goats severed asunder each from other Vse 1 And now see the parties thus summoned raised gathered severed is not here a world of men to be judged all in one day Multitudes multitudes in the valley of decision Joel 3 14. for the day of the Lord is neer in the valley of decision Ioel 3.14 Blessed God! what a multitude shall stands before thee all tongues all nations all people of the earth shall appear at once all we shall then behold each son of Adam and Adam our grand-father shall then see all his posterity Consider this high and low rich and poor one with another God is no accepter of persons Heark O beggar petitions are out of date and yet thou needest not fear thou shalt have justice this day all causes shall be heard and thou though a poor one must appear with others to receive thy sentence Heark O Farmer now are thy lives and leases together finished this day is the new harvest of thy Iudge who gathers his wheat into his garner Matth. 3.12 and burns up the chaffe in fire unquenchable no boon no bribe no prayers no tears can avail thy soul but as thou hast done so art thou sentenced at the first appearing Heark O Land-lord where is thy purchase to thee and thy heires for ever this day makes an end of all and happy were thy soul if thou hadst no better land then a barren rock to cover and shelter thee from the Iudges presence Heark O Captain vain now is the hope of man to be saved by the multitude of an host hadst thou command of all the armies on earth and hell yet couldest thou not resist the power of Heaven see the trump sounds and the alarum summons thee thou must appear Heark O Prince what is the crown and scepter against thunder the greatness of man when it comes to encounter with God is weakness and vanity Heark all the world Ecclus 40.3 4. From him that sitteth upon the glorious throne unto him that is beneath in earth and ashes from him that is cloathed in blue silk and weareth a crown even to him that is cloathed in simple linnen all must appear before him the Beggar Farmer Land-lord Captain King and Prince and every man when that day is come shall receive his rewards according to his works Vse 2 But O here is the misery Every man must appear but Every man will not think on it would you know the sign of that man which this day shall be blessed it is he and onely hee that again and again thinks on this day that Ierome-like meditates on this summons and resurrection and collection and separation Examine then your selves by this rule is your mind often carried to these objects soar you on high with the wings of faith and a sound eye to this hill why then you are right birds truly bred and not of the bastard brood I pray you mark it every cross and disgrace and slander and discountenance losse of goods disease of body or whatsoever calamity if you are the children of God and destined to sit at the right hand of our Saviour they will ever and anon be carrying your minds to those objects of Doomes-day And if you can but say that experimentally you find this true in your selves if ordinarily in your miseries or other times you think on this time of refreshing then be of good comfort for you are of the brides company and shall enter into the marriage-chamber to abide there there for ever But if you are destitute of these kinde of motions O then strive for these properties that are the inseparable breathings and movings of an holy heart sound mind and blessed person every day meditate that every man shall appear one day and receive his reward according to his works You see how we have followed the cause and wel-neer brought it to finall sentence the term is discovered the Iudge revealed the prisoners prepared and the next time we shall bring them to the bar to receive their rewards This time depart in peace and the God of peace keep your souls spotless without sin that you may be well prepared for this day of judgment According to his works VVEe have brought the prisoners to their triall and now to go on how should this triall be I answer not by faith but works by faith we are justified by works we are judged faith onely causeth but works onely manifest that we are just indeed Here then is the triall that every soul of man must undergo that day Works are the matter that must be first enquired of and is there any wicked man to receive his sentence let him never hope to be saved by anothers super-erogating the matter of enquiring is not aliena but sua not anothers but his works Or is there any good man on whom the smiling Iudge is ready to pronounce a blessed doom Let him never boast of meriting heaven by his just deservings see the reward given not propter but secundum as Gregory Greg. 1. in illa verba 7. Psal poenit Auditam fac mihi mane misericordiam tells us not for his works as if they were the cause but