resorting to him as also Philip and Nathanael Galileans We find also Acts 19.3 some Brethren living at Ephesus and Apollo of Alexandria to have received Johns Baptism which argues also a resort to him from forraign parts unless we imagine an authority of Baptizing either commited by him to or at least assumed by some of his more eminent Disciples Hither also came the Publicans and the Soldiers and those that were esteemed the most notorious sinners to hear his Sermons made of Repentance and remission of sin which seemed to concern such persons most These therefore terrified with his words made humble confessions of their former sins to him Mat. 3.6 Mark 1.5 as those other Converts in the Acts did to S. Paul Acts 19.18 promised amendment of their lives were baptized by him in order thereto Lastly asked his advice and directions concerning their Duty in their several Vocations and Employments where the Gentleness and tenderness wherewith he treats the Soldiers and the Publicans yet the instruments of sustaining the Roman Power is very notable not bidding them presently to desert or change their Profession or proposing to them any high perfections as he did to some others but admonishing them according to their present capacity of avoiding those faults to which their employments more tempted them the Soldier to do no violence to any nor falsly accuse them to make way for plunder but to be content with that gain their wages afforded them and the Publicans that they should not enhance the Taxes upon the People nor require more than was appointed them instructing them first in acts of Justice and doing no wrong to their Neighbour whilst he exhorted others to acts also of charity § 133 And lastly hither also came the learned and highly-esteemed Scribes and Pharisees Many of them as appears by what our Lord saith Luk. 7 30. though perhaps not all moved with curiosity to see and observe the strangely habited person and not with compunction for their sins as others or the believing what he was or said no more than they did afterward our Lord himself to verify our Lords speech Pauperes evangelizantur These bearing a show of sanctity and accordingly reverenced among the people so soon as the Baptist beheld seeing and knowing all their interiour by the Holy Spirit he entertained not them with the same mansuetude and indulgence as the poor Publicans and Soldiers as the one appearing to him interiorly clothed with humility and Contrition the other with Pride and Hypocrisy but presently fell into a sharp reprehension of them before all the people knowing this the proper way if any for their cure calling them a generation of Serpents which was also our Lords language afterwards denouncing to them the Novissima the great wrath to come and such fruitless Trees and chaff their being cast into an unquenchable fire unless a speedy repentance for their sins and reformation of their manners prevented it And seeing them from the approaching Messiah he foretold expecting much contrary to what he said at his coming as heirs of the promises made to their Father Abraham all Glory and prosperity and Dominion over the Gentiles he fore-signified to them by using a similitude from the Rocks and Stones that lay about him that God upon their incredulity and impenitency abandoning them could raise unto Abraham another seed i. e. out of the yet stony-hearted and unbelieving Gentiles As indeed not long after he did § 134 The Baptist thus had for some time executed his Office and made a preparatory commencement of the Gospel according as our Lord saith Mat. 11.13 that the Law and the Prophets were till John but that from his daies the Kingdom of Heaven or of the Gospel suffered violence i. e. whilst whole multitudes and crowds of people Soldiers Publicans Sinners came flocking in to it Though indeed the Apostles of our Lord consummating the preaching of this Evangelium with the Holy Ghost descending on the people baptized with it by them and doing of all sorts of Miracles in confirmation of what they divulged far transcended the beginnings of the Baptist and so the least of them in this respect was greater than he as our Lord saith Matt. 11.11 John then was a prodromus preaching so as our Lord afterward the Kingdom of Heaven at hand and judgment and wrath to come on the impenitent and unbelieving Confession repentance and so remission of sin not by Johns Baptism this being only with water and to be consummated in the other but by the Baptism of him that was to come after him who should baptize them with the Holy Ghost Jo. 1. and who was the Lamb of God that should take away the sins of the world and in whom they were to believe Act. 19.4 § 135 Whereby it appears that there was an obligation also remaining on all who possibly could procure it after Johns Baptism of receiving Christs which effected a perfect regeneration by conferring the Holy Ghost and that whatever assistance also of the Holy Ghost may be supposed in those predispositions to this perfect regeneration effected by the same Spirit as in Confession of sins repentance and bringing forth the fruits thereof and believing on the Messias Act. 19.4 which things were caused in the people by Johns preaching this also we have from the power and virtue only of him that was to come after him And that those true penitents who died under Johns baptism only and without our Lords became partakers of the Holy Spirit and of salvation in the same manner as all the righteous deceased under the Law i. e. through the merits of Christ in their using the typical Ceremonies relating thereto whatever they were according to the divine appointment § 136 John therefore told them that our Lord who came after not he should baptize them with this Holy Ghost and St. Luke adds baptize them also with fire Where fire may be taken in a double sense either for the fire of the Holy Spirit elegantly opposed by John to his water or as some rather understand it the fire of the Divine wrath For S. John's Spirit had some of that of Elias and the context seemeth to favour this sense for there it follows Luk. 3.17 whose fan is in his hand and the chaff he will burn with fire the one or the other baptism shew that of the Holy Ghost or of fire was to be received by every one Thus after John had began first the preaching of the Gospel and using the new Ceremony thereof Baptism but deferred all the power and virtue thereof to Christ that was then at hand And great multitudes from all parts were now gathered unto him and a very great number as appears by the expression Luk. 3.21 at least of the common sort were baptized by him and were in great expectation what would be the end of these things since he plainly and often told them that himself was not this Christ nor shewed he any miracle at
16. chap. saying Rabbi thou art the Son of God for so the Baptist also before had several times stiled him thou art the King of Israel that hath bin so long expected by this Nation § 171 Our Lord upon Nathaniels mentioning his Kingship answered that they should hereafter see much greater Confirmation of this their faith and that the time should be when they should behold the Heavens opened and Angels ascending and descending upon the Son of man for so our Lord usually out of humility shall I say or rather a strong love to his Creature man stiled himself ascending and descending upon him as he being alwaies in Heaven as well as on Earth and the sole Mediator between Earth and Heaven who also only had traffick with Heaven and knew all his Fathers secrets there and again when they should see infinite numbers of them attending on him in his appearing at the last day in the full Glory of that his Kingdom which Nathaniel now confessed alluding in all this to the Honour that was done to their fore-father Jacob after his lying in the field alone so desolate and forsaken As also but a little before when our Lord was in the Desart the Angels had descended and ministred unto him In the same manner after this when his Judges asked concerning his being the Son of God he answered them that hereafter they should see the Son of Man coming in the Clouds of Heaven i. e Clouds of Angels flying and waving about him Mat. 26.64 Jo. 6.58 62. And elsewhere some of his followers wondring at his speech of his feeding them with bread which came down