the last day 1. The uncertainty of its time It was the policy of Julius Caesar never to acquaint his Army aforehand with the time of their march that they might be ready on all occasions and such is the wisdom of our God that he hath concealed this day from us that we might alwayes stand upon our guard and be ready 2 No time is secure As no place no Sanctuary can exempt us from deaths approach it may come to us in the Church in the Street in our beds c. so no time can priviledge from its arrest in the night as well as in the day in youth as well as in old age 3. Sometimes when men least think of it it comes Whilst the Crocodile sleeps the n = * A kind of a Rat. â—cknewmon getteth in and â—eateth his bowels whilest the Theban Centinel was nodding Gen. Epiâ—ninondas came and thrust him through 4. All the time alotted before that day is little enough for so great a work We have scarce time to learn how to live well saith the Philosopher but we are streightned with time to learn the art of dying well saith the Divine 5. Thy Preparation for will be no Acceleration of the day Our death will not be the nearer but sweeter the blow will not come the sooner foreseen Premeditati mali malis ictas but it will be the easier thy life and death will be the more comfortable 6. That day will be most dismal and Exitial to all unprepared persons like that of the man whom when the King came in found without a wedding garment who was bound hand and foot and cast into utter darkness Mat. 22.13 Oh! that any or all of these Considerations might awaken our security and keep us from sleeping in those sins which will deprive us of Eternal life LORD We admire the deepness of the riches of thy mercy and goodness who wouldst condescend to be thus ignominiously tortured between two grand Malefactors for our sakes How thou didst abase thy self for our pride and humble thy self on earth to advance us to glory Teach us Lord who are but dust and ashes to be lowly-minded and never to exalt our selves before or against thee least by our pride we be excluded with the Angels out of Heaven or with Man out of Paradise But among all thy Attributes we most extol thy Mercy which was so transcendent to this poor penitent thief whom thou didst rescue from the jaws of hell through thy infinite Merits It had been enough O God if thou hadst but promised him to be with thee for where had been ill with thee or where had it been well without thee but thou hast crowned him with bliss and glory in the highest heavens By this we are taught Lord not to despair of thy Clemency for though Cherubins keep thy Paradise and thy gate of Mercy be guarded by Angels yet thou hast opened the door of it to as very sinners as our selves Though we have sinnes more numerous then the sands of the sea or the stars of the firmament yet is thy mercy more and above measure No stains or guilts can make us so vile but thy Sons blood can wash them off David Peter Magdalen Paul and this good thief were cured by the power of that mercie and virtue of that blood But because Lord we are too prone to presume of thy mercy which is so eminent over al thy works we therefore entreat thee to keep us from carnal security from a Lethargy in sin and the delayes of all religious duties When ever we fall into sin do thou Lord by thy Grace raise us up to a newness of life to a true and timely repentance lest we sleep and lie in our iniquities until we feel the horror of eternal death Raise us with David from the sin of wilfulness with Peter from those of infirmity with Paul from those of ignorance Thou calledst this penitent but once and he obeyed thy voice repented and was saved but Lord how often are we called how often wouldst thou have gathered us as a hen doth her chickings under thy wings but we would not O grant then that me may be either allured by thy mercies or terrified by thy judgments or converted by thy Word or won by thy Spirit that we may hate sin and forsake it love thee and never leave thee until thou hast brought us to that heavenly Paradise where thy Saints and Angels sing daily Halalujahs to thy blessed Name Grant this Father of Mercies and God of Grace even for his sake who suffered with sinners and dyed for our sins Jesus Christ The Third Word JOHN 19.26 27 He saith unto his mother Woman behold thy Son and to the Disciple Behold thy Mother A Question is here to be discust Why S. John did affirm the three women to have stood near the Cross of the Lord when S. Mark 15.40 and S. Luke 23.49 write they stood afar off But this is soon salved S. Aug. lib. 3 de Consen Evang. they may be said to have stood afar off in relation of the guard and souldiers who did even touch the Cross near because they could easily hear Christ Or they may be said to have stood afar off at the instant of Crucifixion the multitude hindring them but when his suffering began to be completed many giving way they might make a nearer approach The sum of the words is this Being I am now to pass from this loathsome world to my glorious Father and knowing thee to be destitute of all humane assistances I commend thee to my most loving Disciple John he shall be to thee a Son and thou shalt be to him a Mother The command was most pleasing to them both and S. John speaks of himself in the following words and from that hour the Disciple took her home But S. John was one of