Christians being only six foot square and eight foot high and the entrance into it on the East-side about three foot high and three foot three inches broad On the right side of which Sepulcher from the entrance the Sacred body of our Lord was placed see Mark 16.5 compared Jo. 20.12 with his head toward the West After this the door or mouth of the Cave was shut up and fenced with a massy piece of rock cut out for the purpose not to be removed but by the help of many hands to hinder any violation of the Sepulcher or Body or robbing it of those costly linnen and spices that should be bestowed upon it Such a cave it was where Lazarus was buried Jo. 11.38 31 41. with a great Stone rolled upon the entrance into it which our Lord then commanded to be removed and our Lords raising of him a lively type of the same thing he would shortly after perform in raising himself Meanwhile those women our Lords former Disciples and Attendants that assisted not in this action keeping some distance perhaps in respect of these honourable persons with whom they had no acquaintance observed all that was done where their Lord was laid and how the Sepulcher made fast and it being now too late because night approached they intended after the Sabbath ended to express their last love and affection to ther dear Lord also in bringing some more sweet odours and spices for preserving and perfuming of his Sacred body and the narrow roome where it lay more to shew the honour and devotion they bare to it and once more to behold to touch and kiss those most holy Relicks than that there was now need of any more such cost § 113 Thus our so cruelly murthered Lord was now at rest whilst his glorious Soul meanwhile that was never separated from the Deity and now attended on with multitudes of Angels descended into Hell and the lowest parts of the Earth and of his Kingdom and there triumphed over the Powers of Darkness conquered as to their former Tyranny over man and over the lower part of this world by his late death and delivered also thence such imprisoned Souls as were capable of the mercy and favours of his Passion according to that of the Prophet Zee 9.11 Tu quoque in sanguine testamenti tui emisisti vinctos tuos de lacu in quo non est aqua and so with them entred into Paradise the place of joy and Repose for all happy souls till the resurrection of their bodies where he was adored by them as the Author of their Salvation and endless felicity and amongst the rest by the Soul of his late Fellow-sufferer though upon a just account the penitent Theif and so this its beatifical presence they there injoyed till the appointed time of its return to exalt also his crucified body to the state of glory Thus I say our so cruelly murthered Lord was now at rest but not so the consciences of the Pharisees and High Priests Whose seeing these two noble persons Joseph and Nicodemus thro so much popular hate to have so honourably interred his Body gave them a great jealousy and the predictions also about his rising again the third day much disturbed them Though a thing which was quite forgotten by our Lords Disciples and Followers who one would think had most cause to have remembred it and which he had so often told them of and they had upon hearing it from him also disputed amongst themselves what should be meant by it as they descended from the holy Mount after our Lord's Transfiguration and after this again were by him minded of it but the night before his passion as they went along to the Garden he telling them then also that when risen he would go before them into Galilee Mat. 26.32 I say this forgotten by them yet now very much troubled and disquieted the thoughts of the High Priests They could now call to mind how when they asked him a sign once and again Mat. 12.38.16.4 he alleged to them that of Jonah and that the Son of man as Jonah in the Whales belly should lye three daies in the heart of the earth and so be cast up again and the jaws of Death not be able to detain him And his saying that if they destroyed the Temple meaning his Body after three daies he would raise it up which speech of his though before they made it misconstrued by them an Article to condemn him yet now they could apprehend in another and its right sense and might thereby have condemned themselves Now also perhaps the words of our Lord spoken with so much Majesty before them at his arraignment ran in their mind that they should shortly see him sitting on the right hand of Power and lastly the obsequious respects they saw given to his body by those two eminent persons they conceived might arise from some such hopes and were performed from some such expectation Remembring therefore these predictions and perhaps not free from all fears of such an event after having beheld such wonderful things at and before his death they thought it meet at least to prevent any cheat in the business and to hinder that his Disciples might not upon such rumour of his rising again to deceive the credulous people remove secretly his body and so shew the empty Sepulcher and suborn some to say they had seen him though indeed no reason they had to suspect any such thing but rather that his Disciples if finding his words false would at least recant their former error and confess him an Impostor and a false Prophet Therefore they hasted again to Pilat for all that it was the Sabbath it being late over night before they were informed of his solemn and sumptuous Burial and relating to him these predictions and the bad consequence that might be of them importuned him that there might be set a watch before the Sepulcher till the third day and as if jealous also of the corruption of the Watch that the Sepulcher might be sealed besides But why this seal because if the body were taken away there must be a breach of the seal and so this theft discovered But so would there be a breach of it if the body risen again For how could they imagine that that power which raised the body might or would not also throw open the door for its passage But this Seal served well meanwhile to save it from the pillage of the Soldiers and to guard it from the Guards Some Antients say that the stone was by them fastned to the Sepulcher with iron These things were done accordingly by themselves the Governour leaving this wholly to their own ordering and doubtless much wondring at these their extravagant jealousies and fears So to the Monument they go set this Guard and seal the stone and this with no regret that it was on the Sabbath of the breach of which but by better works surely than these they had so
so his glorified Body should not remain alone but have also a great train of other glorified Bodies whom he thought meet to wait upon him and with it ascend to Heaven Who to shew his conquest not only over his own but our death and to confirm to us also our resurrection by vertue of his were together with him the Primitiae dormientium and the primogeniti ex mortuis in whom the divine Wisdom thought fit then to foreshew what is to be performed and made good to the rest of the bodyes of all his Saints now lying in their dust at the great day And some of these Saints also in these their new restored bodyes came into the Holy City saith the Evangelist stiling it so as if now sanctified with their presence and in alluding to the celestial Jerusalem of which these glorified bodyes were now to be eternal Inhabitants and there these also appeared to many saith the Text according as the Divine providence disposed testifying to them the Resurrection of our Lord and further confirming it with their own and so presently disappeared again Now what glorified persons these should be whether some holy men or also Disciples of our Lord that were lately before deceased as the Baptist S. Simeon Anna Zachary S. Joseph or others whose Sepulchers were near the City and well known and now viewed to be opened and empty by such as remembred their interment appearing to such to whom their persons were formerly well known or also whether most of the more eminent former Patriarchs and Prophets that had lain now so long a time in the dust and whom our Lord would gratify with a more early Resurrection we not knowing how far his favours now at this his entrance into his glory might be extended though what S. Peter saith of David Act. 2.34 seems somewhat to weaken such an opinion here I say it would be too curious to inquire further into such a matter hidden from us to whom several things of the Oeconomy of the next world for certain reasons of the Divine Wisdom are as yet but very sparingly revealed § 117 Amidst these extraordinary discourses of our revived Lord by the Guards and by the Saints risen with him the Galilean women who on the Eve of the Sabbath had observed where his Body was laid and knew nothing of the Guards that were set there the next day and having now prepared a more choice composition of spices and odours than the former hast of his burial would permit to Nicodemus in which women also used to be better skilled rose up very early in the Morning to go to the Sepulcher there to visit his precious Body and