from Heaven What and if saith he ye shall see the Son of man ascend up into Heaven where he was before And so his young Schollar Nicodemus wondring at his Sermon of mans being born again of the spirit he tells him of things of greater wonder Viz. of the Son of Mans ascending up into Heaven again as he had descended from Heaven Jo. 3.9 44. and also was then in Heaven § 172 Thus our Lord often represented to his Disciples and others his future Glory his Resurrection Ascension Coming in great Majesty to Judgment and that their faith in him might not languish from the mean appearance of things present And also this suddain and resolute Confession of Nathaniel who but now disputed the matter must needs be a great corroboration and consolation to the four former Discipies gathered to our Lord. All these five being persons of much zeal and piety tho most of them not wealthy had left their daily imployments and trade for a season to come and hear the Sermons of John receive as his penitents baptism from him and some of them at least were admitted into some more familiar acquaintance with him and by this had more notice of our Lord and God looking upon such their sincerity conferred on them the honour after thus prepared by John to be the first Disciples and Attendants on his Son § 173 In this our Lords journey into Galilee he arrived at Cana Nathaniels Town not far distant from Nazareth and about a daies journey from Capernaum as may be gathered from Jo. 4.47 compared with vers 52. which Cana also our Lord took in his way in the second journey he made from Jerusalem into Galilee See John 4.46 Now so it fell out that on this day he came thither was solemnized a Marriage and hither also were assembled our Lords Mother and his Brethren invited to this wedding probably of some of their near kindred the care our Lords Mother had concerning the Wine and her colloquy with the Servants shewing she had some particular interest therein Hither therefore our Lord coming with his new chosen Disciples they were also invited to the marriage And all this seems punctually so ordered by the Divine Providence that whereas our Lord had led his former life so obscurely Now the dignity of his person and Mission from Heaven and his Father there might be manifested in the first place to these his nearer Relations according to the flesh for the rectifying any their former misapprehensions and their believing on this common Saviour and being made partakers of so great a joy and that also his inauguration into and entrance upon his Office might be celebrated with a festival and this marriage signify that which he was one day to consummate with his Spouse the Church and therefore is he very Emphatically by the Baptist stiled the Bridegroome on whom himself attended Jo. 3.29 that whereas John came with fasting he might enter upon his Office with a feast and the children of the Bride-chamber rejoyce with him therefore also his Miracle here was corresponding changing water and penance into Wine and mirth answerable to Johns baptizing with water and he with the Holy Spirit § 174 To give an occasion to our Lord's first Miracle whereby in this publick meeting he was to manifest who he was whether by the multitude of Guests more than were expected among which was our Lord and his company or by some other disappointment for there being a Governor of the feast besides the Bridegroom and a good attendance of Servants and Wine supplyed in so great a quantity for the Guests are signs that that the Married were no very poor or mean persons it happened so that at the end of the feast there wanted Wine Our Lords Mother perceiving it and solicitous of their credit to whom she had so near relation presently told our Lord of it expecting he should relieve them herein either from his doing formerly some such domestick and private miracles upon some necessity in his youth at Nazareth or from the Holy Virgin 's having some prerevelation concerning this future fact By our Lords reply we may conjecture that this was spoken by his Mother before some of his Disciples or Kindred and perhaps in the midst of some Discourse when as our Blessed Lady imagined some urgent necessity thereof Hereupon our Lord for their Edification returned this answer to her What is it to me and thee woman in this matter my Hour or time is not yet Signifying his already well fore-knowing by his omniscience this want or wine and the due time of supplying it and that he was not to be sweyed in his actions by any human relations or respects how near soever but must act all things only according to the will of his Heavenly Father And thus frequently he takes occasion to Vindicate his Divinity and heavenly Original to beget early in his followers a right apprehension of his person and authority and omniscient conduct Some such answer as here he gives also to his Kindred Jo. 7.6 when they minding him of going up to Jerusalem at the feast and shewing his strange works there saying my time is not yet come So after his desputing with the Doctors he answered his Mother when she told him that they had sought him sorrowing why did they so since he was
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
all hereby the more to exalt himself § 137 After that these Preparations were made and Our Lord now also had compleated the thirtieth year of his age at which age the Priests as hath bin said and Levits were admitted to administer in the Sanctuary Numb 4.3 23 and at which age his Father David was installed in the Kingdom of Israel and Joseph advanced to the government of Egypt Types of our Lord Now was the full time come that he should throw off his long disguise and manifest himself And herein should first receive in publick before John and all the people a Commission from his Father speaking to the world from Heaven and a Solemn Vnction to his Office from the Holy Ghost He then to whom also and to his Holy Mother all these things done by John were related by their neighbours that he might fulfil all righteousness and shew obedience to all ordinances instituted by his Father Johns Baptism being from heaven and not of men as he argues against the Pharisees Mat. 21.25 as also that he might give good example to other Galileans for which see what he did Mat. 17.27 ut non scandalizemus eos in doing any thing that lookedlike disobedience not many daies after 30 years old went up as many others from Galilee and humbly presented himself among the other multitude to receive Baptism from John as a penitent so habited so mortified with grief and confusion remembring the burden he had taken upon him for our sakes of the sins of the whole world and compleating the Confession and Contrition of all those poor sinners that stood with him desirous of the same Absolution and among the rest even those of the Baptist himself The place of our Lords Baptism probably from John 1.28 was Bethabara viz. where the waters being divided the people of Israel passed over Jordan with Joshua into the land of promise and whither our Lord also coming out of the Desart returned to John And it seems by S. Lukes words chap. 3.21 in which all the people were baptized c that there was a great conflux of people to John at that very time For indeed one end of John's baptizing was that our Lord should be made manifest to Israel Jo. 1.31 § 138 The Baptist tho living in the same house for three Months with him before they were born had never before seen this sacred person whom he was sent to proclame the Divine Providence for avoiding any suspition of fraud or compact so ordering that they should be educated in two remote and opposite corners of Palestine yet presently upon his appearance by the Spirit knew him to be Christ our Lord. For S. Jonn's Non noveram c. Jo. 1.33 as S. Chrysostome and others is to be understood more largely Viz. of the time before our Lords coming from Galilee and before the solemnity of the Baptism in which solemnity because the most evident testimony was the Holy Ghosts descent and sitting upon our Lord therefore it is instanced in by the Baptist as if he had said I knew him not at all formerly till the time when he came to be baptized and the Holy Ghost in the shape of a Dove visible to all sate upon his Head The Baptist then presently knew him and much astonished at his great humility in offering