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
he bids them Daughters of Ierusalem weepe not for me but weepe for your selves At his comming to the place of execution Golgotha or Calvary that is the place of a skull their offering him wine mingled with myrrhe which was so sowre and bitter that one of the Evangelists calls it vineger mingled with Gall which hee refused upon that his crucifying betweene two theeves Pilates Title nayled above his head his prayer for his enemies the parting of his garments by the Souldiers the reproches of them that stood by the Blasphemy of the unpenitent Theefe the conversion of the other Theefe that repented his last words to his Mother and his beloved Disciple the darkning of the body of the Sun ere liee dyed to whom it owed his light as his Creator his complaint to GOD that he had forsaken him his thirst his Iowd cry when he gave up the Ghost that it might appeare he dyed not of necessitie but willingly layd downe his life beeing in his full strength and having power to have retained it if hee would his commending his Soule into his Fathers hands and lastly his death after the CONSUMMATUM EST that is It is finished was pronounced in which the worke of our Redemption had his full period so that there remained no more either to doe or suffer And now this Tragedy is at an end after which if you looke for a Plaudite it wants not that neither and such a one also as is best fitting for so dreere a Story for Saint Luke tells us Luke 23 48 that All the people who sawe this sight smote their breasts which was fitter for a Tragedy then clapping their hands and returned The use of these things in generall is this To give us a sight of our sinnes which could not find pardon in the Sonne of GOD himselfe when hee stood in our person though he bore them without sinne To teach us patience when we are called to suffer for them of desert by him that suffered for them undeservedly and yet never so much as once groned on the Crosse nor reviled or complained of his enemies To be thankfull unto GOD for the suffering of Christ which hee hath appointed to be the satisfaction for their sinnes that beleeve in him as their only Redeemer To stirre us up to true sorrow for sinne and make us fly to Christ for remedy that wee may be healed by his stripes afterwards to serve him in newnes of life till wee come to bee changed into a state of incorruptible purity never to sinne any more which estate the merit of Christs passion by his inestimable value hath bought for all that truly seeke to and serve him Many things more might be noted out of the things that fell out either when or after our Lord suffered as the darkning of the body of the Sunne for an Eclipse it was not because the body of Truth even the Sunne of Righeousnes suffered the renting of the vaile of the Temple signifying the abrogating of the Legall types or shaddowes for the vayle was a figure of the Spirituall covering which was before the eyes of the Church till Christs comming the cleaving of the earth uncer the burden of Christs suffering and the weight of our sinnes making a way for them to descend to Hell from whence they carne the rising of the Bodies of the Saints out of their graves shewing that the heart-strings of death which before bound them in their Sepulchres were braken by the death of Christ lastly the buriall of the pure and untainted Body of our Holy Lord and after his sleepe in the grave for a time his rising againe in power to confound his enemies all yea every one of these might furnish for a large discourse But my purpose was to speake only of the passion of Christ and those things that belong to his owne person rather then the things that are but accidentall to them as for the doctrine of the Resurrection it falls under another head and belongs to an affection of Ioy not of Sorrow of which two passions the latter only is proper to this weeke which here I would have ended but that the weeke ends not with us till to morrow be done something therfore for that I must find to say which if it will not build yet it may serve for filling or Rubbish in thy building Now rest thee with Christ untill the Morning By thy Crosse and Passion Good Lord deliver us Amen Meditations for SATURDAY WHere our Saviours Passion takes an end there should ours beginne for so must wee fulfill as S. Paul calls them the after-sufferings or the remainder of the sufferings of Christ Which though they were perfected when hee dyed and needed no more yet he will have us to cast our mite into this Treasary Therefore not because hee needs wee should sorrow for him let us take up our Crosse this day and follow him but because wee need to sorrow for our selves as Christ taught the Daughters of Ierusalem Now this day is our Saviour sleeping in his grave in which Ioseph of Arimathea To whom our Land owes her first conversion an honorable Councellour had as honorably laid him Which action though it hapned yester night yet the effect of it reaches unto this day in which our Saviours bodie enjoyes the secret which this worthy Councellor had bestowed on him In this buriall many things might bee observed that are worth the marking As 1 Holy Ioseph his courage who durst venter to offer to doe this after hee had seene what had hapned to his Master for this cause the Holy Ghost hath not left that part of his praise out of divine story to stirre up others by it Mar. 15.43 for Saint Marke hath noted that he went in boldly to Pilate and craved the body of Iosus 2 That hee yeelded Christ his owne roome even the grave hee had digged for himselfe Matt. 27.60 for Saint Matthew hath observed that it was his owne Tombe in which Christ was laid 3 That it was a new sepulchre in which never man had layen as being fittest for that body-virginall or Maiden-corps untoucht and untainted 4 That it was in a Garden Iohn 19.41 hard by the place where Christ had beene crucified that as man first fell in a Garden so out of a Garden he might in Christ bee raised up againe 5 That there was no cost awanting that could readily bee purchased for Ioseph bought a fine linnen cloth Mar. 15.46 and linnen in those dayes was not eath to come by for they were not shirts ordinarily as wee doe which was the cause of their erecting Bathes in every towne in which they washed so often so that a hankerchiefe among even the Romane riotors was a rich token as appeares out of the * 〈…〉 Fabullus Veranius Poet. To helpe which cost blessed Nicodemus brought also an hundred pound weight of Mirrhe and Aloes to enbalme him and more would have beene done
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