S. Greg. Nyssen In Natalem Domini may we not believe of the passing of her childhood and yonger years of her retirements and praiers of her most pure chastity and horror of all carnal lust and Concupiscence of her dedicating her unspotted Virginity to God and devoting her self to his only and perpetual service of her constant holy conversation with him and ardent love toward him like that which a Spouse hath to her Husband which love he saw who saw her heart or also who made it there and so he who is never indebted return'd his love again to Her who since he was pleased to shew the affection and enamoredness of a husband to the house of Israel tho a very sinful people in adopting its children to be his own see Ezech. 16. chap. and Hos 2. chap. how much more may we say that he did so to this pure Virgin of whom by the Holy Ghost he produced his natural Son Which honour so far surpassing that of the Baptist or of any other Saint many Holy men and Doctors of the Church well considering assign also to her a sanctification yet higher then his some saying that she thro the merits of her Son thro whom only must any good descend on any of Adams children was exempted from all actual sin others that she was also cleansed or as others yet further preserved from that pollution and stain of Original sin the carnal concupiscence which inheres in the rest of Adams posterity and that thus as thro Christ others are delivered from the sins they have any way contracted so was she preserved from those sins which else she as a daughter of Adam should have contracted that so this Spouse who was to entertain such intimate visitations of the Holy Spirit might have nothing of the flesh displeasing in his eies And indeed S. Austin when speaking against the Pelagians of the Universal guilt of sinning yet reverently puts in this exception concerning this excellent Creature yet not preserv'd such without the help of Grace Excepta Sancta Virgine Maria de qua propter honorem Domini nullam prorsus cum de peccatis agitur habere volo quaestionem Inde enim scimus quod ei plus gratiae collatum fuerit ad vincendum omni ex parte peccatum quae concipere ac parere meruit eum quern constat nullum habuisse peccatum § 11 Secondly amongst all other vertues and perfections and freedom from offending God how eminent may we imagine this Holy maid especially to have bin in that of corporeal and Virginal purity how free from all carnal lusting since as all sins are opposite to that Holy Spirit with which she was filled so this of the flesh opposit above all other See 1 Cor. 6.16 17 18 19. -1 Thess 4.4 7. Eph. 5.3 Exod. 19.15 -1 Sam. 21.4 -1 Cor. 7.5 34. so that we may imagine all things of her both for her reverence guard and vowes concerning this vertue far transcending those which have appeared in other Holy persons As for her Espousals to Joseph which seems almost necessary to take away the reproach of any daughter of Israel her remaining issuless and unfruitful and not being given in marriage and yet more to take away that of a Virgin that was also whilst a Virgin to be a Mother it is piously supposed to have bin done with her request first made to Him and as willingly granted by him of the perpetual conservation of her Virginity Of the Divine pleasure in which amongst so great Graces she was from her infancy adorned with by the Almighty so passionatly loved by her she might likewise have some extraordinary Light and Revelation For otherwise her Question to the Angel How shall this be done since I know not a Man as S. Austin observes De S. Virginitate cap. 4. would have had no wonder at all in it if tho she had not yet she might soon after have known a man the Espousals also to one being already passed Quod profecto saith he non diceret nisi Deo virginem se ante vovisset Sed quia hoc Israelitarum mores adhuc recusabant desponsata est viro justo non violenter ablaturo after acquainted first with such vow sed potius contra violentos custodituro quod illa jam voverat And Virginitatem Deo dicavit cum adhuc quid esset conceptura nesciret ut in terreno mortalique corpore caelestis vitae imitatio voto fieret non praecepto c. And Ipsa quoque Virginitas ejus ideo gratior acceptior quia non eam conceptus Christus viro violaturo quam conservaret ipse praeripuit sed priusquam conciperetur jam Deo dicatam de qua nasceretur elegit Thus He. Which also from hence is rendred more credible that upon the Angels message we find her with great faith and humility very readily consenting without casting in any scruples from her late Espousals to Joseph as if one preacquainted with her chast purposes Tho the Angels transactions with her and her supernatural Conception of a Son her modesty and humility thought fit as yet to conceal from him she being noted by the Evangelist to have bin a person of great prudence and secrecy Luk. 1.29 -2.19 51. This we may imagine of the Blessed Virgins Sanctification and Devotement to God from her Infancy But then when there acceded also to this sanctification by the Holy Spirit dwelling in her heart the supervening of the Holy Spirit as a Spouse whereby was caused in her the Conception of the holy child Jesus if her chastity were capable of degrees how may we conceive it then in the highest Zenith thereof and her then to have even an Angelical purity from any sense of carnal Love or pleasure § 12 Yet this holy Maid whom we have seen chosen by God to be the mother of his sonn so rich in her perfections and noble also in her descent for she was to be one of Davids race according to Gods promise unto Him yet First we find her very mean and low for her condition and liker to this her father when he kept Sheep in which low condition also God made choice of him then when he ruled a Kingdom Therefore she afterward made this the cheif subject of her Magnificat that the Highest should pass by the high and cast his eye on such a lowliness Luk. 1.48 51 52 53. And when the Angel in his first salutation told her that she was replenished with Grace and singularly favoured of the Almighty and she the Blessed among all women her great modesty and mean esteem of her self and reflection on her secular poverty was much startled at such speech and instead of being exalted to some vanity from this fair language as some especially of that weaker Sex are apt to be she cast in her mind saith the Evangelist as being a wise and considerative soul see Luk. 2.19 what such a salutation meant titles so high to a person so mean and thus still
