his humble and short Petition but behold a gracious return and grant Verily I say unto thee c. He begins his answer with a solemn word Amen or Verily a word which our Saviour used in any thing which tended to a serious concernment Aug. Tract 41 in Joan it hath the propriety of an oath and the reasons why he uses this importunate manner of speaking is because the thief might well doubt of the promise were it not for this earnest asseveration 1. In regard of his own person which could not seem any way worthy of so blessed a reward or so rich a blessing For who could imagin so bad a liver to pass so speedily from the Cross to a Kingdom 2. In regard of Christs present condition for then he was the miserable Character of poverty weakness and all sorts of humane Calamities And he might thus argue If he be not able whilest he lives to perform good offices for his friends how can he bestow them being dead This might have been his carnal reasoning 3. And then in regard of the thing promised Paradise which was then known to belong to the body only not to the soul So is the Etymologie of it according to the Hebrew An earthly Paradise It had been more credible if Christ had said To day thou shalt be with me in the place of Joy with Abraham Jsaac and Jacob. Therefore being so many scruples might occur unto this new convert Christ to remove them all confirms the the verity of his answer with this serious Protestation And his passage to Paradise was but short not a daies journey He does not say In the day of Judgment thou shalt be placed on the right hand with the Just nor does he say with the Millenarians after a thousand years sleep thy soul shall enjoy the pleasures of heaven nor doth he say Thou must first be refined in the Romish Purgatory or after some months or daies be beatified and that had been a happinesse beyond his expectation or merit but this day this very hour thou shalt transmigrate with me from the Tree of the Cross to the Joyes of Paradise Though it be Controverted by some what is here meant by Paradise yet it is the opinion of very Orthodox Divines That Christ the day after his death was with his Body in the grave and with his Soul triumphing on the infernal Spirits in hell but to neither of these can the name of Paradise be assigned the grave being but a gloomy receptacle for dead bodies where Christ's body only could be lay'd and under hell is intimated a place of torments But Paradise signifies a Garden of delight in the Terrestrial one there were flourishing Trees fruitful Waters Salubrietie of air and all the variety of deliousness that Adam could enjoy And in the Celestial one there are glorious and immortal Joyes frnitions of endlesse Beatitude an inaccessible light Seats and Mansions for the blessed The first was Local and Transient this is Spiritual and Eternal The joyes of the other were Corporal the Soul is Beatified in the latter by virtue of the Beatifical vision of God And this heavenly Paradise Christ promised the thief and that he would be with him and so he was according to his Divinity According to his Humane nature he was partly in the grave and partly in hell untill the third day upon which he ascended in a glorious and triumphant manner into heaven But according to the Divine as he was God he had an Ubiquitary Being he was then and alwayes in Heaven Paradise and all places Ioh. 3.13 Therefore very proper were the words of our Saviour when he saith not This day thou shalt be with me in my Kingdom because that day Christ was not to receive his Kingdom that is a perfect felicity of Body and Soul till after his Resurrection when he was to have a body glorious immortal impassible subject to no servitude or infirmity neither was the thief to enjoy this fellowship until the general day of Judgment but in Paradise because that day there was a community of glory to his soul and those of all true Saints And this is the perfect and essential felicity belonging to the Heavenly Paradise Neither doth Christ say We shall be there for he was then and before that time there according to the superiour portion of his soul but thou shalt be with me there that is even thy Soul shal also really be where now actually my divine Soul is .i. In the blessed joyes of Heaven Learn hence O man 1. How great and admirable is the mercy and liberality of Christ towards all his servants He being opprest with sorrows might not have heard the Religious thief but his charity had rather be insensible of his own torments then not to give ear to a miserable sinner confessing his delinquencies He was silent altogether at the maledictions and revilings of the Priests and Souldiers but to the humble clamours of a poor penitent he could not choose but give a gracious Audience He was silent at their Execrations because he was Patient and he was open-cared to the thief's Petition because he was Merciful Those that serve Temporal Lords do labour much but the rewards of their services are commonly far short of their expectations and we might observe many who have spun out their times in the Courts of Princes return home in their declining age either meer Mendicants or unregarded But this Holy Prince and President of true Liberality received nothing from this Penitential servant but a few good words and desires of serving him and behold what a Boon he confers upon him that very day he granted him a free pardon of all the sins he had committed in the whole course of his wicked life Then he prefers him to Abrahams â—â—som to a Quire of Saints anâ— Angels Patriarchs and Prophets were made his Associats and he himself made partaker of that Heavenly happinesse which is Undefinable and Eternal We read that the Roman Emperors gave vast treasures sometimes whole Provinces and Kingdoms to their Minions but this Prince bestowed on his new favourite more then they could either reach or conceive Neither was this goodness of Christ peculiar to this poor delinquent his Apostles deserted their small vessels their nets and cottages to serve him and then he appointed them Princes over the earth he subjected to their commands Divels Serpents Psal 44.2 3 Mat. 10 8 Principalities and Powers and all sorts of Diseases And he promises to all that shall leave their nearest relations for his sake and part with their dearest enjoyments for his service a hundred fold that is a reward incomparably greater then those particulars to wit Spiritual joys and blessings in this world and life Eternal in that to come We might reflect our thoughts on what great things the Lord wrought for Martyrs and Confessors of former ages how they came to honour by ignominy to riches by poverty to greatness by the
