should take such person and hang him upon a Tree before the face of the Sun and after this take down and bury this accursed Corps before night that the land might not be defiled therewith For this see Numb 25.4 Josh 10.26 2 Sam. 21.6 Our Lords death then being appointed and offered to Gods Justice for the Expiation of all even the most horrid crimes of the whole world Jew and Gentile ever since the fall of Adam he voluntarily became such a curse for us and was to undergo this solemnly accursed death to be suspended on a Tree before the Sun and taken down and buried before the Evening as the Apostle hath observed Gal. 3.13 and cites the place in Deuteronomie for God's pronouncing this particular death accursed § 50 This then being the particular way of our Lord 's suffering death which the Jews now in no way at all could inflict the Execution of it was left to the Gentile who more used Crucifixion that so both Jew and Gentile whose sins were equally expiated by it might have a joint concurrence in contriving it § 51 Though Pilats sentence for our Lord's Execution was now the main thing wanting and sought for yet for satisfaction of the Counsellors absent the night before and that all the Jewish consistory might have an equal hand in his condemnation and blood Our Lord is called again before them And without producing any accusation or witness to confirm and make it good here again they require him to tell them whether he was the Christ To whom our Lord shewing his prescience of their thoughts replies that whatever he testified they would not believe Nor if he argued the case with them as he had many times formerly done see Mat. 21.24 22.45 John 5.36 convincing them from the testimony of the Prophets of John Baptist of his Father from heaven of his miraculous works would they answer him Nor upon the truth said dismiss him their distemper lying not indeed in their understanding but in their will But however that they should one day find true what the Scriptures had foretold of him that this Son of man that stood before them now so despicable and vilifyed should hereafter sit on the right hand of the power of God Upon which speech they collecting plainly from this Exaltation spoken in Scripture of the Son of God that he made himself so the question was put again to him now by them all saith the Text Luk. 22.70 which was over night only by the High Preist whether then he was the Son of God And the same answer was returned to it now also the second time Whereupon all pronounced the same sentence as was given over night and concluded that there needed no further witnesses against a Person sufficiently condemned from his own mouth § 52 Upon this they commanded that he should be bound again Mat. 27.2 for whilst he stood before the Council his bonds were loosed according to the custome Acts 22.30 and so without delay led him away to the Roman Governour Pilat to request that by his authority the sentence of Death which his crimes had deserved might speedily be executed before the great Feast commenced or any Insurrection of the populacy to his rescue famed for a Prophet Though indeed they wanted not other motives of deferring this proceeding as also afterward Herod did concerning Peter Acts 12.4 since they could not so well then present him in Pilats Court nor enter into it for fear of defiling themselves by touching persons unclean who were that night to eat the Paschal Lamb. And again should the persons executed have hung upon the Gibbet so long as was needful in so lingring a torment for the finishing of their life they had continued upon it some of them perhaps till the next day which would have bin a great Prophanation of their highest Feast but malice is impatient § 53 In this consult also they prepared many other strong accusations that might be more specious and current with the Governour and the Roman Soldiery than those meerly touching their Law and Religion such as these that besides his blasphemy and making himself the Son of God capital by their law his threatning to destroy their Temple his breaking the Sabbath and justifying it his setting himself above Moses and the Law and former Traditions and endeavouring to abolish them c. he was also highly delinquent against the Romon-state and the Emperour had gotten a great multitude of Followers and Disciples and raised Tumults and Seditions amongst the people frequently followed by many thousands of them whom also he feasted and who had a purpose also to make him their King calling him that was born and bred not in the Tribe of Juda but in the outskirts of Galilee the Son of David That his assumed title of the Messias includes also that of a King that he refused to pay tribute to Cesar that having skill in the black art he deceived the common sort with many miracles and cast out Devils also with the Devils consent That for his ends though professing great Sanctity he kept company with prophane and lewd people lived mostwhat in the out-skirts of the countrey remote from Jerusalem the place of Justice and from the Presidents residence who might observe and curb his Insolencies These crimes I say and the like for we may imagine there was nothing in our Lord's actions capable of an ill sense as most actions of great persons are that the Devil now loosed did not suggest to the High-Preiâ—t's malice And the Evangelists Mat. 27.13 14. Mark 15.4 5. say that they accused him of many things in so much as the Governour questioned our Lord continuing in a constant silence whether he