himself to receive this Baptism of sinners with a like humility prostrated himself before him and telling him that himself had need to be baptized of him desired to be excused from so great a presumption whose shoos-latchet he had formerly told the people Jo. 1.27 he was not worthy to untie But our Lord now no way disguising or concealing himself to John with a word that so he ought to fulfil all righteousness removed his fear and scruple and so in all humble obedience to his good pleasure John performed this Office to him § 139 Our Holy Lord so soon as he ascended out of the water without any entertaining himself with his Cosin and servant the Baptist though this was their first interview immediatly put himself upon the banck of Jordan in the posture of praier wherein we may presume he offered himself according to his words in the Psalme Lo I come as in the volume of this book it is written of me to do thy will O my God to all those hard services and sufferings for the redemption of mankind which his heavenly Father expected from him as we find he did a little before his passion Jo 12.17 desiring him to glorify his name at which time also his Father spake to him Jo 12. being in great desolation from heaven in the hearing of all the people Whilst our Lord was thus praying and the Baptist who had had a preindication from God that he should discern his Son by the visible descent upon him at his Baptism of the Holy Ghost and also the people who could not but observe the extraordinary reverence S. John gave to him or also some of them hear his words had fixed their eies upon him Behold the Heavens were opened and first descended from them with a stream of light the Holy Ghost in the appearance of a Dove the innocency and harmless simplicity of which gaulless peaceful and mourning creature Our Lord recommends Mat. 10.16 and several qualities in it observed to resemble those of the Holy Spirit are mentioned by the Apostle Gal. 5.22 1 Cor. 13.4 which streaming Dove rested or sate upon him as was presignified by God to John and probably remained so according to Jo. 1.33 till hasting toward the Desart he was carried out of their sight § 140 This appearance again was seconded with a Voice from the opened heaven and from the Divine Majesty there declaring to the world This person to be his beloved Son in whom he was well pleased The words as also the descent of the Holy Spirit upon him are pre-related in the Prophet Esay 42.1 and cited also by the Evangelist Mat. 12.18 and do reveal to the world this joyful news as if he had said This is my Son the long expected Messias the new and perfect Legislator that declares all my will that is the Compleatment of all the Prophecies the only Mediator between me and sinners the Redeemer and Reconciler of the world unto me and my meek Lamb that takes away the sins thereof the only Holy and Eternal High Priest Lastly the King and Lord of the Universe In whom nothing at all displeaseth me and in whom I have bin pleased from all Eternity and except in whom none other pleaseth me and in whom all others may please me but unless through him I cannot love sinful man concerning whom the time was that it repented me at heart that I had made him Gen. 6.6 but which grief this my Son hath removed and again reconciled all things to me § 141 The same with which words were spoken a second time in the Holy Mount out of a bright cloud nearer hand when this
res varias omninoque diversas versaretur For that naturally one action hinders another at least as to the highest intention of it which hindrance might also be in our Lord so far as his Divinity pleased to leave in his humanity also these sinless infirmities as a resemblance of the constitution of other men § 145 We read of a like thing done by our Lord afterward That before the solemn election of those persons who were to be chosen by him for the promulgation of the Gospel through the world after his departure hence that he retired alone into a solitary Mountain the evening before and there continued all night in praier Luk. 6.12 As also when he was in Capernaum being much followed and pressed upon by the people he is said to have made use of the solitude of the night and to have risen a great while afore day and to go into a solitary place to his praiers Mark 1.35 and said Luk. 5.16 to have withdrawn himself into the Desart for performing this duty But however this be stated concerning the advantage our Lords Devotions might receive from Solitude doubtless one principal end of this his forty daies and all his other retirements afterwards was that he might give us an example herein and shew us the great necessity of solitude fasting and withdrawing from secular affairs for our enjoying a nearer conversation with God and our overcoming of Temptations and especially for our better Preparation in the undertaking any weightier affairs such as is in the first place the Ministry and predication of the Gospel And another end seems to be this also that He who as other Teachers sent from God must necessarily spend the most of his time in an active life and common conversation yet might also in these his practices and especially this his for so long a time inhabiting the Desart allow also and countenance and recommend to those that have more need of and are more disposed to it the other life that is more addicted to solitude fasting continual praier and contemplation In the same manner then as our Lord is said to have passed that whole night before the Election of his Apostles and the other times of his repairing to Mountains and Desarts Viz. in praier and contemplation so may we rationally imagine him to have spent these forty daies and nights and his fasting in so great a suspension of his natural faculties to have bin an individual companion thereof § 146 In which forty daies fast and Devotion Moses as a type had preceded him once and again both first in his receiving the Law from God Exod. 24.18 34.28 which he was to communicate to the children of Israel as our Lord now was the Gospel and a second time in his making intercession for the people and obtaining their pardon Concerning which he saith Deut. 9.18 That he fell down before the Lord as at the first forty daies and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water because of all their sins which they sinned and that the Lord hearkned unto him And in his then being admitted also upon his earnest supplication to see Gods glory Exod. 33.18 34.5 and as also according to this action of Moses before we may suppose our Blessed Lord to have thus also prostrated himself before his Father in these forty daies and forty nights for the sins of the world and to have offered himself as Moses to be made a curse for our sakes see Gal. 3.13 and Exod. 32.32 compare Deut. 9.26 and so to obtain pardon for all true believers Of whom also the Goat sent into the Desart laden with the peoples sins was herein a type And as this type Moses in the Law so another preceded in the Prophets in Elias their Head his fasting forty daies in the same desart and Mountain as Moses and He there having also the Vision of and extraordinary communion with God As also our Lord's humanity afterward in the Holy Mount was admitted to behold his Fathers Glory in a bright cloud descending upon the Hill and to partake of the splendours thereof and also these two Men Moses and Elias representing the Law and Prophets were there present to do him Homage in whom both these were to be compleated Such exact resemblance were the Law and Prophets to have with the Gospel § 147 The similitude also here is not to be passed by which our Lords being here first conducted by his Father into the Desart before his beginning to take his possession of the inheritance both of the Jew and Gentile promised him by his Father hath to that former divine conduct of the Israelites Ps 2.8 first into the Wilderness after our Lord also as they had bin called out of Egypt Mat. 2. and the correspondence also which his forty daies abode there hath to their forty years Yet in this much unlike that he in this Desart being pressed also with the same necessities as they I mean as to hunger and thirst after so long a fast and upon it by the Devil much urged to the like offending of God Viz. not by not waiting his good time Yet he stood where they