Job 6.4 The poyson of Gods arrows drinketh up my spirit and also for the superiour faculties of the soul in a regenerate man as there My Soul doth magnifie the Lâ—rd and my spirit rejoyceth in God my Saviour Luke 1.47 And then lastly of inferiour creatures it is taken two wayes too of living creatures The God of the Spirits of all flesh Num. 16.22 and of creatures without life other then a metaphorical life as of the wind often Ezâ—k 1.21 And of Ezekiels wheeles the spirit of life was in the wheeles Now in this place the Spirit of Christ may be taken either for his soul which is the substantial form of the body or for life it self because spiration is a sign of life and they that breath live and when the leave off to breath they leave off to live If by the spirit we understand his soul this caveat must be had we must not imagine that danger impending to it by leaving the body as is usual to dying men who commend their souls in pensive supplications because they go to the Tribunal of the Great Judg to receive glory or punishment Such a commend his soul needed not because it was blest from its creation as well in regard of its personal conjunction to the Son of God as because it left the body in a glorious triumph being a terrour to whole Legions of devils So that in this sense the words imply no more then that his soul which was formerly in the body as in a Tabernacle should be deposited in the hands of his father until he be restored when the time of restoring should come but it is more credible that by the spirit is here understood the corporal life as the meaning may be this I do now deliver the spirit of life by which I do leave off to breath and leave off to live and this spirit this life Father I commend to thee that thou mayst shortly regive it to my body for with thee nothing perisheth but all things live who by calling those things which are not givest them a being and those things which do not live givest them a life And this construction is most agreeable to the Psalmist Pull me out of the net Psal 31.4 that they have laid privily for me for thou art my strength into thy hands I commend my spirit Where by spirit is meant life for he humbly beseecheth the Almighty not to suffer him to perish by the malice of his enemies but that he would preserve his life the like is evidenced out of those Apostolical words Heb 5.7 Who in the dayes of his flesh when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death and was heard in that he feared These words cannot be referred to his prayer in the garden as some interpret for these Mark 14. the Lord prayed not with a loud voice neither was he nor would he be heard that he might be safe from death but to shew that he had a natural desire not to die thereby demonstrating himself to be a true man whose nature abhors death but they rather signifie that he desired not to be swallowed up by death and that he might only taste of it and so return to life And in that he was heard for he was not long detained in the black vaults of the grave but had a speedy and a glorious resurrection So that here the Lord was not troubled for his soul for he knew that to be safe as being beatified from its creation by a vision of God face to face but he was solicit ous concerning his body which seemed by the sting of death to be disappointed of life and therefore prayes that it might not long remain under its tyranny and in that his request was fully obtained Here then we may satisfy those Hereticks such as the Cerdonites the Euticheans the Manicheans were which brought Christ upon the stage to play a part and say he was born and lived and dyed in Phantasmate in apparence only and representation and not really For if he dyed not where is the contract between him and his father that Christ ought to suffer all this and so enter into his Glory is that contract void and of none effect where is the ratification of that contract in all the Prophets wherefore doth Esay say Esay 5 3.4 9 Surely he hath born our sorrows and he made his grave with the wicked in his death where is the consummation and the testification of all this doth not the Gospel here say And he bowed his head and gave up the Ghost immediately after this his last prayer is that fabulous God forbid in vain had we all been created if we had not a regeneration in his true death Christ truly dyed so as was contracted so as was prophecied so as was related But this I may boldly affirm that he did not die so as other natural men dye for there is this distinction between them Christ dyed because he would dye other men admitted to the dignity of Martyrdome are willing to dye but they dye by the torment of the executioners they cannot bid their souls go out and say I will dye as he did I lay down my life for my sheep 〈◊〉 10.15 17 18. sayes he No man taketh it from me I lay it down of my self And De facto he did lay it down he diddye before thetorments could have extorted it from him Many crucified men lived many dayes upon the Cross the theeves were alive long after Christ was dead and therefore Pilate wondered that he was already dead his soul did not leave his body by force Mar. 15 44. but because he would when and how he pleased Besides Christ was not subject to the law of death which appertained only to them who were derived from Adam by carnal and sinful generation he being miraculously conceived of a virgin by the overshadowing of the holy Ghost and being he was not involved in a general rebellion and so had not incurred Gods displeasure it follows that he was not involved in the general penalty and so needed not to have dyed by the rigour of any law as we must And then when out of his own pleasure and to advance our salvation he would dye yet he dyed so as that though there were a disunion of body and soul which is truly death yet there remained a nobler and faster Union the Hypostatical Union of the Godhead to his body and soul to this I add death hath that dominion over men that they have no power to raise themselves from it Christ had for even in spight of death he retained in Almighty power and delivered his body and soul by a Victorious and Triumphant Resurrection So then as it is true Christ Jesus dyed else none of us could live so he dyed not as others dye not by the necessity of any law not
