of Sampson he lost his former unconquerable strength so that he might be held with cordes and bound with withes so when the sinne of Adam whereby he swarved from the will and deviated from the wayes of God came once upon the head of Christ Teneri potuit ligari His enemies had power to hold and binde him so that he may complaine as in the Prophet He hath hedged me about so that I cannot get out and he hath made my chayne heavy Lament 3.70 The false hands and the foule fingers of the first Adam were lift up after a theevish manner wrongfully to take and cause the mouth to taste of Gods forbidden fruit without the good leave and liking of him the lawfull owner which gave occasion to our second Adam willingly and readily to permit and suffer his holy and righteous hands to be bound as a Theefe that so he might make full satisfaction for that so foule transgression of the first and loosen the hands of him and his posterity in which by reason of the former offence they were fast tyed and bound before according to that of the Poet Adae primi vincla se quatiunt Adam novum cum nexus ambiunt That is The first Adams bands begin to loose When to the second they knit the noose c. Sed proh regem vinctum pro furum seelere What a thing is this nay what a strange thing to see the King bound for the Theeves offence strange indeed but that we are taught and told that the love of Christ does stranger things for the love of us then this and all that he might draw sinfull mankinde to the love of him againe as one saith Ligari voluit pro nobis ut nos sibi alligaret vinculis charitatis He would be bound for us that so he might binde us unto himselfe in the chaynes of charity yea as the holy Scripture saith In funiculis Adam traham eos in vinculis charitatis I drew them with the cordes of a man and in the bands of love Hosea 11.4 To draw then towards an end of this point Tu vinciris ut vinctos liberes Vincla mea tu fers in manibus Tuis rogo me liges funibus Since thou art bound the bond to free And that my chaynes are borne by thee With these thy cordes Lord tye thou me Yea knit not onely me but all thy whole Church so fast unto thy selfe in thy faith and feare and love unfeigned that neither height above nor depth beneath nor death nor life nor Angels nor Principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor any other creature as Saint Paul saith be able to make a separation or to dissolve the union And let these thy cords and chaynes so farre loosen the bands of mine and of all our sinnes as that they may never rise up against us to condemne us either in this world or that which is to come Yea so strengthen us with thy heavenly grace and powerfull assistance of thy holy Spirit that we doe not conspire with these thine enemies to binde thee againe our selves by resisting of thy gratious motions and most holy instincts or disobeying of thy will in any thing but enable us in all things to doe as we say when we pray as thou hast taught us Lord let thy will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven Da quod jubes jube quid vis Enable us to performe and then command what thou wilt Draw us with these the everlasting chaynes and cords of thy love and then wee will runne after thee in the savour of these thy sweet oyntments and perfumes as thy Spouse professeth on our behalfe to doe Cant. 1.3 4. And once more let us pray in our mother tongue I meane our mothers the Churches language Thou O gratious Father whose nature and property is ever to have mercy and to forgive receive our humble petitions and though we be tyed and bound with the chayne of our sinnes yet let the pitifulnesse of thy great mercy loose us by the meanes and merit of these bonds and chaynes and other the sufferings of our blessed Saviour and for the farther honour of him the said Jesus Christ our Mediator and Redeemer Amen And this sufficeth to have beene spoken of the apprehension and binding of Christ as the first part and parcell of those corporall indignities which for our sakes He suffered under Pontius Pilate In the next place he is carried to the seate of Judgement and before an whole Bench and Court of Judges which are foure in number two spirituall and two temporall All wicked and very unjust as by the sequell of this discourse it will plainly and manifestly appeare especially the two spirituall ones Annas and Caiâ—phas which were so farre from upright Judges in this cause as that they were indeed most violent and partiall adversaries malitiously affected towards him that was here brought before them to bee judged according to the Law For who ever heard before that Judges did act the parts either of pleaders or accusers or went about to enquire for false witnesses and suborne them to come in against a prisoner at the Barre or one that stood before them to answer for his life as these Judges did For Saint Matthew and Saint Marke both tell us that aswell the chiefe Priests and Elders as the rest of the Counsell sought for false witnesses to put him to death Matth. 26.59 and Marke 14.55 whereby it appeares that they were very enemies unto him upon whose life they meant to sit as Judges which was a most wicked and unlawfull act in them and such as made Saint Chrysostome upon a like occasion to refuse to stand to Eccl. Hist lib. 8. c. 17. saying Se nolle temerarium aliquid subire manifestos inimicos ferre judices as Sozomen relates That he would not abide by any judgement or censure that should be given by his enemies And it is an ordinary and usuall practise in the Courts of Justice amongst our selves for a prisoner if he know or but suspect any of the Jury to be his enemies to challenge them and they shall be put by from passing upon his life or cause And in some cases if a man doubt of the integrity or uprightnesse of any Court whether Spirituall or Temporall he may remove his action and cry with Saint Paul Appello Caesarem I appeale unto Caesar or some higher Bench whereas our Saviour ye see here does none of these things but is content to let them take their course against him though his own innocency be never so eminent and evident and their injustice and iniquity never so great But indeed the truth is these were the supreamest Courts of that place and time in which his cause was to be tryed aswell Ecclesiasticall as Imperiall of Caesar as the Synagogue so that from these except to the Throne of Heaven there lay no appeale Now if this be not a great degree of suffering
it never so comely and hansome in our eyes as for the inward graces and endowments of his soule For what profit is there of all outward ornaments or presence Cum anima mendico sit omni miserius induta as our Chrysostome goes on When our soule is more miserably clad then the basest beggar as being wretched and miserable and poore and blinde and naked as is said of the Church of Laodicea Revel 3.17 There might be many more Vses made of Christ his being posted and hurryed too and agen from one Judges house and authority to another as first carryed to Annas from him secondly to Caiaphas from Caiaphas thirdly to Pilate and from him to Herod and lastly from Herod backe againe to Pilate As also of the scorne and contempt that was put upon him by the rude and raskall multitude in all these his severall passages too and fro from one place unto another men women and children of all rankes and conditions following him with howting and showting at him as is usuall in such cases especially when hee was arrayed in that scornefull and disgracefull habite spoken of last before and so carried through the more publike and eminent streets of Jerusalem for the nonce and of purpose onely to have him gaz'd upon as an Owle and bayted as a Beare when if ever any man then he much more might justly complaine as in the Prophet Factus sum in derisum omni populo canticum eorum tota die I am become a scorne to all people and their song all the day long Lament 3.14 But time and other occasions will not permit me to speake of all and therefore this shall suffice John 18.39 40. Yee have a custome that I should release unto you one at the Passeover will you therefore that I release unto you the King of the Jewes Then cryed they all againe not this man but Barabbas now Barabbas was a robber c. THese words beloved are spoken by Pilate the Roman President unto the Jewes that were Christs accusers and very urgent with him to have him crucified who because he knew that for envy they had delivered him unto him as it is said Matth. 27.18 Therefore he endeavours as I told you the last day by three severall wayes and meanes if it be possible to save his life and to deliver him out of their hands First by turning him over to Herod Secondly by ballancing him with Barabbas And lastly by scourging and crowning him with Thornes Whereas therefore he had prevayled nothing by the first meanes viz. by sending him to Herod as you heard then also at large related and dilated unto you Therefore in these words as you see He makes tryall of the second by propounding unto them whether they would have Barabbas or Jesus let loose at this their great solemne Feast of the Passeover For so saith the text Will you that I release unto you the King of the Jewes or as it is in S. Matthewes Gospell Whom will ye that I release unto you Barabbas or Jesus that is called Christ Matth. 27.17 O sweet Jesus now or never there is hope and comfort neare that after thy many tortures and troubles formerly recounted which thou hast so quietly and patiently put up and borne at the hands of thy malitious and unkinde Country-men yea Kinsmen according to the flesh Thy life notwithstanding shall be spared and thy person set free and at liberty again at the last For seeing thou art ballanced in the scales with Barabbas the greatest malefactour of thy time and a necessity laid upon the people of releasing either thee or him it cannot possibly be imagined but that thou must be taken and he cast thou saved and he condemned For whereas he hath beene a Theefe and taken away by violence the bread of the poore and needy Why thou hast beene a feeder of them and a supplyer of their wants and necessities upon all occasions whereas he hath beene a Cutter and Robber on the high-wayes and by that meanes wounded and mangled the peaceable passengers travelling as it were betweene Jerusalem and Jericho Why thou as the good Samaritane hast healed them again by binding up their wounds and powring in Wine and Oyle unto them whereas he hath beene a Murtherer as Marke 15.7 and slain the living Why thou hast beene a reviver and restorer of life unto them that have beene dead All these therefore and thousands more unto which thou hast beene helpfull and beneficiall in one kinde or other will call and cry out aloud Set free and at liberty unto us not Barabbas our cruell enemy but Christ our curteous friend yea our kinde and common benefactour For it is impossible even in the judgement of Pilate himselfe that any should be so ungratefull as to doe the contrary which occasioned him to make tender of the most notorious delinquent that was then in durance amongst them to be in competition with Christ that so he might be sure as he upon good ground and reason conceived and imagined not to faile of the freedome and release of Jesus And yet for all this They cry out amaine with one voyce and unanimous consent Not this man but Barrabbas as yee see in the text O unheard of impudency and iniquity thus to deny the holy one and the just and to desire a murtherer to be delivered unto them as Saint Peter afterwards cast in their teeth Acts 3.14 Commutatio infoelix saith one An unhappy exchange for you Jewes thus to desire the Wolfe before the Lambe the noxious and violent before the righteous and innocent the impious and ungodly life-taker before the peaceable and mercifull life-giver wretched men that ye are so to preferre death before life sinne before God and Barabbas nay the Devill before Christ with whom yee shall be sure for your paines to suffer eternall paines in hell fire except you can and doe repent and be heartily sorry for the same Non quod per Pascha liberatis nocentem Tract 11â— in Ioh. c. 28. sed quod occidistis innocentem as Saint Austin speaks not so much because through the opportunity of your Passeover you have freed and spared the life of him that was a wicked theefe and robber but because you have slain the innocent and harmelesse Lambe who was undefiled and without spot Quod tamen nisi fieret verum pasca non fieret as the Father goes on which yet if it had not been done he could never have been the true Passover pointed at by all the legall sacrifices and shadowes of the old Law And therefore it shall not be amisse for us Christians to looke to another to an higher hand and cause of this choyce then only to the mischeivous mallice of these Jewes which if we doe we shall find that it was not Christ the second Adam onely that was layd in the scale against Barabbas but the first Adam also which was a greater murtherer and theife then he Yea and the
