MEDITATIONS for the Passion Weeke Following the order of the Time and Story By N. TAYLOVR 1. Pet. 2.21 Christ also suffered for us leaving us an example that yee should follow his steps Who his owne selfe bare our sinnes in his owne body on the Tree that Wee beeing dead to sinnes should live unto righteousnes by whose stripes ye were healed Printed by the Printers to the Vniversity of CAMBRIDGE MDCXXVII To the Right Worsh Mr. Doctr. MAW Master of Trinitie Colledge in Cambridge Right worthy and Worshipfull I Have no better way to shew my thankefull remembrance of your love and care over me then by sending you my thoughts that is a fewe of my better Meditations written for mine owne use and perhaps not worthy your acceptance yet such as they are I hope they will finde the same favour with you that my selfe have done which though it bee too much for me to expect yet I can hope for no lesse in regard of the gentlenesse of your nature and forwardnes to respect me before I had time to deserve of you The thing I aimed at in them was to make the Storie they belong to as orderly as it is perfect so that if they have no other use they may stand in stead of an harmony to right any doubt about our Saviours sufferings As for Devotion which I desired to stirre up in my selfe and others by them it could not bee bestowed upon a better subject howbeit if having the best I have fail'd or my affections want heate of zeale I hope nevertheles that my sparke may kindle a greater fire where it findes sewell by the light of which many may both see and bee warmed And now I have brought my worke to the fire you may doe to it as you please for I put it into your hands desiring pardon for my boldnes and so ending with my daily prayers for your daily encrease in all things that may make you an happie Governour of the Society you are in or may rise to Your Worships in all dutie NATH TAYLOVR ¶ Meditations for SUNDAY Beeing the first day in the weeke by the Iewes account EVerie Day hath his Night every Summer his Winter every Spring his Fall and every Life his Death And as some Nights are darker then other some Autumnes more unseasonable some Winters more sharpe so are some Death 's more yea much more cruell then other be Some men fall like fruite other are cut downe like trees some are pluckt up in the flower other by the roote that is some men die onely Suet. Aug. Non aliter quà m simplics morte puntit other with torment which is two or more deaths in one Yet one thing neverthelesse this diversitie findes to agree in That all men die with paine for two such friends as the soule and bodie are cannot be parted without grieving or to speake more to the quicke Two which Nature nay GOD himselfe once joyned together to make but one Person cannot be severed again without cutting neither is it an ordinary paine that divides these two but such an one as can but once be suffered and hath a name by it selfe as it hath also a nature different from other paines for we call it The Pang of Death which paine though we cannot learne what bounds it hath because it is a pain that comes not to his height till wee be past telling where it holds us yet can wee easily discerne that it is not alike in every man for the strugling in some and the quietnes in other shew either the paine to be more or the patience lesse and yet a strong patience will often out-beare a grievous extreamitie with little appearance of griefe so that this Fit hath many mervailes in it if any one could come againe like Lazarus to tel us them But among all Deaths whatsoever they bee never was any so strange as our Saviours was for in it both paine and patience met in their extremities so that paine did her worst to overcome patience and patience her best to overcome paine and yet neither paine had the upper hand though it killed nor patience lost though Christ died because he that suffered suffered but at his owne will and his suffering besides was the paine of Paine yea the death of Death it selfe yet howsoever it prevailed not so great nevertheles was this Passion so grievous as it hath nor can have none to sample it for Christs paine was such as never Creature felt neither can doe and on the other side his patience so great as for all the sorrow hee suffered on the Crosse he is not read to have uttered a groane there So that it may be easily discerned that Patience had the victorie because paine could neither make her leave the field till shee list nor bring her to any conditions but her own which were most honourable This is but one occurrence but the Death I have named containes further a Story that may take up Reader thy whole intention for in it thou shalt see wonder at it a Crosse set up to crucifie GOD on Life condemned to die Righteousnesse to suffer and which is more all this effected yet nothing done to advance the contrarie partie for through Christs Bodie Death slew it selfe and Sinne and Satan tooke their deadly wounds See againe and againe wonder at it Patience exalted upō her Throne the Crosse and crowned with Thorne whereof every point is deadly yet still unmooved and like her Selfe And as thou readst these things written with blood in stead of inke upon the wide-open Booke of the Crosse if thou apply them to thy selfe and weigh them in thy heart as Marie did they were for thee all suffered and Christs victorie is become thy hope of glory his Crosse is thy Crowne his suffering thy salvation his death thy life Here is now a Booke written in red letters laid open for thee to reade on I meane the Crosse and every word in it must be read two wayes as having a double and contrary signification When thou beginnest to reade everie thing signifies as thou seest it written but when thou commest to construe them they meane quite otherwise For at first thou shalt see scorn shame suffering death and all these laid upon Innocencie for thy Sin but this when thou hast acknowledged thou must reade every word contrarie over againe so that then shame is glorie suffering is victorie death is life both to him that bore them and to thee that beleevest And now thou hast the secret of this strange Character ply thy book hard and take out of it as much as thou canst for thy learning especially this weeke thou must do it because this is the verie time in which these things were first written not with inke as I said but with his blood that died for thee Reade then and learne and meditate and apply which all thou maist do though thou bee no scholler for he that never saw booke before may knowe
