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A23586
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The passion sermon at Pauls-Crosse vpon Good-Friday last, Aprill 7. 1626. By Thomas Ailesbury.
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Ailesbury, Thomas, fl. 1622-1659.
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1626
(1626)
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STC 999; ESTC S113678
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18,096
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36
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decree for raine and a way for lightning and thunder Thus their owne Art is their owne labyrinth much more will the transcendent truth of the Gospell amaze them Pauls Lecture at Athens was a new Doctrine neuer heard of there the Inscription vpon their altar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was a record of their ignorance Acts 17. Wee speake the wisedome of God hidden in a Mysterie Where is the wise 1 Cor. 1. Where is the Scribe Where is the Disputer of this world Hath not God made foolish the wisedome of this world I will destroy the wisedome of the wise and bring to nothing the vnderstanding of the Prudent The ladder of humaine wisedome is too short to scale the Crosse of Christ Wee preach Christ crucified vnto the Iewes a stumbling blocke vnto the Greekes foolishnesse the mysterie whereof was wisedome beyond their vnderstanding knowledge beyond their learning and a worke beyond their time were the Iewes as wise as the wisest Philosophers yet non cognouerunt that knowledge will not lend them Spectacles to see the Lord of Glory But the Iewes were the Secretaries of Heauen they haue Moses and the Prophets to them were these diuine Oracles committed The Lord was knowne in Iury and his Name great in Israel this Sunne was in that Ecliptike this light in that Goshen If all other lights be an Ignis fatuus falie and dimnie here 's a Starre from Heauen that will neuer faile them man to the attainment of a supernaturall end needs a supernaturall meane the naturall vnderstanding Non sufficit viatori will neuer shine bright enough to be our safe conduct to these celestiall truthes In Prolog sent Percipit per naturalem potentiam non per naturalem agentem saith Scotus It may be the Caske to reserue neuer the light without a greater light to descry them Hee keeps his Chaire in Heauen that dictates these lessons Illiterate Apostles in whom the Creator to qualifie them with gifts wrought a new creation that suddenly from all simple they became all wise the Iewes therefore hauing the Key of Scriptures what mysteries will not that vnlocke Come then le ts see what light the Scripture giues to Christ here are contained a cloud of Prophesies the day would faile me to suruay them Gen. 3. Semen mulicris c. t was but young dayes when God first ingaged himselfe to mercy that a Childe should repaire those breaches the mother occasioned The promise is renewed to Abraham vpon his seede the blessed one is entailed but the blessednesse is inlarged vnto all nations in the miraculous birth and vnbloudy facrifice of Isaak was a vision of the birth and death of the worlds redeemer Abraham saw my day and reioyced What will the Iewes say to Iacobs Shilo The Scepter shall not depart from Israel c. Ge◠49. When in Christs time the Scepter was wrested out of the Iewes hands Their King a beneficiary and precarious King With all their hearts they wished for the Messias though their conceits could no otherwise imploy him then to quit them of the Romane yoke Dauid was the root out of which this branch did flourish What Ditties did Israels chiefe Chanter warble vpon his Sonne his Lord. The manner of his death the cry vpon the Crosse his Passion and his skorne are the contents of that Euangelicall 22. Psalme I am powred out like water a worme and no man I may tell all my bones they part my Garments in sunder c. So plaine that the wicked Iewes had no way to put out the eyes of that Prophesie then by offering violence to the sacred Text. And had rather posterity should finde non-sense then their cruelty recorded Esay the flower of speech and Prophesie who seemes to contex a History not write a Prophesie Surely Esay 53. hee hath borne our griefes and carried our sorrowes hee was wounded for our transgressions hee opened not his mouth he is brought like a Lambe to the slaughter the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of vs all And to giue the Scribes and Priests their due they could by this light blazen the Tribe Family Mat. 2. and place of his birth For when the Starre