of him in whom thou hast placed all thy hope and trust I therefore that am forsaken of all doe bring to both of you that small ayd I am able thou O Mother behold another Sonne for thee thou my disciple behold another helpe for thee O most holy Jesus O most faithfull Saviour O most mercifull helper how many sad widows doest thou even now comfort how many poore orphans doest thou now relieve how many afflicted persons doest thou now take charge of I am also widowed of all comfort and deprived of all sustenance robbed of all protection and aid the anxieties of my mind are many my affliction is great my griefes are multiplied comfort me sustaine me take care of me O thou omnipotent Comforter of those that bee sad thou Strength of those that labour let my groanes come unto thee what extremity soever I am in that in my necessities I may joy in the presence of thy mercy Heare also yee that have eares to heare the fourth word Let my soule attend let my spirit attend and let all the devotion that is in me give her attention our Priest in the dayes of his flesh offered up prayers and supplications with teares and strong cries unto him that was able to save him from death My God my God why hast thou forsaken me The just God and heavenly Father who begate thee from eternity who by a voyce from heaven testified of thee This is my beloved Sonne heare him hath forgotten thee hee left thee not for thine owne cause but for mine for I by my sinnes have begotten thee these labours and griefes it was I was to be forsaken but thou stoodest in my stead thou who speakest righteousnesse who art the bulwarke of salvation hast trod the wine-presse alone and there was not a man to helpe thee thou lookedst about and there was no helper thou soughtest but foundst none that might save O how bitter was this forsaking to thee but how pleasant and how happie to mee Thou God exceeding long-suffering thou shalt not leave me for ever because thy Sonne was forsaken for me Thou ardent lover of my soule thou diligent Saviour of sinners thou most courteous searcher of men thy most obedient Sonne tooke on him the punishment which was due for my sins which are so much against thee hee hath borne the sinners burthen hee hath endured the horrours of death and terrours of hell and hath most largely satisfied for me Leave me not then O my God depart not from me O my God in the day of my death if the so copious satisfaction of thy Sonne if my so dangerous misery can move thee to compassion be present with me most miserable sinner pitifully heare my prayers and help mee in the houre of death neither remember my iniquities but O thou fountaine of mercyes deale with mee according to thy exceeding great mercy CONTEMP c. 20. Of the fifth word of Christ uttered upon the Crosse GAther O gather your selves together and heare saith the Patriarch Iacob when he stretched forth his feet to enter into the way of all flesh and stood even at the threshold of his wished-for eternity but if the last words of a man were to bee received with such attention what attention may be required what fervour what diligence to heare his last words who is both God and man who is above all the Patriarches in whom all the Patriarches did trust and whom they wished so often to behold The words were seven The number of seven is a peculiar number a holy number and is used in many mysteries it is here also peculiar it is holy and not barren of mysteries thou hast already understood this O my soule and thou shalt know it in part hereafter The first word of our Lord was I thirst ah Lord all thy spirits were dissipated all thy strength issued forth in the torrent of thy blood for thou wast a man of sorrowes and experienced in infirmities despised and a man of the least esteeme although thou haddest committed no offence nor was guile found in thy mouth therefore wast thou scorched with extream thirst and yet thou Saviour and preserver of men thou couldest not obtaine drink from men O most barbarous cruelty the Lord did travell with extreame thirst at the beginning of his passion and that thirst did increase still more and more so that it was one of the greater sort of torments which the Lord endured upon the crosse for the letting out of the great plenty of the vitall fountaine doth dry and cause thirst therefore the Lord who after much wearinesse and by his scourging lost much blood and afterwards being crucified had foure open fountaines as it were in his body from which great plenty of blood had for a long time issued forth how could it be but that hee must be tormented with extreame thirst They who have received many wounds from which much blood doth flow desire nothing so much as drink as if they suffered nothing but thirst but who was there that took pitty and offered so much as cold water who was present who had a fellow-feeling of his sorrowes there was not one nor any found to comfort him O Jesus thou heavenly Lord they gave thee gall to eate and in thy thirst they have thee vineger to drink thy beloved John saith there was a vessell set full of vineger and they fastning a sponge full of vineger to an hysop stalk offered it to his mouth O cruell wickednesse as they had at the beginning a little before his crucifying offered him wine mixed with gall so at the departure of his soule