active nature spirit and judgment to return to be imprisoned for several years in such an impotent body as to be swathed cradled mute and for all conveniences or necessities wholly disposed-of by another that knows not his mind § 107 3ly Such a perfection and if I may so say man-hood of our Lords Soul and intellect being supposed in his infancy and so much vacancy from any serious external employments as accompanies child-hood we may imagine but Lord to have passed those his first daies continually in praier which also infers silence and Recollection and in Intercessions to his Father for Man's salvation and the business he came for into the world Which also may be inferred from this That when at 30 years of age he had entred on his Office of preaching and that his day-time was taken up with other business and great throngs of people who for their spiritual and corporal necessities continually flocked to him yet He used then to rise on nights and retire into some solitary place and there spend part or sometimes the whole night in Praier See Mark 1.35 Luk. 5.16 6.12 Till then that our Lords growth was capable of corporal Labours we may justly account his time at Nazareth spent much-what like that of S. John Baptist or also his own 40 daies sojourning in the Desart and that all this while he became a fervent Mediator for us now by his taking our flesh become his Brethren and negociated our business so much more with God when hindred by his age for doing it yet with men And his Father who was alwaies well pleased in him accepted his service in this time of nonage and sequestration from human affairs as more immediatly devoted to himself And if mankind is supposed to receive much benefit from the Praiers and Devotions of those Holy Hermits who without any conversation with men apply themselves wholly to these like Moses in the Mount praying whilst their brethren are fighting here with Satan and a thousand temptations how much more strength and succour may we be thought to receive from those infinitely-meritorious intercessions of our Lord in that his silent infancy Whose outward deportment also in this time corresponding with his mind must needs beget great reverence towards him and the like Devotion and silence in the Blessed Virgin and S. Joseph that daily beheld it and the oeconomy of this little family much exceed that of the strictest Monasticks Both these persons being before our Lords Nativity highly enriched with the Graces of the Holy Spirit and also by so near access to his person receiving daily new influences and recruits thereof from him who was full of Grace and Truth as the beloved Evangelist describes him Jo. 1.14 16 and of whose fulness we all receive Grace after Grace and all for and from this fountain of Grace § 108 In such silence and Devotion and conversation with Heaven our Lord seems to have spent his time till now he had run out â—2 years of his Age when happened a very strange accident concerning him It was a law that all Males should appear at the place which the Lord should chuse for his Residence in his Sanctuary or Temple there three times in the year at the three solemn feasts and that then none should appear empty or without an offering i. e. offerings of thanksgiving as God had prospered them to honour the Lord with their substance and first fruits of their increase See Exod. 23.15 17. 34.20 Deut. 16.17 Prov. 3.9 But women and children were dispenced-with and the males are said to be obliged thereto only from twenty years old to sixty or fifty But at the great Pascal feast it was usual from ancient times for the women and their children as well as men to go thither as appears by 1 Sam. 1.3 4. And so S. Luke saith of the Holy Virgin and her husband S. Joseph that they went to Jerusalem every year at the Paschal feast and we may presume took with them the Holy child Jesus after able to travel so far whom considering who He was and on such account how dear to them it would have bin a great affliction to have left behind them and to have relinquisht the Lord himself as it were to go to his house And there missing our Lord when twelve years old and hoping to find him gone before with some of their kindred argues that not to have bin his first journey In which also they would have bin more solicitous of his not straying froth them and their seeking him also in the Temple seems to have proceeded from some observation made by them of his former inclinations and practices there at these Feasts § 109 Now then when Jesus had completed the sacred Number of the twelfth year of his age All Gods works being exactly measured with a certain number of time among which the numbers of 12 and of 7 are very frequent in Scripture going up with his Parents as usually to this Feast it was the Divine pleasure after the Eastern Magi their having already proclaimed the birth of Him at Jerusalem and the Doctors of the Jews also by Herod's assembling and consulting them being then forced to take notice of it now again after 10 years more passed to manifest his Son to Israel and to the most learned thereof and to shew as it were a ray and glympse of his celestial Original and his Divine wisdom and Graces in an age as yet no way capable of acquiring these by studies or Human Art if so be they would now by comparing the Messias his Nativity and considering the transcendent knowledg that made them all astonished appearing in this child discern this Divine person and yeild him a due obedience and Adoration Which appearance also was made when Archelaus Herod's Son that Ruled in Judea and that might be dreaded as heir of his Fathers malice also to the new Messias was before this supposing our Lords stay in Egypt not above two years and Herod's reign according to Josephus De Bell. Judaic lib. 2. cap. 6. only nine ejected out of his Government by Augustus and banished to Vienna in France and a Roman President substituted in his place After therefore the Feast was now ended and the multitudes returning homeward Our Lord in obedience to the will of his Father in Heaven on a suddain with-drew himself from his Parents here on earth without giving them any notice of his purpose which made known to them might to their human reason have seemed somewhat extravagant and perilous and so have received some obstruction from their great solicitude for his safety Wherein He hath also shewed to us how little any Relations of Kindred many times great lets of Piety are to be regarded when any way hindring our service of God Of which disengagement from Kindred he also gave us examples afterward upon several occasions He therefore immediatly returned to the Temple carried hither with the same zeal and fervour of the Holy
of these Samaritans being Israelites and many Jews also when obnoxious to the Laws or for some other secular advantages removing thither out of Judea After which times also another Anti-Temple about one hundred and fifty years before our Lords coming was erected in Egypt for the Jews flying together with Onias a Son of the High Priest when as persecuted by Antiochus Epiphanes which Temple perished as also the other near the time of the destruction of that in Jerusalem and both these forraign Temples seem preludiums of Gods worship shortly to be made common to the whole world This is premised for the better understanding of what follows § 197 Near to this City Sychem and this Mount was a Well digged by Jacob and then made use of by the City And here our Lord travelling on foot and wearied with his mornings journey it being now about noon and the heat of the day sat down on the side of the Well to rest himself it as a place of resort likely having some Trees and shade about it whilst the Disciples went into the Town to buy some meat for his and their dinner For the Jews had no commerce or conversation with the Samaritans when absolute necessity did not require it as this of travellers buying victuals of them so as to ear and drink and lodg with them being accounted by them Schismaticks and unclean which caused also the same enmity against and separation of the Samaritans at least some of them from the Jews see Luk. 9.53 the other Samaritans seem herein more remiss see vers 56. Whilst our Lord was here left alone a Samaritan woman came thither out of the City to draw water This happened also to be a woman that had had already five husbands either all already deceased or she by divorce separated from them for in latter times women also used