them who by his Masters mandate had relinquished father and mother all relations and possessions to follow Christ how comes he now having forsaken his own to take the charge of another mother Mat. 4.22 The resolve is easie The Apostles that they might follow Christ dismist father and mother as they were a hindrance to the preaching of the Gospel either in regard of carnal affection or worldly commodity but in what concerned their care and solemn duty they left them not and upon that account the Virgin Mary was committed to him having no other visible worldly support God without mans assistance could by the administration of Angels have procured her a livelyhood and protection but it was our Saviours pleasure to have it done by John as well in regard of an honour to him as a love to her God sent Elias to be fed by a widow not that he could no longer feed him by Crows as formerly but by this action he seemed to vouchsafe a blessing to the widow so it pleased the Lord to recommend his mother to this Disciple S. Aug Serm.
Job 6.4 The poyson of Gods arrows drinketh up my spirit and also for the superiour faculties of the soul in a regenerate man as there My Soul doth magnifie the Lâ—rd and my spirit rejoyceth in God my Saviour Luke 1.47 And then lastly of inferiour creatures it is taken two wayes too of living creatures The God of the Spirits of all flesh Num. 16.22 and of creatures without life other then a metaphorical life as of the wind often Ezâ—k 1.21 And of Ezekiels wheeles the spirit of life was in the wheeles Now in this place the Spirit of Christ may be taken either for his soul which is the substantial form of the body or for life it self because spiration is a sign of life and they that breath live and when the leave off to breath they leave off to live If by the spirit we understand his soul this caveat must be had we must not imagine that danger impending to it by leaving the body as is usual to dying men who commend their souls in pensive supplications because they go to the Tribunal of the Great Judg to receive glory or punishment Such a commend his soul needed not because it was blest from its creation as well in regard of its personal conjunction to the Son of God as because it left the body in a glorious triumph being a terrour to whole Legions of devils So that in this sense the words imply no more then that his soul which was formerly in the body as in a Tabernacle should be deposited in the hands of his father until he be restored when the time of restoring should come but it is more credible that by the spirit is here understood the corporal life as the meaning may be this I do now deliver the spirit of life by which I do leave off to breath and leave off to live and this spirit this life Father I commend to thee that thou mayst shortly regive it to my body for with thee nothing perisheth but all things live who by calling those things which are not givest them a being and those things which do not live givest them a life And this construction is most agreeable to the Psalmist Pull me out of the net Psal 31.4 that they have laid privily for me for thou art my strength into thy hands I commend my spirit Where by spirit is meant life for he humbly beseecheth the Almighty not to suffer him to perish by the malice of his enemies but that he would preserve his life the like is evidenced out of those Apostolical words Heb 5.7 Who in the dayes of his flesh when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death and was heard in that he feared These words cannot be referred to his prayer in the garden as some interpret for these Mark 14. the Lord prayed not with a loud voice neither was he nor would he be heard that he might be safe from death but to shew that he had a natural desire not to die thereby demonstrating himself to be a true man whose nature abhors death but they rather signifie that he desired not to be swallowed up by death and that he might only taste of it and so return to life And in that he was heard for he was not long detained in the black vaults of the grave but had a speedy and a glorious resurrection So that here the Lord was not troubled for his soul for he knew that to be safe as being beatified from its creation by a vision of God face to face but he was solicit ous concerning his body which seemed by the sting of death to be disappointed of life and therefore prayes that it might not long remain under its tyranny and in that his request was fully obtained Here then we may satisfy those Hereticks such as the Cerdonites the Euticheans the Manicheans were which brought Christ upon the stage to play a part and say he was born and lived and dyed in Phantasmate in apparence only and representation and not really For if he dyed not where is the contract between him and his father that Christ ought to suffer all this and so enter into his Glory is that contract void and of none effect where is the ratification of that contract in all the Prophets wherefore doth Esay say Esay 5 3.4 9 Surely he hath born our sorrows and he made his grave with the wicked in his death where is the consummation and the testification of all this doth not the Gospel here say And he bowed his head and gave up the Ghost immediately after this his last prayer is that fabulous God forbid in vain had we all been created if we had not a regeneration in