any man to death Iohn 18.31 How true or pertinent this answer was I will not here dispute But thus they answered as the same Evangelist there tells us that the saying of Jesus might be fulfilled signifying what death he should die and by whom This saying or prophecy of our Saviour to which St. Iohn refers is punctually set downe by S. Matthew 20.17 18 Iesus going up to Ierusalem took the twelve Disciples apart in the way and said unto them Behold we goe up to Ierusalem and the Sonne of man shall be betrayed unto the chief Priests and unto the Scribes and they shall condemne him to death and shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock and to scourge and to crucifie him Unto this death of the crosse they brought him by their importunate and subtill sollicitations of Pilat to proceed against him upon another capital crime then they by their pretended law had condemned him for For they pronounc'd him as worthy and guilty of death by their law for blasphemy whereas now before Pilat they frame a new accusation against him for rebellion against Caesar because he profest himself to be King of the Jews as in truth he was for royall pitty and compassion towards them but without any purpose to move the people to take armes or to exercise any royall authority over them or any others upon earth because his kingdome was not of this world 2 Whilest the high Priest and Elders sate as Judges in their owne Councell-house they suborn'd false witnesses against him but whilest they accuse him before Pilat they themselves become the most malicious and falsest witnesses that ever were produced or offered themselves voluntarily to testifie in open Court against any living man in a cause criminall or capitall All these malicious practices against him were clearly foretold by the Psalmist his forerunner in the like sufferings and in particular I take it by David himselfe Psalme 35. False witnesses did arise they laid to my charge things that I knew not They rewarded me evill for good to the spoyling of my soule But as for mee when they were sick my cloathing was sackcloth I humbled my soule with fasting and my prayer returned into mine owne bosome I behaved my selfe as though he had beene my friend or brother I bowed downe heavily as one that mourneth for his mother But in mine adversity they rejoyced c. ver 11 12 13. c. Thus did the Composers of this Psalme and of some others to the like effect complaine every man respectively in their owne persons and upon just occasions And however they did not in their murmuring complaints yet in the causes or occasions of the sufferings they did really prefigure juster occasions more grievous matter of complaint on the behalf of their expected Redeemer And he must have uttered the like complaints in a farre higher straine if he had beene but a meere man not armed with patience or long suffering truly divine The indignities done unto him by Pilat and the Roman Souldiers by Herod and his men of warre were perspicuously foretold by David Psal 2. Why do the Heathens rage and the people imagina vaine thing This parallel between the prophecy of David and the historicall events answering to it not the Apostles onely but other inferiour Disciples did unanimously acknowledge upon the deliverance of Peter and Iohn and the rest of the Apostles from such violence intended against them by the Rulers and Elders of the Jews as had been practised by them upon our Saviour for working of a miracle in his name When they had further threatned them they let them goe finding nothing how they might punish them because of the people for all men glorified God for that which was done For the man was above forty yeares old on whom this miracle of healing was shewne And being let goe they went to their owne company and reported all that the chief Priests and Elders had said unto them And when they heard that they lift up their voice to God with one accord and said Lord thou art God which hast made heaven and earth and the sea and all that in them is who by the mouth of thy Servant David hast said Why do the heathens rage and the people imagin vaine things The Kings of the Earth stood up and the Rulers were gathered together against the Lord and his Christ For of a truth against thy holy childe JESUS whom thou hast annointed both Herod and Pontius Pilat with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together for to doe whatsoever thy hand and thy Counsaile determined before to be done Acts 4.21 22. c. 3. All of our Saviours Persecutors whether Jews or Gentiles per dicta facta malè ominata did reade their own doome and the doome of all such unto the worlds end as shall continue the course that they begun The Roman Souldiers clothing him in a purple robe by putting a crown of thornes upon his head and by crying All haile unto the King of the Jews did act that part in jest or comicall merriment which they must one day act in earnest and more then tragicall sorrow For he had sworne it long before That all knees should bow unto him and in that day they which crowned him with thornes shall see him crowned with Majesty and glory Herod in sending him back to Pilat in a white or candid robe did beare witnesse of his innocency and integrity and withall of Herod his fathers scarlet sinnes in putting so many poore Innocents to a bloudy death upon the notice of his Nativitie And as for Pilat and the Roman state by whose authority he was scourged with rods here on earth hee whose seat is in the heavens did even then laugh them to scorne and since hath broken the whole race of Roman Caesars with a rod of iron and dasht them and their Monarchie to pieces like a Potters vessell What more shall be done against these cruell Actors or Abetters of their cruell practices against this King of Kings I leave it wholly with all submission to his sole determination But that the Indignities done unto him by the Jews by the Roman or other heathen Governors and the visible revenge which hath since befalne them were punctually foretold by David Psalme 2. the testimony before cited Acts 4. is a proofe most authentick and most concludent 4. Yet of all the sufferings which he suffered under Pontius Pilat besides the indignities done unto him in the extremities of his paines upon the Crosse at which Pilat was not present the rejection of him by the Jews when this heathen Governor out of a good nature or well meaning policy had proposed him with an infamous theef or murderer was far the worst and doth deserve the indignation of all that loved him And this circumstance is prest home to them by S. Peter Acts 3.13 14. The God of Abraham and of Isack and of Jaacob the God of our Fathers
them and mystically of Lucifer But they sinne no lesse for the act which say in their hearts or presuppose in their implicit thoughts altissimus est similimus mihi the most high God hath determined nothing concerning men or Angel otherwise than wee would have done if we had been in his place They preposterously usurpe the same power which God in his first Creation did justly exercise who though not expresly yet by inevitable consequence and by implicit thoughts make a God after their own image and similitude A God not according to the relikes of that image wherein hee made our first Parents but after the corruptions or defacements of it through partiality envy pride and hatred towards their fellow creatures But of the originall of transforming the Divine nature into the similitude of mans corrupted nature I have elswhere long agoe delivered my minde at large And I would to God some as I conjecture offended with what I there observed without any reference or respect either to their persons or their studies had not verified the truth of my observations in a larger measure than I then did conceived they could have been really ratified or exemplified by the meditation or practice of any rationall man This transformation of the Divine nature which is in some sort or degree common to most men is in the least degree of it one of those works of the Devill which the Sonne of God came into the world to dissolve by doctrine by example and exercise of his power But what bee the rest of those works besides this All I take it may be reduced to these generall heads First the actuall sinnes of our first Parents Secondly the remainder or effects of this sinne whether in our first Parents or in their posteritie to wit that more than habituall or hereditary corruption which we call sinne originall Thirdly sins adventitious or acquired that is such vitious acts or habits as doe not necessarily issue from that sinne which descends unto us from our first Parents but are voluntarily produced in particular men by their abuse of that portion of freewill which was left in our first Parents and in their posterity and that was a true freedome of will though not to doe well or ill yet at lest inter mala to doe lesse or greater evill or to doe this or that particular ill or worse Originall sinne is rather in us ad modum habitus than an habit properly so called All other habituall sinnes or vices are not acquired but by many unnecessitated vicious acts But to distinguish betweene vice and sinne or betweene vicious