bleede for thine owne offences casting downe and humbling thy selfe with Ezra saying O my God I am confounded and ashamed to lifte vp mine eyes unto thee my God for mine iniquities are increased and my trespasse is growen vp into heauen c. When thou readest that Christ was taken and bounde thinke that thy very sinnes brought him into the power of his enemies and were the verie bondes wherewith hee was tyed thinke that thou shouldest haue beene bounde in the very same manner vnlesse he had beene a suretie and pledge for thee thinke also that thou in the selfe same manner art bounde and tyed with the chaines of thine owne sinnes and that by nature thy will affections and whole spirit is tyed and chained to the will of the deuill so as thou canst doe nothing but that which he willeth lastly thinke and beleeue that the bondes of Christ serue to purchase thy liberty from hell death and damnation When thou hearest that hee was brought before Annas and Caiaphas thinke it was meete that thy surety and pledge who was to suffer the condemnation due unto thee should by the high priest as by the mouth of God be condemned and wonder at this that the very coessentiall eternall sonne of God euen the very soueraigne iudge of the world stands to be iudged and that by wicked men perswading thy selfe that this so great confusion comes of thy sinnes Whereupon being further amazed at thy fearefull estate humble thy selfe in dust and ashes and pray God so to soften thy stony heart that thou maist turne to him and by true faith lay holde on Christ who hath thus exceedingly abased himselfe that his ignominy may be thy glory and his arraignment thy perfect absolution When thou readest that Barrabas the murderer was preferred before Christ though hee exceeded both men and angels in holinesse thinke it was to manifest his innocency and that thy very sinnes pulled upon him this shamefull reproch and in that for thy cause he was esteemed worse then Barrabas thinke of thy selfe as a most heynous and wretched sinner and as Paul saith the head of all sinners When thou readest that he was openly and iudicially condemned to the cursed death of the crosse consider what is the wrath and fury of God against sinne and what is his great and infinite mercy to sinners and in this spectacle looke upon thy selfe and with grones of hearte cry out and say O good God What settest thou heare before mine eyes I euen I haue sinned I am guiltie and worthy of damnation Whence comes this chaunge that thy blessed sonne is in my roome but of thy unspeakeable mercy Wretch that I am how haue I forgotten my selfe and thee also my God O sonne of God how long hast thou abased thy selfe for mee Therefore giue me grace O God that beholding mine owne estate in the person of my Sauiour thus condemned I may detest and loath my sinnes that are the cause thereof and by a liuely faith embrace that absolution which thou offerest me in him who was condemned in my stead and roome O Iesu Christ Sauiour of the worlde giue me thy holy and blessed spirite that I may iudge my selfe and be as vile and base in mine owne eyes as thou wast vile before the Iewes also vnite me unto thee by the same spirite that in thee I may be as worthy to be accepted before God as I am worthy in my selfe to be detested for my sinnes When thou readest that he was clad in purple and crowned with thornes mocked and spitt vpon behold the everlasting shame that is due unto thee be ashamed of thy selfe and in this point conforme thy selfe to Christ and be content as he was to be reproched abused and despised so it be for a good cause When thou readest that before his crucifying he was stript of all his cloathes thinke it was that he being naked might beare thy shame on the crosse and with his most pretious and rich nakednes couer thy deformitie When thou readest the complaint of Christ that he was forsaken of his father consider how he suffered the pangs and torments of hell as thy pledge and suretie Learne by his vnspeakable torments what a fearefull thing it is to sinne against God and beginne to renownce thy selfe and detest thy sinnes and to walke as a childe of light according to the measure of grace receiued When thou commest to die set before thine eyes Christ in the middest of all his torments on the crosse in beholding of which spectacle to thy endles comfort thou shalt see a paradise in the middest of hell God the father reconciled vnto thee thy Sauiour reaching out his hands vnto thee to receiue thy soule vnto him and his crosse as a ladder to aduance it to eternall glorie Whereas he cried aloud with a strong voyce at the point of death it was to shew that he died willingly without violence or constraint from any creature and that if it had so pleased him he could haue freed himselfe from death and haue cast his very enemies to the very bottome of hell When thou readest that he commended his soule into the handes of his father consider that thy soule also so be it thou wilt beleeue in him is deliuered vp into the hands of God and shall be preserued against the rage and malice of all thine enemies and hereupon thou maiest be bolde to commend thy spirite into the hands of God the father When thou readest of his death consider that thy sinnes were the cause of it and that thou shouldest haue suffered the same eternally vnlesse the Sonne of God had come in thy roome againe consider his death as a ransome and apprehend the same by faith as the meanes of thy life for by death Christ hath wounded both the