ordained this accident thus significative also of a greater matter viz. That our Lord would not bear his cross alone but that all his Followers for ever were to bear their parts of it § 92 Whilst our Lord passed along in this solemn Procession to his offering up the divine Majesty provided that amidst so many stony-hearted Jews that thirsted after his blood wherewith the Psalmist Psal 21.13.17 describes him compassed about with so many ravenous Dogs and fierce Bulls there should not want those that accompanied such sufferings with their tears and lamented and deplored these pittiless and undeserved cruelties for a testimony against the others as before Joseph and Nicodemus and Pilat's wife and Judas also when too late were Many persons there were of the more devout and compassionate Sex and more secure from the soldiers affronts that followed and lamented him Luk. 23.27 So holy and innocent a person from whom they had heard so many charming Sermons and in whom seen such mighty works Among whom we may imagine were those Galilean Women that in his former life time had waited on and ministred unto him and his beloved Mary and Martha All whose exceeding affection to our Lord doubtless had so conquered their fears as to run thither wherever they could have a sight of him of whom they were likely so soon to be totally deprived § 93 These probably before had stood with the rest of the people in the common Piazza before Pilats Tribunal and there saw and heard all that sad Tragedy that had passed between our Lords own people persecuting and the stranger-Govervour defending him whose miserable usage there still heightned their love and compassion and in them added to all the former endearments of him as it did in the people to their rage and fury Especially amongst these the Blessed Virgin his afflicted Mother who could not be absent from him in life or death where she could have any access and who here most diligently observed all her Son said or did or that was done to him as the Evangelist saith Luk. 2.19 she formerly did those even in his minority and childhood she I say especially may be supposed to be wounded at the heart not only when she stood by the Cross but during all this time with those Sword-points of most pungent Grief which Simeon foretold her of in her and the rest of her Friends hearing their away with this fellow and their crucifiges and their acclamations for Barabbas before the Son of God And the sight of him so used when Pilat cried Ecce Homo and again Ecce Rex Vester that had no operation of pity upon the hard-hearted Jews I may say had too much on them But that we are to believe his Holy Mother as being full of Grace and of the Holy Ghost to have bin indued with a most perfect patience and resignation and silence and her carriage also to have bin an edifying pattern to the rest Thus was our Lord in all those his former sufferings beheld and lamented by his Friends But now after his Condemnation and the Jew's cruelty according to the divine Will satisfied the tide in the people also began to turn and these of our Lords former acquaintance to have many Companions of their Grief and such a mind began to repossess some of them at least as they had had when but two daies before they heard and admired him in the Temple and as they had on Palm-Sunday and those also of the people who all this while retained the same affection toward him his safety now despaired of began more to shew it And thus a great multitude attended our Lord his death and Funeral full of bitter lamentation though amongst these the more or more open in their grief were those of the female Sex On whom our Lord lifting up his all-bloody and disfigured Countenance in great comiseration not of himself suffering nothing but what he pleased but of them being infinitly afflicted for the sins of his own people to whom he came in such love and they received him not but were now casting him the only Son and heir out of his Vineyard and killing him and for the unparallelled judgments of God that he saw now approaching upon them for this fact brake out into that passionate and prophetick speech ye Daughters of Jerusalem weep not for me but for your selves and your children telling them the daies were now at hand if their tears at least of their own particulars prevented them not wherein they should bless the barren that never had any children prepared for such a misery wherein they should wish the Mountains to fall on them and the Hills to cover and bury them deep from the face of the divine vengeance Hos 10.8 Is 2 10 19. Apoc 6.16 descending from above on that people For if the flames of Gods wrath meerly for their sakes and sins brake out now in such a manner upon him a Tree alwaies green and flourishing and fruitful and no way deserving or qualified with any cumbustible matter for them to feed on what would this fire do where their impenitence should make them unworthy of his blood to quench it upon their dry dead fruitless wood serviceable for nothing else and so well prepared for it The consideration of which had but a few daies before drawn tears also from himself when the Evangelist saith he in the midst of his triumph from Mount Olivet beholding the City wept over it saying with sobbs interrupting his speech If that thou hadst known even thou at least in this thy day c. Luk. 19.41 This then our Lord in pity to them said to procure the application of their tears not to his sufferings but rather to the cause of them to their own sins and the sins of their people as doubtless from his powerful words many of them afterwards did apply themselves and found mercy obtaining salvation by his blood within the arms of the Church and so when the time came fled from the face of that fire and escaped in the time of that destruction when the Romans the same Instruments the Jews employed to consume this Green-wood were used afterwards by God to burn the dry For it is observed that those Jews of the christian Profession warned from our Lords prediction by their retiring betimes out of the City and out of Judea were generally preserved § 94 Thus this Anathema for us was conveyed out of the Holy City or that should have bin so as an accursed thing for as the devoted Goat laden with the iniquities of the children of Israel was carried out of the Holy Camp Lev. 16.10 and the bodies of those beasts which were offered for expiation of sins and whose blood was carried by the High Priest before God into the Sanctuary were burnt also without the Camp It is the Apostle's observation Heb. 13.11 12 13 so was it to be here in the prototype whose Blood was afterward carried into the Heavenly