to procure divorces from their husbands and that now lived incontinently with one not married to her § 198 Our Lord thirsty with his journey and desiring to entertain some further spiritual discourse with her concerning the salvation of this poor wretch requested of her some water to drink upon which she somewhat wondring asked him why he as appearing by his habit and perhaps his speech a Jew would receive water from her and out of her vessel being a Samaritan and one also it seems that for all the impurity of her life was a Zelot of the Samaritan Religion and way of Gods worship and of their separation from the Jews Here-upon our Lord moved with compassion took occasion to preach the new Gospel and to reveil himself to her and turning the mention of water with a Metaphor and to enter without force or abruption into pious discourse as usually and as we find he doth by and by concerning meat and again concerning harvest told her that he was a person from whom she might expect a greater curtesy and that if she had well known the Gift of God and who he was she would have begged water of him rather the true water quenching all thirst and in the receiving of it a Well continually abounding i. e springing up in all spiritual Graces to everlasting life conferred by it Our Lord here speaking as formerly in his discourse with Nicodemus of the Gift of the Holy Spirit which he came to bestow upon the world and which his Death procured of the Father which being conferred in our regeneration by the water of baptism cures all hunger and thirst after earthly things and fully satisfies and beatifies the Soul Consider Jo. 7.38 39. 6.35 Esai 44.3 § 199 The woman saying she should be glad to receive such water Our Lord the more to encrease her faith in him bad her to call her husband as if it were meet that he also with his wife should share thereof thus taking occasion to discover to her his knowledg of all her former life and condition and for the present of her living in secret concubinage She hereby discerning him to be a Prophet and perhaps to divert him from speaking more of her husband presently begun to consult him concerning Religion who in the present division were in the right the Samaritans or the Jews and where God was more acceptably worshipped in Mount Garizim where the Patriarchs Abraham and Jacob and afterward Joshua by Gods appointment and their fore-fathers that came out of Egypt built an Altar and offered Sacrifices as hath bin said or at Jerusalem a place of a latter consecration and sanctity the Samaritans also rejecting any testimonies produced out of the Prophets against them and see the vehement contest and dispute of the Samaritans and Jews that had bin before this in Alexandria before Ptolemeus Philometer made Judge in a cause Joseph Ant. l. 13. c. 4. § 200 Our Lord after he had first told her that the Samaritans not Jews for the time past were peccant and schismatical herein and the right way of salvation to be among the Jews and so also the Salvation through the Gospel first to be communicated to them proceeds to instruct her concerning the times of the Gospel now at hand wherein all such former Divisions and factions concerning the place of worship should be taken away that God was a Spirit not addicted or confined to Place nor taken with corporeal things and external Ceremonies but only as these were types and prefigurations of spiritual things to come and of his real service by and through Christ but that he expected those now who should worship him in what place soever in spirit and in truth intimating here the abrogation from henceforth of the former legal worship and Ceremonies which was accordingly established by the Apostles Act. 15. a thing that at this time the Samaritans would more willingly hear of than the Jews And he speaks also here to her of worshipping not God in general but the Father the true worshippers will worship the Father For that all worship of God now was to be through Christ his Son and by such as were also made his Sons through Christ Worshipping God also in Spirit seems to be the worship of him in and by the Holy Spirit given through Christ according to those expressions of our Lord to Nicodemus before Jo. 3.6 that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit and Mat. 22.43 David in Spirit called him Lord. And of S. Paul whom I serve in the Spirit Rom. 1.9 and Rom. 8.14 those who are led by the Spirit and vers 9. Ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit § 201 The woman upon our Lords saying the Hour cometh c. replyed that she believed when the Messias should come he would declare all Gods pleasure concerning his worship and remove all the present differences Our Lord told her that himself was the Messias She hearing this and much transported with his former discourse whose words were with authority and setting hearts on fire and bidden also by him to call her husband carelesly leaving
for seasoning the insipidness and unsavoriness thereof towards God and for preserving it eternally from corruption and that they were the light of the world for illustrating its darkness And lastly a City or Society in which all the world were to be joyned and collected and to become Subjects and members thereof and one Body or Corporation one Faith one Spirit c being therein Eph. 4.4 that therefore they were to provide that this Salt should not become unsavory or insipid for then wherewith could that which is to season all others be seasoned it self And that this light should not be put under a bushel nor this their City hid as it were in a vale or such which should not be eminently discovered for then how could the world know where to joyn themselves to the communion thereof Lastly that also their light and their doctrine were to be accompanied with their good works that people might see the one as well as the other though such good works not done to be seen of men nor that themselves but their heavenly Father working such Sanctification in them might be glorified thereby 2 Cor. 8.21 Rom. 12.17 Their example and practising of their doctrine being much the more difficult and this much more effectually converting others than teaching doth 1 Pet. 2.12 3.16 And that at the last day many of them should come unto him saying Lord Lord and telling what great matters their preaching and prophecying in his name had effected yet should they be rejected on this account that their works were evil And that every tree thus bringing forth ill fruit should surely be cut down and cast into the fire § 276 He told them likewise and herein also gave a precaution to the people that there should arise among them many false Prophets and Teachers who should come in sheep's clothing and counterfeit much Sanctity and use much fair language c. but yet within were very wolves 2 Cor. 11.3.13 and that there was one sure test by which they might know them Viz. by the fruits they bare for that as the tree was bad or good so would the fruit certainly be Which rule our Lord seems to have given them upon a double account Both because truth and goodness or Holiness proceed from the same Holy Spirit within us the fountain of both and are eternally linked together and so errour and vice So that all things truely weighed no true doctrine can ever tend to an evil life nor errour to a good and Holiness alwaies suffers not gains by a lye Therefore also are truth and iniquity frequently opposed -1 Cor. 13.6 Rom. 2.8 1.18 So that no mans wickedness