fell and with all patience contrary to them though having Miracles in his own power attended the time of the Divine good pleasure for his relief and here also He receiving at length the supply of his hunger from Angels sent to him may be said in some sense as they to have bin fed with their food § 148 This then was another end of our Lords withdrawing into this desolate place that he might be there tempted of the Devil saith S. Matthew chap. 4.1 and fulfil his Fathers good pleasure in his being exposed also like unto us unto the encounters and strangely-rude treatments of the enemy of mankind Satan For who hath bin in his temptations so rudely handled and carried about by him as our Lord was and that he might thus be as the Apostle observes Heb. 2.17 4.15 a more merciful High Priest to succour and assist us in those our temptations the like to which he had experimentally suffered himself and again that He might also in his fasting solitude and praier shew to us the armes by which we also may obtain the Victory over this Tempter It was also most congruous that the second Adam should undergo the same combat with him as the first who was foiled in it and ruined by it that so he might recover mankind after the same way as he was undone and having first mastered this strong man who could find nothing in him Jo. 14.30 no pride of life no disobedience no lust of the eyes or of the flesh he might proceed to spoil his house and his goods and the long possession he had gotten of wretched mankind as indeed our Lord did triumph over him in his following Life Death and Resurrection § 149 To these I may add yet another reason of our Lords withdrawing himself from John and the people namely
to follow his Fathers business Thus raising them to still higher thoughts concerning him And we see for fulfilling the end of his coming into the world what a distance he kept also from his Cosin the Baptist And it may be observed also that upon all occasions he shewed laying-aside any indulgence or carnal respects or indearments for his kindred and a perfect abstraction from any inordinate affection to them see that place Mat. 12.48 for our example seeing how many are drawn to offend God and loose their own Souls to humour to gratify to provide for to enrich such their near Relations But this answer here our Lord seems to have returned to his Holy Mother thus before company chiefly because he intended to perform this Miracle with all privacy afterward when disengaged of this attendance and we may suppose him to have delivered it with such a submissin of his voice and fashion of his countenance as shewed him no way displeased with her request And the Blessed Virgin thereby well assured of the fact and that he answered her with a dilation only not a denyal hasted to the servants and bad them do what ever he commanded them this her great faith well preparing the way to such a great work which presently begat so many more believers on him § 175 There were standing six large water-pots of Stone containing as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is computed some twenty Gallons a peice that was prepared for the Guests washing their hands and purifying themselves from any uncleanness they might have unwittingly contracted for Mark 7.4 unless the Jews wash first they eat not as also for the cleansing of Pots Cups and other vessels if perhaps used by persons unclean These water-pots thus made use of and thereby partly emptied Our Lord after some time retired from the company and commanded the servants to fill these Pots brim full of water who by this pouring in the water so immediatly before could witness that there was no deceitful artifice used in the business Our Lord without touching the Pots or using any other Ceremony bad them draw out and carry to the Governour see Ecclus 32.1 2. of the feast who tasting it presently called the Bridegroome and asked whence came that excellent Wine and why not it spent first a meaner sort being good enough for those who perhaps would use it to excess the Bridegroom being as ignorant as the Governour and so the Servants examined concerning it all was discovered and Our Lord generally magnified their beholding also the great quantity of it much increasing their wonder As our Lords Miracles alwaies super-exceeded necessity and in the Miracles of the Loaves and Fishes he would have great plenty to be left And so also he gave extraordinary strength and vigor to the infirm he restored to carry away the beds they lay on to leap and dance to minister unto him c. Upon the sight of this his first publick Miracle the belief in Him as the true Messias the Son of God was much confirmed in his new gathered Disciples and many others And the matter of it the wine he miraculously bestowed on them at this feast an Emblem of the Holy Spirit they should afterward receive at another and at his last parting from them which spirit also then seemed to the people to have transported them even as new wine § 176 After this saith the Text our Lord removed from hence not to Nazareth though near Mark 6.4 where he knew his former mean and obscure Education would much prejudice their faith in him as the Messias and so his visit bring a greater guilt on them in which Act he shewed also how little he was sweyed with any human affections usually adhering much to the place of our Education and where men most desire applause But to Capernaum the Metropolis and chief Town in Galilee for publick resort and Traffick therefore said by our Lord Matt. 11.13 exalted to Heaven for its building wealth and prosperity situate in the Borders of Zabulon and Nephthali Mat. 4.13 on the East side of the entrance of Jordan into the Lake of Genesareth or Tiberias or Sea of Galilee as it is variously called being near 20 miles in length and 6 miles broad The water and the fish of which Lake is much extolled by Josephus who very well knew these places De Bello Judaico lib. 3. cap. 18. See Rogier de Terre Saincte saying much what the same lib. 1. cap. 9. Lacus Genesar saith he quadraginta stadits in latittudine patens centumque in longitudine aquae dulcis est atque potabilis Palustri enim crassitudine tenuiores habet latices undique in littora ac arenas desinens purus est ac praeter hoc temperatus ad hauriendum fluvio quidem sive fonte lenior est semper autem frigidior quam lacus diffusio patitur manet aestivisque noctibus ejus aquae sub divo perstatae id enim facere indigenis moris est nequaquam aestibus cedunt Varia autem sunt in eo piscium genera ab alterius loci piscibus tam sapore quam specie discreta mediusque fluvio Jordane secatur Thus also he speaks of the coast adjoyning to it Ad Genesar vero lacum ejusdem nominis terra praetenditur natura simul pulchritudine admirabilis Nullum enim ipsa pro ubertate sui negat arbustum totamque plantis consevere cultores Coeli vero temperies etiam diversis aptissima est Vvas sane caricas sine intermissione decem mensibus suggerit caeteros vero fructus anni spatie senescentes Nam praeter aeris lenitatem fonte quoque irrigatur uberrimo qui Capernaum ab indigenis apellatur From which spring or stream this City it seems took its name This Lake is encompassed with the Tribes of Gad and Manasses on the East and with those of Issachar Zabulon and Naphthali on the West the Country thereabout very populous and the Towns frequent by reason of the great fertility of the soil Decapolis near to it Coraizin at two miles distance on the east side of Jordan on one side of it and Bethsaida on the other Cities near adjoyning then the City Magdala then Tiberias This City being lately repaired and adorned by Herod the Tetrarch and in honour of Tiberius the Emperor this name given to it as also Bethsaida was much adorned by Philip his brother and called Julia. Lastly standing very conveniently for our Lords making his voyages upon the Lake to several places for his preaching Most remote also from Jerusalem and it seems also from the Court of Herod and so less capable of disturbance from thence § 177 He went down hither saith the Text Jo. 2.12 he and his Mother and his Brethren and his Disciples And our Lord pitched on this City for the ordinary place of his residence it seems also that his Mother and Brethren changed their former habitation at Nazareth and dwelt here The names of these his Brethren Mat.