pay this last office of their duty and love unto it These were Mary Magdalen and Mary our Blessed Ladyes sister-in-law and mother of our Lords Brethren Salome the mother of James and John Joanna the Wife of Herods Steward and some others besides But no mention is there of our Lords Mother the Blessed Virgin amongst them and the reason why she who had a much greater love to and grief for her Son than any other yet was not so active as they in expressing it seems to be either that John to whose prudent care she was committed had restrained her return to the Sepulcher so to put some bounds to her grief and that this might not add sorrow to sorrow or rather because both the faith of his Resurrection before it came to pass was never diminished or ecclipsed in her who also full of Grace laid up in her heart all our words and well remembred what others forgot and also because most probably our Lords consolation of her so soon as he was risen was not at all deferred but that by his immediat apparition to her he afforded her an early recompence of her former suffering those sword-points of sorrow at his Cross and also of the faith which in her alone withered not at that time as in the rest Though our Lord mean-while did not think fit to use her having so near a relation to his person for a witness to others of his return to life which she also might then understand from him was to be discovered by certain degrees for the greater trial of his Disciples and evidence of the fact and so whilst others went to and fro she remained after this beatifical sight all this morning in the posture of so great a Mourner retired continuing in a rapture of joy and uncessant praises and thanksgivings to God For none can here rationally imagine that our Lord who vouchsafed to honour Mary Magdalens love and tears and S. Peters primacy and extraordinary affection to him with a gratious sight of him before the other men or women omitted this to his own Mother more loving and beloved by him § 118 The most Holy Virgin thus retired and the other women as yet busy in ordering their Provisions Mary Magdalen more regardless as formerly Luk. 10.42 of such by-businesses more fervorous and impatient in her affection to be with what was yet left her of our Lord whom only the devout observation of the Sabbath could have restrained from the Sepulcher so long ran before the rest whilst it was yet dark saith S. John with a valour more than a womans to this place there rather to expect and stay for her company For this S. Johns particular story of her as also our Lords appearing to her alone before the other mentioned also by S. Mark Mark. 16.9 He appeared first to Mary Magdalen seems to intimate But here some of the Evangelists writing things more compendiously in which others are more copious and some with more others with fewer circumstances and so for persons also some mentioning more than other do wherein yet is no contradiction whilst I give the substance of what these Sacred Historians have delivered I desire your pardon if I do not or cannot punctually observe the order of every thing done in this so small a time and yet so very full of various occurrences since as S. Jerome on Mat. 28. observes particularly of these women there seems to have bin several excursions to and returns from the Sepulcher made by them and perhaps not of all of them together Crebro abeunt saith he recurrunt non patiuntur a Sepulcro Domini diu abesse aut longius Mary Magdalen then coming thither thus alone when the soldiers were already fled away of whom she knew nothing saw the great stone rolled from the Sepulcher and our Lords body taken thence at which surprized with great wonder and grief she ran back into the city to the house where S. Peter abode with S. John and the Blessed Mother of our Lord probably all the Disciples not lodging together to tell them the sad News See Ink. 24.9 12 24. that the Monument was thrown open and no body there These two the chief of the society and between whom seems to have bin a more particular friendship who also had
poor to make us rich And how well now do his own words Mat. 11.29 in this posture and in this age the emblem of humility especially become Him Learn of me for I am meek and lowly and Matt. 20.28 The Son of man came not to be ministred unto § 30 And thus it seemed meet to him who justly proportioneth all things the exaltation suitable to the humiliation and the measure of glory to that of ignominy Phil. 2.9 Heb. 2.9 12.2 in his intending to build the exaltation of this man Jesus higher then all to lay his humiliation lower then all and this King being to have not one but two comings into this lower world the latter whereof was to be with exceeding pomp and glory and attendance with shouting and sound of Trumpet 1 Thes 4.16 with the whole Court of Heaven in all their glory Luk. 2.26 and all the Chariots of God Mat. 24.30 Psal 104.3 waiting on Him with his bright beams streaming from the East unto the West Mat. 24.27 Thus it seemed meet to his Father to dispose the first coming in exceeding lowness and contempt desertion and poverty that he might appear in one as novissimus Hominum Esai 53.3 who in the other was to appear as primo-genitus Dei. And we find Moses that great type of our Lord in being also a glorious deliverer of Gods people out of their house of bondage and their Lawgiver treated in his infancy much what after the same manner when he lay amongst Crocodiles a weeping and sorlorne Infant in a bulrush cradle floating in the flags of Nile and his poor life sought-for by Pharaoh as this Infant 's by Herod Lastly thus it seemed fit unto Him who bestows not heaven on man for nothing to disguise his only Son through the belief in whom we can only attain eternal life in so many Veiles and unlikelyhoods now laying him in a Cratch then hanging him on a Cross to advance in us so much the more the worth and dignity of our Faith to which what praise and thanks would it have bin to have believed on him appearing in Majesty and glory like a Son of God and such as we shall see him in his next Advent where no offence of the Manger nor of the Cross Gal. 5.11 Therefore it pleased God by eclypsing his own Sons honour to dignify mans faith and so increase his reward as likewise to discover to this faith his infinite power in raising such greatness out of such littleness in making all Kings submit their Scepters to such a poor born-child and all nations to do him service Psal 72.11 nay above all things to glory in his shame and in his Cross and to build a Temple even over this Manger § 31 The Infant being thus swath'd and cradled we may suppose the Holy Joseph and Mary who thro this veil of his poverty yet well discerned who he was and presently fell down and worshipped this new-born Emanuel turning this privacy and solitude and freedom from the tumult of the Town desertion of attendance and silence of the night to an elevation of their devotion and Christmas Vigils well pleased to see themselves surrounded tho with poor yet none but innocent Creatures and such as had never offended their Maker whilst sinful man was deem'd unworthy of such a celestial society Overjoyed in their first sight of this divine person the desire of all ages dedicating the whole service of their lives to his constant attendance and again receiving from him those sweet smiles and those indearing looks which the love and gratitude of one who tho an Infant in age yet was then mature in all wisdom and who had nothing of a child in him save the weakness and humility did think fit to return to so great pains and so devout adoration Thus they remained solicitous for nothing in so great extremity but saying to themselves some such thing as S. Paul in contemplation of the riches of the same Lord Rom. 8.32 God that hath given us his only Son how shall he not with him also freely give us all things § 32 Leaving now these holy persons in the deep and silent contemplation of the mysteries of the Almighty in that God-infant which lay before them and exercising the greatness of their faith in the lowness of outward appearances Let us go forth and see what meanwhile occurred in the feilds near adjoining § 33 The same night that our Saviour was born there happened to be some Shepheards whilst all the rest of the world were at their ease and asleep watching over their flocks in the same plaines where heretofore David himself the Father of our Lord had many a night watched over his these Bethleemites being his successours in the same trade and occupation Which innocent and simple manner of life spent in guarding the most harmless and the most profitable and the most shiftless of all creatures not engaged in much business solitary and leaving the mind free for much contemplation was also that of the first Saint Abel and of the Patriarchs before David to whom the promises of the Messias were made Poor and mean persons they were as we may gather from their imployment who else would have had a servant to have watched for them on so long nights in so sharp a season God's great love to man and to the honour of his Son was pleased