according to his works as being the best witnesses of his inward righteousness But the better to acquaint you with this triall there be two points of which especially we are to make inquiry First how all mens works shall be manifest to us Secondly how all mens works shall be examined by God 1. Of the manifestation of every mans work Revel 20.12 Iohn speaketh And I saw the dead small and great stand before God and the books were opened and another book was opened which is the book of life and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works Revel 20.12 God is said to have books not properly but figuratively all things are as certain and manifest to him as if he had registers in heaven to keep records of them Remember this O forgetfull you may commit add multiply your sins and yet run on score till they are grown so many that they are out of memory but God keeps them in a register and not one shall be forgotten there is a book and books and when all the dead shall stand before God to receive their sentence then must these books be opened That is the book of Gods memory Mans conscience Eternall life There is a book of Gods memory and herein are all the acts and monuments of all men whatsoever enrolled and registred A book of remembrance was written before God for them that feared the Lord and thought upon his name Malac. 3.16 Malach. 3.16 This is that which manifests all secrets whether mentall or actuall this is that which reveales all doings whether good or evill In these Records are found at large Abels sacrifice Cains murther Absolons rebellion Davids devotion the Iews cruelty the Prophets innocency good mens intentions and the
are disposed to all kind of infirmities man cannot carrie himself but he must needs carry about with him many forms of his own destruction De ipso corpore tot exsistunt morborum mala ut nec libris Medicorum cuncta comprehensa Aug. de Civ Dei l. 22. cap. 22. The books of the Physicians tell us of many diseases and yet many are the diseases which their books cannot tell of we see in our own dayes most labour of new sicknesses unknown to our fathers or if any of us be free from any of these yet everie ones bodie nourisheth the causes and may be a receptacle of a thousand diseases How evil is sinne that incurs so many evils of punishment But as if all were too little because our sinnes are so many if you will number any more here is yet another reckoning evils originall and eâ—â—ls adventitious evils of necessitie Quid de innumeris casibus qui forinsecus corpori formidantur Aug. ibid. and evils of chance Austin saith What shall we say of those innumerable accidents that befall a man as heat and cold and thunder and rain and storms and earthquakes and poysons and treasons and robberies and wars and tumults and what not go whither you will and everie place is full of some of these evils if you go on sea every wave threatens you every wind fears you Quae mala patiuntur navigantes quae terrena itinera gradientes every rock and sand is enough to drown you if you go on land everie step dangers you everie wild beast scares you everie stone or tree is enough to kill you if you go no whither you cannot be without danger Eli was sitting and what more secure yet at the news of Gods Ark 1. Sam. 4.17 that it was taken by the Philistims he falls down backwards and his neck was broken Korah was standing what more sure yet as soon as Moses had made an end of speaking the earth opened her mouth Num. 16.32 and swallowed him and his family and all the men that were with him Indeed Absalon was riding vvhat vvay more readie to escape the enemy yet as the mule carried him under a great thick oak 2. Sam. 18.9 his head caught hold of the oak he was taken up between the heaven and the earth and the mule that was under him went away Whatsoever vve do or vvhithersoever vve go so long as vve do evil these evils vvill meet us Go into the ship there is but a board betvvixt thee and the vvaters vvalk on the ground there is but a shoe-sole betvvixt thee and thy grave take a turn in the streets and so many perills hang over thee as there are tiles on the houses travell in the countrey and so many enemies are about thee as thou meetest beasts in the fields if all these places be so dangerous then retire to thy house and yet that is subject to fire or water or if it escape both it may fall on thy head whithersoever we turn us all things about us seem to threaten our death Our dayes are evil indeed and who is it that is exempted from everie of these evils Sinners are corrected good men are chastened there is none escapes free To see a little the state of Gods own friends and children Was not Abel murdered by his brother Noah mocked by his sonne Job scoffed by his wife Eli slain for his sons will you all at once take