egypt that you should not be their bondmen yea I have broken the bonds of your yoke and made you goe upright saith this Lord himselfe unto them Levit. 26.13 Haeccine ergo reddis Domino popule stulte insipiens Doe yee therefore so reward the Lord O yee foolish people and unwise said Moses unto them long since as you may see Deut. 32.6 And therefore much more foolish and unwise now to thinke themselves able to binde him unlesse he were willing thereunto that came into the world onely to let them that were bound to goe free as the Psalmist speaketh Dominus solvit compeditos The Lord looseneth the prisoners Psal 146.7 causing Peters chaynes when he was in prison to fall off from his hands Acts 12.7 And therefore it is but a point of folly if not madnesse in them indeed to comfort and solace themselves overmuch in this their new prisoners bondage seeing although they have bound him yet they have not vanquished nor overcome him For Quod vinciunt non victi est sed volentis His bonds proceed not so much from their conquest as from his owne consent And besides in this their binding of him they doe but tye themselves both bodies and soules the faster and the surer to their owne damnation as indeed doe all others that in these dayes doe likewise tye the hands of our blessed Saviour by their sinnes as first they doe which either distrust his providence over them for the provision and welfare of their bodies or despaire of his mercy towards them for the salvation of their soules or lastly that doubt of his assistance in any other their temptations and afflictions whether corporall or spirituall whether of minde or body or both Secondly they doe the like which doe so resist his divine and holy motions and inspirations which many times hee breatheth and infuseth by his heavenly blasts into their hearts and soules as that they doe not permit and suffer him to have his free operation and worke out his owne worke within them but either carelesly neglect him or wilfully reject him when he offers divine grace unto them Thirdly they that are ungratefull and unthankfull for benefits and blessings formerly received doe also so tye up Gods hands as that hee can conferre and bestow no more upon them but doe plainly manifest and declare that they are very unworthy of those which they have already had and received Fourthly they which upon all occasions are not ready and willing to cooperate with Gods divine grace by faithfull and carefull imployment of their talents to farther and greater benefit and increase but are so cold and sloathfull in good things as that they bury and hide their talents and rather extinguish and quench the spirit then cause it to flame and burne out as they ought to doe by being diligent and zealous in good works free and forward to all holy actions and endeavours For Aguntur homines à Spiritu Dei ut acti agant non ut ipsi nihil agant saith Saint Austin Men are so led and guided by the Spirit of God as that by his assistance they must also worke and agitate themselves and not doe nothing towards their owne salvation which the very word Assistance doth plainly import For he that doth helpe and assist his friend in any thing doth it not altogether for him but together with him doth helpe to perfect that which he was not able to finish and fulfill by himselfe alone So that as the same Austin elsewhere Qui fecit te sine te non salvabit te sine te He that made thee without thee yet will not save thee without thee And lastly the proud Justitiaries which are ready presently to thinke highly and magnify themselves for those good things that are in them although they be not nata but data not their owne but such as they have received from the Lord and with the Pharisee in the Gospell to boast and bragge of their owne righteousnesse and holinesse above and beyond others and that with a kinde of scornefull rejection and disdainfull detestation and demonstration of Iste Publicanus The poore Publican and all other their neighbours and brethren in comparison of themselves as too many in these dayes doe Why these I say yea all these do so binde and tye up the hands of our blessed Saviour and Redeemer as that he cannot goe forward with the worke of their salvation no more then he could doe his great workes and wonders in his owne Countrey and among his owne people for their unbeliefes sake as Matth. 13.58 and Marke 6.5 And therefore let me entreat and perswade you to beware of these and the like fearefull sinnes if ever you meane that God and his Christ shall save your soules And thus in the flight first of his Disciples and then in the apprehension and binding of our Saviour himself afterward ye see the truth of those things fulfilled in these dayes of the Gospell which were long since typified and fore-showne in the time of the Law First in the flying of the Israelites before their enemies and the taking of the Arke of God at the newes whereof old Eli fell backeward from his seat so that his necke was broken and he dyed 1 Sam. 4.18 where since the taking of the Arke was a token and a type of the taking of Christ as many Writers observe I see no reason but that I may safely infer that the fall and breaking of the neck of Eli the Priest of Israel at that time might fore-shew also the downefall and destruction of the Jewish Priesthood and Ecclesiasticall Policy at the taking or shortly after the taking of our Lord himselfe but this onely by the way Secondly the binding and durance of Christ was typified in the casting of innocent Joseph into prison because hee would not consent to lie with his lascivious and adulterous Mistris Gen. 39.20 And lastly in the binding of Sampson with fetters and chaynes after that Dalilah had cut off the seaven locks and other haires of his head as Judges 16.19 21. verses But I must confesse that this our Sampson would easily have broken these chaynes cast away these cords from him now when these Philistims these his enemies much worse then the Philistims were upon him if hee had not beene held with other with stronger tyes then these they being the chaynes and bonds onely of his love and the cordes nay cart-ropes of our sinnes that are able thus to hamper thus to hold him His love first as the Poet saith Omnia vincit amor is that which doth overcome him that is invincible and binde him here that is omnipotent and our sinnes nâ—xt answerable to that of the Prophet Funes peccatorum circumplexi sunt me as the vulgar Latine reades it in Psal 109. Verse 61. that is The cordes of sinne or if you please of sinners have ingirt and incompassed me round about As when the razor came once upon the head