instantly to communicate and reveal both to the Jew and to the Gentile yet not to all but to some chosen witnesses of both the birth of his Son the same Saviour to all people Luk. 2.10 that this Prince at his first entrance into the world might receive due adoration and homage from the representatives of them both He therefore for the body of the Jews in his infinite wisdom made election of these poor Shepheards as he did at the same time of the Magi for the body of the Gentiles § 34 Hereupon to these Shepheards descendeth an Angel vested with very great glory and light saith the Teâ—t Luk. 2.9 for doing this new-born Prince the honour in such his low condition to tell them the joyful news of the birth of a Saviour which was Christ the Lord. Luk. 2.11 a Saviour not of our bodies or estates from our temporal enemies for a while unconsiderable salvations fear not them that can kill the body c. Mat. 10.28 but of our Souls from our sins from our Ghostly enemies from spiritual wickednesses in heavenly places from Abaddon the Prince of the bottomless pit from prisons and chains and darkness and tortures and deaths eternal And the Angel gave them this sign to know him by that they should find him lying in the Manger of a Stable a strange sign of so great a Prince but yet not so improper for such a Saviour who was to restore the world by humility and sufferings as it fell by pride and a very distinctive sign such as was common to no other Infant and a sign which could not but
that use the world as tho they did not use it and tho they be as big as Camels yet they must become as small as a thred to get into this Kingdom Mat. 19.16 21 23 24 26. which only admits the small things of this world Which thing since it is so hard to do tho possible therefore hath voluntary secular poverty ever since the times of the coming of this Prince bin had in such esteem because the poor only in spirit that remain still rich in Fortunes are forced to bear one heavy Cross more than any other poor which many of them sink and miscarry under and are not able to go through with it namely the trouble and anxiety of a prudent dispensing those goods and revenues of which God hath made them only his Stewards not Masters and by possessing living in a continual Temptation from them Now since this Kingdom hath such an Antipathy to this present world First none surely are more fit to entertain or be entertained by this King then those who have least of it Like adheres to its like and had the Great ones bin sent to the Stable to worship this Prince lying amongst their horses instead of the Shepheards likely their knees would have bin more stiffe and they that asked Can such a Prince come out of Galilee or Nazareth would much more Can such a Prince come out of a Stable and scorning to be subject to one so far below them would have become Traitors to Him as Great Herod was sooner then Disciples 2ly None so fit also to preach such a Kingdom to the world as the poor and those who were not themselves full of the possession of those things the contempt whereof they counselled to others § 41 Now to return to the Blessed Virgin and her husband We see how the same night that was so full of straits the joyful Shepheards coming in and relating see Luk. 2.19 as an occasion of their coming their vision the message and song of Angels revives their spirits and recreats their affliction Their heaviness endured not all the night but joy overtook it before the morning and the scandal of the Stable was removed by the glorious appearance in the feild whilst the child despised by earth was magnified by heaven And we may observe that this great humiliation of the Son of God was every where mingled with some state state beyond all other sons of men When conceived a great Angel of presence is sent before with the news of it the Virgin going to Elizabeth She inspired from heaven falls a-magnifying him and his Mother return'd to Joseph an Angel declares to Him the Holy Conception and greatness of this Prince Born in so mean a roome at Bethleem Angels appearing in the Air discover it to the Jews and sing a Gloria in excelsis to Him to counterpoise that ignominy in infimis And a new Star appearing in the heavens at the same time manifests it to the Gentiles And so hereafter when presented in the Temple Holy Simeon and Anna proclaim him The Infants life conspired against by Herod an Angel discovers the plot and afterward in Egypt reveals to them the death of his enemy Baptized by John the Holy Ghost in the shape of a Dove comes down and fits on his head Upon his fasting and humiliation in the Wilderness Angels come and Minister unto him Before his going up to Jerusalem to suffer Moses and Elias in great glory visit him In his greatest agony and faintings in the Garden an Angel is sent to restore strength to him And to shew the common intercourse he had with Angels and how he had these subjects of heaven continually at his beck and service see what he saith to Nathaniel Jo. 1.51 and to Peter Mat 26.53 Lastly when murthered by the Jews the Sun loseth its light and the earth so trembleth that the Rocks of it rent in peices when his body buried Angels sit at the Head and feet of his Grave After so shameful a death followed so glorious a resurrection and ascension into Heaven in a bright cloud of Angels Thus to great humiliations God not only giveth afterward after a resurrection or so but presently intermingleth great honours and like exaltations and hath given an example thereof in this Head that the same might be securely expected by the members § 42 Now whilst these honours were done Mary's Blessed Infant from on high in which honours of their children Mothers use to glory more then in their own the Evangelist noting the modest and silent behaviour of the Virgin saith that whilst all that heard wondred at and magnified these things she kept and pondered them in her heart Luk. 2.18 19. took great notice without much talk tho her glorying in Him had bin a right glorying being glorying in the Lord. 1 Cor. 1.31 covering all these things that had happened for the present with great taciturnity and humility and perhaps not without some presage of the hatred and envy which her Son was afterward to suffer which things in due time after our Saviours humiliation and resurrection was passed she revealed to the Apostles and other disciples from whom this Evangelist received them Luk. 1.1 Meanwhile we may imagine how these strange accidents still increased if capable of increase the silent and reverent deportment both of Joseph and Mary toward the child Jesus whilst the little Babe in the cratch by the secret influence of his divine power guided all these occurrences and made these persons so near him to do only such things as done might be acceptable to Him § 43 A compleat week was now passed over and the eighth day the number for all perfection was now come at which time the law required Circumcision of all male children Lev. 12.3 so to enroll them into the family of Gods Church and render them heirs of the Covenant made with faithful Abraham of redemption benediction and an eternal inheritance thro his seed that was to come our Lord Christ Of which Covenant Circumcision was from Abrahams time appointed in Gods Church as a Sacrament and seal Gen. 17. The Blessed Virgin therefore and her most â—â—us husband diligently performed to this Holy Babe the solemnities thereof Of which solemnity if we may make where the Law is silent any conjecture of the Ancient from the modern rites the manner of later times is that it may be done by any person even the Father of the Child and we see Moses his Sons were circumcised by their Mother Exod. 4.24 but yet is usually procured to be done by some person well experienced in the practice thereof may be done also in any place either more solemnly in their School or Synagogue or more privatly in their own house Two of the kindred or near relation are as it were a God-Father and God-Mother to the Child the woman bringing the Infant to the place of Circumcision The man sitting down and holding it in the Circumcision after which done with a