one for all and see Jacob our Patriarch a notable example of extream infelicity he is threatned by his brother banished from his father abused â—y his uncle defrauded of his wife was not here miserie enough to break one heart But after this for another wives sake see him enter into a new service Gen. 31.40 In the day he is consumed with heat in the night with frost an hard service sure nay after this that he got his Rachel see then a division betwixt her and Leah two sisters brawling for one husband yet neither content after both enjoyed him Blessed Saint how wast thou haunted with afflictions yet after this he agrees his wives and they all run from their father and now see a fresh pursuit behind him Laban follows which an Hue and Cry before him Esau meets him with 400 men to go forwards intolerable to go backwards unavailable which way then It was an Angel of God nay the God of Angels that now must comfort him And yet again after his first entry into his own countrey his wife Rachel dies his daughter Dinah is ravished his sonne Reuben lies with his concubine and if the defiling of a wife be so great a grief to the husband what sorrow and shame when the wickednesse is committed by a mans own son what can we more If ye his heart be unbroken here 's another grief great enough to match all the rest his sonne his Joseph they report is lost and what news hears he of him but that he is torn with wild beasts and now see a man of miseries indeed Gen. 37.34 35. He rends his clothes he puts sackcloth about his loyns he will not be comforted but surely saith he I will go down into the grave unto my sonne mourning Alas poor Jacob what can they say to comfort him To comfort said I nay yet hear the tidings of a new misfortune a famine is begun and another of his sonnes is kept in prison What a grief is here Another in prison and nothing to redeem him but his onely Benjamin Gen. 42.36 here is the losse of sonne after sonne Ioseph is not and Simeon is not and now ye will take Benjamin all these things are against me We need no more if Iacob thus number how many are the miseries he did dayly suffer would you have the summe He himself the best witnesse of himself affirms it to Pharaoh Evil Evil Few and Evil have the dayes of the years of my life been So miserable is our life that no man can take his breath before some evil or other do seiz on his person if you would that we knit up all in one bundell there be evils originall evils adventitious evils of the mind evils of the body evils that are common evils of the chosen we had need pray again Deliver us from evil What so many evils of suffering Now the Lord deliver us Vse 1 What is sweet in this life which so many miseries will not imbitter If this be a vale of rears where is thy place to pleasure If this life be a nest of cares Psal 4 2. how canst thou settle so great a vanity as sinne in a field of such misery as the world O ye sonnes of men how long will ye blaspheme mine honour and have such pleasure in vanity and seek after leasing Were men not mad in their wayes or utterly besotted in their imaginations well might these miseries of our life breed their neglect of the world Can we chuse
they not dead and what is their epitaph but they lived and dyed Gen. 5. Gen. 5. Gen. 47.9 To summe up all in one and to make this one serve for all Iacob is an hundred and thirty years old for so you see it registred in Gods book yet now being demanded to tell his age he answers but Dayes and his dayes are but Few how should they be many that now are gone already these few dayes they have been Scribit in marmore laesus 2. And as time past tells our dayes so it counts all our miseseries who cannot remember the miseries he doth suffer The poor the sick the banished the imprisoned the traveller the souldier every one can write a Chronicle of his life and make up large volumes of their severall changes What is the history of the Bible but an holy brief Chronicle of the Saints grievous sufferings See the miseries of the Patriarchs described in the books of Moses see the warres of the Israelites set down in the books of Ioshua see the afflictions of David in the books of Samuel Ezra Nehemiah Esther Iob every one hath a book of their severall calamities and if all our miseries were but thus abrevitaed I suppose the world would not contain the books that should be written There is no man so cunning to know his future condition but for those things which have been every one can reade them Look then beloved at the time now past and will you not say with Iacob your dayes have been evil Evil for your sinnes and evil for your sufferings if you live more dayes what do you but increase more evils the just man sinnes seven times a day and every one of us perhaps seventy times seven times do we thus multiply