did not hear how many things they witnessed against him § 54 Whilst such accusations were designed before the Council arose comes in Judas now as much tormented in his consciscience as he was over-night pleased in his sin to whom then by Satan were presented many plausible imaginations to induce him to so foul an Act. As that he should remain undiscovered therefore went he at some distance before the band and as a servant did reverence to his Master that our Lord could suffer nothing by what he gained but at pleasure as formerly could withdraw himself and escape therefore some think he bad them look that they held him fast or that in any trial his innocency and doing all things well whom none could truely accuse of any sin would easily free him or if finding some injustice in the Court the people at least so taken with his Sermons and miracles would quickly rescue him So the Devil at first by diminishing the fault enticeth men to commit it but when done by as much aggravating it to their sight strives to usher in a second and greater sin Despair and to shut the door to pardon God before sin is represented by him all mercy after it all Justice and contrary to this worketh the Holy Spirit
just cause highly displeased thereat and so much the more if at their Espousals she had covenanted with him a perpetual Virginity and so intended to rid his hands of her and to put her away She could not but observe his changed and troubled countenance and could not but guess aright the cause thereof For which suspected crime if he being a just man should have proceeded against her according to Law what means had she at all to manifest or prove her innocence which also her straying so far from home gave them still more cause to question And not absolved her punishment was no less then death to be carried before the door of her fathers house and there to be stoned to death see Deut. 22.21 and 24. Or if this could some way be avoided yet so could not the loss of her reputation in the highest degree in being reported dishonest and an harlot § 19 This was also aggravated by the great affection and reverence the Virgin bare to her offended husband Of whom besides that the Scripture gives this testimony that he was a just and righteous man that also which we said before of the blessed Virgin may be in some sort applied to him that he was certainly a most eminent Saint and one chosen by God out of many thousands and with suitable Graces and perfections endued who was to have that transcendent honour above all other holy men as to be the third person in the family of Jesus and so often visited by Angels from God to direct him what he should do see Mat. 1.20 -2.13 22 to be the nursing Father of Gods only Son and the Guardian of his Infant exile into a forraign land to be his Governour and Master of his House to whom the Son of God should be subject and serve with the strict duty of a Son to his Parent in those necessary offices and affairs wherein he should imploy him without any medling with other matters we may presume for the major part of his life here on Earth except only for some three daies space when twelve years old that his zeal was permitted to follow his own fathers business Again who should have the nearest relation of any upon Earth to the Mother of God committed to his care to undergo for her and her Son all labours and provide all necessaries and defend them from all injuries that a Mother and an Infant in a poor and mean condition are subject to Surely great must be the perfections of his person who was thought worthy to guide such a family and exteriourly to govern him that governs the world And the dearer he was to the Blessed Virgin for these the greater torment to her must be his displeasure which displeasure tho on her par groundless yet had she no likely means to remove Should she go to him and tell him the story of what had happened to her But then in so much intimacy of acquaintance why had she not done this before when she as yet had no concernment to tell him an untruth And since it was such a wonder as was hard to be assented to or believed by her when an Angel from Heaven told it to her as joyful news how much more incredible would it seem to him when a woman with child by another then her husband brings it for her excuse and pretends an heavenly visit and intercourse to Veil a supposed Crime Besides her great humility and modesty her religious silence of Gods secret and intimate transactions with her hindred her that she knew not as yet how to reveal to any a thing which tended so much to her own praise and honour For so also the Holy Ghost not she had formerly disclosed it to Elizabeth Wherein she remaineth to all Christians an everlasting pattern in any such extraordinary visits and favours of God of what is safest for them and more perfect if not their duty to do Safest I say to conceal such favours for many reasons 1 Because ordinarily such favours cannot be related without some vanity and self-conceit 2 Because the publishing such things begets estimation amongst men and this begets pride in the esteemed and this pride ruins that for which we are esteemed 3 Because by it at least we seem to others to magnify our selves and so indeed lose our former reputation with them by seeking to increase it 4 Or at least seem to disparage others who receive not the like favours 5 Or to disparage Gods wisdom in representing him more favourable to the more unworthy She therefore in all this storm held her peace and patiently