could not contain themselves when they saw what testimonies heaven gave of his innocence and vertue but did him publick honour even at the very place of execution Though he suffered as the highest and vilest offender in the world yet the honest-hearted spectatours were not onely inwardly troubled in their breasts at the sight but beat or knockt them also and shewed thereby that they were not afraid to own him as a most Excellent person whose death they ought to accompany with the bitterest lamentations And so much may suffice concerning the Testimony of his BLOUD which no man can hear speak a word but he must needs think that which got him such honour among the people in the midst of his shame and the reproach of the Cross obtained a far greater glory for him with God in the heavens who best knew how to value his obedience O wonderfull Passion Proclus Homil. xi the Expiation of the World O Death the cause of Immortality and the origin of Life O descent into Hell the bridge by which those who were dead passed into Heaven O Noon which hath revoked the Afternoon-sentence against us in Paradise O Cross the cure of the fatall Tree O Nails which wounded Death and joyn'd the world to the knowledge of God! Great was the victory which He that was incarnate for us obtained on the day of his passion He grappled with death when he was dead Hell and the grave this day ignorantly swallowed a deadly morsell To day death received him dead who always lives To day the chains were loosed which the Serpent made in Paradise The Thief this day made a breach on Paradise which had been guarded by the flaming sword some thousands of years This day our Lord broke the gates of brass and cut the bars of iron in sunder Which of the great Men that ancient times boast of are comparable to him All the just fell under the power of death and none could conquer it Abraham Isaac and Jacob are all turn'd to dust and ashes The memory of Joseph in whom the Jews glory lay in his dry bones which they carried out of Egypt with them Moses is extolled by them to the skies but there is not so much as his tomb to be found Such as these and so many death devoured and swallowed them all down But at last it swallowed one and against its will vomited up the whole World Who now triumph over it and cry with a loud voice O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory Thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. His Passion is our impassibility S. Athanasius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 598. His Death is our immortality His tears our joy His buriall our resurrection His Baptism our purification His stripes our healing His chastisement our peace His reproach our glory How much are we indebted to him who from first to last consulted our happiness For he descended Id. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. p. 1002. that he might make way for our ascent He was born that he might make us friends with the Vnbegotten He took on him our infirmities that we might be raised in power and say with St. Paul I can doe all things through Christ which strengthneth me He took on him a corruptible body that this corruption might put on incorruption He put on mortality that it might be changed into immortall In fine He was made Man and died that we who die as men might be deified and death might no longer reign over us O blessed and life-giving Cross of our Saviour which triumphed over death and destroyed him that had the power of it which is the Devil O divine Word and true Wisedom of the Father thou hast overcome the Devill when he thought he had been a conquerour * August de Trinitate L. 13. c. 15. Caet ex Athanasio p. 1022. O Lover of men and gracious Lord thou hast both redeemed us that were captives and freed us by thy own death who were servants of sin O Son of God the true Peace-maker thou hast both given us the adoption of Sons and reconciled us to thy Father having destroyed the enmity by thy flesh O rich Saviour and true King who becamest poor that we by thy poverty might be made rich and hast given to us the Kingdom of heaven O Creatour and former of all things the Word of the Father for thou hast created us again we are thy workmanship created unto good works O Light indeed the brightness of the Father for thou hast inlightned us that were in darkness and hast brought us that were blind to see the light O Likeness and reall Image of the Father for thou hast formed us who were lost and again restored the image of God in us O God the Word and Life indeed for thou hast quickned us who were dead and renewed us that were corrupted and cloathed us with immortality O thou Power indeed the arm the right hand of the Father for thou hast both loosed the bands of death and broken the prison-doors in pieces God forbid that we should glory Ib. pag. 1028. save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ To this let us adhere let us walk worthy of this And thus living and believing we shall know also his assumption into the heavens and his session on the right hand of the Majesty on high We shall behold the subjection of Angels to him and his coming again with glory Which Angels have foretold which Saints sing of in their hymns and which when we all see we shall rejoyce and be exceeding glad in Christ Jesus By whom be glory and dominion to the Father world without end Amen CHAP. XI Concerning the Testimony of the SPIRIT the Third Witness on Earth THough the Children of Israel were so strangely delivered out of their bondage being saved by the Bloud of the Paschal Lamb from the destroying Angel and then freed from Pharaoh who thought it 's like that his bloud must next of all pay for the keeping them in Egypt yet still they questioned whether they should come into the good Land or no and were at a sad plunge when they came to the Red Sea imagining that they themselves should be there destroyed and become the next Sacrifice to Pharaoh's cruelty To confirm them therefore in their belief of God's kind intentions towards them and perswade them thoroughly that Moses had not brought them out of Egypt to kill them but to save them He gave him power to doe great wonders at that place and in the rest of their journey which added to the Miracles in Egypt were a strong conviction that God was among them and was conducting them by the hands of his Servant to their long-desired Rest This was the last Argument and the most constant whereby he demonstrated the truth and reality of his promises of bringing them to the land of Canaan They saw his signs
