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
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
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
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
Christ's Valedictions OR SACRED OBSERVATIONS On the LAST WORDS Of our SAVIOR delivered on the CROSSE By JENKIN LLOYD Minister of the Gospel and Rector of Llandissil in Cardigan shire LONDON Printed by D. M. son D. Pakeman at the Rainbow in Fleeâ—â—â—â—â—et 1658. To the READER I Here present thee with such Pious and Plain Observations as I could collect on what our Saviour uttered on Mount Calvary where he consummated the grand Work of mans salvation through the blood of his Crosse Those precedent sufferings of his life were but introductions to his last great Passion nor did he ever produce more and greater miracles then even in his extreme weakness and when death seemed to be his conqueror Miracles on earth were too low to attend a business of so high concernment signs from heaven must descend to seal the infinite merit of his Passion which before the Jewes did most importunately desire but that transcended all other wonders that when he was enthralled to the black confines of death he most triumphantly returned from the furies of hell and by an inexpressible power re-enlivened his bemangled and wounded body and adorned it with the glorious dresses of an eternal life And now in the heat of his great sufferings he so pierced the hearts of his persecutors with such pithy and feeling sentences that many of them at length returned through an infusive knowledg of their owne guiltiness striking their brests and had they not so relented at those cruelties the very rocks would have stood up in condemnation of their injustice The Words are in number seven whereof three were spoken about the sixth hour before the obscuration of the sun which we shall first consider and then the other four that were delivered about the ninth hour when God had withdrawn those dismal curtains and reenlightened that great Luminarie of heaven For methods sake I use first an explanation of each word that the true sense of the holy Ghost may be rightly apprehended and therein I do endeavour to hold forth such a construction as may be most conducible to the glory of God to the Analogy of Faith the exaltation of Devotion and the conservation of peace and union among us so that if happly I may in some things differ from others I desire their charity to leave me to my liberty if I do but differ from them and not from fundamental truths After that I have laboured to satisfie thy judgment with the true meaning of the words my next work is to stir up thy affections by laying down the consequent duties with proper motives to induce us to the performance of them so that you want not those Doctrines and Vses that naturally flow from each Text. But because in vaine doth Paul plant and Apollo water unless God gives the increase I do therefore conclude each part with certain Ejaculatory Prayers pertinent to the precedent discourse that by the influence of Gods grace the whole may be fruitful and salvifical to our souls for indeed that is the chief end for which it is exposed to publick view neither as I believe shall I miss of my aim if fear reverence attend the perusal of the Treatise Thus have you the Occasion Method and Scope of the Work all that is desired of thee is That having the Idaea of Christs charity before thy thoughts as thou shalt track it in each page of this Book thou wouldst in some measure endeavour to parallel so divine a pattern and judge charitably of me the unworthy Author JEN. LLOYD ERRATA Page 9 line 9 read reason p 10 r cloud p 22 r by p 51 r deliciousness p 74 r that p 77 r solved p 104 r 1652 p 119 r of God p 134 r we p 145 r Euripus p 147 r woman p 149 r nourisheth p 159 r seem p 170 r hear p 174 r accurately ibid. r nefarious p 180 r Sun p 190 r occurres p 191 r loquitur p 204 r an Almighty p 211 r mactatur Christ's Valedictions OR SACRED OBSERVATIONS On the Last Words of our Saviour delivered on the CROSSE The First Word LUKE 23.34 Father forgive them for they know not what they do ALl Nations did ever in Nature acknowledg not only a guiltiness of sin but some means of Reconciliation to their gods in the remission of sins For they had al some formal Ceremonial Sacrifices and Expiations by which they thought their sins to be purged and washed away and the people of Israel were prescribed by God himself what and how to offer their religious Victims But the proper and true Propitiatory Sacrifice to take away the sins of the world was only Jesus Christ the Incarnate Word of the Eternal Father who much Coveting that Ineffable work of man's Salvation thought it not only enough to suffer but before he submits himself to those great undertakings deemed it also expedient to win the hearts of the people as well by Doctrine as Miracles His whole Life was a continued Lecture and Method of teaching and because the words of a dying man works commonly a great impression on the affections and judgments of the hearers therefore being now to seal the Lease of that inestimable purchase with his own blood on the Cross he delivered such divine Legacies such Soul-livening words as ought to survive in the hearts and actions of all true Christians The first whereof was this Father forgive them c. The Explication He called him Father not God or Lord because he well knew in this condition to be needful the Benignity of a Father not the Severity of a Judge the Smiles