endured her beloved Josephs strangeness to her armed as we may piously believe both with an holy resolution and resignation of her self to suffer cheerfully and willingly whatever human crosses such celestial Graces and favours should draw aster them and also with an extraordinary confidence in God that he would in due time make known her innocence at least if not her honour and own his Son without casting the justification thereof upon the modesty of a woman For why should he not defend her whom her obedience to him only had exposed to reproach and why not in this time of need reveal as much to Joseph as he had done when no such exigency before to Elizabeth § 20 Meanwhile Joseph being a good man was not hasty out of a suddain passion to make her a publick example but restroined himself for some time thinking to do it privily perhaps haps by concealing the betrothment or giving her a bill of divorce upon some other pretence so as might less redound to her disgrace whose former vertues and perfections now faded and withered as he supposed he could not but still reverence and lament Yet this his merciful delay served also to continue so much longer both his and her affliction At length when the matter was ready to break forth between his resolution and the execution thereof Haec eo cogitante saith the text before the least rumour of any such suspition was divulged that we may see as Saints are patient in their sufferings so Gad is as perfect and exact in his deliverance the Angel now steps in with the mission of whom God could have prepared Joseph as well had he pleased before he had first seen the Virgins swelling womb and in the due time frees them both from their sorrows and fears He therefore now the first time appearing to Joseph in a Vision by night and courteously saluting this mean Artificer with the title of the Son of David to mind him of his more particular relation to the Messias descending from Davids race reveals to him that Maries conception was of the Holy Ghost and that she should bring forth a Son that should save his people from their sins Mat. 1.21 and therefore when born he should call his name JESUS The Angel here as Zacharie in his Hymn signifying that his Kingdom was not to be a temporal but which only much concerned us
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
mitigated their cruelty and malice Ecce Homo as if he had said to them see this rueful spectacle of suffering Innocency and at length have ye some compassion Is not here punishment too much already inflicted where none deserved But they the cheif Priests and officers especially assoon as they saw him in this pickle saith the Evangelist Jo. 19.6 renewed their former clamour Crucifige Crucifige The Governour replyed Take ye him and crucifie him if you can be so unjust for I cannot do it finding no fault in him The Jews seeing Pilat so resolutely still clearing our Lord as to that accusation of theirs which they thought would most take with the Romans Sedition c. retreat again to his blasphemy and his crimes against their Law whereof the Roman President wholly ignorant could not so well discern his or their Guilt saying that they had a Law according to which their Justice had proceeded against him and that by this Law he ought to dye on a higher account than Rebellion against Princes seeing he made himself the Son of God and became thereby guilty of the highest blasphemy against God himself which in their Law was punished with death But were it so this will not bear out or warrant their Crucifige or demanding the death of the Cross § 73 Pilat hearing that he made himself the Son of God and perhaps comparing it with what was reported of his Miracles and with the words also he had heard a little before from him standing at the Bar that he was a King but his kingdom not of this world and that he came into it to teach men Truth began to be seized with a religious fear to the great confusion and shame of our Lord 's own people that there might be some such thing indeed and so to reflect also on his scourging of him and the danger if he should proceed further to Crucifie him For his own Religion also had such opinions in it That the Gods sometimes do descend from heaven and take on them the shapes of men see Acts 14.11 And they also imagine some inferiour Semideos begotten by the Gods of women And perhaps these fables had their first original from some mistaken passages of the Sacred story of God's sometimes assuming a human shape and discoursing with the Patriarchs and from the Prophecies concerning the Son of God to be born of a woman To which may be added the extraordinary Gravity Modesty Fortitude Constancy Prudence and holy reservation so great unconcernedness and neglect as it were of what they said or did to him which he had observed in our Lord as one strangely elevated above all human passions and infirmities Startled I say with this fear and reflecting on his former ill treatment of such a person he returns again from the Jews into the Praetorium and there questions our Lord a-new whence he was i. e. whether of an human or divine race by this question giving our Lord occasion as Herod before to set forth and justly magnify himself the former as to his divine power in shewing some Miracle and this latter as to his divine Nature in declaring his descent But our Lord before him as before the other stood mute and silent not willing to admit the least detrectation or declining of his sufferings or the least endeavours contrary to his