of these Samaritans being Israelites and many Jews also when obnoxious to the Laws or for some other secular advantages removing thither out of Judea After which times also another Anti-Temple about one hundred and fifty years before our Lords coming was erected in Egypt for the Jews flying together with Onias a Son of the High Priest when as persecuted by Antiochus Epiphanes which Temple perished as also the other near the time of the destruction of that in Jerusalem and both these forraign Temples seem preludiums of Gods worship shortly to be made common to the whole world This is premised for the better understanding of what follows § 197 Near to this City Sychem and this Mount was a Well digged by Jacob and then made use of by the City And here our Lord travelling on foot and wearied with his mornings journey it being now about noon and the heat of the day sat down on the side of the Well to rest himself it as a place of resort likely having some Trees and shade about it whilst the Disciples went into the Town to buy some meat for his and their dinner For the Jews had no commerce or conversation with the Samaritans when absolute necessity did not require it as this of travellers buying victuals of them so as to ear and drink and lodg with them being accounted by them Schismaticks and unclean which caused also the same enmity against and separation of the Samaritans at least some of them from the Jews see Luk. 9.53 the other Samaritans seem herein more remiss see vers 56. Whilst our Lord was here left alone a Samaritan woman came thither out of the City to draw water This happened also to be a woman that had had already five husbands either all already deceased or she by divorce separated from them for in latter times women also used to procure divorces from their husbands and that now lived incontinently with one not married to her § 198 Our Lord thirsty with his journey and desiring to entertain some further spiritual discourse with her concerning the salvation of this poor wretch requested of her some water to drink upon which she somewhat wondring asked him why he as appearing by his habit and perhaps his speech a Jew would receive water from her and out of her vessel being a Samaritan and one also it seems that for all the impurity of her life was a Zelot of the Samaritan Religion and way of Gods worship and of their separation from the Jews Here-upon our Lord moved with compassion took occasion to preach the new Gospel and to reveil himself to her and turning the mention of water with a Metaphor and to enter without force or abruption into pious discourse as usually and as we find he doth by and by concerning meat and again concerning harvest told her that he was a person from whom she might expect a greater curtesy and that if she had well known the Gift of God and who he was she would have begged water of him rather the true water quenching all thirst and in the receiving of it a Well continually abounding i. e springing up in all spiritual Graces to everlasting life conferred by it Our Lord here speaking as formerly in his discourse with Nicodemus of the Gift of the Holy Spirit which he came to bestow upon the world and which his Death procured of the Father which being conferred in our regeneration by the water of baptism cures all hunger and thirst after earthly things and fully satisfies and beatifies the Soul Consider Jo. 7.38 39. 6.35 Esai 44.3 § 199 The woman saying she should be glad to receive such water Our Lord the more to encrease her faith in him bad her to call her husband as if it were meet that he also with his wife should share thereof thus taking occasion to discover to her his knowledg of all her former life and condition and for the present of her living in secret concubinage She hereby discerning him to be a Prophet and perhaps to divert him from speaking more of her husband presently begun to consult him concerning Religion who in the present division were in the right the Samaritans or the Jews and where God was more acceptably worshipped in Mount Garizim where the Patriarchs Abraham and Jacob and afterward Joshua by Gods appointment and their fore-fathers that came out of Egypt built an Altar and offered Sacrifices as hath bin said or at Jerusalem a place of a latter consecration and sanctity the Samaritans also rejecting any testimonies produced out of the Prophets against them and see the vehement contest and dispute of the Samaritans and Jews that had bin before this in Alexandria before Ptolemeus Philometer made Judge in a cause Joseph Ant. l. 13. c. 4. § 200 Our Lord after he had first told her that the Samaritans not Jews for the time past were peccant and schismatical herein and the right way of salvation to be among the Jews and so also the Salvation through the Gospel first to be communicated to them proceeds to instruct her concerning the times of the Gospel now at hand wherein all such former Divisions and factions concerning the place of worship should be taken away that God was a Spirit not addicted or confined to Place nor taken with corporeal things and external Ceremonies but only as these were types and prefigurations of spiritual things to come and of his real service by and through Christ but that he expected those now who should worship him in what place soever in spirit and in truth intimating here the abrogation from henceforth of the former legal worship and Ceremonies which was accordingly established by the Apostles Act. 15. a thing that at this time the Samaritans would more willingly hear of than the Jews And he speaks also here to her of worshipping not God in general but the Father the true worshippers will worship the Father For that all worship of God now was to be through Christ his Son and by such as were also made his Sons through Christ Worshipping God also in Spirit seems to be the worship of him in and by the Holy Spirit given through Christ according to those expressions of our Lord to Nicodemus before Jo. 3.6 that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit and Mat. 22.43 David in Spirit called him Lord. And of S. Paul whom I serve in the Spirit Rom. 1.9 and Rom. 8.14 those who are led by the Spirit and vers 9. Ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit § 201 The woman upon our Lords saying the Hour cometh c. replyed that she believed when the Messias should come he would declare all Gods pleasure concerning his worship and remove all the present differences Our Lord told her that himself was the Messias She hearing this and much transported with his former discourse whose words were with authority and setting hearts on fire and bidden also by him to call her husband carelesly leaving
higher Degree were now by God or by our Lord himself withheld from his human nature or from his lower-self here in the Garden For had our Lord wanted these spiritual pangs and these anguishes of his soul he had wanted one of the greatest if not the very greatest sufferings of mankind besides which inward Anguish what external temptations also our Lords human Nature might suffer from Satan now in the greatest Relaxation also that ever was of the power or darkness Luk. 22.53 Jo. 14.30 12.31 immediatly forerunning the great conquest over it we know not § 12 Now therefore it pleased the divine Majesty to the End that his Son might pass through all our temptations and sorrows and suffer all manner of sufferings such as are innocent for and before us Tentatus per omnia ut possit compati infirmitatibus nostris Heb. 4.15 As also for our encouragement in the like It pleased him I say now so far to suspend from the humanity of our Lord the influences of the Divinity and so far to withdraw and Eclipse the consolations of the holy Spirit as that it is to be presumed by his unparallelled Agony that never any of his Followers have or can suffer the like without falling away from his innocence for through his strength it is that all they are valiant or do persevere And we see when some drops onely of the same storm fell on the Disciples how soon they shrunk under them not onely like us then he was in all our innocent infirmities even those of the soul and natural affections thereof as well as those of the body and senses thereof but far beyond us That in all things even in human miseries and in those miseries also spiritual desolations so far as innocent he might have the preeminence and that out of the depth of this his humiliation might be raised a greater exaltation and that also how much greater in him the natural fear and horrour of death seemed to be so much more his love to us might be demonstrated that notwithstanding for us he would so chearfully undergo it all And whereas his Divinity could so easily have hindered or mastered and diverted any such tender apprehension and sense of greif in the lower faculties which he doth also not unfrequently in his Martyrs the joyes of their spirit and superior part drowning and intercepting the Greif and Paines of the inferiour whilst the intensiveness of the soul to one act disenableth it as to all other yet he to march before us in all our greifs voluntarily admitted also our sorrows and anxieties of spirit to the highest Degree that might include no Rebellion in it against the subjection due to Reason and to God § 13 Which Greif of his upon another ground also became the more advanced by reason of his divine prescience of all future Events Whilst all those torments also which his innocent flesh was to undergo now presented themselves in their proper i. e. in a most bloody malitious cruel shape stood and passed before his all-foreseeing eyes of which no other sufferer ever had such a fore-sight as himself At this sight therefore being already a Spectator in Spirit of whatever he was to act or feel in his person His flesh began to have horror and a supernatural fear of death and a mortal sadness and amazement to seize upon him Mat. 26.37 Mark 14.33 He began 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 say the Evangelists coepit pavere taedere as the vulgar renders it And now the inferiour faculties of his soul as it were