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.
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
in all things 8. VVhile we thus censure and assault each other what advantages we give to our common adversary who takes pleasure to see us bickering with our selves And how far are we from that Legacy of thy Son that true Love he recommended to his Disciples Lord then we pray thee glew our hearts together by the grace of thy holy Spirit and purge our of them all the drosse and dregs of hatred malice schism and heresie 9. If it must be with us as with those two famous Rivers of the East the Sava and the Danuby that runne together threescore miles in one channel with their waters divided in very colour from each other yet let it be as it is in them without noise without violence 10. Keep us from Satan the Spirit of Division grant that we may live as Children of thy family Doves of thy flock and Lambs of thy fold by forgetting and forgiving all that is spoke or done against us Make us all Lord the sons of Peace even for his sake who is the Prince of Peace Jesus Christ our Lord Amen! The Second Word LUKE 23.43 Verily I say unto thee This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise The Explication THe occasion of the Word is this When two Theeves were Crucified with our Saviour one on the right hand the other on the left the one aggravating his former sins did blaspheme Christ and objected unto him an Imbecility Ver. 39. If thou be the Christ save thy self and us the other defended him and gives this modest check to the blasphemer Fearest thou not God Ver. 40 being thou art in the same condemnation But the other Evangelists seem to affirm the two theeves to be guilty of blasphemy Mat. 27.44 Mar. 15 3â— how then doth Luke speak but of one Aug. l 3 de Consensu Evang c. 16. Augustine resolves the doubt thus Matthew and Mark do take there the number of multitude for the number singular as it is frequent in holy Writ And so the Apostle speaks of the Prophets Heb. 11.33 37 how they silenced the mouth of Lions how they were stoned they were hewn asunder how they wandred up and down in Sheep skins and in Goats skins And notwithstanding he which stopt the mouth of Lions was only Daniel and he that was stoned was only Jeremiah and he that was hewen asunder was only Isaias Some think the good thief to have changed his opinion upon the hearing of Christ presenting those compassionate speeches to his Father Father forgive them c. But Luke doth evidently declare those words to be delivered before the wicked thief began to blaspheme and this also is consonant to the judgment of another Father of the Church Ambros in Luc. 23 who saith One only to have blasphemed the other to have as well praised as defended Christ and therefore rebukes the sausiness of his companion Fearest thou not God c. Happy thief as well in regard of his fellowship in suffering with a Saviour as of that divine light which began to open it self thus unto him he was no sooner converted himself but he begins to make a Proselite of his brother And then proceeding in a good work and those sparkles of grace increasing in his now happy Soul he confesseth his own sins Ver. 41. and preacheth the innocency of Christ And we truly are justly condemned to the death of the Crosse for we receive things worthy of what we have done but this man hath done nothing amisse Afterwards the Sun of illuminating Glory shining more brightly on him his Soul breaks forth into thiâ— holy Ejaculation Lord remember me when thou comest into thy Kingdom Behold with what an holy confidence he presents his Petition He whom Peter thrice denied this poor Penitent openly confessed and called him Lord. Thomas the Apostle denies to believe unless he could feel Christ the thief but beholding him miserably tortured on the Cross proclaims him boldly and in the face of his adversaries an heir apparent to a Kingdom He confessed him a Lord whom he beholds naked wounded grieved and openly derided and he stiles him a King when there was no probability of reigning in him for Kings only reign while they live and some scarce so long but when they leave off their weed of Mortality they part with their robe of Majesty Neither doth he petition for any thing in particular but only to Remember him .i. If Christ did but cast a thought on him and glance but the gracious eye of his favour towards him it were a plenary consummation of all his desires because he was fully assured of his power goodness and charity But what Kingdom is here understood Not that temporal Kingdom on earth which the Jews expected and yet he had a title to reign over them and was of the blood Royal of Israel and therefore the Wisemen after his Nativity made this enquiry Where is he that is born King of the Jews Matth. 