exhortaton to humility and unity a friendly admonition the next is the foretelling of Peters fall ver 31. a propheticall prevention after that an arming of his Disciples in generall ver 35. against persecution a loving premunition which is followed with a promise of rest in heaven Iohn 14.1 and 16. ver so to the end of the Chap. and a comforter on earth even GOD the Holy Ghost himselfe an endlesse consolation After these speeches Christ riseth from Table to goe unto the place where hee was to be surprised yet entring into a new discourse he tarries within doores notwithstanding so long till he hath made an end of that excellent Sermon his Swans song which is left us in the fifteenth and sixteenth Chapter of Saint Iohn which Sermon hee ends with a prayer John 16. his prayer with singing an hymne Mat. 26.30 whence perhaps our custome of ending Sermons after that manner arises and so goes out to the Mount of Olives Some are of opinion that the Sermon before spoken of was preached by the way as Christ went to Gethsemane according to the saying of the wise man Wisdome cryeth in the streetes but it is againe answered that the way is not long enough for it unlesse hee should make stops in it which is unprobable neither is it likely that on the night for so it was now Christ would stand and teach in the streetes and sing also an hymne which Saint Matthew tells us hee did upon his going out into the Mount of Olives Mat. 〈…〉 Through this Mount Olivet was the way into the Garden of Gethsemane and that Garden is the end of our Lords journey for this time Into which assoone as hee is entered then beginnes the bitter cup of the Passion to be reached unto him figured by the bitter herbes in the Passeover The very sight of this Cup ere ever it came to his lips was enough to bring a deadly heavines even upon his Soule It was now high time then for Christ to pray which hee doeth once againe and againe in these words Father if it be possible le this Cup passe from mee Yet are we not to thinke that Christ would have this Cup passe from him indeede for he saith himselfe Shall I not drinke of the Cup that my Father hath given mee But hee prayed thus to let us see what resolution Gods justice is of it will not be mooved when GOD hath once absolutely decreed to punish sinne not though Christ pray for it nay though hee himselfe in our person be the patient The whiles Christ is a praying his Disciples are a sleeping and that so heavily that his twise comming to them upon his first and second praying could not keepe them waking no not though hee chide them sharply for their drowsines It was a pitifull weight of sinne that made our Saviour Souleheavy unto Death and the Disciples Bodies to a deadly and unseasonable sleepe But this was not all for it wrung a bloody sweate O the deadly weight of sinne out of our Saviour such as never man sweat the like in all points and besides that layd him upon the ground groveling in a most grievous agony such a one as an Angell came downe to comfort him from heaven for earthly comforters failed and all they could have done had beene little worth Scarce is this agony over and the bloody Sweate wiped from our Saviours face but Iudas comes to apprehend him which though hee could not have done without Christs permission for all the High Priests authority which was made manifest when our Lord struck downe them that came to take him with a word of his mouth yet hee accomplishes Iohn 18.6 neverthelesse his cursed intent so that though Peter resist and smite of Malchus his eare yet Iudas prevailes and Christ is taken neither can they be intreated to let him goe though hee plead his innocency and heale his enemie with a touch even Malchus to let them see how farre hee was from hating them notwithstanding all their injury But their hearts were hardned therefore Christ must needes suffer Next unto this followes Christs examination before the High Priests full of injustice and subornation In the time of which ungodly proceedings falls out a pitifull accident which is Peters deniall of his Master which though it might seeme to admit of some excuse in that the temptation was strong even such as not long since had made all Christs followers forsake him and flee yet being thrise over committed and that after having beene forwarned of it wee must needes confesse that it was a grievous crime especially in that Christ was now even as S. Peters faith was upon his triall Yet this wound though it was the harder cure Christ heales more easily then hee did that which Malchus received for that was healed by a touch this only by looking backe for assoone as Christ look't backe Saint Peter came to himselfe went out and wept bitterly As the Devill in his limbes is thus busy against Saint Peter so is hee himselfe the while against Christ for hee stirres up his good children the High Priests and their company to vexe him not