instructions to the Judges of our times And I will begin with that Quaere of the Holy Ghost Are your mindes set upon righteousnesse O yee Congregation and doe yee judge the things that are right O yee sonnes of men Ps 58.1 that is according to the order rightnesse straightnes of that Law of God which he set and appointed you to judge by when he sayd unto Moses that Judges and Officers he should make in all the Gates throughout the tribes of Israel and they should judge the people with just judgement Deut. 16.18 quasi dicat as an expositor upon the place non tantum in ore habeatis justitiam sed in opere as if he should say it is not enough to talke of righteousnesse with your mouthes and in your words but you must practise it also with your hands and in your works Now then let us take notice that there are many things requisite to this right and just judgement which ought therefore to concurre and be found in all Judges whatsoever whether Ecclesiasticall or civill The first whereof is this that what they require of others they practise and performe themselves because as S. Peter saith It is but just that judgement should begin at the house of God 1. Pet. 4.17 and therefore they ought not to doe as the Scribes and Pharises which our Saviour speakes of which binde heavy burthens and such as are grievous to bee borne and lay on other mens shoulders when as they themselves will not moove them with one of their fingers Matth. 23.4 but they that are Judges of the Earth ought themselves to love righteousnesse as the wiseman exhorteth them Sap. 1.1 The second is that they keepe themselves close to the prescript and order of the Law and not presume to passe the bounds of that which is to be their directour and their guide according as it is commanded them by Gods Law saying when the King sitteth upon the throne of his Kingdome he shall write him a copy of this Law in a booke which shall bee with him and hee shall reade therein all the dayes of his life that so hee may not turne aside from the Commandement to the right hand or the left Deut. 17 18 19.20 verses That they doe throughly fift the truth and depth of the matter which they have in hand as Iob professeth that hee did saying Caussam quam nesciebam diligenter investigabam I was diligent to search out the cause which I knew not Iob. 29.16 That they be no accepters of persons For qui cognoscit in judicio faciem non bene facit saith the Wise man as the vulgar Latine reads it Prov. 28.21 He that in the time of judgement knowes a difference of faces does not well for such a one will transgresse for a piece of bread as there followes in the latter part of the verse and therefore elsewhere hee saith It is not good to accept the person of the wicked to overthrow the righteous in judgement Chap. 18.5 That they give not place to the clamors or favour of the multitude to doe contrary to law and their owne conscience as our Pilate here did for the crucifying of Christ for this likewise is flatly forbidden in Gods Law as you heard before where it sayes Thou shalt not follow the multitude to doe evill neither shalt thou speake in a cause to decline after many to wrest judgement Exod. 23.2 That they be not driven from the streightnesse and rectitude of their course of justice for feare of the mighty as another Wise man adviseth saying Seeke not to be made a Judge being not able to take away iniquity lest at any time thou feare the person of the mighty and lay a stumbling blocke in the way of thy uprightnesse Ecclus 7.6 That they be not too pitifull beyond that which is meet and fit according to that other precept of the Law Thou shalt not countenance a poore man in his cause Exod. 23. 3. i. e. in a bad cause For otherwise it is said but three verses after Thou shalt not wrest the judgement of the poore in his cause verse 6. That they be no bribe-takers as the same Law still goes on Thou shalt take no gift for the gift blindeth the wise and perverteth the words of the righteous verse 8. And lastly That they admit of no intreaties and perswasions to the prejudice or dammage of any other for justice is to be executed and judgement given consilio non prece by counsell and deepe consideration in a mans selfe not by request of other men For as Bernard saith well Vbi non licet facere quod volo quis locus rogandi Where it is not lawfull for a Judge to doe what he may have a desire it may be to doe himselfe there surely can be no place left for the sutes and requests of others And these are the nine things requisite to the performance and execution of right and just judgement which whatsoever Judge shall faithfully fulfill and keepe hee need not feare the censure of any Court here or the face of an angry Judge hereafter There might much more have beene added concerning these particulars but that I am not ignorant that Verbum sapientibus sat est A word to such wise men is enough in regard whereof I have chosen rather to leave this short caution and remembrance onely to our Honourable Judges and other subordinate Magistrates than to presume to give them either larger instructions or the least reproofes And this sufficeth for Christs sufferings under Pontius Pilate John 19. vers 16.17 18. Then delivered he him unto them to be crucified And they tooke Iesus and led him away And he bearing his crosse went forth into a place called the place of a skull which is called in Hebrew Golgotha where they crucified him and two other with him on either side one and Jesus in the midst c. WHen the sentence of death against our Saviour Christ was once given Curcified then presently in all haste the crosse was prepared and the condemned person brought out and the heavie tree as it appeareth by Saint Iohns Gospel in our Text verse 17. was at the first laid upon his owne shoulders which had beene unmercifully battered with whips before whereby they tormented him not onely with the sight but with the weight also of that which was appointed to bee the instrument of his death which painfull burthen notwithstanding together with the weight of all our sinnes he refused not for our sakes to take upon him but proceeded on his way with incredible alacrity both in love towards us and in obedience to satisfie his fathers justice as a true Isaack bearing the wood for the sacrificing of himselfe For mortem non coactus sed ultro subiit Christus ut voluntarium esset sacrificium nam sine obedientia nobis expiatio parta non esset In Iob. c. 18. saith Calvin Christ suffered death willingly and not by constraint that so his
sacrifice might be voluntary For without willing obedience to his Fathers Ordinance our atonement and the expiation of our sinnes could not bee wrought whereupon S. Austen discoursing upon those words of S. Iohn Et misit filium suum sacrificatorem pro peccatis nostris as he reads them 1 Ioh. 4.10 God loved us and sent his Sonne to bee a sacrifice for our sinnes demands this question Vbi invenit hostiam ubi invenit victimam quam puram volebat offerre where did hee finde a pure and cleane sacrifice fitting for himselfe to offer And when hee hath thus propounded gives the answer himselfe in these words Alium non invâ—nit seipsum obtulit He could finde no other and therefore hee offers himselfe as if he should say hee made his humanity the sacrifice and his divinity the priest But howsoever hee were never so willing and obedient himselfe yet his countreymen and cruell friends must not loose their turne For they will have an hand in this busines though never so much to their cost aswell as hee wherefore after they have conducted him to mount Caluary the place of his execution there they speedily erect his crosse and display his bloody banner and soone after crucifie him thereon as ye may see Luke 23.33 which part of theirs as it was acted with much violence to shew their malice so it was suffered by him with more willingnesse and patience to manifest his love Answerable to that of the Apostle he humbled himselfe and became obedient unto the death yea even the death of the Crosse Phil. 28. Now this kinde of death was accounted in those dayes not onely the most shamefull and ignominious death but the most cruell and tormenting too as yee shall see anon wherefore these Iewes howsoever they had foure kinds of death for malefactors among themselves as our reverend and learned Bishop of Exetâ—r in his passion Sermon hath well observed one of which was ordinarily used to those that did offend of their owne Nation as the Towell the Sword Fire and Stones and each of these above other in extremity yet they rejected and refused all these whereby to take away Christs life and chose this Roman death of crucifying as accounting it the worst of all which we may suppose they did the rather because their owne Law saith cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree Deut. 21.23 so that their malice was such as it should seeme towards him as that they were desirous not onely to crosse and crucifie him whereby to rid him him out of his life but to curse him also if it were possible and in their powers in the life to come But yet as â— Ierome well noteth Hee is not therefore accursed becauâ—e hee hangeth but therefore he hangeth because hee is accursed beiâ—g made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is acursed for us as S. Paul speaketh Gal. 3.13 And therefore howsoever the Iewes made choyce of this death for him out of the depth of their malice and venimous hatred against him hoping thereby not only to destroy his body but his soule too yet hee that was able to worke good out of evill and turne their mischiefe and malice owards him to his owne glory and the benefit of his Church and chosen had other reasons in the secret of his owne counsell which they little dream't of why hee would undergoe it and take it upon him As first that the curse might be imputed unto him which was due to us and so we by his curse might be redeemed from the curse of the Law as the former Apostle saith wee are in the former place And therefore sayth Aretius Ideo cruce passus est Christus ut omnis maledictio etiam à forma supplicii in illo concurreret Therefore did Christ suffer on the Crosse that by the forme and manner of his suffering every curse might concurre and be found in him which was due to us yea hee himselfe bare our sinnes in his body on the Tree that wee might bee delivered from sin and be healed by his stripes as S. Peter sayth 1 Pet. 2.24 Secondly as S. Chrysostome and Theophilact assigne it ut ipsius aeris naturam mundaret terram sanctificaret sanguinis suae distillatione that he might cleanse and perfume the ayre with his holy and Heavenly breath and sanctifie and hallow the Earth with the streames of his sacred blood distilling and descending down from his blessed body Medicina enim quae removet maledictionem terrae est sanguis Christi For the onely Medicine that is able to remoove the curse of the earth is the blood of Christ Thirdly as Anselmus saith That hanging in the ayre on the Crosse the foote whereof was fastned in the Earth and the top looking towards Heaven hee might shew himselfe to be the true Mediator betwixt God and man by reconciling Heaven and Earth together and reducing our humane nature to the society of Angells and so making a perfect peace and union betwixt the things above and the things below By such strange and contrary meanes doth God shew his power and providence in working our salvation and redemption giving us life even by his owne death and that the most accursed death too even the death of the Crosse Optimum faciens instrumentum vitae quod erat mortis pessimum genus as one saith making that the best instrument of life which was the worst kinde of death worst indeed as we shall easily perceive if wee will vouchsafe to looke another while into the manner of it together with the counsell and cruelty of the Iewes in inflicting it as wee have already done into the mercy and goodnesse of Christ in suffering it For besides the infamy and ignominy of it as you have heard already it was a terrible and bitter death too where hee felt the uttermost of those paines which incensed and inraged malice was able to inflict and mans nature able to indure For the better and more cleare expression whereof it is observed by some that Christs Passion on the Crosse had in it all the foure dimensions as length breadth height depth Lenght first in regard that the Crosse was a lingring slow death Vbi diù vivebatur mors ipsa protendebatur ne dolor citius finiretur which gave no quick dispatch unto the patient but protracted and prolonged his life keeping him a great while together upon the Racke under the sharpe sense aswell of our sinnes as his owne paines Now it is truly sayd that Acerbissima est mors quae trahit poenam it is the bitterest kinde of death wherein the paines thereof are long continued and delayed and not presently or suddenly finished and dispatched For to have death prolonged when a man is under the stroke of death is to die many deaths at once Now it was full three houres betwixt Christs affixion to the Crosse and his expiration on the Crosse For hee continued there from the sixth houre untill the ninth as the