2 And himself told Pilate Joh. 18.37 Thou saist that I am a King for this cause am I born and for this cause came I into the world that I should bear witness unto the truth But though he was a King in the world yet was he not pleased to exercise his Soveraignty but lived as a Pilgrim among enemies and received instead of honours due to a Royal person contempt and reproach But the Kingdom here meant is that Spiritual and Eternal one in the heavens that where there is a perfect Beatitude of the soul by which man is free from all servitude and the subjection of things created and subject only to God whom to serve is to reign And that which is intimated in the Parable of a certain noble man Lu's 19.12 that went into a strange Country to receive for himself a Kingdom and so to come again That is Christ was to pass by the wearisom steps of a bitter death to another life there to receive a glorious Diadem and then to return in the day of Judgment to render every man according to his works And that Kingdom as much as appertained to the Beatitude of the soul Christ indeed had from his very Conception but what belonged to his body he had it not de facto or in a glorious actualitie but de jure and in an honourable inheritance until after his Resurrection for while he sojourned on earth he was subject to all humane infirmities sin only excepted yea to death it self but there belonged to him a true glorious body which after death he was to enjoy for so he testifieth of himself It behoved Christ first to suffer Luk. 24.26 and then to enter into his Glory And so it is for this Kingdom of Glory that this Thief prayes for his cravings are not temporal or carnal but his divine and new-fashioned soul aims at things Sempiternal and sublime which makes Christ more compliable to his desires for he had no sooner ended
dayes Exod. 10.21 which was a signification of their superstitious blindness and ignorance of the true knowledg of God and the obstinacy and disobedience to Gods Commandment And as then Meses brought the Israelites from the Egyptian bondage they were in under Pharaoh so the true Moses here Jesus Christ brings all that believe in him from the bondage of Satan unto everlasting happiness Let us now come unto the words themselves My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Psal 22.1 and these we find to be taken out of the Psalmist and in them Christ complains in a voice more then ordinary that he was relinquished of God the Father at that instant For the better clearing of the sense we must observe that Christs derelictions of the Father may be understood five several wayes whereof one only is true and here meant there were five conjunctions or unions in the Son of God The first is that of Essence between the first and second Person of the Glorious Trinity and that as it is natural and eternal so it is perpetual and inseparable of which Christ himselfe speaks I and my Father are one and therefore he said not My Father Joh. 8.16 but My God why hast thou forsaken me For the Father is not called God of the Son till after and by reason of the Incarnation 2. The second is the Conjunction of the Divine and Humane nature in the second Person and this can never be dissolved for what he once took he never puts off And the Apostle saies Christ that is God and Man suffered for us 1 Pet. 2.21 The third is the union of Grace Joh. 1.14 For Christ was a Man full of Grace and truth and this doth and shall remain The just dyed for the unjust 1 Pet. 3.18 the death of Christ had nothing profited us if there had been a separation of Grace The fourth is the union of Glory for the soule of Christ saw God from its very conception Joh. 1.14 and according to its superiour part was already truely blessed Aquin. 3. p. q. 46. ar 8. and therefore this conjunction could not be dissolved because a soule once truely blessed is alwayes blessed blessednesse being the summ and compendium of all goodness There remains a fifth union which is that of Protection whereof he speaks He that sent me is with me Joh. 8.29 and hath not left me alone And this for a short time was suspended and dissolved that the oblation of a bloody sacrifice might take place for the Redemption of mankind God was able divers wayes to have protected Christ and to have withstood his Passion according to that prayer of his in the Garden Marck 14.36 Father all things are possible to thee take away this cup from me nevertheless not what I will but what thou wilt Nay Christ could have defended himselfe and commanded Legions of Angels to have guarded his Person Mat. 26.53 No man could take his life from him but he laid it down himself Joh. 10.18 and he might as well bestowed on his body the gift of impassibility as that of incorruption But it pleased the Father it pleased the Son it pleased the Holy Ghost to permit the common decree that humane cruelty should prevail against him then he told his bebetrayers the hour was come Mark 14.41 in which the Son of man should be delivered into the hands of sinners God then so left and forsook his Son that he suffered his humanity for that Space to be without any consolation to endure for our sins most bitter sorrows yea the torments of hell it self And he put himself to those unspeakable sufferings by reason of the greatnesse of mans sin which he took on his body to expiate for us that we being delivered from sin 1 Pet. 2.24 should live in righteouseness by whose stripes we