by our Lord in his Palm-Sunday Triumph when as from Mount Olivet he beheld the City he wept over it Luk. 19.41 and again in the Holy week of his Passion when in the Temple he told them their house was now left unto them desolate Mat. 23.38 and again when he sate on the Mount Olivet over against the prospect of the Temple Mat. 24.1 c. with his Disciples and lastly as he went to Execution and saw the people weeping for him As the cheif Priests in this suddain transmitting of our Lord to Pilat shewed the great zeal they had of his speedy dispatch so this Eve of the great feast of the Passover seems also to be one of the usual daies if not of the tryal yet of the Execution of Malefactors thus made more Exemplary at the time of so great a confluence of People hither Because we find others then executed besides our Lord and because it is said to be the custome in honour of this great Feast for the Roman Governour at this Sessions to release one of the Persons condemned to the Jews who as they had lost the power of putting any to death so of pardoning or releasing any from it § 60 Our Lord brought hither was committed to the Roman Guards and carried by them to the Praetorium or Court of Judgment But the High Priests and Antients of the Jews entred not in with him because this Evening they were to eat the Pasch not performed by them in its proper time as it was by our Lord because the Paschal-Feast-day happening this year to fall on the day before the Sabbath was by a former custome transferred to it Now the eating of the Paschal Lamb was prohibited to all that were any way unclean Numb 9.11 and the Jews held the touching or any Gentile whom they esteemed unclean as not being cleansed at all from their pollutions according to Levit. 5.3 and 15.1 c. to render them so he who touched any thing unclean becoming unclean Lev 5.2 For this cause they stayed without and it happened also opportunely for their better prevailing with and perswading the people by and by that they should save Barabbas rather than Jesus the one a true raiser of Sedition and the other falsly accused of it § 61 This impediment of their entring into the Pallace and there preferring their accusation against the Prisoner made them also hope from Pilat rather a Confirmation of their sentence and an order for his execution than a reexamination of his cause and that his guilt in such an extraordinary case should be taken upon their word But God would not suffer their Injustice so to be huddled up nor yet Pilat who it seems had more intelligence of their proceedings then they imagined for a Roman Tribune and Cohort were also employed in our Lords apprehension Jo. 18.12 and doubtless had heard much of the fame of Jesus and had a vigilant Eye upon his motions and on the concourse of the people made to hear him but without discovering any harm in his actions and also who knew saith the Text that not for any capital crimes of his but for meet envy no small Guilt of theirs they had delivered him He therefore seeing the Prisoner stand before him without his Accusers riseth from the bench and unexpectedly goes forth to them and askes them what accusation they brought against him who now answered him also in general that if he were not a Malefactor they would not have sent him to him Pilat somewhat moved with such their declining his further examination of the matter desires them then since they had found him such they would resume the matter into their own hands and finish the work they had begun and punish the Delinquent themselves according to his demerit Upon which they replyed That his crimes were such as deserved death and that in the most severe and exemplary manner which it was not permitted to them to inflict and so when thus urged to it began to accuse him to the Governour of such things as they imagined might be of most weight with him and the Roman-Militia pressing in particular his forbidding to give Tribute to Cesar and saying that he himself was Christ a King An accusation in the sence they intended it and as it might any way intrench upon Cesars rights very false For as for Tribute he had both actually before paid it when demanded of him to Cesar Mat. 17.26 and also being asked by them the Pharisees joined with the Herodians Mat. 22.16 the question about the lawfulness of it but two or three daies before his apprehension on purpose saith the Evangelist Luk. 20.21 that they might take hold of his words that so they might deliver him into the power of the Roman-Governour he affirmed it and utterly silenced them with that divinely prudent answer of his Reddite quae sunt Caesaris Caesari quae sunt Dei Deo that they should give to Cesar Cesars Coine And as for his Messias-or Kingship he had confessed it indeed but that his sitting upon his Throne should be not here but in Heaven ad dexteram Patris and the Glory of it not present but hereafter Quando veniet cum nubibus The like account whereof he gave afterward to Pilat and also de facto when the Multitude purposed to have made him King Jo. 6.15 he had declined it and presently withdrew himself and elsewhere in a contraversy between two Brothers about dividing Luk. 12.14 a piece of land he refused to be an Arbitrator and sent his Disciples about the countrey without carrying a peny of money or so much as a staff Mat. 10.10 i. e. wherewith to defend themselves or offend others taught them continually Patience and non-resistance if struck on the one cheek to turn the other the fundamental way of the propagation of his Kingdom In his late apprehension he commanded Peter to put up his Sword and forbad the use of it against authority and presently repaired the hurt he had done with it All which fulfils that so often repeated of our Lord in the Psalms Oderunt me gratis without any cause Et quae ignorabam interrogabant me § 62 Pilat upon this their accusation returned into the Praetorium where he had left our Lord in the custody of the Roman-Guards and calling him before him asked him whether he was the King of the Jews meaning that Messias or Christ or King that the Jews had so long expected perhaps because that his Accusers had told him that our Lord had before them openly himself confessed it Our Lord though well knowing what had passed without yet to reduce the Governour the more to reflect on his own observation and experience and on the malice and envy of his Adversaries well known to him desired doubtless with a great appearance of gravity and Majesty to know whether he asked such a Question of himself and from any jealousy our Lord's life and actions had raised in him of his aspiring