they offer him vineger a most pernitious thing for his wounds that Christs passion might be a true and continued passion from the beginning to the end without any mixture of comfort in stead of refreshing and pleasing liquour they offer him hurtfull and bitter O refreshing without any refreshing O most lamentable consolation When Sampson had slaine the Philistims he thirsted exceedingly and the Lord opened a great tooth for him in the jaw-bone of an asse whence waters did flow and thou when thou haddest overcome the most potent enemies the world satan and death diddest also thirst extreamely but no waters were given thee and the Antitype was in a farre worse condition than the type which the Conquerour of the Philistims did represent wee alas had deserved eternall thirst to us was due that scorching heat which the glutton had when hee lifted up his eyes being in torments and saw Abraham afarre off and Lazarus in his bosome and crying said Father Abraham take pitty of me and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and refresh my tongue for I am tormented in these flames but thou that takest pitty of us that most ardently thirstest for our salvation hast in thy thirst suffered that thirst and hast deserved so much for us that we shall one day neither hunger nor thirst any more neither
God he saw his owne nakednesse His first nakednesse was nothing else than tokens of chiefe happinesse and of the greatest riches but the nakednesse that this man saw after he had sinned was meere ruine a testimony of everlasting woe and want That first man saw his body naked but his soule was more naked spoyled and disrobed of knowledge wisdome integrity and originall innocency hee covered his nakednesse being enwrapped with shame but this was a wretched garment he sowed together figg leaves and made aprons to cover himselfe and his seducing wife O vaine mantles O lamentable coverings And what are all mens cloathings that seeme so sumptuous and glittering but figge leafes that quickly vanish to nothing and gald those that weare them O would to God that as often as we cloath our selves wee were urged with the sharp and stinging point of repentance for they are tokens of our wants signes of our shame arguments of our misery and comforts for our extreme infirmities Thou sinfull and fallen man why art thou proud in setting forth thy impieties thou thiefe why braggest thou of a halter why dost thou vauntingly boast of anothers fleece what carriest thou under it but a sack full of dung the rotten bag of thy soule thy skin is not enough to cover thee nor except thou beest most impudent dost thou let any one see it but gettest some other thing to supply the want of thine owne I behold mine owne clothes I see a hell of evills yet I consider the depth of thy care providence and mercy for thou helpest mee thus naked before I can understand mine owne want and nakednesse and commandest all the creatures to haste unto me that they might cover my nakednesse and supply my wants Thou thy selfe most mercifull God as I remember didst clothe sinnefull man in a Lambs skinne not in Lyons Beares Foxes or Wolves skins that thou mightest teach him thy hatred to cruelty greedinesse deceit and wrath and thy love to unspotted simplicity thou madest his garment of the skins of dead cattell that thou mightest shew us how we were fallen from life to death how of immortall we were become mortall that we were from the earth and must returne to the earth againe Thou tookest a skin of a Lamb slaine that thou mightest witnesse unto us that our Fall was only to bee healed by a Lambe to be slaine O thou garment of the golden age thou unspotted Lamb slaine to the beleevers before the beginning of the world O thou Messias that wast promised and food appointed from all eternity thou who wast made the seed of the Woman and hast bruised the Serpents head cloath me with thy merits and mine owne deserts shall nothing hurt mee cloath mee with thy righteousnesse and mine owne unrighteousnesse shall not condemne mee cloath me with thy holinesse and mine owne iniquity shall not accuse mee cloath me with faith in thee and I shall one day receive the robe of happinesse Nothing can cover the filthy nakednesse of a sinner nothing can hide me from Gods judgement but thy coat O heavenly Lambe but the holes of thy wounds but the yawning scarres of thy body I will put thee on by a steadfast faith and with the Church of old I will triumph before thee CONTEMP c. 9. Of Noahs Ark Crow and Dove THou art my God very long suffering and thy wrath grants sinners a very large time nor dost thou root out sinners on a suddaine Mans malice was great and every thought of his heart was continually bent to mischief they neglected thy Word nor did they obey thy Spirit that was to lead them thou therefore didst repent thee of thy Creation and didst resolve to destroy this Inne of the World with all the guests thereof yet did not thy justice haste very much to execute judgement but thy mercy interposed a hundred and twenty yeares that thou mightst see whether by often preaching any could be moved to worke repentance Ah my God thou goest with two feet one of justice the other of mercy but mercy alwayes makes the first step and justice the later nor dost thou delight in the death or destruction