MEDITATIONS for the Passion Weeke Following the order of the Time and Story By N. TAYLOVR 1. Pet. 2.21 Christ also suffered for us leaving us an example that yee should follow his steps Who his owne selfe bare our sinnes in his owne body on the Tree that Wee beeing dead to sinnes should live unto righteousnes by whose stripes ye were healed Printed by the Printers to the Vniversity of CAMBRIDGE MDCXXVII To the Right Worsh Mr. Doctr. MAW Master of Trinitie Colledge in Cambridge Right worthy and Worshipfull I Have no better way to shew my thankefull remembrance of your love and care over me then by sending you my thoughts that is a fewe of my better Meditations written for mine owne use and perhaps not worthy your acceptance yet such as they are I hope they will finde the same favour with you that my selfe have done which though it bee too much for me to expect yet I can hope for no lesse in regard of the gentlenesse of your nature and forwardnes to respect me before I had time to deserve of you The thing I aimed at in them was to make the Storie they belong to as orderly as it is perfect so that if they have no other use they may stand in stead of an harmony to right any doubt about our Saviours sufferings As for Devotion which I desired to stirre up in my selfe and others by them it could not bee bestowed upon a better subject howbeit if having the best I have fail'd or my affections want heate of zeale I hope nevertheles that my sparke may kindle a greater fire where it findes sewell by the light of which many may both see and bee warmed And now I have brought my worke to the fire you may doe to it as you please for I put it into your hands desiring pardon for my boldnes and so ending with my daily prayers for your daily encrease in all things that may make you an happie Governour of the Society you are in or may rise to Your Worships in all dutie NATH TAYLOVR ¶ Meditations for SUNDAY Beeing the first day in the weeke by the Iewes account EVerie Day hath his Night every Summer his Winter every Spring his Fall and every Life his Death And as some Nights are darker then other some Autumnes more unseasonable some Winters more sharpe so are some Death 's more yea much more cruell then other be Some men fall like fruite other are cut downe like trees some are pluckt up in the flower other by the roote that is some men die onely Suet. Aug. Non aliter quà m simplics morte puntit other with torment which is two or more deaths in one Yet one thing neverthelesse this diversitie findes to agree in That all men die with paine for two such friends as the soule and bodie are cannot be parted without grieving or to speake more to the quicke Two which Nature nay GOD himselfe once joyned together to make but one Person cannot be severed again without cutting neither is it an ordinary paine that divides these two but such an one as can but once be suffered and hath a name by it selfe as it hath also a nature different from other paines for we call it The Pang of Death which paine though we cannot learne what bounds it hath because it is a pain that comes not to his height till wee be past telling where it holds us yet can wee easily discerne that it is not alike in every man for the strugling in some and the quietnes in other shew either the paine to be more or the patience lesse and yet a strong patience will often out-beare a grievous extreamitie with little appearance of griefe so that this Fit hath many mervailes in it if any one could come againe like Lazarus to tel us them But among all Deaths whatsoever they bee never was any so strange as our Saviours was for in it both paine and patience met in their extremities so that paine did her worst to overcome patience and patience her best to overcome paine and yet neither paine had the upper hand though it killed nor patience lost though Christ died because he that suffered suffered but at his owne will and his suffering besides was the paine of Paine yea the death of Death it selfe yet howsoever it prevailed not so great nevertheles was this Passion so grievous as it hath nor can have none to sample it for Christs paine was such as never Creature felt neither can doe and on the other side his patience so great as for all the sorrow hee suffered on the Crosse he is not read to have uttered a groane there So that it may be easily discerned that Patience had the victorie because paine could neither make her leave the field till shee list nor bring her to any conditions but her own which were most honourable This is but one occurrence but the Death I have named containes further a Story that may take up Reader thy whole intention for in it thou shalt see wonder at it a Crosse set up to crucifie GOD on Life condemned to die Righteousnesse to suffer and which is more all this effected yet nothing done to advance the contrarie partie for through Christs Bodie Death slew it selfe and Sinne and Satan tooke their deadly wounds See againe and againe wonder at it Patience exalted upō her Throne the Crosse and crowned with Thorne whereof every point is deadly yet still unmooved and like her Selfe And as thou readst these things written with blood in stead of inke upon the wide-open Booke of the Crosse if