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
of Megiddon O weep or if you will not weep for him yet weep for your selves and your own sinnes alas have you not cause your sins were his murtherers and your hands by your sins were imbrued in his bloud Secondly stay not here but when you have mourned and wept over your Saviour then hate those sinnes that wrought this evil on your Saviour Which that you may do effectually send your thoughts a far off and see your Saviour in his circumcision in the garden and when you have done so then follow him a little further behold the tears in his eies and the clodded bloud that came from him when his cheeks were nipped his head crowned his back scourged his hands and feet nailed his side opened and then O then see if you can love those sins that have done all this villany love them said I no if you have any share in Christ I hope you will rather be revenged on your sins rather you will every one say O my pride and my stubbornness and my looseness and my uncleanness and my drunkenness these were the nailes and the whips and the spear that drew bloud from my Saviour therefore let me be for ever revenged of this proud subborn rebellious heart of mine own let me for ever loath my sin because it brought all this sorrow on my Saviour Is not this ordinary with men should any one murther your Father or friend whom you highly regarded and honoured would you brook his sight or endure his company nay would not your hearts rise against him would you not prosecute the Law to the uttermost and if you might be the Executioner would you not wound him and mangle him and at every stroak cry out Thou wast the death of my Father thou wast the death of my Father and is the heart of a man thus inraged against him that hath but murthered his friend or his father O then how should your hearts be transported with infinite indignation not against the man but against sinne that hath shed the precious bloud of your father your Master your God your King your Saviour O follow follow after these sins with an Hue and Cry bring them to the Bar set them be-the Tribunall of that great Judge of heaven and cry Iustice Lord justice against these sins of mine these slew my Saviour Lord slay them these crucified my Saviour Lord crucifie them Why thus persue and never leave them untill if it possible may may you see these sins bleed their last never think you have done enough but still give your corruptions one hack more confess your sins once more and say Lord this pride and this stubbornness and this looseness of heart these are they that killed my Saviour and I will be revenged of them Thirdly stay not here neither but when you have mourned for your sins and sought revenge on them then by Faith cast them all on the Lord Jesus Christ ease your own souls of them and hurle your care on him that careth for you all Certainly there is no way to wash you clean from your sin but onely by Christs blood and how must you apply this but by Faith now then in the last place have faith rence your soul as it were in the bloud of this immaculate Lamb and though you are polluted and defied yet questionless the bloud of Jesus Christ will purge you from all sin Heb. 9.13 14. If the bloud of Buls and Goats saith the Apostle and the ashes of an Heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh how much more shall the bloud of Christ who through the eternall Spirit offered himself without spot to God purge your consciences from dead works to serve the living God You may talk of a Purgatory why here is the Purgatory that true Purgatory the fountain that is laid open for the house of Iudah to wash in and I pray you mark it it is not onely for justification but being applyed by faith as effectuall for sanctification not onely for the expiation of sin that it be not laid to your charge but withall to purge your Consciences from dead works to serve the living God O then as you tender your souls believe and cast your selves upon Christ for salvation and for pardon of sins Do you not see him bleeding on the Cross Do you not hear him graciously offering to receive your sin-wearied souls into his bleeding wounds what should you do then but cast your selves with all the spirituall strength that you can at least with infinite longings and most hearty desires into the bosome of your Saviour say with your selves the fountain is opened and here will we bathe for ever Come life or come death come heaven or come hell come what come can here will we stick for ever nay if you must perish tell God and man Angels and devils they shall pluck you out of the hands and rent you from between the armes of your blessed bleeding Redeemer your soul-purging Saviour Thus if you believe you need not to droop for your sins but to go on with comfort to everlasting happiness the bloud of Christ no question will make way for you into heaven Yea saith the Apostle by the bloud of Iesus we may boldly enter into the holy places by the new and living way which he hath prepared for us Heb. 10.19.20 through the veile which is his flesh Such is the blessed fruit of this bloud and the Lord make it effectuall unto us to bring us into heaven