are healed And as this sin was infinite as being against a person of an infinite value the Lord God so the person Satisfying was to be of an incomprehensible dignitie and excellency And though one drop of his precious blood had been an ampler ansom for all mankind yet that his passion might be esteemed by us the more meritorious and gain more Souls he shed all because he did undertake for the sins of the whole world therefore it pleased him to suffer a world of torments when he laboured under that Dereliction of his father 1. Learn hence O man how infinite and inexpresible was the love of Christ to thee when he suffered with so much patience and humilitie such wonderful torments for thy sins His soul was very heavie unto death Man 26.3 There is no Christian but will acknowledge that our Saviour was ten thousand times more able to suffer then the most Constant Martyr that hath suffered for his Name and if he were more able to bear whence could it happen that he was prest with such sorrow such heaviness and such feare but that he alone suffered more then all the martyrs ever since righteous Abel to this day this should work an imitation in us to love the bitter cup of repentance and to reject the cups of Consolation and Secular delights to rejoyce in afflictions and to trample on the seeming felicities of this world Doth God visit our land with Plague Famine War or other judgements O! remember that these Calamities are but as a drop to that vast Ocean of sorrows the Son Gof od suffered for us and that they are far less then our sins deserved for they are but temporal and reach no further then our bodies but by his sufferings we are exempted from those miseries which might justly fall on our souls and bodies eternally We then are as prisoners once condemned for capital crimes but released again with our lives and only chastized with some few stripes have we not then great cause to rejoyce that we have escaped greater judgments 2. But though God seems for a while to forsake his friends and leave them in durances and to withdraw his grace and favour from them yet his indignation cannot last for ever in the end he will return unto them and shew them the light of his gracious Countenance and be merciful unto them if they call upon his glorious name in their distresses Christ upon the Cross suffered a great dereliction his Glory was obscured his divinity seemed to be hid the light of heaven was substracted from him in stead of a Diademe he wore a Crown of thorns in stead of a Scepter a Reed in stead of a statelyretinue belonging to a King they afforded him the ignominious fellowship of two theeves thus was he dejected and scorned and exposed to all imaginable crosses but behold upon his humble expostulation and prayer to God the sence was altered and a speedy Period put to all these calamities the heavens were unmantled the light appeared his last and worst enemy Death was conquered his body and soul
were received in a glorious and triumphant manner into the highest heavens where now he reigns King for evermore And the reasons why God sometimes withdrawes his presence from his People and deferres their deliverance from afflictions are to humble them throughly to bring them to an utter denial of themselves to learn patience that they might acknowledg whence their deliverance and all benefits they enjoy do proceed namely not from themselves nor any creature but from the All-merciful God and that accordingly they might learn to value and prize his gifts at their deserved excellency for we find this generally verified that benefits easily obtained are lightly regarded and soon forgotten the children of Israel were in captivity about four hundred and thirty yeares in Egypt but after they had expected the salvation of the Lord they were brought safely through the Red sea Exod. 12. by the conduct of Moses David had a promise to be King of Jerusalem and Judea but the Lord exercised him by many and grievous afflictions before he came to the Crown Psal 119.82 in so much that he saies his eyes failed with waiting upon his God Zachary and Elizabeth desired of God both of them in their youth and many years after for issue but their request was not granted untill they were old Luk. 1.18 the Church Militant for some hundreds of yeares after Christs Resurrection seemed to be forsaken and rejected of him when she was so battered by Tyrants and so undermined by Hereticks that she was like to be crushed and stifled in her very cradle she was tryed ten times in the fire by ten several and distinct persecutions wherein God seemed to equal the ten plagues of Egypt and to lay as much on his people for their probation as he had laid upon others on their behalfe More Christian blood effused then in the Sacrifices of the old Law for so we read many a hundred many a thousand made Martyrs in one day a whole City a whole Army destroyed at one time for the Gospels sake so that as the Israelites formerly went through the red Sea towards the land of Canaan these through an Ocean of blood past to a Kingdom of bliss And when the Church had prayed and fasted and suffered