rose up to plead for the preserving of the life and liberty of an onely son from his fathers knife of such a Son as had never once offended his Majesty in all his life in any thing little or great Nor by any sin of his forfeited these especially when it may be presumed That that world also which had sinned might many other waies have found a redemption from the contrivance of the divine Wisdom rather than by his only Son's sufferings or if onely by these yet surely all the worlds guilt might have bin abundantly expiated by all those sufferings and straits and annihilations of his Glory undergon formerly or also if blood be necessary for remission by his blood shed for it already in his Circumcision or also here in the Garden § 14 To which quick sense of his own sufferings and cruel Death some imagine were added many other sad representations concerning others such as these His foresight that notwithstanding all his sufferings the most part of mankind by their own wilfulness and impenitency should be nothing benefited by them the approaching temporal and spiritual desolation for so long a time of his own Nation the Jews and the Apostacy also of so many Nations in later times from the faith after rooted among them the miseries of Judas his Disciple which troubled him not a little at the supper Jo. 13.21 Mat. 26.26 and heavy wrath of God that would pursue his Enemies cruelty and injustice not knowing what they did which also troubled him when on the Cross On another side the great sufferings which so many Martyrs and Confessors should undergo for his sake whose torments his infinite love of them made his own the scandal and Desolation also of his poor Disciples and Peters iterated denial of such a Master The afflictions of his dear Mother a Spectator of such cruelties to her innocent Son and so highly meriting from all the Nation All which and much more presenting it self to him whose omniscience suffered no human infelicities to be hid from him struck to the heart so passionate a Lover of all Mankind and one who had descended so low to make them happy now that he had suspended all those other thoughts and considerations which might easily counterpoise and weigh down these § 15 In this disconsolation voluntarily assumed by him for our sakes and example he reveals his present Anguish and distress to his three dearly beloved Servants tells them that his Soul was sorrowful even to the death and desires them but for one hour for so long he saw it was to the arrival there of his mortal Enemies to watch with him And then seeking further privacy and leaving them also as formerly the other eight to their devotions and prayers as it were a second Guard or Watch behind him he retires yet further from them about the distance of a stonescast And here we may look upon him as the forlorn and accursed Goat for he was made a curse for us saith the Apostle Gal. 3.13 that was turned away into the Wilderness going into this solitude with all the sins of all the world by the hands of all the congregation of mankind from the beginning thereof laid upon his head and all the vengeance or his Father's wrath due unto them as it were now pursuing him at the greatness of which wrath we may well Guess by the Eternity and extremity of those torments which are inflicted
by it on those who deprive themselves of their share in the sufferings of this Lamb of God Under the weight then of this heavy burden freely undertaken by him for love of us and our eternal safety he falls down on his knees and prayes on this manner Abba Father Mat. 26. peircing words like those of Isaac Gen. 22.7 from so innocent a person and also an onely Son going to the slaughter If it be possible as all things are possible unto thee Mark 14.36 let this cup pass from me And thus far as he being true man Nature for self-preservation presents to God its own innocent and harmless desires and inclinations but then as also being a most faithful Subject and servant obedient in all things to the will of God proceeds further in another Note Nevertheless Not what I will but what thou wilt And herein consisted his innocency not in wanting these natural desires of self-preservation for this would take away all merit of obedience but in submitting them Such desires of nature being sinful not wherever they are but onely where they rule contrary to what a Superiour power exterior or interior commandeth or requireth of them And to instruct us that no man ought to take such desires arising in him so long as the person thus concludes them in Not what I will to be sin the Son of God also for our consolation sheweth them in himself And from him we may also learn that he as we dayly had and underwent all those other harmless appetites and inclinations of Nature respecting food rest apparrel lodging society and other delights of the senses and that in the confining of these within their due limits in obedience to his Fathers commands consisted the merit of his innocency never any one of these appetites throughout all his life though from time to time motioning their natural contents yet having bin for once any way exorbitant or transgressed the bounds his Father and his God had prescribed it § 16 Therefore we find that two or three daies before as he was in the Temple upon the like natural sense of Death he made the like prayer set down by St. John chap 12. as it were in lieu of this in the Garden which that Evangelist wholly omits who it seems writ his Gospel upon occasion of some Hereticks so early denying our Lords Divinity chiefly to Register therein those discourses and works of our Lord which more manifested to the world his Divinity than those discovering his human infirmities In the Temple then certain devout Gentiles by the divine providence now desiring to be brought to him and to be made acquainted with him as it were already suing to be admitted into his fold which thing was only hindred by his death not as yet accomplished our Lord took great notice of it and upon this occasion foretelling the coming in of the Gentiles and how assoon as he was once lifted up upon the Cross assoon as this standard was erected and he displayed upon it he should draw all the world unto him Upon the mention of that cruel death he there also let fall this expression to them Jo. 12.27 Now is my soul troubled and what shall I say And there also first he makes his request as a man sensible of misery Father save me from this hour but then as a Son and a Servant perfectly obedient he with his Superior reason and the Spirit restrains these sensitive desires in their true bounds in saying to himself again But for this cause came I unto this hour and then adds an Act of Resignation Father Glorify thy name i. e. in any sufferings of mine whatsoever which may be for the enlarging of thy Glory even to the Gentiles and to all the world At which time also after his prayer his Father answered him with a voice from heaven which the People called an Angel's speaking to him Jo. 12.29 as here he sent an Angel to him to shew that he alwaies heareth and accepteth prayers joined with such a Resignation from all his sons See Jo. 12 30.-11.42 So again at the Table in looking upon the horrid design of his own Servant against him read in his heart it is said by the same Evangelist that he was troubled in Spirit chap. 13.21 But straight his absolute Resignation to his Fathers will appears in his permission of Satan to enter and act further against him in that malitious Soul and in his saying then That thou dost do quickly So in his last sufferings on the Cross wherein he seems to have undergone a second Desolation of Spirit when he began those words of the 21 Psalm composed by his Father David touching his Passion My God My God why hast thou forsaken me This also was then accompanied with a most placid Resignation of himself into his Fathers hand that smote him saying presently after these words Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit But to return This Request and perfect Resignation being offered together that Model that should be of all our prayers also he returns in this his Agony to receive the solace of the company of his three dearest Disciples left not far behind him as also like an ever-careful shepheard to look to his sheep and so afford them his company and assistance in this hour of their temptation as well as his And behold he finds them being stupified with sorrow Luk. 22.45 and amazement at such a fight of his sorrow and amazement and for the sad presage he had made to them of his approaching death Peter and all fallen a sleep Our Lord straight awakening them asks Peter who had but now made such great promises of going to Prison and dying with him how it chanced that he and his Followers could not for so little a time as he had now to spend with them even for one hour so much as watch a little with him And this for his own sake too to spend it in prayer to be delivered from that great temptation that was coming especially on Peter But this meek Lord what with one word he questioned presently with another he excuseth in saying with much compassion for them The Spirit indeed is willing but the Flesh is weak Upon which Flesh of theirs not onely their greif but Satan probably at this time was permitted to have some influence in this first degree of their desertion of our Lord Where also by his mentioning the weakness and infirmity of their Flesh which he now also felt extraordinarily in himself but without sin he excites them also to a stronger vigilancy over it Then repeating again to them the same charge of watching to praier in this dreadful hour of temptation which he gave them before He departs again to a certain distance sore prest with that great weight that lay upon him and on his knees made a second time the same request with an earnestness of Praier Luk. 22.24 increasing according to his Agony when also his innocent words conclude