Ship and for the more convenience out of it preached to the multitude that followed him still until the evening he without returning to Capernaum or taking some repose appointed his Disciples to dismiss the people and staying still in the ship bad them presently to pass over to the other side of the Lake perhaps having some great compassion of the miserable Demoniacks that were there But there being several other small ships in the Port some others also entred into them and still accompanied him In their sailing thither-ward there descended a great storm of wind upon the Lake whilst our Lord wearied with his daies service or rather to try the faith of his Disciples was retired into the hinder part of the ship and there lay a sleep upon a pillow when by the waves beating into the Ship and it already seeming full of water and ready to sink the Disciples exceedingly affrighted having forborn hitherto to disturb our Lords rest suddainly awaked him saying Master Master save us we perish Whereupon he streight rebuked the Wind and the Sea saying Peace be still and then blamed them not for repairing to him in this their danger but for their great fear and want of faith as he doth very frequently want of faith in God who expects a confidence in him which also cannot be without some degree of love of him not only in the just and his Servants but also in sinners among whom also the just ought to reckon themselves a confidence sutable to the most vigilant Divine providence extended not only to the good but to all the Creation Whilst he is as exceeding faithful to the righteous so exceeding merciful also to sinners when they make their humble addresses to him and this also is a great honour to his mercy that sinners also believe in it and this faith also in them is a very effectual means of receiving such his mercies But our Lord might much more blame their want of faith in him after that they had now acknowledged him the Son of God and seen so many of his former Miracles After his rebuking the winds and Sea followed immediatly a great calm and a very great wonder and astonishment and fear and reverence of him timuerunt timore magno both in the Disciples and those in the other Ships accompanying him partakers we may suppose both of the same danger and deliverance this being the first miracle they had seen of this kind § 221 Our Lord the next morning landed in the Country of the Gadarens or Gergseans a region given by Moses to the tribe of Reuben Dan and half that of Manasses probably now inhabited partly by Israelites the cause of our Lords going thither partly by Gentiles as may be gathered by such store of swine nourished there to be sold to the Gentiles Roman Soldiars and others which seems by the mischief happening to these swine to have bin a fault in those of the Jewish Nation and to have so many waies displeased our Lord. Upon his arrival presently two possessed and strangely distracted with some torn rags about them came running towards him which if they had not of themselves none could have brought them to him and fell at his feet and worshipped him Both of them hideous spectacles but one much fiercer than the other who tore all his cloths and day and night making grievous outcries cut his flesh with sharp stones and who having bin often bound with chains when the fits came on him brake them in pieces nor could he be shut up in any house but both of them ranged in the Mountain and among the Tombes which were placed out of the cities and commonly digged in some rocky places see 2 King 23.16 places of greater horrour sought out by the Devil in which these men lay and were so outrageous against any they met with as none durst pass by that way Yet so soon as our Lord was landed they came submissively to him for the Devils soon perceived his presence and had had already some intimation from him of their departing and releasing those miserable creatures And first like the former possessed person in the Synagogue confessing who he was and pleading they molested not nor gave any affronts to him they besought and then adjured him by God by whose eternal laws their extreme sufferings were yet deferred that he would not presently send them away into the Abysse nor torment them before the time of which see before § 210. nor yet expel them out of that country these having by Gods permission perhaps certain regions and circuits of their ranging assigned to them wherein they are with all diligence to serve their Prince the God of this world as the Apostles stile him and being perhaps more addicted to the places wherein they have done much mischief § 222 Our Lord the more to discover what a condition and crowd of them were gotten into one of these miserable wretches which also caused such a strength and fury in him beyond ordinary Demoniacks no way to be mastered and to shew what a palace they esteemed such a lodging and what solace the mischief they can do in and to it when ever permitted asked this unclean Spirit what was his name the evil Spirit for the great multitude of them gotten into this hold and perhaps for moving the more his compassion to them being so many expressed it by the word Legion a military term as these evil Spirits serve a perpetual warfare against man which hath bin used by the Romans in several times for a various number but ordinarily for many thousands From which may be gathered what an infinite multitude of faln Angels there be and which coast up and down in these lower Regions out of envy seeking the perdition of men As likewise what a strict guard and protection God hath over us that the malice of so many thousands of them should be confined to and imprisoned as it were in one person and lastly from which is manifested the great Majesty and power of our Lord not only over single but whole armies and Legions of them supplicating at his feet and flattering him with his Titles § 223 Now there being higher in the Mountain and not far off an herd of about two thousand Swine feeding the Devils therefore besought our Lord the rather hoping to obtain such their request of a Jew that they might enter at least into the Swine Unclean Spirits into these unclean Beasts which our Lord permitting they carried the swine down a precipice from the hill and drowned them all in the Lake Wherein these evil Spirits presently betrayed their malice endeavoring by this to incense the Gadarens and the owners of the swine doubtless no small number of persons against our Lord as indeed it happened though by this means they presently dispossessed themselves of that harbour and lodging for which they so earnestly importuned our Lord. Which shews also in the possession of men their greatest consolation to be
the custome of the Jews See Jer. 9.17 2 Chron. 35.25 were called thither and by their doleful Notes and Voices according to the design of these excited the grief of all those friends and acquaintance that came to lament with the Parents of the deceased Our Lord commanded their silence and slighted the matter to do this great miracle with the more privacy so the less as yet to provoke the envy and persecution of the Pharisees as also to be a pattern herein to us of avoiding applause He excluded all others and took only into the roome the parents of the Damsel and three of the Disciples a competent number for witnesses and taking the deceased maid by the hand bid her arise which she presently did her soul returning to her and walked before them Our Lord to shew the cure perfect bidding them to give her some food the parents and Disciples must needs be much astonished hereat This being for the Rulers honour and rewarding of his patience the first of the only three persons our Lord raised from the dead during his whole life time And therefore this as the first done with more secrecy the raising of the widows Son more openly and of Lazarus again more publickly than that And his power herein also was manifested by several degrees First this maid was raised not long after deceased and whilst yet lying in her bed but the widows Son when already carried forth to be buried And lastly Lazarus after his having bin buried and lain four daies in his Grave The Parents then being enjoyned secrecy but no way perswaded thereto thinking it a part