Fathers good pleasure well knowing also of Pilat as of the Jews that si responderet non dimitteret and lastly having before answered him sufficiently to this question when he told him that he was a King but not of this lower world that he descended to teach men the Truth of God Nor were those many divine works of his concealed from the Governour 's knowledg which evidenced an extraordinary Mission of him from God § 74 The Governour displeased at this silence after so much kindness as he thought shewed him and so contrary also to his own interest in neglecting all lawful observance of a Person that had him absolutly in his power and studied to release him asked him why he did not answer him in whose free power he knew it was whether this justly or unjustly either to crucify or acquit him but indeed Pilats professing it here in his power to release him whom he alwaies confessed an innocent person aggravates his guilt that followed in condemning him Our Lord here not deserting the vindication of the dignity of his person and Mission formerly declared both to the Jews and to the Roman Governour and referring these his sufferings and death wholly to the will of his Father not the power of man as also he did at his apprehension when he told the Jews this was their hour made a charitable breach of his former silence to check the Governours vaunting of his Power where he shewed so much injustice telling him with a very great gravity and majesty in his words and carrying himself as the very person Pilat feared he was that he could have no power at all against him except it had bin given him from above therefore those who delivered him an innocent person thro malice to him invested from above with such a power had the greater sin In these few words representing to Pilats passion and heat that all this was done by the permission and good pleasure of his Father to which not man's he yeilded this meek obedience as he told the Jews before at his yeilding himself to them in the Garden That he had no power over any person whatever but what a Superiour power who would call him to account permitted and again no just power over any person innocent as to the condemning or crucifying of such an one but yet much more no power over him who was the Son of God and King over all the world a thing he mentioned also to Peter when they called on him for Tribute Mat. 17.24 But yet that though he offended in what he did to him he was through his ignorance though not of his innocency yet of his person much more excusable herein than those others who delivered him to him who both against so many infallible evidences he had given them denyed him to be such a person and with so many false criminations brought him to him as a capital offender and abused the power of the lawful Magistrate to serve their malice thus representing to him both the Jews guilt and his own though withal he modestly excused his fault as much the less § 75 Our Lord 's thus humbling the Governours high language with minding him of a Superiour Authority to which he was accountable and of his sin in such proceedings and compliances against an innocent person yet these qualified with an acknowledgment of the Jews guilt much greater than his the prudence also and gravity of his Answer remitting nothing of his appearance to be such a person as Pilat dreaded him to be whose words were not like other men's but as they entred the ear pierced also the Soul continued still
cepissent jam spacium crucibus deerat corporibus cruces and this misery brought upon them when at this great Festival the whole body of the Nation as it were was gathered together in Jerusalem and so was encompassed and shut up there by the Romans See Euseb Ecclesiast Hist lib. 3. cap. 5. and Joseph de Bell. Judaic lib. 7. cap. 17. Ab omnibus regionibus ad Azymorum diem festum congregati bello subito circumfusi sunt c. Thus they devoted themselves here to God's Justice and thus it happened to them But their words taken in a better sense and as the divine goodness and pity is pleased to interpret them for all Penitents are a Prayer piously offered not only by them but the whole world to his offended Majesty to be saved through the sprinkling upon them of the blood of Jesus Our Lord's blood also crying to God from the Earth not as that of Abel or any other just Person 's shed by the impious for vengeance but for Mercy Nor hath the whole world any salvation or shelter but from his blood being upon it and its children for ever who also all had a hand both Jew and Gentile in offering it and in this sense God also will admit this prayer to be fulfilled see Rom. 11. but in the last place upon this most miserable Nation § 80 The Governour after having thus washed his hands sate down again and gave the final sentence upon our Lord released to them their precious choice Barabbas and committed Jesus to the Centurion and his Soldiers to be crucified according to their request § 81 Now this death on the Cross which our Lord was sentenced to and the Jews with so great clamour called for as it was often foretold expressly by our Lord see Mat. 20.19 Jo. 18.32 and other-while called by him his Exaltation Jo. 12.32 And I if I be exalted from the earth will draw all men unto me signifying saith the Evangelist what death he should die and by the context vers 34. it appears the people well understood his language And again Jo. 8.28 When ye have saith he exalted the Son of man then shall ye know that I am he So was it foresignified by many expressions