even for his sake who by himself thus purged our sins You see the Purge given and taken onely a time it must have and then follows the Evacuation Hee purged What the ill humour is Sin the extent of it Our sin of both these together at our next meeting Now the Lord so prepare us that this Purge may work in us the everlasting wel-fare and health of our souls Our sins SIn is our sickness and to cure us of it the Law yields corrasives the Gospell lenitives but especially Christ yields that Physick Purgative which evacuates sin To consider Christ as a man of sorrows and not a Saviour of sinners were but a melancholick contemplation to behold his wounds and not so to think on 'em as they were our selves addes but more sorrows to our other miseries but when we call to mind that his bloud was our ransome that his stripes were our cures then with all our hearts we pray his bloud be upon us and our children And why not this bloud saith the Apostle speaks better things then the bloud of Abel Heb. 12.24 For Ables bloud cryed revenge but Christs bloud speaks mercy and to our comfort be it spoken if God heard the servant he will much rather hear the son yea if he heard his servant for spilling how much more will he hear his Son for saving and regaining our souls In the words are two parts 1. The ill huâ—our evacuated Sin 2. The extent
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
with their flaming tongues usurers with talent hands drunkards with scorched throats all these tares like fiery faggots burning together in hell flames this is the first punishment all the tares must meet they are bundled together Observ 2 Secondly as the tares must together so they must together by themselves thus are they bundled and severed bundled all together but from the wheat all asunder Quia damni poenam infert Basil Ascer in c. 2. p. 255. Chrysost in Matth. Hom. 24. Bern. de inter domo cap. 38. Hell is called damnation Because it brings Heavens losse and this by consent of most Divines is the more horrible part of hell so Basil To be alienated or separated from the presence of God his Saints and Angels is farre more grievous then the pains of hell So Chrysostome The pain of hell is intolerable indeed yet a thousand hels are nothing to the losse of that most glorious kingdome So Bernard It is a pain far surpassing all the tortures in hel not to see God and those joyes immortall which are prepared for his children O then what hels are in hell when besides the pains of sense there is a pain of losse the losse of God losse of Saints losse of Angels losse of Heaven losse of that beatificall vision of the most Sovereigne Good our ever-blessed Maker Consider with your selves if at the parting of the soul and body there be such pangs and gripes and stings and sorrows what grief then will it be to be severed for ever from the Highest and supreamest Good Suppose your bodies as some Martyrs have been used should be torn in sunder and that wild horses driven contrary wayes should rack and pul your arms and legs and heart and bowels one piece froÌ„ another what an horrible kind of death would this be think you and yet a thousand rentings of this member from that or of the soul from the body are infinitely lesse then this one separation of the soul from God When Jacob got rhe blessing from his brother Esau Gen. 27.31 it is said in the Text that he roared with a great cry and bitter saying to his father Hast thou not reserved one blessing for me also Imagine then when the wheat must have the blessing how will the tares figured in Esau roar and crie and yell and howl again and yet notwithstanding this unspeakable rage all the tears of hell shall never be sufficient to bewail the losse of heaven Hence breeds that worm that is alwayes gnawing at the conscience a worâ—â— saith our Saviour that dies not Mark 9.44 Mark 9.44 It shall lie day and night biting and gnawing and feeding upon the bowels of the damned persons O the stings of this worm no sooner shall the damned consider the cause of their miserie to wit the mis-spending of their time the greatnesse of their sinne the many oportunities lost when they might have gotten Heaven for a tear or a sigh or groan from a penitent heart but this worm or remorse shall at every consideration give them a deadly bite and then shall they roar it out Miserable wretch what have I done I had a time to have wrought out the salvation of my soul many a powerfull searching Sermon have I heard any one passage whereof had I not wickedly and wilfully forsook mine own mercie might have been unto me the beginning of the new birth but those golden dayes are gone and for want of a little sorrow a little repentance a little faith now am I burning in hell fire O precious time O dayes moneths years how are ye vanished that you will never come again And have I thus miserably undone my self Come Furies tear me into as many pieces as there are moats in the Sun rip up my breast dig into my bowels pull out my heart leave me not an hair on my head but let all burn in these flames till I moulder into nothing O madnesse of men that never think on this all the dayes of your visitation and then when the bottomlesse