Christs suffering under Pontius Pilate and crucifying on the crosse But we are as deepe in as they nay deeper in then they as being the principalls and they onely but accessaries thereunto Because we were Causa sine qua non The cause without which it had not beene done but they were our sins for which hee was wounded and our selves for whom he was crucified So that Peccata mea peccata tua peccata Adami ac omnium filiorum ejus caussa fuerunt passionis mortis silii Dei sayth one they were our evill motions our vile thoughts our corrupt words our ungodly works that set Pilate Herod Annas Caiaphas Judas and the Jewes a worke what they did they did it but as our instruments and agents so that to say the truth Not Satan the tempter nor Iudas the traytour not Caiaphas the high Priest nor Pilate the judge not the Jewes that conspired against him nor the false witnesses that accused him not the band of men that tooke him first and derided him after nor the Souldiers that pierced him no nor yet the very executioners that nayled him on the Crosse are so much to be accused and condemned for his sufferings as we we I say even our selves and sinnes which notwithstanding is not spoken in favour or excuse of these or any of these For for such clients I believe never any man was so leud as to become an advocate but onely to let men see and know yea and acknowledge too the greatnesse and grievousnesse of their sinnes the cure whereof occasioned all these fearefull evills upon our blessed Saviour before it could be throughly accomplished and effected For hoc fonte derivata clades all the fore spoken of and last expressed afflictions and troubles of his proceed onely from this fountaine and originall So that we sinfull we bound him with cords beate him with rods buffeted him with fists crown'd him with Thornes yea wee reviled him and railed on him with our tongues we nodded at him with our heads we thrust him through with speares we betrayed him with a kisse We peirced his Hands and Feete with nailes we condemned him with false witnesses we powred shame and contempt upon his person we judged him as plagued and smitten of God For in asmuch as our faults and offences procured these things to be done unto him we are the doers of them and the dealers in them as himselfe is sayd to complaine in the Poet. Huc me sidereo descendere fecit Olympo Hic me crudeli peccatum vulnere fixit Hither have your sins brought me downe to live a poore and contemptible life and heere have your faults fastened me upon the Crosse to die an ignominious and shamefull yea bloody death Vse What an hatred then should this beget and kindle in us against our sins that were thus the spoylers of our Saviours life and the spillers of his blood How should wee in an holy revenge pursue them to death that were the authors of his death kill them that killed him But woe woe unto us so far are we from this that instead of mortifying and crucifying them we crucify him as if to have done it once had not beene sufficient but that as the Apostle speakes wee must crucify againe the Sonne of God and make a mocke of him Heb. 6.6 so that we may use S. Pauls words to the Galatians though in another sense Jesus Christ is evidently set forth before our eyes and crucified amongst us Gal. 3.1 Thus hypocrisie bends the knee with ludibrious devotion and bids Hayle King of the Jewes Presumption puts a reed a rod and scepter into his hands The children of darknesse buffet and beat him yea and bid him prophesie who smote him The prophane spit in his face The sacrilegious cast lots for his garment the Schismaticall divide his seamelesse Coat which the rude soldiers did not Popularity washes her hands as innocent yea to please men condemnes Christ The drunkards in their carowses and unhallowed healths give him a potion of Gall. Bribery extortion covetousnesse uncleannesse and all other kinds of common and ordinary sinnes preferre Barabbas before him Simony crucifies him betweene two Theeves Heresy rackes his bones and disjoynts him Superstition betrayes him with a kisse and despights him with seeming honours Apostacy denies him with his Apostle Peter yea and forsweares him too The roarers with laughs and scoffes crucify him afresh and with their blasphemy and outragious oathes teare O cause of teares his Nayles his Sides his Flesh his Hands his Armes his Bones and all his Joynts and Members a sunder These are our offerings for Christ his sufferings But Oh beloved was it not enough that hee died once for us but that wee through these our sinnes must put him to death still Were those paines of his so little and so light that wee should every day redouble them Is this the entertainement that so gracious a Saviour hath deserved by dying for us Is this the recompense of that infinite love of his that we should thus cruelly vex and wound him with our sinnes If compassion of his smart cannot moove us yet let compassion of our owne soules prevaile with us For how can we hope or expect to finde redemption by his Blood while wee continue by our horrid and heynous sinnes to make new gashes in his Sides to rub his Wounds afresh and cause them streame a new that were even closed up before An act more Iewish then that of the Jewes themselves Let us then at the last for shame by our true and unfeyned Repentance forsake that tyrant sinne which detaineth us in servitude shake off his Chaines cut asunder his Bands and by a lively faith run strongly violently and speedily unto Christ who hangeth on the Crosse as you have heard and seene Habens ibi caput inclinatum ad osculandum cor apertum ad diligendum manus exteasas ad amplexandum Having not onely his Head bowed downe there to kisse us and his Heart open to love us but his Hands also stretched out wide to imbrace us and receive us upon our first returne And therefore returne O Shulamite returne returne as it is said Can. 6.12 and this sufficeth for the first use Secondly hath Christ suffered all these things under Pontius Pilate and beene content to have beene crucified on the Crosse also onely out of love to us Why then surely this requireth a returne of our love likewise backe againe unto him For nimis durus est animus qui si dilectionem nolit impendere nolit rependere It is too bad a disposition that will neither offer love nor requite it being offered as S. Bernard speakes If then there be any sparke of ingenuity or dramme of good nature in us let us not deny him the affection of our love that spared not the effusion of his owne blood for us but from so many springs as he had members dranke salvation unto us in a full cup thereof And as a
hearty Prayer unto Almightie God of Your most devoted Suppliant and humble Oratour JOHN CROMPE He suffered under Pontius Pilate was Crucified Dead Buried HAving in my former Treatise Beloved discoursed at large as well concerning the conception as the birth of our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ out of those two foregoing Articles of the Apostâ—es Creed Hee was conceived by the Holy Ghost and borne of the Vi gin Mary I am come now in the next place by the order and course of the same to treat of his suffeâ—ings under Pontius Pilate and his crucifying death and buriall For so speakes the fourth Article Hee suffered under Pontius Pilate was crucified dead buried Where the first thing that in my judgement will require satisfaction is this Why the holy Apostles or whosoever else they were that joyned these Articles together and made a summe of beliefe of them did make so large a leape as to passe so immediately and directly from the first act of his life to the last from his being borne of the Virgin Mary to his sufferings under Pontius Pilate especially seeing the holy Evangelist speakes of many passages of his life in the interim and betwixt these that are very remarkable and worthy not onely of our observation but our contemplation also and beliefe And it is answered by one thus Optimè à nativitate ad ejus passionem mortem fit transitu ubi perfectè salutis nostrae summa sita â—st The transition from his birth to his death and passion was most fitting and convenient for this reason because therein especially consisteth and is placed the summe and substance of our Salvation Nihil enim nobis nasci profuisset nisi redemisset as he goes on out of Saint Gregory His birth would have profited us nothing if his redemption of us had not followed and succeeded So that to suffer and dye for the sinnes of mankind was a chiefe though not the onely end of his incarnation which occasioned the worthy Authors and disposers of this sh rt summe of our Christian beleife to passe from one substantiall head and point unto another especially from his conception and birth to his passion resurrection and ascension with all celerity and expedition leaving all other circumstantiall parts and passages of his life to their Sermons and other larger discourses Which course likewise Saint Paul himselfe followed as is plainely to be seene in his Epistle to the Philippians Where when hee had described and set downe Christs nativity and birth he presently thereunto adjoynes his death as fetching and deriving from thence the chiefe fruit and profit of our redemption His words speaking of Christ are these Hee made himselfe of no reputation but tooke on him the forme of a servant and was made like unto man and found in shape as a man here he speakes of his Nativity and then in the next words subjoynes He humbled himselfe and became obedient unto the death even the death of the Crosse There followes his passion Phil. 2.7 8. Verses Yea and the holy Evangelists themselves seeme not to differ much from this method and order neither in that they are so exact and punctuall in setting downe all circumstances first concerning his conception and birth and then afterwards of his sufferings and death whereas they pretermit and passe over many actâ—ons of his life as Saint John confesseth plainely in saying There are many other things which Jesus did the which if they should be written every one I suppose that even the World it selfe could not containe the Bookes that should be written John 21.25 As if his very Incarnation and all other actions of his life together with his preaching and entire and perfect obedience to the whâ—le Law and the like tended onely to the redemption of mankinde by his death and passion as to their chiefe and last end answerable to that also of Saint Paul elsewhere When the fulnesse of time was câ—me God sent forth his Son made of a woman and made under the Law where yee see his incarnation birth and obedience expressed But to what purpose why that followes in the next words viz. To redeeme them that were under the Law that is by his death and passion Gal. 4.4 5. Verses And thus you see how the conception of Christ first is directed to his birth and incarnation and that next to his death and passion as to their first and last end Primum in intentione etiamsi ultimum in executione First in intention though last in execution So that our Creed ye see passes over all the obedience of our Saviours life as being nothing else but a step onely to his death and passion by which especially our redemption is purchased and procured As much as to say let men lay hold by a lively faith on these and then doubt not but all other circumstances shall and will concurre to their future blisse and happinesse eternally in the land of the living And so this question being thus resolved I proceede in the next place to the handling of the words themselves as they lye in the Article He suffered under Pontius Pilate was câ—ucified dead buried In which words for methods sake I will observe onely these two circumstances Quis Quid who and what Who He or which what suffered under Pontius Pilate was crucified dead buried And I will begin with the latter first as being the larger subject reserving the former to conclude at the latter end as requiring the deeper and the longer search He suffered under Pontius Pilate was crucified dead buryed HEre yee see beloved sundry Circumstances expressed and set downe which to handle at large according to their weight and urgency would require even the least of them more time then at the first I proportioned to my selfe for the whole But because they are the common and ordinary subjects of many if not most Sermons I shall be the briefer in them Yet I will handle each circumstance apart and begin with them according to their order in the Cre d. As fiâ—st of the first Hee suffered under Pontius Pilate c. And here I may for an entrance take occasion without any great digression from my intended scope to discourse of all his sufferings from his birth to his buriall fâ—om his Cradle to his Crosse from his very infancy till his dying day and shew how that tota ejus vita Crux fuit acerbissima his whole life was nothing else but a martyrdome a continuall suffering in one kinde or other Habens in factis observatores in verbis contradictores in tormentis illusores as Saint Bernard speakes Having envious and malicious obsâ—rvers of his deedes spitefull and hatefull contradictors of his words yea scornefull and reproachfull scoffers at his miseries and afflictions In regard whereof some doe apply that saying of the Spouse in the Canticles unto him when she cals and styles her beloved Fasciculum myrrhae A bundle of Myrrhe Cant. 2.12 Not onely
because Myrrhe was wont to be used in the sacrifices of the old Law but also because the body of Christ was so embalmed before his buriall as we may see John 19.39 40. Verses Or because the Jewes even just before his Crucifying dederunt ei bibere vinum Myrrhatum gave him Wine to drinke mingled with Myrrhe Marke 15.23 which as Cyrill saith Fellis instar amara est â—atâ—eiâ—â—si 13 is even as bitter as gall But I must confesse that Mercerus a learned expositor upon the place doth not approve of the bundle of Myrrhe in this sense but acknowledging Quòd quidam nostrorum c. that some did so expound it upon the same reason yet concludes himselfe That Nil necesse est c. there was no need of such an interpretation But saith he simplex sâ—nsus est c. the plaine meaning of the place is that the Spouse saith her bâ—loved was most sweet and gratefull unto her even as a bundle of Myrrhe is pleasing and delightfull to the sent and he addes his reason too because Christus in ecclesiam odores spargit suavissimos c. Christ doth as it were strow sweete odours of his gifts and graces upon his Church and chosen But beloved the truth is it may safely be taken and expounded in both senses For Myrrhe may be said after a sort to resemble the Physitians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is it is both bitter and sweet sweet in the smell bitter in the taste And so is the sacrifice of â—hrist sweet in the offering bitter in the suffering sweet in the nostrils of God his Father that injoyned it that accepts it and sweet unto his spouse the Church i. e. the whole number of his faithfull ones wheresoever dispersed throughout the whole world for whom it was performed and to whose comfort it is applied in regard whereof she hath reasâ—n to say as followes in the text inter ubâ—ra mea commorabitur he shall lye all night bâ—twixt my brests in the same verse Yet it is bitter yea most bitter unto him that for his sake is content to sustaine and endure it Which diversitie of the apprehension and relish as I may so speake of the sacrifice of Christ is by one well exprest after this manner when he saies Patitur Christus ex hoc dolor patitur pro nobis ex hoc laetitia patitur ad suam mortem ut videatis hominem patitur ad nostram vitam ut ametis Deum patitur in cruce ecce miseriam patitur ut resurgat ecce gloriam And as well Englished by another a Divine moderne Poet of our own truely I am sure whether intâ—ntionally or no I know not in this sort Christ suffers and in this his teares begin C. Fletâ—â—â— Poâ—â—◠〈◊〉 Ciâ— sâ— Triumph Suffers for us and our joy springs in this Suffers to death here is his manhood seen Suffers to rise and here his god-head is c. And thus you see how Christ our blessed Saviour may be said to be a bundle aswell of bitter as of sweet myrrhe A sweet bundle to his heavenly Father aâ—d his beloved spouse the Church but a bitter bundle to himselfe in regard of his continuall sufferings which were so knit and bound together throughout the whole course of his life that there was no intermission or release betwixt them and therefore justly termed and styled a bundle If therefore Solomon could say of man in generall That cuncti dies ejus delâ—ribus aerumnis pleni All his daies are sorrowes and his travaile griefe as Eccles 2.23 Then much more might the Prophet say of this man in particular that he was Vir dolorum sciens infirmitates Esay 53.3 i. e. A man so composed of sorrowes as that he had a taste and sense of all humane infirmities I meane all that were naturall not sinfull And that together with our nature he tooke all that belonged thereunto sinne onely excepted as all our weakenesses our wants our sicknesses our sores our griefes our sorrowes yea all our common infirmities though not Personall defects both of body and soule as is solidly discussed and plainely proved by a learned Tutor of mine preaching upon the same subject D. Sa. 〈◊〉 The Life and Death of Jesus Christ whither I referre you for further satisfaction in this point But I take the meaning of the Creed to stretch no farther then to those great and grand sufferings that went immediately before his crucifying on the Crosse because it sayes He suffered under Ponâ—ius Pilate that is in the time of his jurisdiction and by authority derived from and under him so that whatsoever things were publikely done and acted against him about this time and by this meanes are properly hereto be handled and no more For the name of Pontius Pilate is not here mentioned ad personae dignitatem Sâ—â— 81. de 〈◊〉 sed ad temporis significationem as Saint Austin speakes That is not for any honour or credit given or intended to be given to the person but onely to expresse and declare the time of Christs suffering here mentioned and set downe For hee was Judge Governour Deputy President Viceroy or whatsoever else you please to call such a Magistrate as had the supreame authority of life and death at this time in the land of Jury Judea and in the City of Jerusalem where Christ was to and did suffer death upon the Crosse for the sinnes of the whole World although indeed his said authority were but subordinate and derived from the Roman Empire For you must know beloved that Jerusalem at this time was in bondage with her children i. e. in servitude and subjection to the Emperor of Rome Who as he had under his government the most part of the neighbouring world and bordering countries round about him so among the rest this country of the Jewes in which Jerusalem stood commonly called and knowne by the name of Judea or the land of Jewry Now as our King of England hath his Deputies Presidents and Governours in Scotland Ireland Virginia and other places of his more remote Jurisdictions and Dominions where he is not personally resident himselfe so the Emperour at this time had the like in his severall Provinces abroad And amongst the rest Pontius Pilate in this City and Country where Christ now suffered and was put to death and therefore is it said He suffered under Pontius Pilate that is at that time when Pontius Pilate was the President of the place and before whom he was convented arraigned condemned and the like Which beloved was a very necessary circumstance to be known ne ex aliqua parte velut vaga incerta gestorum traditio vacillaret In loâ—um saith Ruffinus Lest the mindes of men should stagger and waver at the report and tradition of their doings and Christs sufferings if in the smallest circumstance they were left doubtfull and uncertaine And therefore it was thought fit not to be omitted by
the compilers and composers of the Creed as well for the confutation and conviction of the Jewes that would not beleeve in him as the confirmation and setling of Faith in the hearts of the Gentiles unto whom they were to preach him and proclaime him in that they were able and did so punctually designe the time and place and person under whom he suffered such and such things as conventing arraigning condemning buffâ—ting beating rayling at reviling mocking scoffing scorning scourging crucifying dying burying and the likâ— All which and a great deale more he suffered under Pontius Pilate as I shall have occasion at large to shew you in the sequell of this discourse To omit therefore the basenesse of his birth and the manifold miseries of his whole life wherein he tooke upon him the shape not onely of a servant as Saint Paul saith Phil. 2.7 ut subesset that so he might be in subjection but also of a sinner mali servi ut vapularet that is of an evill servant that so he might suffer correction as Saint Bernard Both which are expressed together by the Prophet when he saies Fecisti me servire in peccatis Thou hast made me to serve with thy sinnes Esay 43.24 Let us a â—ittle consider of the time onely and manner of his death wherein most especially he may be said to suffer under Pontius Pilate And herein howsoever I shall be able to say no more for substance then what you heard read unto you in the forenoone out of the Gospell for this day Palme Sunday yet by a little amplifying and aggravating the circumstances it may so fall out that your affections may be moved and stirred to suffer a little in your soules with him that suffered so much boâ—h in soule and body too for you And in my weake handling of these great passions of our most great Lord and Master Inspiret aspiret qui pâ—ssus est he that suffered such things for me I beseech him to be assistant untâ— me and to strengthen me And as Saint Chrysostome upon the same oâ—casion bespake his auditors so let me you Ser. 6. Fer. 5. Pas Orate fratres ut dignatione qaâ— passus passionis suae revelet arcanum pray with me O my brethren unto this our blessed Saviour and Redeemer that as he hath vouchsafed to suffer for us so he would likewise vouchsafe to reveale the secrets and mysteries of his said sufferings unto us that so by my unfolding and your apprehending of them his name may bee glorified and our soules saved at the day of Judgemâ—nt To begin then with the treasâ—n of Judas He suffered in that first that one of his owne company his owne society one that was numbred among his twelve Apostles and had fellowship with them as Acts 2.17 should become an agâ—nt and an instrument to betray and deâ—iver him into the hands of his enemies So that it was not a Disciple onely but an Apostle not one of the Seventy but one of the Twelve that wrought this mischiefe towards him Quod auget delictum detestabile proditoris saith Chrysostome which increases aswell the sinne of the traytor as the sufferings and sorrowes of our Saviour In regard that the Seventy were neither so neare nor deâ—re unto him as he goes on not so f rre intrusted with his secrets and inward counsels and decrees as the Apostles the twelve were they being as it were his tryed men his â—aterva regaâ—is as he styles them i. e. his regall and royall company I meane that royall Priesthood and chosen generation which Saint Peter speakes of 1 Pâ—t 2.9 in whom he had already began to build and to lay the foundation of his Church Of which number to have one prove a Traytor it is no marvaile if it make the Kingly Prophet his type in this to complaine saying It was my familiar friend whom I trusted and which did eate of my bread that hath lifted up his heele against me Psal 41.9 And to shew that this very circumstance did aggravate and make an addition to his sufferings as I say he goes on in his complaint yet further after this manner If it had been an open enemy that had done me this dishonour why then I could have borne it or if mine adversary had magnified himselfe against me why then peradventure I would have hid my self from him but it was thou my companion and my familiar friend which took sweet counsell together with me and we walked in the house of God as friends Psal 55.12 13 14. Verses Which must needâ— be the greater griefe the greater paine unto me For indeed Illud amicitiae sanctum venerabile nomen The name of a friend is and ought to be the most venerable and sacred name amongst us among all sorts all societies of men Sine quo pater mater uxor filii affines quid nisi vana nomina without which the names of Father Mother Wife Children Kinsfolke and the like are but vaine and empty titles And therefore saith one Amicum me dici malo quam patrem I desire not so much to bee accounted a Father as a Friend Patres enim sine benevolentia inveniaâ— multos sine hac amicum nullum For it is too easie a matto finde many Fathers some that are not kind others that wish not well unto their Children whereas there is none that is not that doth not so unto his friend Because indeed Amicus est alter ego A friend is a mans otherselfe nearer unto him then either marriage or naturall kindred of the same bed or the same blood For love true love without these Ceremonies and respects is the more to be admired and so by consequent the more to be esteemed yea dearer to a man saith one then either his armes or legges as being indeed his whole body and soule together answerable to that also of the Scripture Or thy friend which is as thine owne soule Deut 13.6 For verae amicitiae proprium est saith Granatensis unam mentem unamque animam in duobus esse corporibus It is a most true property of true friendship to have but one heart and one soule in two severall and divided bodies Et idem velle idemque nolle as hee goes on ea demum firma amicitia est That being true friendship indeed when a man is ready to will and not to will according to the necessity and occasion of his friend Now Christ for his part had performed all the offices of such a friend unto Judas he had called him to be his Apostle made him his friend his familiar caused him to eate of his bread fit at his table suffered him to be of his owne messe and to dip his hand in the dish with him And if Saint Austins intelligence be good and his tradition true Hee had farther delivered him often from death and for his sake healed his Father of a palsie and cured his mother of a leaprosie borne with many sinnes in him