habits and sinfull habits is to my capacity a work or attempt rather of the same nature as if one should goe about to divide a point into two portions or a mathematicall line into two parallels 6. Nor are these sinnes enumerated nor sinne it self formally taken the onely works of the Devill which the Sonne of God came to destroy but these sinnes with their symptomes and resultances For the Devill sinneth from the beginning in continuall tempting men to sinne although his temptations doe not alwayes take effect He sinneth likewise in accusing men before their Creator or solliciting greater vengeance than their sinnes in favourable construction deserve Now that neither his temptations nor accusations do alwayes finde that successe which hee intends this is meerely from the mercy and loving kindnesse of our Creator in sending his Sonne to dissolve the works of Satan The generall symptome or resultance of all sinne originall or actuall is servitude or slavery unto Satan and the wages of this servitude is death not this hereditary servitude onely but death which is the wages of it is the work of Satan Yet a work which the Sonne of God doth not utterly destroy untill the generall resurrection of the dead Nor shall it then bee destroyed in any in whom the bonds of the servitude and slavery unto sinne have not been by the same Sonne of God dissolved whilest they lived on earth Hee was first manifested in the flesh and forme of a servant to pay the ransome of our sinnes and to untie the bonds and fetters of sinne in generall Hee was manifested in his resurrection to dissolve or breake the raigne of sinne within every one of us For as the Apostle speaks He died for our sinnes and rose againe for our justification And he shall lastly bee manifested or appeare in glory utterly to destroy sinne and death CHRIST saith the Apostle was once offered to beare the sinnes of many and unto them that look for him shall he appeare the second time without sin unto salvation Heb. 9.28 SECTION 2. Of the more speciall qualifications and undertakings of the Sonne of God for dissolving the works which the Devill had wrought in our first Parents and in our nature and for cancelling the bond of mankindes servitude unto Satan CHAP. VI. Of the peculiar qualifications of the Sonne of God for dissolving the first actuall sinne of our first Parents and the reliques of it whether in them or in us their sinfull posterity 1. THe qualifications or undertakings of the Sonne of God for dissolving or remitting such actuall sinnes as doe not necessarily issue from our first Parents and for bringing them and us unto greater glory than they affected doe challenge their place or proper seat in the Treatise designed to his exaltation after death and his consecration to his everlasting Priesthood Wee are now to prosecute the points proposed in the title of this Section and in the first place such points as were proposed in the title of this Chapter 2. The rule is universally true in works naturall civill and supernaturall but true with some speciall allowances Vnum quodque eodem modo dissolvitur quo constituitur Though the constitution and dissolution of the same work include two contrary motions yet the manner or method by which both are wrought is usually the same onely the order is inverted And wee should the better know how man 's first transgression was dissolved by Sonne of God if wee first knew how it was wrought by Satan or wherein the sinne it selfe did properly consist Infidelity or disobedience it could not bee for these are symptomes of sinnes already hatched Whatsoever else it was the first transgression was pride or ambitious desire of independent immortality Now the Sonne of God begun his work where Satan ended his dissoluing this sinne of pride by his unspeakable humility And to take away the guilt of mans disobedience or infidelity which were the symptomes or resultances of his intemperate desires the Sonne of God did humble himselfe to death even to the death of the Crosse reposing himselfe in all his sufferings upon God The first man was the onely Favourite which the King of kings had here on earth the onely creature whom hee had placed as a Prince in Paradise a seat more than royall or monarchicall with hopes of advancement unto heaven it selfe It was a
plot as malicious as cunning in Satan to dispossesse man of his present dignity and to throw him downe from this height of hope to hellish slavery to make him a creature more miserable than the earth water or other inferiour element harboured any Yet was his misery if wee found the very depth of it not commensurable to the excessive measure of his pride The ground or bottome of his pride was lower than the lowest part of the earth as low as nothing the height of it reached above the highest heavens Man who as St. Augustine saith was but terrae filius nihili nepos the sonne of the earth and nephew of nothing Man who if he had looked back to his late beginning might have said to the silly earth-worme Thou art my sister and to every creeping thing Thou art my brother became so forgetfull of his originall that hee sought by the suggestion of Satan to become like his Almighty Creator who out of the same earth had made him so much more excellent than all earthly or sublunary creatures as they were than nothing But let the first mans pride or Satans malice in hatching it and the rest of that sinfull brood receive all the degrees of aggravation which the invention of man can put upon them yet the medicine prepared by the Sonne of God will appeare more ample than the wound is wide and more soveraigne than it is dangerous Satans cunning in working mans fall doth no way equalize the wisdome of the Sonne of God in dissolving this work It is not probable as was observed before that Satan could so farre infatuate the first man as to make him affect to bee every way equall with his God but onely to be like or equall unto him in some prerogative as in the knowledge of good and evill and probable it is hee did desire that his immortality and soveraignty over other creatures might be the one independent and the other supreme Now these and all other branches of pride whereof wee can imagine the humane nature by the Serpents suggestion to be capable are more than countervailed every way over-reached by the first degree of the humiliation of the Sonne of God Hee was not onely like but equall to the Father not in some one or few but in all the prerogatives of the Divine nature Hee was saith the Apostle in the forme of God and therefore thought it no robbery to be equall with God Yet hee vouchsafed to become not like to man onely but truely man more then equall to other men in sorrows and sufferings 3. Whatsoever equality or similitude with God it was at which the first mans pride through incogitancy did aime it was not effected but affected onely by way of triall He could not out of a deliberate choise or setled resolution assure himselfe that hee should become such as hee desired to be But the Sonne of God who was truely God out of unerrable unchangeable infinite wisdome determined with himselfe to become truely man How man whilest man should become more than man truely God neither the wit of man nor the subtilty of the Serpent could have devised although by divine permission or grant they had been enabled to accomplish whatsoever to this purpose they could devise or imagine But the Wisdome and Sonne of God found out a way by which hee might still continue God and yet become as truely man as he was God a way by which the diversity of these two natures might still remaine unconfused without diversity of persons or parties Though mans ambition had reached so high as to aspire from that condition of being wherein God had estated him to bee absolutely equall with God yet his ambition had not been equall to that humiliation which the Son of God did not onely affect but attaine unto For although he became a man of the same nature that Adam was of or any man since hath been yet was he a man of a lower condition of as low condition as any earthly creature could be for as the Psalmist in his person complaines Psal 22.6 Hee became a worme and no man the reproach of men one whom the very abjects amongst men did think they might safely tread upon with scorne 4. For the Sonne of God to bee made man to be made a man of this low estate or condition whencesoever hee had taken his humane substance was a satisfaction all-sufficient to the justice of God for mans pride a dissolution most compleat of the first work that our first Parents suffered the Devill to work in our nature if we respect onely the substance of it But that no part of Satans work no bond or tie of circumstance wherewith hee had intangled our nature might remaine undissolved the Sonne of God was made of a woman and this was to secure the woman or weaker sex that hee came to dissolve the works which Satan had wrought in them For as the Apostle saith The first woman was in the transgression not the man the man at lest not so deepe in the same transgression as the woman Shee alone for ought we reade committed the robbery in taking the forbidden fruit from off the tree her husband was the