dispeared the Prophesies by them applyed to the Sages of the East were Starres to conduce their feet to worship there as swift as Herods to goe shed bloud there How then could the Iewes be ignorant Very well for Prophesies are but empty sounds Volant auolant the flye and dye beate the eare not the heart if the Holy Ghost bee not present to pierce it No breaking open these Seales no vnlocking of these mysteries without Dauids Key The right honourable Eunuch Treasurer to the Queen of Aethiopia sought for a better treasure at that time to be found at Hierusalem nec Sanctior sum hoc Eunucho nec studiosior Can our diligence cōpare with his who vnderwent a tedious iourney and in that deuout Pilgrimage made the Scripture his companion Hieron ad Paulin Et cum verba Domini lingua volueret labijs personaret ignorabat cum quem in libro nesciens venerabatur saith Heirom He read the Prophet without diuine Spectacles and with an implicite deuotion adored whom he knew not Philip layeth open Iesus that lay hid in the letter for the common place of his Meditations was the very Passion of Iesus But the Iewes had no sacred Spirit no Philip to expound these Mysteries their proud conceits cheating their vnderstanding as some foolish Mountebankes were ignorant of what they professed and which I cannot speake without stomake were ignorant of their ignorance for all this to them Moses is vailed I know who hath said it 1 Cor. 3.14 15. When Moses is read the vaile is vpon their hearts VVHat of this 3 They know not the Messias in our Sauiours person will the Iew reply wee are versed in the Scripture the Prophesies flye not out of our sight the Messias we expect and hope he is not long a comming then a rush for this Roman dominion but is it possible Iesus should bee the man borne of meane parentage his education obscure himselfe followed by the meanest we must be conuinced by better euidence our Rulers vpon such slender proofes are too wise to trust him But no reason to distrust him a threefold cord of witnesses is not easily broken Christ besides the written had the liuing Word of his mouth supported by his famous Acts to speake for him Scrutamini Scripturas saith our Sauiour Search these Volumes and if I am not recorded there neuer credit me more his astonishing words and conuincing workes what mettall were the Iewes composed off that these would not soften What was Christs life but a Commentary and reflection of the fore-running Prophesies The Law was but a shadow Christ the substance the good thing to come In the volume of thy Law it is written of me c. not a line therein but tends vnto Christ the Center
my soule so happy a felon as to steale Paradise at the last I would not feare any temporall arraignment to dye such a sinner or to be condemned for such a thiefe The witnesse of all this and chiefe mourner was the Blessed virgin Nature Grace are the welsprings whence flow such riuers of teares for her innocent sonne now Simeons Prophesie is made good A sword of compassion doth pierce her heart Can such a mother forget such a sonne by a reflect act her hands and feet with his are pierced her side wounded and head bruised with thornes as if but one soule in two bodies Oh my Lord thy griefe was the greatest that euer was in man and mine as great as euer happened to woman The very dumbe Creatures cry out of these paines the renting of his body rends the vaile of the Temple the digging into his side opens the Monuments the cry of him dying awakes the dead the immouable earth doth quake for feare of those feares the Sun is ashamed to shew his brightnesse when the Father of lights was darkned with such disgrace the Heauens discolour their beauties and suiting themselues to their makers fortune are in mourning robes when the lampe of heauen is extinguished Ingratefull Nation the Sunne will not shine vpon them but is immantled with a miraculous eclipse and Sympathizing with the Sunne of Righteousnesse will not appeare in Glory when the Lord of Glory is thus disgraced Bonau Solus homo non compatitur pro quo solo Christus patitur Onely man is bereft of compassion for whom onely Christ vnderwent this Passion I except the Centurion Bernard qui vitam agnouit in morte who in the shadow of death espied the substance of the Deitie Surely this man was the Sonne of God Thus Christ hauing out-cryed his torments prayed for reliefe and at his death for forgiuenesse to his enemies emisit spiritum non amisit willingly yeelds to nature and offers vp a broken heart and a troubled spirit to his Father for the worlds redemption O strange Physicke where the Physitian must bleed and a stranger Conquest where