once found him comming and gaind his consent and assent unto his wicked and lewd suggestions he presently enters into his soule Rapit hominem circum-agitat phantasmata non jam sub Cortice virgas sed detectas oculis probet videndas he violently possesses the man compasses and canvasses his troubled and distracted thoughts and wandring and unsetled imaginations and manifests his stratagems to the view of the world without any cover any care to hide or conceale the same For as the Scriptures testifie soone after he had received the sop Satan entred into him Iohn 13.27 that is tooke full possession of him as the marginall notes expound the place so that he led and carried him into what desperate and sinfull courses he would himselfe Vse Oh then let me entreat you to take heed and beware of the inticements and occasions of sinne in its beginning in its first entrance before it lay too violent hand and hold upon you For the longer you shall give entertainment thereunto the surer and faster hold the Devill has of you and tâ—e harder you will finde it to vanquish and overcome at the last if ever you be able to master it at all which Judas you see could never doe but was quite overthrowne and undone by it both body and soule for ever And therefore I say Principiis obsta let it be your care to resist beginnings of evill and to kill the Serpent in the egge As Bernard Cura in ipso utero pessimae matris praefecari germen so say I take care to strangle the seed of sinne whilest it is in the wombe i. e. in the heart in the thought before it come into action or ever it doe see the light For Satan knowes how to make a nâ—st wherein to nourish and cherish sinne even of our smallest thoughts and cogitations if we neglect them too long and permit them to take their owne sway their owne swing within us And therefore as it is his continuall care to suggest unto us Cogitationes mali thoughts of evill so let it be ours so to resist and withstand them as not to permit them to become Cogitationes malas not to proceed so farre as evill thoughts i. e. not to nestle or roost within us For as Luther said well Howsoever he could not hinder the birds and foules of the ayre from flying over his head yet he would be sure to keep from them building nests and making harbour in his beard so howsoever we cannot hinder Satan from buzzing and suggesting into our hearts and soules wicked and ungodly thoughts yet we may so withstand him and them too as that they shall never burst forth into actions and become wicked and ungodly d eds Because as he that cuts off the head of the Serpent slayes the Serpent it selfe so he that resists sinne in the first motions and beginnings of it destroyes it so throughly as that it can never rise up againe to prevayle against him either in in this world or that which is to come For as the conception of lust brings forth sinne so it is the finishing of sinne that brings forth death as the Apostle speaketh Iames 1.15 And he that can thus resist sinne it selfe when it begins to seize and take hold upon him doth therewithall resist also the author thereof that is the Devill Et prosternit inermem and so confound him as that he takes away his weapon from him James 4.7 and leaves him naked and without defence according to the same Apostles direction Resist the Devill and he will fly from you Chap. 4.7 But all this Judas did not he did not withstand the first motions of evill in his covetous heart but gave full and free way and consent thereunto and so is brought Gradatim ad hanc miseriâ—m as it were by degrees unto this height of sinne and misery as to meditate first of the meanes how to betray his Lord and then secondly not to meditate it onely but to put it in practise also by seeking opportunity to doe it as the Scripture testifieth And having found it he cryes Quid dabitis What will ye give me and I will deliver him unto you Once more therefore let me entreat every one of you to beware of covetousnesse of too much care to fill the bagge lest Loculus prove Laqueus quo capiaris traharis ad interitum the bagge prove but a baite to ensnare thee and to draw thee to destruction both of body and soule And to finish this point and say no more of this subject let me also advise you all and oft n to take this into your considerations That none of Christs Apostles perished but he that bare the bagge And therefore looke to it you that are masters of the bagge not onely in the singular but in the plurall number for if Judas perished that had but one what danger are you in that are masters of so many there being many shrewd temptations and that in severall kindes in mens inordinate and over-much care and desire to fill their bagges so that this onely hath beene the occasion of many if not most sinnes in sundry others besides Judas As of Theevery in Achan Bribery in Gehezi Murther in Ahab most notorious lying in the Souldiers that were set to watch the Sepulchre of Christ hypocriticall dissembling in Ananias and Saphira Simony in Magus besides as I say Treason in Iudas What will you give me and What shall I give you corrupting all conditions and callings both in Church and Common-wealth But I list not to particularize hoping that all my hearers and readers of what ranke and condition soever they be will make application themselves and inferre that Si junguntur in culpa non separabuntur in poena If they joyne with these mâ—n in their sinnes they must looke to be partakers also of their plagues as it is threatned Revel 18.4 Which consideration may be a meanes Cohibere manum etiamsi non animum if not out of conscience of sin to restraine all mens hearts from affecting as I desire yet out of feare of punishment to hold backe some mens hands from effecting such monstrous and prodigious impieties as I hope And this sufficeth for the first circumstance in the sufferings of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ viz the treason of Iudas THe second Circumstance which I intend to take notice of in the sufferings of Christ for a large volume would not serve to discourse of all shall be that which he took notice of himselfe and taxt his adversaries for it in the 26. of S. Matthew Gospell saying Ye be come out to me as it were against a theefe with swords and staves to take me Verse 25. of the same Chapter For the Text tels us that after Iudas had compacted with the Iewes for thirty pence to deliver him into their hands he received a band of men and officers of the High Priest and came thither with lanthornes and torches and weapons saith Saint Iohn Chap.
Word affirme That the bitter wounds of a lover are better than the sweet and sugred kisses of an enemy that hates thee to the death as you have heard before out of Proverbs 7.13 And therefore as the Prophet adviseth so let me trust not a friend neither put confidence in a Counsellor but keep the doores of thy mouth from her that lyeth in thy bosome For the son revileth the father the daughter riseth up against her mother the daughter in law against her mother in law and a mans enemies are they of his own house Mic. 7.5 6. And this sufficeth for the kisse of Judas But saith Christ ye be come out unto me as against a theefe with swords and staves Yea and which is more Lord as to the worst of theeves to a theefe of the night with lanthornes and torches Neither is there cause why thou shouldst either wonder or be troubled at it For seeing thou art not come to suffer for theeves aswell as for other sinners there is reason thou shouldst be handled as a theefe and beare their punishment although thou knowest no sin in thy selfe yet God hath made thee sin yea all sin for us that so we might be made the righteousnesse of God in thee saith Saint Paul 2 Cor. 5. ult And therefore thou must nay thou art contented to be nuâ—bred among the wicked as the Prophet foretold of thee Isa 53.12 And if among the wicked then among the theeves and robbers aswell as any other sinners whatsoever that so thou mayest save some of them that have bin such and deliver others from the hands of those that are and will be such for ever Thou hast told us thy selfe that the theefe commeth to steale kill and to destroy Iohn 10.10 by which words an old Postiller tels me Par. de tem 〈◊〉 3. post â—ent there are three sorts of theeves designed and described The devill death and the wicked man The devill Quia insidiâ—tur animae because he seeks to destroy our soules Death Quia insidiatur vitae because it seekes to kill us and deprive us of our lives and the wicked man Quia insidiatur bonis he seekes to steale from us and rob us of our goods Now the last of these thou savest so many of them as will repent with the good theefe and put their trust in thee And the other two thou vanquishest so that they shall not prevaile either against thee or thine to their destruction or confusion as will be manifested more at large in that which will follow and ensue upon this subject when we shall come to speake of thy death buriall and the like And therefore if these thine enemies use thee as a theefe in comming out against thee with swords and staves torches and lanthornes and such other instruments as whereby they used to take and apprehend theeves and robbers withall it is but thy fathers justice against our sins which thou camest into the world most cheerfully and willingly to satisfy undergo But yet I must confesse that seeing thou wert innocent as well from these as all other offences both thy sufferings and thine enemies sinnes are the greater in that they did these things unto thee without thy desert And therefore there is a great deale of reason that they should be punished and thou pitied accordingly For if it be a thing much to be condoled and lamented to see an innocent and honest man to be apprehended and violently laid hold upon yea drag'd and haled pinioned and manacled too and so carried to prison and thence afterward brought to the Barre and forced to answer for his life then much more when these things are done Coelorum Angelorum Domino to him that is Lord both of Heaven and Earth as it was unto our blessed Saviour who as the Prophet speaketh was led as a sheep unto the slaughter Esay 53.7 Wherefore our Saviour did but justly complaine of their injustice in saying They came out unto him as to a theefe when they came to take him For whereas it is the property of theeves first to steale and rob men of their goods and then to fly and run away after they have stollen according to that question and demand at the Barre Did he fly for the same as also to hide and conceale themselves in corners and obscure places and many times to lay violent hands yea to hurt and wound those that shall seeke to resist and withstand them in their robberies as it is said of the Bandettees in France that they seldome rob but they kill too Why Christ did never any of these things but was so farre from doing them as that he did the cleane contrary For instead of flying he went to meet them when they came to take him and when the officers knew him not hee told them that he was the man Vliro se dans in manus eorum yeelding himselfe willingly and readily of his owne accord into their hands And instead of hurting or being any wayes in such kinde prejudiciall to any man he did infinite good to all men healing them of all manner of sicknesses and sores that stood in need of his helpe either of those wayes And lastly he was so farre from robbing or taking any thing unjustly from them as that hee would never be sole owner or possesse any temporall thing as his owne but rather spend and imploy all such things as he had as his gifts and graces his labour and his learning yea and his very life and all for the benefit and salvation of others and therefore I say it was a great point of injustice in them thus to come out unto him as to a theefe with swords and staves And that which is added by our Saviour himselfe in the text addes also an increase to their mischiâ—fe and his misery that is that while he was daily or in the day time teaching in the Temple among them they tooke him not but made choyce of the night to doe it in and therefore came with lanthornes and torches aswell as swords and staves to take and apprehend him which speeâ—h of Câ—rist howsoever it principally tend to shew his power and their weaknes in that they could not apprehend him nor lay hold upon him till himselfe was willing so that Stultum erat cum gladiis quaerere eum qui uliro se offert in nocte investigare quasi latentem qui quotidie in Templo docet that is It was but a foolishnes in them to hunt after him with swords and staves which did of his owne accord offer himselfe unto them or to seeke for him in the night as one that concealed himselfe and usually lay hid when as he was daily to be seene heard and had teaching in their Temples Yet withall it bewrayes their wickednes also and their base cowardise that when they durst not resist and withstand him in the day time among the multitude and before the people that rather then not doe it all they