only as before by trapping interrogatories but also by reviling him spitting upon him buffetting him and mocking him And now their malice is risen to an height it is time to make an end for this day or rather this night and so they doe or rather the time it selfe doth for them because their malice had no end For having sit up all night about a worke of darknes they are not ashamed to prosecute it the next day to which we are GOD assisting the next to proceed but let us take heede wee do it with another affection then they did for if Saint Peter fell that followed indeed but a farre off what will become of them that draw neere to persecute By thine Agony and bloody Sweate Good Lord deliver us Amen Meditations for FRIDAY NOw beginnes the dismallest Morning to appeare that ever saw the Sunne it is no marvaile if she blush when shee rises to see such bloody practises goe on as the High Priests and their ungodly Fraternity make her conscious of Yet one joyfull Spectacle shee hath neverthelesse to cheare her selfe with and that is the death of Iudas the Traitor who repenting himselfe for he had beene of hrists company and therfore had some touch though not of grace in him comes and restores the money he had taken for his Lord and Master to the High Priests if hee had stayed heere there had beene some hope but after falling into despaire hee is not at quiet till hee hath avenged Christs quarrell on himselfe with his owne hands which had taken the Money for he went a way and hanged himselfe Yet doeth not Gods justice stay here neither for as hee was hanging his body broke in sunder and all his bowells gushed out because hee had no bowells of cōpassion towards his Master As for
his Christ-Crosse though hee can reade no other letter When thou hearest mee thus speake of a Crosse and suffering thou canst looke for nothing in such a booke but Tragicall and so it is a Tragedy even the wofullest argument that ever was acted The Actors in it are all great men as in Tragedies Herod a King Pilate the Romane Deputie the Rulers of the Iewes the chiefe Pharisies the High Priests all High thou seest yea the most High himselfe for GOD hath a part in it The Protasis or first part containes the Life of Death that is the furie of Christs enemies the Epitasis or second the Death of Life that is of Christ who is Life in the fountaine even The Life the Catastrophe or last part in it is the Death of Death which by Christ his dying was utterly destroyed in regard of efficacie to hurt any of those that belong unto GOD any more The beginning of this Tragedie as it falls to be is joyous but the end was bitter The first Scene of it was Christs riding as upon this day into Ierusalem in triumph The bravery of this show was not outward and yet it is a wonder to see how it affected the multitude Christ hath enough followers when he comes riding in Triumph but c. the whole Citie was mooved Men and Trees too stript thēselves to strow the way as hee went every mouth was full of Hosanna That is Heare us O Lord. even the childrens also and if they had held their peace the very stones would have spoken And who would have thought when he sawe and heard these things that Christ should have needed to have wept over this Citie or these should have bin the men that should betray him But follow on thy Saviour into the Citie and thou shalt see what entertainement he finds there not for his owne for he had none but for thy sinnes that thou maist learne to bewaile them For When thou commest into the City thou shalt see the multitude indeed follow Christ but it is the multitude even the variable unconstant multitude so that among so many followers of Christ onely his Disciples were his true followers Thou shalt see againe while the Citie is mooved with joy the Pharisies on the other side as much mooved with anger and asking even our Saviour himselfe of the Children which cryed Hosanna Hearest thou what these say When thou commest into the Temple thou shalt see the house of his glory which hee had chosen of old to put his Name there filled with buyers and sellers whom there is no way to drive out but with a whippe Therefore hee makes one and burning in zeale rests not till hee have driven out all these ungodly prophaners out of his Sanctuary throwing downe their tables and overthrowing their seates and not suffering so much as a vessell to be carried through the Temple neither had they all any power to resist him Now all these things are written for our example for the ill is written that we may learne to avoide it the good that we may imitate it But cheifly must our eye be bent on our Saviours actions in this story for that is the best copy we have to follow Follow him then as he rides and see his humility It is but an asse that he sits on that thou maist follow him the better yet is he that is thus meanly seated the King not only of Zion as the Prophet