sins and think we to subract our sorrows think but of those storms that already have gone over our heads famines sores sicknesses plagues have we not seen many seasons unseasonable because we could find no season to repentance Our Springs have been graves rather then cradles our Summers have not shot up but withered our grasse our Autumns have took away the flocks of our sheep and for our latest Harvest the heavens themselves have not ceased weeping for us that never yet found time to weep for our selves And as this procured the famine so famine ushered the pestilence O the miseries miserable that at this time fell upon us Were not our houses infected our towns depopulated our gardens made our graves and many a grave a bed to lodge in it a whole family Alas what an hideous noise was heard about us In every Church bells towling in every hamlet some dying in every street men watching in every place every where wailing and weeping or groning and dying These are the evils that have been and how should we forget them that have once seen them with our eyes Call to mind time past Recole primordia Bern. was the rule of Bernard what better rule have we to square our lives then the remembrance of those evils which our lives have suffered Look back then with Iacob and we have good reason to redeem the time past because our dayes have been evil 2. But there is yet another reason why these few evill dayes have been As the time past is best known to Iacob so the life of Iacob is but as the time past Go to now saith St. Iames ye that say to day or to morrow we will go into such a City and continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain and yet ye cannot tell what shall be to morrow James 4.13 James 4.13 It is a meer presumption to boast of the time to come can any man say he will live til to morrow look back ye that trust to this staff of Egypt there is no man can assure you of this day Man knoweth not his time saith the Preacher Eccles. 9.12 Eccles 9.12 As near as it is to night it may be before evening some one of us may be dead and cold and fitter to lodge in our graves under earth then in our beds above it nay assure your selves our life is of no long continuance what speak we of to morrow or this day we are not sure of that least of times division a very hour watch therefore saith our Saviour and will you know the reason for ye know neither the day nor the hour when the Sonne of man will come Matth. 25.13 Matth. 25.13 The man with ten or twenty dishes set before him on his table when he hath full intelligence that in one of them is poyson will he not refuse all lest in eating of any be runne upon the hazard of his life What is our life but a few houres and in one of them death must needs come watch then for the hour is at hand and we know not how soon it will seiz upon us This hour the breath thou drawest may be thy infection this hour the bread thou eatest may be thy poyson this hour the cup thou tastest may be that cup that must not passe from thee But what speak we of this hour seeing it is come and gone The sweetest ditty that Moses sung were his briefs and semibriefs of life and what is it but a watch Psalme 90.4 Psal 90.4 what is it but a sleep Psalme 90.5 Psal 90.5 we watch when it is dark we sleep when it is night if then our life be no more but a night-work what is truer then this wonder our life is done our dayes they have been You may think we go farre to prove so strange a paradox yet Job goes further what are we but of yesterday for our dayes upon earth are but a shadow Job 8.9 Job 8.9 See here the chronologie of mans frailtie we have a time to live and when is it think you not to morrow nor do day nor this hour nor last night it is as long since as yesterday it self Are not we strangely deceived What mean our plots and projects for the time to come why our life is done and we are now but dead men To speak properly In the midst of life we be in death our whole life being truly if not past yet as the time past that is gone and vanished The similitude or resemblance will runne in these respects the time past cannot be recalled suddenly is vanished And so is our life can we recall that which is fled away the the life that we led yesterday you see it is gone the life that we led last night it is past and done the life that we led this morning it is now a going nay it is gone as soon as we have spoken Nicodemus saying according to the flesh was true How can a man be born which is old can he enter into his mothers womb again and be born John 3.4 John 3.4 How should a man recall that is past can he receive again the soul once given and begin to live