first and second death and hath made his crosse to be a throne or tribunall seate of iudgement against all his and thine enemies When thou readest of the trembling of the earth at the death of Christ thinke with thy selfe it did in his kinde as it were groane vnder the burden of the sinnes of men in the worlde and by his motion then it signified that euen thou and the rest deserued rather to be swallowed of the earth and to goe downe into the pit aliue then to haue any part in the merit of Christ crucified When thou readest of his buriall thinke it was to ratifie his death and to vanquish death euen in his owne denne Applie this buriall to thy selfe and beleeue that it serues to make thy graue a bedde of downe and to free thy bodie from corruption Lastly pray to God that thou maiest feele the power of the spirite of Christ weakning and consuming the bodie of sinne euen as a deade corps rots in the graue till it be resolued to dust When thou hast thus perused and applied to thy selfe the historie of the Passion of Christ goe yet further and labour by faith to see Christ crucified in all the workes of God either in thee or vpon thee Beholde him at thy table in meate and drinke which is as it were a liuely sermon and a daily pledge of the mercie of God in Christ. Beholde him in all thine afflictions as thy partner that pitieth thy case and hath compassion on thee Behold him in thy most daungerous temptations in which the deuill thundereth damnation behold him I say as a mightie Sampson bearing away the gates of his enemies vpon his owne shoulders and killing more by death then by life crucifying the deuill euen then when he is crucified by death killing death by entrance into the graue opening the graue and giuing life to the dead and in the house of death spoiling him of all his strength and power Beholde him in all the afflictions of thy brethren as though he himselfe were naked hungrie sicke harbourlesse and doe vnto them all the good thou canst as to Christ himselfe If thou wouldest behold God himselfe looke vpon him in Christ crucified who is the ingrauen image of the fathers person and know it to be a terrible thing in the time of the trouble of thy conscience to thinke of God without Christ in whose face the glorie of God in his endlesse mercie is to be seene 2. Cor. 4. v. 6. If thou wouldest come to God for grace for comfort for saluation for any blessing come first to Christ hanging bleeding dying vpon the crosse without whome there is no hearing God no helping God no sauing God no God to thee at all In a word let Christ be all things without exception vnto thee Coloss. 3. 11. for when thou praiest for any blessing either temporall or spirituall be it whatsoeuer it will be or canbe thou must aske it at the hands of God the father by the merit and mediation of Christ crucified now looke as we aske blessings at Gods hand so must we receiue them of him and as they are receiued so must we possesse and vse them daily namely as gifts of God procured to vs by the merit of Christ which gifts for this very cause must be wholly imploied to the honour of Christ. FINIS Esai 53. 11 Ioh. 17. 2. 1. Cor. 2. 2. Gal. 6. 14. Phil. 3. 5. â—d 15. 19. 2. King 4. 34 2. King 13. 21. Coloss. 13. Eph. 1. 4. Eph. 1. 17 cap. 1. 9. Consider Colost 3. 11. 2. 10. b Calvin 〈…〉 Gal. c. 6. 2. Ezra 9.
sicknesse thinke how light these are compared to the agony and bloody sweate to the crowne of thornes and nailes of Christ When thou art wronged in worde or deede by any man turne thine eye to the crosse consider how meekely he suffered all abuses for the most part in silence and prayed for them that crucified him When thou art tempted with pride or vaine-glory consider how for thy proper sinns Christ was despised and mocked and condemned among theeues When anger and desire of reuenge inflame thine heart thinke howe Christ gaue him-selfe to death to saue his enemies euen then when they did most cruelly intreate him and shedde his bloode and by these meditations specially if they be mingled with faith thy minde shall be eased Thus wee see how Christ crucified is to be knowen and hence ariseth a threefolde knowledge one of God the second of our neighbors the third of our selues Touching the first If wee woulde knowe the true God aright and knowe him to our saluation wee must know him onely in Christ crucified God in him-selfe and his owne maiesty is inuisible not onely to the eyes of the body but also to the very mindes of men and hee is reuealed to us onely in Christ in whome hee is to be seene as in a glasse For in Christ hee setteth foorth and giues his iustice goodnesse wisdome and himselfe wholly vnto vs. For this cause hee is called the brightnesse of the glory and the ingrauen fourme of the person of the father Hebr. 1. 3. and the image of the invisible God Coloss. 1. 