manifest to the eyes of all the world Neither did they onely spit on his face and blindfold it but buffet and beate it too which is their third indignity wherâ—by they made it swell and become full of bunches all over as one saith Colaphis illi tuber totum caput facies livida forte excussi dentes by these blowes of their fists his whole head was swolne his face become blacke and blew and his teeth ready to fall out of his jawes For there may be supposed to be this difference betweene Alapas and Colaphos that one is given a palma aut vola manus with the hand open and the other a pugno clauso with the fist shut whereby the stroake is the greater and the more offensive yea many times astonishing to him that feeles it Now the box on the eare spoken of before was after the first sort and the buffeting of him and beating here was of the latter Whereby they made him as it may be imagined to reele and stagger again with the violence of their strokes and his eies as it were to startle in his head and to bleed even through mouth and nose And then in the fourth and last place they scoffe and scorne him saying Prophesie or areade unto us who it was that smote thee yea and many other things they spake blasphemously against him as you heard before out of Saint Luke cap. 22. which of all other his injuries and indignities may well be accounted none of the least Nay some there are that feare not to affirme that Christi illusio ac subsannatio omnium acerborum prope acerbissima etsi fortiter ab illo lata This kinde of taunting and piercing of him howsoever he bore it patiently and manfully as all the rest of his afflictions yet it may reckoned among the greatest and bitterest passages of his passion because as the Poet saith Nil habet infoelix paupertas durius in se Quam quod ridiculos homines facit There is nothing more miserable even to the greatest misery then to see it selfe become the scorne and laughing-stocke of others especially of enemies Boni namque viri atque prudentes multo indignius contumelias aliorum contemptum quum corporis dolores ferunt saith another All good and wise men doe take more grievously and haynously the contumelies and contempts of their adversaries then the sufferings and afflictions of their bodies Quod illis quidem vita his autem honor existimatio petatur because life onely can be taken away by the one but honour and estimation yea good name also by the other And thus you have briefly heard and seene Christs sufferings in the high Priests Hall and House where first innocency hath beene arraigned at the Barre truth accused and righteousnesse condemned when as all this while injury and injustice hath sate upon the Bench. And secondly you have seene how like mad Dogges felly and fiercely hiâ— enemies have assaulted and insulted on him some casting on his face the skowring of their filthy mouthes and others striving who might strike him first and abuse him most and how with a wanton and merry malice aggravating injury with scorne they have covered his eyes and bid him aread who it was that smote him yea so great pleasure have they taken in this kinde aswell of tormenting his body as of vexing his soule that they would not suffer him to take any rest but as one saith well They used this despight for their disport Dr. Heywood Sanctuary of a troubled soule Vir. Aen. 2. to passe away the dulnesse of that dismall night dismall indeed For as the Poet Quis cladem illius noctis quis funera fando Explicet aut possit lachrymis aequare dolorem No teares are able to set forth nor tongue to tell The mischiefes of that night wrought by the powre of hell But Saint Chrysostome here demaundss why they did these things unto him seeing they were resolved to kill him what need was there thus to shame him when as so suddenly they meant to slay him and makes answer himselfe That in all this they doe but bewray their owne cruelty who like huntsmen that have found the Foxe or Wolfe or other noxious beast they sought for are so transported with violence and fury against it as if they were even mad for joy making great triumph and with unwonted insolence and contentment to their mindes insulting and even trampling upon their prey as the Philistims made Sampson their may-game and recreation for their pleasure after they had put out his eyes Judg. 16. But whatsoever scornfull or malitious reasons they propounded to themselves in doing it our most blessed Redeemer had most mercifull reasons towards us in suffering it For In Christum nihil valuisset nisi quod ipse voluisset saith Saint Austin They could have done none of these things unto him Tract 112 in Ioâ—â—â— unlesse his owne will hâ—d beene consenting thereunto And therefore that he might satisfie for the pride of man that was the originall of all evill unto us in our first Fathers fall and the root and foundation of all other wickednes in our selves his posterity till this day he would descend to the very lowest steppe of humility and dejection yea basenesse and infamy that so he might search the very bottome of our wound and by that means his medicine and application prove plentifully and sufficiently effectuall to cure the desperatenesse of our malady and disease Yea he went so low in this kinde that if we doe but compare his corporall afflictions with these of his contempt and scorne we may worthily make question and doubt what was the thing which was most wonderfull and terrible in his whole Passion An dolorum acerbitas qua corpus ejus laniatum est an contumeliarum irrifionum indignitas quibus etiam anima sauciata est Whether the bitternesse of his tortures and torments whereby his body was rent and torne or the indignity of his contumelies and reproaches wherewith his soule also was sore wounded and afflicted For in this latter as well as in the former yea much more in this then that Longissimo intervallo omnes Martyres superavit Hee went beyond all the Martyrs in many degrees For they knew that the more and greater were their sufferings for the name and faith of Christ the more and greater also should be their glory and honour among those of their owne the Christian profession which to very Heathens and naturall men is a kinde of encouragement sometimes to beare their paines the more patiently and cheerefully and therefore much more to Christians considering that Gods glory is increased by their afflictions aswell as their owne When as at the time of Christs suffering there was nothing to be imagined more ignominious and opprobrious then what he endured Tam apud suos quam exteros aswell amongst his owne friends and followers as strangers and those that were without whether Jews or Gentiles so