thou apply them to thy selfe and weigh them in thy heart as Marie did they were for thee all suffered and Christs victorie is become thy hope of glory his Crosse is thy Crowne his suffering thy salvation his death thy life Here is now a Booke written in red letters laid open for thee to reade on I meane the Crosse and every word in it must be read two wayes as having a double and contrary signification When thou beginnest to reade everie thing signifies as thou seest it written but when thou commest to construe them they meane quite otherwise For at first thou shalt see scorn shame suffering death and all these laid upon Innocencie for thy Sin but this when thou hast acknowledged thou must reade every word contrarie over againe so that then shame is glorie suffering is victorie death is life both to him that bore them and to thee that beleevest And now thou hast the secret of this strange Character ply thy book hard and take out of it as much as thou canst for thy learning especially this weeke thou must do it because this is the verie time in which these things were first written not with inke as I said but with his blood that died for thee Reade then and learne and meditate and apply which all thou maist do though thou bee no scholler for he that never saw booke before may knowe
which beginnes at midnight both for day and night for it begins when they beginne and ends when they end going orderly on with them both so that the first houre when they began to worke was the first houre the second the second c. and so on in order whereas the houre that we heare when we rise is sixe or seaven for about that time men generally beginne to worke and therefore to us the first houre is not the first houre but under another name These things will best be brought together by a Table ¶ The Greater houres or houres of the Temple I II III IIII The Lesser houres 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Our houres as they agree with them both 7 8 9 10 11 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 This figure shewes that the Iewes first houre both greater and lesse begun at sixe and ended in seaven so that when our Dyall pointes at seaven theirs pointed at one shewing that the first houre was over and the next begunne when theirs pointed at two ours at eight and so on till you come to twelve In the greater houres it must needes be otherwise for their first greater houre was not ended till our nine which was their three the next not till their sixe which is our twelve and then begunne the third houre which lasted till our three in the afternoone as the fourth did also which ended at our sixe at night According unto this computation do the Papists yet name their Canonicall houres The Third Houre for their Hora Tertiarum is in the morning at nine their sixt is at noone and their nine at three a clocke after dinner according to the account of the Iewes lesser houres These things being thus explaned there is no difficulty in the diverse names the Evangelists give to the same houre for they are but two names signifying one thing the one reckoning the same time by the greater houres the other by the lesse For Saint Marke who divides the day by the greater houres he sayes it was the third houre beginning by their greater houres that is sixe a clocke newly over by their lesser houres that is full twelve and past with us when our Lord was crucifyed If any one object This cannot be for if Christ had been crucifyed within the third greater houre hee must not have beene so till one with us for then in the Table beginnes the third Quarter or the third houre rather in the greater houres I answer that one a clock is all the space betweene twelve and one which houre is ended when one strikes and so the third houre beginnes at twelve newly over which is the sixt houre in the Iewes lesser houres and this hee will easily grant to be true who considers that the first houre that ever time measured was not or could not bee one or the first houre till an houre was runne and then that might be called the first houre or one not before and as that tooke his beginning with time running on till it made a twelfth part of the day and then tooke his name according to his order so must the third greater houre needes take his beginning at twelve and end at his time appointed Now Saint Iohn on the other side reckons not by the greater but by the lesser houres Therfore the beginning of the third greater houre with S. Marke must needes be the sixt lesser houre with S Iohn because no sooner this done but that beginnes And this the rather because Saint Iohn reckons from our Saviours condemnation which must needes be a little before the third greater houre in which hee was crucifyed for hee was condemned a good prety while before he suffered therefore it could not be so forward as S. Marke setts it but within the sixt houre yet that is not full or at least but twelve with us when Christ was condemned but before hee came to Golgotha it could not but be past their sixe that is our twelve at which time Saint Iohn saith hee was condemned and so it must needes be the third houre or quarter of the day as Saint Marke reckons it which to Saint Iohn was the sixt houre One