his true death Christ truly dyed so as was contracted so as was prophecied so as was related But this I may boldly affirm that he did not die so as other natural men dye for there is this distinction between them Christ dyed because he would dye other men admitted to the dignity of Martyrdome are willing to dye but they dye by the torment of the executioners they cannot bid their souls go out and say I will dye as he did I lay down my life for my sheep 〈◊〉 10.15 17 18. sayes he No man taketh it from me I lay it down of my self And De facto he did lay it down he diddye before thetorments could have extorted it from him Many crucified men lived many dayes upon the Cross the theeves were alive long after Christ was dead and therefore Pilate wondered that he was already dead his soul did not leave his body by force Mar. 15 44. but because he would when and how he pleased Besides Christ was not subject to the law of death which appertained only to them who were derived from Adam by carnal and sinful generation he being miraculously conceived of a virgin by the overshadowing of the holy Ghost and being he was not involved in a general rebellion and so had not incurred Gods displeasure it follows that he was not involved in the general penalty and so needed not to have dyed by the rigour of any law as we must And then when out of his own pleasure and to advance our salvation he would dye yet he dyed so as that though there were a disunion of body and soul which is truly death yet there remained a nobler and faster Union the Hypostatical Union of the Godhead to his body and soul to this I add death hath that dominion over men that they have no power to raise themselves from it Christ had for even in spight of death he retained in Almighty power and delivered his body and soul by a Victorious and Triumphant Resurrection So then as it is true Christ Jesus dyed else none of us could live so he dyed not as others dye not by the necessity of any law not
by the violence of any executioner nor by the seperation of his best soul if I may so call it the Godhead nor by such a separation of his natural and humane soul as that he would not or could not nor did not resume it again From what hath been premised thou maist learn O man First How that Christ shewed his Power his Wisdom and his Charity even then when he seemed to be infirm and void of all consolation They who naturally dye do by degrees loose their voice and strength but he in the last passage of his dissolution used a louder acclamation then formerly And not only that but as arguments of his further power he caused the basis of the universe to tremble the stones to be cleft the Sepulchres to be opened and the vail of the Temple to be disjoynted All which want not their several mysteries as the earthquake and the Scision of the Rocks signifieth that by the passion and death of Christ men should be moved to repentance and the obdurate hearts of the obstinate should be cut in pieces as it appeared by those who went from this sad spectacle Luk. 23. striking their breasts the apertion of the sepulchres denote the glorious resurrection of the dead bodies which were to be raised by vertue of his The renting of the vail of the Temple whereby the Sanctum Sanctorum did appear did imply that for the merits of Christs death the Caelestial sanctuary should be opened and that the holy should be admitted to enjoy the beatifical vision Neither did he shew his wisdome only in these shadowy Mysteries but also in that he produced life out of death which was typified by Moses when he made the water flow from the flinty rock And Christ for the same cause compared himself to a grain of wheat Numb 20.8 9. that dying fructifieth abundantly Jo. 12.24 for as from the corruption of that grain sprouts a living stalk and eare so from his death on the Cross issued a life of grace to many nations as the first man being gull'd with the sweet apple infected his whole posterity with death so the second man swallowing the most bitter apple of death brought all who were in him re-born to eternal life And what shall we say of his charity which was divers wayes wonderfully demonstrated at the instant of his death His life which was the most precious of all lives the life of a King the most powerful of all the life of the wisest and best of all the life of God-man he voluntarily laid down for his enemies for the wicked for the unthankful From the flames of hell he frees them that he might make them his brethren and Co-heirs and empale them within the blessed territories of heaven Is there any then so transported with cruelty to himself and so insensible of his own good as not to enbosome Christ with a thankful love Is there any so negligent of his own eternity as not to embrace him with a sweet recordation of his mercies Lord melt our stony hearts that they may take the impressions of such divine and unspeakable favours 2. Here offers it self also to our consideration the great obedience of our Saviour to his heavenly father in this recommendation of his spirit to his paternal protection whereby is verified what the Apostle sayes Phil. 2.8 That he humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the Cross It was so admirable that it had its imitation from his very conception and without intermission like an indivisible line lasted to his very death