sinnes also of all his posterity throughout all ages Zacha. 5.7 Which lying like Zacharies talent of lead upon Christ his shoulders his person alone must needs presse downe that scale lower then the other that bore the sinnes onely of one man though never so great a murtherer and malefactour Brunus In regard whereof I doe not wonder to find some writers comparing Barabbas to the live sparrow spoken of Levit. 14.7 Qui dimittitur ut in agrum avolet as the vulgar Latine there reades it Which is let loose to fly in the open field because his single burthen of sinne alone was not so great a let and hinderance unto him as the burthen of the sinnes of the whole World layd upon the back of Christ the other sparrow there also spoken of whose wings were thereby clipped and himselfe indeed killed for the cleansing of the leaper For though Christs burthen laid upon our shoulders be Onus allevians but a light burthen lifting up and making fresh according to his owne saying My yoke is easie and my burthen light Mat. 11.30 yet our burthen layd upon him is onus onerans a burthen pressing downe and making faint pressing downe indeed his body to no lesse then the bottom of the grave and his soule to hell In regard whereof in the second place he is stiled by others The Lords lot chosen by Aarons successour though much degenerated the high Priest to be offered for a sinne-offering as was appointed by Moses Law where if we take the paines to search we shall find as two sparrowes spoken of before in Levit. 14. So two Goates Levit. 16. presentable before the Lord at the doore of the Tabernacle of the Congregation whereof one should be for a scape-goate and the other for an offering to the Lord as it is there said By which some of the Ancients as B. Bilson tels me understood Jesus and Barabbas Jesus to be slaine as an offering to the Lord and Barabbas to be sent to the Jewes desart or wildernesse bearing the sinnes of the people that cryed Let him be crucified let him be crucified Which if it be so then once more nay evermore let us meditate of the mercy and love of Christ towards us and muse upon his lowlinesse and humility that was content not onely to take our nature upon him and therein to suffer death upon the Crosse for our sinnes and so as I have sayd to become our sin-offering but also to be compared with the greatest malefactour of those times And by publike sentence yea votes and voyces of the people to be pronounced a greater delinquent and more worthy of death then he And let us beseech his infinite goodnesse by that great dejection and submission of his whereby he was contented thus to be rejected by these Jewes neither did disdaine to be adjudged worthy of death and to have Barabbas a wicked robber to be preferred to life before him that he would give us such grace that by how much we are inferiour unto himselfe by so much he would inflame our desires the more ardently to be willing to bear the contempt and rejection of this World and as cast downe through the sense of our sins and infirmities and unworthines every way account no otherwise of our selves then as of the scorn scum thereof the basest meanest among the sons of men For Quare superbit homo cujus generatio culpa Vita labor nasci paena necesse mori Why should man have any high thoughts or be proud in any thing whose very conception is sinneful his birth paineful his life laborious and his death unavoydable As also in the second place let us continually pray unto him that he would not permit and suffer us for any respect whatsoever whether of feare or favor to forsake our obedience and respect towards him but still prefer his honor and worship and love and friendship before all earthly advantages whatsoever yea and before our lives too And for further use application let us be content with patience and silence to bear it if at any time we see the wicked lewd and those that we know to be worse then our selves to be prefer'd before us either to the honours or in the favors of the world seeing Christ was contented to let sinfull and wicked Barabbas to be preferred before him in these Jewes esteeme Secondly let us take heed of preferring vice before vertue the flesh before the spirit the honours and profits and pleasures of the world before the honour and worship and service of God for in doing all or any of these we doe but preferre Barabbas before Christ Neither let us upon any occasion connive and give way to any unbeseeming or unfitting practises and imperfections contrary to our owne consciences either to please our selves or for feare to displease others lest we be like Pilate who because he would not offend and displease the Jewes he appointed Christ to be scourged and Barabbas to be loosed Nor yet farther let us upon any termes whatsoever be we Magistrates or inferiours justifie the wicked and condemne the innocent for in so doing we do justifie Barabbas and condemne Christ And for the last use let us all know that how often soever it pleaseth God to put good motions into our mindes of setting Christ at liberty either in his poore members that are in durance or in any other pressures and oppressions whatsoever or in our owne soules where hee is imprisoned by our sinnes and wee neglect the opportunity either through some pretended difficulty or remisnesse and weakenesse of our owne resolutions and resistance in both these cases and diverse others like these we cry with these Jewes Vivat Barabbas crucifigatur Christus Let Barabbas live and Christ be crucified which how fearefull a sinne it is you have heard before But I must proceed Pilate prevailing nothing more towards Christs discharge by this second meanes then he had done by the former He resolves yet further to try the third as hoping though their malice bee never so great and mindes never so violent and outragious against him for the present yet partly by respite of time and partly by the severity of some corporall punishment the heat of their hate might at last be appeased and so his life spared for he was desirous and willing to release him as it is said Luke 23.20 And therefore for this purpose he determined to lay so sharpe a punishment upon him as might suffice as hee had reason to thinke to asswage their fury and satisfie their bloudy and cruell desires So that hereupon in the third place as I say he gave commandement that he should be scourged Quod non ob aliud fecisse Tract 116. in Ioh. init credendus est Pilatus as Saint Austin speakes nisi ut ejus injuriis Judaei satiati sufficere sibi existimarent usque ad ejus mortem saevire dâ—sisterent which we cannot imagine to be