of Compassion not the Frowns of Justice And because to bend God to a Lenity who was without doubt much incensed for such grand iniquities it was convenient to present the amiable title of a Father the words seem to imply thus much I who am thy suffering Son do pardon them pardon thou also O Father their impieties and forgive me thy Son this offence though they deserve it not Take it to thy compassionate Remembrance that thou art their Father by Creation and Preservation O then let thy Paternal favour shine upon them for though they are evil yet they are thy sons though they are sinners thou art merciful The word Forgive which is the sum of the Petition may as well be referred to the Punishment as the Fault if to the Punishment this Prayer was heard whilst the Jews for this present iniquity deserved instant revenge yet was it defer'd for forty years and if in that interim they had repented they had remained safe and untouched but because they did not God permitted an Army of Romans Vespasian then Governing to come against them who overthrew their Head City and destroyed the Jewish Nation some by the Sword some by Famine some sold the rest Exiled into divers places of the earth as foretold by the Parable of the Vineyard and of the Kings inviting of guests to the marriage of his son
Mat. 20.1 by the similitude of the unfruitful Figtree Mat. 22.2 If it be referr'd to the Fault Luk. 13.6 the Prayer was also heard in that relation for by the powerful efficacy thereof was given to many Repentance and Compunction of heart in which number was the Centurion Mat. 27 54 Luk. 23 48 and those who returned striking their guilty brests confessing him to be the Son of God The Persons prayed for are either hâ—s Manual Executioners those who divided his garments or those who were the effectual causes of his Passion as Pilate who gave the sentence the people who cryed out Crucifie crucifie him the Scribes who falsely accused him or as we may ascend higher the first man Adam and his posterity All were involved in the Sin all are included in the Prayer And thou O my soul before thou hadst a being the Lord foresaw thee also to be ranckt sometimes amongst his enemies and thy self not capable of petitioning he prayes the Father for thee that thy foolishness be not imputed to thee And that his intercession might be acceptable he seems to guild the offences of his enemies with compassionate extenuations as far as it might stand with his omnipotent Soveraignty by adding For they know not what they do For certainly he could not palliate that injustice in Pilate nor that cruelty in the Souldiers nor that envie in the High Priest nor that foolishness and ingratitude in the People nor false Testimonies in the Perjurers this only remained that he might in all excuse their ignorance for as the Apostle sayes If they had known it 1 Cor. 2.8 they had not crucified the Lord of Glory The Schools have made so many divisions and sub-divisions of Ignorance that there goes as much learning to understand Ignorance as Knowledg but their ignorance in condemning the Lord of life was of a very strange and transcendent nature The people knew him to be innocently condemned and Pilate himself sealed it with a publick voice Luk. 23.14 Mat. 27.24 I find no fault in this man c. and I am innocent of the blood of this just man The Integrity of his Life declared him to be Immaculate and sin-less the greatness of his Miracles proclaimed him a God and the whole current of the Prophets testified him to be the Messias and yet they would not acknowledg him to be the Christ the Lord of Glory The reson whereof is delivered by S. John Joh. 12.37 and the Prophet Isaias because their eyes were blinded and thoir hearts hardned that they should not see with their eyes nor understand w th their hearts and be converted and healed But that blindness proceeded from an Ignorance which does not excuse because it was voluntary concomitant not precedent After the same manner are those who sin out of malice they are alwayes infected with some Ignorance which is hatch't with the sin The Philosopher said Every Evil man is an Ignorant man And truly it may be spoken of all sinners They know not what they do For no man covets evil as it is evil because the Object of the Will is a thing not good or ill but only really or apparently Good Therefore they that make choice of evil do chuse it as it represents the Species and forms of goodness yea they apprehend it as the chiefest good The cause of this is a perturbation of the inferiour part which doth so clod and darken reason that it cannot rightly discern the Atoms of goodness in things coveted for he who commits Adultery or Theft would never affect either were it not for the false good of delectation or gain which couches under Adultery or Theft not perceiving the evil of turpitude and injustice which likewise harbour there So that whosoever sins is like the man who desirous from a high Turret to throw himself headlong into some fierce River shuts first his eyes and then commits himself to the mercy of the Waters He that is the Actor of evil hates the light and labours under a pretended darkness which being vincible and voluntarie does no way clear the Action But wherefore then serves the prayer I answer If the words be understood of those executioners that performed only their commanded duties and probably were ignorant as well of his Inocency as of his Divinity or of us who were not then existent or of such sinners who knew not what was then in agitation at Jerusalem