calls him Zach. 9.9 but of Heaven Earth This thou maist learne even of the children that follow him for their cry is Hosanna that is Heare us O Lord and againe they say Blessed bee the King that commeth in the Name of the Lord Take thou up this cry together with them else thou must not ioyne with this company for from the aged to the children all had these two voices in their mouth Hosanna Blessed be the King The one is the voice of praier the other of praise two workes that peculiarly belong to this Day among us which is Sunday Amongst other things S. Iohn tells us of certaine Greekes Proselites Ioh. 12.20 that comming to worship at the Feast desired as this day to see Iesus neither doth he put them backe but upon this occasion as it seemes begins to speake of his suffering which was to follow ere many daies were over Be thou ashamed that any strangers should presse neerer to heare or see him then thou and be not afraid hee will reject thee if thy desire bee to learne for he does not so unto these Especially take heede thou beest not left out when he goes into the Temple for by his behaviour in that Temple thou maist learne how to behave thy selfe in the Temple of thy Body that as he with a whip of smal cords whipped the buyers and sellers out of the Temple overthrew also the tables of the money-changers and the seats of them that sold Doves so must we make us a whipp of cords the smaller the better and whip out of the Temple and Citie too our corrupt affections neither let them so much as once looke againe into the Sanctuarie of our Soules no not though they come to sell Doves for sacrifice or would change our money into gold At least let them never have power to sell our Soules which onely Christ was able to buy but let us throwe downe their tables overthrowe their seats scatter their merchandize and not suffer any vessell that is not hallowed to come through our thoughts Thus shall wee bee fit to sanctifie this Day when wee have thus hallowed our harts anew by cleansing of them otherwise we shall justly heare the same which was spoken to these prophaners My House shall bee called a house of Prayer but yee have made it a Denne of Theeves Meditations for MONDAY FRom Bethany comes our Holy Lord this Morning to Ierusalem againe from his friends that had entertained him to his enemies that would crucifie him and that to save them if they would have beene saved This was the towne of Martha and Marie whome Christ loved therefore hee honoured it with a miracle in raising up Lazarus their Brother and with making it his retyring place And well it was howsoever that Christ had any place to retire to so neere Ierusalem howbeit his own Citie owed him a better if it had done him right yet for all that he must go to Bethanie to seek his lodgging if he will have one and pay deare for it too for he satisfied his Host to the full both for his cost and curtesie in that hee raised him out of his grave after he had lyen in it foure dayes It goes hard with our Saviour mee thinkes when hee must bee glad to raise his host out of his grave yet it is well that hee found one though hee opened the earth for him For a man may digge in many places and not find gold and Christ may often call at the graves of Mankind
buried in Sinne and find never a Lazarus to heare him Holy Lazarus thou couldst heare Christ whē thou wert dead but well are wee if wee can heare him while wee are alive yet this we may doe if we will and now is the time for this Weeke Christ hath many things to say that concerne our soules health yea words he hath to speake which may put Life into thee if thou wert dead so thy heart be fit as Lazarus his house was to receive him only drawe neere and bring thy Will with thee and thou shalt heare him By this time Christ is on his way comming to Ierusalem by the way as he comes he is an hungred he was no glutton then as the Iewes accused him and espying a Fig-tree a farre off he goes to it yet not to satisfie hunger for the time of figges was not yet come but to give us a Lesson how he hates spiritual unfruitfulnes When he came to it therefore and sawe no figges though by the yeare time it should have beene so hee cursed the Tree and anon it withered If this bee done to the greene Tree for S. Marke hath noted Mar. 11.13 that it had leafes though it had no fruite what will become of us the dry and wild one And if Christ require figges of it before the time may he not require fruit of us whensoever he comes yea gather where he scattered not yet let no man accuse him of injustice for he sowed once but we let it be rooted up he scattered once but we let the Enemie gather it that is hee gave grace to Man before the Fall that would ever have been bearing fruit and to the trees a perpetuall Autumne for our sakes therefore he might call on the Fig-tree in Winter and not bee unjust and may looke for good workes of the Reprobate