sinners actions nothing shall be hid when this book is opened for all may run and read it stand and hear it How fond are we that imagine heavens eye such is this book to be shut upon us Do we not see many run to corners to commit their sins there can they say Let us take our fill of love untill the morning for darkness hath covered us and who seeth us who knoweth us Esai 29.15 Prov. 7.18 Esay 29.15 But are not the Angels of God about you 1 Cor. 4.9 We are a spectacle to the Angels saith the Apostle I am sure we must be to both to Angels and to men and to all the world O do not that before the Angels of God yea before the God of Angels which you would shame to do in the sight and presence of an earthly man Alas must our thoughts be known and shall not dark-corner sins be revealed must every word and syllable we speak be writ and recorded in Gods memorable book and must not ill deeds ill demeanours ill works of darkness be disclosed at that day yes God shall bring every work unto judgment with every secret thing be it good or evill Eccles 12.14 Eccles 12.14 Wail yee wicked and tremble in astonishment Now your closet-sins must be disclosed your private faults laid open Gods keeps the account-book of every sin every transgression Imprimis for adultery Item for envie blasphemy oaths drunkenness violence murther and every sin from the beginning to this time from our birth to our buriall the totall summe eternall death and damnation this is the note of accounts wherein are all thy offences written the debt is death the pay perdition which fury pays over to destruction But there is another book that shall give a more full I cannot say but a more fearfull evidence then the former which is the book of every mans conscience Some call it the book of testimony which every man still bears about him There is within us a Book and Secretary the Book is Conscience and the Secretary is our soul whatsoever we do is known to the soul and writ in our book of conscience there is no man can so much as commit one sin but his soul that is privy to the fact will write it in this book In what a wofull case will thy heart then be in what strange terrour and trembling must it stand possest when this must be opened and thy sinnes revealed It is now perhaps a book shut up and sealed Liber signatue clausus in die judicii aperiendus but in the day of judgement shall be opened and if once opened what shall be the evidence that it will bring forth there is a private Sessions to be held in the breast of every condemned sinner the memorie is Recorder grief an Accuser truth is the Law damnation the Judgement hell the Prison Devils the Jaylours and Conscience both Witnesse and Judge to passe sentence on thee What hopes he at the generall Assize whose conscience hath condemned him before he appear Look well to thy life thou bearest about thee a book of testimonie which though for a time it be shut till it be full fraught with accusations yet then at the Day of Doom it must be opened when thou shalt read and weep and read every period stop with a sigh every word be enough to break thy heart and every syllable reveal some secret thy own conscience upon the matter being both witnesse Judge accuser and condemner But yet there is another book we read of and that is the book of life Herein are written all the names of Gods elect from the beginning of the world till the end thereof these are the golden leaves this is that precious book of heaven wherein if we are registred not all the powers of hell or death or devils shall blot us out again Here is the glory of each devout souldier of our Saviour how many have spent their lives spilt their blouds runne upon sudden deaths to gain a perpetuall name and yet for all their doings many of these are dead and gone and their memories perished with them onely Christs souldier hath immortall fame he and onely he is writ in that book that must never perish Come hither ye ambitious your names may be writ in Chronicles yet lost writ in durable marble yet perish writ in a monument equall to a Colossus yet be ignominious O were you but writ in this book of life your names should never die never suffer any ignominy It is an axiome most true they that are written in the eternall leaves of heaven shall never be wrapped in the cloudy sheets of darknesse Here then is the joy of Saints at that Day of Doom this book shall be opened and all the elect whom God hath ordained to salvation shall see it read it hear it and greatly rejoyce at it The Disciples casting out devils return with miracles in their mouths O Lord say they even devils are subject to us through thy name True saith Christ I saw Sathan as lightning fall from heaven notwithstanding in this rejoyce not that the spirits are subject unto you but rather rejoyce because your names are written in heaven Luke 10.20 Luke 10.20 And well may the Saints rejoyce that have their names written in Gods book they shall see them to their