most unreasonably a further sign from him and urged that Moses had given them Manna from Heaven and there also in like manner our Lord presently told them of his Death and his feeding them with his Flesh and Blood and then of their having everlasting life by it and his raising them up at the last day things at which some of them also then took great offence So here also they whether misconstruing his words as if he had said first that he would destroy their Temple for this at his Death they urged against him and the false witness Mark. 14.5 to speak home interposeth that he said he would destroy the Temple made with hands and in three daies raise up another made without hands and then that he in three daies would build it again a Temple that they said was forty six years in building in the one made him impious in the other ridiculous and so turned his mention of this his greatest work for the salvation of mankind into a great scorn and flighting of him and into the cause of a quarel against him till at last they contrived his Death the destroying of the Temple he here speaks of and brought these his words against him to justify it and so He in raising up again this Temple of his Deity thus destroyed exhibited to the World this great Sign which at this beginning of his preaching he engaged here This was the success of our Lords first Sermon and appearance amongst them as to the Pharisees and their followers already much degusted with him and filled with envy § 183 Yet many others there were that seeing his Miracles believed on him at least that he was some great Prophet sent from God among whom was Nicodemus But our Lord saith the Evangelist did not commit himself unto them admitting them not into his familiar society nor relied on their fidelity for he knew well what was in them and that several of them would fall away and especially in his last tryal most unworthily desert him Therefore our Lord usually when at Jerusalem after his publick teaching them in the Temple and his daies work there done withdrew himself and had no private meetings and conferences as he said at his tryal that in secret he had said nothing and many times at night removed with his Disciples out of the City neither though several in the Country are mentioned do we hear of our Lords admitting any entertainments in the City though we may presume he wanted not some Invitations And all this was but necessary for deferring the Conspiracies of his enemies till the due time of his offering-up appointed by his Father § 184 Our Lord continuing his publick teaching in the Temple and doing Miracles during the Paschal feast Nicodemus a Pharisee a ruler of the Jews as he is stiled here vers 1. One of the Sanedrim and a person studied in the law for our Lord chap. 3. vers 10. stiles him a Master in Israel shewing also herein to him that he knew who he was and on that account blames his ignorance being already a Convert as it is said Jo. 12.42 many other among the chief Rulers were afterward but timorous to confess him came privatly to our Lord by night for fear of losing his Reputation with his fellow-Rulers which shews a great envy and hatred toward our Lord already kindled in them to be farther instructed of him in the matters of the Kingdom of God and life eternal confessing to him that his Miracles had convinced him that he was an extraordinary Teacher sent from God Our Lord very courteously received him and in a few words manifested to him fully who himself was and the whole substance of the Gospel At the first he began to acquaint him with the first Foundation of the Christian Religion Regeneration which at the beginning he proposed some what obscurely perhaps to humble Nicodemus his too much conceit of his own knowledg telling him that to enter into the Kingdom of God one must necessarily be born again which word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translated here again signifies also from above which Nicodemus much wondring at and speaking of entring again into our Mothers womb our Lord graciously explained it to him that he must be born again not of a woman or the flesh which would produce nothing but flesh but of water the external Ceremony appointed by God to be used in the new birth signifying a being cleansed and purifyed from former sin and of the Spirit which might render a man spiritual and enabled therewith to bring forth good works which spirit inspires as it pleaseth 1 Cor. 12.4 Mark 4.27 unperceived by sense and being as the wind of which we know not whence or whither it goes but by its effects do discern the presence thereof and then gently reflected on Nicodemus his ignorance so to render him more docible and humble that he being a Master in Israel should know nothing of this For this Holy Spirit and our Renovation by it is frequently spoken of in the Old Testament and so also many types of Baptism and of the Sacraments of the new Testament found there See Psal 50.12 13 14 9. 142.10 11. Ezec. 11.36 1 Cor. 10.2 3 4. Further told him that these things he now spake to him were the lowest matters but that there was much higher that he came to reveal to mankind from Heaven and from God his Father For that he was the only begotten Son of God descended from Heaven and again ascendeth thither and which also according to his Divinity remains alwaies there who spake nothing but what he knew and had seen with the Father See the like vers 32. and Jo. 8.38 5.19 30. Because God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that men might not perish but have everlasting life i. e so many as believed in him and that as Moses lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness so he was to be lifted up See the like Jo. 8.28 So acquainting him but obscurely with his death sufferings That whosoever stung with sin beheld and believed on him might not perish but that those whoso did not believe on him were already condemned by occasion of his preaching to them not for their former sins which he came to take away but for their disbelief See Jo. 9.39 12.47 48. without which belief in him no forgiveness of Sin That he was the Light that was come into the world avoided only by those whose works were evil and so who feared the discovery of them by it and therefore made such opposition to him But that he that did truth would come to it as not fearing the manifesting of his deeds by it § 185 All these things he gratiously revealed to Nicodemus which delivered with his accustomed Majesty and Power must needs elevate Nicodemus into the highest admiration and reverence of his person love and gratitude towards his mercy and familiar condescendence especially having already seen his mighty