the Lord might most truly then Ejaculate these sweet tones of his Compassion but if they be applyed to those grand contrivers and actors of that horrible treason and well knew him to be the Missias and an innocent man then it is to be confest that Christs purpose thereby was only to extenuate the sins of his adversaries in the best manner he could for although their Ignorance could not simply excuse yet it may have the colourable reason of an excuse for if they had wanted all ignorance their offence had been more grievous and certainly if a better and more probable plea could have been found he had willingly presented it even for Caiphas and Pilate the worst of all his enemies 1. Hence may we first learn Christ's charity to be so Supereminent that we may with the Apostle conclude It passeth all knowledge Eph. 3.19 Neither are our tongues able to expresse nor our understandings to conceive the height of it If any of us labour under any cross of grief as the pains of our teeth our eyes or any other member we are so possest with a sense of any of these sufferings that we think on nothing else nor will scarce admit any negotiations or visits of friends whereas crucified Christ wore on his head a Crown of thornes not being able to move without excessive grief nails pierced his hands and feet from whose borings he drew most bitter pains his naked body wearied with unmerciful whippings publickly exposed to ignominy and cold throwing on him new sorrows and new torments yet as though he contemned those cruelties and suffered nothing being only solicitous for the salvation of his enemies and desiring to avert from them an impendant danger he presents to his Father this mournful Obsecration Father forgive them c. If those wicked men had suffered an unjust persecution what would he do if friends if kindred had suffered not enemies not traitors not Paracides His heart amongst so many storms of injurious sufferings as a Rock in the midst of the Sea beaten with unruly waves stood quiet and immoveable after the infliction of so many deadly wounds they deride his patience and triumph at their evil doings he speaks not as an enemy striving with his fierce adversaries but as a Father bemoaning his infants or a Physician his patients strugling with a grievous disease and presents them to an omnipotent hand to cure their odious infirmities This is the force of an upright charity not when one is reputed to have no enemies and have
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.
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
the possession of the world that is of humane kind the Devill had for a long time usurped a dominion over man because he conquered the first man and enslaved him and his whole posterity and therefore he is stiled the Principalities and Powers of the world Eph. 6.12 and the Prince of darkness Neither was he only so called Psal 96.5 but also termed the Gods of the heathen for he was publickly adored with sacrifices among them as their only God but on the other part Christ as the true and lawfull heire of the universe claimed to himselfe the Principalities of the world so that at length the battell was decided on the Cross and sentence was given in favour of our Saviour where he obtained the Trophees of an absolute Conquest for there he gave a plenary satisfaction to the Divine Justice for the transgressions of all mankind for there is returned a greater obedience from the Son to the Father then was the inobedience of the servant to the Lord the Son of God was more humbled even to death for the honour of the father then man was lifted to pride to the dishonour of God so God was reconciled to man through the merits of his Son when he rescued him from the clawes of the Devil Col. 1. and translated him into the Kingdom of his beloved son 5. And lastly these words may rightly be applyed to the building of Christ 's Church which was not perfected and finished until his passion though inchoated in his Baptisme Thus Epiphanius in his third book against Heresies and that learned and holy Augustine Lib. 3. haere 78. in his last book of the City of God affirm and teach Lib. 22. câ—â— that Eve being built and founded on the rib of Adam he being a sleep was a type of the Church which was raised from Christs side when he began to sleep through the heaviness of death and so the Scriptures do notifie not without a mystery Eve to have been built not formed And that the Church began to be edified from the Baptisme of Christ the said Father proves out of the Psalmist His dominion shall be from sea to sea Psal 71.8 and from the river to the ends of the world for the Kingdome of Christ which is the Church began to be built from the water of his Baptisme in which he receiving the Baptisme of John consecrated the waters and instituted his own which is the gate of the Church and this he was made manifest through that voice of his Father heard from heaven this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear him from that time the Lord began to preach and to Congregate Disciples who were the first that came to the Church and although there was made an apersion of Christ's side after death from whence issued forth water and blood which signified those two principal Sacraments of the Church Baptisme and the Lords Supper yet all ordinances had their full qualifications from his meritorious passion so that the flowing of water and blood from his side was rather a declaration of the mysteries rather then an institution most rightly therefore