15. Therefore wee must not know God and seeke him any where els but in Christ and whatsoeuer out of Christ comes vnto vs in the name of God is a flat idol of mans braine As for our neighbours those especially that are of Gods Church they are to be knowen of us on this manner When wee are to doe any duty unto them wee must not barely respect their persons but Christ crucified in them and them in Christ. When Paul persecuted such as called on the name of Christ he then from heaued cryed Saul Saul Why per secutest thou me Here then let this be marked that when the poore comes to vs for releefe it is Christ that comet to our dores and saith I am hungry I am thirstie I am naked and let the bowells of compassion be in vs towardes them as towardes Christ vnlesse wee will heare that fearefull sentence in the day of iudgement Goe yee cursed into hell c. I vvas hungry and yee fedde me not I vvas naked and yee did not cloath me c. Thirdly the right knowledge of our selues ariseth of the knowledge of Christ crucified in whome and by whome wee come to knowe fiue speciall things of our selues The first how grieuous our sinnes are and therefore how miserable we are in regard of them If wee consider our offences in them-selues and as they are in vs wee may soone be deceiued because the conscience beeing corrupted often erreth in giuing testimony and by that meanes maketh sinne to appeare lesse then it is indeede But if sinne be considered in the death and passion of Christ whereof it was the cause and the vilenesse thereof measured by the unspeakable torments endured by the sonne of God and if the greatnesse of the offence of man be esteemed by the endlesse satisfaction made to the iustice of God the least sinne that is will appeare to be a sinne indeede and that most grieuous and ougly Therefore Christ crucified must be used of vs as a myrrour or looking glasse in which we may fully take a viewe of our wretchednesse and misery and what wee are by nature For such as the passion of Christ was in the eyes of men such is our passion or condition in the eyes of God that which wicked men did to Christ the same doth sinne and Satan to our very soules The second point is that men beleeuing in Christ are not their owne or lordes of themselues but wholly both body and soule belong to Christ in that they were giuen to him of God the Father and hee hath purchased them with his owne blood 1. Cor. 3. Yee are Christs and Christ Gods Hence it commeth to passe which is not to be forgotten that Christ esteemeth all the crosses and afflictions of his people as his own proper afflictions Hence againe we must learne to giue vp our selues both in body and soule to the honour and seruice of Christ whose we are The third is that every true beleeuer not as he is a man but as he is a new man or a Christian hath this being and subsisting from Christ Wee are members of his bodie of his flesh and of his bone Ephes. 5. v. 30. In which wordes Paul alludes to the speech of Adam Genes 3. Thou art bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh and thereby he teacheth that as Eve was made of a ribbe taken out of the side of Adam so doth the whol Church of Cod and euery man regenerate spring arise out of the blood that streamed from the heart and side of Christ crucified The fourth is that all good workes done of vs proceede from the vertue merit of Crist crucified he is the cause of them in vs and wee are the causes of them in and by him Without me saieth hee yee can doe nothing and Everie braunch that beareth not fruite in me marke well he saith in me he taketh away Ioh. 15. v. 2. The fifth point is that we owe unto Christ an endlesse debt For he was crucified onely as our surety and pledge and in the spectacle of his Passion wee must consider our selues as the chiefe debters and that the very discharge of our debt that is the sinnes which are inherent in vs were the proper cause of all the endlesse paines and torments that Christ endured that he might set vs most miserable bankrupts at liberty from hell death and damnation For this his unspeakable goodnesse if we doe but once thinke of it seriously wee must needes confesse that we owe our selues our soules and bodies and all that wee haue as a debt due unto him And so soone as any man beginnes to knowe Christ crucified he knowes his owne debt and thinkes of the paiment of it Thus wee see how Christ is to be knowen now wee shall not neede to make much examination whether this manner of knowing and acknowledging of Christ take any place in the worlde or no for very fewe there be that knowe him as they ought The Turke euen at this very day knowes him not but as he was a Prophet The Iewe scorneth his crosse and passion The popish Churches though in worde they confesse him yet doe they not knowe him as they ought The Fryers and Iesuites in their sermons at this day commonly vse the Passion as a meanes to stirre up pitie and compassion towardes Christ who beeing so righteous a man was so hardly intreated and
to inflame their hearers to an hatred of the Iewes and Iudas and Pontius Pilate that put our blessed Sauiour to death but all this may be done in any other history And the seruice of God which in that Church standes now in force by the Canons of the Councill of Trent defaceth Christ crucified in that the passions of martyrs are made meritorious and the very woode of the crosse their onely helpe and the virgine Mary the Queene of heaven and a mother of mercy who in remission of sinnes may commaund her sonne and they giue religious adoration to dumme Crucifixes made by the hand and art of man The common protestant likewise commeth shorte herein for three causes First whereas in worde they acknowledge him to be their Sauiour that hath redeemed them from their euill conuersation yet indeede they make him a patrone of their sinnes The theefe makes him the receiuer the murderer makes him his refuge the adultcrer be it spoken with reuerence to his maiestie makes him the bawde For generally men walke on in their euil waies some liuing in this sinne some in that and yet for all this they perswade themselues that God is mercifull and that Christ hath freed them from death and damnation