ere they receive Grace but much more may he of us who boast to have the life of Grace in us Feare then and faile not to bring foorth thy fruite in his season and GOD can and will put difference betweene thee a Fig-tree He careth not for Oxen and it is no great matter if a fig-tree wither but his sight is better then to see men walking like Trees hee will spare thee therefore and give thee an example out of them onely thou must not bee a stocke or barren wood but thy fruite must appeare in his due time This use thou maist make of this storie Howbeit our Saviour makes another himselfe namely by example of his owne faith which had so soone wrought this miracle to stirre up Faith in his Disciples especially in prayer But this belongs to the next day What our Saviour taught this day in the Citie the Evangelists have not recorded S. Marke sets downe the Storie of our Saviours whipping the buyers and sellers out of the Temple as if it had happened this day either because they were so impudent as to come into the Temple this day againe and so our Lord was enforced to renewe the action or else it is the same that the other Evangelists speake of but according to the custome elsewhere observed in holy Writ order is not strictly kept in the circumstance of time For the Holy Ghost meant to deliver a rule for Faith rather then for Chronologie And yet we should not have wanted that neither but that partly GOD would sometime leave order unexprest to punish our disorder towards him partly because hee would try our Faith whether wee would beleeve him on his Word or condemne him when wee saw the least appearance of contrarietie Appearance I say for so it is only neither is there any dissidence in matter or circumstance in any place of Scripture but it may be reconciled Well then This daies Sermon is not printed yet that our Saviour taught this day I take it to bee evident for S. Luke reports that hee taught daily in the Temple Also his prolixe and continued Parables uttered on other dayes make it credible that he would not be silent upon this Yet this one dayes labour amongst other we have not because he hath left us sufficient for our soules health in that we have so that we need not looke for more Also the lesse we have the lesse wee have to learne Againe the want of that wee have not may stirre up our affection to that wee have If thou have but a little ground and a little seed till it the better for thou hast better leisure and it may yeeld thee an hundred for one howsoever it cannot but yeeld thee more then all the great field of the sluggard If all that Christ spoke did were written I suppose saith Saint Iohn the Divine or the Devine Saint Iohn the world could not containe the bookes that should be written His meaning is either to shew Christs diligence in teaching which was such as would have wearied the hands of all writers to have followed him or else if all that Christ spoke had beene written the Comments upon his Text would have been numberlesse Either of these are easie to beleeve for we see daily that the tongue of the teacher goes so quicke as no hand can follow it but by Brachygraphie the Comments upon our Saviours words that we have are so many as the world is already full of them so many Comments there be so many Volumes so many Treatises that they require more then a mans life to read them all as they should be Be content then and praise GOD for that which thou hast read it lay it to thy heart and meditate how thou maist practise it for that thou learnest of Christ is never truly thy owne till thou bring it into practise and thus thou maist heere understand the meaning of that Proverbe that sayes No knowledge is like that which a man hath at his fingers ends that is which he hath ready for practise Now that this Day is done if thou wilt walke backe with thy Lord againe to Bethanie thou shalt doe more then we read the whole multitude did yesterday that were at first so dutifull about him That he lodged this Night againe in that little village it appeares as I take it by the Fig-tree which he cursed as he came by it to day and to morrow passes by againe and speakes of what had happened to it as will appeare better out of the next dayes story Well then if thou wilt follow thy Master thither the journey is but short some fifteene furlongs as I remember or there about If thou doubt to want lodging because the village is little yet hope better because it is hospital or if thou shouldest watch one Night with thy Saviour or about him thou shouldest not loose thy labour and so it would be worth thy paines also For who would not want one Nights sleepe to be so neere Christ to heare his last words see his last actions which as they were alwaies gracious so now certainly were most