Father The last words of our Saviour were Father into thy hands I commend my spirit xxiii Luke 46. And they stoned Steven calling upon God and saying Lord Jesus receive my spirit vii Acts 59. He died with these and the following devout words in his mouth crying again with a loud voice Lord lay not this sin to their charge In which he expressed as much charity to men as in the other he did faith in Christ And openly declared himself a person of such piety and goodness such admirable candor and sweetness of spirit so utterly void of all rancor and gall when he had the highest provocations from his bitter enemies that as we may be sure he could not be guilty of devising a lye to the deceiving of others so we may reasonably believe that God Almighty would not let such an excellent man be deceived to the ruine of himself and the casting away so precious a life II. But that jealousie and suspicion might have no pretence left nor any man justly call in question the truth of this apparition our Saviour was pleased a second time both to show himself and also to speak very audibly unto another person of great integrity and authority and that was S. Paul Whose testimony concerning this is the more considerable because he was a person of considerable note in the Nation of the Jews both for his descent and for his education and for his zeal in their Religion iii. Phil. 5. He was an Hebrew both by his Fathers side and his Mothers a Scholar of Gamaliel's i. Gal. 14. under whom he made an exceeding great proficiency xxvi Acts 5. and was addicted to the most strict Sect of Religion then among them whereby he became full of flaming zeal for the Law of which he was a rigid observer even according to the expositions they had made of it by the traditions of their Elders These he held so sacred that the name of Jesus was odious to him because he little regarded them And he was transported with so bloudy a rage against his disciples that his intention was to send as many of them as he could meet withall after S. Steven to whose death he was consenting viii Acts 1. xxii 20. that is He approved the fact of those seditious Zealots who were the authors of it or as the words may well be rendred out of the Syriack translation he was as well pleased with the killing of him as any of the company The lenity of his Master was no example for him to follow He learnt no meekness in the School of Gamaliel but suffered himself to be hurried away with the furious spirit of the multitude whom he accompanied in that tumult For he undertook to secure the garments of those who stript themselves to throw the first stone at that blessed Martyr of Christ Jesus Nor did his fury rest here but he gave his voice against other Saints when the sentence of death passed on them xxvi Acts 10. And not content to make havock of the poor Church at Jerusalem he enlarged his cruel projects and stretches his wrath as far as Damascus thither he goes armed with authority from the Senate xxii 5. whose Commissioner he was now as he had been for some time which shows he was a person of no small condition in that Nation For He tells us himself that what he did at Jerusalem was by authority from the chief Priests xxvi 10. who gave him letters also to those at Damascus that they should assist him in the apprehending all the Christians that were there ix 2. xxii 5. He brought the Decree of the Senate along with him which had been made against them and lest any should question whether he was deputed to see that order put in execution he was ready to satisfie them of that by showing his Commission xxvi 12. In short he breathed forth nothing but fire and sword as we speak against the worshippers of the Lord Jesus being exceeding mad against them according to the account S. Luke gives of him viii Acts 3. ix 1. and which he gives of himself xxii 4. xxvi 11. Now who would expect that such a man as this should himself become a Disciple of Jesus much less a preacher of his Religion A man so noted for his violence the other way and whose name was so terrible to Christian people that Ananias was afraid to go and deliver a message to him from our Lord after he was told something of his conversion Was there any hopes that he should ever confess and publish the very same thing for which S. Steven was stoned And yet so powerful were the prayers of that holy Martyr which adds much to the force of his testimony that our Lord answered them ere long by pardoning and converting this enraged Zealot To whom he was graciously pleased to appear as he had done to that Saint more than once as we find recorded in the Sacred story from his own mouth The first time and the most remarkable was when he was upon the rode to Damascus Then our Lord met him not far from that City when he had no such thing in his thoughts but was possessed with quite contrary designs and made him fall down and worship him whose Name he so hated that he would have forced all Christians to blaspheme him Read the ix Acts 3 c. and there you will find him who little regarded what S. Steven said and perhaps took him for a frantick fellow when he told them he saw Jesus glorified surrounded himself with such a glorious light from Heaven as left him no power to resist this truth which he had so bitterly persecuted For in that wonderful brightness there was a person appeared to him with such a dazling lustre that after he had beheld it he lost his eyes and could not see by reason of the glory of that light xxii 11. which was the cause I believe that he askt with no small astonishment Who art thou Lord The Angels appeared sometimes in great glory but never with such a splendour as to hurt the sight much less to take it away and therefore he now concluded that this person was of an higher condition much greater than the Angelical Ministers whose brightness was never known to be so amazing And to give satisfaction to his doubt our Lord the WORD of God told him in plain terms with an audible voice I am Jesus whom thou persecutest And wisht him not to proceed any further in this course which he might easily see would prove destructive to him For to contend with him still who was so glorious what would it be but to wound and ruine himself and by seeking to ease himself of one trouble to run upon a greater just as a beast does that kicks against the pricks which are to quicken it and put it forward This voice he alone heard who was to be instructed by it The company that was with him heard only a confused