Ship and for the more convenience out of it preached to the multitude that followed him still until the evening he without returning to Capernaum or taking some repose appointed his Disciples to dismiss the people and staying still in the ship bad them presently to pass over to the other side of the Lake perhaps having some great compassion of the miserable Demoniacks that were there But there being several other small ships in the Port some others also entred into them and still accompanied him In their sailing thither-ward there descended a great storm of wind upon the Lake whilst our Lord wearied with his daies service or rather to try the faith of his Disciples was retired into the hinder part of the ship and there lay a sleep upon a pillow when by the waves beating into the Ship and it already seeming full of water and ready to sink the Disciples exceedingly affrighted having forborn hitherto to disturb our Lords rest suddainly awaked him saying Master Master save us we perish Whereupon he streight rebuked the Wind and the Sea saying Peace be still and then blamed them not for repairing to him in this their danger but for their great fear and want of faith as he doth very frequently want of faith in God who expects a confidence in him which also cannot be without some degree of love of him not only in the just and his Servants but also in sinners among whom also the just ought to reckon themselves a confidence sutable to the most vigilant Divine providence extended not only to the good but to all the Creation Whilst he is as exceeding faithful to the righteous so exceeding merciful also to sinners when they make their humble addresses to him and this also is a great honour to his mercy that sinners also believe in it and this faith also in them is a very effectual means of receiving such his mercies But our Lord might much more blame their want of faith in him after that they had now acknowledged him the Son of God and seen so many of his former Miracles After his rebuking the winds and Sea followed immediatly a great calm and a very great wonder and astonishment and fear and reverence of him timuerunt timore magno both in the Disciples and those in the other Ships accompanying him partakers we may suppose both of the same danger and deliverance this being the first miracle they had seen of this kind § 221 Our Lord the next morning landed in the Country of the Gadarens or Gergseans a region given by Moses to the tribe of Reuben Dan and half that of Manasses probably now inhabited partly by Israelites the cause of our Lords going thither partly by Gentiles as may be gathered by such store of swine nourished there to be sold to the Gentiles Roman Soldiars and others which seems by the mischief happening to these swine to have bin a fault in those of the Jewish Nation and to have so many waies displeased our Lord. Upon his arrival presently two possessed and strangely distracted with some torn rags about them came running towards him which if they had not of themselves none could have brought them to him and fell at his feet and worshipped him Both of them hideous spectacles but one much fiercer than the other who tore all his cloths and day and night making grievous outcries cut his flesh with sharp stones and who having bin often bound with chains when the fits came on him brake them in pieces nor could he be shut up in any house but both of them ranged in the Mountain and among the Tombes which were placed out of the cities and commonly digged in some rocky places see 2 King 23.16 places of greater horrour sought out by the Devil in which these men lay and were so outrageous against any they met with as none durst pass by that way Yet so soon as our Lord was landed they came submissively to him for the Devils soon perceived his presence and had had already some intimation from him of their departing and releasing those miserable creatures And first like the former possessed person in the Synagogue confessing who he was and pleading they molested not nor gave any affronts to him they besought and then adjured him by God by whose eternal laws their extreme sufferings were yet deferred that he would not presently send them away into the Abysse nor torment them before the time of which see before § 210. nor yet expel them out of that country these having by Gods permission perhaps certain regions and circuits of their ranging assigned to them wherein they are with all diligence to serve their Prince the God of this world as the Apostles stile him and being perhaps more addicted to the places wherein they have done much mischief § 222 Our Lord the more to discover what a condition and crowd of them were gotten into one of these miserable wretches which also caused such a strength and fury in him beyond ordinary Demoniacks no way to be mastered and to shew what a palace they esteemed such a lodging and what solace the mischief they can do in and to it when ever permitted asked this unclean Spirit what was his name the evil Spirit for the great multitude of them gotten into this hold and perhaps for moving the more his compassion to them being so many expressed it by the word Legion a military term as these evil Spirits serve a perpetual warfare against man which hath bin used by the Romans in several times for a various number but ordinarily for many thousands From which may be gathered what an infinite multitude of faln Angels there be and which coast up and down in these lower Regions out of envy seeking the perdition of men As likewise what a strict guard and protection God hath over us that the malice of so many thousands of them should be confined to and imprisoned as it were in one person and lastly from which is manifested the great Majesty and power of our Lord not only over single but whole armies and Legions of them supplicating at his feet and flattering him with his Titles § 223 Now there being higher in the Mountain and not far off an herd of about two thousand Swine feeding the Devils therefore besought our Lord the rather hoping to obtain such their request of a Jew that they might enter at least into the Swine Unclean Spirits into these unclean Beasts which our Lord permitting they carried the swine down a precipice from the hill and drowned them all in the Lake Wherein these evil Spirits presently betrayed their malice endeavoring by this to incense the Gadarens and the owners of the swine doubtless no small number of persons against our Lord as indeed it happened though by this means they presently dispossessed themselves of that harbour and lodging for which they so earnestly importuned our Lord. Which shews also in the possession of men their greatest consolation to be