so many years God in the end hearkned to the voice of her lamentation took her in his Armes wiped all teares from her eyes took away all occasion of complaint made Kings and Queens to be her Nurses and so made her Glorious in the eyes of man acceptable in his and cheerful in her own sight This ought to work a confidence in all Gods afflicted servants that he will not quite desert them their deliverance will be seasonable enough if they will wait and depend upon him a cloud on the skie may for a while ecclipse the light of heaven but that will soon be dissipated and the Sun will appear 3. We are further taught by this desertion of our Saviour to fear to sin and to bewail our offences the only cause of his great sufferings What Stoick is so void of motion but will be sensible to see a friend suffer for him what he was himself was justly guilty of what Christian so flint-hearted that will dare commit a sin if he does but cast a serious thought on him who suffered so much not for his own but our sins The Passion of Christ if rightly considered may be stiled a Schoole where all Martyrs and Saints are made who would complain of doing too much of suffering too much of being too much abased or despised if he do but behold his Saviour delivered over and abandoned for him to such horrible confusions such insupportable torments O my God my wounded God! as long as I shall see thy wounds Nolo vive te fine vulnere cum te video vulneratum Bonaventum I will never live without a wound who will be clothed with purple and costly silks and used to softness and delicacy and see his Redeemer crowned with thorns and fixed to the Cross who will not withhold his hands from violences and rapines and see Christ's armes distended on the Cross who will not fetter his feet and hinder them from running after the unbridled desires of his heart if he but viewes Christ's feet pierced through with nailes who will not make bitter his tongue in subduing the pleasures of the taste and see Christ have nothing but gall and vinegar to drink who will not contemn the ayerie honours of the world when he beholds him that is able to walk upon the wings of Cherubims take upon him the forme of a servant and creep among us like a little worm of the Earth who can delight in any sinful joy and behold him so sad so pain'd so dejected this then is a sovereign antidote against the venome of our sins to have our Saviours Image dayly in our hearts and to reflect our thoughts upon him Crucified in all our actions When the forty Martyrs were in the frozen lake Basil orâ—t in 40 mar thirty nine of them had their mindes wholly bent upon the future Crown and one of them unhappily thought of nothing but of his punishment All of them remained victorious except this wretched creature who soiling the glory of his patience came out of the poole to dye presently after in his infidelity So if our suffering Saviour be before our eyes in all our tribulations and temptations we shall be more then Conquerours Rom. 8. but if pleasure or profit be our objects we turn our backs to Christ and shall have no share in the benefits of his Cross MY God My God! in what an extasie is my soul when it contemplates what thou didst in those three houres silence when horrour and darkness involved the universe when thou wert not in a chair of State but on thy Cross full of sorrowes full of sufferings Thou Lord who only knowest the extremities of thy own Passion teach thy servants how much they owe to thee and in a religious dejection of themselves to give thee only the glory of their salvation We know not Lord whether we shall more admire the greatness of thy love or the greatness of thy Passion both exceed our merits both surpass our apprehensions but since thy goodness hath thus acted for us we should be unthankfull if we did not spend some of those houres which thou hast given us in a sweet recordation of those thy blessings and not only so but imprint them in our actions Thou didst not so expostulate with thy Father for relinquishing of thee as not knowing the Cause for of what canst thou be ignorant who knowest all things and in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledg but that thou mightest exhort us to seek and learn things necessary and profitable for our soules There was no separation between thee and thy God in matter of Essence or grace or affection but only in the point of present