had need of him too least the cares and troublesomeness of this world should choake the good seed sown in their hearts Christ not content with good works many and great which he had formerly done ascends by the Cross to higher and descends not from thence till he beholds a vanquished enemy prostrate at his feet Nothing more hurts a Proficient then when he languisheth in his course and stifles his proceedings according to that old Moral In the way of Virtue not to go on is to go backward Bern. ad Ganinum as Bernard doth rightly exemplifie in an Epistle in which he produces an instance of Jacobs Ladder where all do either ascend or descend none keeps a fixt station Those also who are Perfect and Virgins as Mary and John were and for that cause the more beloved of our Saviour I say those do much need the assistances of Christ's sufferings for they are in an higher condition and ought much to fear the tympanies and swellings of pride and self-conceit which can no better way be asswaged and taken down then by looking into the glass of the Cross There they may find an admirable president of true humility even Omnipotency it self yielding to most contemptible sufferings He in whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledg Col 2.3 permits himself to be illuded and reputed may by Herod and his armie He that sits between the Cherubims and can blast a star with a breath Psal 99.1 and melt a Church with a look and molder a world with a touch even he suffers himself to be crucified in the midst of theeves and to die the most ignominious death the death of the Cross Learn hence O man not to be proud of thine honor wealth learning no nor of thy Piety it self but lay them all down at the feet of Christ and learn to be meek and lowly in heart Mat. 11.29 for so was he 5. And lastly we may observe hence the Reciprocal love of Parents to their Children and of children to their parents 1. The Virgin-mother did most accurately demonstrate this when she stood near the Cross with much sorrow and constancy and how could she chuse but bestow on him her choicest love whilest he was not only her son but also the Son of glory a Son that according to his Divine generation had a Father without a Mother and according to his Humane generation had a Mother without a Father and therefore may be stiled unigenite her only begotten Son A Son that was qualified with most special endowments as well of body as soul far excelling both men and Angels And yet even for this Son she had no inordinate no impatient grief but though his Passion was violent unparallell'd yet she beholds him with a holy and a Religious Courage humbly subjecting her self her son and all to the Divine will and dispose of the highest Thereby giving us this instruction That we look not upon any natural relations but with a love subordinate to the love of God for he hath told us He that loveth son or daughter above me Mat. 10.37 it not worthy of me And that whensoever he calls us to part with them we must not unmeasurably grieve for them but chearfully resign even our dearest comforts to that God that hath given them unto us 2. Neither was there a mutual retribution of love wanting on our Saviour his part towards his parent when notwithstanding he was then in the midst of most distracting torments he forgot not to recommend her to the care of his bosome friend and dearest Disciple It is a saying among the Heathens Diis Parentibus Magistris nunquam redditur aequivalens The Gods Parents and Teachers are never sufficiently gratified I need not inlarge my self upon this point even nature it self dictates unto us what love respect obedience and assistance is owing to those that begate us and did for us when we could do nothing for our selves They are therefore to be recompensed by performing these duties to them Eph. 6.1 Heb. 12.9 1. To obey them in all things in the Lord. 2 To bear their corrections with submission 3. To reverence them Mal. 1.9 in giving them all outward submission and fearing to offend them 1 Tim. 5 16. 4. To cherish and maintain them in time of need This the Apostle clearly teacheth If any faithful man or woman have widows that is to their mothers or aunts let them minister unto them and let not the Church that is other Christians be charged 1. O Most glorious God and gracious Father that sentest thy Son in no sort to assume the shape of Angels but the nature of a woman the seed of Abraham and didst glorifie that substance with the bright robe of immortality and place it at thy right hand We hope and pray that every one of us may have a portion in that sacred body of our Lord Jesus Christ 2. Make us partakers of his Divine nature as he was of our Humane make us free from sin as he was holy as he was holy and in the end glorifie both our souls and bodies with his in thy heavenly Kingdom 3. O thou Saviour of the world that wert pleased on thy Cross to cast an affectionate thought on thy dear Mother and amidst all thy sorrows to chuse her a Guardian to have her in his cares teach us never to forget those duties we owe them that are under thee the makers and preservers of our lives Give us grace to love serve obey and cherish them that so we may be as children of their love so heirs of their blessing the blessing which thou hast promised to loving and obedient children 4. And we beseech thee Lord to teach all parents by her example who loved thee to the last to be constant in their affection and care of their children and to bring them up in thy fear Let them know that thou art the Father of their spirits they but of their bodies Heb. 12.9 let them then put all confidence in thee for them as their best Father and make their daily supplications to thee for all goodness to them 5. Thou that didst favourably look at thy dear Disciple and adopt him of thy servant thy mothers son we pray that the light of thy countenance may shine on all us that professe thy Name make us who are by nature the children of wrath by thy grace inheritors of heaven 6. Teach us with Magdalen to repent with the wife of Cleophas to proceed in all good and pious works and with the Virgin Mary to attain to a good measure of perfection Let us be ashamed that the weaker Sex should excel us in the acts of pietie or religion yet powre forth thy grace upon all Sexes and all degrees of people that they may all know and serve thee the only true God and Jesus Chist whom thou hast sent Joh. 17 for that is eternal life The Fourth Word MATTH