advised them That if they were persecuted in one City they should sly into anothâ—r Matth. 10.23 Neither doe I finde as I must acknowledge any writers upon this subject whether ancient or moderne Fathers or other latter Divines Postillers or Expositors that are very forward to censure or condemne this their flight as a notorious fault or a grievous crime in them but onely as a matter of weakenesse or infirmity as not being yet so throughly grounded and setled in the Faith of Christ as afterwards they became to be And Erasmus saith In lâ—c 〈◊〉 Mar. c. 24. that Infirmis licet fugere It is lawfull for the weake to fly as being unfit as yet to suffer martyrdome and persecution in regard as we may conceive that their irresolution and ungroundednesse in the faith may occasion their backsliding and revolt at the first sight and horror of the affliction and so bring rather losse than gaine to the cause of Christ But the time will come as he goes on in quo fugisse negasse est In which to fly shall be accounted as bad as to deny Of which you know what our Saviour himselfe saith He that shall deny me before men shall himselfe be denied before the Angels of God Luke 12.9 But in the meane time when the Gospell and truth of God can gaine nothing but rather as I say suffer much losse and detriment by thy death and suffering Fugito latita saith the same Erasmus still Fly in Gods name and keepe thy selfe close for a better opportunity till a fitter season doe offer it selfe in which thou mayest doe good For by that course it may so fall out which Demosthenes speakes of that Vir qui fugit redintegrabit praelium He that flyes to day may live to renew the battaile to morrow or at another time As indeed it fell out accordingly with these Disciples of our blessed Saviour which howsoever they were but weake and infirme at the time of the apprehension or taking of their Master which as you have heard occasioned their flight yet they proved afterwards the proclaimers of the Gospell to all people and the Heralds of salvation unto all soules preaching the truth of Christ boldly to their faces from whose presence they had fled before But when a man is so confirmed and setled in his faith himselfe as that withall he is able to strengthen his brethren and that his death or other sufferings whatsoever may bee profitable and bring forth plentifull fruit unto the Church of God and his bloud bee as seed sowen in good ground springing up to the increase of faith in divers others Why then I say it shaâ—l be a great disparagement for himselfe and a detriment to the Church of God for a follower of Christ to fly for every one whom Christ hath called to his faith and the knowledge of his truth must doe his best to bring his brother to Christ too John 1.42.25 as Andrew did Peter and Philip did Nathaniel For Nascitur indigne per quem non nascitur alter saith the Poet which if it be true in naturall generation that he is borne but to little purpose that doth not propagate his kinde then much more in spirituall regeneration which seeing it is done no way better then by constant profession of the Gospell even unto death and bonds because Sanguis Martyrum est semen Ecclesiae The bloud of Martyrs hath ever proved the best seed of the Church therefore in such cases it is not lawfull for him that professes Christianity and Religion either to withdraw or conceale himselfe but he ought rather occurrere carnifici even to meet the hangman in the face then to step a foot out of the way to prevent and avoyde the danger For howsoever as Bernard sayes Sâ—rm 3. Dominica in ramis Palm Persecutio temporalis ómnis adversitas pro loco tempore aliquando fugienda erit cum autem necesse fuerit viriliter toleranda that is Persecution and temporall affliction bee sometime according to place and occasions to bee avoyded and eschewed yet when need is it must be manfully tolerated and endured Vse But enough of this onely an Vse or two from the flight of these Disciples and running away from their Master and then wee will end this Circumstance First then let us take notice that those men are like unto these that is but weake in faith which are content to serve Christ onely in the time of prosperity and while all things goe well with them and that no trouble or affliction come thereby but when any crosses or calamities arise whereby they shall be necessitated and driven to forsake either their wealth or their will their profit or their pleasure or suffer and sustaine any other the least detriment or disgrace by his service why then presently they withdraw themselves and leave him It is to be doubted beloved that Christ hath many such Disciples in these dayes many which Vt comes radios per Solis euntibus ùmbra est Cum latet hic pressus nâ—â—ibus illa fugit as a Poet saith That can be content to follow Christ as the shadow doth the Sunne that is so long as it shineth but when once it begins to be darkned with clouds it instantly vanisheth away So in time of prosperity all men for the most part will be content to be Christs Disciples but when tribulation or persecution commeth for Christs sake by and by they are offended as our Saviour himselfe saith of them Matth. 13.21 or as Saint Luke hath it Tempore tentationis recedunt that is In time of temptation they goe away Luke 8.13 yea many with the sonnes of Zebedeus would be Christs Disciples if he had an earthly Kingdome to advance them to places of honour that so one might sit at his right hand and the other on his left but when it comes to this reckoning that they must pledge him of that bitter cup of his Crosse of which he is now ready to drinke a full draught before them then it is to be doubted that most of them will be ready to say with the carnall Capernaites in the Gospell Durus est hic sermo This is an hard saying who can heare it as John 6.60 But beloved we must know that it is not enough for a Christian to confesse Christ and his truth in the Halcyon dayes and times of peace and plenty but they must also sticke to it when trouble ariseth for the same For it is but an easie matter to professe the Gospell while all is calme and quiet and the weather faire as wee say but the tryall of constancy and perseverance is to be seene onely in adversitie as one saith Tempore duro est inspicienda fides As the valour and courage of a Souldier is best seene in the hottest skirmish and the skill of a Mariner best descried and discerned in the greatest tempest so the faith and constancy of Christians is best tryed in the most
ornaments and best deserts Fourthly let us take heed and beware of falling backe from Christ and the wayes of Christianity and Religion as repenting of those houres wee have spent in his service and of those holy and heavenly inspirations we have tasted of in his Temples for by our so doing wee doe nothing else but accuse him for a Seducer as if hee had beguiled us with these sweet baytes thereby to intangle and ensnare our soules And lastly let us beware of slandering and falsely accusing of our blessed Saviour himselfe which every one does that doth it to his neighbour or Christian brother Aut falsi aliquid imponendo aut malum verum exaggerando aut sine causa defectus illius aliis aperiendo as mine Author speakes Either when he slanders him wrongfully and unjustly or increases and exaggerates his faults and imperfections beyond the truth or lastly when hee layes open and declares his defects and infirmities to others without lawfull cause or calling thereunto For detraction may bee committed three manner of wayes saith another viz. Per falsi mali impositionem Hugo Car. â—n Ps 12 aut per veri mali ampliationem aut per veri boni diminutionem that is Either when a man speaketh of his neighbour some evill which is false or inlarges and amplifyes that which is true or lessens and extenuates that which in him and it selfe is good Solet enim mens livida manifesta mala multiplicius exaggerare de suo addere dubia quasi ad partem deteriorem invertere aperta bona quia negare non potest arte qualibet offuscare saith a third Phil. Grâ—v Canc. Paris An envious and malitious man and minde is accustomed to increase and inlarge his neighbours knowne and manifest weakenesses by still adding something thereunto of his owne invention and for those that are doubtfull and uncertaine whether so or not to interpret and construe them alwayes in the worser sense and such things as are evidently and plainly good in themselves because they cannot be wholly denyed to darken and blemish by casting some aspersion or other upon them Primum est obloquutionis Secundum derogationis Tertium detractionis The first which is to scatter and rayse an evill fame upon another is called obloquy The second which is utterly to take away his good name is called derogation And the third which is onely to lessen or diminish that good opinion which his neighbours and the world hath of him it is called detraction And thus you see the truth of that which Solomon delivered long since How that a man that beareth false witnesse against his neighbour is like an hammer and a sword and a sharpe arrow Prov. 25.18 which are three instruments many times of much hurt as of breaking in peeces cutting asunder penetrating and piercing deepe yea even to the very bowels and inward parts so that nothing is more pernitious then a false witnesse which wounds a man not onely in his fortunes and his honour but often in his life too as these Jewes did Christ Yea lying lips and a deceitfull tongue as David likewise saith are as the sharpe arrowes of the mighty man and as the coales of Juniper Psal 120 4. Whereby he sheweth as our marginall notes expresse that there is nothing so sharpe to pierce nor so hot to set on fire as the slanderous tongue with which notwithstanding our blessed Saviour as you have heard was much afflicted both in his life and death But as his owne glory and our good is much increased by his patient bearing it so their sinnes and punishments are and shall be much the greater that did it as also shall bee all theirs that fall into the like foule transgressions towards their neighbours And therefore for conclusion of this circumstance let me use onely the Wise mans exhortation at this time Refraine thy tongue from slander for there is no word so secret that shall goe for nought and the mouth that speaketh lyes slayeth the soule Wisd 1.11 And thus much of their slandering of Christ by saying unto Pilate If hee were not a malefactour we would not have delivered him unto thee But in the next place Pilate perceiving by some passages and carriages of the businesse that it was for envy onely that the Jewes did thus persecute and prosecute Jesus and bring him unto him He therefore endeavours by three severall wayes and meanes if it be possible to deliver him out of their hands and to save his life As first by turning him over to Herod secondly by ballancing him with Barabbas and lastly by scourging and crowning him with Thornes And for the first hee tooke hold of the occasion of his being borne in Galilee a part of the jurisdiction belonging to Herod the Tetrarch to dismisse him from himselfe and to send him unto him who was also at that time abiding in Jerusalem as it is said Luke 23.7 Now Herod indeed was very desirous to see him and had beene so of a long season because of the great and admirable report and fame which went abroad of him Whereupon at the first hee was very jocund and joyfull of his comming Non pietate motus Not moved thereunto through any piety but hoping to have seene him wrought some of his Miracles in his owne presence of which hee had heard so much by others And to that purpose hee questioned with him concerning many things as it is said Verse 8. of the former 23. Chapter of Saint Luke But because hee inquired but upon vaine curiosity as one saith and with no true intent or end Christ answered him nothing Dr. Heywood Sanctuary of a troubled soule In locum answerable to that of Saint James Yee aske and doe not receive because yee aske amisse James 4.3 or rather as Calvin saith because hee was resolved to bee obedient to his fathers ordinance and to submit himselfe to drinke of that bitter Cup the doome of death with patience and silence which his said heavenly Father had tempered and provided for him and for which purpose especially hee came into the world in the similitude of our sinfull flesh that hee might suffer it and undergoe it in our stead and for our sinnes Therefore saith Calvin he would not seeme to pleade his owne cause nor defend his owne innocency in any kinde but sponte obmuâ—escit he was resolv'd for silence let his adversaries say or doe what they would because indeed he knew that we were guilty whose persons he then sustained though himselfe were not Vt sic etiam Adami excusationes in peccatis taciturnitate à bonis possit diluere saith another as also that by his silence from good words he might wash away and make satisfaction for the vaine and idle excuses of Adam when he would have cast his sinnes upon his wife by saying Mulier quam dedisti mihi the Woman which thou gavest to be with me she gave me and I did eate Gen. 3.12 Whereupon