228 Among other sick brought thither was a Paralytick so infirm as that four men were hired to bear him in his bed But when come to the house there was no possibility of passing through such a crowd with such a carriage Upon this both the sick man and his bearers most confident of our Lords compassion and help could they devise any access to him boldly attempted to uncover the roof of the house thence to let him down in the bed by cords into the Room where our Lord was From which we may gather that it was a mean and low building and having no upper stories and the covering or tiling of it in their flat roofs more easily removable without danger to those underneath in the house For certainly in their expecting so great a favour these men were very cautious of giving any offence nor this thins done by them without the owners leave and permission The sick man his being thus conveyed before our Lord in his Couch from the top of the house was a sight very pleasing to him taken with this their extraordinary faith making such a strange attempt and relying also on his clemency and goodness where they had cause rather to have expected his great displeasure and resentment for the house broken up over his Head for the incivility and dammage to his Host of Peter no rich man and the disturbance or also fright of the great persons then about him A strong faith casts away many scruples § 229 Our Lord saith the Text seeing their faith not only of the sick man but of his porters Mark 2.5 as he used to relieve one for the faith and prayers of another as for the Cananean womans faith he cured her daughter and for the Centurions faith his Servant and for one mans sake gives also grace and faith to another which grace and faith given renders him capable also of further favours first applied himself to the cure of his greatest necessity and infirmity though less in sight that of the Soul graciously calling him his Son and bidding him to be of good chear for that his sins were forgiven him In which action he intended also first to instruct us that all our corporal sufferings come because of sin see Jo. 5.14 what our Lord said to another impotent man that he should sin no more least something worse happened though not these inflicted on all sinners nor alwaies chiefly for our sins see Jo. 9.3 nor on every one proportionably according to their sin that we may judge none rashly 2ly Again to shew us that the sanity of our souls is much more important and valuable than that of the body and what ought chiefly to be sought by us from him 3ly Lastly to manifest that he was sent from God the Saviour of mankind and came with authority from his Father to remit the sins thereof as Zachary and the Angel to Joseph and the Baptist had foretold of him But yet we may observe here a certain modesty used by our Lord in his expression saying not remitto but remittuntur tibi which might have bin understood in such a sence as the Prophet Nathan's to David 2 Sam. 12.13 remittuntur i. e a Domino But notwithstanding these words heard by the Scribes and Pharisees that sate by gave them great offence this appearing to them no less than blasphemy and the making himself God § 230 Our Lord in his spirit saith St. Mark perceiving their thoughts Chap. 2.8 and what they reasoned within themselves though as overawed by the peoples esteem of him that they forbear as yet openly to accuse him thereof presently replyed to these their cogitations which might have bin another indication to them of his Deity none save God also knowing thoughts and declared to them that the Son of man for so he humbly stiles himself had received from his Father such power here on earth in behalf of mankind as to forgive the sins thereof and which power also the afterward delegated to other men his Apostles and their successours see John 20. and they also practising it in persona Christi 2 Cor. 2.10 Jam. 5.14 to this indeed the curing of these diseases of the Soul not those of the Body and the remission of mens sins and the purchasing thereof by his blood being the principal business of his coming into this world And that they might be ascertained of this he told them also that he had received the power of doing that in attestation of that which would seem to them a much harder matter than the saying to this man that his sins were forgiven him in which they had no means to know the truth of his words namely of making this Paralitick that lay before them sound and well and himself to carry away the bed on which others brought him hither Which at our Lords command was done accordingly the man passing thus through the multitude wonderfully astonished at it and going through the streets glorifying God this carriage of his couch brought thither by four men being an undeniable indication of the perfection of his Cure § 231 Hence our Lord removed to the Sea side as he did frequently where was more air and room for such a conflux of people As he passed along a rich Publican called Matthew was sitting somewhere near the Haven at the receit of Custome from the ships arriving there Now the Office of a Publican serving for the support of the Roman authority over the Jews was therefore very odious to them by the Publicans renting also the Roman Customes was often occasioned for improvement of their purchases the exacting more than their dues therefore were they forbid it by the Baptist as a common fault among them Likewise by reason of much money passing through their hands they practised Usury For these things they were joyned with publick sinners or also heathen and their society much avoided which caused our Lords expression in signifying the withdrawing our selves from the Society or conversation of an incorrigible neighbour Mat. 18.17 Let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a Publican Notwithstanding this our Lord before the Pharisees and multitude that followed him stops at this rich Publican's Office and in the midst of his Accounts calls him to leave all and yeild a continual attendance on his person and indeed not only to have the honour of an Apostle but of being one of the four Evangelists that afterwards writ his life and S. Matthew also did this the first and more copiously than the others reduced afterward into a short compendium by S. Mark This action of our Lord was beheld by the people and especially by the Pharisees with great astonishment that he who pretended to so much sanctity should make choice of such a scandalous servant but no less that his words should have such a suddain influence upon one so much immersed in the world and at that very time so attent on his accounts for saith St. Luke he presently