thing more also wee may note out of the former figure namely whence their error had his beginning who thinke that our Saviour was crucifyed in the morning at nine and dyed not till three whereas indeed hee was crucifyed at twelve and so hanged but three houres upon the Crosse for hee was dead at the ninth houre by the Iewes lesser houres which is our three in the afternoone This error rise because they thought Christ to have beene condemned at sixe a clocke by the Romane account which is all one with ours and crucifyed at three by the Iewes common reckoning in the little houres which is our nine and so they reconcile the times But this opinion bee it spoken with reverence of their persons cannot stand for Saint Iohn speakes not of our or the Romane houres but of those which went for cōmon amongst the Iewes Besides the story of Christs sufferings which were after the day was abroad I meane his arraigning before Pilate his whipping araying with purple crowning with thorne mocking beating by the Soldiers after he was examined also his sending to Herod in the other side of the city his stay there and his returne againe his second triall and finall condemnation before Pilate all these and other I name not could not possible be done betwixt day and nine a clocke Lastly it is hardly agreeable to reason that our Lords Body should bee sixe houres together in paine so unsufferable being of so feeling and tender a composition for though his Godhead could have upheld it yet his humane nature had our infirmitie upon it See Mar. 15.44 Where it is sayd Pilate marvailed he was dead so soone and therefore hee is knowne to have shortned his time upon the Crosse at least not to have held out till nature was spent by his lowd cry upon the Crosse which shewed that he dyed not fainting or through weakenes as other men do who die because nature can hould out no longer therefore I rest yet rather with them who thinke his passion on the Crosse was but three houres long the rather also because the death he suffered was so shamefull beeing upon the Crosse and his body naked layd open to the scorne of all his enemies for our sinnes which might bee a principall cause why his passion was no longer Many things there are to be observed in the time of our Saviours going to and being upon the Crosse As first the cruell usage he had from the Iewes by the way in that they made him carry his Crosse till he fainted next the womens teares that were shed for him when hee went to his execution upon that the loving care he had to requite them by letting them know their state was more wofull and fit to be bewayled then his Therefore
of Saintes praying such as all the Earth I had almost said Heaven cannot shew the like If ever wee will pray then let us doe it now for we cannot have better company and if wee watch too so it destroy not Nature wee shall bee like Christ in whom onely wee hope to prevaile And thus let us take our leave of Christ or rather attend on him for this Night time Meditations for WEDNESDAY NOw begins the Catastrophe of this Tragedy to come in for this Morning all Christs enemies meete together and take bloody counsell together against him to destroy him And to helpe them on Iudas Iscariot whose bloody mind was never pleased with Christ since hee blamed his coveteousnes for grudging at Maries powring her pretious oyntment on his head Iohn 12.3 the Saturday last past hee like a covetous wretch to make up his losse comes in with his What will yee give mee and I will betray Christ unto you The word was no sooner spoken but the bargaine was driven money promised hands stricken and Christ sold But for what thinke yee Even for thirtie pieces of silver A goodly price to value him at whose blood even the least drop of it was of worth to purchase Heaven and Earth Thus ungodly men like prodigalls make away their wealth for nothing but let us by their example bee brought to bee more wary and thrifty of our spirituall riches least wee fall into extreame misery and that the rather because GOD is austere and will one day have an account of all our spendings In the meane time whiles his Death is a plotting it is very likely that our Saviour is a teaching yet what hee taught this Day the Evangelists bee all silent in belike the Holy Ghost meant to leave us time enough for conning yesterdaies long lesson And yet this Day for a neede will afford a man matter enough for meditation For hee that can but endure to take a view of the cruell malice of Christs enemies may find what will give him sufficient occasion to bewaile his owne sinnes and wonder at theirs who were actors in so bloody a designe Or if these seeme too dismall to settle our thoughts on let us but cast our eyes upon our Saviours patience who was not mooved with all that was devised against him no not so much as to breake off his ordinary excercise of preaching by that meanes even then seeking to win them that sought to destroy him it will a little sweeten the bitter of that which went before And if wee stay a little to looke upon the faire face of this vertue in our Saviour it will bee worth the copying out Tertullian hee describes Patience on this manner Vultus illi tranquillus placidus frons pura nullâ moeroris aut iraerugositate contracta remissa aequèlaetum in modum supercilia c. i. Her looke is quiet and gentle her forehead plaine and smooth without ever a wrinkle of anger or sorrow her eylids let downe equally with Ioy and her eyes cast upon the ground of humility neverthelesse but not of greife her colour confident such as they have who are guiltlesse and secure her mouth sealed up with silence often shaking her head at the Devill and scorning him with a threatning laughter her attire white neither strait to her Body nor loose and fluent but plaine and seemly her place is above the Clouds where neither storme nor tempest can shake her the Holy Spirit himselfe lends her his Throne to rest her in where shee sits as a Queene bee the Earth never so unquiet against her Thus hee describes this vertue excellently as if shee had put off her vaile that hee might take a true pourtraict of her face Yet a better description of Patience may bee had neverthelesse out of our Saviours owne person and so wee shall make Patience not a female but a manly vertue as it is indeed and appeares to bee so in that it makes women to bee men at least more then women neither can any womanish effeminate heart ever bee truly patient but will alwaies bee grudging and complaining Well then let our Saviour bee unto us the true picture of Patience The Comlines of his person I take to bee evidently proved out of the place of Saint Luke Luke 2.52 And Iesus increased in wisdome and stature and favour with God and men This is by some assigned for the cause why the women wept so fast for him whē hee went this execution and let us take the description of it from him His countenance was faire and full of Majesty as some thinke and as Lentulus his letter describes him even as the face of Patience is Heavenly and reverent according unto others and so the Scripture seemes to make him not outwardly lovely or beautiful no more is Patience a pleasing vertue to looke on but winns by inward worth rather then by outward beauty never was hee seene to laugh for Patience hath little time to bee merry in this world but often to weepe yet not much neither but so as might shewe his affection rather then give way to it his haire long as Sampsons was and his whole person farre stronger made then hee to beare his feete all bare save his sandalls a fit foundation for Patience to build on his garment woven whole from the top to the bottome not one seame to divide it much lesse is it rent upon him by impatience his speach full of grace yet not much but alway seasonable in all his sufferings not once heard to revile or complaine no not on the Crosse and which is more not once to utter a grone there but on the contrary hee prayed even then for his persecutors saying Father forgive them for they know not what they doe whilest hee knowes as upon this Day the High Priests and their complices to bee plotting his Death yea buying and selling him hee is labouring to save them who within two dayes after he knew would prefer a murderer before him even then when it stood upon his life when Iudas returnes from his bloody bargaine even from selling his Masters head hee never once reviles or rates him or casts him off yea when he goes actually to betray him and outright hee saies no more to him but this That thou doest doe it quickly If this bee not the perfect picture of Patience I know not where wee shall have it Now these actions are our instructions and Christs sufferings are but a patterne for us to take out the perfect worke of patience by So saith Saint Peter Christ also suffered for us leaving us an example to followe his steps who did no sinne neither was there any guile found in his mouth who when hee was reviled reviled not againe when hee suffered hee threatned not but committed his cause to him that judgeth righteously We have all need of patience that after we have done the will of GOD we may inherite the promise for yet a little while
exhortaton to humility and unity a friendly admonition the next is the foretelling of Peters fall ver 31. a propheticall prevention after that an arming of his Disciples in generall ver 35. against persecution a loving premunition which is followed with a promise of rest in heaven Iohn 14.1 and 16. ver so to the end of the Chap. and a comforter on earth even GOD the Holy Ghost himselfe an endlesse consolation After these speeches Christ riseth from Table to goe unto the place where hee was to be surprised yet entring into a new discourse he tarries within doores notwithstanding so long till he hath made an end of that excellent Sermon his Swans song which is left us in the fifteenth and sixteenth Chapter of Saint Iohn which Sermon hee ends with a prayer John 16. his prayer with singing an hymne Mat. 26.30 whence perhaps our custome of ending Sermons after that manner arises and so goes out to the Mount of Olives Some are of opinion that the Sermon before spoken of was preached by the way as Christ went to Gethsemane according to the saying of the wise man Wisdome cryeth in the streetes but it is againe answered that the way is not long enough for it unlesse hee should make stops in it which is unprobable neither is it likely that on the night for so it was now Christ would stand and teach in the streetes and sing also an hymne which Saint Matthew tells us hee did upon his going out into the Mount of Olives Mat. 