buried in Sinne and find never a Lazarus to heare him Holy Lazarus thou couldst heare Christ whē thou wert dead but well are wee if wee can heare him while wee are alive yet this we may doe if we will and now is the time for this Weeke Christ hath many things to say that concerne our soules health yea words he hath to speake which may put Life into thee if thou wert dead so thy heart be fit as Lazarus his house was to receive him only drawe neere and bring thy Will with thee and thou shalt heare him By this time Christ is on his way comming to Ierusalem by the way as he comes he is an hungred he was no glutton then as the Iewes accused him and espying a Fig-tree a farre off he goes to it yet not to satisfie hunger for the time of figges was not yet come but to give us a Lesson how he hates spiritual unfruitfulnes When he came to it therefore and sawe no figges though by the yeare time it should have beene so hee cursed the Tree and anon it withered If this bee done to the greene Tree for S. Marke hath noted Mar. 11.13 that it had leafes though it had no fruite what will become of us the dry and wild one And if Christ require figges of it before the time may he not require fruit of us whensoever he comes yea gather where he scattered not yet let no man accuse him of injustice for he sowed once but we let it be rooted up he scattered once but we let the Enemie gather it that is hee gave grace to Man before the Fall that would ever have been bearing fruit and to the trees a perpetuall Autumne for our sakes therefore he might call on the Fig-tree in Winter and not bee unjust and may looke for good workes of the Reprobate ere they receive Grace but much more may he of us who boast to have the life of Grace in us Feare then and faile not to bring foorth thy fruite in his season and GOD can and will put difference betweene thee a Fig-tree He careth not for Oxen and it is no great matter if a fig-tree wither but his sight is better then to see men walking like Trees hee will spare thee therefore and give thee an example out of them onely thou must not bee a stocke or barren wood but thy fruite must appeare in his due time This use thou maist make of this storie Howbeit our Saviour makes another himselfe namely by example of his owne faith which had so soone wrought this miracle to stirre up Faith in his Disciples especially in prayer But this belongs to the next day What our Saviour taught this day in the Citie the Evangelists have not recorded S. Marke sets downe the Storie of our Saviours whipping the buyers and sellers out of the Temple as if it had happened this day either because they were so impudent as to come into the Temple this day againe and so our Lord was enforced to renewe the action or else it is the same that the other Evangelists speake of but according to the custome elsewhere observed in holy Writ order is not strictly kept in the circumstance of time For the Holy Ghost meant to deliver a rule for Faith rather then for Chronologie And yet we should not have wanted that neither but that partly GOD would sometime leave order unexprest to punish our disorder towards him partly because hee would try our Faith whether wee would beleeve him on his Word or condemne him when wee saw the least appearance of contrarietie Appearance I say for so it is only neither is there any dissidence in matter or circumstance in any place of Scripture but it may be reconciled Well then This daies Sermon is not printed yet that our Saviour taught this day I take it to bee evident for S. Luke reports that hee taught daily in the Temple Also his prolixe and continued Parables uttered on other dayes make it credible that he would not be silent upon this Yet this one dayes labour amongst other we have not because he hath left us sufficient for our soules health in that we have so that we need not looke for more Also the lesse we have the lesse wee have to learne Againe the want of that wee have not may stirre up our affection to that wee have If thou have but a little ground and a little seed till it the better for thou hast better leisure and it may yeeld thee an hundred for one howsoever it cannot but yeeld thee more then all the great field of the sluggard If all that Christ spoke did were written I suppose saith Saint Iohn the Divine or the Devine Saint Iohn the world could not containe the bookes that should be written His meaning is either to shew Christs diligence in teaching which was such as would have wearied the hands of all writers to have followed him or else if all that Christ spoke had beene written the Comments upon his Text would have been numberlesse Either of these are easie to beleeve for we see daily that the tongue of the teacher goes so quicke as no hand can follow it but by Brachygraphie the Comments upon our Saviours words that we have are so many as the world is already full of them so many Comments there be so many Volumes so many Treatises that they require more then a mans life to read them all as they should be Be content then and praise GOD for that which thou hast read it lay it to thy heart and meditate how thou maist practise it for that thou learnest of Christ is never truly thy owne till thou bring it into practise and thus thou maist heere understand the meaning of that Proverbe that sayes No knowledge is like that which a man hath at his fingers ends that is which he hath ready for practise Now that this Day is done if thou wilt walke backe with thy Lord againe to Bethanie thou shalt doe more then we read the whole multitude did yesterday that were at first so dutifull about him That he lodged this Night againe in that little village it appeares as I take it by the Fig-tree which he cursed as he came by it to day and to morrow passes by againe and speakes of what had happened to it as will appeare better out of the next dayes story Well then if thou wilt follow thy Master thither the journey is but short some fifteene furlongs as I remember or there about If thou doubt to want lodging because the village is little yet hope better because it is hospital or if thou shouldest watch one Night with thy Saviour or about him thou shouldest not loose thy labour and so it would be worth thy paines also For who would not want one Nights sleepe to be so neere Christ to heare his last words see his last actions which as they were alwaies gracious so now certainly were most