of a sinner but thou wilt and commandest that he bee converted and live But all thy expectation was in vaine and thy mercies were entertained with scorne the wrath therfore of thy justice was kindled and the waters of the Flood broke in upon the earth the fountaines of the great deepe were broken up and the Cataracts of heaven were opened and it rained upon the earth for many dayes and almost all thy creatures perished and among men none but thy Noah and his family were preserved in the Ark. Thou forsakest not my God thou most just and most bountifull God those that worship adore thee but dost preserve them in fire and water and amidst the storme of growing miseries thou dost nor despise or reject any thou dost not affright any one except he who is so mad as to abhorr thee My God the horne of my salvation thou that takest me up thou Father of mercies God of all Consolation O Lord my Strength my Fortresse my Refuge my Deliverer Canst thou draw the sword of justice and not annoynt the point with the oile of mercy He lyes therefore hid in safety in that wonderfull ship out of which not life but present death was to bee found What shall I say that that ship did represent but thy Church which is tossed to and fro with sundry Stormes of persecution and waves of adversitie and hath no fixed station yet the true and eternall safety is contained there which out of it is offered to none Noah was the Steere-man hereof but thou O God art the Governour both of Noah and it and thou wast Noahs true and heavenly Comforter who dost not suffer it to sinke The waters of the Flood overwhelmed the palaces of Kings but did every day better than other beare aloft the Ark of Noah so doe persecutions destroy earthly kingdomes but thou sufferest not thine owne Kingdome to be overthrowne but dost even encrease and enlarge it by stormes of temptations Noah sent a Raven and a Dove out of the Ark the Raven pursued his prey and did never returne to the Arke of Noah the Dove did returne and was received in againe of this Steeres-man O Christ let mee abandon the Raven-like gluttony the lovelinesse of pleasures for it is very rare that any one seated amongst the delights of the age should remaine free from a smatch of vice in which although hee bee not forthwith inthralled yet is hee sometimes drawne away by them nor can he be long safe who stands next to danger let me remember that I am to play the Souldier in such a kind of warfare wherein there is no rest given I will resolve to overcome pleasures which have destroyed many good ingenuities The Dove finding no seat to rest upon returned to the Ark and was admitted into it O Christ my repose my
were likewise many that were called Saviours as Othniel Ehud and others but these were onely deliverers of the body and did onely for a time deliver the people from their outward enemies and did for a while keep them free from the spoylers of this world but this my Jesus is the true Saviour for he not onely frees and preserveth his people from outward enemies but from spirituall subtilties in high places Sometimes indeed he delivers us to outward enemies nor is he presently Jesus or a Saviour he sends amongst us warre plague haile cold poverty disgrace diseases captivity bondage but it is for our eternall salvation He is also a faithfull Jesus nor suffers he any one to be tempted above his strength but giveth our temptations such a measure that we may endure them and although our Jesus doth seeme too cruelly and too long to leave us in these externall evils and to lay too heavie a burden upon us that we are in feare to be overcharged to yeeld and to faile under it yet let us expect the comming of our Jesus wwhich will be in a fit season My Jesus best knoweth our strength and how much we can beare and as the pilot doth diligently take care that the ship be not over-fraighted or fall into any fearfull danger so my Iesus doth weigh and ballance our abilities before he layes any crosse upon us that it may not exceed them Thinke alwayes O my soule upon Iesus because thou hast alwayes need of thy Iesus If thy sinnes do vex thee and Satan doth paint them forth and set them before thee that he may perswade thee they are more in number than can be forgiven that they be larger than heaven and earth for magnitude call upon thy Iesus and make Satan thy laughing-stocke Iesus is my Saviour who hath delivered me from my sins and hath taken them upon himselfe he is become for me and all the world a ransome a sacrifice a reconciliation And because it appeares that he is not conquered but is truly a Saviour they must needs be sinners indeed and not feighned sinners that he doth save for this sentence can never be recalled Christ is the Lambe of God that taketh away the sins of the world If the feare of death doth presse thee and if Satan endeavour to dishearten thee with the expectation thereof and doth portrait the figure of death before thee in a most bloody horrible manner and repeats unto thee the threats which God denounces against sinners and the vengeance which he reserves for them protect thy selfe with the Name of Iesus and oppose it to the terrors of death Why should I feare death that I should feare the paines thereof when as my Iesus as himselfe doth teach us hath slaine my death O death I will be