the patience to learn the following Article he might hear of his Triumphant Ascension into heaven and sitting there in Majesty and power on Gods right hand all the consolation of a Christian consists in this principally that after a troublesome warfare here he shall be carried to Abrahams bosome the Celestial Paradise to the durable Jerusalem to his Masters joy to an inheritance immortal undefiled reserved in the heavens to a rest from his labours and to behold the glory of God O how it behoves each man then to secure his interest in those felicities and daily and hourly commend his soul to that God that made it We are all careful enough when death approaches to put our houses in order and dispose of our temporals but few take a thought for that which is spiritual We had rather with King Asa seek to the Physitian then to the Lord 2 Chr. 16. when seized with sickness or with the Pharisees tithe mint and cummin and leave the weighty Matters of the Law undone but so we do but present God with maim not perfect with dead not living sacrifices Nothing can enter into the Kingdom of heaven but what is pure and immaculate and therefore our chiefest care should be if we desire to have admission there to prepare our souls by true faith and timely repentance without which our prayers and tears will nothing avail for without holinesse no man shall see the face of God He made our souls spirits let us not then make them carnal by feeding on corrupt lust He made them immortal let us not murder them with our sins and deprive them of eternal life He made them noble and after his own image let us not make them brutish and earthly by doting on the pleasures and vanities of this transitory world For what shal it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul TO thee therefore O thou Father of our Spirits do we make our humble addresses that thou wouldst be pleased to be a Protector of our souls and bodies both here and to all eternity Thou art our Rock and our Fortresse therefore for thy Names sake defend and guide us We have no confidence in saints or Angels for thou hast charged the best of them with folly but in the multitude of thy mercies for thou alone hast redeemed us O Lord God of truth Thou that didst shew thy power in weakness and shake the foundations of the earth when suffering on thy Cross make us to tremble through the horror of our sins and to fear thy judgments for them which we justly merit As thou didst then cleave the Rocks and rend the vail of thy sanctuary so melt our stony hearts with the beams of thy grace that they may receive the impressions of thy favors and that we may enter into the Holy of Holies above which thou hast prepared for thy chosen The height of our love is but to lay down our lives for our dearest relations but thou didst depose thy precious life for thy enemies that rebelled against thee Lord who by thy active and passive obedience wouldst leave nothing undone or unsuffered for our salvation O teach us to obey thy word to embrace thy metions to practise what thou commandest Let our wills be wholly resolved into thine and make us conformable to thee as thy saints and angels in heaven are We confess Lord that the wages of sin is deaeth and that we justly deserve to be reduced to our first nothing but O let not death which is the work of the divel have dominion over thy creatures who are the work of thine own hands Before we receive a summens to our end we pray thee furnish us with all requisite graces that we may be clothed with the wedding garment of holinesse and righteousness to meet thee the sweet Bridegroom of our souls Let us not commend unto thee foul sinful spouses but clean and sorrowful spirits for thou despisest not Lord humble and contrite hearts At the hour of death Lord speak comfortably to our souls and seal in our hearts by thy holy Spirit the pardon of all our sins Assist us with thy presence against all the assaults of our spiritual adversaries for if thou wilt be with us we shall neither fear nor feel any evil though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death And grant that though our souls and bodies be separated by death for a short space they may be re-united at thy great day and by vertue of thy Resurrection be raised to live in thy ever blessed eternity Grant this for his sake who lived and dyed and rose again for our salvation Jesus Christ Amen FINIS
Protection Thy Father left thee O Son of God in that sad Agony that thou mightest the more gloriously triumph he left thee to struggle with Death that thou mightest unsting Death and having overcome the sharpness of it open the Kingdome of heaven to all believers Thou mightest have had a numerous Army of Saints and Angels for thy defence against thy enemies and death it self for all Power in heaven and earth was given unto thee O Lord but thou wert pleased to permit that Divine decree between thee and thy Father and thy Spirit that thou shouldst first suffer all these things and then to enter into thy Glory But tell us we pray thee Thou Lever of Men whether or no did the vehemency of thy sorrowes in that space silence thine heart from thine accustomary devotion for we when we are but toucht with any affliction can scarce lift up a thought to thee or speak of thy praises But O our Saviour it was not so with thee for though thy flesh was weak yet thou didst bear a Spirit prompt to all holy exercises We know that though thy tongue moved not yet with the mouth of thine heart thou didst send implicit ejaculations to thy Father for us neither didst thou only pray in heart but in wounds and blood And as many wounds as were in thy Sacred body so many supplicants there were for us to thy heavenly Father and as many drops of blood so many tongues petitioning mercy for us O our God! we are justly confounded in the Abysse of