of their gratitude to divulge it Our Lord departed toward his own lodging in Capernaum § 241 In the way two blind men followed him desiring testorement of their sight and stiling him the Son of David i. e the promised Son to whom the Kingdom of David should be restored see Luk. 1.32 and see the like of other blind men Mat. 12.23 and Mark 10.47 52. which was an act of great faith in them Our Lord took no notice of them in publick but when come into the house he first to try and strengthen their faith asked them whether they believed that he was able to do such a thing and then touching their eyes with his hands imputed the cure to their faith enjoyning them also secrecy but in vain to men so overjoyed As these cured blind men went out from our Lord they brought to him one possessed with a Devil that rendred him dumb and speechless Which Devil being cast out the dumb presently had his speech restored to him the people wondring and praising God the Pharisees raging and blaspheming and divulging among the people when their mouths were stopt as to his other miracles that for his ejecting Devils he did it by the power of the Prince of the Devils with whom he was in league over the rest his Subjects perhaps by them now at first in our Lords absence but afterward in his presence too where we shall also meet with our Lords answer to it § 242 After our Lords residence for some four months at Capernaum and elsewhere in Galilee as appears by Jo. 4.35 42. and his visiting all the Cities and Villages thereof teaching in their Synagogues preaching the Gospel healing their sick and doing many miracles among which was the raising of the Rulers young daughter deceased to life the next Paschal feast of the Jews now approached being the second of those feasts succeeding his baptism and he now in the thirty second year of his age For the Celebration whereof our Lord together with his Disciples went up to Jerusalem whose words and actions there are delivered to us by S. John writing after the rest of the Evangelists and supplying many things omitted by them who declareth chiefly these his words and actions transacted in Galilee the place of our Lords ordinary residence for declining the fury of the Pharisees and Rulers of the Jews till the appointed time of his Death was at hand § 243 Here then S. John first relates a Miracle done at Jerusalem by our Lord upon a much-known Paralytick Done on the Sabbath day and further the man bid by him to take up his bed and walk contrary as it seemed to their law forbidding them the doing any work Exod. 20.10 and particularly bearing of any burdens Jer. 17.21 22 which thing when discovered by the great ones among the Jews to have bin done by our Lord so highly enraged them saith the Text as instead of magnifying him for so great and charitable a Miracle they not only persecuted but thought to stay him for causing such a breach of the Sabbath Jo. 5.16 The Story is this Near the Sheep-or beast-Gate and not far from the Temple was a great pool said to have bin made first by Solomon where the Sacrifices were to be washed and made clean before they were carried into the Temple This pool serving for such an Holy use an Angel of God at certain times but uncertain when or how often or whether more usually at the feasts descended and moved or troubled and muddied or ruffled the waters thereof After which motion discerned the first person any way infirm of his limbs lame blind withered paralytical c. that could get into the water was immediatly and perfectly cured which curing of one only shews it to proceed from a peculiar divine dispensation and not any natural cause and this because rarity recommends and sets a great value on Gods works as we see our Lord also of many infirm that then lay here cured only one In the five porches thereof built for this purpose and the place therefore called Bethesda i. e. Domus misericordiae lay a multitude of infirm people waiting for the troubling of the water Among these was a poor man lying on a bed that had laboured under his infirmity thirty-eight years inveterate and incurable who also had lain there a long time by reason of his poverty having no help and still prevented by others stepping into the moved water before him § 244 Our Lord visiting this Hospital if I may so call it on the Sabbath made choice of this man on whom to shew his mercy restrained here in order to his passion from such universal benefactions as he wrought in Galilee both as being a greater object of charity and his long infirmity well known abroad and as one having a bed the carrying away of which bed on the Sabbath he knew would give the Jews much occasion of inquiring after him that commanded it and by which he might shew to them more publickly his authority and commission and whence he was and that he was both Master of the most veteran and incurable diseases and Lord also of the Sabbath After his having asked him first to excite his faith and expectation whether he had a desire to be cured and heard his doleful complaint who hoped it only from the waters he bad him presently
cepissent jam spacium crucibus deerat corporibus cruces and this misery brought upon them when at this great Festival the whole body of the Nation as it were was gathered together in Jerusalem and so was encompassed and shut up there by the Romans See Euseb Ecclesiast Hist lib. 3. cap. 5. and Joseph de Bell. Judaic lib. 7. cap. 17. Ab omnibus regionibus ad Azymorum diem festum congregati bello subito circumfusi sunt c. Thus they devoted themselves here to God's Justice and thus it happened to them But their words taken in a better sense and as the divine goodness and pity is pleased to interpret them for all Penitents are a Prayer piously offered not only by them but the whole world to his offended Majesty to be saved through the sprinkling upon them of the blood of Jesus Our Lord's blood also crying to God from the Earth not as that of Abel or any other just Person 's shed by the impious for vengeance but for Mercy Nor hath the whole world any salvation or shelter but from his blood being upon it and its children for ever who also all had a hand both Jew and Gentile in offering it and in this sense God also will admit this prayer to be fulfilled see Rom. 11. but in the last place upon this most miserable Nation § 80 The Governour after having thus washed his hands sate down again and gave the final sentence upon our Lord released to them their precious choice Barabbas and committed Jesus to the Centurion and his Soldiers to be crucified according to their request § 81 Now this death on the Cross which our Lord was sentenced to and the Jews with so great clamour called for as it was often foretold expressly by our Lord see Mat. 20.19 Jo. 18.32 and other-while called by him his Exaltation Jo. 12.32 And I if I be exalted from the earth will draw all men unto me signifying saith the Evangelist what death he should die and by the context vers 34. it appears the people well understood his language And again Jo. 8.28 When ye have saith he exalted the Son of man then shall ye know that I am he So was it foresignified by many expressions in the Old Testament See Psal 21.17 The Council of the malignant hath besieged me they have digged my hands and my feet they have numbred in that racking posture all my bones they have beheld and considered me every limb of me stretched out before them and then speaking of his being stript of his cloaths They have divided my garments amongst them and upon my Vesture they cast lots To which stripping of him also that expression seems chiefly to relate where he saith Psal 68.8 That Confusion covered his face See Zachary 13.6 where the Prophet mentions this smiting of his Pastor and the man that clave to him and so scattering of his sheep vers 7. speaking thus of his being treated by his nearest relations as a false Prophet that he shall be asked What are these wounds in the midst of thy hands and he shall answer with these was I wounded in the house of my friends To which wounds also is applied that loving expression Esay 49.16 Ego tamen non obliviscar tui in manibus meis descripsi te I have engraven thee upon the palmes of my hands See Zech. 12.10 where speaking of the conversion of the Jews in