comfort writ in letters of gold penned with the Almighties finger ingraven with a pen of a diamond thus will this book give in the evidence and accordingly will the Judge proceed to sentence Vse 1 Consider thou that readest what books one day must be set before thee a time will come when every thought of thy heart every word of thy mouth every glance of thy eye every moment of thy time every office thou hast born every companie thou hast used every sermon thou hast heard every action thou hast done and every omission of any duty or good deed thou hast left undone shall be seen in these books at the first opening of them thy conscience shall then be suddenly clearly and universally inlarged with extraordinary light to look upon all thy life at once Gods memory shall then shine forth and shew it self when all men looking on it as a reflecting glasse they shall behold all the passages of their misspent lives from their births to their burials Where is the wicked and deceitfull man wilt thou yet commit thy villanies treacheries robberies murthers debates and impieties Let me tell thee if so to thy hearts-grief all thy secret sinnes and closet villanies that no eye ever lookt upon but that which is a thousand times brighter then the Sunne shall then be disclosed and laid open before Angels men and devils and thou shall then and there be horribly universally and everlastingly ashamed never therefore go about to commit any sinne because it is midnight or that the doors are lockt upon thee suppose it be concealed and lie hid in as great darknesse as
it was committed till Dooms-day again yet then shall it out with a witnesse and be as legible in thy forehead as if it were writ with the brightest stars or the most glistring Sun beam upon a wall of chrystall Vse 2 As you mean the good of your souls amend your lives call your selves to account while it is called to day search and examine all your thoughts words and deeds and prostrating your selves before God with broken and bleeding affections pray and sue that your names may be writ in heaven in that Book of life This will be the joy of your hearts the peace of your souls the rest of your minds yea how glad will you then be to have * It is a question whether the sinnes of Gods people shall be manifested at that day some say they shall be manifested not for their ignominy or confusion but onely that the goodnesse and grace of God may be made the more illustrious and for this they urge Matth. 12.36 2 Cor. 5.10 Revel 20.12 Others say they shall not be manifested 1. Because Christ in his sentence onely enumerates the good works they had done but takes no notice of their sins 2. Because this agrees best with those expressions that God blotteth out our sins and that they are thrown into the bottome of the sea 3. Because Christ is their bridegroom friend advocate and how ill would it become one in such relations to accuse or lay open their sins which of these opinions is truest is hard to say Heb. 6.10 all these books laid open by this means I speak it to the comfort of all true hearted Christians shall your obedience and repentance and faith and love and zeal and patience c. come to light and be known God is not unrighteous to forget your works of labour and love No all must out especially at that day when the books shall be open our works manifested and as we have done so must we be rewarded for then he shall reward every man according to his works The books are opened and now are the matters to be examined there is first a view and then a tryall The Law-book whereby we are tryed contains three leaves Nature the Law and the Gospel the Gentiles must be tryed by the first the unbelieving Jews and Gentiles by the second and the faithfull Jews and Gentiles by the last Those that confesse no God but nature must be judged by the law of nature those that confesse a God no Christ must be judged by the Law of God without the merits of Christ those that confesse God the Father and believe in God the Sonne shall be judged by the Gospel which reconcileth us to God the Father by the merits of Christ Atheists by the law of nature infidels by the law of God Christians by the Gospel of our Saviour Christ To the statutes of the former who can answer our hope is in the latter we appeal to the Gospel and by the Gospel we shall have our tryall They that have sinned without the law Rom. 2.12 shall perish without the law and they that have sinned under the law shall be judged by the law Rom. 2.16 But God shall judge the secrets of all hearts of all our hearts by Jesus Christ according to my Gospel Rom. 2.12.16 Vse Vel te totaliter absolvit vel te capitaliter damnat John 16.9 Let this then forewarn us what we have to do It is the Gospel that will either throughly justifie thee or extremely condemn