receipter onely And by swallowing it by the Serpents suggestions shee first conceived and brought forth death without her husbands consent or knowledge Her transgression was twofold Trust or confidence in the Serpents promise want of credence through pride to Gods threatnings To dissolve this work of the Devill so farre as it was peculiar to the woman the Sonne of God was conceived of a woman without the knowledge or consent of man Satan used the Serpent for his proxie to betroth himselfe unto our nature the holy Ghost by the ministery of an Angel winnes the blessed Virgins assent or accord to become the mother of the Sonne of God Seeing the first woman became the mother of sinne whilest shee remained a virgin though then a wife the Sonne of God would have a virgin for his mother yet a virgin wife a virgin affianced to a man And thus as the first woman being not begotten but made of man did accomplish Satans plot in working his fall and corrupting our nature so the Sonne of God being made man of a woman doth dissolve this work by purifying what she had corrupted and by repayring what the first man and woman had undone 5. There is a tradition concerning the Messias conception and his mothers father'd upon an ancient Jewish Rabbin by Petrus Galatinus but as I conjecture rather a Commentary upon his owne fancie or some Monkish Legendary whom hee was pleased to grace The abstract of this Legend with his Cōment upon it is thus There was one special part of Adams bodily substance priviledged from the contagion of the first sin and this propagated by one speciall line unto posterity untill it came to the mother of the Messias who from the vertue of this preserved portion of Adams nature was conceived
him These were the weapons by which he foiled the old Serpent and obtained the victory by managing our weaknesse and infirmities better then our first Parents did those great abilities wherewith their Creator had endowed them to resist temptations The weapons which the old Serpent used in the conquest of our first Parents and by which hee retained their posterity in continuall slavery were their owne desires and affections these hee improved so farre that they became unweeldy And he having gotten as wee say the better end of the staffe did wrest our wills at his pleasure to doe those things which God forbids us to do and make us furious executioners of his cunning contrivances against our own soules The particularities of his sleights or cunning for bringing us into thraldome inextricable unlesse the Sonne of God set us free are elswhere deciphered These two are the maine generals First the extension of our naturall desire of things within their bounds good and pleasant Secondly the improvement of our feare of things distastfull to nature as of death disgrace or torture Now that the Sonne of God might thus beate him at his owne weapons it was necessary that he should first take upon him the forme or essentiall condition of a servant for without this first voluntarily undertaken by him the rule of justice could not possibly have suffered him to have suffered so much as he did for our redemption Wherein then did the state or condition of a servant which he tooke upon him formally consist Or when did he first become a servant from the first moment of his birth or conception 2. I cannot brooke their opinion who think our Saviour was by birth a legall servant as being filius ancillae the sonne of an handmaid or bond-woman This grosse heresie hath been well refuted by some late Schoolemen whose names I now remember not nor the names of the Authors or abettors of this opinion The mother of the Sonne of God was indeed ancilla an handmaid but to him onely whose service is perfect freedome So the Psalmist in the person of the Sonne of God to be manifested in our flesh or as his type directs his prayer Psal 116.16 O Lord truely I am thy servant and the sonne of thy handmaid CHRIST as all Christians grant was the Sonne of Gods Handmaid after such a manner and in such a sense as never any man besides him was For hee was the promised womans seed and the sonne of a woman in such a sort as hee was not the sonne of any man Againe hee was the servant of God after such a peculiar manner as neither man or woman had been or ever shall be But how doth this peculiar service of his fit our servitude unto sinne Even as the medicine doth the disease or as the plaister doth the wound for which it is prepared In the Sonne of God made man there were two distinct wills the one truely Divine the other truely humane To deny this distinction of wills in Christ were to revive the heresie of the Monothelites so called because they held but one will in Christ to wit the Divine An errour into which they haply fell as many since their time have done into a worse by not distinguishing betweene voluntas and arbitrium Our Saviour CHRIST whilest hee lived here on earth had a reasonable will of the same nature or quality our will is of sinne excepted And by this will he could not but desire his owne particular good as health welfare and other lawfull contentments of the humane nature which are requisite to true joy or happinesse But in as much as the Sonne of God from the beginning of mans servitude unto Satan became our Surety to make satisfaction for our sins did in the fulnesse of time take our nature upon him hee did wholly submit his reasonable will all his affections and desires unto the will of his heavenly Father And in this renouncing of the arbitrament of his will and in the entire submission of it unto the will of his Father did that forme of a servant whereof our Apostle speakes formally consist For unto the essentiall definition or constitution of a servant these two onely concurre First the use of reason for fooles infants or reasonlesse creatures cannot bee servants Secondly Carentia arbitrii proprii want of right or arbitrary power to dispose of their bodily actions or employments according to the desire or lawfull choise of their reasonable will So then the generall definition or abstract forme of a servant is univocally the same 1 in legall servants 2 in servants to sin and 3 in the Sonne of God during the time of his humiliation here on earth or whilest hee became hostage for our Redemption But the service of these three sorts of servants is in the concrete most different And the difference ariseth from the matter or subject in which they are respectively deprived of proper right or arbitrary power to dispose of themselves or of their actions A legall servant wants power to dispose of his employments or bodily actions in matters temporary concerning this life Servants to sin such all the sonnes of Adam are by nature want power to dispose of their actions or course of life in matters morall spirituall or such as concerne their consciences All and every one of us have a desire to be happy and yet all of us until we be freed by the Son of God from this naturall servitude are by the prince of darknesse usually diverted from this strait way which leads to happinesse unto the crooked by-paths which tend to death and inextricable misery The Sonne of God although according to his humane nature hee had a reasonable will and desire of happinesse which could never in any particular become exorbitant or diverted from that which is most holy and just yet even hee in the dayes of his humiliation wanted power to reape the wages of righteousnesse or fruits of holinesse Though joy and comfort was as pleasant to him as to any man besides though compleat happinesse was due unto him as hee was a most just and righteous man personally united to the Son of God yet having taken upon him the forme of a servant hee did with unspeakeable patience and obedience beare all the griefes and sorrows which Satan and his instruments by divine permission could invent against him and cheerefully undergoe the heaviest burden which his heavenly Father was pleased to lay upon him for our redemption 3. From this peculiar condition of a servant which the Sonne of God did voluntarily take upon him that maine objection which some moderne Arrians or Photinians make against the absolute satisfaction of our Lord Redeemer for our sinnes may easily bee answered or rather will dissolve it selfe God say these men could not without tyrannicall injustice require full satisfaction for the misdemeanors of all wicked and naughty men from one most just and holy man To slay the righteous with the wicked that