above and this is not to be found in the Athens of the world but in the most Divine Academie of Gods Spirit Jam. 1.5 the Treasure and fountain of all true knowledg who gives liberally to all and reproacheth none Thither only we must make our humble addresses for this holy Gemme and not desist in our Prayers untill we have by our teares and cryes undeafed the eares of the Almighty 1 ANd now O God of all pity and Patience we are confounded to consider thy great goodness in suffering that extremity of thirst and pain for us on the Cross enable us to bear patiently all afflictions Corporal or spiritual and to submit our wills to thine in sickness as in health in woe as in wealth in death as in life 2. Make us to thirst after the Kingdom of heaven and its righteousness teach us to prize the salvation of our soules above all earthly possessions for they are spiritual immortal and precious these but transitory and subservient if we seek thee in the first place who art All in All no blâ—ssings whether corporall spirituall or eternal can be wanting to us for every good and perfect gift proceeds from thee above Iam. 1.17 O Father of lights The sixth Word JOHN 19.30 It is finished THIS implies no more in sound construction then that the wonderful work of the Passion is now consummated and completed for the Father enjoyned the Son two weighty offices or works one of preaching the Gospel the other of suffering for man of the first the Lord formerly said That he had finished the work which he gave him Joh. 17.5 6. and manifested his name unto men The other injunction is intimated in these words O my Father if this Cup may not pass away from me Mat. 26 42. except I drink it thy will be done Now he had fully exhausted that bitter cup of his Passion nothing remained but his dissolution and so with an inclining head he gave up the Ghost But being neither our Saviour nor S. John explained what was Finished occasion is given us to make such mysticall applications of the Word as may be fruitfull to our souls Aug. â—om in â—cum One of the Fathers affirmes That in this place is meant an impletion of the Prophecies foretold of Christ Esay 7. Mick 2. and that all those predictions were true as his conception of a Virgin his Nativity in Bethlehem Numb 23. the apparatition of a new Starr Psal 71. the Adoration of Kings the Preaching of the Gospell Isay 61. His Miracles his riding upon an ass Esay 35. Psal 21.68 Esa 53. Jer. 11. Zach. 12. And his whole Passion is described by parts by David in his Psalmes Esay Jeremy Zachary and others and this the Lord himself being to pass to his sufferings spake Behold Luck 18. we go up to Jerusalem and all things that are written by the Prophets concerning the Son of Man shall be accomplished which is also here averred that their Testimonies might he verrified and received as the dictates of the Holy Ghost 2. Another of the Fathers understands here Chrysost that the power which was permitted to Men and Angels against Christ was now consummated at his Death and to this effect he speaks to the Chief Priests and Captains of the Temple and the elders that were with him this is your hour Lu. 22.53 and the power of darkness now his laborious peregrination now the condition of his mortal life according to which he hungred and thirsted and was weary and obnoxious to injuries wounds and to death it selfe is fully ended and determined 3. Another makes this Construction Now the chiefest Sacrifice was Consummated that in which all the Sacrifices of the old Law as it were types and shadowes did rest and into which they run as Rivolets into the main Ocean or as the stars when the Sun appeares with his glorious rayes see no stars at all so those typical oblations all vanished at the presence of this Son of Glory when he was to be immolated Concerning these prefigurations one speaks thus Lord thou hast attracted all things to thy selfe Leo Serm. 8. de possion dom for the vaile of the Temple being rent the holy things of the most holy departed from the unworthy Priests that the figure might be turned into the truth Prophecy into manifestation and the law into the Gospel and a little after the variety of carnal sacrifices now ceasing the oblation of thy body and blood have made one perfect and entire sacrifice For in this Sacrifice the Priest is God-man according to his Hypostatical union Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchizedeck Psal 109.4 The Altar was the Cross which by how much the more base it was before by so much the more illustrious and noble it was made after Christs death the Sacrifice was the Lamb of God innocent and immaculate of whom the Prophet said That he was brought as a sheep to the slaughter Isa 53.7 and as a sheep before the shearer is dumb so he openeth not his mouth The fire of the Holocaust was his immense charity Cant. 1.8 which did so flame in his brest that the floods of persecutions could not extinguish it the fruit of the Sacrifice was the redemption of Mankind the expiation of the sins of all the sons of Adam for Isa 1.29 behold he is the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world But here is the difference between the sacrifices under the Law and this of the Gospel there it was the Office of the Priest to kill and to prepare the Sacrifice but here Christ was both Priest and Sacrifice not that he layd violent hands on himself but because he willingly yielded to the slaughter for Gods glory and the propitiation of our sins their reconciliation was