sacrifice might be voluntary For without willing obedience to his Fathers Ordinance our atonement and the expiation of our sinnes could not bee wrought whereupon S. Austen discoursing upon those words of S. Iohn Et misit filium suum sacrificatorem pro peccatis nostris as he reads them 1 Ioh. 4.10 God loved us and sent his Sonne to bee a sacrifice for our sinnes demands this question Vbi invenit hostiam ubi invenit victimam quam puram volebat offerre where did hee finde a pure and cleane sacrifice fitting for himselfe to offer And when hee hath thus propounded gives the answer himselfe in these words Alium non invâ—nit seipsum obtulit He could finde no other and therefore hee offers himselfe as if he should say hee made his humanity the sacrifice and his divinity the priest But howsoever hee were never so willing and obedient himselfe yet his countreymen and cruell friends must not loose their turne For they will have an hand in this busines though never so much to their cost aswell as hee wherefore after they have conducted him to mount Caluary the place of his execution there they speedily erect his crosse and display his bloody banner and soone after crucifie him thereon as ye may see Luke 23.33 which part of theirs as it was acted with much violence to shew their malice so it was suffered by him with more willingnesse and patience to manifest his love Answerable to that of the Apostle he humbled himselfe and became obedient unto the death yea even the death of the Crosse Phil. 28. Now this kinde of death was accounted in those dayes not onely the most shamefull and ignominious death but the most cruell and tormenting too as yee shall see anon wherefore these Iewes howsoever they had foure kinds of death for malefactors among themselves as our reverend and learned Bishop of Exetâ—r in his passion Sermon hath well observed one of which was ordinarily used to those that did offend of their owne Nation as the Towell the Sword Fire and Stones and each of these above other in extremity yet they rejected and refused all these whereby to take away Christs life and chose this Roman death of crucifying as accounting it the worst of all which we may suppose they did the rather because their owne Law saith cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree Deut. 21.23 so that their malice was such as it should seeme towards him as that they were desirous not onely to crosse and crucifie him whereby to rid him him out of his life but to curse him also if it were possible and in their powers in the life to come But yet as â— Ierome well noteth Hee is not therefore accursed becauâ—e hee hangeth but therefore he hangeth because hee is accursed beiâ—g made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is acursed for us as S. Paul speaketh Gal. 3.13 And therefore howsoever the Iewes made choyce of this death for him out of the depth of their malice and venimous hatred against him hoping thereby not only to destroy his body but his soule too yet hee that was able to worke good out of evill and turne their mischiefe and malice owards him to his owne glory and the benefit of his Church and chosen had other reasons in the secret of his owne counsell which they little dream't of why hee would undergoe it and take it upon him As first that the curse might be imputed unto him which was due to us and so we by his curse might be redeemed from the curse of the Law as the former Apostle saith wee are in the former place And therefore sayth Aretius Ideo cruce passus est Christus ut omnis maledictio etiam à forma supplicii in illo concurreret Therefore did Christ suffer on the Crosse that by the forme and manner of his suffering every curse might concurre and be found in him which was due to us yea hee himselfe bare our sinnes in his body on the Tree that wee might bee delivered from sin and be healed by his stripes as S. Peter sayth 1 Pet. 2.24 Secondly as S. Chrysostome and Theophilact assigne it ut ipsius aeris naturam mundaret terram sanctificaret sanguinis suae distillatione that he might cleanse and perfume the ayre with his holy and Heavenly breath and sanctifie and hallow the Earth with the streames of his sacred blood distilling and descending down from his blessed body Medicina enim quae removet maledictionem terrae est sanguis Christi For the onely Medicine that is able to remoove the curse of the earth is the blood of Christ Thirdly as Anselmus saith That hanging in the ayre on the Crosse the foote whereof was fastned in the Earth and the top looking towards Heaven hee might shew himselfe to be the true Mediator betwixt God and man by reconciling Heaven and Earth together and reducing our humane nature to the society of Angells and so making a perfect peace and union betwixt the things above and the things below By such strange and contrary meanes doth God shew his power and providence in working our salvation and redemption giving us life even by his owne death and that the most accursed death too even the death of the Crosse Optimum faciens instrumentum vitae quod erat mortis pessimum genus as one saith making that the best instrument of life which was the worst kinde of death worst indeed as we shall easily perceive if wee will vouchsafe to looke another while into the manner of it together with the counsell and cruelty of the Iewes in inflicting it as wee have already done into the mercy and goodnesse of Christ in suffering it For besides the infamy and ignominy of it as you have heard already it was a terrible and bitter death too where hee felt the uttermost of those paines which incensed and inraged malice was able to inflict and mans nature able to indure For the better and more cleare expression whereof it is observed by some that Christs Passion on the Crosse had in it all the foure dimensions as length breadth height depth Lenght first in regard that the Crosse was a lingring slow death Vbi diù vivebatur mors ipsa protendebatur ne dolor citius finiretur which gave no quick dispatch unto the patient but protracted and prolonged his life keeping him a great while together upon the Racke under the sharpe sense aswell of our sinnes as his owne paines Now it is truly sayd that Acerbissima est mors quae trahit poenam it is the bitterest kinde of death wherein the paines thereof are long continued and delayed and not presently or suddenly finished and dispatched For to have death prolonged when a man is under the stroke of death is to die many deaths at once Now it was full three houres betwixt Christs affixion to the Crosse and his expiration on the Crosse For hee continued there from the sixth houre untill the ninth as the