pit hath shut her self upon you thus will this worm gnaw your hearts with unconceivable griefs Be amazed O ye Heavens tremble thou Earth let all creatures stand astonished whilst the Tares are thus sentenced Bundle them and burn them Thus farre of the word in generall but if we look on it with a more narrow eye it gives to our hands this speciall observation The tares must have chains proportionable to their sinns Observ Bind them in bundles saith my Text not in one but in many faggots an Adulterer with an Adulteresse a Drunkard with a Drunkard a Traytor with a Traytor as there be severall sins so severall Bundles all are punished in the same fire but all are not punished in the same degree some have heavier chains and some have lighter but all in just weight and measure The Proud shall be trod under foot the Glutton suffer inestimable hunger the Drunkard feel a burning thirst the Covetous pine in wants the Adulterer lie with Serpents Dragons Scorpions Give me leave to bind these in bundles and so leave them for the fire they are first bundled then burned Where is Lady Pride and her followers see them piled for the furnace Esay 3. you that jet it with your bals and bracelets tyres and tablets rings and jewels and changeable suits think but what a change will come when all you like birds of a feather must together to be bound in bundles What then will your pride avail or your riches profit or your gold do good or your treasures help Job 20.26 when you must be constrained to vomit up again your riches the increase of your house departing away and a fire not blown utterly consuming you and them The rich man in the Gospel could for a time go richly fare sumptuously and that not onely on Sabbaths or Holy-dayes but as the text every day yet no sooner had death seized on his body but he was fain to alter both his suit and diet hear him how he begs for water that had plentie of wines and see him that was cloathed in purple now apparrelled in another suit yet of the same colour too even in purple flames O that his delicate morsels must want a drop of water and that his fine apparrell must cost him so dear as the high price of his soul why rich man is it come to this the time was that purple and fine linnen was thy usuall apparrell that banquets of sumptuous dishes were thy ordinarie fare but now not the poorest beggar even Lazarus himself that would change estate with thee Change said I marrie no Remember saith old Abraham that thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things and likewise Lazarus evil things but now he is comforted and thou art tormented Luke 16.25 Luke 16.25 But there are other Bundles where is Gluttonie and her surfetters Do we not see how the earth is plowed the sea furrowed and all to
8.34 Iohn 8.34 it is my Father that loveth me Ioh. 10.17 Iohn 10.17 it is my Father that dwelleth in me Ioh. 14.10 Iohn 14.10 and howsoever others forsake mee and leave me alone as himself proclaims it yet I am not alone because the Father is with mee Ioh. 16.32 Iohn 16.32 Is it so sweet Saviour whence then was that sorrowfull complaint of thine My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Matth. 27.46 Leo it is that first reconciled it and all antiquity allow of it the union was not disolved but the beames the influence was restrained Non solvit unionem sed subtraxit visionem Scotus 4. sent D. 46. Q. 4. resp ad princip argum Affectione justitiae saith Scotus he was ever united to his Father because he ever loved trusted and glorified him but affectione commodi that delight ever emergent from that divine vision was for a time suspended and therefore was it that his body drooped his soul fainted he being even as a scorched Heath-ground without any drop of dew of the divine comfort on it Yet be it that his Father now forsakes him will he forsake himself O yes he burns in the fiery furnace of affliction without all manner of refreshing and this was it that was figured in the Law by those two Goats offered for the sins of the people whereof the one was the Scape-Goat and the other was the Offering the scape-goat departed away and was sent into the wilderness but her companion was left alone in the torments and made a Sin-Offering for the people even so was this Sacrifice of God-man man-God blessed for ever the humanity was offered but the divinity escaped the humanity suffered for the sins of the world but the divinity departed away in the midst of sufferings and left her sister and companion all alone in the torments thus he purged himself himself onely in his humanity no other with him all other left him the Gentiles Jewes Disciples Apostles Mary his mother and God his Father nay he himself is bereaved of himself Levit. 