and as it were unconcerned to the great wonder of the Council where occurred such advantages of clearing his cause and Innocency § 31 At the last two appeared some think by the assurgebant in S. Mark chap. 14. that they were also two of the Assessors that pitched both upon the same matter and this bearing the shew of an high Crimination his threatning to destroy and demolish their Temple which also they reproach'd him with when he hung upon the Cross Mat. 27.40 at the very time when indeed they themselves were dissolving the Temple he spake of But these also in reciting of his words varyed as from the truth of what our Lord said so from one another One testifyed that he said absolutely he would destroy it Destruam Mark 14.58 The other that he could or was able to destroy it in the space of three dayes Possum destruere Mat. 26.61 Whereas his words were neither destruam nor possum destruere but Solvite Destroy ye as now indeed they were about it and his excitabo not long after to follow it One witnessed in general That he said he would destroy the Temple but then he might mean some other Temple as indeed he did the Temple of his Body but the other that he said he would destroy the Temple made with hands that very Temple of Jerusalem and that in three daies also he would undertake to build it up again reaedificabo whereas his own words speaking of the Resurrection of the Temple of his body was excitabo Thus they urged against him things that he knew not Psalm 34.11 and laid to his charge things that he never meant But then his saying he was able to destroy it seems only a vaunting and vain-glorious speech not deserving death or bonds and it he said further that he would do it this argued only a malitious intention where no possibility of acting Words they were also spoken some years before without attempting any such thing in the least afterwards Nay one of his valiantest acts and wherein he most shewed his power was quite contrary to it the cleansing of the same Temple from any profanation of it in the least manner even in the outward Courts thereof of which there wanted not Witnesses many who suffered by it But making the worst we can of his saying yet when the witnesses added the following words also that within other three daies again he would rebuild it the one I hope if they held him such a Miracle-worker would make amends for the other and sure he would not after pulling down rebuild it but to build it better and his good intention in reedifying it may ballance if not disprove a bad one in demolishing it But alas these words now in the scarcity of any other solid accusation so aggravated were before at the time he spake them even according to the Jews understanding them only slighted as a a vain brag and not thought liable to bear an action they then replying to him that he spake impossibilities for that a Temple that had been before forty six years in building could not by one person so speedily be pulled down or reedifyed Jo. 2.20 § 32 Though this was the greatest matter these Witnesses in the Court had to say against our Lord the High Priest well saw the slightness of it and therefore though here the only alleadged not a word was said of it for shame before the Roman Governour Pilat which would but too apparently have betrayed their empty and causeless malice But our Lord all this while that such things were tumultuously objected remaining recollected and silent the Judge seeming well satisfied with what was laid to his charge and observing our Lords resolute silence stood up and asked him whether he did not hear what they urged against him why he answered them not and what he had to say for himself against such mighty accusations As if he had forgot that for the last words he spake for himself he suffered him to be strucken over the face § 33 But our Lord thus provoked to speak and plead for himself continued still silent and that for many good reasons First silent because the witness contradicting and destroying its self needed no further confutation by him Silent out of the highest Prudence and Pity to his Accusers and Judges where he foreknew his speaking could have no good Effect upon their malice but rather served to increase their Guilt Silent again to shew the perfect moderation and Mastery of his Passions and a most entire Resignation to his Fathers will to leave us an example herein saith S. Peter 1 Pet. 2.23 Tradens se Judicanti illum injuste Silent upon higher grounds yet 1 Pet. 2.24 Heb. 9.28 Now were laid on him all our iniquities Esay 53.5 Now was he who knew no sin made sin and made a curse for us because out of infinite love he would be so Oblatus est quia ipse voluit Now he presented himself before Gods justice in our stead and who were most notoriously guilty of whatsoever he was accused Whether blaspheming Destroying Gods Temples or whatever else and had all reason to stand speechless Languores nostros saith the Prophet ipse tulit dolores nostros ipse portavit quasi leprosus percussus a Deo humiliatus vulneratus propter iniquitates nostras attritus propter scelera nostra disciplina pacis nostrae super eum sicut ovis ad occisionem ducta quasi Agnus coram tondente se the shearers stripping him not only of his clothes but his life obmutescens non aperiens os suum quem propter scelus populi sui percussit Deus As the Prophet at large describes there his condition Esay 53. And so we ought to imagine him now putting himself in our stead before the Tribunal of his Eternal Father and without justifying himself at all speaking to him with a love far transcending that of David 2 Sam. 24.17 Though I have never sinned nor done wickedly before thee yet for what these my Brethren have done let thine hand I pray thee be not against them but against me And so silent and without any Defence of himself for what could he say for us or in our Defence but only confess our guilt offering himself to Gods vindicative Justice for all our Blasphemies Treasons and affronts done to this divine Majesty ever since that of Adam's and amongst the rest even for their sins also that thus unjustly persecuted him with the same Deprecation for them now as on the Cross Dimitte illis Pater Non enim sciunt quid faciunt Luk. 23.34 Lastly silent obediently to fulfil what all the Prophecies had so punctually foretold of him For at this time it was that all those doleful complaints occurring in the Psalmes and elsewhere concerning his innocence and suffering mute and not replying were exactly and perfectly verified Psal 34.11 Surrexerunt Testes iniqui quae ignorabam interrogabant me Psal 38.2.9 10 Posui ori
this Mary had bin the Blessed Virgin 's own sister her Name would not have bin also Mary this being not usual or convenient to call two sisters undistinguishable by the same Name There was also present Salome John's Mother and others and John likewise our Lords beloved Disciple whose confidence above the rest we saw in the High Priests Palace was there with them but likely none other of the Eleven at least so near affraid of being apprehended if they should have appeared and perhaps John more presuming here as in the Palace because known to the High Priest Here then stood the sad Mother of our Lord beholding and hearing all that was done to and said against her Son with the like patience and resignation as he suffered it and ready with Abraham for the love of God to have offered him up her self had he commanded it Here she and the rest heard also that admirable confession of our Lord by the penitent Thief and our Lord 's gracious answer to him which must needs be a great consolation to them After which Answer our Lord looking down upon his Mother and compassionating her condition as well as Grief spake to her first and calling her Woman perhaps for preventing those affronts to which her near relation to him hated of all if it had bin known made her liable recommended John his beloved Disciple to her love and affection instead of himself as one that thence forward would perform the duty and observance to her of a Son and then speaking to John recommended to him the care and providing for her now aged about fifty and a desolate widow Joseph being formerly dead and now also her only Son taken from her as his Mother he being a single person and Virgin as she and having no Wife or family of his