〈…〉 Through this Mount Olivet was the way into the Garden of Gethsemane and that Garden is the end of our Lords journey for this time Into which assoone as hee is entered then beginnes the bitter cup of the Passion to be reached unto him figured by the bitter herbes in the Passeover The very sight of this Cup ere ever it came to his lips was enough to bring a deadly heavines even upon his Soule It was now high time then for Christ to pray which hee doeth once againe and againe in these words Father if it be possible le this Cup passe from mee Yet are we not to thinke that Christ would have this Cup passe from him indeede for he saith himselfe Shall I not drinke of the Cup that my Father hath given mee But hee prayed thus to let us see what resolution Gods justice is of it will not be mooved when GOD hath once absolutely decreed to punish sinne not though Christ pray for it nay though hee himselfe in our person be the patient The whiles Christ is a praying his Disciples are a sleeping and that so heavily that his twise comming to them upon his first and second praying could not keepe them waking no not though hee chide them sharply for their drowsines It was a pitifull weight of sinne that made our Saviour Souleheavy unto Death and the Disciples Bodies to a deadly and unseasonable sleepe But this was not all for it wrung a bloody sweate O the deadly weight of sinne out of our Saviour such as never man sweat the like in all points and besides that layd him upon the ground groveling in a most grievous agony such a one as an Angell came downe to comfort him from heaven for earthly comforters failed and all they could have done had beene little worth Scarce is this agony over and the bloody Sweate wiped from our Saviours face but Iudas comes to apprehend him which though hee could not have done without Christs permission for all the High Priests authority which was made manifest when our Lord struck downe them that came to take him with a word of his mouth yet hee accomplishes Iohn 18.6 neverthelesse his cursed intent so that though Peter resist and smite of Malchus his eare yet Iudas prevailes and Christ is taken neither can they be intreated to let him goe though hee plead his innocency and heale his enemie with a touch even Malchus to let them see how farre hee was from hating them notwithstanding all their injury But their hearts were hardned therefore Christ must needes suffer Next unto this followes Christs examination before the High Priests full of injustice and subornation In the time of which ungodly proceedings falls out a pitifull accident which is Peters deniall of his Master which though it might seeme to admit of some excuse in that the temptation was strong even such as not long since had made all Christs followers forsake him and flee yet being thrise over committed and that after having beene forwarned of it wee must needes confesse that it was a grievous crime especially in that Christ was now even as S. Peters faith was upon his triall Yet this wound though it was the harder cure Christ heales more easily then hee did that which Malchus received for that was healed by a touch this only by looking backe for assoone as Christ look't backe Saint Peter came to himselfe went out and wept bitterly As the Devill in his limbes is thus busy against Saint Peter so is hee himselfe the while against Christ for hee stirres up his good children the High Priests and their company to vexe him not only as before by trapping interrogatories but also by reviling him spitting upon him buffetting him and mocking him And now their malice is risen to an height it is time to make an end for this day or rather this night and so they doe or rather the time it selfe doth for them because their malice had no end For having sit up all night about a worke of darknes they are not ashamed to prosecute it the next day to which we are GOD assisting the next to proceed but let us take heede wee do it with another affection then they did for if Saint Peter fell that followed indeed but a farre off what will become of them that draw neere to persecute By thine Agony and bloody Sweate Good Lord deliver us Amen Meditations for FRIDAY NOw beginnes the dismallest Morning to appeare that ever saw the Sunne it is no marvaile if she blush when shee rises to see such bloody practises goe on as the High Priests and their ungodly Fraternity make her conscious of Yet one joyfull Spectacle shee hath neverthelesse to cheare her selfe with and that is the death of Iudas the Traitor who repenting himselfe for he had beene of hrists company and therfore had some touch though not of grace in him comes and restores the money he had taken for his Lord and Master to the High Priests if hee had stayed heere there had beene some hope but after falling into despaire hee is not at quiet till hee hath avenged Christs quarrell on himselfe with his owne hands which had taken the Money for he went a way and hanged himselfe Yet doeth not Gods justice stay here neither for as hee was hanging his body broke in sunder and all his bowells gushed out because hee had no bowells of cōpassion towards his Master As for