passion not mixt with any comfort to mitigate and ease it Our cup of sorrowes is never in that extremity of bitternesse but that there is still some sugar mingled with our gall some sweet cast upon our sower some consolation tempered with our affliction As for instance it is deemed one great comfort in adversity to have some of our friends about us to condole and lament with us in our sorrowes But alas in the very entrance of his troubles Christ is abandoned of all His Disciples as you have heard when this heavie storme begins to fall upon him forsake and leave him one of them forswears him another runs away naked rather than he will stay and confesse him who then shall comfort him Himselfe Sometimes indeed our owne thoughts find a way to succour us unknowne to others as my Lord Bishop of Exeter well observes but alas with him at this time it is not so For his soule is filled with evill as the Psalmist speaketh in his person Psal 88.3 who then shall doe it His Father Here here was his hope sed proh dolor but out alas no comfort as yet appeares from him For hee delivers him into the hands of his enemies and when he hath done turnes his backe upon him as a stranger shewing no compassion on his passion but rather wounds him as an enemy Because indeed the Lord would breake or bruise him as it is said of him Esay 53.10 B. Andrews non sicut It is strange yea very strange saith one that of none of the Martyrs the like can be read to this of our Saviour when he sayes My God my God why hast thou forsaken me who yet indured most exquisite paines in their martyrdomes yet we see with what courage with what cheerefulnesse joy and singing they are reported to have passed through their torments Videor mihimetipsi super rosas incedere saith Tiburcius I seeme to my selfe to walke upon beds of roses when he was forced to walke upon hot burning coals bare-foot will you know the reason Saint Austin sets it downe Martyres non eripuit sed nunquam descruit He delivered not his martyrs indeed neither did he forsake them but as he delivered not their bodies so he forsooke not their soules but conveyed into them the dew of his Heavenly comfort which was an abundant supply for all they could indure otheâ—wise Not so heere but Vindemiavit me saith he in the Prophet as the vulgar Latine reads it Lament 1.12 that is he hath left me bare and naked as the vintager leaves his Vines when he hath gathered and plucked off the Grapes It is fathered upon Leo to be the first that sayd it and all antiquity allowes of it Non solvit unionâ—m sed substraxit visionem The Union was not dissolved but the beames and influence of comfort were for this time restrained so that his soule was as a dry thirsty parched heath ground without any the least moysture or refreshing of Divine consolation Lib. 5. de Eccl. c. 17. p. 16. yea he was destitutusomni solatio as it is in Doctor Field destitute and voyd of all that solace hee was wont to finde in God in this fearefull houre of darknesse and time of this his dolefull Passion The Wrath of God and his indignation furiously marching against him to require of him as who had undertaken it The full recompense and satisfaction for our sins as saith Doctor Robert Abbot that learned and painefull preaching Bishop of Salisbury L. 3. Contra Bishop p. 114. And now by this time I doubt not but that you plainly perceive how that Christs paine and crosse was the deeper and wider by all these crosses and torments thus considered And therefore behold and see all yee that passe by sayth he himselfe if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow which is done unto me Lam. 1.12 the very Chapter and Verse cited last before For I am like unto water powred out all my bones are out of joynt my heart like Wax is molten in the midst of my bowells My strength is dried up like a potsheard and my tongue cleaveth unto my jawes so that thou hast brought me even to the dust of death For Dogs have compassed me and the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me yea they have peirced my very Hands and my Feete saith the kingly Prophet in his person Psal 22.14 15. verses c. And yet for all this Amor tenebat in cruce quem mors non potuit tenere in Sepulchro His love still held him on the Crosse as you have heard already whom the violence and strength of death could not hold in his grave as you shall heare hereafter And thus you see not onely how but why also Christ was crucified aswell in his adversaries as his owne counsell and decree They out of malice and hatred towards him Hee out of love and pity to us suffered under Pontius Pilate and was crucified upon the Crosse A word or two for use and application and so we will conclude these two circumstances of this Article Did Christ then suffer such things yea and farre greater then those that you have heard related unto you The afflictions and anguishes of the soule being much worse then those of the body These being but love trickes sayth one to what his soule indued which notwithstanding wee have but slightly toucht upon as not altogether in my judgement so properly appertaining and belonging to the Creed why then we shall doe well a little to examine and consider the end and causes why he did so which if wee doe we shall finde that it was not his owne but our sinne that brought all this evill upon him according to that of S. Peter Christ suffered for us leaving us an example to doe the like who did no sinne himselfe neither was there guile found in his mouth but they were our sinnes which he bore in his body on the tree 1 Peter 2.21 22. verses as the Prophet likewise had foretold saying he hath taken upon him our infirmities and he hath caried our sorrowes Esay 53.4 We have an usuall saying amongst us that Charitas à semetipsa incipit charity begins at home but Christs charity yee see did not for it began proceeded and ended all in us so that whatsoever our Saviour either Ferebat or gerebat as one sayth either did or abid it was for us both Natus nobis datus nobis Esay 9.6 Doctor Clarke Hee was delivered out of the wombe for us and he was delivered up to the Crosse for us For for us men and for our salvation Incarnatus est saith the Nicene Creed hee was incarnate of the Holy Ghost and was made man and for us men also Condemnatus est he was condemned to die upon the Crosse so that he was bred for us and shall be dead for us all that he suffered being for our sins The Iewes then are not the onely actors in this tragick story of