own to take care of as many others had and by reason of his wealthy parents out of which wealth also Johns mother formerly made provision many times for our Lord having the command of so much maintenance as was necessary for their decent subsistance Which recommendation of our Blessed Lady to John shews that notwithstanding the mention we find of her sister and four of our Lords Brethren yet that they were not of so near a Relation as that our Lords Mother after the death of Joseph had any family of her own or these had any constant habitation with her so as that she might rather have bin committed to their care and provision in her now declining age § 101 Our Lord having thus made his Will and disposed of his onely charge his dear Mother whom St. John took to himself and served with all fidelity and supplied with all necessaries till her death spake not at all after this for near the space of three hours from about the sixth till the ninth hour a little before he gave up the Ghost but continuing in silence and prayer and his countenance lift up towards heaven went on finishing that Sacrifice which was to be the redemption of the world consuming and melting away in the flames of Gods wrath toward sinners now in its effects seizing on him in their stead for all the offences of all mankind that had or should be When as he grew nearer to his end the Sun now at midday see Amos 8.9 and when not capable of any natural Ecclipse the Moon being now at the full and at its greatest distance from it began to be darkned and to lose its light this noblest body of the Creation sympathizing as it were with its Lord and covering its face at such a horrid Spectacle and indicating to the hard-hearted Spectators the true Sun of righteousness and that true Light that enlightneth every one that cometh into this world to be now setting and its glory ecclipsed so far as the malice of the Prince of Darkness and his Instruments could effect it and intimating now also the cheif reign of the power of darkness permitted by God to the Prince thereof § 102 All things were now full of terrour and amazement and mens hearts with fear began now to melt and relent and their former taunts and merriments to be changed into a deep silence and expectation what would be the Issue suspecting more miraculous things to follow when about the ninth hour or three of the clock in the afternoon the solemn time of offering up the Evening Sacrifice our Lord when now seeming to be quite spent and near his expiration cried out with a loud and strong voice and such as was not usual to such a manner of death exhausting all their spirits and strength before taking away their life to shew that he laid his life down not compelled but when he pleased though without shortning the time of the sufferings belonging to that cruel death and to testify also against Hereticks the Reality of his sufferings saying with great force that all the multitude heard him those first words of the Psalm penned by the Holy Ghost for a Description of his Passion Eloi Eloi lamma Sabbacthani My God My God why hast thou forsaken me expressing the last pangs of death now approaching and the inexplicable torments and anguish of Body and Soul due to our sins that now lay upon him which he calls his sins in the following part of this verse of that mourning Psalm longe a salute mea verba delictorum meorum and which sin of ours made this patient Lamb of God after three hours silence so break out into this complaint under them where more greivous than the corporal sufferings was the interior anguish of Spirit in his Divinity its suspending from his Humanity all those consolations which might any way relieve its sorrows and with which his Servants in their greatest sufferings are usually refreshed This like to that his Agony in the Garden but now without an Angel where the Apostles mention Heb. 5.7 of our Lord in the daies of his flesh offering up to God prayer and supplications with strong cryes and with tears may well be understood as of the tears and prayers and strong cryes made and shed in the Garden so of these now iterated on the Cross for the weight of Gods wrath lying on our sins which he assumed is inexplicable These words of that prophetick Psalm might have hinted to the learned High Priests and Elders that the Tragedy of this Psalm was just now acted and lively expressed in every part of it and they those miserable Wretches by whose persecutions this prophecy was fulfilled and so might have begotten some compunction in them But either they so blinded as not to understand those words or the other common-people at least mistaking them nor knowing them for the beginning of the Psalm and hearing them pronounced with such a loud voice thought from the similitude of the word Eloi twice repeated that our Lord called upon Elias that he would not forsake him in this his misery but come to help him For it was the common belief that
or in any visible attendance of Angels or Saints or fiery charet and horses to conduct him as Elias or Cloud till elevated to some considerable distance perhaps to remove from his Disciples and the world to whom they were to testify it any scruple of the reality of this Ascent without having their eyes dazled with light or that such elevation might seem to have bin performed by the assistance of others and not by his own power and virtue as also to detain them for the present rather in the meditation of his Passion than of his Glory which was not fully to be revealed to Mortals till his return § 146 But had our Lord been pleased to have opened their eyes as Elisha obtained for his servant in the Mount how great would they have seen the solemnity of this day Jo. 17.4 5 Concerning which he had a little before his Passion besought his Father that now he had with all fidelity glorified him on Earth and finished the work here on Earth He had appointed him to do He would glorifie him i.e. his Humanity also in which he had finished it though extreamly difficult to flesh and blood with that Glory which in his Divinity he also alwaies had had with him before the world was which Petition was also then ratifyed by God the Father with a voice from Heaven Jo. 12.8 And now was the time come of accomplishing it and the time of his taking possession of those Joyes which being set before him saith the Apostle Heb. 12.2 be endured the Cross and despised the shame and is now set down of the right hand of the Throne of God § 147 Now then we may presume that all the Court and Militia of Heaven descended to meet this his Sacred Humanity in the Ayre and that it was exalted above the Heavens to the Throne prepared for it with great Jubilation and Triumph cum voce tubae as the Psalmist with which Humanity the Earth only had hitherto bin beatified bona si sua nosset and the Father had received all his praise and worship and service from it at a great distance from the place of his residence And if as the Apostle Heb. 1. when his Son came into this lower world and appeared in all the infirmities of our flesh God said let all the Angels worship him much more did he now command it at this his Exit after so many sufferings passed through and victories obteined and exact obedience in all things performed and the most severe prophecies fulfilled How overjoyed must those Citizens above be and with them all the Spirits of the Patriarchs and Prophets and the Church of the first-born and of just men consummated that in those Celestial habitations now they should for ever possess their dear Lord the Author of all their happiness and behold for ever his infinit Majesty and beauty And amongst these especially those predignified Souls who ever they were that were selected by him and revested with the robes of their glorified Bodyes to accompany and wait upon him as the first-fruits of the Resurrection and of his conquess over death With what Joy and Triumph to exprese it in those ravishments with which the Apostle speaks of him was this only Son and the brightness of Gods glory and express and visible Image of the Person of the Invisible God Heb. 1.3 compared with Col. 1.15 the first born of every Creature and the first-born again 〈◊〉 the Dead that in an things he might have the preeminency who was appointed by God Heir of all things and by whom all things were created that are in Heaven and in Earth visible and invisible whether they be Thrones or Dominions be Principalities or Powers viz. all the Angels as well as men All things created by him and for him and by the word of whose Power all things afterward also do still consist and are upheld Col. 1.17 compared Heb. 1.3 after he had by himself purged our sins and made peace through the blood of his Cross Col. 1.20 Heb. 1.30 and God had by him reconciled all things unto himself and by him collected all things in one by him whether things in Heaven or things on Earth Col. 1.20 those persons already received into glory there and those yet in their warfare here here both of the Jew and the Gentile all united in him the Head of all Eph. 1.10 22. With what Joy and Triumph I say was this most Sacred person Gods only