too weak to do them any real mischeif or affront But indeed this only Son Isaac was bound by his Father not them in obedience to whom and thirst after the Redemption of mankind by it this Lamb of God offered himself to be Sacrificed on the Altar of the Cross the next morning and thus freely yeilded up his liberty into the hands of sinners § 26 With this rough usage of theirs the Disciples much dismayed and terrified now forgetting their resolute promises formerly made him all fled away for their safety at least to a competent distance from these Troops Jo. 16 32 And that prediction of our Lord but some hours before was fulfilled venit hora ut dispergamini unusquisque ad propria me solum relinquatis Onely a young man lodging in some house adjoining that awaked with the noise arose out of his bed and throwing a sheet loosely about him came forth to see what such tumult meant had the courage to follow our Lord and so was laid hold on by them who leaving his sheet in their hands escaped away naked a lively prerepresentation of our Lords escape from them after their stripping him of his Garments that was to be three dayes after at his Resurrection leaving his Syndon behind him § 27 Now it must needs be very late and drawing toward Midnight considering it was already night when Judas went forth from Supper to gather his body together Jo. 13.30 After which followed our Lords long Farewel Sermon made to his Disciples Jo. 13.31 c. to the chap. 17. and Prayer for them after it Jo. 17. his Journey to the Garden about a mile off his prayers and Agony there and his Disciples there falling a sleep and all the Circumstances of his Apprehension and the young mans rising out of his bed The night it seems though the Moon then at the full was much overcast and dark sutable to the work Thus bound they joyfully led away our Lord through the valley into the City now silent and quiet and carried him first to the house of Annas probably in the way to Caiphas his Pallace and he a great Encourager of the design and some think that Judas there received his reward his treason having now given them full Possession of his Master Annas also though some years before deposed from the office of High Priest by the Roman Governour who in those daies disposed of it yearly as seems to be implyed by those words Jo. 11.49 Caiphas being High Priest that same year and Luk. 3.2 Annas and Caiphas being the High Priests i. e. by turns or after what time he pleased yet still retained the title Luk. 3.1 and still had some special interest and sway in it from Caiphas's marrying his Daughter and from his having a son also Eleazer that had born the same office before Joseph Antiq. Jud. lib. 18. cap. 3. Who was also a cheif Member of the Council then met in Caiphas's Pallace and likely was called on to accompany them thither The officers also might have had order to House our Lord assoon as they could for prevention of any tumult or resistance § 28 None appearing without any longer stay made there Our Lord in the silent night was conveyed to Caiphas his Pallace where as hath bin said the Council the High Priests those being alwaies after stiled so who at any time bore that office frequently changed Scribes and Elders Mark 14.53 assembled together expected them Our Lord being set before them the High Priest instead of producing a charge against him and hearing his Defence and Answer to it fell on Questioning him about his Doctrine and his Followers whom as they had said elsewhere Mat. 22.16 they knew free to speak truth and as to this regarding or fearing no mans Person to see what he would confess and if confessing any thing liable to their censure thence to draw up an Indictment when as indeed this seemed very great oppression to apprehend bind make a man a Prisoner and bring him before the barr of Justice there to gain from him something for which to question him Our Lord having many times before bin thus examined by them or their order who he was who sent him what authority he had c. answered them briefly That both for Doctrine and Disciples they had seen who these and heard what that was and indeed if the latter his Doctrine good the more Disciples the better That he had taught publickly in the Temple and in their Synagogues and in private said nothing but what abroad That therefore if he were any way faulty in sowing Errors or plotting sedition they might have enough to bear witness of it and upon their legal testimony proceed to condemn or acquit him and therefore that they should not ask him but ask them that heard his words and saw his actions even amongst which were many of themselves that then sate on the Bench or stood before it and amongst these the very Officers sent formerly by them to apprehend him Who indeed throughly convinced of his Innocency and Sanctity had returned to them with a Never Man spake like that man § 29 Our Lord thus by a prudent declining any new account of himself whom his great thirst to dy for mankind made little sollicitous to plead for his life much disappointed the High Priests expectation and breifly thus referring his cause as was just to the testimony of others one of the officers which stood by him struck him over the face in the presence of all the Court for answering the High Priest in that manner To whom our Lord whose patience here none can rightly measure who doth not well consider his person and power meekly replyed That if he answered well there was no cause he should be strucken for it or if ill not strucken by him who was only to bear witness of the evil and leave the vindication of it to the Judge Thus when he suffered as S. Peter observes 1 Pet. 2.23 he threatned not and we may imagine with great charity said this to reduce that poor Wretch to a sence of his fault And it is a wonder that herein those Judges or some of the Assessors did not prevent our Lord in the censure and castigation of such a wicked and impudent act § 30 Our Lord having thus appealed to witnesses and the testimony of his Auditors concerning his Doctrine and conversation These were at that time of the night not prepared but looked for And many they found but as it ordinarily happens in lyes their witnessings did not agree well together nor inferred the Crimes to be Capital These standing up in the Court spake vehemently against our Lord and as fast as they spake contradicted one another and destroyed each others testimony Defecerunt scrutantes scrutinio mentita est iniquitas sibi as the Psalmist Our meek Lord continuing all the time with most profound silence enduring as the Apostle observes such contradictions of sinners unprovoked