wherewith our first Parents and in them their whole posterity were bound by Satan For albeit the first sinne found entrance into our nature by incogitancy and had its period or accomplishment in pride yet were not pride or incogitancy the only strings of that snare wherein Satan had taken us The bonds and ties by which hee tooke and holds us captive are mentioned by S. Iohn in his first Epistle 2. Chap. ver 15 16. Love not the world nor the things that are in the world If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him For all that is in the world the lust of the flesh the lust of the eye and the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world From these three heads or sources all the overflowing of ungodlinesse may be derived and these found entrance into this visible world through our first Parents folly and Satans subtilty For albeit the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life tooke their distinct specificall being or live-shape from the first sinne yet were the seeds of all these sinnes sowen by Satan in our first Parents soules and senses before the body of sinne with its members were framed or animated There was an extravagant desire of the eye an irregular appetite of the flesh by which the Serpent tolled on the first woman to eat the forbidden fruit and the eating of it did hatch this three-fold brood in kinde The woman saith Moses Gen. 3.6 saw through false spectacles of Satans making that the tree was good for food here was the embryon or seed of the lust of the flesh and that it was pleasant to the eye here were the first lineaments of the lust of the eye and a tree to bee desired to make one wise this was the inchoation of the pride of life And shee tooke of the fruit thereof and did eate and gave also to her husband and hee did eate and by their eating the former desire of forbidden food was turned into the lust of the flesh The curiosity of the eye was turned into the lust of the eye and the desire of knowledge or proper excellency was changed into the pride of life So that the truth of S. Iames his observation Chap. 1. ver 13 14. was remarkably experienced in the manner of our first Parents fall Let no man say when hee is tempted I am tempted of God For God cannot bee tempted with evill neither tempteth be any man But every man is tempted when hee is drawen away of his owne lust and entised Then when lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sinne and sinne when it is finished bringeth forth death Now to dissolve these three temptations or cords of vanity wherewith our first Parents were taken captives the Sonne of God immediatly upon his Baptisme was led by the Spirit into the wildernesse to be tempted 2. Our first Parents being placed in Paradise a place furnished with variety and plenty of food by too much indulgence unto their appetite or by incogitancie to bridle it by reason could not abstaine from that fruit which onely was forbidden them Power they had to have abstained but they did not use it when they had no necessity no urgent provocation to eate at all much lesse to eate of that fruit The Sonne of God made a man more subject to bodily harmes by long forbearance of meat than our first Parents were after forty dayes continuance in a vast and barren wildernesse wherein no food or fruit did grow could not in his hunger bee tempted to eate any food which the ordinary providence of God did not reach unto him Ingeus iedam necessitas Necessity as we say hath no law there is no fence against it Cogit ad turpia it makes men otherwise honest to doe many things which are not comely And for this reason the great tempter at the first bout assaults our Saviour with this fiery dart of necessity If thou be the Sonne of God command that these stones be made bread As if he had said Long fasting hath made it apparant that thou art a man subject to weaknesse and infirmity and if thou be withall the Sonne of God thou canst and a necessity is laid upon thee as man to provide thy selfe of food for without food man cannot live Yet this fiery dart though steeled and pointed with the tempting delight of manifesting his owne worth or excellencie is wholly diverted by that shield of Faith It is written Man shall not live by bread onely but by every word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God So Moses had said unto Israel I fed thee with Manna to teach thee that man liveth not by bread but by every word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God doth man live Israel then did live for a long time both by Manna and by the word of God on which without Manna they would not have relied Manna was as the body and the word of God spoken by Moses as the soule or spirit of that food by which they lived both Manna and that word of God make but an Emblem or type of the eternall Word of God who is the food of life Life it selfe and yet at this time as man was an hungred So then as hee was the Sonne of God hee was able of stones to make bread and as he was a man subject to infirmities hee had just occasion at this time to use his power Yet as man invested with the forme of a servant he could not be induced to use this power For as hee often professeth he came not to doe his owne will no not in things lawfull and most agreeable to nature but the will of him that sent him though that did enjoyne him to doe or suffer things most displeasant to nature This was the time wherein he was by his Father appointed to conquer the irregular appetite of the sense of taste and the lust of the flesh 3. Our first Parents being Gods Vicegerents here on earth Lords of all his visible creatures not therewith content by Satans inticements aspired to be like unto God higher than Angels than other powers or principalities The Sonne of God albeit hee were by nature Lord of men and Lord of Angels cannot be allured to exercise his command over them albeit they were commanded to attend him Satans pretence in his second assault was very faire and seemed to be countenanced by Scripture If thou bee the Sonne of God cast thy selfe downe for it is written Hee shall give his Angels charge concerning thee and in their hands they shall beare thee up lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone Fitter occasion to any mans seeming could not be offered for the exquisite verification or exact fulfilling of this Prophecy than by this adventure to throw himselfe downe from the pinacle of the Temple But the Sonne of God who gave the Law being now made under the
Law submits himselfe unto that legall precept Thou stalt not tempt the Lord thy God and with this Scripture retorts Satans attempted blow upon himselfe But what temptation of God had it been in the Sonne of God to have throwen himselfe downe from the pinacle of the Temple to have given proofe that hee had been that just man over whom God had given his Angels charge Some there bee who reply that Satan did alledge this Scripture impertinently imperfectly For the Psalmist saith He shall give his Angels charge over thee to keepe thee in all thy wayes Now the wayes of men are not in the aire but upon the earth This interpretation I neither much dislike nor altogether approve because our Saviour doth not taxe Satan for his impertinent or imperfect allegation of the former Scripture Nor doe I see any reason why flying in the aire might not be one of the wayes of the Sonne of God made man as well as walking upon the Sea in a tempest if so it had pleased him or his heavenly Father by whose appointment or disposing hee did doe or suffer all things Now it was his Fathers will that by his walking on the water he should manifest himselfe to be the Sonne of God able to command either winde or water It was likewise his Fathers will that at this time as man hee should conquer the pride of life or that deepely implanted desire in all men of proper excellency or advancing themselves before due time By this free resignation of his authority over the Angels hee makes satisfaction for our first Parents pride in seeking to advance themselves above the Angels 4. Againe Paradise did affoord our first Parents as full satisfaction for the delight of the eye as it did for food and yet desire of that food which they needed not found entrance into their hearts or fancies by their eyes But the Sonne of God being made the Sonne of man having neither place to lay his head nor any prospect for the present to please his eye had all the kingdomes of the earth and their glory represented unto him with proffer of their sale or donation rather onely upon condition that hee would doe that homage unto this great Prince of the world which many Princes doe to Kings or Emperours or Emperours themselves had done to Popes or Prelates The pretence was faire and the temptation the strongest of all the three For what man who is but meere man would not adventure upon any practice for the gaining the Kingdome or Monarchy which their Ancestors had foolishly lost Now Adam was Lord and Monarch of this visible world untill hee suffered himselfe to bee conquered by Satan who did remaine de facto if not by right of conquest the Prince of it and Lord of men untill the Sonne of God made man did throw him out of possession But that houre of his was nor yet come so farre was hee from affecting the kingdomes of this world that hee was yet acting the part of a servant in it but a servant to his father onely not to men or Princes in this world Of how meane a condition soever he were as man yet he disdained to worship men or Angels though but with civill worship for any preferment and therefore dismisses this great Usurper thus with indignation Avoid Satan Satan it seemes had a prenotion or suspition that Christ was that Just and holy man whom the Psalmist describes Psal 91. Or such a Sonne of God as they were which appeared before the Lord when he was permitted to tempt Iob. That hee was the onely Sonne of God or equall with God was