the latter times and the great sorrow they shall then have for their crucifying their Messias the Prophet saith Et adspicient ad me quem confixerunt plangent eum planctu quasi unigenitum c. See Jer. 11.19 Ego quasi agnus mansuetus qui portatur ad victimam cogitaverunt super me consilia dicentes mittamus lignum in panem ejus for his bread eradamus eum de terra viventium To it likewise seems to relate Esay 52.13 Ecce intelligit servus meus exaltabitur elevabitur sublimis erit valde For it follows Sicut obstupuerunt super te multi inglorius erit inter viros aspectus ejus forma ejus inter filios hominum like to vers 2. of the next chapter Iste asperget gentes multas And Esay 11.12 Et levabit signum in nationes Concerning his thirst also in the violent and fervorous heat of such lingring pains see Psal 21.16 Aruit tanquam testa virtus mea lingua mea adhaesit faucibus meis And Psal 68.22 Dederunt in escam meam fel in siti mea potaverunt me aceto Typified also this death of the Cross was by many instruments of the peoples preservation in the Old Testament By the Tree of life provided to remedy the mischiefs done by the Tree of Good and Evil by the blood of the Lamb sprinkled upon the posts of the door that the destroying Angel seeing it might pass-over Gods people by Moses his Rod smiting the Rock and bringing out of it a fountain of water for refeshing the people By the Brasen Serpent listed up on high and fastned to a pole curing all that looked upon it of the other fiery Serpents bitings which our Lord also mentions as a Type of his own Elevation and drawing the eies of all upon him Jo. 12.32 Jo. 3.14 Sicut Moyses exaltavit serpentem in deserto ita exaltari oportet filium hominis ut omnis qui credit in ipsum looks upon him with the eie of faith non pereat By the Expansion of Moses his Armes and Hands on high made in the Mount for the conquest of Amalek which posture of his also by others help was continued for several hours and being any way altered changed presently the fortune of the battel By Elias his lying with armes stretched out upon the Child to raise him again to life By marking with the letter Thau the form of a cross the foreheads of those that were to be saved from the slaughter of the six destroying Angels Ezech. 9.4 Lastly by Abraham's only Son Isaac carrying the wood upon which he was afterwards laid and destined to be Sacrificed But God was more favourable and kind to Abraham if I may so say than to himself § 82 And as this manner of death was often foresignified and typified in the Old Testament so doth it seem before all other to have bin chosen by the Divine Counsel and our Lords designment who as he voluntarily suffered for us so what death he pleased for many special reasons First because his suffering being to save us and we by our sins having incurred the curse of God and so he for us taking this curse upon himself this was that special death which had Gods curse annexed to it Deut. 21.23 when upon some grievous crime God required the Malefactor to be hanged up upon a Tree before the Sun and as it were openly in his sight to be hanged up as unworthy to touch or tread upon the Sanctified land and not to be dispatched in a moment as by stoning or
Elias was yet alive in his body and was to return among them to rectify all things before the coming of the Messias the darkning of the Sun also filled them full of wonder and expectation of some other strange things their hearts also now being somewhat mollified and beginning to entertain another opinion of our Lord than not long before § 103 After this our Lord entring into his last Agony said I thirst as if it were to accomplish the drinking up the last dregs and portion that remained of the cup of Gods wrath against sinners remembring the words that follow in the same prophetick Psalm vers 16. Aruit tanquam testa virtus mea lingua mea adhaesit faucibus meis in pulverem mortis c. and Psalm 68.22 potaverunt me aceto And there being a vessel of vinegar or small sour Wine with which mingled with water the Soldiers and common people used to quench their thirst one of the By-standers running and drenching a sponge in it put this upon the top of a long reed and so applied it to our Lords mouth the darkness now diminishing to refresh him and prolong his life a little in expectation of what perhaps Elias would do for him whether he would come at last and take his Fellow-prophet down from the Cross After our Lord had received the Vinegar which was as it were the last dregs of the bitter cup prepared for him by his heavenly Father to drink he said those precious words so full of consolation to poor sinners consummatum est that all was finished a Passiones consummavi now as he said an opus consummavi before he entred on his passion Jo. 17. All the prophecies being now fulfilled the Sacrifice offered and the Ransome of mankind from Gods wrath and the Prince of Darkness and from eternal Death fully paid And so with another loud and strong voice like the former recommending his now departing Spirit into the hands of his celestial Father in the words again of the Psalmist changing Domine there into Pater and exhibiting this as the last act of his dutiful submission to all his Will he pronounced those last words of his on the Cross In manus tuas Pater commendo spiritum meum Psal 30 And so meekly bowing down his head which perhaps hitherto was held erected towards heaven in prayer see Heb. 5.7 gave up the Ghost not when the torments of death forced it away but when he pleased seeing all now fulfilled voluntarily to regive it Shewing in his strong out-cries his miraculous power and strength to have kept it longer in being about the ninth hour the time of offering up the Evening Sacrifice and in the end of the sixth day of the week as entring into his Sabboath of rest The two Malefactors that suffered with him being both yet alive not that our Lord any way abbreviated for himself the torments of this cruel death but that the barbarous usage of him all that day and the night precedent without any sustenance refreshment or repose and the loss of so much blood under his coronation and scourging had so debilitated and exhausted him which was also seen in his fainting under the Cross that these his last torments on the Cross must needs have a speedier period unless he should have continued his life by miracle § 104 All the passions of our Lord thus at last come to an End and his bloody Sacrifice for our redemption finished the Sun which seemed this while to have sympathized with his sufferings began to recover its strength and now the infernal powers of darkness their hour expired to quake and tremble and with them the Earth also to shake in such a manner that the Rocks were rent asunder with it and particularly that of Mount Calvary where our Lord suffered cleft asunder some two or three foot from the hole wherein our Lords Cross was fastned from one side of the Hill to the other to be seen at this day gaping about an hand breath and the depth of it not to be sounded Yet the infinit mercy and long-suffering of God who to shew his displeasure rent the rocks forbare to take present vengeance on the Murderers of our Lord giving them longer time to repent as some of them also did The veil of the Temple also remote from this place and standing at the other side of the City was rent in two saith the Evangelist from the top to the bottom Which veil divided the Sanctum Sanctorum where was the Ark the symbol of Gods presence from the outer Temple and into which the High Priest entred only once every year carrying in thither the blood of the Sacrifice to sprinkle it before the Ark on the solemn day of Expiation The renting of which Veil at this time was very significative of the effects of our Lords passion 1. To shew now an end and consummation and so Abolishment of all the former Typical Ceremonies of the Mosaical Law this new High Priest succeeding and abrogating now the former Aaronical Priesthood who having offered the only pleasing Sacrifice to God on the Altar of the Cross was to enter with the blood of it into the celestial Sanctum Sanctorum and there with it sprinkled before God's Throne to make an atonement for the sins of the whole world Who saith the Apostle much prosecuting