sinnes also of all his posterity throughout all ages Zacha. 5.7 Which lying like Zacharies talent of lead upon Christ his shoulders his person alone must needs presse downe that scale lower then the other that bore the sinnes onely of one man though never so great a murtherer and malefactour Brunus In regard whereof I doe not wonder to find some writers comparing Barabbas to the live sparrow spoken of Levit. 14.7 Qui dimittitur ut in agrum avolet as the vulgar Latine there reades it Which is let loose to fly in the open field because his single burthen of sinne alone was not so great a let and hinderance unto him as the burthen of the sinnes of the whole World layd upon the back of Christ the other sparrow there also spoken of whose wings were thereby clipped and himselfe indeed killed for the cleansing of the leaper For though Christs burthen laid upon our shoulders be Onus allevians but a light burthen lifting up and making fresh according to his owne saying My yoke is easie and my burthen light Mat. 11.30 yet our burthen layd upon him is onus onerans a burthen pressing downe and making faint pressing downe indeed his body to no lesse then the bottom of the grave and his soule to hell In regard whereof in the second place he is stiled by others The Lords lot chosen by Aarons successour though much degenerated the high Priest to be offered for a sinne-offering as was appointed by Moses Law where if we take the paines to search we shall find as two sparrowes spoken of before in Levit. 14. So two Goates Levit. 16. presentable before the Lord at the doore of the Tabernacle of the Congregation whereof one should be for a scape-goate and the other for an offering to the Lord as it is there said By which some of the Ancients as B. Bilson tels me understood Jesus and Barabbas Jesus to be slaine as an offering to the Lord and Barabbas to be sent to the Jewes desart or wildernesse bearing the sinnes of the people that cryed Let him be crucified let him be crucified Which if it be so then once more nay evermore let us meditate of the mercy and love of Christ towards us and muse upon his lowlinesse and humility that was content not onely to take our nature upon him and therein to suffer death upon the Crosse for our sinnes and so as I have sayd to become our sin-offering but also to be compared with the greatest malefactour of those times And by publike sentence yea votes and voyces of the people to be pronounced a greater delinquent and more worthy of death then he And let us beseech his infinite goodnesse by that great dejection and submission of his whereby he was contented thus to be rejected by these Jewes neither did disdaine to be adjudged worthy of death and to have Barabbas a wicked robber to be preferred to life before him that he would give us such grace that by how much we are inferiour unto himselfe by so much he would inflame our desires the more ardently to be willing to bear the contempt and rejection of this World and as cast downe through the sense of our sins and infirmities and unworthines every way account no otherwise of our selves then as of the scorn scum thereof the basest meanest among the sons of men For Quare superbit homo cujus generatio culpa Vita labor nasci paena necesse mori Why should man have any high thoughts or be proud in any thing whose very conception is sinneful his birth paineful his life laborious and his death unavoydable As also in the second place let us continually pray unto him that he would not permit and suffer us for any respect whatsoever whether of feare or favor to forsake our obedience and respect towards him but still prefer his honor and worship and love and friendship before all earthly advantages whatsoever yea and before our lives too And for further use application let us be content with patience and silence to bear it if at any time we see the wicked lewd and those that we know to be worse then our selves to be prefer'd before us either to the honours or in the favors of the world seeing Christ was contented to let sinfull and wicked Barabbas to be preferred before him in these Jewes esteeme Secondly let us take heed of preferring vice before vertue the flesh before the spirit the honours and profits and pleasures of the world before the honour and worship and service of God for in doing all or any of these we doe but preferre Barabbas before Christ Neither let us upon any occasion connive and give way to any unbeseeming or unfitting practises and imperfections contrary to our owne consciences either to please our selves or for feare to displease others lest we be like Pilate who because he would not offend and displease the Jewes he appointed Christ to be scourged and Barabbas to be loosed Nor yet farther let us upon any termes whatsoever be we Magistrates or inferiours justifie the wicked and condemne the innocent for in so doing we do justifie Barabbas and condemne Christ And for the last use let us all know that how often soever it pleaseth God to put good motions into our mindes of setting Christ at liberty either in his poore members that are in durance or in any other pressures and oppressions whatsoever or in our owne soules where hee is imprisoned by our sinnes and wee neglect the opportunity either through some pretended difficulty or remisnesse and weakenesse of our owne resolutions and resistance in both these cases and diverse others like these we cry with these Jewes Vivat Barabbas crucifigatur Christus Let Barabbas live and Christ be crucified which how fearefull a sinne it is you have heard before But I must proceed Pilate prevailing nothing more towards Christs discharge by this second meanes then he had done by the former He resolves yet further to try the third as hoping though their malice bee never so great and mindes never so violent and outragious against him for the present yet partly by respite of time and partly by the severity of some corporall punishment the heat of their hate might at last be appeased and so his life spared for he was desirous and willing to release him as it is said Luke 23.20 And therefore for this purpose he determined to lay so sharpe a punishment upon him as might suffice as hee had reason to thinke to asswage their fury and satisfie their bloudy and cruell desires So that hereupon in the third place as I say he gave commandement that he should be scourged Quod non ob aliud fecisse Tract 116. in Ioh. init credendus est Pilatus as Saint Austin speakes nisi ut ejus injuriis Judaei satiati sufficere sibi existimarent usque ad ejus mortem saevire dâ—sisterent which we cannot imagine to be
For as the Apostle saith stipendium peccati mors The wages of sinne is death Rom. 6.23 according to the great Law-makers decree at the first In what day soever thou shalt eat of the forbidden fruit thou shalt die the death Gen. 2.17 And his Lawes are like the lawes of the Medes and Persians they must not nay they cannot be altered And therefore there was a necessity laid upon Messiah that he must be slaine as the Prophet speaketh Dan. 9.26 For he that will take upon him to become a Mediator unto God for sins yea and a redemption for sin too he must be content to pay the wages of sin which as you heare is death For God is not so wholly composed of Mercy as altogether to neglect Justice but his Law must be throughly satisfied before his Gospel can be effectually preached Vt sic justitia vinceretur diabolus non potentia That so the divell may be vanquished by justice not by power So that thus it behooved then Christ to suffer and to rise againe from death that repentance and remission of sinnes might be preached in his name to all nations as he saith himselfe Luke 24.46.47 verses yea for this cause is he the Mediator of the new Testament that through death which was for the redemption of the transgressions which were in the former Testament they which were called might receive the promise of eternall inheritance For where a Testament is there must needs be the death of him that made the Testament for the Testament is confirmed when men are dead for it is yet of no force as long as he that made it is alive wherefore neither was the first ordained without blood Heb. 9.15 16 17 18. verses O come and hearken then what God hath done for our soules ut animas nostras eriperet animam suam posuit he hath laid downe his owne life that hee may save ours ut me à morte eriperet In Psal 65. mortem accepit saith Arnobius and that I might live he hath beene contented to suffer himselfe to die Hee gave up the ghost Which phrase of expiring or giving up the ghost as it shewes his death and sacrifice upon the crosse for our sinnes to be voluntary so his humane nature to be perfect and intire as well of a reasonable soule as of humane flesh subsisting as it is in Athanasius Creed notwithstanding never so many lewd and lying fancies of some heretiques to the contrary so that Totus homo in Christo as Saint Austin speakes The whole manhood was assumed to and by the Godhead and not one part of it alone And in the same whole nature hee accordingly suffered under Pontius Pilate all those tortures and torments formerly recounted and at last died which if it were not so then were we which have believed in Christ of all men most miserable as being still in our sinnes our preaching and your believing all but in vaine as Saint Paul inferres 1 Corinth 15. For si aliquid ei defuit non totum redemit saith Saint Ambrose If hee wanted any part of man then hee saved not the whole man For it is out of all question that whatsoever hee assumed not hee redeemed not as Nazianzene But taking all in reality of association and assumption and dying according to all in verity of dissolution and disiunction he redeemed all even our whole persons consisting both of soules and bodies Which brings this comfort and consolation unto us that naturall death which at the first was inflicted as a curse upon Adam and all his posterity for transgressing of GODS Commandement as you have often heard already is now changed by this Death of Christ from a curse into a blessing insomuch as blessed are the dead which hereafter or henceforth dy in the Lord Revelations 14.13 Yea our owne death is made heereby a very bridge or path-way as it were to leade us unto life For hee that heareth my Word and believeth in him that sent mee sayth Christ himselfe hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation but hath passed from death unto life Iohn 5.24 Yea hee therefore tooke our humane nature and Flesh upon him that hee might destroy through his owne death him that had the power of death that is the divell and that he might deliver them which forfeare of death were all their life long subject unto bondage c Heb. 2 14.15 verses Againe hereby the second death is also quite taken away from all that are by a true and lively faith ingrafted into Christ There being no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus as Saint Paul concludeth Rom. 8.1 answerable to that of Austin Mors Christi simpla mortem nostram duplam desiruxit The single death of Christ hath destroyed that double death of ours unto which we were all lyable by reason of our sinnes And therefore as the same Father saith elsewhere O quam bene te tuo impetu diabole percussisti How well hath the Devill wounded himselfe through his owne violence seeing his cruelty in sparing none no not Gods owne Sonne hath brought life and safety to others but destruction and confusion onely to himselfe For Ille sanguis as he goes on quem effadisti te vicit me redemit That very blood of his which thou hast wrongfully and unjustly shed hath vanquished thee and redeemed me Prae valuisti in paradiso sed victus es de patibulo And although thou prevayledst and hadst the day in Paradise yet thou hast lost it againe by being conquered and overcome upon the Crosse O quam grande mysterium which is a great mystery indeed ut mors quae per lignum venit per lignum superaretur that that death which came from the fruit of the tree should upon the Tree bee vanquished and overcome and that gate of life which was shut against Adam should now be opened to a thiefe By which it appeares that Mors Christierat muscipula tantū diaboli The death of Christ was onely a trap wherein to catch the Devill Which hee was willing therefore to set up Vt injusta mors justam vinceret mortem That his undeserved death might free them from death that had deserved it Et liberaret reos juste dum pro eis occidebatur injuste as the same Austin still and that he might acquit and discharge those that were guilty because he that was guiltlesse or not guilty was put to death for them whereby because Non habebat peccata propria digne delevit aliena He that had no sinnes of his owne did worthily blot out the sins of other men He gave up the ghost And here I might dismisse this point had I not promised you at my first entrance into this discourse to shew you a Quis Quis. aswell as a Quid Who suffered as well as what For here if any where is the most proper place to bring it in For seeing we have proved at large aswell in our former as in