Neither was it determinated to one kind of work but extended to all those things which it pleased his Father to command to this do those expression of his tend Jo. 4.34 Jo. 6. It is my meate to do his will that sent me and to finish his work I came down from heaven not to do my own will but his that sent me And because Quia per victimas aliena Caro per obedientiam propria voluntas muctatur Gregor mor. l. 35. c. 11. Obedience is the best of sacrifices therefore as many works as he did during his peregrination on earth so many most pleasing sacrifices he offered to God Almighty Hence such varieties of them that sometimes we find him fasting in the desart and lodging with wild beasts sometimes in the frequency of men eating and drinking sometimes at home obscure and silent and that not for few years sometimes glorious as well in wisdome as eloquence and unclapsing his power of doing miracles sometimes with great indignation throwing the buyers and sellers out of the Temple sometimes as it were weak declining from the company of the multitude all which did require the noble qualities of an excellent soul which shewed him no way subject to the swayes of any passionate will of his own And as he practised so he taught the rule of perfect Obedience He that will follow me Mat. 16.24 let him deny himself Man must renounce his own before he can submit to the will of Christ The Celestial orbs do not resist the Angels that move them whether they be driven to the East or to the West because they have no proper propensitie either to one part of the heavens or to the other and the Angels themselves are at Gods beck to observe all his mandates because there is no repugnancy between their wils and his but seem to be so happily consolidated to him as if they and he were but one spirit And certainly if we will become Christs true disciples we must disband our own desires and natural affections and wholly resign our selves to his dispose and so become one with him 3. And lastly We may make this benefit of this last prayer of the Lord to use it as a holy Ejaculation upon all emergencies more especially at the hour of death for if the soul then leaving the body fals into the clutches of the Devil Ab inferis nulla redemptio there is no possibility of its redemption for as the felicity of the Saints so the torments of the damned are eternal but if it happily comes into the paternal hands of God the potency of enemies is not to be feared but it will be re-united to the body and both of them shall in the end enjoy a blessed and a glorious resurrection And herein lyes an ocean of comfort to all believers for as Christ the head did rise so shall every member of his mystical body be raised from corruption to incorruption 1 Cor. 15. 42 43. from dishonour to glory It is storied of an Indian King that when he had been Catechised so far in the articles of our Christian Religion as to come to the suffered and crucified and dead and buried impatient of proceeding any father asked only is your God dead and buried then let me return to the worship of the Sun for I am sure that will not die whereas if he had but
had need of him too least the cares and troublesomeness of this world should choake the good seed sown in their hearts Christ not content with good works many and great which he had formerly done ascends by the Cross to higher and descends not from thence till he beholds a vanquished enemy prostrate at his feet Nothing more hurts a Proficient then when he languisheth in his course and stifles his proceedings according to that old Moral In the way of Virtue not to go on is to go backward Bern. ad Ganinum as Bernard doth rightly exemplifie in an Epistle in which he produces an instance of Jacobs Ladder where all do either ascend or descend none keeps a fixt station Those also who are Perfect and Virgins as Mary and John were and for that cause the more beloved of our Saviour I say those do much need the assistances of Christ's sufferings for they are in an higher condition and ought much to fear the tympanies and swellings of pride and self-conceit which can no better way be asswaged and taken down then by looking into the glass of the Cross There they may find an admirable president of true humility even Omnipotency it self yielding to most contemptible sufferings He in whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledg Col 2.3 permits himself to be illuded and reputed may by Herod and his armie He that sits between the Cherubims and can blast a star with a breath Psal 99.1 and melt a Church with a look and molder a world with a touch even he suffers himself to be crucified in the midst of theeves and to die the most ignominious death the death of the Cross Learn hence O man not to be proud of thine honor wealth learning no nor of thy Piety it self but lay them all down at the feet of Christ and learn to be meek and lowly in heart Mat. 11.29 for so was he 5. And lastly we may observe hence the Reciprocal love of Parents to their Children and of children to their parents 1. The Virgin-mother did most accurately demonstrate this when she stood near the Cross with much sorrow and constancy and how could she chuse but bestow on him her choicest love whilest he was not only her son but also the Son of glory a Son that according to his Divine generation had a Father without a Mother and