16.10 the humanity of his divinity if not in respect of the union yet as touching the consolation When he had by himself in his humane nature without any comforter purged our sins Thus far you have seen Christ drink the cup of his bitter pains pure and without mixture of any manner of ease what now remains but that vve make some use of it Vse I will take the cup of salvation saith David and call upon the Name of the Lord Psal 116.13 Psal 116.13 and vvhat can vve less if our Saviour hath begun to us in pains shall not vve afford him our thanks the Cup of death could not passe from him and must the Cup of Salvation be removed from us Psal 148.2 O praise him praise him all his Hosts hovvsoever he vvas alone in his sufferings let us all bear the burdens in a song of thanksgiving and in this song let us singing vveep and vveeping sing our sins may dravv the tears vvhich vvere the cause of his sufferings and our salvation may make us sing vvhich those his sufferings did effect vvhat needs more he suffered by himself the cause our sins the effect our salvation let us mourn for the one and praise him for the other praise him and him alone for he had no partner in his sufferings nor vvill he have any in our thanks he had no comforter in his miseries nor must any share vvith him in the duty vve ovve him of praising his Name Alas have vve not reason think you to give all the glory unto him it vvas he that suffered that vvhich vve deserved he purged by himself vvhen vve our selves lay sick of sin in perill of death and damnation thus gracious is he to us that vvhen there vvas no other remedy for our recovery then he by himself in our stead came and purged our sins Thus far you have seen the Patient and order novv requires that vve prepare the Receit the Patient vvas himself the Receit is a Purge but to confect this Purge vve must crave a further time and in the mean vvhile and ever remember him in your thoughts vvho hath done all this for you and the Lord make you thankfull Had purged YOu see vvho it is that hath freed us from sin to vvit Christ our Saviour vvithout a Compurgator he purged by himself but vvhat did he by himself do vve say he purged vvhat need he to purge vvho never committed any sinn in thought vvord or deed it is vvithout doubt he needs not and yet do it he vvill not to clear himself but us But this Purge doth imply a medicine and so vve must apply it a medicine it was and many medicines he used for the curing of mans soul the first by diet when he fasted fourty days and foruty nights Matth. 4.2 Matth. 4.2 the second by Electuary when he gave his most precious body and bloud in his last Supper Matth. 26.26 Matth. 26.26 The third by sweat when great drops of bloud issued from him falling down to the ground Luk. 22.44 Luk. 22.44 The fourth by plaister when he was spit upon by the Iewes Mark 15.19 Mar. 15.19 The fifth by potion when he tasted vinegar mingled with gall Matth. 27.34 Matth. 27.34 The sixth by letting of bloud when his hands and feet were pierced yea when his heart vein was stricken and his side goared with a Spear Ioh. 19.34 Joh. 19.34 the last which contains all the rest was by purge when by all his sufferings and especially by his bloud-shed he washed us from our sins Revel 1.5 Revel 1.5 Here was the cures of all cures which all the Galenists in the world may admire with reverence that our Lord and Saviour should become our surety that our soul-Physician should become our Purger how not by giving us Physick but by receiving it for us we miserable wretches lay sick of sin and he our Physician hath by himself purged and delivered us of it But that we may the better see how this Purge wrought with him we must know that purging in generall Observ is taken for any evacuation whatsoever and to say truth in a word the evacuation of Christs bloud was the right purging of our sins Hence is it that as Scriptures affirm the bloud of Christ doth redeem us cleanse us wash us justifie us sanctifie us Yee were redeemed by his bloud 1 Pet. 1.19 1 Pet. 1.19 and his bloud cleanseth us from all sin 1 Joh. 1.7 1 Ioh. 1.7 and he washed us from our sins in his bloud Revel 1.5 Rev. 1.5 and being now justified by his bloud Rom. 5.9 Rom. 5.9 and therefore Iesus suffered that he might sanctifie the people with his own bloud Heb. 13.12 Heb. 13.12 This bloud was it that was believed by the Patriarchs witnessed by the Sacrifices shadowed in the figures of the
true length yet spitefully they take it longer that so they may stretch and rack him on the cross till you may tell his bones Psal 22.17 And now all fitted his hands and feet are bored the greatness of whose wounds David fore-shewed by those words They digged my hands and my feet Psal 22.16 Psal 22.16 Socrat. l. 1. c. 17. And well may we think so for as Ecclesiasticall History reports so big were the very nailes that Constantine made of them an helmet and a bridle O then what pain is this when all the weight of his body must hang on four nailes and they â—o be driven not into the least sensible parts but thorow his hands and his feet the most sinew it and therefore more sensible pâ—rts of all other whatsoever yet to hang thus for a time were it may be somewhat tollerable but thus he hangs till he dies and so the longer he continues the wider go his wounds and the fresher is his torture And now my brethren behold and see Lam. 1.12 if there were ever any sorrow like unto this sorrow alas what else appears in him but bleeding veins bruised shoulders scourged sides furrowed back harrowed temples digged hands and feet digged I say not with small pins but with rough boystrous nailes and how then