more than hee then knew 5. These three temptations wherein our Saviour foiled Satan are parallel'd to the first temptation of Iob which was losse of worldly substance more generally all the evills which the Sonne of God did suffer in our flesh or whilest he was conversant with men in the forme of a servant did beare Analogie to the Evills which Iob did suffer but for particulars more in number and more grievous there was no evill that comes ab extra which hee suffered not in greater measure than Iob did any As for losse of goods or worldly substance Iob made no reckoning the Sonne of God though heire of all things did not vouchsafe so much as to grace these by being owner or possessor of them He renounced the world and all things in the world before he came into it he would not be intangled or medle with them that he might please him who had chosen him to be his souldier his onely champion in this great conflict with the Prince of darknesse But to parallel Iobs other temptations with our Saviours CHAP. XI A parallel between Jobs second temptation and the Sonne of Gods sufferings in our flesh before the houre of his Agony or his Crosse 1 IOb was smitten with sores from the crowne of his head to the soles of his feet his disease was more than naturall at least incurable for he was thus smitten by Satan But was the Sonne of God thus smitten durum est affirmare Satan had no power thus immediatly to smite him For bodily diseases wee doe not reade of any that did take possession of his sacred body wee reade that he cured all maner of diseases but never stood in need of the Physicians helpe for himselfe No disease did breed in his body being free from sinne and being anointed to cure all he did not hee could not take any by contagion But though hee cured all manner of diseases or all the diseased which were brought unto him yet we doe not reade that he cured all in Judea which were diseased For so none should have died in that land during the time of his three yeares pilgrimage through it from his baptisme to his death Albeit hee cured many of diseases naturall yet not all that were naturally diseased though weake or sicke unto death For he was not manifested to dissolve or destroy the works of nature albeit he gave profe by many experiments that he was able to destroy or divert the whole course of nature But wee reade That JESUS of NAZARETH being anointed by the Holy Ghost went about from his baptisme to his death doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the Deuill Acts 10.38 And many were so oppressed which were not possessed Many diseases which to us would have seemed naturall or casually bred were as immediatly procured by Satan as Iobs plagues were and in these bonds of bodily affliction Satan had held them longer than he held Iob. Such was that womans disease whose cure being wrought by the Physician of our soules upon the Sabbath day the Ruler of the Synagogue did maligne as an ungodly work but the Sonne of Gods reply doth justifie as well the truth of our assertion as the lawfulnesse of his practice Hypocrite doth not each one of you on the Sabbath day loose his Oxe or his Asse from the stall and
any other mortall man by their enemies And though the death of the Crosse was in it selfe an ignominious and cruell death yet in our Saviours particular that was most true mortis modus morte pejor the manner of his apprehension of his double arraignement and conviction of his usage before he was brought to the place of execution and all the time whilst the malice of Jew and Gentile was wreaked upon him was more grieuous then the death of the Crosse it selfe without these grievous concomitants could have been To scan these briefly and in order The very manner of his apprehension made some impression of sorow and indignation in him as appeares by the character of his speech Luk. 12.32 c Then Iesus said to the chife Priests and Captaines of the Temple and the Elders which were come to him Be yee come out as against a thiefe with swords and staves when I was dayly with you in the Temple yee stretched forth no hand against me but this is your houre c. And so no question did their binding of him in bonds by all probability and circumstances more grievous and more disgracefull than ordinary felons theeves or murtherers in those dayes were liable unto especially before legall conviction For Iudas who had bargained with the high Priests and Elders for making delivery of him into their hands had forewarned them Matt. 26.48 Lead him away safely as if hee had said Bee sure yee make him fast Whether the Traytor thus spake out of a desire to have him put to death or onely to secure himselfe against all quirks of Law concerning his bargaine in case JESUS as hee oft had done should escape out of their hands I will not peremptorily determine albeit I am not ignorant that divers of the exquisitest Interpreters and other good writers are of opinion that Iudas betrayed him not so much out of malice as out of covetousnesse being perswaded hee was able to quit himselfe from any restraint that they could lay upon him In the meane time however it fared with his Master or with them to whom he delivered him hee resolved to free his gainefull bargaine from further question And this may be the probable reason of his relentance after he saw his Master condemned to death without all hope of reskue or reprivall So it often falls out that when the events fall out worse than the Projectors intended albeit their first intentions were in themselves wicked the consideration hereof brings them commonly to such remorse as causeth despaire sooner than any degree of true repentance And for Iudas to make his gaine or to redeeme the losse which hee had suffered by the wast of ointment as hee interpreted it powred upon his head by the delivery of his Master although hee did not at all intend his death was an odious treason which is alwayes the proper fruit of a base and covetous minde And both branch and fruit the covetousnesse and the treason might be a corrasive to our Saviour and in part occasion his Agony So might the malicious disposition and ignominious proceeding of the Priests and Elders against him be more grievous to him than the paines of death or publique disgraces which he suffered by them The suborning of false witnesses against him were more distastfull to his righteous soule than all the sufferings and scornfull revilings which they bestowed upon him But amongst all the indignities which Satan and his instruments could invent these were the most grievous First their begging of Barabbas his pardon when Pilate would have dismist or reprived JESUS This was a cruell kinde of mercy the true effect of preposterous zeale and Pharisaicall hypocrisie For this custome of shewing mercy or begging pardon for some prisoner at the great Feast of the Passeover was first instituted in the remembrance of the mercy which God had shewed unto their Fathers in delivering them out of Aegypt And in requitall of this extraordinary favour which the Lord God of Israel had shewed to their Fathers they deliver him to be crucified by the Gentiles being set up by Pilate an heathen Governour in competition for this poore favour with Barabbas a notable rebell thiefe and murderer Another indignity was the sudden execution of this most unjust sentence not giving him such competent time as other prisoners had to dispose of himselfe and of his estate or to make preparation for death For this Session was not called for him but for others who had been in custody before yet he is cast into the bargaine as a fragment or refused remnant as a party no more considerable than a Cutpurse taken in the maner in open Court whilest others are arraigned Now all these indignities and many more as the Evangelists tell us CHRIST did foresee before his Agony seized upon him And might not the foresight or due apprehension of them and of the lingring death which these did usher in or both put together more probably cause that Agony and sweat in the garden then the apprehension of death and indignities approaching or then the extremity of some diseases doe the like effects in other men 10. As for the sweating of blood in some diseases that is never occasioned by any apprehension of the disease occurrent but onely by the ingruence of the disease it selfe whereof it is an effect or symptome Or if it bee objected that our Saviour might have a deeper apprehension of his death approaching than any other man had of diseases before they did actually seize upon him Yet is there no reason to suspect that he had not the same apprehension long before he entred into the garden or that this apprehension whether of death or indignities should not bee improved by sensible experiments of the violences after done unto him in the high Priests hall by the Roman Souldiers or by his scourging at Pilates command which was more cruell than others condemned to die the death of the Crosse did suffer because Pilate hoped that the sight of his gory stripes might quench the malitious heat of the Jews and acquit him from further condemnation Yet in all his ensuing sufferings we doe not reade or finde that hee had any symptomes of that anguish which came upon him in the garden Hee did not so much as pray unto his Father for any release from the tortures and indignities which he actually felt by sensible experience but rather for his enemies which had procured them Or if his bloody sweat in the garden had been occasioned as in all probability it was not from any foresight or apprehension of his indigne usage by the Jews and by the Roman Souldiers whilest he was in hold or upon the Crosse it could not bee any symptome of hellish or infernall paines 11. Yet that he suffered such paines upon the Crosse hath been avouched too confidently by some and more peevishly maintained by others One especiall ground pretended for this ill sounding doctrine is that exclamation uttered by him a