according to his Humane generation had a Mother without a Father and therefore may be stiled unigenite her only begotten Son A Son that was qualified with most special endowments as well of body as soul far excelling both men and Angels And yet even for this Son she had no inordinate no impatient grief but though his Passion was violent unparallell'd yet she beholds him with a holy and a Religious Courage humbly subjecting her self her son and all to the Divine will and dispose of the highest Thereby giving us this instruction That we look not upon any natural relations but with a love subordinate to the love of God for he hath told us He that loveth son or daughter above me Mat. 10.37 it not worthy of me And that whensoever he calls us to part with them we must not unmeasurably grieve for them but chearfully resign even our dearest comforts to that God that hath given them unto us 2. Neither was there a mutual retribution of love wanting on our Saviour his part towards his parent when notwithstanding he was then in the midst of most distracting torments he forgot not to recommend her to the care of his bosome friend and dearest Disciple It is a saying among the Heathens Diis Parentibus Magistris nunquam redditur aequivalens The Gods Parents and Teachers are never sufficiently gratified I need not inlarge my self upon this point even nature it self dictates unto us what love respect obedience and assistance is owing to those that begate us and did for us when we could do nothing for our selves They are therefore to be recompensed by performing these duties to them Eph. 6.1 Heb. 12.9 1. To obey them in all things in the Lord. 2 To bear their corrections with submission 3. To reverence them Mal. 1.9 in giving them all outward submission and fearing to offend them 1 Tim. 5 16. 4. To cherish and maintain them in time of need This the Apostle clearly teacheth If any faithful man or woman have widows that is to their mothers or aunts let them minister unto them and let not the Church that is other Christians be charged 1. O Most glorious God and gracious Father that sentest thy Son in no sort to assume the shape of Angels but the nature of a woman the seed of Abraham and didst glorifie that substance with the bright robe of immortality and place it at thy right hand We hope and pray that every one of us may have a portion in that sacred body of our Lord Jesus Christ 2. Make us partakers of his Divine nature as he was of our Humane make us free from sin as he was holy as he was holy and in the end glorifie both our souls and bodies with his in thy heavenly Kingdom 3. O thou Saviour of the world that wert pleased on thy Cross to cast an affectionate thought on thy dear Mother and amidst all thy sorrows to chuse her a Guardian to have her in his cares teach us never to forget those duties we owe them that are under thee the makers and preservers of our lives Give us grace to love serve obey and cherish them that so we may be as children of their love so heirs of their blessing the blessing which thou hast promised to loving and obedient children 4. And we beseech thee Lord to teach all parents by her example who loved thee to the last to be constant in their affection and care of their children and to bring them up in thy fear Let them know that thou art the Father of their spirits they but of their bodies Heb. 12.9 let them then put all confidence in thee for them as their best Father and make their daily supplications to thee for all goodness to them 5. Thou that didst favourably look at thy dear Disciple and adopt him of thy servant thy mothers son we pray that the light of thy countenance may shine on all us that professe thy Name make us who are by nature the children of wrath by thy grace inheritors of heaven 6. Teach us with Magdalen to repent with the wife of Cleophas to proceed in all good and pious works and with the Virgin Mary to attain to a good measure of perfection Let us be ashamed that the weaker Sex should excel us in the acts of pietie or religion yet powre forth thy grace upon all Sexes and all degrees of people that they may all know and serve thee the only true God and Jesus Chist whom thou hast sent Joh. 17 for that is eternal life The Fourth Word MATTH
above and this is not to be found in the Athens of the world but in the most Divine Academie of Gods Spirit Jam. 1.5 the Treasure and fountain of all true knowledg who gives liberally to all and reproacheth none Thither only we must make our humble addresses for this holy Gemme and not desist in our Prayers untill we have by our teares and cryes undeafed the eares of the Almighty 1 ANd now O God of all pity and Patience we are confounded to consider thy great goodness in suffering that extremity of thirst and pain for us on the Cross enable us to bear patiently all afflictions Corporal or spiritual and to submit our wills to thine in sickness as in health in woe as in wealth in death as in life 2. Make us to thirst after the Kingdom of heaven and its righteousness teach us to prize the salvation of our soules above all earthly possessions for they are spiritual immortal and precious these but transitory and subservient if we seek thee in the first place who art All in All no blâ—ssings whether corporall spirituall or eternal can be wanting to us for every good and perfect gift proceeds from thee above