thy love and mercy to the sons of men O were our sins so great that no sacrifice could at tone thine Anger but the blood of thy Son thy only begotten Son in whom alone thou art well pleased O superabundant love O prodigious Mercy But Lord teach us by his example not to cast cur affections on the pleasures and vanities of this world but to delight in the cup of affliction whereof he drank in an overflowing measure Make us fear to sin for his sake who sinn'd not and yet so highly suffered for our sins and when me fall under the rod of thy displeasure for them correct us not in thy fury lest we should be consumed and brought to nothing Though thou dost eclipse thy savours sometimes from thy deaâ—est ones yet we are confident thou wilt not totally and finally forsake those who do not so forsake thee Therefore we pray thee be not farre from us O God and though we attribute to thy Justice the glory of our deserved sufferings yet let thy mercy have the glory of our deliverance from them for the Passion of thy son's sake Amen The fifth Word JOHN 19.28 1 Thirst FOr the better explanation of This it is necessary to add the precedent and subsequent words of the Evangelist After this Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished that the Scripture might be fulfilled saith I thirst now there was set a vessel full of vinegar and they filled a spunge with vinegar and put it upon hyssop and put it to his mouth The Lord would have a full Consummation of all the Propheticall predictions of his life and death this only remained according to the Psalmist Psal 69.21 They gave me vinegar to drink Our Lord said I thirst The Prophet foretold it because he foresaw it the prediction or prevision is not the cause of a thing to Come but the thing to come is the ground of either The emission of so much blood could not chuse but provoke an extremity of thirst as I knew a man grievously wounded who called for nothing but drink which notwithstanding he entertained with a patient silence from the beginning of his Crucifixion His flesh had been long unacquainted with any moysture his veines his tongue his Palate and all his Interiours did labour under a miserable dryness but O sad refreshment in stead of giving him Cordials or pleasant drinks they offer him that which might either increase his torments or hasten his dissolution The summ of all is this As a little before his affixction to the Cross they offered him Wine mingled with Gall Mat. 27. so in the last period of his life they brought him Vinegar that from the beginning to the end he might have a continued Passion not mixed with any solace or refreshment The new Testament is for the most part an explanation of the Old but in this mystery of the Lords Thirst the words of the Psalmist may be styled a Commentary on these words of Christ I looked for some to sorrow with me Psal 69. but there was none and for Comforters and I found none they gave me gall to eat and vinegar to drink And of such the Lord here complains and saies I thirst Hence learn first O Man 1. To possesse thy soul in patience in thy afflictions after the great example of our Lord and Master Christ though in the fourth word there shined his humility joyned with his Patience yet here it appeares in its proper place This is it which setteth a seal upon all vertues even the first in the list and last in the triumph It is the Crowned Pomegranate which hangeth among bells in the lowest border of the high Priests robe of the old Law all was imperfect without the Crown of Patience it is the Salt of the Prophet Elisaeus which purifieth the polluted waters and sweetneth all the bitterness of life it is the School of Christianity So learned are we as we have Patience Ambross in Prov. 19 so much do we participate with God as we can endure by his example he hath taken a body to be able to suffer and to make himself the mirrour and reward of sufferours But we must distinguish true Patience from false True patience is that which commands us to suffer the evils of punishment that it may not enforce us to commit the evils of sin such was the patience of true Martyrs who would rather undergo the torments of villanous executions then deny the saving faith of Christ and would rather tolerate the loss of all they had then adhibit any adoration to false Gods false patience is that which perswades us to suffer all evil things that we may obey the law of lust and to loose eternal things to conserve the Temporal such is the patience of the Devils Martyrs who will easily suffer hunger thirst cold heat the loss of a good name and which is to be admired of the kingdom of heaven that they might augment their riches satisfie carnal concupiscence and ascend to the slippery mount of honours It is the innate property of true Patience to continue in a good cause to the end till by working it hath polished us Jaâ—â— 1.1 and made us perfect men and that is it which the Apostle declares in the Encomiums of it other vertues cannot long subsist without it in regard of some difficulties which are found in their actuations which by her assistance are conquered with