in the Old Testament See Psal 21.17 The Council of the malignant hath besieged me they have digged my hands and my feet they have numbred in that racking posture all my bones they have beheld and considered me every limb of me stretched out before them and then speaking of his being stript of his cloaths They have divided my garments amongst them and upon my Vesture they cast lots To which stripping of him also that expression seems chiefly to relate where he saith Psal 68.8 That Confusion covered his face See Zachary 13.6 where the Prophet mentions this smiting of his Pastor and the man that clave to him and so scattering of his sheep vers 7. speaking thus of his being treated by his nearest relations as a false Prophet that he shall be asked What are these wounds in the midst of thy hands and he shall answer with these was I wounded in the house of my friends To which wounds also is applied that loving expression Esay 49.16 Ego tamen non obliviscar tui in manibus meis descripsi te I have engraven thee upon the palmes of my hands See Zech. 12.10 where speaking of the conversion of the Jews in the latter times and the great sorrow they shall then have for their crucifying their Messias the Prophet saith Et adspicient ad me quem confixerunt plangent eum planctu quasi unigenitum c. See Jer. 11.19 Ego quasi agnus mansuetus qui portatur ad victimam cogitaverunt super me consilia dicentes mittamus lignum in panem ejus for his bread eradamus eum de terra viventium To it likewise seems to relate Esay 52.13 Ecce intelligit servus meus exaltabitur elevabitur sublimis erit valde For it follows Sicut obstupuerunt super te multi inglorius erit inter viros aspectus ejus forma ejus inter filios hominum like to vers 2. of the next chapter Iste asperget gentes multas And Esay 11.12 Et levabit signum in nationes Concerning his thirst also in the violent and fervorous heat of such lingring pains see Psal 21.16 Aruit tanquam testa virtus mea lingua mea adhaesit faucibus meis And Psal 68.22 Dederunt in escam meam fel in siti mea potaverunt me aceto Typified also this death of the Cross was by many instruments of the peoples preservation in the Old Testament By the Tree of life provided to remedy the mischiefs done by the Tree of Good and Evil by the blood of the Lamb sprinkled upon the posts of the door that the destroying Angel seeing it might pass-over Gods people by Moses his Rod smiting the Rock and bringing out of it a fountain of water for refeshing the people By the Brasen Serpent listed up on high and fastned to a pole curing all that looked upon it of the other fiery Serpents bitings which our Lord also mentions as a Type of his own Elevation and drawing the eies of all upon him Jo. 12.32 Jo. 3.14 Sicut Moyses exaltavit serpentem in deserto ita exaltari oportet filium hominis ut omnis qui credit in ipsum looks upon him with the eie of faith non pereat By the Expansion of Moses his Armes and Hands on high made in the Mount for the conquest of Amalek which posture of his also by others help was continued for several hours and being any way altered changed presently the fortune of the battel By Elias his lying with armes stretched out upon the Child to raise him again to life By marking with the letter Thau the form of a cross the foreheads of those that were to be saved from the slaughter of the six destroying Angels Ezech. 9.4 Lastly by Abraham's only Son Isaac carrying the wood upon which he was afterwards laid and destined to be Sacrificed But God was more favourable and kind to Abraham if I may so say than to himself § 82 And as this manner of death was often foresignified and typified in the Old Testament so doth it seem before all other to have bin chosen by the Divine Counsel and our Lords designment who as he voluntarily suffered for us so what death he pleased for many special reasons First because his suffering being to save us and we by our sins having incurred the curse of God and so he for us taking this curse upon himself this was that special death which had Gods curse annexed to it Deut. 21.23 when upon some grievous crime God required the Malefactor to be hanged up upon a Tree before the Sun and as it were openly in his sight to be hanged up as unworthy to touch or tread upon the Sanctified land and not to be dispatched in a moment as by stoning or
with our persons Heb. 10.19 § 109 Together with this stream of blood gushed out also another very Miraculous stream of water distinct from it for otherwise by reason of the strong tincture of blood this water could not have bin discerned if mingled with it A Type of which was Moses his smiting the rock and the water gushing out whereof the Apostle also speaking saith the rock was Christ 1 Cor. 10.4 And these two the water and blood lively represented the two Sacraments left by our Lord to the Church for the cleansing of sin and commemoration of his death the Sacrament of Baptism and of the Eucharist And thus as out of Adams side when lying a sleep was formed his Wife Eve so by the water and blood issuing out of Christs lying in the sleep of his death was formed in these two Sacraments his Spouse the Church regenerated in the one by Christs Spirit and nourished in the other with his grace redeemed by the shedding of blood and cleansed by the water § 110 St. John a spectator all this while and diligent observer of all that passed takes great notice of this with these words concerning it And he that saw it bare record and knoweth that he saith true that we might believe