can be the effect or consequent of any truth he holds though who holds the truth may still be wicked from another principle in him That therefore thus true and false teachers may be known by the fruit of their doctrines in their Auditors if these tend to the infusing into them higher degrees of all kinds of piety and charity Or on the contrary do infuse any seeds of impiety injustice uncharitableness sensual liberty uncleanness or sedition and disobedience to Dignities and Superiors This as to the fruit of their doctrines But secondly because as to their persons the root in such false teachers alwaies is evil i. e. their affections and intentions are perverted which perverse affections at last manifest themselves in their lives and practices these either for secular ends teaching doctrines not believed and known by them to be false purposely to deceive which ends and hypocrisy will certainly discover themselves in their works or tho the doctrines taught are also believed by them yet there are some vicious inclinations respecting secular interests which do induce such a beleif especially where they depart from the Traditions of the Church and former Superiours and such secular interests will appear in their works and manners and the heart bad in one thing will be so in another Therefore the Apostles do describe frequently such false teachers as vitious in their lives and seducing with their fair speeches when in their sheeps clothing See Rom. 16.17 18. Phil. 3.19 -2 Cor. 11.3 13. -1 Tim. 4.2 Tit. 3.11 -2 Pet. 2.3 10. c. in which texts they are represented as Sibi placentes gloriae sitientes assentatores invidi maledici obtrectatores ventri dediti suis temporalibus commodis avaritiae servientes suum negocium agentes some way or other non veritati noting them specially as covetous sensual speaking ill of Dignities But here note that by false Prophets are chiefly meant those who know their doctrines to be false and intend to deceive and teach in Hypocrisy and live in disobedience to a Superiour Church-authority Otherwise some good man may teach an errour and some bad truth But as these have or want the Grace of God in their heart and have their will and affections sincere or corrupt so will their fruit mostly be good or bad and among other things their teachings and instructions will have a relish thereof After this our Lord concluded his whole Sermon thus that the Foundation of Happiness was their good works and their not-hearing or teaching but doing what he taught which was laying the Foundation upon a sure rock so that no storms should shake the building raised upon it But that the Hearer of his words and not practicer was like a fool building his house on sand Upon which a time would be when the raines should come and the winds blow and the floods arise and the storms beat vehemently upon it and the fall thereof should be very great and terrible And thus ends our Lords great and famous Predication in the Mount to his Apostles and to all the People who saith the Evangelist were much astonished as at his doctrine so at the manner of his delivery thereof For he spake to them all these things with a kind of Majestical Authority and not as the Scribes An Historical Narration OF THE LIFE OF OUR LORD JESUS PART II. Beginning after the prayer recorded Joh. 17. § 1 GREAT was the present malice of the Devil in this hour of trouble approaching against the rest of his poor Disciples to gain possession of them also as he had already of Judas Jo. 13.27 and Satan had desired Luk. 22.31 32. c. concerning them as he did concerning Job That God who keeps a continual restraint upon this hater of mankind not only for his hurting us after sin but also for his tempting us unto it would but now let him have the sifting of them a little after all the great works they had seen done by this their Master and all the gracious words they had heard from him to try their fidelity to him Our Lord therefore foreseeing the great temptation that at this time they also foreseeing his Fathers permission to these Powers of Darkness were to undergo and how greivously they might otherwise miscarry in it interceded to his Father
by it on those who deprive themselves of their share in the sufferings of this Lamb of God Under the weight then of this heavy burden freely undertaken by him for love of us and our eternal safety he falls down on his knees and prayes on this manner Abba Father Mat. 26. peircing words like those of Isaac Gen. 22.7 from so innocent a person and also an onely Son going to the slaughter If it be possible as all things are possible unto thee Mark 14.36 let this cup pass from me And thus far as he being true man Nature for self-preservation presents to God its own innocent and harmless desires and inclinations but then as also being a most faithful Subject and servant obedient in all things to the will of God proceeds further in another Note Nevertheless Not what I will but what thou wilt And herein consisted his innocency not in wanting these natural desires of self-preservation for this would take away all merit of obedience but in submitting them Such desires of nature being sinful not wherever they are but onely where they rule contrary to what a Superiour power exterior or interior commandeth or requireth of them And to instruct us that no man ought to take such desires arising in him so long as the person thus concludes them in Not what I will to be sin the Son of God also for our consolation sheweth them in himself And from him we may also learn that he as we dayly had and underwent all those other harmless appetites and inclinations of Nature respecting food rest apparrel lodging society and other delights of the senses and that in the confining of these within their due limits in obedience to his Fathers commands consisted the merit of his innocency never any one of these appetites throughout all his life though from time to time motioning their natural contents yet having bin for once any way exorbitant or transgressed the bounds his Father and his God had prescribed it § 16 Therefore we find that two or three daies before as he was in the Temple upon the like natural sense of Death he made the like prayer set down by St. John chap 12. as it were in lieu of this in the Garden which that Evangelist wholly omits who it seems writ his Gospel upon occasion of some Hereticks so early denying our Lords Divinity chiefly to Register therein those discourses and works of our Lord which more manifested to the world his Divinity than those discovering his human infirmities In the Temple then certain devout Gentiles by the divine providence now desiring to be brought to him and to be made acquainted with him as it were already suing to be admitted into his fold which thing was only hindred by his death not as yet accomplished our Lord took great notice of it and upon this occasion foretelling the coming in of the Gentiles and how assoon as he was once lifted up upon the Cross assoon as this standard was erected and he displayed upon it he should draw all the world unto him Upon the mention of that cruel death he there also let fall this expression to them Jo. 12.27 Now is my soul troubled and what shall I say And there also first he makes his request as a man sensible of misery Father save me from this hour but then as a Son and a Servant perfectly obedient he with his Superior reason and the Spirit restrains these sensitive desires in their true bounds in saying to himself again But for this cause came I unto this hour and then adds an Act of Resignation Father Glorify thy name i. e. in any sufferings of mine whatsoever which may be for the enlarging of thy Glory even to the Gentiles and to all the world At which time also after his prayer his Father answered him with a voice from heaven which the People called an Angel's speaking to him Jo. 12.29 as here he sent an Angel to him to shew that he alwaies heareth and accepteth prayers joined with such a Resignation from all his sons See Jo. 12 30.