marginall note Yet if the Originall in this place might be as Cramerus would have it reciprocall the basis of these two contrary significations should bee the passive And though both versions saving himselfe and saved himselfe meet in one point yet it had been more handsome to have said salvatus a seipso then servans seipsum And so Vatablus in his annotations upon this place tells us it may bee rendred Vertere potes saith hee servetur sub a se pro servans se But Masius a man more skilfull then the vulgar Grammarians hath so farre impeacht these grammaticall curiosities about the peculiar force or value of Conjugations that it is not safe to put a matter of so great a consequence as the fulfilling of a Prophecie concerning Christ upon their verdict And however many other Verbs in this forme to wit in Niphal bee rather equivalent to actives then truely actives neuterpassives or reciprocals yet their use though it were more frequent then it is cannot prescribe against the proper and naturall signification of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this place which for ought I finde is alwayes a meere passive Wherefore to wave these grammaticall curiosities this observation I take it is more reall and of better use That as vulgar Philosophers usually ascribe the variety of effects unto the agents or efficients which ariseth wholly from the matter or Patient So Grammarians often labour to salve the regular use or importance of words from the diversity of formes or conjugations in their derivatives or multiplicity of significations in the primitive when as all the variation proceeds wholly from the nature of the subjects unto which one and the same word in one and the same forme or signification is applied As for instance when Melchisedeck saith Benedictus sit Deus Abrahami Benedictus sit Abraham a Deo c. Blessed bee the God of Abraham and blessed be Abraham of the most high God the formall signification of the Latin benedictus and the English blessed is one and the same but the use or importance much differ whilest applied unto God and unto Abraham For Abraham or man to bee blessed of God or to have good words bestowed upon him by divine goodnesse alwayes importeth some reall donative whereby hee becommeth more happy then hee was before For in God benedicere is benefacere his good word or blessing is alwayes operative of some reall good to the party whom hee blesseth But for God to bee blessed by man or which is all one for man to blesse God can import no more then a testification of his love and loyalty towards his Creator that hee no way envieth but heartily congratulateth his eternall happinesse and could wish if it were possible that it might be greater or that hee could expresse his loyalty and thankfulnesse better unto him who is worthy of all praise honour glory and blessednesse c. 5. In like case admitting the proper and formall signification of the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to bee alwayes one and the same and punctually rendred by Arias Montanus salvatus yet the importance of it whilest our Sauiour is the Subject and wee the Agents will much differ from the importance of it whilest wee are the Subjects or passives and he the Agent or Donor Salvatus applied unto us alway implies some reall salvation of soule or body or of both and is as much in English as to be saved or redeemed from death and danger The same word againe applied to the King of Sion by his Subjects or by us sinfull men unto our Saviour and Redeemer can imply no more then our congratulation of his dignity or an acknowledging of his power to save or our hearty prayers that hee would bestow his saving health upon us If Arias Montanus or other Translators of the Hebrew had been tied to have used no other then Ciceronian or Terentian phrases it would perhaps have been a solecisme to have put the Latin salvatus for salutatus But the Latin Translators oft times use a phrase or dialect more ancient by much then Cicero or Terence whose language though unto such as peruse few other Writers then Tully or Terence or others a little before or after them it may seeme harsh yet is it more expressive of the Hebrew the ancientest of Languages then the moderne Latin as salvatus in this place is more significant and holdeth better analogy with the propriety of the Latin Tongue then if he had said salutatus Hee whosoever he bee to whom we say sis salvus or jubeo te salvere may according to the fundamentall rules of Grammar Latin though not according to the custome of Criticks or Refiners of that Language be more properly said to be salvatus then salutatus And I make no question but Montanus and others did use it in this sense as the most punctuall expression of the Originall unlesse they had said salvandus However hee is properly said to bee salvatus or salutatus who is either really saved from danger or unto whom wee wish all health and safety The passive juratus is in its formall signification one and the same whilest it denotes the party or person or matter by which wee sweare or protest or the parties which make oath not onely according to the Hebraismes or Ellenismes used by most Translators but in the elegancie of the Latin or Roman refined dialect So an elegant Poet expresseth Amphiaraus his scrupulosity or rather observance of decorum in not swearing by Apollo but old Chaos in that region of darkenesse Testor inane Chaos quid enim hic jurandus Apollo If hee had sworne by Apollo Apollo had been juratus yet not juratus in that sense as a Jury with us are said jurati that is sworne men or men which take an oath being administred unto them for it must consist of swearing men or of swearers a new title given by some Roman regular Catholiques as they call themselves unto such Seculars of their owne Profession as will take the oath of Allegiance or acknowledge it to be administred unto them by lawfull Authoritie And yet I take it hee that takes a voluntary oath may be truely said to bee juratus not onely to sweare but to bee sworne and that not in vulgar or legall English onely but in pure refined Latin as in that of Prudentius Tentavit Geticos nuper delere Tyrannos Italiam patrio veniens juratus ab Istro According to the custome of refined Latin it would perhaps bee a solecisme to say a man that dies of poison were venenatus albeit venenatus be a proper Latin word not obsolete whilest it denotes arrowes or bullets but in our English wee speake as properly when we say a man was poisoned as when wee say a poisoned bullet a poisoned shaft And so no question according to the true intent of the Prophet Zachariah our Saviour was as properly said to bee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is saved
of his purpose that Sathan himself had he beene present could not have reply'd unto it 4 For that 8. Psalme as the Jews cannot deny was composed in honour of the God of Israel that it was also propheticall and to be fulfilled in time is to all Christians apparent from our Apostles allegation of another place to the like purpose Hebrews 2.6 7. of whose fulfilling hereafter The first part of the prophecie that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God their Lord which as hath beene before observed was the peculiar title of God the Sonne or of God to be manifested in the flesh was never punctually fulfilled untill the children cryed Hosanna to the Sonne of David in the Temple In these congratulations they did by divine instinct or disposition of the All-seeing providence proclaim the expected Son of David to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that very God their Lord in whose praise this Psalme was conceived The Babes then did spel the Prophets meaning not amisse But our Saviour and the present circumstances of the time did put their lisping syllables together more rightly and fully answerable to the meaning of the Propheticall vision For so it followeth in the same Psalme that this God their Lord did therefore ordain his praise out of the mouths of babes and sucklings because of his enemies that he might still the Enemie and Avenger Psalme 8.2 And so the malicious Priests and Scribes were put to a Non plus upon our Saviours allegation of this prophecie in justification of himself and of these Infants whose testimonies they sought to elevate and to impute the acceptance of it to his folly Now albeit our Saviour left them at this Non plus for the present yet within a day or two after he putteth the very Pharisees the most learned of them to a greater non plus by another testimony parallel to this of the 8. Psalme While the Pharisees saith S. Matthew were gathered together Iesus asked them saying What think ye of Christ Whose Sonne is he They say unto him The Sonne of David He saith unto them How then doth David in spirit call him Lord saying The Lord said unto my Lord Sit thou on my right hand till I make thine enemies thy footstoole If David then call him Lord how is he his Sonne And no man was able to answer him a word neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions Matth. 