By which he saith the Prophecies were fulfilled that the Executioners should pierce his Sacred body but not break a bone and saith that this water and blood in the two Sacraments and the plentiful effusion that was not long after accomplish'd at Pentecost of the Holy Ghost and which also continues to the end of the world begetting and nourishing children to God joined with them are the three Witnesses that here on Earth give testimony continually of this redemption which the same Evangelist that saw this prosecutes also thus in one of his Epistles 1 Jo. 5.6 8. This is he that came by water and blood Jesus Christ not in watâ—r only but in water and blood and in these it is the Spirit that testifyeth that Christ is the Truth For there be three that give testimony in Earth the Spirit Water and Blood Thus S. John Meanwhile abstracting from this contemplation we may imagine what a ruful Spectacle this was to our Blessed Lady and the women with her in beholding such barbarous cruelty used to her Son even after his death and his most precious blood so spilt on the ground § 111 Whilst these things passed Joseph of Arimathea a noble Senator and one of the great Council of the Sanedrim a good man and a just saith S. Luke chap. 23.50 of him one who had not consented to their Counsel and doings but expected the Kingdom of God formerly a Disciple also of our Lord but secretly as also was another great man Nicodemus for fear of the Jews their estates and their Esteem lest either should be lost making them more timorous this Nobleman residing constantly in Jerusalem and rich had in a garden of his close by the place of our Lord's execution newly caused to be hewed out of the soft rock of the hill a Monument or Sepulcher for himself but ordained by the divine predesignment for the interring of our Lord's body near hand so that all things might the better serve for the evidence of his ensuing Resurrection He therefore though so timorous before and who had now also a special reason of not touching or coming near a dead corps because of eating the Paschal Lamb at even prohibited to any unclean as those were to be for seven daies that touched a dead body Numb 19.14 yet probably much animated both by our Lords patient and innocent sufferings and besides his former Doctrine and Miracles the many signs he saw now from Heaven and Earth of the transcendent dignity of his person and that he was what he believed him to be having heard also of the order of the persons executed their being presently taken down or perhaps being one of them also that procured it boldly saith the Text went in to Pilat to beg our Lord's Body of him though well foreseeing he must incur a great hatred from the cheif of the Jews his acquaintance herein Pilat after he had called the Centurion and certainly informed himself of his being already dead and no design herein of saving his life freely gratified him with it and commanded it should be delivered him not prohibiting him a decent Burial whom he had alwaies esteemed an innocent person That Joseph might not undergo this sad office alone without a companion and for the greater honour of our Lords funeral the time of whose humiliation was now expired with his death Nicodemus another great person one that had formerly by night conversed with our Lord and also in the Council spoken in his defence John 7.51 and probably more familiarly acquainted with Joseph by reason of their condiscipleship joined with him in this service mutually encouraging one another against the Priests and Elders of the Jews who must needs be much displeased with this fact as upbraiding them with the Murther if not of the Messias or a Prophet yet of a just person Joseph therefore suddenly prepared fine linnen for a Syndon and Nicodemus a great quantity of Spices about an hundred pound weight saith the Text and so coming to Calvary by the Governours authority took down the naked body from the Cross and removing it into Joseph's Garden close by probably there performed to it all the usual Ceremonies before burial washing his stripes and wounds and cleaning it from all those indignities the malitious Jews and Soldiers had done to it anointing it with sweet Oyles and wrapping it in the linnen filled with the spices and sweet odours and binding a Napkin about his head used for hindring the falling of the Jaws all to make good that in the Prophet Esay 11.10 Et erit Sepulchrum ejus gloriosum In which office we may imagine these great persons were assisted as with their Servants so with the help of the blessed Mother of our Lord and S. John more punctually relating this story than the rest who we may not think left our Lord after expired but waited still in the same place to observe how God would dispose of his Sacred Body and no doubt were much comforted in seeing that authority committed into the hands of those honourable persons our Lords Devotes and formerly known to them as such § 112 The Body thus decently and sumptuously accommodated was presently carried by this small train of Mourners and laid in the new hewn Sepulcher near at hand a place as convenient for the future events of our Lords Resurrection so a Monument durable and not subject to ruin as other the noblest Sepulchers ordinarily are For what more permanent than a Cave made in a Rock but such as also the place wherein he first lay when he came into the world the Manger that might continue to all posterity and such as remains to this day and is continually visited by a great confluence of devout