thee The Spirit shall convince the world of sinne saith Christ and why so but because they believe not on me John 16.9 There is no sinne but infidelitie no righteousnesse but faith not that adulterie intemperance malice are no sinnes but if unfaithfulnesse remain not all these sinnes are pardoned and so they are as if they were no sins indeed How quick a riddance true repenting faith makes with our sinnes they are too heavie for our shoulders and we cannot bear them faith onely turns them over unto Christ and we are disburthened of them whereas there would go with us to judgement an huge kennell of lusts an armie of vain words a legion of evil deeds faith instantly dischargeth them all and kneeling down to Jesus Christ beseecheth him to answer for them all howsoever committed O then make we much of faith but not of such a faith neither as goes alone without works it is nothing at this judgement to say I have believed and not well lived the Gospel requires both faith to believe and obedience to work not onely to repent and believe the Gospel Mark 1.15 Mark 1.15 but to obey from the heart that form of doctrine Rom. 6.17 Rom. 6.17 True indeed thou shalt be saved for thy faith not for thy works but for such a faith as is without works thou shalt never be saved we say therefore A justificando non à justificato works are disjoyned from the act of justifying not from the person justified heaven is given to us for Christs merits but we must shew him the fair copie of our lives O then let this move us to abound in knowledge and faith and repentance and love and zeal and clothing and feeding and lodging the poor members of Christ Jesus and howsoever all these can merit nothing at Gods hands yet will he crown his own gifts and reward them in his mercy Say then dost thou relieve a poor member of Christ Jesus dost thou give a cup of cold water to a Prophet in the name of Prophet Matt. 10.42 Christ doth promise thee of his truth he will not let thee lose thy reward certainly he will not so thy works be done in faith why this is the covenant the glad tidings the Gospel to live well and believe well O let not that which is a word of comfort to us be a bill of inditement against us albeit in our justification we may say Be it to us according to our faith yet in our retribution it is said as you have it before you in this Text read unto you Then he shall reward every man for manifestation of his faith according to his works A little to recall our selves The Prisoners are tryed the Verdict's brought in the inditement is found and the Judge now sits on life and death even ready with sparkling eyes to pronounce his sentence This we must deferre a while and the next time you shall hear what you have long exspected The Lord grant us an happy issue that when this day is come the sentence may be for us and we may be saved to our endless comfort Shall reward VVHat Assize is this that affords each circumstance of each prisoners triall the time is Then the Judge is He the Prisoners Men the evidence Works Non coronat Deus merita tua tanquam merita tua sed tanquam donasua Aug. lib. de grat lib. arbit cap. 7. which no sooner given in but
my beloved well may our eies shed tears at this when his veins thus shed their bloud for us But here is yet a third effusion of bloud and that as Bernard tels us was in vellicatione genarum in the nippings and tearings of his sacred cheeks Bern. de Pass Dom. c. 38. to this bears the Prophet witness Esay 50.6 Esay 50.6 I gave my back to the smiters and my cheeks to the nippers or as our later Translation I gave my back to the smiters and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair whether his cheeks were torn or his beard plucked off some vary in opinion Bernard thinks both might be true Bern. ibid. or howsoever we believe most probable it is that neither of them could be effected without effusion of hloud And now me thinks I see that face fairer then the sonnes of men spit on by the Jews nor is their scorn without some cruelty for in the next Scene they exercise their fists which that they may do with more sport to them and spight to him Luke 22.64 they first blindfold him and then smiting him on the face they bid him read who it is that strikes him and yet as if whitenesse of their spittle and blewness of their strokes had not caused enough colours they once more die his rosie countenance in a bloudy red to this end do they nip his cheeks with their nails and as others pluck off his hair with their fingers whereby streams and stroaks of bloud run down his cheeks and drop down at his chin to his lower garments O sweet face of our Saviour what mean these sufferings but to tell us if ever confusion cover our face for him that we consider then how bloud and sweat thus covered his face for us But yet