but that it was evening and spices then were not ready to bee bought Out of these things much might bee noted for this day but that they were done the last Night and so are not proper for this time The first thing wee have on this day to observe is the malice of the high Preists and Pharises which ends not with the death of our Saviour our it is so cruell but survives to shew it selfe against his dead body Therefore they come to Pilate and say Sir we remember that that deceiver said while hee was yet alive AFTER THREE DAYES I WILL RISE AGAINE Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure untill the third day least his Disciples come by Night and steale him away and say unto the people He is risen from the dead so the last error shall bee worse then the first Vpō which intreaty Pilate answers them Yee have a watch goe your way and make it as sure as yee can So they went and made the Sepulchre sure sealing the stone and setting a watch S. Marke addes to this that it was a great stone which could not easily bee remooved without strength and therefore when they come in the morning the women say Who shall remoove us the Stone So that now sure Christs body is sure enough a great stone and sealed and a watch by it were enough to keepe downe a dead body But all this is to their greater shame for it makes but the evidence of our Saviours resurrection the greater which otherwise might have wanted witnesses from his enemies but now it hath even his enemies for witnesse that hee rose againe and that both to their cost and trouble to convince them So let them watch this day as merrily as they will to morrow will bee a heavy morning with them come it assoone as it will or can come which to us is the beginning of our joy It is to us the beginning of our joy but yet upon condition that is so wee bee right fitted to receive it To fit thy selfe first thou must frame thy affection to the affection of the Disciples which they had for the want of their Master For Hee that had seene the cleaven set either together or in severall should no doubt have seene so many faces of heavines and who had lookt as this day againe on our Lady Christs blessed Mother sitting with the sword thorough her heart Luke 2.35 which Saint Simeon had fore-hight her should not have needed any other pourtraict to set forth the true passions of Love Hope and Faith under a cloud of sorrow for if any one wavered in doubt of Christs resurrection shee beleeved because shee knew him to bee GOD and on the other side if any one mourned for his death shee mourned the most for shee was his Mother Thus must thou do to Mourne but for thy sinnes that crucifyed Christ yea thou must set thy selfe among his Murderers as Saint Peter sets thee saying Act. 2.23.36 I am one of those LORD that crucifyed thee Stand here fast now for this is the safest place for thee at first for thou must come to joy through this kind of sorrow or else in Christ thou canst not have it Next to this thou must learne of the holy women that waited for Christs resurrection how to waite for his rising againe in thy heart for they waited with their sweete odours and so must thou do too What these odours are Saint Iohn tells thee in his Revelation where hee sayes The odours that are offered in heaven are the prayers of the Saints Now thou must be as holy that is as Saint-like as thou canst therefore thou must not want thy odours such as thou canst get which if they bee not for enbalming as the womens were but for burning it is the better for it was a fault of love in them to provide that Christs Body should not see corruption Pray thou then and let the heate of zeale send out thy sighes and thy servent devotions in a smoake up towards heaven thus shalt thou cense thy soule that Christ may come the next day to thee and thou maist bee received of him at his Table And now I have brought thee where I would leave thee even upon thy knees wayting for Christ and blessed art thou when hee comes if hee finde thee so doing For as he rose that thou mightst rise so from that place if from any he will raise thee up yea lend thee his hand to set thee on thy feete that thou maist stand before him for ever Waite thus then and powre out thy prayers unto GOD to prepare thee for his comming and if thou remember others in thy prayers as thou art bound to the language of heaven in them which runnes upon OUR and VS put mee in among them yet of neede I beg it rather then desert and I have a better reward of my paines from thee then I can looke for Now I must leave thee for I know thou wilt shut thy doore when thou prayest as Christ bids thee Matth. 6.6 SO GOD SPEEDE THEE Tu autem DOMINE Miserere Nostri THe love that LOVE had last to shew The life that LIFE had last to spend The paines unto Gods justice due Suffer'd by God in manhood true The price which bought us God to Friend The tree on which salvation grew The merit which shall never end But doth to infinite extend In one weeke though the dayes be few This booke would seeme to comprehend Thinke you it can Yet if it hath not wonne it Reade but your Christs-Crosse and there God hath done it FINIS