and he that shall come will come and will not tarry Let us heare therfore the word of exhortation as it is laid down for us in Saint Iames Be patient my Brethren untill the comming of the Lord behold the husbandman waiteth for the pretious fruit of the earth and hath long patience for it untill he receive the former and latter raine be patient therfore and stablish your hearts for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh The same Apostle ascribes to patience the meanes to make us perfect Iames 1.2 My Brethren count it ioy when yee fall into many temptations knowing that the triall of your faith worketh patience and let patience have her perfect worke that ye may be perfect and entire wanting nothing This vertue whosoever would have hee is now at the fountaine for from Christ we must have it or not at all Let us then seeke for it in him or to him for it and so we may come to find it and the rather let us doe it because our soules are not our owne in this troublesome world without patience for in patience saith Christ yee must possesse your Soules Meditations for THURSDAY A Little lightning before death as on this day hath our Blessed Saviour and but a little neither even while he is preparing and eating the Passeover all the rest of the day he is teaching as may be probably conjectured But ere hee beginne to do that he gives direction first where he will have the Passeover made ready for him by sending two of his Disciples to a certaine man that should meet them with a pitcher of water by which and other signes that hee gives they should know him to be the partie whose house hee had chosen for the purpose This man whom our Saviour sent thus to is observed further to have beene a Disciple for when the two who were sent from Christ meete with him they say The Master saith which is noted to have beene the name that the followers of Christ called him by among themselves as it may appeare to be by Martha's words to Mary her sister The Master is come and calleth for thee This being granted that this man was a beleever it will rest uncertaine whether Christ had bespoken a roome of him before this or no for if he was a Disciple he might ere this time have made it knowne to him by word as well as by revelation that he would eate the Passeover in his house and it helpes the conjecture a little because his roome was so ready But howsoever that might be done ordinarily or otherwise certaine it is that Christs foretelling they should meete him bearing a pitcher of water was propheticall to confirme the Disciples faith ours Also in that his roome was ready drest to receive Christ besides that it commends decency unto us both in the man and in it selfe it serves also to shew us how wee should have our hearts prepared for our Master namely that wee must cleanse them dresse them trimme them and alwayes have them fit to receive him if wee give him the upper roome in them also wee do but follow our example Only let us take heede when he sends his Disciples that is his Ministers that they find us not without our pitcher of water that is without teares of true penitence in our eyes that wee are no better prepared to entertaine him The next thing the holy Evangelists lead us to is the putting that in effect which here was made way for But before wee come to that if it seeme strange to any which Saint Iohn hath noted unto us that our Saviours Passeover was two dayes before the Iewes for theirs was on Saturday Ioh. 19.14 his on Thursday it may be the lesse marveilous to him that considers how farre Christ was before them in preparation And that might well serve for an answer were it not that the law of GOD is so strict in appointing the day on which the Passeover should be kept Exod. 12.18 But the undoing of this knot is to be learned out of a custome which the Iewes had taken up ever since they came from Babiloa and to gaine credit to it ascribed it to revelation from GOD which was this That if the Passeover fell neere the Sabbath day it should be deferred untill the Sabbath that the people might not have two holy-daies so neere together and so the commandement belike be endangered Sixe dayes shaltthou labour This was the reason why the Iewes deferred their Passeover untill Saturday which our Saviour kept upon Thursday For Thursday was the legall day Therefore Christ who best knew the meaning of his owne commandement which they by scrupulousnes mis-understood kept that day neither would give the least example to make the law of GOD of none effect by mans traditions This keeping of the Passeover was the last Ceremonial act that ever our Saviour performed Now seeing wee have none of this dayes worke set downe by Christs pen-men let us come unto that the evening affords us which is full of many strange occurrences The first thing in it is the abrogating of the Sacramentall Supper of the old Testament the Passeover and instituting that of the New which wee call by Saint Pauls direction the Supper of the Lord. And there are not many circumstances to