-11.42 So again at the Table in looking upon the horrid design of his own Servant against him read in his heart it is said by the same Evangelist that he was troubled in Spirit chap. 13.21 But straight his absolute Resignation to his Fathers will appears in his permission of Satan to enter and act further against him in that malitious Soul and in his saying then That thou dost do quickly So in his last sufferings on the Cross wherein he seems to have undergone a second Desolation of Spirit when he began those words of the 21 Psalm composed by his Father David touching his Passion My God My God why hast thou forsaken me This also was then accompanied with a most placid Resignation of himself into his Fathers hand that smote him saying presently after these words Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit But to return This Request and perfect Resignation being offered together that Model that should be of all our prayers also he returns in this his Agony to receive the solace of the company of his three dearest Disciples left not far behind him as also like an ever-careful shepheard to look to his sheep and so afford them his company and assistance in this hour of their temptation as well as his And behold he finds them being stupified with sorrow Luk. 22.45 and amazement at such a fight of his sorrow and amazement and for the sad presage he had made to them of his approaching death Peter and all fallen a sleep Our Lord straight awakening them asks Peter who had but now made such great promises of going to Prison and dying with him how it chanced that he and his Followers could not for so little a time as he had now to spend with them even for one hour so much as watch a little with him And this for his own sake too to spend it in prayer to be delivered from that great temptation that was coming especially on Peter But this meek Lord what with one word he questioned presently with another he excuseth in saying with much compassion for them The Spirit indeed is willing but the Flesh is weak Upon which Flesh of theirs not onely their greif but Satan probably at this time was permitted to have some influence in this first degree of their desertion of our Lord Where also by his mentioning the weakness and infirmity of their Flesh which he now also felt extraordinarily in himself but without sin he excites them also to a stronger vigilancy over it Then repeating again to them the same charge of watching to praier in this dreadful hour of temptation which he gave them before He departs again to a certain distance sore prest with that great weight that lay upon him and on his knees made a second time the same request with an earnestness of Praier Luk. 22.24 increasing according to his Agony when also his innocent words conclude
some other speedy death but there fastned to remain till near the going down of the Sun and then taken and buried that the land might not be defiled by his being above ground Gal. 3 13. See Deut. 21.23 as hath bin said already § § 83 Secondly because our sins deserved the utmost torments and even these eternal and our Lord in this case undertaking the satisfaction of Gods Justice for them this death by crucifying was chosen as being of all those ordinarily inflicted on Malefactors the most dolorous and tedious being only a wounding or piercing of exterior parts the hands and feet that approach not the principal or vital members the Head or Heart and so preserving an integrity of sense Nor was any great effusion of the blood caused by such wounds so to exhaust the spirits for the nailes still filled the holes they made but on the other side this piercing being made in the most nervous parts which Nerves are the Organs of sense produced a most acute pain and so the person was left in this posture fastned hand and foot on the rack abandoned to the Fowles or to Famine if a fever caused by these extream torments did not dispatch him sooner the body usually remaining in such torment for many hours if not daies Our Lord hung so for three hours before he expired in a Miraculous patience resignation and silence all the words he spake scarce taking up three or four minuts of it and when this time was run out the Roman Governour wondred if he was dead so soon and both the other Malefactors were then still alive Therefore the Apostle speaking of this our Lords death puts such an Emphasis upon it That he was obedient to the death even to this death of the Cross By the greatness of his sufferings therefore our Lord would have us learn the true weight and heinousness and desert of our sins the cancelling of which cost him so dear As also such exquisite pains both he and God his Father chose to shew their great love to man and his salvation and if there were no absolute necessity for the Son of Gods satisfaction for us by such exquisite torments the least prick of whose finger would have bin a ransome for a thousand worlds yet surely the more he suffered for us the more he shewed he loved us and the less of his pains were necessary for any satisfaction the more these so greivous demonstrate the greatness of his affection § 84 Thirdly such an horrid and lingring death was chosen by our Lord to remain for ever an example and pattern and consolation to all his followers in their sufferings again for him so often as they call to mind that he endured first far greater for them and that God doth not treat us servants and sinners so severely as he did his innocent and only Son and that we might be ashamed of our tergiversation or impatience of any small sufferings having seen his resignation and alacrity and voluntarily undertaking for us of so much greater § 85 Fourthly setting now aside the extream torments thereof this death seems to be chosen in many other regards For next by it this Evangelical Sacrifice hath a nearer resemblance to all those former made under the Law that were only Types of it Resemblance In our Lords being laid and spread when they fastned him with nails on the wood of the Cross to be consumed on it by degrees so those Sacrifices laid on the wood of the Altar but this on the Cross during much longer before it was consumed the heat of which torture also forced a sitio from our Lord. So saith S. Peter 1 Pet. 2.24 Ipse pecâ—ata nostra pertulit in corpore suo super lignum And S. Paul Eph. 5.2 Tradidit se ipsum pro nobis oblationem hostiam Deo in odorem suavitatis Again in our Lord 's being elevated and lifted up toward Heaven as those also were on an Altar raised up in Salomons Temple ten cubits high 2 Chron. 