it is said that the building of the Church was then consummated when he said It is finished for there remained nothing then but a dissolution which speedily following the price of a blessed redemption for man was compleated 1. Learn hence O man that as thou art certain those things by their events to have been true which the holy Prophets predicted so thou ought'st to be fully assured that those future things which are foretold by the same Prophets shall come to pass though not as yet fulfilled for they spake not from humane fancies but from an inspiring Spirit of God which is ever infallible Sicut usque ad hodiernam diem omnia evenerunt Aug. in Psal 76. sic et quae restant eventura sunt c. Even as to this day all things have rightly followed so the things which remain will undoubtedly follow Let us fear then the day of judgment the Lord is coming he that came once in poverty will next come in Glory And that there be no haesitation in our saith we have stronger arguments on our sides then ever our Ancestors had they who preceded the times of Christ without any performances or external impletions were tyed to believe many things we who have had an experimental knowledg of diverse things already accomplished should be induced to credit the rest with the more facility who lived in the dayes of Noah did here that the general deluge was to come and it was demonstrated unto them not only by his preaching but also by his building of an Ark notwithstanding they would not believe because they had never seen such a deluge and therefore a divine fury fell suddenly on them now we who know that to be impleted which the Prophet foretold may easily believe that he at whose beck are all the elements may as well destroy the world by fire the second time as he hath done first by water And we that find it verified that Christ raised many from death and his own body from the grave may be fully confirmed that by virtue of his Resurrection our soules and bodies also shall be translated to a state of glory and immortality in the world to come 2. Observe that though the journey of our Saviours peregrination here was laborious and sharp above measure yet it received an honourable compensation it ended in triumph and Glory it lasted thirty three years but what was the labour of those years in comparison of Eternal happiness he was humbled and made a scorn of men and an abject of the people for a short time but God hath highly exalted him Phil. 2.9 10. and given him a name above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven things in earth and things under the earth But his adversaries exulted to the period of his Passion Pilate rejoyced till the instant of his sufferings because he had preserved his friendship with Cesar and was then reconciled to King Herod but now he and the perfidious Jewes justly suffer in hell-flames for their sacrilegious impieties Here then the humble and patient men may see how good how propitious a thing it is to take up the Cross in this life and to follow Christ their afflictions are but light and transcient and not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed to them for when they dye they pass from a vaile of sorrowes to a Paradise of joyes Rev. 7.16 where all teares shall be wiped from their eyes but with the ungodly it is not so the end of their miseries if they have any in this world is but an entrance and beginning of greater in the other where is endless weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth 3. Another benefit may be reaped from the third acceptation of the words for if
we mean that the Sacrifices of the chiefest Priest is now finished on the Cross it followes that all his disciples in imitation of their Master according to their several talents should offer likewise Sacrifices to their God in this sence all Christians are Priests to offer Sacrifices 1 Pet. 2.9 not such as were in the old Testament i Pet. 2.9 but Spirituall Priests to offer mystical sacrifices which may be presented from all men as praises and prayers and other services of piety the same is most occurately taught us in the Epistle to the Romans Heb. i3 i5 16. in resemblance of the sacrifices of the ancient Law Rom. 12.1 for there was in them 1. The hallowed to God which to convert to profane use was held a nafarious Crime 2. It was to be a thing living as a sheep or goate or the like 3. It was to be holy that is clean for there were among the Hebrews animals clean and unclean 4. And then the thing hallowed to God was to be burn't that it might send forth an odour of sweetness The like properties must be found in our spiritual Sacrifices 1. Our bodies ought to be hallowed to God that we may use them to his honour not as our own but his to whom they are consecrated by Baptisme and who hath purchased them by his blood 2. They ought to be living sacrifices enlivened with the life of Grace and of the holy Spirit for whosoever are dead by sin are not fit Victimes for God but for the devils our God who is alwayes living and the everlasting fountain of life abhors the stinking oblations of dead carkasses who are profitable for nothing unless for dogs and fowles of the Aire We must then enbalm and preserve the life of the soul with our best and most religious actions that we may give a reasonable sacrifice to our God 3. We must be holy and clean for none shall ascend into the hill of the Lord Psal 24.3 4 or stand in his holy place but he that hath clean hands and a pure heart who hath not lift up his soul unto vanity nor sworn