this present tract that He was the second Person of the sacred Trinity that tooke our nature upon him and in it suffered all these things under Pontius Pilate for our sakes why here may arise the greatest difficulty and doubt of all the rest whether He could also dye Whether He that is God of God yea very God of very God of the same substance with the Father and therefore equall to him as touching his god-head by whom also were all things made that were made and so is Lord likewise both of life and death whether this so great so good a person could be subject unto death himselfe because our Creed tels us not onely that He suffered under Pontius Pilate was crucified but that he dyed too which to our naturall reason and humane capacities seemes I must confesse to have two absurdities if not impossibilities in it at the least The one that Christ should dye being without sinne seeing death is the wages onely of sinne as you have heard already out of the Apostle Rom. 6.23 The other that he could being the Sonne of God For the salving and solving of which latter doubt the former being sufficiently cleared before we must know that God in the person of Christ might dye though the God-head could not For being a mixt person consisting of two natures as of God-head and Manhood in one and the same subject the one passible and mortall and the other impassible and immortall that which was humane and passible might suffer and dye Citra ullam divinitatis injuriam ac detrimentum without any detriment or injury to the other Ser. 64. in Evang. Ioh. So that as Saint Austin saith Mortuus est filius dei sed secundum carnem mortuus non secundum verbum quod caro factum est The Sonne of God is indeed dead but it is onely in his flesh which he tooke from us not as he is the word of God which tooke our flesh and thereby dwelleth in us but in that he dyed De nostro mortuus est it is onely in what he had from us as in that we live de ipsius vivimus it is alone by that life which we receive from him Nec potuit mori de suo nec vivere de nostro So that as he could not dye in his owne nature so he could not but dye in ours unlesse he would still have been obnoxious and lyable to the accusation of the Devill and all other adversaries of not taking really and truly our humane dying nature upon him And therefore as in the birth of Christ humility was assumed by Majesty weaknesse and infirmity by power and mortality by eternity that so a perfect mediatour might be found to reconcile God and his sinneful creatures together so for the finall finishing of the sayd reconciliation and atonement and for the paying of our nature his due by death the inviolable and impassible nature of God is likewise united to our nature that is passible that so the said Mediatour may become able to performe all things requisite for our redemption by suffering and dying in our nature although otherwise he could neither suffer nor dye in his owne And not onely able to doe it but truely active also in the doing of it Compend Theol. p. â— c. 42. For passibilitas ad satisfaciendum vel merendum non sufficit sine passione in Actu as Aquinas speakes Passibility or a power to suffer is not sufficient to merit at Gods hands or make satisfaction for our sinnes without actuall suffering indeed No man being reckoned or accounted either good or evill by his ability alone to doe such and such things but onely because he hath or doth actuate and performe them Nec laus aut vituperium debentur potentiae sed actui as he goes on so that praise or dispraise is not properly due to powers but only to Acts. In regard whereof Christ tooke unto himselfe Non solum passibilitatem nostram ut nos salvaret not onely our passibility and power to suffer or dye but that he might perfect and accomplish our redemption to the full and stop the mouth of all accusers whatsoever whether wicked men or evill Angels he did truly and indeed both suffer and dye undergoing all things for us which by reason of our forefathers fall we should have undergone our selves the chiefe whereof is death ad quam omnes aliae passiones humanae ordinantur sicut ad ultimum unto which all other humane passions doe tend and are directed as to their last end Thus far Aquinas And thus you see beloved how Christ the Sonne of God consisting of two distinct natures aswell divine as humane should and could might and did suffer and dye Salva tamen proprietate utriusque naturae The property and propriety of each nature notwithstanding being stil preserved and reserved to it selfe intire As for instance by the vertue and power of his divine nature he caused the souldiers and band of men which came to apprehend and take him to goe backwards and fall to the ground whereas in the weakenes of his humane nature he was afterwards apprehended bound imprisoned carryed before severall Judges scourged spit upon derided buffered and at last condemned as guilty Againe by the vertue and power of his divine nature he converted day into night at the time of his passion and caused all the elements to tremble and shake for dread and yet in the weaknesse of his humane nature his hands were fastened with nayles unto the wood of the Crosse and his whole body stretched out upon it By the vertue and power of his divine nature he opened againe the gates of Paradise to the good theefe And in the weaknesse and imbecillity of his humane nature in the greatest depth and hurle of all his troubles he cryes out unto his Father My God my God why hast thou forsaken me By the vertue and in the power of his divine nature he offered up prayers and supplications with strong cryings and teares unto him that was able to save him from death and was also heard in that which he feared as the Apostle speakes Heb. 5.7 whereas in the infirmity and weaknesse of his humane nature hee yeelded up his spirit with commendations of it into his Fathers hands and gave up the ghost In all which passages of his Passion then yee see his divinity was never totally eclipst but still sends forth some beames of his might and majesty even in the midst of his greatest weaknesse and infirmity and all to let us see and know that though his manhood suffer and dye yet is his God-head still perfect and intire And therefore though wee heare much and often of the death of Christ the Sonne of God yet let us not be offended nor troubled at it considering the admirable efficacie of it In being as full of horrour and terrour to the wicked so of comfort and consolation to the godly So that in nothing is that saying
recompence and reward of all such his spirituall labours And thus farre Chrysostome of the Great Week And thus farre I of the sufferings and death of Christ in the same Weeke or his giving up the ghost Buryed THe utmost point and period of the sufferings and death of Christ and the last degree of the dejection and humiliation of his assumed humanity is reckoned by the generall consent of most and best Divines to be his buriall that is when after his death his body like other mens was laid into the ground that so men might see and know that hee was dead indeed according as it was foretold of him That he should make his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death though he had done no wickednesse neither was any deceit in his mouth Esay 59.3 For as Jonas was three dayes and three nights in the Whales belly so shall the Sonne of man be in the heart of the earth saith he of himselfe Matth. 12.40 For the better record of the truth of which prophesies all the foure Evangelists have reported and set downe the manner of it as yee may finde in them if you please to have recourse unto them Saint John shall serve for my purpose in this place as being somewhat larger in some circumstances then the rest who describes the order of Christs buriall in this sort After the death of him saith he Joseph of Arimathea besought Pilate that hee might take downe the body of Jesus and Pilate gave him licence He came then and tooke Jesus body And there came also Nicodemus and brought Myrrhe and Aloes mingled together about an hundred pound Then tooke they the body of Jesus and wrapped it in linnen cloathes with the odours as the manner of the Jewes is to bury And in that place where Jesus was crucified was a Garden and in the Garden a new Sepulchre wherein man was never yet layd There then layd they Jesus because of the Jewes preparation day for the Sepulchre was neare John 19.38 39 40 41 42. verses Where yee see then a large description of the solemnity of his buriall in which wee may observe that though his enemies did crucifie him and put him to death yet his friends onely take care to bury him and have him decently interred Which argues the sincerity of their affection towards him though as yet they durst not openly confesse him for feare of the Jewes And it was more fittingly done by these then it could have beene done by his knowne Disciples because as Saint Austin saith Ser. 117. de Temp. Si Apostoli sepelirent eum dicerent non sepultum quem Judaei nunciaverant raptum The world might have beene apt to beleeve that he had never beene buried at all seeing the Jewes gave out that he was stollen away And because he dyed to save other men it was but reason he should be laid in another mans grave Vt quid enim illi propria sepultura qui in se propriam non habebat mortem saith the same Austin Ser 133. de Temp. For why should he have a Sepulcher of his owne to whom death nor buriall did not properly belong Vt quid illi tumulus in terris cujus sedes manebat in coelis Or why should he looke for a Tombe on earth whose habitation and abiding place was onely in Heaven neither indeed had he any For Saint Matthew tells us that Joseph laid him in his owne new Tombe which hee had hewne out in the Rock Matth. 27.60 And thus much briefly of the manner of Christs buriall The causes thereof is the next thing to be considered which are assigned by Writers upon this subject to bee diverse I wi l prosecute onely some few of the chiefe and so conclude The first whereof shall be this viz. That the truth of his death might thereby be manifested and confirmed For living men use not to be buried but only such aâ— are dead To which purpose also some other parts and passages of his Passion may be urged and alleadged As that a Souldier thrust a speare into his side That he was taken downe from the Crosse so soone as they perceived him to be dead indeed That they annoynted and imbalmed him to the buriall and wrapped him in linnen clothes and the like For as by touching handling and seeing of him as also by his eating of broyled fish afterwards and part of an honey-combe we conclude the truth of his Resurrection so by these other circumstances the truth of his death Secondly that in his Grave he might bury all our sinnes for which that curse was imposed on us In pulverem reverteris Thou shalt returne to dust Compend Theol. c. 49. Gen. 3.19 For as Aquinas well observes Sinne hath brought upon us not onely infirmities and afflictions in the time of our lives but defects also even after our death aswell in our bodies as our soules In our soules to descend to the lowest Lake contrary to the nature of spirituall essences which should ascend rather to the highest heavens and in our bodies to returne againe to the earth from whence they were taken contrary to the Law of our Creation which was to have beene so quickned by the spirit of life as not to have died at all but to have liv'd together with the soule for ever Now this defect of our bodies is to bee considered as our School-man speakes Secundum positionem secundum resolutionem either according to its position or resolution It s position is onely to be laid in the ground Its resolution is also to be dissolved into the first elements of which it was compacted and composed The former of these Christ would did undergoe but not the latter according to that of the Psalmist Non dabis sanctum tuum videre corruptionem Thou shalt not suffer thy holy One to see corruption viz. by the putrefaction of his body Psal 16.10 The reason whereof is this because as the matter or materials of Christs body comming from the nature of man was in regard thereof to be returned to ' its proper and accustomed place under the ground Locus enim corporibus debetur secundum materiam praedominantis elementi that is Place is due to bodies according to the matter of the predominant element which is Earth So the frame and composure of his body comming not from man but from the vertue and power and workemanship of the Holy Ghost was not to be dissolved neither would he or did he undertake it because herein he was singular and differed from other men Thus farre Aquinas Thirdly hee was therefore buried to shew that wee by Baptisme are buried with him into death as the Apostle speaketh that like as hee was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so wee also should walke in newnesse of life Rom. 6.4 Fourthly he was buryed and rested in his grave the whole day of the Jewes Sabbath that he might sanctify an