obtained by the blood of beasts Col. 1.20 here peace is made through the sacred blood of Christ Jesus not his as he claimes all the beasts of the forrest all the cattell upon a thousand hills Psa 50.10 and all the foules of the Mountains to be his not his as he is Lord and proprietary of all by Creation so all blood in his no nor his as the blood of all the Martyrs was his which is a neer relation and Consanguinity but his so as it was the blood of his Cross the precious blood of his body the seat of his soul the matter of his Spirits and the knot of his dear life 4. We may further understand in this place that at the death of Christ a great battell was finished between him and the Prince of this world of which he intimates in those words Now is the judgement of this world Jo. 12.31 now shall the Prince of it be cast out but this battell was judiciall not military the encounters were in litigations not armes for the devill did strive with the Son of God about
dayes Exod. 10.21 which was a signification of their superstitious blindness and ignorance of the true knowledg of God and the obstinacy and disobedience to Gods Commandment And as then Meses brought the Israelites from the Egyptian bondage they were in under Pharaoh so the true Moses here Jesus Christ brings all that believe in him from the bondage of Satan unto everlasting happiness Let us now come unto the words themselves My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Psal 22.1 and these we find to be taken out of the Psalmist and in them Christ complains in a voice more then ordinary that he was relinquished of God the Father at that instant For the better clearing of the sense we must observe that Christs derelictions of the Father may be understood five several wayes whereof one only is true and here meant there were five conjunctions or unions in the Son of God The first is that of Essence between the first and second Person of the Glorious Trinity and that as it is natural and eternal so it is perpetual and inseparable of which Christ himselfe speaks I and my Father are one and therefore he said not My Father Joh. 8.16 but My God why hast thou forsaken me For the Father is not called God of the Son till after and by reason of the Incarnation 2. The second is the Conjunction of the Divine and Humane nature in the second Person and this can never be dissolved for what he once took he never puts off And the Apostle saies Christ that is God and Man suffered for us 1 Pet. 2.21 The third is the union of Grace Joh. 1.14 For Christ was a Man full of Grace and truth and this doth and shall remain The just dyed for the unjust 1 Pet. 3.18 the death of Christ had nothing profited us if there had been a separation of Grace The fourth is the union of Glory for the soule of Christ saw God from its very conception Joh. 1.14 and according to its superiour part was already truely blessed Aquin. 3. p. q. 46. ar 8. and therefore this conjunction could not be dissolved because a soule once truely blessed is alwayes blessed blessednesse being the summ and compendium of all goodness There remains a fifth union which is that of Protection whereof he speaks He that sent me is with me Joh. 8.29 and hath not left me alone And this for a short time was suspended and dissolved that the oblation of a bloody sacrifice might take place for the Redemption of mankind God was able divers wayes to have protected Christ and to have withstood his Passion according to that prayer of his in the Garden Marck 14.36 Father all things are possible to thee take away this cup from me nevertheless not what I will but what thou wilt Nay Christ could have defended himselfe and commanded Legions of Angels to have guarded his Person Mat. 26.53 No man could take his life from him but he laid it down himself Joh. 10.18 and he might as well bestowed on his body the gift of impassibility as that of incorruption But it pleased the Father it pleased the Son it pleased the Holy Ghost to permit the common decree that humane cruelty should prevail against him then he told his bebetrayers the hour was come Mark 14.41 in which the Son of man should be delivered into the hands of sinners God then so left and forsook his Son that he suffered his humanity for that Space to be without any consolation to endure for our sins most bitter sorrows yea the torments of hell it self And he put himself to those unspeakable sufferings by reason of the greatnesse of mans sin which he took on his body to expiate for us that we being delivered from sin 1 Pet. 2.24 should live in righteouseness by whose stripes we are healed And as this sin was infinite as being against a person of an infinite value the Lord God so the person Satisfying was to be of an incomprehensible dignitie and excellency And though one drop of his precious blood had been an ampler ansom for all mankind yet that his passion might be esteemed by us the more meritorious and gain more Souls he shed all because he did undertake for the sins of the whole world therefore it pleased him to suffer a world of torments when he laboured under that Dereliction of his father 1. Learn hence O man how infinite and inexpresible was the love of Christ to thee when he suffered with so much patience and humilitie such wonderful torments for thy sins His soul was very heavie unto death Man 26.3 There is no Christian but will acknowledge that our Saviour was ten thousand times more able to suffer then the most Constant Martyr that hath suffered for his Name and if he were more able to bear whence could it happen that he was prest with such sorrow such heaviness and such feare but that he alone suffered more then all the martyrs ever since righteous Abel to this day this should work an imitation in us to love the bitter cup of repentance and to reject the cups of Consolation and Secular delights to rejoyce in afflictions and to trample on the seeming felicities of this world Doth God visit our land with Plague Famine War or other judgements O! remember that these Calamities are but as a drop to that vast Ocean of sorrows the Son Gof od suffered for us and that they are far less then our sins deserved for they are but temporal and reach no further then our bodies but by his