deceitfully 4. And then we must be well pleasing and send up a sweet savour to our God to that purpose in the old Law they used to kill and burn the sacrifie and this is rightly performed in the spiritual Sacrifice when carnal concupiscence is truly mortified and burn't with the coales of charity nothing can sooner or more effectually destroy it then a sincere love to God for he is Lord and King of all the affections of the heart and rules them all whether Fear Hope Desire Hatred Anger or any other perturbation of the soul and love doth not yeild but to a greater so that when divine love doth possess and bear dominion over the inmost corners of the heart then carnal concupiscence gives place and being mortified it vanisheth to nothing Thence flaming desires and most pure prayers ascend to heaven like aromatical perfumes of precious spices this then is that perfect and acceptable sacrifice which God requires and the Apostle here exhorts with a most persuasive argument I beseech you by the mercies of God that you present your bodies c. By his mercy that is as if he had said by him that created you something when you were nothing By him that made you his servants and needed not your service and when your merits were unavaileable blest you with his own by him that made you to his own similitude and by this capable of his love and knowledg by him that made you his adoptive sons and co-heirs with his unigenit by him that made you members of his body whereof he was the head by him that offered himself a full and propitiatory sacrifice on the Cross to redeem you from servitude and wash you from all spots and wrinkles by him I beseech you to give to God in stead of dead beasts lively sacrifice in stead of their blood which was but a shadow and pleased not God of it self the acceptable sacrifice of the spiritual man framed by faith to godliness and charity 4. And then we are here further taught that we shall be crowned with Lawrels and Diademes of eternal happiness if we fight courageously under the banner of Christ against our spiritual enemies and never desist until we have obtained the Victory Christ gave not over until all was finished If God had given over at his second dayes work we had had no sin no seasons if at the fifth we had no being if at the sixth no sabbath but by proceeding to the seventh we are all we have all So Christ if he had stayd at his Circumcision or his Agony or his scourgings our redemption had been imperfect but by continuing to his crowning and his nayling and the piercing of his side on the Cross all was completed that was necessary for mans salvation 2 King 5.24 Naaman could not be cured of his leprosie but by washing in Jordan seven times less could not do it it is not enough for a man to begin or do some few acts of piety or religion unless he make a constant progress therein Are the Angels weary of looking on that face of God which they looked upon yesterday or are the Saints weary of singing of that Allelujah which they sung to Gods glory yesterday Is not that song which is their morning and evening sacrifice and which shall be their song world without end called still A new song Oh! then never be weary never give over performing thy duties to that God that never ceaseth to bless thee for he and he only that continues unto the end shall receive a Crown of life In vain did the perfidious Jews cry if he be King of Israel let him come down from the Cross and we will believe in him Nay rather because he was so he would not desert his place for by his perseverance his interest to the Kingdome was confirmed and the work of redemption was consummated in such a glorious manner that nothing could be deficient to the greatness of its merit or to enduce us to follow so noble a president to proceed in those actions that are pleasant and suitable to our temper is facil and not praise worthy but to persevere in laborious Agonies and sorrows and in such things as are against the dictates of our own natural and carnal affections is indeed difficult but very laudable Christ was so enamoured with his divine Father and long'd so earnestly for the redemption of man that all intervening Crosses seemed Cordials to him and all pains pleasures After his Example we find that Paul enumerating his own sufferings with those of his Co-Apostles breaks thus forth who is able to separate us from the love of Christ Rom. 8. shall tribulation or distress shall anguish persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword As it is written for thy sake we are killed all the day long we
are counted as sheep for the slaughter Nay in all these things we are more then conquerours through him that loved us From these holy presidents we may learn how to master our afflictions and to sweeten our persecutions and to deem them as the embrioes of eternal life We may bear them with all spiritual joy if we look not on them but on him that imposed them on us who without doubt was the Father Almighty without whose Providence not a hair can fall from our heads and therefore let us with Moses esteem his rebukes greater riches then the treasures of Egypt Heb. ii 26. having respect unto the recompence of the reward 1. ANd now O Saviour of the world how great a compass wentst thou in this act of our redemption before thou didst bring it to this happy Period from thy swathing to thy shrowding from thy cold lying in a manger to thy cold dying upon the Cross what didst thou do and suffer Nay what didst thou not do and suffer for us The work of our Creation was