observe in the first of these As first That Christ abrogated the Legall Ceremonies by fulfilling them and inducing of better for he kept both the right day though the whole nation did otherwise and the right time of the day the evening and the right company his Disciples and of those no more thē the twelve who were his houshould servants and ever with him as for his sitting whereas some thinke it is legall he should have stood it appeares out of Exodus Exod. 11.10 that it was a circumstance not perpetuall but proper to the time when the Israelites were to leave Aegypt and that he observed the feast in an other mans house the reason is ready because hee had not more shame for mankind one of his owne no not a place to hide his head in Secondly wee may observe about it Christs desire hee had to eate this Supper with his disciples which himselfe expresses most expressely when hee sayes desiderio desideravi c. that is I have vehemently desired to eate this Passeover with you before I suffer As for a third circumstance which some gather that hee tooke the cup in the time of the Passeover and gave it his disciples to go among them after the same manner that hee did when hee instituted his owne Supper it is by the learned observed to be spoken by Anticipation and the action to belong to the Sacrament following in which it is of the essence of it therefore by the other Evangelists it is only mentioned in that place To let passe that then these two that wee are certaine of have their use to us-ward the first to shew Christs strictnes in
his Soule assoone as ever it left his execrable body it begun presently to inherit those curses which the Psalmist had layd up for him of old Ps 109.6 Set thou a wicked man over him and let Satan stand at his right hand when he shal be judged let him be condemned and let his prayer become sinne let his dayes be few and let another take his office c. Thus is GOD just upon his enemies that we may learne to feare him It will not be amisse by the way here to tell how the money was bestowed which Iudas brought backe to the High Priests for the strange qualitie of the field that was bought with it for it is reported that the nature of that ground is such as if a strangers body be layd in it for it was bought to bury strangers in it consumes it to the bone in foure and twenty houres which it doeth not to any other Body save those it was appropriate to when it was bought And to confirme this Adrichom mine author tells that Helena the famous Queene-Mother of Constantine causing certaine loades of this earth to bee brought to Rome into the field that is now called the Holy field it retaines the vertue there also and consumes only strangers bodies refusing the Romanes which if it be true it seemes GOD would have the earth thus mark't to preserve the memory of the bloody money by which it was purchased and therefore he gave it a vertue to consume strangers bodies ere they could corrupt refusing the Iewes to shew how they had lost their priviledge to their owne land by crucifying their Lord and strangers began to be possest of it also to teach us that his hope is nearest incorruption who is the greatest stranger from the sinne of the Iewes that is crucifying Christ But let us returne to our Saviour againe who all this while stood loose though hee had beene brought bound to the High Priests belike they had loosed him to try if they could make him bely himselfe by faire meanes which when they cannot prevaile in first they bind him againe and then carrie him so bound to Pilate not privately or with a few but the whole multitude of them together to make the action more notable When hee is come to Pilate first they accuse him of Treason against Cesar though it was enough knowne that hee had publiquely in the Temple taught of late that Cesar should not be denied the things that were Cesars next they lay sedition to his charge as if hee stirred the people to rebellion though they knew as well that hee refused the peoples offer when they would have made him King yet thus shamelesse are Christs accusers to appeale him of matters that were evidently untrue and this Pilate may be found also to have taken notice of therefore hee tried more wayes then one to deliver Christ for first hee would have put him off to the High Priests and Rulers who hee knew could not put him to death because that authority was taken away from them after beeing driven to examine him himselfe hee protests openly in Christs behalfe that hee could find no fault in him upon that Christ his accusers beginning to bee more vehement and alledging that he had wronged both Cesar and Herod in stirring up the people against them as soone as ever Pilate heares Herod named hee seekes to put off the matter to him and therfore sends Christ unto him as belonging to his Iurisdiction when Herod could find nothing worthy of death in him neither but