thy death Doth Satan strive to make thee sad himselfe being punished and overwhelmed with everlasting woe desiring to draw others into his company pronounce thou therefore but the Name of Iesus with beliefe and he vanisheth away for hee is therefore a Iesus because he hath ransomed thee from the curse of thy sinnes and hath reconciled thee to the everlasting Father that thou mightest for ever rejoyce with him Why then art thou sad What ever befals thee let the Name of Iesus still come into thy heart and betweene thy lips that the force thereof may asswage all afflictions Nothing is more sweetly sung nothing is heard more pleasingly than Iesus the Sonne of God No kinde of sin is so great but the Name of Iesus is above it O thou therefore pleasant Name of Iesus a delightfull Name a comfortable Name O Lord Iesus if I have done that for which thou mayest damne me yet hast not thou lost that whereby thou mightest save me O most mercifull Iesus O most sweet Iesus O most gracious Iesus O Iesu Iesu O Iesus the salvation of those that trust in thee O Iesus the salvation of those that beleeve in thee O Iesus the salvation of those that flie unto thee O sweet Iesu the remission of all our sinnes O Iesu for thy holy Name sake save me that I perish not O Iesus have mercy upon me while there is a time for mercy and condemne me not in the time of thy judgement Iesus Christ have mercy upon me for this thy Names sake doe unto mee according to this thy Name looke on me miserable wretch invoking thy Name it is true my soule hath deserved damnation and my repentance is no satisfaction but it is certaine that thy mercy is farre exceeding all my offences give me therefore for thy Names sake that mercy O my Iesus for thou savest thy people freely by faith alone without all merit of works onely for thy Names sake onely by the power of thy Name onely by the blood of thy body whereby thou diddest appease thy Father and obtainedst redemption and therefore dost thou save thy people freely and not for their works that our soules might be sure of redemption it could not be sure if thou shouldest not save us but for the merit of our works for either we have no merits by manifestly sinning against the Law of God or we have not merits enough because our works are imperfect which can by no meanes satisfie Gods Law therefore that our consciences may be sure of the forgivenesse of sinnes it is needfull that thou be a Iesus gratis unto me who seeing thou art true and constant in thy promises it cannot be that I can be deceived if I trust in thy Name O most bountifull Iesus O Iesu my most sweet Lord keep me in this faith and confidence even to the end let thy last word upon the crosse be my last word in this life and when I can speak no more heare my last desire Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit thou God of truth and God of my salvation thou even thou hast redeemed me O little Jesus I onely require thee comfort my soule thou best of Babes draw mee O draw me after thee by thy sweet favour thou Prince of Glory Lead me O thou our true salvation to thine owne Countrey after thine own victory wherein praise be unto thee for evermore Amen CONTEMP c. 16. Of Christ's and of our Circumcision BEhold my eyes your Jesus my soule consider thy Christ the knife is taken in hand and the Sonne of the most High is drawn away to be wounded stay knife from touching the Innocent let the Synagogue spare the innocent send him away thou Circumcisor without touching him but my Jesus why wouldst thou be so circūcised be so wounded spill thy most tender blood Why doest thou so hasten O Lord to the shedding of thy milky blood it is my salvation which makes thee thus to hasten but why didst thou submit thy self to be circumcised which art the Lord of the Law nay the Law-giver himselfe was it to confirme the Circumcision that thou haddest long before ordained to be rightly observed even till
a flint that with dry eyes canst read this story O heart of man harder than an Adamant that these things cannot penetrate O fierce and steely heart of man that considers not these things Thy Saviour being weary and overcharged under so great a burden cries and cals out and in his soule cals upon us My people what have I done unto thee or how have I beene troublesome unto thee answer me I have beene no Usurer nor hath any thorow the earth taken use for me yet all doe curse me God hath shut me up with the wicked and hath delivered me to the hands of the wicked Many calves have compassed me about fat buls have besieged me They opened their mouths upon me as it were a raging and roaring Lion I am powred out like water and all my bones are scattered abroad my heart in the middest of my bosome is like melting wax my strength is dried up like a potsheard and my tongue cleaveth to my gums and thou hast brought me into the dust of death He cryed he called out but there was none that would heare he is led without the city to the place made infamous for the punishing of the wicked therein as unto a publick separate place that he might not pollute any man by his contagion which the adjoyning inhabitants gave a name from the dead mens souls which lay scattered every where abroad within it The Captaine of the heavenly hostes led forth in the sight of men and Angels to be fastened