eternall Sabbath of rest unto his children unto which although they were at first created yet by reason of sinne and the Devils malice they had been deprived unlesse he had dyed and been thus buryed to restore it againe unto them Fifthly he was buryed to the end that he might hallow the earth by his sacred body to become a receptacle of rest for the receiving of our bodyes also Which must needs be a great comfort to the godly to know and beleeve how that by his grave and buryall he hath sweetly perfumed our graves wherein we shall be buryed and instead of stinking houses of perdition hath made them chambers of quiet rest and sleepe unto us so that as the Prophet saith Peace shall come and they shall rest in their beds that is their graves every one that walketh before him Esay 57.2 And in these respects and sundry others which might be thought upon The buryall of Christ is esteemed by some Ancient Fathers to be more hâ—nourable then his birth according to that of Saint Austin Gloriosior est sepuliâ—ra quam nativitas in Christo ista enim coâ—pus morâ—alâ— genuit illa edidit immortaâ—e Because that brought forth a body which was mortall so that it both could and did dye whereas this restored and returned it immortall and which can dye no more but liveth and abideth now for ever And as after his birth he fell into many tortures and troubles miseries and afflictions in this life so after his buryall he hath passed immediately from death to life in the land of the living So that Religiosior plane est ista quam illa nativitas as the Father goes on This latter birth of his is more to be celebrated and held sacred then the former because in that the Lord of the whole World was kept close prisoner nine months together in his Mothers wombe whereas this detained him only three dayes in the wombe of the earth In which respect Illa cunctorum spem tardius protulit Haec omnium salutem citius suscitavit That is said but to delay our hope and this to finish more speedily our Salvation In regard whereof also the Prophet saith That Sepulchrum ejus erit gloriosum as the vulgar Latine reads it Esay 11.10 that is His Sepulcher or buriall shall be glorious not by reason of the statelinesse of his tombe or magnificence of the pompe and solemnity at his buriall For herein it is very likely that the Sepulcher and sepulture of Alexander the Great and many other earthly Princes might farre outstrippe and overgoe him exceed and excell him much but onely Quia ex morte ad vitam gloriam aeternam revixit as saith Chitraeus because herehence hee passed presently from death to life and from mortality to immortality and eternall glory whereas all those great Monarchs of the World aswell as meaner persons remaine under deaths arrest till this present day and so are like to continue to the Worlds end And therefore although these Potentates of the earth can find neither comfort nor glory in their grave though they goe with never so much pompe and glory to it Yet wee which are Christians doe expect and looke for both by reason of the buryall of this our Saviour who as you have heard hath hereby sanctifyed our graves to be unto us as our beds wherein our bodyes rest from thâ—ir labours till the generall resurrection at the the latter day and further hath opened unto us a way from thence to eternall glory So that although we dye and be buryed as other men yet we shall rise againe with him from the earth to life everlasting And lastly to conclude we may from this buryall and sepulture of Christ learne and note the civill use of the grave to be necessary and fitting for all persons and people whatsoever to bury their dead out of sight and from annoyance and offence that they may otherwise come from their deceased bodyes It being reckoned among the blessings of God to be decently and comely brought unto our graves and so layd and put into them and not to be cast out as wile carkasses to the beasts of the field or foules of the ayre as it was threatned and imposed as a curse upon Jeconiah to be buryed as an Asse is buryed even drawne and cast forth without the gates of Jerusalem Jer. 22.19 And therefore Diogenes is too currish and uncivill to say Cast me out and lay a staffe by me as seeming to take no thought for seemely buryall at all whereas the Saints of God have alwayes had a speciall care of it Abraham purchasing a possession of buryall the first purchase that we read of in the booke of God wherein to bury his dead out of his sight as yee may see Gen. 23.4 And the Sonne of God himselfe the subject of our discourse at this time submitting and permitting his body after his death to be put into a decent and comely grave as here you see But yet if it so fall out as oftentimes in warres in pestilence in drowning and the like it doth That the godly happen to be deprived of seemely and Christian buryall as the two witnesses of Christ through the rage and inhumane cruelty of their persecutors were as it appeares Revel 11.8 9. Let all men know that this is no hurt or detriment unto them either in the resurrection of their bodyes or salvation of their soules No more then the stâ—tely and pompous tombes and buryall of the wicked can benefit or profit thâ—m either of these wayes For all the pompe and honour done unto their bodyes cannot keepe their name and fame from shame and dishonour noâ— their soules from the fire of hell torments and confusion Luke 16.22 23. The rich glutton dyed and was buryed richly no doubt and sumptuously but his soule for all that went to hell where it was tormented Lazarus dyed likewise and no mention is made of his buryall but yet it is expresly said That his soule was carryed by Angels into Abrahams bosome What profit then had the rich man in that his body was buryed or what disprofit or hurt was it to Lazarus though his body were not Let us not be carelesse then of the decent and comely buriall of our bodies nor neglect to hew us out a Tombe as Joseph here had done or to provide Coffins or Graves for them but above and before all let us be carefull to provide that our soules may be carried by the Angels into Abrahams bosome And this sufficeth for the buriall of our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ I will conclude the whole discourse with Saint Augustines Prayer upon the Passion in this manner O thou most gratious God which for the redemption of the world didst vouchsafe to be borne into the world to be circumcised as a Jew and yet to be rejected by the Jewes thy Countrey-men and Kinsmen according to the flesh to be betrayed by thine owne Apostle Judas the Traytor and that with a kisse the signe and pledge of love Yea to be bound with Cordes and so led as an innocent and harmelesse Lambe unto the slaughter to bee undecently and uncivilly presented and offered to the sight and view of Annas Caiaphas Pilate and Herod to be accused by false witnesses to have thy sacred body tormented with scourges and thy blessed soule tortured and afflicted with revilings and reproaches to be besmeared with filthy spittle and to be crowned with piercing and pricking Thornes to bee beaten and buffeted with fists stricken with rods blindfolded in thy face despoyled of thy garments fastened to the Crosse with nayles and so lifted up upon the Crosse naked in the wide and open aire To be accounted and crucified among theeves to be offered Vineger and Gall to drinke and lastly to have thy sides wounded and broken pierced and launced with a speare Thou most gratious Lord I say by these most holy and sacred sufferings of thine which I though most unworthy doe thus recount and recollect as also by thy holy Crosse and death deliver me and set me free from the punishments and paines of Hell and vouchsafe to carry me with thee to that blessed place of rest and Paradise of pleasure whither thou carryedst that good theefe that was crucified with thee who with the Father and the Holy Ghost livest and reignest ever one God world without end Amen Soli Deo Gloria