sends him backe to Pilate untouchtin his body except a garment of scorne that hee had put upon him Pilate tries a pollicy to free our Saviour A white garment Adrichom e Th. Terrae Sanctae by comparing him with the most grievous malefactor that had long been in Iayle one Barrabas which he did on hope to deliver him by vertue of a custome the Iewes challenged at Easter which was to have one set free to them whom of two they should choose But when against his hope and all probability they refuse Christ and chuse Barrabas yet here hee leaves not to strive for him but first he calls for water and washes his hands protesting by that Ceremony that he would not have any of Christs blood cleave to his hands but it should all be upon them if they shed it when that would not serve he tries yet an other pollicy unlawfull indeede yet neverthelesse the most effectuall in humane worldly wisdome he could devise as the case then stood namely to give our innocent Lord to be most cruelly whipped crowned with thorne and clothed with purple having a reede in his hand for a Scepter to bee mocked of his Soldiers spitt on smitten on the head and saluted on the knee in mockery who being by them thus drest in double purple wherof one was of his owne blood torn with whips pierced with thornes he brings him forth to the Iewes to moove them to compassion hoping that a little blood would have contented them but when no blood would please thē but his heart-blood Pilate like a false worldly Politician thinking it better to yield to the death of one innocent then to endanger a tumult delivers Christ against his owne conscience to be crucyfied Concerning the time wherein our Saviour was crucyfied there is a seeming difference betwixt two of the Evangelists for Saint Iohn sayes Iohn 19.14 It was about the sixt houre when Pilate delivered him to be crucyfied Saint Marke sayes Mark 15.25 It was the third houre and they crucified him To reconcile these two we are to carrie with us that the Iewes reckoned their Day by two sort of houres the one greater the other the lesse The greater were called the houres of the Temple and divided the Day into foure Quarters whereof every one contained three houres a peece which Quarters were reckoned under the name of the first second third and fourth houre for so many there were and no more and then begun againe on the Night they are by David called the Night watches as it seemes where he sayes Mine eies prevent the Night watches The lesser houres reckoned from one till twelve after the manner that we doe save that they begun not at the same time that ours do for both their greater and lesser houres begun at sixe a clocke with us whether you beginne to reckon them at morning or evening for the Iewes day begun at evening as appeares both out of divine and profane Scripture so that begin to tell at sixe in the evening and twelve will end at sixe in the morning and beginne againe at sixe in the morning and your twelve wil end at 6 in the evening by our account Which kind of reckoning was of Gods appointment who sayes in Genesis Gen. 1.5 The Evening and the Morning was the first day beginning the day with the evening and it is a more naturall kind of reckoning then ours
which beginnes at midnight both for day and night for it begins when they beginne and ends when they end going orderly on with them both so that the first houre when they began to worke was the first houre the second the second c. and so on in order whereas the houre that we heare when we rise is sixe or seaven for about that time men generally beginne to worke and therefore to us the first houre is not the first houre but under another name These things will best be brought together by a Table ¶ The Greater houres or houres of the Temple I II III IIII The Lesser houres 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Our houres as they agree with them both 7 8 9 10 11 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 This figure shewes that the Iewes first houre both greater and lesse begun at sixe and ended in seaven so that when our Dyall pointes at seaven theirs pointed at one shewing that the first houre was over and the next begunne when theirs pointed at two ours at eight and so on till you come to twelve In the greater houres it must needes be otherwise for their first greater houre was not ended till our nine which was their three the next not till their sixe which is our twelve and then begunne the third houre which lasted till our three in the afternoone as the fourth did also which ended at our sixe at night According unto this computation do the Papists yet name their Canonicall houres The Third Houre for their Hora Tertiarum is in the morning at nine their sixt is at noone and their nine at three a clocke after dinner according to the account of the Iewes lesser houres These things being thus explaned there is no difficulty