between heaven and earth unto the accursed Crosse to be refreshed with vinegar he is wounded he is slaine he is thrust thorow with a speare what current of language can sufficiently unfold this misery but thls remembrance of such stupendious things requires rather the teares of the faithfull than the Orators eloquence O who shall give water to my head and a fountaine of teares to mine eyes that I may weepe night and day I will weepe with strong teares I will make drunke my cheeks with my teares the righteous perish and there is none that taketh it to heart the Lord of heaven gives up the ghost and there is not one that thinks it concernes him any thing Raise up thy selfe O my soule and weary thy selfe in meditating upon the passion of thy Lord no time is more happily spent than that which the devout soule imployeth upon the passion O wonderfull condition of his censure and unutterable disposition of a mystery the unjust doth offend and the righteous is punished the guilty transgresseth and God is chastised the impious sinneth and the righteous is condemned the good suffereth that which the wicked deserveth that which the servant is indebted the Master doth pay Whither O whither thou Sonne of God doth thy humility descend how farre hath thy love beene inflamed how farre did thy love reach and how farre did thy pitty eâ—tend O Lord Jesus Christ governe and guide me by thy Spirit that my soule being pricked by thy visitation may crucifie its flesh with the sins and lusts thereof O Lord Jesus I onely put my trust in thy passion and death O Lord Iesus Christ who hast witnessed that thy delight is to be with the sonnes of men thou who becamest man for man in the later age be mindfull of all thy premeditations and inward griefe which from the beginning of thy conception thou diddest endure in thy humane nature but chiefly in the instant time of thy most saving passion fore-ordained from all eternity in thy divine heart Remember the sadnesse and bitternesse which thy soule was possessed with as thou diddest testifie when thou saidst My soule is heavie even to death and when in thy last Supper thou diddest deliver thy Body and Blood to thy Disciples when thou washedst their feet and when sweetly comforting them thou didst foretell thy neare approaching passion Remember the feare anguish and griefe which thou didst endure thorow all thy tender body before thy suffering upon the Crosse When after thy troubled prayer thou diddest sweat that bloody sweat when thou wast delivered by thine owne Disciple taken by thy chosen people accused by false wi nesses unjustly sentenced by three severall Iudges in the holy City when at the time of the Passeover in the florishing time of thy youth being innocent thou wast condemned wast delivered wast spitted on thine owne cloaths pulled off and others put upon thee thou wast buffetted thy face and eyes were covered when thou wast bound to the Crosse and crowned with thornes O most sweet Jesus give me I beseech thee for the memory of thy paines and passion true contrition and confession and also remission of all my sins before my death and in my death grant me comfort and consolation of spirit and after death grant me salvation and glory Amen CONTEMP c. 18. Of the first and second word of our Lord spoken upon the Crosse O My soule one of thy faithfull servants sadly and mournfully cryes out concerning Job what a pageant of triumph hath God made of the Devill in that man what an ensigne of his glory hath he erected from his enemie when he did with great patience cleanse away the uncleane flowing matter of his sores when sportingly hee did call back the wormes that crawled forth from his sores to the same holes and feeding places of his worme-eaten flesh But how much hath thy Saviour out-gone him in constancie of mind and an unshaken patience he in the last necessitie in the pangs of death in the paines of hell sorsaken and made exceeding sad by his angry God failes not in the courage of his mind he shewed no signe that his heart departed from the path of righteousnesse but as he began so continues be to love mankind Heare the words that he utters from the chaire of his crosse they were few but great profitable and worthy never to depart out of a Christians heart as long as he hath his vitall breath Thus he speaks Father forgive them they know not what they doe Oh thy supereminent love O Lord thou prayest not O Lord that they might be punished who afflicted and crucified thee but that they might enjoy the merit of thy passion and be saved Thou so aboundest in thy love that forgetfull of thy most exquisite sufferings thou thinkest on nothing but the reconciling of sinners O incomparable humanitie of unspeakable mercy with what gentle and friendly eyes dost thou locke upon me from the Altar of the Crosse how can any man despaire seeing we have so diligent so faithfull so loving and so zealous an intercessour Where are you trembling sinners where are you affrighted conseiences doe you delight to see the heart of your Lord to overflow with grace Come and behold his Crosse Come come see his heart mounting into his tongue and begging pardon for your sins Iesus my God I am also present amongst sinners amongst those that crucifie thee looke on me and receive me my sins my sins were those