Thus Christ that came to abolish sinne is made a maintainer thereof and the common packe-horse of the worlde to beare euery mans burden Secondly men are content to take knowledge of the merite of Christes passion for the remission of their sinnes but in the meane season the vertue of Christs death in the mortifying of sinne and the blessed example of his passion which ought to be followed and expressed in our liues and conversations is little or nothing regarded Thirdly men usually content themselues generally and confusedly to know Christ to be their Redeemer neuer once seeking in euery particular estate and condition of life and in euery particular blessing of God to feele the benefite of his passion What is the cause that almost all the worlde liue in securitie neuer almost touched for their horrible sinnes surely the reason is because they did neuer yet seriously consider that Christ in the garden lay groueling upon the earth sweating water and bloode for their offences Againe all such as by fraude and oppression or any kinde of hard dealing sucke the bloode of poore men neuer yet knewe that their sinnes drew out the heart bloode of Christ. And proude men and women that are puffed vp by reason of their attire which is the badge of their shame and neuer cease hunting after straunge fashions doe not consider that Christ was not crucified in gay attire but naked that he might beare the whol shame and curse of the law for vs. These and such like whatsoeuer they say in worde if we respect the tenour of their liues are flatte enemies of the crosse of Christ and treade his pretious blood under their feete Now then considering this so weighty and speciall a point of religion is so much neglected O man or woman high or low young or old if thou haue beene wanting this way beginne for very shame to learne and learning truely to know Christ crucified And that thou maist attain to this behold him often not in the woodden crucifixe after the popish manner but in the preaching of the Worde and in the Sacraments in which thou shalt see him crucified before thine eyes Galat. 3. 1. Desire not here upon earth to beholde him with the bodily eye but looke upon him with the eye of true and liuely faith applying him and his merites to thy selfe as thine owne and that with a broken and bruised heart as the poore Israelites stung with fiery serpents euen to death behelde the brasen serpent Againe thou must looke vpon him first of all as a glasse or spectacle in which thou shalt see Gods glory greater in thy Redemption then in thy creation In the creation appeared Gods infinite wisedome power and goodnesse in thy Redemption by the passion of Christ his endlesse iustice and mercy In the creation thou art a member of the first Adam and bearest his image in thy Redemption thou art a member of the second Adam In the first thou art indued with naturall life in the second with spirituall In the first thou hast in the person of Eve thy beginning of the ribbe of Adam in the second thou hast thy beginning as thou art borne of God out of the bloode of Christ. Lastly in the first god gaue life by commanding that to be which was not in the second he giues life not by life but by death euen of his owne sonne This is the mystery into which the Angels themselues desire to looke into 1. Pet. 1. 12. Secondly thou must behold him as the full price of thy Redemption and perfect reconciliation with God and pray earnestly to God that hee woulde seale up the same in thy very conscience by his holy spirite Thirdly thou must behold Christ as an example to whome thou must conforme thy selfe by regeneration For this cause giue diligence that thou maiest by experience say that thou art deade and crucified and buried with Christ and that thou risest againe with him to newnesse of life that he inlightens thy minde and by degrees reformes thy will and affections and giue thee both the will and the deede in euery good thing And that thou maist not faile in this thy knowledge reade the history of Christes passion obserue all the parts and circumstances thereof and apply them to thy selfe for thy full conversion When thou readest that Christ went to the garden as his custome was where the Iewes might soonest attach him consider that he went to the death of the crosse for thy sinnes willingly and not of constraint and that therefore thou for thy part shouldest doe him all service freely and frankely Psal. 110. 3. When thou hearest that in his agony his soule was heavy unto death knowe it was for thy sinnes that thou shouldest much more conceiue heauinesse of heart for the same againe that this sorrow of his is ioy and reioycing unto thee if thou wilt beleeue in him therfore Paul saieth reioyce I say againe reioyce in the Lorde When thou readest that in the garden hee prayed lying groueling on his face sweating water and bloode beginne to thinke seriously what an unspeakable measure of gods wrath was upon thy blessed Sauiour that did prostrate his body upon the earth and cause the bloode to follow and thinke that thy sinnes must needes be most heynous that brought such bloody and grieuous paines upon him Also thinke it a very shame for thee to carry thy heade to heauen with haughtie lookes to wallowe in thy pleasures and to drawe the innocent bloode of thy poore brethren by oppression and deceit for whome Christ sweat water and bloode and take an occasion from Christs agony to lay aside the pride of thy heart to be ashamed of thy selfe to grieue in heart yea euen to