the Conquerour must dye and God would take no other satisfaction The wit of Heathen Religion pacified their Gods with sacrifices and of greater price of greater efficacie Sanguine placastis ventos c. The Childrens passage through the fire to Molech was thought a holy procession but here is a mystery God to offer himselfe and men to kill him Noua hostia nouo imponitur altari crux Christi non templi fit ara sed mundi saith Leo this Catholike Sacrifice is offred vpon Mount Caluary the altar of the world O the Miracle of mercy to quicken vs The Lord is view his worth in the end of my Text. The Lord of Glory Shall that Deity Lord of glory which principally resides in heauen be fastned to a crosse on earth truely though the Deitie be impatible yet by Hypostaticall vnion it constituted and made vp that Person which was qualified to passion and that so well compacted and put together that death could not diuorce that vnion The godhead hath not flesh and bloud yet God he bled for vs Qui redemit nos sanguine suo our sinnes were at so high a rate that nothing but the blood of the Lord of glory could purchase vs. This vnion consisteth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vndiuided 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inseperable and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without locall distance saith Damascene as a branch in the stocke as light in the Sunne as an accident in a subiect is the humanitie sustained by the Deitie The Catholike Faith goeth vpright betwixt Eutiches and Nestorius bending neither to the right hand of naturall confusion or to the left of personall diuorce Now Quaecunque in vno supposito vniuntur illa dese inuicem possunt praedicari Our Sauiours person is inuested with the properties of either nature hence flow the concrete predication of natures God is man and the abstract communication of properties to the subiect Christ is infinitenesse In this marriage the humane nature is in the person enstated with all the diuine Royalties and that is so indulgent as to assume her infirmities that we may say Christ-God-Man made the world Christ-Man-God redeemed it Here is the root of the infinitenesse of his merits Principium quo the subiect wherein he suffered was the humane nature but the principium quod the soule which did enable and informe it was the Deity Sent. 3. d. 19. Christ did elicere actiones ex supposito saith Scotus performe his taske in proper person So by that meanes reconciled infinitenesse to all his actions Infinite not in respect of the act but Person The Lord of glory Gabriel 3.5.19 d. q. 19. d. q. vnica The Lord of glory and yet crucified Neuer was glory so eclipsed here is Honour ashamed Maiesty afflicted Innocence guilty health sicke the Sunne in the night a vailed Deity In mount Tabor Christ was apparelled like himselfe a man might reade Maiesty in his countenance but in Mount Caluary all is obtenebrated Christ like his Spouse the Church is blacke but comely The Crosse nigredo est sed forma similitudo Domini Goe vnto Esay Hee hath no forme nor comlinesse there is no beauty in him The sable Curtaines by that Prophet are drawne vpon him Haue recourse vnto Dauid Thou art fairer then the children of men grace is powred into thy lips Bernard Intuere sane pannis sordidum plagis liuidum illitum sputis pallidum morte nigrum vel tunc profecto fatebere to see him thus conspuicated thy wit will serue thee to confesse his blacknesse but aske the Apostles whom they saw in the Mount or the Angels whom they desire to see thou wilt soone recognize him to be the Lord of glory Ergo formosus in se niger propter te so comely in himselfe so blacke for thee thus crucified he was without disparagement to his glory Non est fastidita humilitas Leo. quia nec imminuta Maiestâ—s nihil nocuit naturae inuiolabili quod passibili oportehat inferri All these passions truly vndergone by him did no whit impeach his Deity So Consummatum est it is finished and with it my Meditations there is remaining a short conclusion which desires to finde and leaue you attentiue YOu haue heard me relate the greatest crime that euer was committed wherein I know not if the Art of Tyranny were greater to inuent or Christs patience to endure The Heire is slaine but the Iewes haue lost the inheritance This is the medulla and blessednesse of Christianity that God set more by vs then his Sonne and Christ lost his life in seeking vs. Nos tanto redimimur pretio Leo. nos tanto curamur impendio so dearely did he ransome vs. Is it nothing vnto you all ye that passe by Behold and see if there bee any sorrow like to my sorrow which is done vnto me