sufferings we are exempted from those miseries which might justly fall on our souls and bodies eternally We then are as prisoners once condemned for capital crimes but released again with our lives and only chastized with some few stripes have we not then great cause to rejoyce that we have escaped greater judgments 2. But though God seems for a while to forsake his friends and leave them in durances and to withdraw his grace and favour from them yet his indignation cannot last for ever in the end he will return unto them and shew them the light of his gracious Countenance and be merciful unto them if they call upon his glorious name in their distresses Christ upon the Cross suffered a great dereliction his Glory was obscured his divinity seemed to be hid the light of heaven was substracted from him in stead of a Diademe he wore a Crown of thorns in stead of a Scepter a Reed in stead of a statelyretinue belonging to a King they afforded him the ignominious fellowship of two theeves thus was he dejected and scorned and exposed to all imaginable crosses but behold upon his humble expostulation and prayer to God the sence was altered and a speedy Period put to all these calamities the heavens were unmantled the light appeared his last and worst enemy Death was conquered his body and soul
the possession of the world that is of humane kind the Devill had for a long time usurped a dominion over man because he conquered the first man and enslaved him and his whole posterity and therefore he is stiled the Principalities and Powers of the world Eph. 6.12 and the Prince of darkness Neither was he only so called Psal 96.5 but also termed the Gods of the heathen for he was publickly adored with sacrifices among them as their only God but on the other part Christ as the true and lawfull heire of the universe claimed to himselfe the Principalities of the world so that at length the battell was decided on the Cross and sentence was given in favour of our Saviour where he obtained the Trophees of an absolute Conquest for there he gave a plenary satisfaction to the Divine Justice for the transgressions of all mankind for there is returned a greater obedience from the Son to the Father then was the inobedience of the servant to the Lord the Son of God was more humbled even to death for the honour of the father then man was lifted to pride to the dishonour of God so God was reconciled to man through the merits of his Son when he rescued him from the clawes of the Devil Col. 1. and translated him into the Kingdom of his beloved son 5. And lastly these words may rightly be applyed to the building of Christ 's Church which was not perfected and finished until his passion though inchoated in his Baptisme Thus Epiphanius in his third book against Heresies and that learned and holy Augustine Lib. 3. haere 78. in his last book of the City of God affirm and teach Lib. 22. câ—â— that Eve being built and founded on the rib of Adam he being a sleep was a type of the Church which was raised from Christs side when he began to sleep through the heaviness of death and so the Scriptures do notifie not without a mystery Eve to have been built not formed And that the Church began to be edified from the Baptisme of Christ the said Father proves out of the Psalmist His dominion shall be from sea to sea Psal 71.8 and from the river to the ends of the world for the Kingdome of Christ which is the Church began to be built from the water of his Baptisme in which he receiving the Baptisme of John consecrated the waters and instituted his own which is the gate of the Church and this he was made manifest through that voice of his Father heard from heaven this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear him from that time the Lord began to preach and to Congregate Disciples who were the first that came to the Church and although there was made an apersion of Christ's side after death from whence issued forth water and blood which signified those two principal Sacraments of the Church Baptisme and the Lords Supper yet all ordinances had their full qualifications from his meritorious passion so that the flowing of water and blood from his side was rather a declaration of the mysteries rather then an institution most rightly therefore it is said that the building of the Church was then consummated when he said It is finished for there remained nothing then but a dissolution which speedily following the price of a blessed redemption for man was compleated 1. Learn hence O man that as thou art certain those things by their events to have been true which the holy Prophets predicted so thou ought'st to be fully assured that those future things which are foretold by the same Prophets shall come to pass though not as yet fulfilled for they spake not from humane fancies but from an inspiring Spirit of God which is ever infallible Sicut usque ad hodiernam diem omnia evenerunt Aug. in Psal 76. sic et quae restant eventura sunt c. Even as to this day all things have rightly followed so the things which remain will undoubtedly follow Let us fear then the day of judgment the Lord is coming he that came once in poverty will next come in Glory And that there be no haesitation in our saith we have stronger arguments on our sides then ever our Ancestors had they who preceded the times of Christ without any performances or external impletions were tyed to believe many things we who have had an experimental knowledg of diverse things already accomplished should be induced to credit the rest with the more facility who lived in the dayes of Noah did here that the general deluge was to come and it was demonstrated unto them not only by his preaching but also by his building of an Ark notwithstanding they would not believe because they had never seen such a deluge and therefore a divine fury fell suddenly on them now we who know that to be impleted which the Prophet foretold may easily believe that he at whose beck are all the elements may as well destroy the world by fire the second time as he hath done first by water And we that find it verified that Christ raised many from death and his own body from the grave may be fully confirmed that by virtue of his Resurrection our soules