but that it was evening and spices then were not ready to bee bought Out of these things much might bee noted for this day but that they were done the last Night and so are not proper for this time The first thing wee have on this day to observe is the malice of the high Preists and Pharises which ends not with the death of our Saviour our it is so cruell but survives to shew it selfe against his dead body Therefore they come to Pilate and say Sir we remember that that deceiver said while hee was yet alive AFTER THREE DAYES I WILL RISE AGAINE Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure untill the third day least his Disciples come by Night and steale him away and say unto the people He is risen from the dead so the last error shall bee worse then the first Vpō which intreaty Pilate answers them Yee have a watch goe your way and make it as sure as yee can So they went and made the Sepulchre sure sealing the stone and setting a watch S. Marke addes to this that it was a great stone which could not easily bee remooved without strength and therefore when they come in the morning the women say Who shall remoove us the Stone So that now sure Christs body is sure enough a great stone and sealed and a watch by it were enough to keepe downe a dead body But all this is to their greater shame for it makes but the evidence of our Saviours resurrection the greater which otherwise might have wanted witnesses from his enemies but now it hath even his enemies for witnesse that hee rose againe and that both to their cost and trouble to convince them So let them watch this day as merrily as they will to morrow will bee a heavy morning with them come it assoone as it will or can come which to us is the beginning of our joy It is to us the beginning of our joy but yet upon condition that is so wee bee right fitted to receive it To fit thy selfe first thou must frame thy affection to the affection of the Disciples which they had for the want of their Master For Hee that had seene the cleaven set either together or in severall should no doubt have seene so many faces of heavines and who had lookt as this day againe on our Lady Christs blessed Mother sitting with the sword thorough her heart Luke 2.35 which Saint Simeon had fore-hight her should not have needed any other pourtraict to set forth the true passions of Love Hope and Faith under a cloud of sorrow for if any one wavered in doubt of Christs resurrection shee beleeved because shee knew him to bee GOD and on the other side if any one mourned for his death shee mourned the most for shee was his Mother Thus must thou do to Mourne but for thy sinnes that crucifyed Christ yea thou must set thy selfe among his Murderers as Saint Peter sets thee saying Act. 2.23.36 I am one of those LORD that crucifyed thee Stand here fast now for this is the safest place for thee at first for thou must come to joy through this kind of sorrow or else in Christ thou canst not have it Next to this thou must learne of the holy women that waited for Christs resurrection how to waite for his rising againe in thy heart for they waited with their sweete odours and so must thou do too What these odours are Saint Iohn tells thee in his Revelation where hee sayes The odours that are offered in heaven are the prayers of the Saints Now thou must be as holy that is as Saint-like as thou canst therefore thou must not want thy odours such as thou canst get which if they bee not for enbalming as the womens were but for burning it is the better for it was a fault of love in them to provide that Christs Body should not see corruption Pray thou then and let the heate of zeale send out thy sighes and thy servent devotions in a smoake up towards heaven thus shalt thou cense thy soule that Christ may come the next day to thee and thou maist bee received of him at his Table And now I have brought thee where I would leave thee even upon thy knees wayting for Christ and blessed art thou when hee comes if hee finde thee so doing For as he rose that thou mightst rise so from that place if from any he will raise thee up yea lend thee his hand to set thee on thy feete that thou maist stand before him for ever Waite thus then and powre out thy prayers unto GOD to prepare thee for his comming and if thou remember others in thy prayers as thou art bound to the language of heaven in them which runnes upon OUR and VS put mee in among them yet of neede I beg it rather then desert and I have a better reward of my paines from thee then I can looke for Now I must leave thee for I know thou wilt shut thy doore when thou prayest as Christ bids thee Matth. 6.6 SO GOD SPEEDE THEE Tu autem DOMINE Miserere Nostri THe love that LOVE had last to shew The life that LIFE had last to spend The paines unto Gods justice due Suffer'd by God in manhood true The price which bought us God to Friend The tree on which salvation grew The merit which shall never end But doth to infinite extend In one weeke though the dayes be few This booke would seeme to comprehend Thinke you it can Yet if it hath not wonne it Reade but your Christs-Crosse and there God hath done it FINIS