Son bearing in thither his our humanity this day first received into his Armes and welcomed by God the Father With what solemnity did this Eternal High Priest when he had first through the Eternal Spirit offered himself without fault to God Heb. 9.14 Enter into the Heavenly Sanctuary the Gates there of set open whereof the Earthly was a Pattern there to appear in the presence of God his Father for us his Brethren and with what solemnity did he with the precious blood of his Sacrifice dedicate and purify the heavenly things themselves Heb. 9.23 and so set himself down on the right hand of the Throne of the Majesty in these Heavens far above all Principalities and Power and Might and Dominion and every name that is named not only in this world but in that also which is to come made Head over all things to his Church and expecting there till his Enemies wicked men and unbelievers Antichrist Satan Death be made his Footstool Eph. 1.21.23 c. Heb. 10.12.12.9 § 148 Our Blessed Lady and the Disciples and the rest of this holy company beholding this fell down and adored saith the Evangelist Luk. 24.52 with their eyes fixed upon him as he ascended when two men appeared standing by them in glorious and shining Vestments two of our Lords Train whom he left behind as also he had done before at his Resurrection Luk. 24.5 John 20.12 to entertain them with a new Message and divert them from this partly joyful partly sorrowful sight as they thought of our Lords honour or of their own loss who asked them why they looked so intently and wishfully after him for that they should not be deprived for ever of this their Lord but as he had often told them the same Jesus that was now thus taken up from them into Heaven should thence descend again in the same manner as he ascended thus the Angels briefly for their present consolation But this his second appearance and return to this world is described elsewhere much more particularly and that it shall be in the greatest Majesty and glory cum nubibus as this his ascent but with a shout and the voice of the Arch-Angel and sound of Trumpet and his brightness shining from the East unto the West with all his mighty Angels attending on him and he bringing all the Saints that were in foretimes deceased with him and those then living also meeting him in the Ayre and that he then sitting on the Throne of his Majesty all the Nations of the
often so heavily accused our good Lord. But all this their diligence by the Divine providence was turned quite contrary to their intents and rendred our Lords Resurrection much more clear and evident whilst this very Guard were the first witnesses of it and that to the High Priests themselves and quite took away the pretence which else they might not only have reported but verily believed of his Disciples carrying away his body Which witness of the Watch doubtless confirmed the faith of many who would not give so easy credit to the Disciples Testimony of it and was a means of converting some of the High Priests also And their testifying likewise our Lords prediction of it before Pilat still added more to the truth and reputation of this Event Of all which Daniels being cast into the den of Lyons and the entrance into it being sealed by his Enemies that no fraud might be used in his deliverance out of it seems to have bin a prerepresentation and type § 114 The Sabbath the day of rest thus passed over the time was come that the grave the belly of the Whale that had swallowed him could detain our Lords body no longer nor the sealed Sepulcher or Guards hinder his Resurrection according to his many predictions early in the morning of the third day that is after the six daies wherein the world was created and the seventh wherein was to be its rest the eight day or the first day of the new Creation of all things the day wherein after a week of daies compleated all things shall be perfected in the general Resurrection that shall be A day advanced ever since this act into the solemn Festival of Christians in an eternal memory of the joy of this day Early on this day our Lord resumed and clothed with immortality that most Sacred body of his that had before so highly merited it by passing through so many cruel torments Here also great Multitudes of Angels attended on this our Lord in their white and shining Robes as may be gathered by their frequent apparitions within and without the Sepulcher and the women's discription of them And since a multitude of the heavenly Host appeared praising God at our Lords Nativity and the beginning of his Humiliation we cannot imagine less solemnities at the beginning of his Exaltation and triumph whom also we had found before waiting on him at his former conquest over Satan with prayer and fasting in the Desert And if they shew their Joy at the conversion of a sinner how much more now did they at the Redemption of the world And by these or by our Lord at his rising and for a clear argument also of it the linnen clothes wherein our Lord lay the only prey which a Robber would have looked after were decently folded up and the Napkin about his head as if taken off after them laid in a diverse place from the rest At the same time as before at our Lords death happened a terrible Earthquake And an Angel of great Majesty his countenance like lightning saith the Evangelist and his raiment white as Snow was seen by the astonished Guards to descend and roll away the stone so to expose the open Sepulcher to every ones view after our Lords glorious Body had already passed through it when yet shut up and sealed The All-glorious Angel when he had done this sitting down upon the stone that he had rolled away as if he would now be the sole Guarder of that place So terrible was this sight as also the Earthquake that the Soldiers though they fell not into a sleep as they afterward reported yet fell into a swoon and became for a while saith the Evangelist as dead men Mat. 28.4 After some time recovering a little strength and seeing the Sepulcher thrown open the body gone and only the linnen clothes and spices wrapt up and left behind which though it had bin much for their interest or excuse in raising a report of its being stolen away as well as profit to have taken and their necessity but two daies before had shared his former garments yet they durst not touch but from the Angel's presence speedily fled away and in a great fright some of them came to the chief Priests and related all that had hapned our Lords Body gone the Sepulcher empty the linnens and spices left behind touch them he that durst the terrible apparition of the Angel with an Earthquake breaking their seal and rolling away the stone and there staying and sitting upon it § 115 The chief Priests not a little concern'd in this news of our Lords being revived to which also his Predictions now added some credit who had their hands already embrewed in his blood now repent their late diligence to prevent it whereby the very Soldiers could witness it against them and presently assembled all the Ancients of the Jews before whom on this occasion the Guards relate the like things the Divine Providence thus effecting a great divulging of it and that by such Witnesses as they could not but believe The result of this consultation was that a large summ of mony probably taken out of the same Church-Treasury as also Judas his was should be given to them to report that in the night whilst they were asleep our Lords Disciples came and stole away his Body And because the negligence of these Guards confessing themselves to sleep when they should have watched if coming to the Governours ears was highly punishable the chief Priests engaged also that in any such accident they would satisfy the Governour and secure them considering well if they could not smother and hide the truth in this matter the publick odium and loss of reputation which they should incur both with the People and the Governour in their prosecuting so vehemently against the inclinations of both these the death to say no more of so just and innocent a person Thus one sin to justify it self where no repentance engageth us on another and still makes the sinners condition more desperate Thus were the wily taken in their own craftiness and by their setting the Watch those truths are now declared both to the people and themselves not by the Followers of our Lord but their own Officers and Servants which otherwise they might with some shew of a good conscience have disbeleived and endeavoured to suppress but now acted purely against it § 116 This of the Soldiers flying from the Sepulcher and testifying in the City our Lords Resurrection but besides these were also some other extraordinary witnesses thereof For in the great Earthquake and at the same time as our Lord's were other Sepulchers and graves about the city opened and out of them also by vertue and in honour of our Lords Rising came forth the revived Bodies of many other formerly deceased Saints That as his triumphant Soul entring into the innermost bowels of the Earth brought a multitude of other overjoyed Souls attendants upon it from thence