22.41 42 c. All this argues a full conviction of their consciences and that unlesse they had suffered their splenatick passions to conquer their consciences for the present or had not hoodwinked their intellectuals with malicious habits of their hearts they must of necessity have confessed as much as the little children in this expression before had done to wit that he was not onely the promised Sonne of David but that the promised Sonne of David was to be Davids Lord this whole peoples God and Lord. For it is observable that David in the beginning of the 110. Psalme saith not Iehova said unto Iehova but Iehova said unto Adonai Sit thou on my right hand not thereby denying that this Adonai was to be Iehova but that he was to be as the Author of the 8. Psalme saith both his God and his Lord It is againe to my present apprehension observable that after Nehemiah had revived the solemnity of the feast of Tabernacles and moved the people to renew the Covenant which their forefathers had made for faithfull observance of Gods Laws given by Moses they nuncupate this their solemn vow unto 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the Lord our God And the rest of the people to wit all besides those who had sealed to the Covenant before with Nehemiah the Priests the Levites the Porters the Singers the Nethinims and all they that had separated themselves from the people of the Lands unto the Law of God their Wives their Sonnes and their Daughters every one having knowledge and understanding They clave to their Brethren their Nobles and entred into a curse and into an oath to walk in Gods Laws which were given by Moses the servant of God and to observe and doe all the Commandements of the Lord our Lord and his judgements and his statutes Nehem. 10.28 29 c. But this solemne vow and Covenant confirmed by oath of keeping Gods Laws was more shamefully broken by this perverse and gainsaying generation then those Laws themselves had been by Antiochus or other Heathen which had never sworne vnto them For the chiefe Priests the Scribes the Elders notwithstanding the former convictions of their consciences hold on to persecute this God their Lord unto whose honour their forefathers had dedicated this vow with greater cruelties and more malicious indignities then Antiochus had used towards the meanest of his people and so at length to bring that curse annexed to the former vow upon themselves and upon their children unto this day 5. Thus much of the Prophecies or foresignifications of his triumphant ingresse into Jerusalem and of his entertainment there untill the Feast of the legall Passeover whose mystery he did accomplish by his death Points not handled either so fully or so punctually as was requisite by any Commentators Postillers or others whom I have read And this hath emboldned me to enlarge my meditations upon this small part of my Comments on the Creed As for the Prophecies types or other foresignifications of what he did or suffered from the time of his sacred Supper untill his resurrection from the dead these have been so plentifully and so punctually handled by many especially by the learned Gerard that much cannot be added without a great deale of superfluous paines And yet I know it will be expected that I say somewhat of this argument SECTION 4. The Evangelicall relations of the indignities done unto our Saviour by sinfull men and of his patience in suffering them respectively prefigured and foretold by the Prophets and other sacred Writers Or a Comment upon the Evangelicall History from the institution of his Supper unto his death and buriall CHAP. XXIII Of the betraying of our Saviour of his apprehension and dismission of his Disciples And how they were foretold or prefigured in the old Testament 1 OF the sweet Harmony betweene the institution occasion and celebration of the legall Passeover and the continuation of the Lords Supper or Sacrament of his body and blood instituted in lieu or rather in remembrance of the accomplishing of it I have in other meditations delivered my minde at large And if if it shall please the Lord God to grant mee life and health what I have either uttered in Sermons or otherwayes conceived concerning this Argument shall be communicated to this Church wherein I live if not to others in the Article of the Catholique Church which did beginne to bee on earth from our Saviours resurrection or from his ascension into heaven and descending of the Holy Ghost At the accomplishment of
My God my God why hast thou forsaken mee Mark 15.33 34. S. Matthew relateth the same story in the same order and circumstance of time onely with this variation in words Eli Eli lamasabacthani Matt. 27.46 S. Mark it seemes relateth the words in the Syriack or Chaldee then usuall S. Matthew in the same syllables our Saviour spoke them and as they are in the Psalmist for Eli comes neerer to the name of Elias then Eloi and might more easily occasion that mistake in the multitude which both the Evangelists relate then if hee had cried Eloi for that was the usuall appellation of God in those times Some of them that stood by saith S. Mark when they heard it said Behold he calleth Elias Mark 15.35 Some of them saith S. Matthew that stood there when they heard that said This man calleth for Elias And straightway one of them ranne and took a sponge and filled it with vineger and put it on a reed and gave it him to drink the rest said Let bee let us see whether Elias will come to save him Matth. 27.47 c. Betweene S. Matthew and S. Mark in this last clause concerning vinegar which was given unto him there is some variation in words And one ranne saith S. Mark and filled a sponge full of vinegar and put it on a reed and gave him to drink saying Let alone let us see whether Elias will come to take him downe Mark 15.36 S. Mark appropriateth that speech unto the party which ranne to give him vinegar which S. Matthew ascribeth to the rest of the multitude seeking as his words seeme to import to inhibite him from doing that which he did This variation in words betwixt these two Evangelists hath occasioned a question more proper to the Schooles of Physick then of Divinity as Whether the drinking of vinegar be more effectuall to prolong life or hasten death in bodies fainting specially for want of blood S. Marks relation seemeth to imply that the intention of the party which rann to give him vinegar was to prolong his life for a while to trie whether Elias would come and take him downe from the Crosse But from S. Matthews relation of the same story it is probable that the multitude which heard him utter these words My God my God why hast thou forsaken mee did presume that vinegar would shorten his life and for this reason as much as in them lay did inhibite the other to give him vinegar lest it might have been replied that Elias would have come to releeve him if he had not hastned his death But vinegar as it is thought by Galen himself if some good Commentators doe not misquote him mingled with hyssop is a strengthener and that the vessell of vinegar which S. Iohn saith stood by the Crosse was set there on purpose to keepe such as were crucified from fainting However there is no contradiction betweene the Evangelists For the multitude did therefore inhibite him that ranne for vinegar lest by thus doing hee should prolong his life as if they had said Seeing he calls for Elias stay thine hand and see whether Elias will come to recover him in his fainting And he which gave him vinegar after he had given it him did conforme himself unto the rest as if hee had said I have done this kindnesse for him to prolong his life a while let us see whether Elias will come and take him downe and free him from the Crosse The truth is that albeit he which made such hast to minister vinegar unto him did doe this feat at the same time or about that instant wherein our Saviour cried out Eli Eli lamasabacthani yet this exclamation did no way cause him to make such speed but rather moved the rest which heard these words perhaps better then hee did to disswade him from doing that which he intended upon another occasion That which moved him to doe as he did was another speech of our Saviours uttered by him when he was on the Crosse either immediatly before or immediately after hee cried out Eli Eli c. though not with such a loud voice as hee uttered that And this speech is mentioned onely by S. Iohn 19.28 29. Iesus knowing that all things were now accomplished that the Scripture might bee fulfilled said I thirst Now there was a vessell full of vinegar and they filled a spunge