4. and ascended by steps and the Sacrifice also upon this Altar was elevated or heaved up again and waved before the Lord in the hands of the Priest and the Altar of the oblation of incense was made also of wood Again this death seems the most convenient also for the pouring out of the blood of this Sacrifice even the whole Mass of it gathered to the heart in a great stream at the foot of the Cross as the Priest did to that of the legal Sacrifice at the foot of the Altar as it were all at once by the Soldiers lance instead of the Priests knife but this not till such tedious and lingring torments for several hours first endured whereas the legal was presently dispatched out of its pain and lay a long time indeed to be consumed on the Altar but after it was first deprived of life and sense This death most convenient also for this Lamb of God fulfilling the type of the Paschal Lamb and the prophecies whereby God signified that he would not have a bone of his only Son to be broken nor his body any way mangled or divided any further than four holes made in his hands and feet and a wound in his side whilst meanwhile his stripping and then his long and scorching pains suffered from the fire of Gods wrath against our sins falling all upon him which he endured on the Cross answers to that Lambs being first flayed and then whole and entire stretched out at length and by degrees rosted by fire Thus then this Evangelical Sacrifice in this manner of the offering thereof most resembled the legal § 86 Fifthly this death on the Cross was a death most visible to all and publickly exposed in which could be used no personating fraud or concealment the body nailed up on high naked to be surveyed by the eyes of whatever Spectators for many hours nay examined and discoursed with so that there could be here no pretension of a delusion or cheat And if notwithstanding this so many Hereticks even in the Apostles daies thinking this too great a disparagement to the Son of God have denied the reality thereof what would they have done had our Lord suffered in some other manner less conspicuous § 87 Sixthly a death of those that are violent the most convenient and proper for those pious and charitable words and actions that were to be performed at his death In his making his Will as it were and disposing of his afflicted Mother his great care to the provision of his best beloved Disciple In testifying his free forgiveness of his Enemies Revilers and Torturers by his Praying to his Father also for their pardon In receiving to Mercy at the same time by the vertue of that his death on the Cross the penitent Robber a symbol of his doing the same to all sinners whatever that should at any time repair to him for salvation through those sufferings In manifesting his patience obedience and love
carnal Sacrifices any more but in spirit and in truth 3. To signify that God was now departed from the Jews and left the place of his former residence amongst them as also Josephus saith that a little before the destruction of the City a voice was heard in the Temple Eamus hinc because they had forsaken his laws refused the Gospel and crucifyed his Son for which this Garment of the Temple was also rent as in a time of Mourning § 105 Whilst these things happened the Roman Centurion that stood over against the Cross of our Lord and commanded the Guards which watched him having learnt before both from their mocking and from his accusation in the Court that he made himself the Son of God and hearing from him such a loud and strong Cry at his giving up the Ghost and considering the darkned Sun the Earth-quake that followed it and the renting the very rock he stood upon Luk. 23.47 surprized with great fear in the midst of these hard-hearted Spectators Glorified God saith St. Luke and said that certainly this was a righteous man Nay further confessed that surely he was the Son of God as he had in his arraignment confessed himself to be and the Guards also that attended there sore affraid made the same confession with their Commander saith another Evangelist Mat. 27.54 that truly he was the Son of God The common people also that came together to this sight filled with terror and their hearts accusing them for what they had either done or consented to not shaking their heads at him as they had done a few hours before in derision but smiting their breasts Mat. 27.39 went away mourning and sorrowful as they came full of jeers and merriment § 106 Our Lord 's blessed Mother and the other Galilean women his former Attendants and St. John stood there still by him though not having so much as his dead body in their power nor knowing how to recover it out of the hands of Justice but waiting on the Divine providence and good pleasure concerning it To whom it was some consolation to see his heavenly Majesty shew himself by these strange accidents so sensible of the cruel execution of his only Son and to hear after that of the penitent Malefactor the confession of our Lords Deity come from those strangers the Roman Centurion and Soldiers and to behold the peoples resentment at last of their former cruelties done to him though now too late for the preservation of his life Meanwhile of the repentance and relenting of the Governors of the Jews we hear nothing who probably in seeing these wonders said of these at his death as they had of those in his life that all came from the Devil That this darkness Earthquake and renting the Rocks were effects of the rage of Satan thus deprived by their Justice of his prime Minister and Instrument for overthrowing of their law or else that they were expressions of the Divine displeasure against such an Impostor and Blasphemer as almost all prodigies and strange accidents receive a double and contrary interpretation as the person wisheth their prognostication and so predictions hinder not events though after these they manifest the divine predisposal of them wherein also they were the more confirmed by that high affront that seemed to be done to his Divine Majesty in the renting of the Sacred Veil that covered his Sacred presence in the Temple For otherwise if this man had bin so dear and nearly related to God why did he not rather save his life And if these things were done by his power why not he rather by it unfasten his nails and descend from the cross § 107 These Governors therefore nothing dismayed and as religious observers in every thing of their law hasted to Pilat to request him for the taking down of the Malefactors from the Cross assoon as might be lest their hanging longer might pollute that great high Festival that approached which began over night at the Vespers of the former day On which day also being the Sabbath they might not be taken down which also was desired according to what God had expresly commanded in Deuteronomy chap. 21.23 that the body should not remain all night upon the Tree but that they should in any wise bury it that day for he that is hanged is accursed of God that the land might not be defiled Thus the Text. They besought him therefore that though some of them not yet dead they might by all means be taken down having their legs first broken to hinder if any strength yet left in them their escape from the Guards well knowing also that their cheifest prize our Lord was made sure and dead already the mangling of whose body also thus though no torment yet might be a further disgrace The Roman Governour at their request presently sending such order to the Soldiers of breaking the Malefactors legs and taking them away they executed it upon the two Thieves who they saw as yet have some life in them but when they came to our Lord already deceased they forbare this because indeed it was his Fathers good pleasure that his body should not be mangled nor a bone of him broken which was also punctually observed in the rosted Paschal Lamb the Type of him