Christians being only six foot square and eight foot high and the entrance into it on the East-side about three foot high and three foot three inches broad On the right side of which Sepulcher from the entrance the Sacred body of our Lord was placed see Mark 16.5 compared Jo. 20.12 with his head toward the West After this the door or mouth of the Cave was shut up and fenced with a massy piece of rock cut out for the purpose not to be removed but by the help of many hands to hinder any violation of the Sepulcher or Body or robbing it of those costly linnen and spices that should be bestowed upon it Such a cave it was where Lazarus was buried Jo. 11.38 31 41. with a great Stone rolled upon the entrance into it which our Lord then commanded to be removed and our Lords raising of him a lively type of the same thing he would shortly after perform in raising himself Meanwhile those women our Lords former Disciples and Attendants that assisted not in this action keeping some distance perhaps in respect of these honourable persons with whom they had no acquaintance observed all that was done where their Lord was laid and how the Sepulcher made fast and it being now too late because night approached they intended after the Sabbath ended to express their last love and affection to ther dear Lord also in bringing some more sweet odours and spices for preserving and perfuming of his Sacred body and the narrow roome where it lay more to shew the honour and devotion they bare to it and once more to behold to touch and kiss those most holy Relicks than that there was now need of any more such cost § 113 Thus our so cruelly murthered Lord was now at rest whilst his glorious Soul meanwhile that was never separated from the Deity and now attended on with multitudes of Angels descended into Hell and the lowest parts of the Earth and of his Kingdom and there triumphed over the Powers of Darkness conquered as to their former Tyranny over man and over the lower part of this world by his late death and delivered also thence such imprisoned Souls as were capable of the mercy and favours of his Passion according to that of the Prophet Zee 9.11 Tu quoque in sanguine testamenti tui emisisti vinctos tuos de lacu in quo non est aqua and so with them entred into Paradise the place of joy and Repose for all happy souls till the resurrection of their bodies where he was adored by them as the Author of their Salvation and endless felicity and amongst the rest by the Soul of his late Fellow-sufferer though upon a just account the penitent Theif and so this its beatifical presence they there injoyed till the appointed time of its return to exalt also his crucified body to the state of glory Thus I say our so cruelly murthered Lord was now at rest but not so the consciences of the Pharisees and High Priests Whose seeing these two noble persons Joseph and Nicodemus thro so much popular hate to have so honourably interred his Body gave them a great jealousy and the predictions also about his rising again the third day much disturbed them Though a thing which was quite forgotten by our Lords Disciples and Followers who one would think had most cause to have remembred it and which he had so often told them of and they had upon hearing it from him also disputed amongst themselves what should be meant by it as they descended from the holy Mount after our Lord's Transfiguration and after this again were by him minded of it but the night before his passion as they went along to the Garden he telling them then also that when risen he would go before them into Galilee Mat. 26.32 I say this forgotten by them yet now very much troubled and disquieted the thoughts of the High Priests They could now call to mind how when they asked him a sign once and again Mat. 12.38.16.4 he alleged to them that of Jonah and that the Son of man as Jonah in the Whales belly should lye three daies in the heart of the earth and so be cast up again and the jaws of Death not be able to detain him And his saying that if they destroyed the Temple meaning his Body after three daies he would raise it up which speech of his though before they made it misconstrued by them an Article to condemn him yet now they could apprehend in another and its right sense and might thereby have condemned themselves Now also perhaps the words of our Lord spoken with so much Majesty before them at his arraignment ran in their mind that they should shortly see him sitting on the right hand of Power and lastly the obsequious respects they saw given to his body by those two eminent persons they conceived might arise from some such hopes and were performed from some such expectation Remembring therefore these predictions and perhaps not free from all fears of such an event after having beheld such wonderful things at and before his death they thought it meet at least to prevent any cheat in the business and to hinder that his Disciples might not upon such rumour of his rising again to deceive the credulous people remove secretly his body and so shew the empty Sepulcher and suborn some to say they had seen him though indeed no reason they had to suspect any such thing but rather that his Disciples if finding his words false would at least recant their former error and confess him an Impostor and a false Prophet Therefore they hasted again to Pilat for all that it was the Sabbath it being late over night before they were informed of his solemn and sumptuous Burial and relating to him these predictions and the bad consequence that might be of them importuned him that there might be set a watch before the Sepulcher till the third day and as if jealous also of the corruption of the Watch that the Sepulcher might be sealed besides But why this seal because if the body were taken away there must be a breach of the seal and so this theft discovered But so would there be a breach of it if the body risen again For how could they imagine that that power which raised the body might or would not also throw open the door for its passage But this Seal served well meanwhile to save it from the pillage of the Soldiers and to guard it from the Guards Some Antients say that the stone was by them fastned to the Sepulcher with iron These things were done accordingly by themselves the Governour leaving this wholly to their own ordering and doubtless much wondring at these their extravagant jealousies and fears So to the Monument they go set this Guard and seal the stone and this with no regret that it was on the Sabbath of the breach of which but by better works surely than these they had so