and bodies also shall be translated to a state of glory and immortality in the world to come 2. Observe that though the journey of our Saviours peregrination here was laborious and sharp above measure yet it received an honourable compensation it ended in triumph and Glory it lasted thirty three years but what was the labour of those years in comparison of Eternal happiness he was humbled and made a scorn of men and an abject of the people for a short time but God hath highly exalted him Phil. 2.9 10. and given him a name above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven things in earth and things under the earth But his adversaries exulted to the period of his Passion Pilate rejoyced till the instant of his sufferings because he had preserved his friendship with Cesar and was then reconciled to King Herod but now he and the perfidious Jewes justly suffer in hell-flames for their sacrilegious impieties Here then the humble and patient men may see how good how propitious a thing it is to take up the Cross in this life and to follow Christ their afflictions are but light and transcient and not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed to them for when they dye they pass from a vaile of sorrowes to a Paradise of joyes Rev. 7.16 where all teares shall be wiped from their eyes but with the ungodly it is not so the end of their miseries if they have any in this world is but an entrance and beginning of greater in the other where is endless weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth 3. Another benefit may be reaped from the third acceptation of the words for if
are counted as sheep for the slaughter Nay in all these things we are more then conquerours through him that loved us From these holy presidents we may learn how to master our afflictions and to sweeten our persecutions and to deem them as the embrioes of eternal life We may bear them with all spiritual joy if we look not on them but on him that imposed them on us who without doubt was the Father Almighty without whose Providence not a hair can fall from our heads and therefore let us with Moses esteem his rebukes greater riches then the treasures of Egypt Heb. ii 26. having respect unto the recompence of the reward 1. ANd now O Saviour of the world how great a compass wentst thou in this act of our redemption before thou didst bring it to this happy Period from thy swathing to thy shrowding from thy cold lying in a manger to thy cold dying upon the Cross what didst thou do and suffer Nay what didst thou not do and suffer for us The work of our Creation was great but this far greater That was done with a Fiat with the breath of thy mouth thou speakest the Word and all was done here was a miraculous conjunction of God and man in one person maid and mother in another when it was but begun thy omnipotencie indeed appeared in the first but thy mercy and justice in the latter such a work didst thou finish here that neither Man nor Angels or thy deity alone could well accomplish Oh! Thou that didst so much for us teach us to do somewhat for thee Thou that madest thy self a perfect victime for our sins grant that we may sacrifice our sins and mortifie all carnal concupiscences that so our souls and bodies may be offerings of a sweet smelling Saviour in thy Nostrils Thou that didst conquer the Prince of this world and all the enemies upon the Cross assist us against the conflicts and temptations of our spiritual adversaries save us from the roaring Lyon that he may never prevail O thou that art the Lion of the tribe of Judah But because we are ignorant of our selves what to do aright 1 Cor. 12.6 we pray thee guide us with thy Spirit thou Isa 28.21 who workest all in all work thy work in us and bring to pass thy act thy strange act whatever it be Let us perform what thou requirest of us and that is let us do justly shew mercy and walk humbly with thee Mic. 6.8 and walk humbly with thee our God Preserve thy Church that issued from thy side on thy Cross thou art her husband O Christ save thy spouse thou art her head save thy body protect her as thine from infidels hereticks and schismaticks from bad men and Devils from all errours and dangers Make her unto thy self glorious without spot or wrinkle holy and without sin Ephes 5.7 And though like thee shee sorrows and suffers often while militant here yet make her triumphant with thee in the world to come Let every member of her profess thy name to the end with courage and constancy after thy glorious Examples let us not be carried away from our duties to thee with the vanities of the world or the enticements of the flesh or the suggestions of Satan O thou that art immutable without shadow of change Yesterday to day and the same for ever fix our fickle thoughts on thy fear and establish thy holy Spirit within us that we may alwayes praise thee who never ceasest to bless us By the grace and merits of him who finished the grand works of eternal redemption for us living and dying to save us Lord make us live and dye thy servants that we may be partakers of that happiness which by his blood he hath purchased for us in the Kingdome of Bliss Amen The seventh and last Word LUKE 23.43 Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit ANd well might he call him Father because he had merited the name of an obedient Son to the last minute of his life and therefore most worthy to gain attention But here a doubt occures what we are to understand by the hands of God are we with the Anthropomorphites to ascribe the form and lineaments of man unto God Theod. l. 4. c. 10. as if he had eyes and ears and hands and other parts and faculties like unto us far be it for God is a spiritual substance of an invisible and indivisible nature without body parts or passions of infinite power wisdome and goodness but for the better explanation of this and the like expression in holy Writ we must make use of that known adage of the Hebrew Doctors Lex loquitor linguam filiorum hominum That is the holy Ghost in the Scripture descends to the capacity of man speaks man's language that is so as he would be understood by man and therefore presents him in the faculties of the mind of man and in the lineament of the body of man