This thing was done saith St. John Jo. 19.36 Exod. 12.46 that the Scripture might be fulfilled A bone of him shall not be broken to which end also his death was hastened inflicted on the others in whom they perceived some life § 108 Thus our Lord's Body in which were to remain the scars of his Passion being not disfigured by any bone broken only one of the Soldiers wantonly with his Lance pierced his side from the opening of which gusht out a stream of blood greater doubtless then what the piercing of a dead body could naturally send forth falling down and poured out as that of the Sacrifices was at the foot of this Altar on which this Lamb of God was laid Our Lord by this precious stream washing away all our filthiness and this his blood spilt not as Abels calling aloud for vengeance but pardon Of which what can we imagine less than that it was though invisibly received and recollected by the Angels and so afterwards presented by our ascending Lord in the Sanctum Sanctorum not made with hands above when he entred into it before the Throne of God his Father whereby the Celestials themselves are said to be purified and prepared for our Lords Pontifical service of Intercession for us there Heb. 9.23 which sprinkling of the blood of Jesus upon us saith St. Peter 1 Pet. 1.2 Sanctifieth us with his spirit And we are now come to the Mediator of the new Testament and to the sprinkling of blood that speaks better things than that of Abels saith S. Paul Heb. 12.24 and by which blood we also have confidence of entring into the Sanctum Sanctorum now with our prayers hereafter
with our persons Heb. 10.19 § 109 Together with this stream of blood gushed out also another very Miraculous stream of water distinct from it for otherwise by reason of the strong tincture of blood this water could not have bin discerned if mingled with it A Type of which was Moses his smiting the rock and the water gushing out whereof the Apostle also speaking saith the rock was Christ 1 Cor. 10.4 And these two the water and blood lively represented the two Sacraments left by our Lord to the Church for the cleansing of sin and commemoration of his death the Sacrament of Baptism and of the Eucharist And thus as out of Adams side when lying a sleep was formed his Wife Eve so by the water and blood issuing out of Christs lying in the sleep of his death was formed in these two Sacraments his Spouse the Church regenerated in the one by Christs Spirit and nourished in the other with his grace redeemed by the shedding of blood and cleansed by the water § 110 St. John a spectator all this while and diligent observer of all that passed takes great notice of this with these words concerning it And he that saw it bare record and knoweth that he saith true that we might believe By which he saith the Prophecies were fulfilled that the Executioners should pierce his Sacred body but not break a bone and saith that this water and blood in the two Sacraments and the plentiful effusion that was not long after accomplish'd at Pentecost of the Holy Ghost and which also continues to the end of the world begetting and nourishing children to God joined with them are the three Witnesses that here on Earth give testimony continually of this redemption which the same Evangelist that saw this prosecutes also thus in one of his Epistles 1 Jo. 5.6 8. This is he that came by water and blood Jesus Christ not in watâ—r only but in water and blood and in these it is the Spirit that testifyeth that Christ is the Truth For there be three that give testimony in Earth the Spirit Water and Blood Thus S. John Meanwhile abstracting from this contemplation we may imagine what a ruful Spectacle this was to our Blessed Lady and the women with her in beholding such barbarous cruelty used to her Son even after his death and his most precious blood so spilt on the ground § 111 Whilst these things passed Joseph of Arimathea a noble Senator and one of the great Council of the Sanedrim a good man and a just saith S. Luke chap. 23.50 of him one who had not consented to their Counsel and doings but expected the Kingdom of God formerly a Disciple also of our Lord but secretly as also was another great man Nicodemus for fear of the Jews their estates and their Esteem lest either should be lost making them more timorous this Nobleman residing constantly in Jerusalem and rich had in a garden of his close by the place of our Lord's execution newly caused to be hewed out of the soft rock of the hill a Monument or Sepulcher for himself but ordained by the divine predesignment for the interring of our Lord's body near hand so that all things might the better serve for the evidence of his ensuing Resurrection He therefore though so timorous before and who had now also a special reason of not touching or coming near a dead corps because of eating the Paschal Lamb at even prohibited to any unclean as those were to be for seven daies that touched a dead body Numb 19.14 yet probably much animated both by our Lords patient and innocent sufferings and besides his former Doctrine and Miracles the many signs he saw now from Heaven and Earth of the transcendent dignity of his person and that he was what he believed him to be having heard also of the order of the persons executed their being presently taken down or perhaps being one of them also that procured it boldly saith the Text went in to Pilat to beg our Lord's Body of him though well foreseeing he must incur a great hatred from the cheif of the Jews his acquaintance herein Pilat after he had called the Centurion and certainly informed himself of his being already dead and no design herein of saving his life freely gratified him with it and commanded it should be delivered him not prohibiting him a decent Burial whom he had alwaies esteemed an innocent person That Joseph might not undergo this sad office alone without a companion and for the greater honour of our Lords funeral the time of whose humiliation was now expired with his death Nicodemus another great person one that had formerly by night conversed with our Lord and also in the Council spoken in his defence John 7.51 and probably more familiarly acquainted with Joseph by reason of their condiscipleship joined with him in this service mutually encouraging one another against the Priests and Elders of the Jews who must needs be much displeased with this fact as upbraiding them with the Murther if not of the Messias or a Prophet yet of a just person Joseph therefore suddenly prepared fine linnen for a Syndon and Nicodemus a great quantity of Spices about an hundred pound weight saith the Text and so coming to Calvary by the Governours authority took down the naked body from the Cross and removing it into Joseph's Garden close by probably there performed to it all the usual Ceremonies before burial washing his stripes and wounds and cleaning it from all those indignities the malitious Jews and Soldiers had done to it anointing it with sweet Oyles and wrapping it in the linnen filled with the spices and sweet odours and binding a Napkin about his head used for hindring the falling of the Jaws all to make good that in the Prophet Esay 11.10 Et erit Sepulchrum ejus gloriosum In which office we may imagine these great persons were assisted as with their Servants so with the help of the blessed Mother of our Lord and S. John more punctually relating this story than the rest who we may not think left our Lord after expired but waited still in the same place to observe how God would dispose of his Sacred Body and no doubt were much comforted in seeing that authority committed into the hands of those honourable persons our Lords Devotes and formerly known to them as such § 112 The Body thus decently and sumptuously accommodated was presently carried by this small train of Mourners and laid in the new hewn Sepulcher near at hand a place as convenient for the future events of our Lords Resurrection so a Monument durable and not subject to ruin as other the noblest Sepulchers ordinarily are For what more permanent than a Cave made in a Rock but such as also the place wherein he first lay when he came into the world the Manger that might continue to all posterity and such as remains to this day and is continually visited by a great confluence of devout