and as it were unconcerned to the great wonder of the Council where occurred such advantages of clearing his cause and Innocency § 31 At the last two appeared some think by the assurgebant in S. Mark chap. 14. that they were also two of the Assessors that pitched both upon the same matter and this bearing the shew of an high Crimination his threatning to destroy and demolish their Temple which also they reproach'd him with when he hung upon the Cross Mat. 27.40 at the very time when indeed they themselves were dissolving the Temple he spake of But these also in reciting of his words varyed as from the truth of what our Lord said so from one another One testifyed that he said absolutely he would destroy it Destruam Mark 14.58 The other that he could or was able to destroy it in the space of three dayes Possum destruere Mat. 26.61 Whereas his words were neither destruam nor possum destruere but Solvite Destroy ye as now indeed they were about it and his excitabo not long after to follow it One witnessed in general That he said he would destroy the Temple but then he might mean some other Temple as indeed he did the Temple of his Body but the other that he said he would destroy the Temple made with hands that very Temple of Jerusalem and that in three daies also he would undertake to build it up again reaedificabo whereas his own words speaking of the Resurrection of the Temple of his body was excitabo Thus they urged against him things that he knew not Psalm 34.11 and laid to his charge things that he never meant But then his saying he was able to destroy it seems only a vaunting and vain-glorious speech not deserving death or bonds and it he said further that he would do it this argued only a malitious intention where no possibility of acting Words they were also spoken some years before without attempting any such thing in the least afterwards Nay one of his valiantest acts and wherein he most shewed his power was quite contrary to it the cleansing of the same Temple from any profanation of it in the least manner even in the outward Courts thereof of which there wanted not Witnesses many who suffered by it But making the worst we can of his saying yet when the witnesses added the following words also that within other three daies again he would rebuild it the one I hope if they held him such a Miracle-worker would make amends for the other and sure he would not after pulling down rebuild it but to build it better and his good intention in reedifying it may ballance if not disprove a bad one in demolishing it But alas these words now in the scarcity of any other solid accusation so aggravated were before at the time he spake them even according to the Jews understanding them only slighted as a a vain brag and not thought liable to bear an action they then replying to him that he spake impossibilities for that a Temple that had been before forty six years in building could not by one person so speedily be pulled down or reedifyed Jo. 2.20 § 32 Though this was the greatest matter these Witnesses in the Court had to say against our Lord the High Priest well saw the slightness of it and therefore though here the only alleadged not a word was said of it for shame before the Roman Governour Pilat which would but too apparently have betrayed their empty and causeless malice But our Lord all this while that such things were tumultuously objected remaining recollected and silent the Judge seeming well satisfied with what was laid to his charge and observing our Lords resolute silence stood up and asked him whether he did not hear what they urged against him why he answered them not and what he had to say for himself against such mighty accusations As if he had forgot that for the last words he spake for himself he suffered him to be strucken over the face § 33 But our Lord thus provoked to speak and plead for himself continued still silent and that for many good reasons First silent because the witness contradicting and destroying its self needed no further confutation by him Silent out of the highest Prudence and Pity to his Accusers and Judges where he foreknew his speaking could have no good Effect upon their malice but rather served to increase their Guilt Silent again to shew the perfect moderation and Mastery of his Passions and a most entire Resignation to his Fathers will to leave us an example herein saith S. Peter 1 Pet. 2.23 Tradens se Judicanti illum injuste Silent upon higher grounds yet 1 Pet. 2.24 Heb. 9.28 Now were laid on him all our iniquities Esay 53.5 Now was he who knew no sin made sin and made a curse for us because out of infinite love he would be so Oblatus est quia ipse voluit Now he presented himself before Gods justice in our stead and who were most notoriously guilty of whatsoever he was accused Whether blaspheming Destroying Gods Temples or whatever else and had all reason to stand speechless Languores nostros saith the Prophet ipse tulit dolores nostros ipse portavit quasi leprosus percussus a Deo humiliatus vulneratus propter iniquitates nostras attritus propter scelera nostra disciplina pacis nostrae super eum sicut ovis ad occisionem ducta quasi Agnus coram tondente se the shearers stripping him not only of his clothes but his life obmutescens non aperiens os suum quem propter scelus populi sui percussit Deus As the Prophet at large describes there his condition Esay 53. And so we ought to imagine him now putting himself in our stead before the Tribunal of his Eternal Father and without justifying himself at all speaking to him with a love far transcending that of David 2 Sam. 24.17 Though I have never sinned nor done wickedly before thee yet for what these my Brethren have done let thine hand I pray thee be not against them but against me And so silent and without any Defence of himself for what could he say for us or in our Defence but only confess our guilt offering himself to Gods vindicative Justice for all our Blasphemies Treasons and affronts done to this divine Majesty ever since that of Adam's and amongst the rest even for their sins also that thus unjustly persecuted him with the same Deprecation for them now as on the Cross Dimitte illis Pater Non enim sciunt quid faciunt Luk. 23.34 Lastly silent obediently to fulfil what all the Prophecies had so punctually foretold of him For at this time it was that all those doleful complaints occurring in the Psalmes and elsewhere concerning his innocence and suffering mute and not replying were exactly and perfectly verified Psal 34.11 Surrexerunt Testes iniqui quae ignorabam interrogabant me Psal 38.2.9 10 Posui ori