not that he hath really either of them for he is a most pure and a most simple entitie without any corpority or composition And so the hands of God do denote unto us his wisdom and power or which fals into one meaning his intellect knowing all things and his will enabling all things for with these two as it were two hands God did all things The will of God is his power for all things whatsoever he would he did in heaven and earth My Spirit There are divers significations of this word Spirit in Scripture which if not rightly apprehended may occasion divers errours it is spoken of God or of Angels or of men or of inferiour creatures Of God it is spoken sometimes Essentially sometimes Personally God is a Spirit Jo. 4.24 and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and truth So also Isai 31.3 So also The Egyptians are men and not Gods and their Horses flesh and not spirit for if they were God they were Spirit so God altogether and considered in his essence is a Spirit but when the word Spirit is spoken not essentially of all but personally of one then that word designeth the holy Ghost Matth. 28 19. Go and baptize all in the Name of the Father and Son and the Holy Ghost Rom. 8â— 6 And the Spirit it self beareth witness c. And as of God so of Angels also it is spoken in two respects of good Angels sent forth to minister for them that shall be heirs of Salvation And evil Angels Heb. 1.14 The lying Spirit that would deceive the King by the Prophet 1 Kin. 22.22 Hosea 4.8 The spirit of whoredom when the people asked counsel of their stocks And spiritus virtiginis the spirit of giddiness or perversities which the Lord doth mingle amongst the people in his judgment Of man also is this word Spirit spoken two wayes sometimes for the Soul sometime for those animal spirits which conserve us in strength and vigour
the patience to learn the following Article he might hear of his Triumphant Ascension into heaven and sitting there in Majesty and power on Gods right hand all the consolation of a Christian consists in this principally that after a troublesome warfare here he shall be carried to Abrahams bosome the Celestial Paradise to the durable Jerusalem to his Masters joy to an inheritance immortal undefiled reserved in the heavens to a rest from his labours and to behold the glory of God O how it behoves each man then to secure his interest in those felicities and daily and hourly commend his soul to that God that made it We are all careful enough when death approaches to put our houses in order and dispose of our temporals but few take a thought for that which is spiritual We had rather with King Asa seek to the Physitian then to the Lord 2 Chr. 16. when seized with sickness or with the Pharisees tithe mint and cummin and leave the weighty Matters of the Law undone but so we do but present God with maim not perfect with dead not living sacrifices Nothing can enter into the Kingdom of heaven but what is pure and immaculate and therefore our chiefest care should be if we desire to have admission there to prepare our souls by true faith and timely repentance without which our prayers and tears will nothing avail for without holinesse no man shall see the face of God He made our souls spirits let us not then make them carnal by feeding on corrupt lust He made them immortal let us not murder them with our sins and deprive them of eternal life He made them noble and after his own image let us not make them brutish and earthly by doting on the pleasures and vanities of this transitory world For what shal it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul TO thee therefore O thou Father of our Spirits do we make our humble addresses that thou wouldst be pleased to be a Protector of our souls and bodies both here and to all eternity Thou art our Rock and our Fortresse therefore for thy Names sake defend and guide us We have no confidence in saints or Angels for thou hast charged the best of them with folly but in the multitude of thy mercies for thou alone hast redeemed us O Lord God of truth Thou that didst shew thy power in weakness and shake the foundations of the earth when suffering on thy Cross make us to tremble through the horror of our sins and to fear thy judgments for them which we justly merit As thou didst then cleave the Rocks and rend the vail of thy sanctuary so melt our stony hearts with the beams of thy grace that they may receive the impressions of thy favors and that we may enter into the Holy of Holies above which thou hast prepared for thy chosen The height of our love is but to lay down our lives for our dearest relations but thou didst depose thy precious life for thy enemies that rebelled against thee Lord who by thy active and passive obedience wouldst leave nothing undone or unsuffered for our salvation O teach us to obey thy word to embrace thy metions to practise what thou commandest Let our wills be wholly resolved into thine and make us conformable to thee as thy saints and angels in heaven are We confess Lord that the wages of sin is deaeth and that we justly deserve to be reduced to our first nothing but O let not death which is the work of the divel have dominion over thy creatures who are the work of thine own hands Before we receive a summens to our end we pray thee furnish us with all requisite graces that we may be clothed with the wedding garment of holinesse and righteousness to meet thee the sweet Bridegroom of our souls Let us not commend unto thee foul sinful spouses but clean and sorrowful spirits for thou despisest not Lord humble and contrite hearts At the hour of death Lord speak comfortably to our souls and seal in our hearts by thy holy Spirit the pardon of all our sins Assist us with thy presence against all the assaults of our spiritual adversaries for if thou wilt be with us we shall neither fear nor feel any evil though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death And grant that though our souls and bodies be separated by death for a short space they may be re-united at thy great day and by vertue of thy Resurrection be raised to live in thy ever blessed eternity Grant this for his sake who lived and dyed and rose again for our salvation Jesus Christ Amen FINIS