what they were afterwards to instruct the Jews and all other Nations expounding to them the Law and the Prophets shewing them the many predictions concerning the Messias his Sufferings Resurrection and so entrance into his Glory a many of which they mentioned afterward in their Sermons in the Acts opening their understandings to understand the Scriptures § 128 Afterward more particularly addressing himself to his Apostles he told them in this and several other apparitions made to them before his Ascension that he was very shortly to go into Heaven to his Father and leave them here behind him That all power both in Heaven and Earth was given to him that therefore by this his Authority he also sent them to preach the Gospel to all Nations and witness to them the things they had seen and heard from him but beginning their predication first at Jerusalem and to Gods former people the Jews That they should preach to them repentance and remission of sin thro his name and also the observation of all those things which he had commanded them And that they should also Baptize them In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost instructing them that who so believed in him and were baptized which was the Sacrament instituted for washing away their sins for conferring on them the Spirit of regeneration and for initiating them into his Church should be saved and the unbelieving damned And that great signs also should follow them that believed and were of the Christian profession which signs should bear witness to the truth of their faith and Religion That in his name they should speak strange languages cure the sick cast out Devils and have a special command over all the powers of the Enemy as they are called Luk. 10.19 in taking up or treading on Serpents or in hapning to drink any poison not to receive any hurt from them Not that all Believers should do such Miracles but that these should still remain in the Church or Congregation of true Believers Testimonies and Evidences of Gods special favours to and presence with them § 129 At last he proceeded to their solemn Ordination wherein after he had pronounced a second Pax vobis and a sicut misit me Pater ego mitto vos He breathed upon them with his most Sacred mouth and said these words used ever since by them and their Successors in the ordination of others Receive ye the Holy Ghost whose sins ye shall forgive i. e. by Baptism or for those committed afterwards by Absolution upon confession and repentance or penance they are forgiven them and whose sins ye shall retain i. e. by not baptizing or absolving or further binding with Church-censures the impenitent and obstinat they are retained And so solemnly promised to be with them and their Successors with his power and protection till the end of the world and the time of his return to judg it § 130 This said he disappeared also to them as he had done several times already to the other which caused in them now less wonder at the former leaving their hearts replenished with great consolation After this done on the second day of the Feast and the first of his Resurrection he absented himself from them till the Eighth when that solemn Festivals Octave was fully ended and the people were upon their return to their own countreyes and habitations Where for this time our Lords glorious Person was together with those other Saints whose Bodyes were raised with him till his Ascension would be too much curiosity to inquire It seems he was pleased to observe the fixed laws of the Divine wisdom for Souls or Persons already translated to the next life viz. to have no more familiar or long-during converse with those of this for so neither did Elias and Moses make any long stay with our Lord in the Holy Mount. As for other good ends so perhaps for this the greater merit of our faith here concerning the life and affairs of the world to come § 131 S. Thomas one of the eleven was absent when our Lord thus appeared where some imagine from the fear he formerly bewrayed John 11.5 that he might not be as yet returned to the Society since their dispersion on Thursday night at our Lords apprehension and so might not have heard as the rest of our Lord 's former appearings at all to the women and to Peter c He whether the same night or afterwards being come to them and informed of their having seen our Lord yet for a greater manifestation still of our Lords Resurrection and for begetting in this Apostle more humility continued in the same incredulity as to their relations though so many as they had done to the other likely perswaded by the Circumstances of his appearing in the night coming through Doors shut and making scarse any stay at all with persons to whom he had formerly shewed so much affection but suddainly vanishing again that it might be some airy spirit subject in his motions to the order of a Superior power And though they related to him also their having seen his scars and touched his body or at least invited to do it yet he fancied that this was not done to purpose but ought to be better examined and that if he had bin there he would have thrust his hand into the Gash in our Lords side and his fingers into the holes made by the nails c Notwithstanding that this person besides his hearing our Lords many predictions to them of his Resurrection was present with the rest at our Lords raising from death after laid upon the Bier the widdows son at Naim and again at his raising of Lazarus out of his Sepulcher when he had lain longer time there than our Lord had done But this too-much suspicious and despondent inclination of his had appeared also several times formerly that we may see what materials our Lords Grace wrought upon and not to be discouraged as in those words of his at our persecuted Lords return into Judea for the raising of Lazarus Jo. 11 16. He then presently resolving that there our Lord and they must lose their lives and in his words again John 14.5 where our Lord telling his Disciples of his departure shortly and that they knew the place and the way whither he went Thomas dejectedly replied that they knew not whither he went and how could they know the way thither To whom our Lord answered that his Journey was a Return to Heaven to his Father whence he came and that He himself believed-in was the way thither Yet after the descent and renovation of the Holy Spirit this Apostle especially was made choice of to be a most eminent Assertor of the same Resurrection and Propagator of the Gospel throughout India and the remotest Nations of the East fulfilling our Lords words Acts 1.8 Et usque ad ultimum terrae and there at last laid down his life for it § 132 Our Lord then