Herod with all his grave counsellors and gallant Courtiers when they saw they could get nothing out of him neither workes nor words De Passione For as Cyprian saith Nec potuit altitudo potestatum extorquere ad interrogata responsum sed Herodis Pilati contempsit vestigia i. e. He so much slighted and disregarded the waies and courses of Pilate and Herod as that the height of their power was not able to wrest an answer from him to any of their demands therefore they interpreted his silence for simplicity and did openly contemne and despise him And for the plaine declaration not so much of his innocency as of his simplicity they array him with a white garment and send him back againe to Pilate that he who in his life time had beene taken for a man of evill behaviour as namely for a glutton a drinker of wine and a companion of sinners Mat. 12.19 for a blasphemer Marke 2.7 for a sorcerer and one that cast out Devils through Beelsebub Mat. 12.24 for one possessed with a Devill John 8.48 and now also towards his death bound as you have heard before by the Jewes as a theefe reproved and striken in the house of Annas as one arrogant and saucy accused by Caiaphas of blasphemy and before Pilate as a malefactor a mover and stirrer of sedition a seducer a rebell and as one that aspired to the kingdome Luke 23.2 should now likewise for the close of all as being the last of infamies that could be imagined to remaine to be put upon him be accounted by Herod the last also of his unjust Judges for no other then a very foole an ideot or passing simple man But soft Herod art thou and thy great Courtiers and wise Counsellers well advised to condemne Christ for a foole because he is silent or rather is not all your wisedomes at a fault in this your so doing Surely they are if Solomon who was wiser then you all spake the truth For he saith Hee that refraineth his lippes is wise and in the multitude of wordes there wanteth not sinne Prov. 10.19 then which I am sure there can be no greater folly And again He that hath knowledge spareth his words and even a foole when he holdeth his peace is counted wise and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding Prov. 17.27 28. By this divine testimony then who 's the foole now Herod either Christ or thou Thou that spakest many words and questionedst about many things which in time will turne to thy greater condemnation or Christ that was silent to the worlds eternall salvation As David then seemed a madde man unto Achis when indeed hee was not so but had his wittes and senses better about him then himselfe 1 Sam. 21.14 so Christ seemes a foole to Herod when as in truth there was never any so truly wise as he among those that have beene borne of women Let us here then a little contemplate and admire the perverse and erroneous judgement and censure of the world That that eternall word of God and uncreated wisedome of the Father which at the first made and still preserveth this whole universe in which we all live move and have our being yea he in whom are hid all the treasuses of wisedome and knowledge as Saint Paul speaketh Colos 2.3 should yet by Herod and his Courtiers be reckoned arrayed and derided as a foole If this be not an unheard of example as of humility in him so of foolishnesse and madnesse in them let the truly wise of the world if any such there be Judge O sweet Jesus who or what hath led and directed thee to this height and degree of folly as for us that are fooles and madde men indeed to become willing to be accounted a foole thy selfe Surely it can be no other but the transcendency of thy love unto thy Spouse the Church that hath wrought and brought this foolishnesse upon thee whereby with thy Kingly Prophet David Thou art ready to cry out I will yet bee more vile then thus I will bee base and low in mine owne sight 2 Sam. 6.22 O let not any man then be proud of his wisedome seeing God hath chosen foolishnesse rather to confound the wise but by all meanes possible decline and avoyde humane and worldly honour and estimation Yea and that which the world for the most part accounteth wisedome too but it is indeed no other no better then very folly before God that so at the last he may arrive and attain unto that true and undoubted wisedome which shall make him everlastingly happy in the Land of the living And then though the world deride and scorne him laugh and jeare flout and point at him yea begge him for a foole yet let it not trouble nor grieve him but let him rejoyce rather in that hee is thought fit to be accounted a foole for Christs sake and to bee made conformable in some things to the Image and similitude of his blessed Saviour the Sonne of God who was not onely counted but clad as a foole too as you have heard already For they put upon him a white garment as saith the Geneva and vulgar Latine or a gay and gorgeous roabe as our last translation reades it Luke 23.11 not as a roabe of honour or excellency but of infamy and disgrace as all Expositours conclude upon the place Which may afford us also this second Vse That though our attire and habite be not alwayes so costly and comely as that of our neighbours yet that wee be not dejected nor cast downe therewith seeing Christ for our sakes refused not to weare such a scornefull and contemptuous garment as his very adversaries were pleased to put upon him Neither let us judge of men and their worth onely by their out-side since Saepe sub attrita latitat Sapientia veste Wisedome may bee and often is clad but in a Fooles Coate As likewise Vilis saepe cadus nobile Nectar habet Beggerly bottles oftentimes hold rich Wines And therefore Saint Chrysostomes Exhortation is Ne homines ex habitu contemnamus That we should not contemne men no nor condemne them neither Plutar. in vita ejus ever the sooner for their habite as Philopaemen the Oratour was set to cut wood because he was so homely attired Vita Terent and Terence was placed but at the lower end of Caecilius Table Quod erat contemptiore vestitu because of his homely outside But looke onely to the minde and soule and inside of a man yea to the hidde man of the heart to see that that bee without all corruption as the Apostle speakes 1 Pet. 3.4 and then let the outside goe As on the other side Virum non à vestimentis immo nec ab ipso corpore sed ab anima laudare decet admirari Man ought not to be honoured and admired so much for the outward garments of his body nor yet for his body it selfe neither seeme