Iam. 1.17 O Father of lights The sixth Word JOHN 19.30 It is finished THIS implies no more in sound construction then that the wonderful work of the Passion is now consummated and completed for the Father enjoyned the Son two weighty offices or works one of preaching the Gospel the other of suffering for man of the first the Lord formerly said That he had finished the work which he gave him Joh. 17.5 6. and manifested his name unto men The other injunction is intimated in these words O my Father if this Cup may not pass away from me Mat. 26 42. except I drink it thy will be done Now he had fully exhausted that bitter cup of his Passion nothing remained but his dissolution and so with an inclining head he gave up the Ghost But being neither our Saviour nor S. John explained what was Finished occasion is given us to make such mysticall applications of the Word as may be fruitfull to our souls Aug. â—om in â—cum One of the Fathers affirmes That in this place is meant an impletion of the Prophecies foretold of Christ Esay 7. Mick 2. and that all those predictions were true as his conception of a Virgin his Nativity in Bethlehem Numb 23. the apparatition of a new Starr Psal 71. the Adoration of Kings the Preaching of the Gospell Isay 61. His Miracles his riding upon an ass Esay 35. Psal 21.68 Esa 53. Jer. 11. Zach. 12. And his whole Passion is described by parts by David in his Psalmes Esay Jeremy Zachary and others and this the Lord himself being to pass to his sufferings spake Behold Luck 18. we go up to Jerusalem and all things that are written by the Prophets concerning the Son of Man shall be accomplished which is also here averred that their Testimonies might he verrified and received as the dictates of the Holy Ghost 2. Another of the Fathers understands here Chrysost that the power which was permitted to Men and Angels against Christ was now consummated at his Death and to this effect he speaks to the Chief Priests and Captains of the Temple and the elders that were with him this is your hour Lu. 22.53 and the power of darkness now his laborious peregrination now the condition of his mortal life according to which he hungred and thirsted and was weary and obnoxious to injuries wounds and to death it selfe is fully ended and determined 3. Another makes this Construction Now the chiefest Sacrifice was Consummated that in which all the Sacrifices of the old Law as it were types and shadowes did rest and into which they run as Rivolets into the main Ocean or as the stars when the Sun appeares with his glorious rayes see no stars at all so those typical oblations all vanished at the presence of this Son of Glory when he was to be immolated Concerning these prefigurations one speaks thus Lord thou hast attracted all things to thy selfe Leo Serm. 8. de possion dom for the vaile of the Temple being rent the holy things of the most holy departed from the unworthy Priests that the figure might be turned into the truth Prophecy into manifestation and the law into the Gospel and a little after the variety of carnal sacrifices now ceasing the oblation of thy body and blood have made one perfect and entire sacrifice For in this Sacrifice the Priest is God-man according to his Hypostatical union Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchizedeck Psal 109.4 The Altar was the Cross which by how much the more base it was before by so much the more illustrious and noble it was made after Christs death the Sacrifice was the Lamb of God innocent and immaculate of whom the Prophet said That he was brought as a sheep to the slaughter Isa 53.7 and as a sheep before the shearer is dumb so he openeth not his mouth The fire of the Holocaust was his immense charity Cant. 1.8 which did so flame in his brest that the floods of persecutions could not extinguish it the fruit of the Sacrifice was the redemption of Mankind the expiation of the sins of all the sons of Adam for Isa 1.29 behold he is the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world But here is the difference between the sacrifices under the Law and this of the Gospel there it was the Office of the Priest to kill and to prepare the Sacrifice but here Christ was both Priest and Sacrifice not that he layd violent hands on himself but because he willingly yielded to the slaughter for Gods glory and the propitiation of our sins their reconciliation was obtained by the blood of beasts Col. 1.20 here peace is made through the sacred blood of Christ Jesus not his as he claimes all the beasts of the forrest all the cattell upon a thousand hills Psa 50.10 and all the foules of the Mountains to be his not his as he is Lord and proprietary of all by Creation so all blood in his no nor his as the blood of all the Martyrs was his which is a neer relation and Consanguinity but his so as it was the blood of his Cross the precious blood of his body the seat of his soul the matter of his Spirits and the knot of his dear life 4. We may further understand in this place that at the death of Christ a great battell was finished between him and the Prince of this world of which he intimates in those words Now is the judgement of this world Jo. 12.31 now shall the Prince of it be cast out but this battell was judiciall not military the encounters were in litigations not armes for the devill did strive with the Son of God about