long ago Whether the Scripture be glorifie thy Son or glorifie thy Name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is all one in exact contemplation of things Now if the truth of these words be throughly examined how he had glorified him and how he would glorifie him again we shall meet in both with a plain testimony that Eternall Life is in his Son to bestow on us Let us consider them briefly apart I. As for the former I find that God had already glorified him before he spake these words three ways 1. By his Transfiguration of which I now discoursed for then St. Luke saith ix 32. they saw his glory And that by this Glory which they saw the Father testified he should be made glorious in the heavens and able to make us so I refer you to what I have said already on this Argument 2. And I need not use many words to shew that he had also glorified him very frequently by the many wonderfull works which he had wrought for in them it is likewise expresly said ii Joh. 11. he manifested forth his Glory and the multitude were excited by them to magnifie him with Hosanna's and to cry out Glory in the highest xix Luk. 37 38. By these also he shewed the power wherewith he was indued to doe any thing that he had promised and they moved his Disciples hearts as you reade in the place now mentioned ii Joh. 11. to believe on him 3. But there was a third glorification of him to which I believe these words have a more speciall reference because it was very famous and but newly passed Which was his raising Lazarus from the dead By this Jesus said expresly that glory should redound to God the Father and that He the Son of God should also be glorified thereby xi Joh. 4. For this very end he there teaches his Disciples Lazarus fell sick and he therefore delayed to go and recover him though his great friend that there might be a fit opportunity by the miraculous resurrection of so noted a person as Lazarus was it appears by the coming of such numbers to comfort his sisters vers 19. and in a place so nigh to Jerusalem vers 18. where the greatest opposition was made against him to doe honour to Jesus and to make it known that he assumed not more glory to himself then God the Father gave him This was a very great testimony from God that indeed LIFE was in him and that he did not vainly call himself vers 25. the resurrection and the life because he now with his almighty word restored one to life who had been so long dead that there was no possibility of his reviving but by the very LIFE it self Hereby he declared that as the Father hath Life in himself so he hath given the Son to have Life in himself v. Joh. 26. What he had said before in his preaching he now justified by his works according as he himself foretold he would when he said Verily verily the hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God ver 25. The hour which was then coming yea was just at hand seems to be this time when he raised Lazarus up out of his grave declaring thereby both the truth of what he had said v. Joh. 26. that he had life in himself and likewise that there would be another hour as it presently there follows ver 28 29. wherein all men whatsoever shall rise out of their graves at his voice and they that have done good shall come forth unto the resurrection of life as they that have done evill unto the resurrection of damnation They might well believe it because he said it who proved himself to be the Truth by such works as none could doe but he that was the Life II. But this is not all that we are to consider in this Testimony of the Father who doth not onely say that he had glorified him but that he would glorifie him again which was done also at three severall times 1. At his Death when many of the graves of the Saints that slept were opened xxvii Matth. 52. For the very rocks rent and the earth did quake and the veil of the temple was torn in sunder from the top to the bottom and the Sun refused to give its light and such an amazement came upon the Centurion who was then upon the guard that he glorified God xxiii Luk. 47. by confessing that Jesus was a righteous man and no pretender to a title that did not belong to him but as other Evangelists express it the Son of God To these wonderfull things concurring at his death to glorifie him and doe him honour the voice from Heaven seems to have had some respect because of what follows ver 31 32 33. Now shall the prince of this world be cast out And I if I be lifted up from the earth will draw all men unto me This he said signifying what death he should die For even now when he seemed most weak he began to tread the Devill under his feet Now he began to draw not onely the Jews to him but other men the Romans also one of whose Captains in the midst of his reproach confessed him to be the Son of God The very opening of the graves served to adorn the triumph he was about to make over the powers of darkness being a sign that he had now despoiled him who hath the power of death which is the Devill and that he had Life in himself and will give it us especially now that he hath finished his triumph and is glorified at God's right hand Of which the rending of the veil also was no obscure token shewing that we have liberty as the Apostle speaks x. Heb. 19. to enter into the Holiest by the bloud of Jesus It may seem indeed an uncouth form of speech to call his Crucifixion by the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lifting up from the earth or exaltation but one may say and with great truth that Christ's death upon the Cross as S. Fragment L. viii in Joh. Cyrill of Alexandria speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was his promotion contrived for his fame and glory for he is glorified perpetually for this having procured many benefits to mankind by its means This is one part of the Record of the Father to this Truth when he said he would glorifie our Saviour Which you see was as much as to say He would make it appear even when he hung upon the Cross that he was able to open mens graves and unloose the chains of death and in due time raise them up to everlasting life For 2. God farther glorified him at his Resurrection which was attended with the resurrection of the dead bodies of those Saints whose graves were opened at his death xxvii Matth. 52 53. There were severall witnesses of this in Jerusalem to whom those persons deceased appeared as there were of his own resurrection which