here 's a fourth effusion at his Coronation the blows drew not bloud enough from his fâ—ot and therefore the thoâ—â—s must fetch more from his head If mine advâ—â—sary says Iob should write a book against me sâ—â—ely I would take it upon my shoulder and binde it as 〈…〉 â—â—b 31.36 Job 31.36 the 〈◊〉 in stead of writing a book the 〈…〉 own and see how our Saviour â—iâ—â—â— it to 〈◊〉 not onely on his shoulder as 〈◊〉 to bear it but on his hâ—â—d too as a Crown to 〈◊〉 it â—â— but neither is it for triuâ—â—â— onely but for torture it is a Crown woven of boughs deck'd with thorns and 〈◊〉 of bloud in lieu of precious stones O Jesâ—◠〈…〉 thy ciâ—tâ—â—eâ—◠〈…〉 thy scepter thâ—se 〈…〉 â—â—â—â—ple died with bloud thy royall Robes Is â—â—â—â—nkfull people 〈◊〉 watred with his bloud that bring forth nothing but hâ—iâ—â—s and thorns to crown him but wherefore 〈◊〉 save onely to crush into his tender hand and to this 〈◊〉 they do not onely stick his head full 〈◊〉 but after they 〈…〉 to fasten the crown better they strike him on the head their reeds or 〈◊〉 Matth. 27.30 are 〈…〉 not like 〈…〉 at the Country afforded stronger and greater to 〈◊〉 his 〈◊〉 with more ease and see here 〈◊〉 not 〈…〉 heavier and solider 〈◊〉 and plenty of them to 〈◊〉 and hammer that crown of thorns deeper and deeper into his head O 〈◊〉 imagine Ne hic puto rivos sanguinis defuisse Bern. de pass Dom. c. 39. what streams of bloud gushed 〈…〉 sharp prickled were shot in 〈◊〉 less then 〈…〉 on his neck his face his shoulders and 〈◊〉 â—is 〈…〉 uâ— member of that Head his hâ—â—◠〈…〉 down upon all his members And his head â—ein 〈…〉 they 〈…〉 of bloud issuing out of his 〈…〉 the whips wherewith 〈…〉 his sacred sides 〈…〉 aâ—ter 〈…〉 Consider I pray you 〈…〉 strip our Saviour of his 〈◊〉 â—nd 〈…〉 his holy body to a pillar he poor 〈◊〉 〈…〉 â—he without any friends to 〈…〉 â—im whilest they strike â—n their 〈…〉 again and again full 〈…〉 leave a drop of bloud in all his body whâ—â—◠〈…〉 in all this the Law of Moses commanded that Malefactors should be beaten with whips and it shall be if the wicked be worthy to be beaten that the judg shall cause him to lye down and to be beaten before his face according to his fault by a certain number what number forty stripes he may give him and not exceed lest if he should exceed and beat him above these with many stripes then thy brother should seem vile unto thee Deut. 25.2 3. Deut. 25.2 3. Thus indeed were the Iews tied but the Gâ—â—tiles neither bound by law nor moved with compassion 〈◊〉 exceed this number I have read that he received no lesse then 5400 stripes S. Gert. l. 4. divin insinuat c. 35. which if we consider these things is not altogether improbable First the law of beating that every guilty should be stricken by every one of the Souldiers a free-man with staves and a bond-man with whips Secondly the cause of this Law that the body of him that was to be crucified should be disfigured that the nakedness should not move the beholders to any dishonest thoughts when they should see nothing pleasing or beautifull but all things torn and full of commiseration Thirdly the purpose of Pilate who hoped to spare his life by this so great cruelty used against him Fourthly the great care and haste which the Priests used in carrying of the crosse lest Christ should have died before he was crucified every one of these reasons argue an unreasonable whipping which our poor Saviour endured But O joy of the Angels and glory of Saints who hath thus disfigured thee who hath thus defiled thee with so many bloudy blows certainly they were not thy sins but mine that have thus evill entreated thee it was love and mercy that compast thee about for I should have suffered but to prevent this thy mercy moves thee and so thou takest upon thee all my miseries But all this will not satisfie the Iews Behold the man said Pilate to them Joh. 19.5 when he thought to have pacified their wrath by that dolefull sight but this nothing moved them though presently after it moved rocks and stones to shiver in pieces Behold then a sixth effusion of bloud when his hands and feet were pierced thorow with nails he bears indeed upon his shoulders an heavy and weighty cross of fifteen foot long which must needs say some cause a great and grievous wound but to omit that which is questionable here be those wofull sufferings now come the barbarous inhumane hang-men and begin to lose his hands that were tied to the pâ—st to tie them to a worser pillory the cross then strip they off his gore-glued cloaths which did so cleave to his mangled battered back that they pull off cloathes and skin together nay yet more and how 〈◊〉 I say it without tears for â—â—n the cross is ready and nothing wanting but a measure for the holes down therefore they lay him on it and though the print of his bloud gives them a