great but this far greater That was done with a Fiat with the breath of thy mouth thou speakest the Word and all was done here was a miraculous conjunction of God and man in one person maid and mother in another when it was but begun thy omnipotencie indeed appeared in the first but thy mercy and justice in the latter such a work didst thou finish here that neither Man nor Angels or thy deity alone could well accomplish Oh! Thou that didst so much for us teach us to do somewhat for thee Thou that madest thy self a perfect victime for our sins grant that we may sacrifice our sins and mortifie all carnal concupiscences that so our souls and bodies may be offerings of a sweet smelling Saviour in thy Nostrils Thou that didst conquer the Prince of this world and all the enemies upon the Cross assist us against the conflicts and temptations of our spiritual adversaries save us from the roaring Lyon that he may never prevail O thou that art the Lion of the tribe of Judah But because we are ignorant of our selves what to do aright 1 Cor. 12.6 we pray thee guide us with thy Spirit thou Isa 28.21 who workest all in all work thy work in us and bring to pass thy act thy strange act whatever it be Let us perform what thou requirest of us and that is let us do justly shew mercy and walk humbly with thee Mic. 6.8 and walk humbly with thee our God Preserve thy Church that issued from thy side on thy Cross thou art her husband O Christ save thy spouse thou art her head save thy body protect her as thine from infidels hereticks and schismaticks from bad men and Devils from all errours and dangers Make her unto thy self glorious without spot or wrinkle holy and without sin Ephes 5.7 And though like thee shee sorrows and suffers often while militant here yet make her triumphant with thee in the world to come Let every member of her profess thy name to the end with courage and constancy after thy glorious Examples let us not be carried away from our duties to thee with the vanities of the world or the enticements of the flesh or the suggestions of Satan O thou that art immutable without shadow of change Yesterday to day and the same for ever fix our fickle thoughts on thy fear and establish thy holy Spirit within us that we may alwayes praise thee who never ceasest to bless us By the grace and merits of him who finished the grand works of eternal redemption for us living and dying to save us Lord make us live and dye thy servants that we may be partakers of that happiness which by his blood he hath purchased for us in the Kingdome of Bliss Amen The seventh and last Word LUKE 23.43 Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit ANd well might he call him Father because he had merited the name of an obedient Son to the last minute of his life and therefore most worthy to gain attention But here a doubt occures what we are to understand by the hands of God are we with the Anthropomorphites to ascribe the form and lineaments of man unto God Theod. l. 4. c. 10. as if he had eyes and ears and hands and other parts and faculties like unto us far be it for God is a spiritual substance of an invisible and indivisible nature without body parts or passions of infinite power wisdome and goodness but for the better explanation of this and the like expression in holy Writ we must make use of that known adage of the Hebrew Doctors Lex loquitor linguam filiorum hominum That is the holy Ghost in the Scripture descends to the capacity of man speaks man's language that is so as he would be understood by man and therefore presents him in the faculties of the mind of man and in the lineament of the body of man not that he hath really either of them for he is a most pure and a most simple entitie without any corpority or composition And so the hands of God do denote unto us his wisdom and power or which fals into one meaning his intellect knowing all things and his will enabling all things for with these two as it were two hands God did all things The will of God is his power for all things whatsoever he would he did in heaven and earth My Spirit There are divers significations of this word Spirit in Scripture which if not rightly apprehended may occasion divers errours it is spoken of God or of Angels or of men or of inferiour creatures Of God it is spoken sometimes Essentially sometimes Personally God is a Spirit Jo. 4.24 and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and truth So also Isai 31.3 So also The Egyptians are men and not Gods and their Horses flesh and not spirit for if they were God they were Spirit so God altogether and considered in his essence is a Spirit but when the word Spirit is spoken not essentially of all but personally of one then that word designeth the holy Ghost Matth. 28 19. Go and baptize all in the Name of the Father and Son and the Holy Ghost Rom. 8â— 6 And the Spirit it self beareth witness c. And as of God so of Angels also it is spoken in two respects of good Angels sent forth to minister for them that shall be heirs of Salvation And evil Angels Heb. 1.14 The lying Spirit that would deceive the King by the Prophet 1 Kin. 22.22 Hosea 4.8 The spirit of whoredom when the people asked counsel of their stocks And spiritus virtiginis the spirit of giddiness or perversities which the Lord doth mingle amongst the people in his judgment Of man also is this word Spirit spoken two wayes sometimes for the Soul sometime for those animal spirits which conserve us in strength and vigour
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