in the diverse names the Evangelists give to the same houre for they are but two names signifying one thing the one reckoning the same time by the greater houres the other by the lesse For Saint Marke who divides the day by the greater houres he sayes it was the third houre beginning by their greater houres that is sixe a clocke newly over by their lesser houres that is full twelve and past with us when our Lord was crucifyed If any one object This cannot be for if Christ had been crucifyed within the third greater houre hee must not have beene so till one with us for then in the Table beginnes the third Quarter or the third houre rather in the greater houres I answer that one a clock is all the space betweene twelve and one which houre is ended when one strikes and so the third houre beginnes at twelve newly over which is the sixt houre in the Iewes lesser houres and this hee will easily grant to be true who considers that the first houre that ever time measured was not or could not bee one or the first houre till an houre was runne and then that might be called the first houre or one not before and as that tooke his beginning with time running on till it made a twelfth part of the day and then tooke his name according to his order so must the third greater houre needes take his beginning at twelve and end at his time appointed Now Saint Iohn on the other side reckons not by the greater but by the lesser houres Therfore the beginning of the third greater houre with S. Marke must needes be the sixt lesser houre with S Iohn because no sooner this done but that beginnes And this the rather because Saint Iohn reckons from our Saviours condemnation which must needes be a little before the third greater houre in which hee was crucifyed for hee was condemned a good prety while before he suffered therefore it could not be so forward as S. Marke setts it but within the sixt houre yet that is not full or at least but twelve with us when Christ was condemned but before hee came to Golgotha it could not but be past their sixe that is our twelve at which time Saint Iohn saith hee was condemned and so it must needes be the third houre or quarter of the day as Saint Marke reckons it which to Saint Iohn was the sixt houre One thing more also wee may note out of the former figure namely whence their error had his beginning who thinke that our Saviour was crucifyed in the morning at nine and dyed not till three whereas indeed hee was crucifyed at twelve and so hanged but three houres upon the Crosse for hee was dead at the ninth houre by the Iewes lesser houres which is our three in the afternoone This error rise because they thought Christ to have beene condemned at sixe a clocke by the Romane account which is all one with ours and crucifyed at three by the Iewes common reckoning in the little houres which is our nine and so they reconcile the times But this opinion bee it spoken with reverence of their persons cannot stand for Saint Iohn speakes not of our or the Romane houres but of those which went for cōmon amongst the Iewes Besides the story of Christs sufferings which were after the day was abroad I meane his arraigning before Pilate his whipping araying with purple crowning with thorne mocking beating by the Soldiers after he was examined also his sending to Herod in the other side of the city his stay there and his returne againe his second triall and finall condemnation before Pilate all these and other I name not could not possible be done betwixt day and nine a clocke Lastly it is hardly agreeable to reason that our Lords Body should bee sixe houres together in paine so unsufferable being of so feeling and tender a composition for though his Godhead could have upheld it yet his humane nature had our infirmitie upon it See Mar. 15.44 Where it is sayd Pilate marvailed he was dead so soone and therefore hee is knowne to have shortned his time upon the Crosse at least not to have held out till nature was spent by his lowd cry upon the Crosse which shewed that he dyed not fainting or through weakenes as other men do who die because nature can hould out no longer therefore I rest yet rather with them who thinke his passion on the Crosse was but three houres long the rather also because the death he suffered was so shamefull beeing upon the Crosse and his body naked layd open to the scorne of all his enemies for our sinnes which might bee a principall cause why his passion was no longer Many things there are to be observed in the time of our Saviours going to and being upon the Crosse As first the cruell usage he had from the Iewes by the way in that they made him carry his Crosse till he fainted next the womens teares that were shed for him when hee went to his execution upon that the loving care he had to requite them by letting them know their state was more wofull and fit to be bewayled then his Therefore