this matter in his Epistle to the Hebrews took away the first covenant that he might establish another following and dedicated to us a new and living way of access to the throne of Grace and entrance into the Holy of Holies through the veil of his Deity that is his Flesh which veil also was rent on the Cross the members of the body rent first and at last his soul also rent from the Body And chap. 9.11 c. Who saith he an High Priest of good things to come by the Holy Ghost offered himself unspotted to God and so by or through a more ample and more perfect Tabernacle not made with hands i. e. the Heavens vers 24. nor by or with the blood of Goats or Calves but by his own blood entred into the Holies eternal redemption being thus found and effected 2. Again to shew that the Partition was now taken away between Jew and Gentile and his service no longer confined to his Temple at Jerusalem but that it was to be every where equally accepted of him and his Church to be spread over the whole world and a general and free access admitted for all people to God the Father and to the Divinity through this veil of our Lords humanity Neither Jew nor Greek saith the Apostle Gal. 3.28 neither bond nor free c. now But all one in Christ Wherefore our Lord foretold to the Samaritan woman Jo. 4. That the time was coming when they should neither in that Mount of Samaria the Temple of Garizim nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father but the true worshippers should worship him every where not with
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
the Paschal Lamb his Type without a bone of him being broken Of Moses his smiting of the rock and so water gushing out of it of his nailing a brazen Serpent on a Pole that all who looked with faith upon it might be healed as our Lord also came in similitudine peccati of Aarons dry and withered Rod afterwards rebudding and flourishing of Jonah lying three daies in the Whales belly and afterwards cast up now also he expounded to them Daniels weeks remembred them of Hosea's chap. 6.3 vivificavit nos post duas dies in die tertia suscitabit nos and of Davids Psal 15.10 Non dabis Sanctum tuum videre corruptionem And de torrente in via bibet propterea exaltabit caput Of Zachary's chap. 13.6 7. Quae sunt plagae istae in medio manuum tuarum and his Percutiam Pastorem dispergentur oves These and all the forementioned descriptions of his passion especially in the Prophet Esay chap. 5.3 and in the Ps 21. and 68. he set before them and many more in these Books than man's weak apprehensions hath bin able to discover the whole History and Prophecies of the Old Testament principally prefiguring and representing the great Mystery of the salvation of mankind that was in the latter daies to be wrought by the Son of God These things our Lord discoursed continuing his Speech till they were now arrived at the Village where their business called them whilst their hearts were all on fire in hearing what he said according to that of the Psalmist Ps 18.15 Ignitum eloquium tuum c. Our Lord making as though he would have gone further gave them occasion to shew their hospitality and so importuned by them to stay and eat with them or also to stay all night the day being near an end and they infinitly longing after more of his conversation and discourse he yeilded to their request and so sitting down at Table he took the bread blessed brake and gave it them suddainly appearing to them in his own likeness or also performing this Ceremony in some singular manner of benediction as was formerly his custome well known at least to Cleophas Josephs Brother used to the same table Or because we may imagine our Lords actions done in the most perfect manner in this breaking of bread celebrating with them the memorial of his Passion after his long discourse thereof in the holy Eucharist sometimes expressed by breaking of bread see Acts 20.7 2.46 after he had first sufficiently instructed them in this great Mistery wherein he now when personally departing yet would continue a miraculous presence of himself to his Church to the end of the world After which given them and their hospitality thus amply rewarded upon eating it their eyes also were no longer held but that they clearly discerned with great reverence his Sacred Majesty now in his own form and likeness and knew him and after this he suddainly departed out of their sight § 126 The two Disciples ravished with what they had seen and heard yet by our Lords suddain withdrawing himself their joy not unmixed with some sadness presently returned back that Evening to Jerusalem and told the company there assembled all that had hapned their being two together rendring their testimony more credible where they found the Disciples also relating our Lords appearance to Peter They reported also to them his Sermon and the types in the law and the Prophets presignifying such his sufferings before his entrance into his Kingdom notwithstanding which though many of them were much perswaded yet some others saith St. Mark chap. 16.13 still remained incredulous probably arguing from our Lord 's presently vanishing both from the women and from St. Peter and last from these two at Emaus that it was some Spirit only appearing in his likeness For the same conceit they had also by and by when our Lord appeared to themselves Luk. 24.37 § 127 After so many messages and ocular Witnesses of his Resurrection sent to them for the trial of their faith and all by some of them still discredited now late at night as they were after Supper sitting and debating these things and some it seems still contradicting the doors being fast shut for fear of the Jews who also had spread a report of them that they had stoln away our Lords Body our Lord himself suddainly appeared in the midst of them at which they were at first much affrighted thinking him some night-walking-Spirit knowing the doors to be firmly bolted and perceiving him descending rather then entring in among them But our Gracious Lord soon allayed this astonishment saluting them with a Pax vobis the usual and Antient salutation of the Jews but this pax of his extraordinary and not sicut Mundus Jo. 14.27 working in the Soul the effect whilst he spake with his mouth the words Then mildly reprehended them that they had remained so obstinatly incredulous to the Eye-witnesses that came to them in a matter also so often foretold them nor yet believed their own eyes at present but took him for a Spirit then proceeded to discover and shew them the scars of the wounds he had received in his hands feet and side those noble scars which his glorified Body in heaven still retains eternal Witnesses of his love to mankind and with which he will appear at his second coming for the greater confusion of his Enemies when saith S. John Apo. 1.7 they shall look on him whom they have pierced and whose tender of mercy after it they also rejected He bad them also to feel and handle his true flesh and bones different from Spirits therefore saith the Apostle not only Quod audivimus quod vidimus but manus nostrae contrectaverunt de verbo vitae Then what only remained for their satisfaction whilst the excess of their Joy and wonder still suspended their full assent and belief he called for meat and eat also before them of that poor fare which they were provided of though in this great Feast and to which our Lord also had bin most accustom'd a piece of a broild fish and of an hony-comb the one plentiful in the woods of this countrey and the other a common food among Fishermen perhaps the relicks of their Supper but now ended Of which after he had eaten he gave to them the remainder saith the vulgar in S. Luke chap. 24.43 Et cum manducasset coram eis sumens reliquias dedit eis To partake of what he Sanctified and that they might say they had eat and drunk with him as also those at Emaus See Act. 1.4 After he had thus eaten before them and by all these waies satisfied them excepting only Thomas absent of the truth and reality of that the Testimony of which they were to spread abroad through all the world and for which afterwards to lay down their lives he made much what to them the same Sermon or Discourse as to the two Disciples that went to Emaus instructing them in