full of vinegar and put it upon hyssope and put it to his mouth When Iesus therefore had received the vinegar he said It is finished So that the intention of him that filled the spunge with vinegar and put it upon hyssop and put it to his mouth was to quench his thirst whereof hee complained But whether St. Iohn meaneth the same thing by hyssop which the other two Evangelists meane by the reed or whether 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Ecclesiasticall Greek bee the same with that which wee call hyssop or rather rosemarie which is rather a frutex then an hearb and better resembleth a reed then hyssop let professed Criticks or such as have leasure to peruse Herbalists or such as write of plants determine Many probabilities there are and to my remembrance alledged by Gerard not the famous Herbalist but that learned Divine yet living which half perswades me that the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Ecclesiasticall Greek seems to be derived was the branches or stalks of Rosemary But these are points wherein a man may bee altogether ignorant without any detriment or very skilfull without any great advantage to the knowledge of JESUS CHRIST and of him crucified But unto this Ocean of celestiall knowledge the fulfilling of every prophecie of every legall ceremonie of every historicall type or shadow maketh some addition 8. Amongst other prophecies or testimonies typically propheticall which remained to be fulfilled after our Saviour cried out with a loud voice Eli Eli lamasabacthani that complaint of the Psalmist 69.22 was one They gave mee also gall for to eate and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink Hee saith not They gave him gall to eate in his hunger and for this reason haply hee would not receive the wine which was mingled with gall by way of scorne or mocking at S. Luke instructs us 23.36 as being then neither hungry nor thirstie But S. Iohn informeth us hee received the vinegar offered unto him at the ninth houre because he was in extremity of thirst At this houre and not before that of the Psalmist 22. was remarkably fulfilled in him My strength is dried up like a poâ—sheard and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws Thou hast brought me to the dust of death verse 15. As after his fasting forty dayes in the wildernesse hee was tempted with hunger so after his lingring paines upon the Crosse hee was truely thirsty and upon this sensible experience of the greatest bodily grievance that can befall a man hee said I am athirst but not with a loud voice or
importance of the word Ecce in this place as in many others is the present exhibition of that which was promised or portended The mystery foreshadowed or portended by the anniversary sacrifices of the Paschal Lamb by the daily morning and evening sacrifices by those sacrifices of the Atonement whose blood was brought by the high Priest unto the Sanctuary was in brief this that all these rites or solemnities should expire upon the death or sacrifice of the true Lamb of God and thus much and more is sealed unto us by that speech of our Saviour a little before his death Consummatum est All is finished Iohn 19.30 Now the rending of the vaile immediately after our Saviour had commended his Spirit into his Fathers hands did betoken that now and not before the entrance or passage into that most holy place which was prefigured by the materiall Sanctum Sanctorum was set open not to Priests onely but to all true beleevers That the coelestiall Sanctuary whether that be coelum empyr aeum the seat of our future blisse or some other place was now instantly to be hallowed or consecrated by the blood of the high Priest himself as the terrene Tabernacle or Sanctuary was by the legal high Priest with the blood of bullocks or goats c. 5. Whithersoever the soule of this our high Priest went that day wherein he offered the sacrifice of himself as whether into the nethermost hell or into the place where the soules of the righteous men did rest there is or should be no question among good Christians but that he was that evening in Paradise For so had he promised unto the penitent Malefactor who was crucified with him with an asseveration equivalent to an oath Amen dico tibi hodie mecum eris in paradiso Verily I say unto thee this day thou shalt be with me in Paradise As for those sophisticall Novelists to say no worse who thus mispoint the words of his promise Amen dico tibi hodie mecum eris in Paradiso Verily I say unto thee this day thou shalt be with me in Paradise to wit sometimes hereafter as at the generall resurrection of the just though not this very day they declare themselves to be in this particular as in most others more unfit to interpret sacred Oracles then Apes to be principall Actors in stately dolefull Tragedies For our Lord and Saviour did most graciously grant this poore soule more then he durst petition for and with better expedition then he could hope for to wit a present estate of blessednesse whereas he requested onely to be remembred with some mercy or favour without indenting any point of time after our Saviour had entred into his Kingdome And his entrance into that Kingdome was not upon the same day wherein he suffered nor within forty dayes after The Kingdom of heaven was not set open to any beleevers not to Abraham himself upon our Saviours passion or resurrection whether that Kingdome import the same place wherein Abraham before that time was or some other For it is one thing to say that the soules of righteous men deceased were in heaven before our Saviour ascended thither another to say they were in the Kingdome of heaven or Citizens of that Kingdome which upon the day of our Saviours victory over death was not erected And he who denyeth the souls of the Patriarchs to be partakers of the Kingdome of heaven before our Saviours death cannot be concluded to grant that they were either in Limbo or in any other region under the earth or under the stars 6. But to waive further dispute about this point for the present Our Saviours soule upon the same day wherein he dyed was in paradise and so was the soule of the penitent Malefactor yet not at the same instant perhaps not within the compasse of the same houre wherein our Saviours soule went thither in what region soever whether of heaven or earth this paradise was seated For it is evident out of the Evangelicall histories that our Saviour did surrender his soule into his fathers hand before either of them who were crucified with him did expire For as was before recited out of S. Matthew 27.50 immediatly upon the ninth houre our Saviour yeelded up the Ghost This testimony alone or this at least with the like Mark 15.37 had been sufficient to prove the Article of our Saviours death But for the more full satisfaction of all posterity as well of Jews as of Gentiles God would have the death of his onely Sonne to be remarkably recorded by the solemn testimony of the Roman Centurion taken upon examination before Pilat And now when the even was come that I take it was betwixt five and six of the clock because it was the preparation that is the day before the Sabbath Joseph of Arimathea an honourable Counsailer who also waited for the Kingdome of God came and went in boldly to Pilat and craved the body of JESUS And Pilat marvailed if he were already dead and calling unto him the Centurion he asked him whether he had been any while dead And when he knew it of the Centurion he gave the body to Joseph Mark 15.42 43 c. That our Saviour died before the other which were crucified with him is more apparant from the parallel testimony of S. Iohn 19.31 32 c. The Iews therefore because it was the preparation that the bodies should not remain upon the crosse on the Sabbath day for that Sabbath day was an high day besought Pilat that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away Then came the Souldiers and brake the legs of the first and of the other which was crucifyed with him But when they came to JESUS and saw that he was dead already they brake not his legs 7. And thus we may observe that aswell the malignant Jews as Christs Disciples of the Jewish Nation and the Roman Souldiers though unwittingly did strangely combine for the accomplishment of divers prophecies or prefigurations concerning the death of the Sonne of God Had hee not died before the other two which were crucified with him his legs had been broken with theirs and his body had not been interr'd before the setting of the Sunne as is probable from Pilats demand to the Centurion whether he had been any while dead before he would give Ioseph leave to bury his body Now if his body had not been interr'd before the Sun-set or at least before the starrs appeared the mystery prefigured by the imprisonment of Ionas three dayes and three nights in the belly of the whale could not by any Synecdoche have been exactly fulfilled by his blessed rest in the grave but of this hereafter Again if the breaking of his legs had not been prevented by his dying before the other two which were crucifyed with him the harmony betwixt the manner of his death and the death of the Paschal Lamb could not have been so exact for no bone of it