it never so comely and hansome in our eyes as for the inward graces and endowments of his soule For what profit is there of all outward ornaments or presence Cum anima mendico sit omni miserius induta as our Chrysostome goes on When our soule is more miserably clad then the basest beggar as being wretched and miserable and poore and blinde and naked as is said of the Church of Laodicea Revel 3.17 There might be many more Vses made of Christ his being posted and hurryed too and agen from one Judges house and authority to another as first carryed to Annas from him secondly to Caiaphas from Caiaphas thirdly to Pilate and from him to Herod and lastly from Herod backe againe to Pilate As also of the scorne and contempt that was put upon him by the rude and raskall multitude in all these his severall passages too and fro from one place unto another men women and children of all rankes and conditions following him with howting and showting at him as is usuall in such cases especially when hee was arrayed in that scornefull and disgracefull habite spoken of last before and so carried through the more publike and eminent streets of Jerusalem for the nonce and of purpose onely to have him gaz'd upon as an Owle and bayted as a Beare when if ever any man then he much more might justly complaine as in the Prophet Factus sum in derisum omni populo canticum eorum tota die I am become a scorne to all people and their song all the day long Lament 3.14 But time and other occasions will not permit me to speake of all and therefore this shall suffice John 18.39 40. Yee have a custome that I should release unto you one at the Passeover will you therefore that I release unto you the King of the Jewes Then cryed they all againe not this man but Barabbas now Barabbas was a robber c. THese words beloved are spoken by Pilate the Roman President unto the Jewes that were Christs accusers and very urgent with him to have him crucified who because he knew that for envy they had delivered him unto him as it is said Matth. 27.18 Therefore he endeavours as I told you the last day by three severall wayes and meanes if it be possible to save his life and to deliver him out of their hands First by turning him over to Herod Secondly by ballancing him with Barabbas And lastly by scourging and crowning him with Thornes Whereas therefore he had prevayled nothing by the first meanes viz. by sending him to Herod as you heard then also at large related and dilated unto you Therefore in these words as you see He makes tryall of the second by propounding unto them whether they would have Barabbas or Jesus let loose at this their great solemne Feast of the Passeover For so saith the text Will you that I release unto you the King of the Jewes or as it is in S. Matthewes Gospell Whom will ye that I release unto you Barabbas or Jesus that is called Christ Matth. 27.17 O sweet Jesus now or never there is hope and comfort neare that after thy many tortures and troubles formerly recounted which thou hast so quietly and patiently put up and borne at the hands of thy malitious and unkinde Country-men yea Kinsmen according to the flesh Thy life notwithstanding shall be spared and thy person set free and at liberty again at the last For seeing thou art ballanced in the scales with Barabbas the greatest malefactour of thy time and a necessity laid upon the people of releasing either thee or him it cannot possibly be imagined but that thou must be taken and he cast thou saved and he condemned For whereas he hath beene a Theefe and taken away by violence the bread of the poore and needy Why thou hast beene a feeder of them and a supplyer of their wants and necessities upon all occasions whereas he hath beene a Cutter and Robber on the high-wayes and by that meanes wounded and mangled the peaceable passengers travelling as it were betweene Jerusalem and Jericho Why thou as the good Samaritane hast healed them again by binding up their wounds and powring in Wine and Oyle unto them whereas he hath beene a Murtherer as Marke 15.7 and slain the living Why thou hast beene a reviver and restorer of life unto them that have beene dead All these therefore and thousands more unto which thou hast beene helpfull and beneficiall in one kinde or other will call and cry out aloud Set free and at liberty unto us not Barabbas our cruell enemy but Christ our curteous friend yea our kinde and common benefactour For it is impossible even in the judgement of Pilate himselfe that any should be so ungratefull as to doe the contrary which occasioned him to make tender of the most notorious delinquent that was then in durance amongst them to be in competition with Christ that so he might be sure as he upon good ground and reason conceived and imagined not to faile of the freedome and release of Jesus And yet for all this They cry out amaine with one voyce and unanimous consent Not this man but Barrabbas as yee see in the text O unheard of impudency and iniquity thus to deny the holy one and the just and to desire a murtherer to be delivered unto them as Saint Peter afterwards cast in their teeth Acts 3.14 Commutatio infoelix saith one An unhappy exchange for you Jewes thus to desire the Wolfe before the Lambe the noxious and violent before the righteous and innocent the impious and ungodly life-taker before the peaceable and mercifull life-giver wretched men that ye are so to preferre death before life sinne before God and Barabbas nay the Devill before Christ with whom yee shall be sure for your paines to suffer eternall paines in hell fire except you can and doe repent and be heartily sorry for the same Non quod per Pascha liberatis nocentem Tract 11â— in Ioh. c. 28. sed quod occidistis innocentem as Saint Austin speaks not so much because through the opportunity of your Passeover you have freed and spared the life of him that was a wicked theefe and robber but because you have slain the innocent and harmelesse Lambe who was undefiled and without spot Quod tamen nisi fieret verum pasca non fieret as the Father goes on which yet if it had not been done he could never have been the true Passover pointed at by all the legall sacrifices and shadowes of the old Law And therefore it shall not be amisse for us Christians to looke to another to an higher hand and cause of this choyce then only to the mischeivous mallice of these Jewes which if we doe we shall find that it was not Christ the second Adam onely that was layd in the scale against Barabbas but the first Adam also which was a greater murtherer and theife then he Yea and the