shot the bloud from those hands and feet thus digged Cant. 2.1 Bern. de pass Dom. c. 41. and digged thorow O I am the rose of Sharon it is truly said of Christ Look on one hand and on the other and you may find roses in both look on one foot and on the other and you may find roses in either In a word look all over his body and it is all over rosie and ruddy in bloud Can we any more yes after all these showrs of bloud here is one more effusion for after his death Longinus Bishop of Cappadocia Teste Herle Contemplations on Christs passion One of the souldiers with a spear pierced his side and forthwith came there â—â—t bloud and water Ioh. 19.34 Joh. 19.34 The Souldier that gave this wound they say was a blind man but our Saviours bloud springing out on his eyes restored him to his sight and so he became a Convert a Bishop and a Martyr a strange cure where the Physician must bleed but so full of virtue was this bloud that by it we are all saved And yet O Saviour why didst thou flow to us in so many streams of bloud one drop had been enough for the world but thy love is without measure Physicians are usually liberall of other mens bloud but sparing of their own here it is not so for in stead of the Patients arm it is the Physicians own side that bleeds in stead of a lancet here is a spear and that in the hand of a blind Chirurgeon yet as blind as he was how right doth he hit the very vein of his heart that heart where never dwelt deceit see how how it runs bloud and water for our sinnes here is the fountain of his Sacraments the beginning of our happinesse O gate of heaven O window of Paradise O place of refuge O tower of strength O sanctuary of the just O flourishing bed of the Spouse of Solomon who is not ravished at the running of this stream me thinks I still see the bloud gushing out of his sides more freshly and fully then those sweet golden streams which run out of Eden to water the whole world But is it his hearts bloud what keeps he nothing whole without him nor within him his Apostles are scattered in the garden his garments at the crosse his bloud how many wheres his skin they have rent with their whips his ears with their blasphemies his back with their furrows his hands and feet with their nails and will they yet have his heart too cloven with a spear what a wonderfull thing is this that after all those sufferings he must have one wound more why Lord what means this open cleft and wound within thee what means this stream and river of thy hearts-bloud O it is I that sinned and to wash it away his heart runs bloud and water in abundance Lo here those seven effusions of our Saviours bloud the first at his circumcision the second in the garden the rest when his cheeks were nipped his head crowned his back scourged his hands and feet nailed his side opened with a spear whence came out an issue of bloud and water Vse And be our sinnes thus purged Lord in what miserable case lay we that Christ our Saviour must endure all this for us were our sinnes infinite for which none could satisfie but our infinite God were not our iniquities as the sands for which no lesse then an Ocean of bloud could serve to cover them sure here is a motive if nothing else to draw from us the confession of our manifold sins Lord we have sinned we have sinned grievously heavily and with a mighty hand and what now remains but that we never cease weeping crying praying beseeching till we get our pardon sealed in the bloud of Christ O beloved let me entreat you for Christs sake for his blouds sake for his deaths sake that you will repent you of your sinnes which have put him to these torments and to this end I shall entreat you thus to order your repentance First after confession of your manifold sinnes look upon him whom you have pierced and by your meditation supposing him to lie afore you weep and weep over him whom you see by your sinnes thus clothed in his bloud Why thus shall it be with the house of David Zach. 12.10 Zach. 12.10 11. I will poure upon the house of David saith God and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of supplications and they shall look upon him whom they have pierced and they shall mourn for him as one that mourneth for his onely sonne and be sorrie for him as one that is sorry for his first-born in that day there shall be a great mourning in Jerusalem as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon What is the house of David and what are the inhabitants of Jerusalem but the elect people of God and if you be of that number then do you look on him whom you have pierced and mourn for him or mourn over him as one that mourneth for his onely sonne yea be sorrie for him or be in bitternesse for him as one that is in bitternesse for his first-born Is it not time think you do you not see how every part of our Saviour bleeds afore you his head bleeds his face bleeds his arms bleed his hands bleed his heart bleeds his back bleeds his belly bleeds his thighs bleed his legs bleed his feet bleed and what makes all this bloud-shed but our sinnes our sinnes O that this day for this cause we would make a great mourning as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley