Kingdom of heaven which law also he told them he came not to destroy or to relax as he was traduced but to fulfil and vindicate even to the least tittle thereof Lastly He instructs them in their behaviour and in the right performance of the three great Christian Duties of Praier Almes and Fasting § 257 Concerning Beatitude thus he teacheth them that as to this present life It consisted 1 In Poverty poverty either outwardly in their Estate and temporal fortunes or at least in Spirit and without having joy and consolation in wealth and riches possessed which hath made many having in the reaping no benefit to quit also the trouble of them and to make his Disciples and other Auditors happy in this way tend those Counsels of his following in Mat. c. 6.11 19 24. c. to the end and chap. 7.11 The Beatitude of which poor he declares to be their enjoying hereafter a Kingdom in heaven 2 Again consisted in weeping and mourning for the present a beatitude opposed to sensual pleasures and delights as poverty is to riches the frequent occasion of which mourning in this world our Lord shews in his Relation of the eighth Beatitude because men good and virtuous and lovers of him the world will certainly hate and a thousand waies molest them and so for the prefent Job 16 20. Mundus gaudebit saith our Lord vos autem contristabimini And Omnis disciplina with which God exerciseth here his Servants in praesenti quidem saith the Apostle videtur non esse gaudii sed maeroris and lastly All being sinners it must be a continued penitential sorrow here Heb. 12 11. that shall attain Bliss hereafter Now the felicity of these present mourners is promised hereafter to be perpetual Consolations 3ly Consisted in Meekness humility and lowliness of mind a sure companion of poverty and mourning To which meekness appertain those lessons and Counsels of our Lord following in Mat. chap. 5. from vers 21. to 27. and from vers 38. to the end of that chapter and chap. 6.12.14 and chap. 7.1 the observance of these Counsels being an effect of lowliness of heart And as the reward in the other Beatitudes is said to be the Kingdom of heaven so of this the inheritance of the earth alluding to Psalm 36.11 Mansueti haereditabunt terram perhaps partly because the good things thereof are seldom gotten or at least not long preserved or quietly possessed by turbulent contentious and litigious spirits But the ultimate and eternal inheritance of these meek souls is the new Heaven and Earth spoken of Apoc. 21.1 2. to which this promise relates 4ly Consisted in hungring and thirsting after and pursuing with our whole design the Kingdom of God righteousness and Holiness Lessons and advices tending to the which happiness are those following chap. 6.19 c. and from vers 24. to the end of the Chapter and chap. 7.11 But yet by the woe in S. Luke that is opposed to this Blessed here Woe unto you that are full for ye shall hunger and thirst this beatitude like the former seems to include also a great temperance and abstinence and the not satiating themselves with or having any thirst after secular pleasures and contents These two hungers after earthly and after heavenly things not consisting well together For which see what our Lord saith Mat. 6.24 33. Now to this present hunger and thirst the felicity promised hereafter is a full satiety of all good things § 258 From these our Lord passeth to the Beatitudes attainable here in our behaviour toward our Neighbours and placeth the fifth Beatitude in shewing all mercifulness charity and compassion toward them in all their necessities further explained in his Lessons following in chap 5.44 -6.12 14. -7.1 12. viz. in performing such mercy to them as we in our needs would desire from them freely forgiving without wrath and expostulating which is a degree of revenge all their faults and trespasses toward us Nay even loving them when they hate us blessing when they curse us doing good to them when they evil to us The reward of which our mercy to others is promised hereafter Gods like mercy to us in pardoning all our trespasses against him that excludes us from his friendship and from Glory § 259 The sixth Beatitude consisteth in cleanness and purity not only of our actions abstaining from any wicked deeds against our Neighbour but also in heart opposed to the Pharisees munditia carnis abstaining from Lust and concupiscence and irregular passions there towards him explained in these following Lessons in his Sermon chap. 5.19 observing the little commandments again vers 22 28 29. chap. 6.22 -7.1 2 21. Keeping not only our hands from killing but hearts from any passion of anger against our neighbour not only from committing adultery or fornication with but lusting after a woman not only from accusing our neighbour falsly but making any sinister judgment in our hearts of him wherefore think ye evil in your hearts said our Lord to the Pharisees Mat. 9.3 4. when they said none of him And out of the heart proceed the things which defile us Mat. 15.18 19. For out of the heart saith he proceed because in the heart they are transacted murthers adulteries fornications thefts false-witness blasphemies and out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh and how can ye being evil speak good things Mat. 12.34 and there begining every evil and good work And therefore it is on this part that God chiefly casts his eye 1 Sam 16.7 and there sees the breaches of both tables and the beauty or deformity of the soul And the happiness promised hereafter to such purity of heart is their eternal seeing and beholding of God according to Apoc. 22.4 for without such purity none may see him Heb. 12.14 Apoc. 21.27 And an extraordinary fruition and sense of his Divine presence in such pure hearts also here in this present life Jo. 14.23 § 260 The seventh is placed in the zeal on all occasions of making and preserving peace amongst all first negociating the peace of all men with God which was the Apostles employment 2 Cor. 5.10 to reconcile men to God and especially our own peace with him keeping all quiet and in due subordination within our selves in the obedience of the flesh and inferiour appetites to the Spirit 2ly Again procuring by all means the peace of men among themselves where either they have given us or we them any offence endeavouring a speedy reconcilement contributing here even so far as not to resist the evil received from them patiently to put-up quarrels and endure affronts suffer wrong from rather than go to law with them 1 Cor. 6.7 Taking all things said or done in good part and the best sense See 1 Cor. 7.15 Rom. 12.18 the likelyest waies surely to gain every ones peace with us and lastly making them also friends as much as we can one with another as Christ came down from heaven and shed
again in the same manner Not my will My Father but thine be done And as S. Matthew gives his last words Mat. 26.42 If this Cup may not pass from me except I drink it Thy will be done Then rising up and adding no more words after these as it were hereby restraining his innocent desires of self-preservation from being too importunate and shewing his perfect resignation also in the shortness of his Request he visits again agitated still to and fro with his unparallelled sorrow his three most trusted Friends and finds them fallen asleep again speaks to them and now receives from them no answer For saith the Evangelist their eyes were heavy neither wist they what to answer him thereunto like to those three Comforters of Job who sate down by him but in a deep silence Thus solitary and destitute of any Companion in his sorrow not answered by his Father nor his Friends here those complaints of the Psalmist are verifyed which he spake of him in this his state of Desolation Psal 141. voce sua ad Dominum clamavit voce sua ad Dominum deprecatus est Effudit in conspectu ejus orationem suam tribulationem suam ante ipsum pronunciavit in deficiendo ex se spiritum suum ante ipsum qui cognovit semitas suas rectas Considerabat ad dextram videbat non erat qui cognosceret se Periit fuga ab illo non erat qui requirat animam ejus qui sollicitus esset de vita ejus servanda Yet knowing this for at time of his treading the Wine-press all alone Esay 63.3 he again straight withdraws himself from them and as the floods of his Anguish grew still higher who drank a larger cup of Desolation than ever any other man did according to his greater capacity to receive it and greater cause the sins of the whole world past and to come of undertaking it He returns a third time in the continuance still of the heavy hand of his Father upon his spotless Innocency who stood now over him as it were with a knife in his hand ready to slay his only Son to save the life of some inconsiderable wretches He returns I say a third time to the ordinary remedy of afflicted persons And now falling prostrate on his face he beseecheth him yet once more on the same manner but still concluding with the same perfect obedience and resignation rendred so much more precious to the Divine Majesty by how much the natural motions of his Humanity were more intense to the contrary saying again O My Father not my will but thine be done In all this leaving to us a perfect pattern of our behaviour in Prayer when distressed both of perseverance in demanding what we have need of and of resignation to acquiesce in what God pleaseth to grant § 17 And now that we may understand how terrible this Spiritual combat was and how great this Desolation and desertion being now come to its height besides his strong cries and tears mentioned by the Apostle though not by the Evangelists When Heb. 5 7. saith he in the daies of his Flesh he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death he was heard c. I say besides these his whole body though in a very cold Evening for they made a fire in the High Priests Hall Mark. 14.54 poured out a Sweat and this no ordinary Sweat of a Dewy tenuious and aqueous matter but a thick viscous and clammy Sweat such only as is seen to happen in great agonies and in the Pangs of death But yet his sweat beyond this too for it was saith the Evangelist as it were great drops of blood the pores of his body by the strange pressure of his Spirit from within opening and enlarging themselves and letting out the grosser part also of that substance running in his Veines and this in such quantity as the drops fell on the ground where he lay whether true blood or some other glutinous humor clotted like it who can tell But a strange and miraculous Sweat it was and a miraculous cause it must have and such as no other Son of sorrow hath tryed the like And could we now go no further what world can there be so numerous or its sins so great that the only Son of God might not end his Passion here and offer only this as over-sufficient to redeem it and thus pay the due sufferings in such an afflictive Deprecation of his sufferings § 18 And now in this extremity God his Father heareth him and sendeth help But this sutable to the present state of his humiliation not immediatly but by the Instrumency of one of those creatures to whom our Lord had formerly given and at this instant also sustained their very life and being who now comes to sustain his and administer strength to it for still more sufferings before its dissolution When methinks in great confusion this his Vassal prefaceth to him in some such manner as his servant John did at his Baptism Lord I live and move and have my being by thee and must my Lord thus be strengthned by me To whom this answer seems to be returned I Permit it to be so now For thus it is meet to fulfil all sufferings and to give my Servants an Example of disdaining help from none of Gods Creatures though in Dignity never so inferior to them This Angel then some think the chiefest S. Michael some S. Gabriel named Gods strength and the Messenger formerly of our Lord's Incarnation appears from Heaven strengthening him strengthening him corporally that his sufferings might not end here where it seems Nature was brought to the utmost of her passibility and was dissolving her self in a mortal Sweat and strengthning him spiritually in the Ministery of of those Motives and consolations externally to him which internally he himself withheld from his lower self probably representing to him the infinite Glory to God and benefit to men and Exaltation to himself The fulfilling of Prophecies and of the will of his Eternal Father the rescuing of mankind from everlasting destruction according to his Father's preconstitution His approaching Resurrection and entrance into Glory that should arise from accomplishing the rest of his appointed sufferings Our Lord vouchsafing now to receive as it were by the reflection of an Angel the vivificating sound of his own words that were spoken but two or three daies before in the Temple with much rejoycing in his future Passion when he said Jo. 12.23 c. Now the time is come when the Son of man should be glorified And except a corn of Wheat fall into the ground and dy it abideth alone but if it dy it bringeth forth much fruit And Father Glorify thy name Now shall the Prince of this world be cast forth And I if I be lifted up from the earth will draw all men unto me And if any man
our Lord more followed then their Master they consulted St. John § 190 before whom John discourse giving testimony to our Lord § 191 which fully satisfied them § 192 But John himself boldly reproving Herod was by him cast into Prison § 195 Meanwhile our Lord departed out of Judea into Galilee § 196 thro Samaria coming to Sychar § 197 where fitting by the Well he discoursed with and converted a woman and many of the Inhabitants § 204 Thence after 2 daies stay he continued his journey towards Galilee § 205 where he healed the Rulers son § 206 Then he went to Capernaum where preaching with great applause § 207 he gathered Disciples Particularly § 208 Simon Peter Andrew and the sons of Zebedee § 209 With whom the next Sabbath he entred into the Synagogue and taught 〈…〉 Spirit § 213 And departing from the Synagogue he entred into Simons house and cured his wives mother § 214 Betimes in the morning he retired privatly to Prayer § 215 And leaving Capernaum he went about other cities and towns of Galilee § 217 Going over the Lake he discoursed with several of the Scribes concerning following him § 220 Passing over in the night-time he calmed a great storm § 221 And the next morning landed in the countrey of the Gadarens where he met with two possessed violently with Devils Which casting out he permitted to enter into Swine and to drown them in the Lake § 225 Upon which the Gadarens being displeased desired him to depart And § 226 he immediatly returned into the ship § 227 and came to Capernaum § 228 Where he cured a paralytick on the Sabbath-day § 231 Thence going to the Sea-side he called Mathew and dined with him § 233 justifying that action § 234 as also the not so frequent fasting of his own as of Johns Disciples § 237 Then Jairus the Rules of the Synagogue intreated him to come and cure his daughter § 238 going along with him he cured the woman touching his garment § 240 and went forward to Jairus's house and restored his daughter to life § 241 Returning thence to Capernaum by the way he cured 2 blind men § 242 And at Easter went up to Jerusalem § 243 Where he cured a known Paralytick lying at the Pool on the Sabbath-day § 245 To the great offence of the Jews § 246 But our Lord justified himself § 247 and his Disciples also for plucking rubbing and eating the ears of corn on the Sabbath-day § 248 himself also for curing a man with a withered â—and on the Sabbath when as it should seem he returned to Capernaum § 249 But the Pharisees joyning themselves with the Herodians sought how they might put him to death Which caused his suddain departure thence by Sea § 250 into a Mountain where he chused his 12 Apostles § 255 and constituted Peter the first or cheif § 257 and preached unto them that divine Sermon concerning the Beatitudes § 262 Recapitulated and § 263 the contrary woes § 264 The rest of that Sermon also is explained § 269 Yet not all pressed as equally necessary § 272 Thence he proceeds to instruct them how to pray § 275 and how to behave themselves in their Apostolical office particularly concerning false teachers A brief account of what is contained IN THE SECOND PART of the Life of our SAVIOUR § 1 OUR Saviour informing his Disciples of the dangerous temtation shortly to come upon them and providing them against it § 2 Judas departed to the High Priests to bargain for betraying him § 3 who agreed with him § 4 and gave him Officers and Guards to apprehend him § 5 They came and found him in the Garden of Gethsemane § 6 Whither our Lord retired § 7 and his Disciples with him § 8 all especially Peter resolving and promising never to forsake him § 9 our Lord being arrived in the Garden comforted his Disciples and took some of them to be witnesses of his great agony there § 10 In the garden he § 11 enters upon a spiritual combat § 12 by Gods permission § 13 very sharp upon several grounds § 15 as he discovers to the three Apostles which he had also hinted before in the Temple § 17 so that he sweated blood § 18 and an Angel was sent to strengthen him in § 18 but not deliver him from sufferings § 20 Then he riseth from the ground and with great cheerfulness and serenity prepares for his suffering § 21 meets those sent to apprehend him § 22 Whom his Disciples especially Peter prepare to resist § 23 blamed therefore by our Lord § 24 who after a short expostulation with the Officers § 25 yeilds himself into their power § 26 who laid hold upon a young man accidentally there present § 27 and carried our Lord late in the night to Annâ—s § 28 then to Caiphas the High Priest § 29 where he was strictly examined § 30 divers witnesses appearing against him § 33 To whose frivolous accusations our Lord answered not § 34 Wherefore the High Priest adjured him to confess the truth § 35 which he did with great courage and plainess § 36 warning them of his future power and glory § 38 Mean while 2 of his Disciples John and Peter follow him to the High Priests Palace § 39 where Peter denied him 3 times § 40 For which he was very much greived Meanwhile § 43 our Lord was very ill used by the servants and Officers § 46 as was prophecied of him § 49 In the morning he was carried before the Governour § 53 before whom he was vehemently accused § 54 Which Judas seeing made away himself § 57 as was fore-prophesied § 59 Our Lords behaviour as he was led to the Governor § 60 Before whom the Jews laid many things to his charge § 62 But examined by Pilate and found innocent he § 64 was sent to Herod § 68 Who despising him returned him to Pilate § 69 and Pilate endeavoured to save him 1 by proposing his releasment § 70 2 by chastising him § 71 and suffering him to be mocked by the Soldiers § 73 The Jews urged that he called himself the Son of God and laid other accusations against him § 76 till they forced Pilate yet with great reluctance § 80 to condemn him to be Crucified § 81 a death foreshewed by the Prophets and chosen by himself § 90 and to commit him to the Soldiers § 91 Who led him to execution much pitied by divers persons § 95 unto Golgotha Where they offer him mingled-wine § 96 stripped-off his garments § 97 set a title over his head § 98 and Crucified him § 99 And divided his garments § 100 Meanwhile many of the people and one of the theives mocked but divers pittied him Our Lord having disposed of his Blessed Mother § 101 was silent whilst many prodigies appeared § 103 At last he said I thirst and gave up the Ghost § 104 The meaning of those prodigies § 105 acknowledged by the Centurion §
res varias omninoque diversas versaretur For that naturally one action hinders another at least as to the highest intention of it which hindrance might also be in our Lord so far as his Divinity pleased to leave in his humanity also these sinless infirmities as a resemblance of the constitution of other men § 145 We read of a like thing done by our Lord afterward That before the solemn election of those persons who were to be chosen by him for the promulgation of the Gospel through the world after his departure hence that he retired alone into a solitary Mountain the evening before and there continued all night in praier Luk. 6.12 As also when he was in Capernaum being much followed and pressed upon by the people he is said to have made use of the solitude of the night and to have risen a great while afore day and to go into a solitary place to his praiers Mark 1.35 and said Luk. 5.16 to have withdrawn himself into the Desart for performing this duty But however this be stated concerning the advantage our Lords Devotions might receive from Solitude doubtless one principal end of this his forty daies and all his other retirements afterwards was that he might give us an example herein and shew us the great necessity of solitude fasting and withdrawing from secular affairs for our enjoying a nearer conversation with God and our overcoming of Temptations and especially for our better Preparation in the undertaking any weightier affairs such as is in the first place the Ministry and predication of the Gospel And another end seems to be this also that He who as other Teachers sent from God must necessarily spend the most of his time in an active life and common conversation yet might also in these his practices and especially this his for so long a time inhabiting the Desart allow also and countenance and recommend to those that have more need of and are more disposed to it the other life that is more addicted to solitude fasting continual praier and contemplation In the same manner then as our Lord is said to have passed that whole night before the Election of his Apostles and the other times of his repairing to Mountains and Desarts Viz. in praier and contemplation so may we rationally imagine him to have spent these forty daies and nights and his fasting in so great a suspension of his natural faculties to have bin an individual companion thereof § 146 In which forty daies fast and Devotion Moses as a type had preceded him once and again both first in his receiving the Law from God Exod. 24.18 34.28 which he was to communicate to the children of Israel as our Lord now was the Gospel and a second time in his making intercession for the people and obtaining their pardon Concerning which he saith Deut. 9.18 That he fell down before the Lord as at the first forty daies and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water because of all their sins which they sinned and that the Lord hearkned unto him And in his then being admitted also upon his earnest supplication to see Gods glory Exod. 33.18 34.5 and as also according to this action of Moses before we may suppose our Blessed Lord to have thus also prostrated himself before his Father in these forty daies and forty nights for the sins of the world and to have offered himself as Moses to be made a curse for our sakes see Gal. 3.13 and Exod. 32.32 compare Deut. 9.26 and so to obtain pardon for all true believers Of whom also the Goat sent into the Desart laden with the peoples sins was herein a type And as this type Moses in the Law so another preceded in the Prophets in Elias their Head his fasting forty daies in the same desart and Mountain as Moses and He there having also the Vision of and extraordinary communion with God As also our Lord's humanity afterward in the Holy Mount was admitted to behold his Fathers Glory in a bright cloud descending upon the Hill and to partake of the splendours thereof and also these two Men Moses and Elias representing the Law and Prophets were there present to do him Homage in whom both these were to be compleated Such exact resemblance were the Law and Prophets to have with the Gospel § 147 The similitude also here is not to be passed by which our Lords being here first conducted by his Father into the Desart before his beginning to take his possession of the inheritance both of the Jew and Gentile promised him by his Father hath to that former divine conduct of the Israelites Ps 2.8 first into the Wilderness after our Lord also as they had bin called out of Egypt Mat. 2. and the correspondence also which his forty daies abode there hath to their forty years Yet in this much unlike that he in this Desart being pressed also with the same necessities as they I mean as to hunger and thirst after so long a fast and upon it by the Devil much urged to the like offending of God Viz. not by not waiting his good time Yet he stood where they fell and with all patience contrary to them though having Miracles in his own power attended the time of the Divine good pleasure for his relief and here also He receiving at length the supply of his hunger from Angels sent to him may be said in some sense as they to have bin fed with their food § 148 This then was another end of our Lords withdrawing into this desolate place that he might be there tempted of the Devil saith S. Matthew chap. 4.1 and fulfil his Fathers good pleasure in his being exposed also like unto us unto the encounters and strangely-rude treatments of the enemy of mankind Satan For who hath bin in his temptations so rudely handled and carried about by him as our Lord was and that he might thus be as the Apostle observes Heb. 2.17 4.15 a more merciful High Priest to succour and assist us in those our temptations the like to which he had experimentally suffered himself and again that He might also in his fasting solitude and praier shew to us the armes by which we also may obtain the Victory over this Tempter It was also most congruous that the second Adam should undergo the same combat with him as the first who was foiled in it and ruined by it that so he might recover mankind after the same way as he was undone and having first mastered this strong man who could find nothing in him Jo. 14.30 no pride of life no disobedience no lust of the eyes or of the flesh he might proceed to spoil his house and his goods and the long possession he had gotten of wretched mankind as indeed our Lord did triumph over him in his following Life Death and Resurrection § 149 To these I may add yet another reason of our Lords withdrawing himself from John and the people namely
to qualify and lessen the great and suddain fame that might be of him which also was done for our example from that publick testimony they saw given by the other persons of the Trinity the Father and the Holy Ghost as also in the rest of his life he used frequent concealments of himself and enjoyned others silence for the non-preventing his future sufferings that so his six weeks absence and non-appearance might a little remit the former expectation and the Baptists immediatly sending all men after him whose manifestation was only to be discovered by certain degrees and therefore when returning from the Desart his stay with the Baptist much proclaiming him was only for two or three daies § 150 After his forty daies abode in this desolate place prostrated as Moses in his Fast before the Divine Majesty in praiers and intercessions and such Contemplations of God as his types Moses and Elias had formerly enjoyed and probably accompanied as they with a suspension of his natural faculties and a perpetual fast our Lord began when such his Devotions were ended and nature returned to its ordinary functions to be vehemently an hungred The Devil even the Prince of them as may appear from Matt. 25.41 Apoc. 12.9 who had narrowly watched Him hitherto and looked upon him with such an envious eye as he did on our first parents in their Innocency but could not attack him whilst in praier when this was ended and he saw also so great an hunger to pinch our Lord which our first parents had not when he prevailed with them to eat forbidden meats had entertained hence some hopes of prevailing upon his infirm humanity as he did on theirs viz. not to wait for his Fathers Provision for him in due time of such food as was necessary but with a power of Miracles presently in an extraordinary manner after such a meritorious Act of forty daies fast to supply himself with it In which Temptation also he hoped to make some advantage in reminding him of the dignity of his person and suggesting unto him that he was the Son of God Especially at this time the honour done him lately not only by the Baptist but from God himself both the Father and the Holy Ghost from heaven and now also the great Change of his life entring upon the office of the Messias might seem to have elevated his thoughts and ambitions above the temper of his former meanly entertained condition For tho the Devil had heard those glorious words pronounced from Heaven but lately at his Baptism and in his ranging every where for prey probably was well acquainted also with all the former miraculous passages of his life lead also hitherto without all sin and with all the prophecies concerning our Lord if we see how readily he afterwards quotes Scripture to him and how in his first accosting of him he pressed his being the Son of God yet since our Lord was also clothed with our infirm flesh he might not so perfectly discern the Hypostatical Vnion of such his lately assumed Humanity with the Deity nor how far it might be invested or assisted therewith and its weakness receive influences from it For this General enemy of mankind saw this his human nature clothed with all the infirmities as here in suffering hungar and passions or affections of it Whereby his flesh or sensitive appetite at that of others did naturally desire things delectable to it as meat drink rest sleep c. But yet these desires were alwaies such as were perfectly subjected to the guidance of right reason and wholly ordered and moderated by it and such wherein he had hitherto never sinned though it is most likely that Satan had not forborn before to tempt him as others to some exorbitancy therein even from his child-hood and again were such wherein he was also by reason of the Hypostatical Union of this nature to the Deity and perfect sanctification thereof by it utterly impeccable though this not known to the Devil Our Lord saith the Apostle not only felt our infirmities Heb. 4.15 but was in all points tempted like as we are i. e. by external objects occurring and inviting his nature to the use of them but without sin this sensitive nature was ever so overruled by reason as never by the least consent of his will to proceed to any excess beyond the bounds set by the Divine Commands Poterat quidem anima Christi saith S. Thomas 3. Q. 15. Art 4. resistere passionibus ut ei non supervenirent praesertim virtute divina sed propria voluntate se passionibus subjiciebat And In nobis quandoque hujusmodi motus non sistunt in appetitu sensitivo sed trahunt rationem quod in Christo non fuit quia motus naturaliter humanae carni convenientes sic ex ejus dispositione in appetitu sensitivo manebant quod ratio ex his nullo modo impediebatur facere quae conveniebant § 151 Therefore from this his liability to passions and the new change of his life Satan conjectured a fair opportunity for begetting in his humanity in his former life hitherto so poorly treated some Elation of mind and vain ostentation of its transcendent dignity and present advancement Or supposing Satan knew such an Union of this his humanity to the Deity as that our Lord could not possibly commit the least sin and that his present temptations were but in vain as all his former had bin yet was his malice to him so extream as it could not let him rest so far as God permitted and he rejoyced to give him some molestation though with a greater mischief to himself a quality we observe also in the Devil's children malicious men who do not forbear to afflict their neighbors in their own suffering much greater dammage § 152 He then as soon as God had relaxed his chain invades our Lord and probably appears to him in some comely and Glorious shape as we may conjecture from his last temptation wherein he desires Adoration from him Or as some think to be more sutable to the place shewed himself in the habit of some religious Hermite Or perhaps not disguising at all who he was which also was well known to our Lord subtilly desired some evidence of the supereminent Dignity of our Lords person as it were for his own satisfaction and that he might know his due subjection to him His request therefore was that if he were the very Son of God as he was lately proclaimed from heaven to be he would for the honour also of his human nature hitherto so meanly treated now shew an act of his Divine omnipotency and taking some pitty of its present necessities command those Stones that lay before him to become so many loaves of bread especially since in that desart place he could expect no other ordinary supply As indeed long ago in the like necessity the same Lord out of the stony Rock in the Desart brought forth water And the more kind
to begin his Office and the business on which his Father sent him in his Fathers house now in the conflux thither of the whole Nation which the Baptist his Forerunner was appointed to do only afar off in the skirts of the wilderness All this according to the prophecy of Malachy chap. 3.1 2. Behold I send my Angel and he shall prepare the way before my face And forthwith the Dominator whom you seek and the Angel of the Testament whom you desire shall come to his Temple And who shall be able to abide the day of his Advent and who shall stand to see him For he is as it were purging fire and as the Herbe if Fullers c. § 180 Entring then into the Temple and seeing it prophaned though this was only in some part of the outer Court thereof with Oxen and Sheep and Doves brought thither to be sold for Sacrifices the place defiled with their Dung and disturbed with their lowing and God also offended with the ordinary frauds and lying that used to be in bargaining Bankers also having brought in their Tables and Baggs hither for changing of forraign Coyne in a place appointed for silent Devotions and Praier and for the Priests reading to and instructing the People perhaps also a greater value set on this Cattel from the sanctity of the place and their being there as it were already set aside for Sacrifice our Lord seized with a great zeal for this dishonouring of his Fathers house first went about to purge it of these and making a whip of small cords perhaps such as was there used about this merchandise with this he drives out the Oxen and Sheep and their sellers and commanded the other to remove their Doves with a Majesty none of them durst to gainsay or oppose but fled away from him The Bankers also for hast leaving their money which he as if this in such place were more offensive than the rest poured out and threw down their Tables telling them all that they were not to make his Fathers house herein declaring himself to be the Son of God an house of Merchandice But there seems more to be mystically signified in this action Viz. Our Lord the Truth and the reality now come into the world and his driving out of Gods worship all the former Types and Figures of him all the Legal Sacrifices and Ceremonies as also instead of the material Temple setting up the living Temple of his own Body now to be sanctified and filled with the residence therein of the Holy Ghost Gods dwelling in the Manual Temple being also a type of the Deity dwelling in our Lords Humanity See Col. 2.9 § 181 In doing this he was attended with his Disciples calling to mind that saying of the Psalmist The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up and with a multitude of People beholding this action and wondring at so strange a Courage and attempt and the success One of the greatest miracles faith S. Jerome In Mat. 21.12 c. that ever our Lord did and which must needs raise great expectation in the people what things would follow such a beginning And there appears an extraordinary hand of Gods providence and protection in it that our Lord should suffer no molestation for the damages those persons must suffer hereby or stop by the Gards of the Temple at such great Feasts very vigilant and how equitable soever the fact yet being Censurable in that it did not appear done by the ordinary hand of authority No sooner was this done also but that the persons thus ejected by him had soon acquainted the publick Officers and Magistrates with the fact and this joyned with the Testimony of John concerning our Lord and the fame that was already spread abroad of him laid the Foundation of that jealousy and hate toward him envying the greatness of any besides themselves which at last ended in their killing him The Court of the Temple thus cleansed our Lord began therein to preach to the people the Gospel and so declare his authority and Mission from God and to do Miracles that sufficiently attested the truth of his words And among these his Auditors was Nicodemus a chief Magistrat among the Jews and a Pharisee who presently upon sight of such miracles became his Convert But those other among them that already envied and had conceived a prejudice against him through very hard heartedness not satisfied with what strange things they saw desired upon so high pretensions of his he would shew them some sign i. e from heaven to confirm them the Jews require a sign saith S. Paul 1 Cor. 1.22 as they did often afterward notwithstanding the Miracles they beheld at the same time wrought by him which miracles our Lord on the contrary used to plead as a sufficient testimony from God of the truth of these things he delivered Our Lord though he might now as elsewhere have urged to them the Signs i. e the miracles they already saw done yet here took occasion presently to declare to them but somewhat parabolically and obscurely as their perversness well deserved that great and most admirable of all his works that he would perform for the salvation of the world see Rom. 1.4 Act. 2.36 namely the raising up again of his sacred Body from the Dead after they had slain him By which Resurrection of our Lord He and his Father confirmed to the world the truth of his person and doctrine and he also shewed the first Experiment in himself of what he promised to us § 182 This further sign therefore he then promised them not satisfied with his miracles using only these few words Destroy ye this Temple and in three daies I will raise it up Speaking of his Body saith the Evangelist which he might well call a Temple since the Deity inhabited it See Col. 2.9 as also S. Paul calls the Saints Bodies the Temples of the Holy Ghost They were already Tempters and Hypocrites requesting a sign of him not to see one but he who for ostentation did nothing not giving them one to decry him and he knowing their thoughts answered them accordingly with a Parabolical speech exceeding their understanding not worthy to be plainlier dealt with Mat. 13.10 11. And thus at the first in this speech our Lord laid a Foundation as it were seeing how they would misconstrue his words for his future passion So afterward at Capernaum when he had done before them such miracles as the people saith the Text were amazed at being impudently asked by the cavilling Pharisees that he would shew them some sign he answerd them to the same purpose that there should be no sign given to that evil Generation but that of Jonah his being three daies and three nights in the Whales belly and afterward coming forth from it Now foretelling them of the great design of his Death and Resurrection In Galilee again after the Miracle of the Loaves Jo. 6. they desired also at that very time
228 Among other sick brought thither was a Paralytick so infirm as that four men were hired to bear him in his bed But when come to the house there was no possibility of passing through such a crowd with such a carriage Upon this both the sick man and his bearers most confident of our Lords compassion and help could they devise any access to him boldly attempted to uncover the roof of the house thence to let him down in the bed by cords into the Room where our Lord was From which we may gather that it was a mean and low building and having no upper stories and the covering or tiling of it in their flat roofs more easily removable without danger to those underneath in the house For certainly in their expecting so great a favour these men were very cautious of giving any offence nor this thins done by them without the owners leave and permission The sick man his being thus conveyed before our Lord in his Couch from the top of the house was a sight very pleasing to him taken with this their extraordinary faith making such a strange attempt and relying also on his clemency and goodness where they had cause rather to have expected his great displeasure and resentment for the house broken up over his Head for the incivility and dammage to his Host of Peter no rich man and the disturbance or also fright of the great persons then about him A strong faith casts away many scruples § 229 Our Lord saith the Text seeing their faith not only of the sick man but of his porters Mark 2.5 as he used to relieve one for the faith and prayers of another as for the Cananean womans faith he cured her daughter and for the Centurions faith his Servant and for one mans sake gives also grace and faith to another which grace and faith given renders him capable also of further favours first applied himself to the cure of his greatest necessity and infirmity though less in sight that of the Soul graciously calling him his Son and bidding him to be of good chear for that his sins were forgiven him In which action he intended also first to instruct us that all our corporal sufferings come because of sin see Jo. 5.14 what our Lord said to another impotent man that he should sin no more least something worse happened though not these inflicted on all sinners nor alwaies chiefly for our sins see Jo. 9.3 nor on every one proportionably according to their sin that we may judge none rashly 2ly Again to shew us that the sanity of our souls is much more important and valuable than that of the body and what ought chiefly to be sought by us from him 3ly Lastly to manifest that he was sent from God the Saviour of mankind and came with authority from his Father to remit the sins thereof as Zachary and the Angel to Joseph and the Baptist had foretold of him But yet we may observe here a certain modesty used by our Lord in his expression saying not remitto but remittuntur tibi which might have bin understood in such a sence as the Prophet Nathan's to David 2 Sam. 12.13 remittuntur i. e a Domino But notwithstanding these words heard by the Scribes and Pharisees that sate by gave them great offence this appearing to them no less than blasphemy and the making himself God § 230 Our Lord in his spirit saith St. Mark perceiving their thoughts Chap. 2.8 and what they reasoned within themselves though as overawed by the peoples esteem of him that they forbear as yet openly to accuse him thereof presently replyed to these their cogitations which might have bin another indication to them of his Deity none save God also knowing thoughts and declared to them that the Son of man for so he humbly stiles himself had received from his Father such power here on earth in behalf of mankind as to forgive the sins thereof and which power also the afterward delegated to other men his Apostles and their successours see John 20. and they also practising it in persona Christi 2 Cor. 2.10 Jam. 5.14 to this indeed the curing of these diseases of the Soul not those of the Body and the remission of mens sins and the purchasing thereof by his blood being the principal business of his coming into this world And that they might be ascertained of this he told them also that he had received the power of doing that in attestation of that which would seem to them a much harder matter than the saying to this man that his sins were forgiven him in which they had no means to know the truth of his words namely of making this Paralitick that lay before them sound and well and himself to carry away the bed on which others brought him hither Which at our Lords command was done accordingly the man passing thus through the multitude wonderfully astonished at it and going through the streets glorifying God this carriage of his couch brought thither by four men being an undeniable indication of the perfection of his Cure § 231 Hence our Lord removed to the Sea side as he did frequently where was more air and room for such a conflux of people As he passed along a rich Publican called Matthew was sitting somewhere near the Haven at the receit of Custome from the ships arriving there Now the Office of a Publican serving for the support of the Roman authority over the Jews was therefore very odious to them by the Publicans renting also the Roman Customes was often occasioned for improvement of their purchases the exacting more than their dues therefore were they forbid it by the Baptist as a common fault among them Likewise by reason of much money passing through their hands they practised Usury For these things they were joyned with publick sinners or also heathen and their society much avoided which caused our Lords expression in signifying the withdrawing our selves from the Society or conversation of an incorrigible neighbour Mat. 18.17 Let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a Publican Notwithstanding this our Lord before the Pharisees and multitude that followed him stops at this rich Publican's Office and in the midst of his Accounts calls him to leave all and yeild a continual attendance on his person and indeed not only to have the honour of an Apostle but of being one of the four Evangelists that afterwards writ his life and S. Matthew also did this the first and more copiously than the others reduced afterward into a short compendium by S. Mark This action of our Lord was beheld by the people and especially by the Pharisees with great astonishment that he who pretended to so much sanctity should make choice of such a scandalous servant but no less that his words should have such a suddain influence upon one so much immersed in the world and at that very time so attent on his accounts for saith St. Luke he presently
Galilee and again Luk. 9.10 Such a desert near to Bethsaida whither he retired with his Disciples returned from their preaching and where also he fed the five thousand with five loaves and two fishes and also where he is said to have bin alone praying Luk. 9.18 which seems to be the desert wherein was this Mountain And Rogier in his Terre Sancte L. 1. c. 10. saith the Oriental Christians conceive the same Desert to have bin the place of our Lords miracle of the five loaves viz. some where between Bethsaida and Tiberias And indeed many texts seem to confirm it not easily explained otherwise For Luk. 9.10 It is said to be a Desert near Bethsaida John 6.23 Tiberias to have bin near to the place and Boats to come from thence that carried away the people perceiving our Lord gone thence to Capernaum Mat. 14.13 The people said to have followed him from the cities on foot i. e. by fetching a compass whither he was departed by ship Jo. 6.14 Our Lords return to have bin first to Capernaum and after passing to Genezareth Mat. 14.34 which is called a transfretation because made over a great Bay of the Lake though not crossing it As for the 30 furlongs mentioned Jo. 6.19 these may be understood of their rowing to and fro against a contrary wind The latter feeding also of the four thousand Mat. 15.21 seems to have bin in the same desert the place being said to be near the Sea of Galilee at his return from the Coasts of Tyre and Sidon he not taking ship first but going there into a Mountain Mat. 15.29 And in the same mountain seems to have bin our Lords Transfiguration if we well compare the Context and our Lords motions before and after it His being in the Town of Cesarea Philippi or Decapolis lying North of the inferior Galilee see Mark 5.20 7.31 Mat. 4.25 a little before and returning to Capernaum after it See Mark 8.22 27. -9.2 30 Mat. 17.22 24. and the multitudes and Scribes there following and attending on him as usually about Capernaum Mark 9.14 well considering these I say Our Lords Transfiguration seems to have bin also in this Mountain And this from our Lords so much frequenting it as well as from his glory manisted there to have bin called by S. Peter the Holy Mount which hill also standing in the midst the chief habitation of his Galilean Disciples and Converts seems also to be the appointed place of his apparition to them after his Resurrection § 252 In this Mountain saith the Evangelist before the Election of his twelve Apostles our Lord continued all night in prayer leaving herein to us an example of our like preparation by much prayer before actions of any great consequence The matter of his prayer not expressed may partly be gathered from that most passionate one he made for these Apostles also a little before his passion for the conservation of them after his departure set down John 17. and from that at the same time made for the Head of them S. Peter that his faith might not fail Recommending these much to his Fatherly Benediction who were to be the twelve Foundations whereon his new Church was to be built for perpetuity maugre all the Gates of Hell Eph. 22.20 Mat. 16.18 who were to be the salt for seasoning and preserving eternally from corruption the putrifyed world ever since Adams fall and the Tapers to enlighten it sitting hitherto in the darkness of Heathenism and vain and uncertain Philosophy who were to suffer all the world over such hardships and persecutions and at last most cruel death for his Name and who were to have their twelve Names written on the twelve Foundations of the Golden Celestial Jerusalem Apoc. 21. Namely praying that these might be furnished and fortifyed with all Graces worthy so high a Profession but also herewith a most admirable resignation of our Lord to his Fathers good pleasure in the election of Judas Iscariot and in the entrusting him afterward with the common purse of his maintenance and charities which Judas however at the time of his Election he might seem in a capacity for such office preferrable before others yet our Lord then well foreknew his future ill correspondence with it and it seems from our Lords words Jo. 6.70 that a whole year before our Lords passion and this servants betraying of him he had then much of the Devil in him unless these words be to be understood prophetically and relating to his future Treason And for-as-much as these his twelve Apostles are a type of his Church this example of a Judas a thief and traytor found among them and yet so patiently admitted and tolerated by our Lord shews that it is not to be expected or exacted that his Church here on earth as to the external members thereof should ever be in a better condition but Tares mingled with the Wheat in this field and bad fish with the good in this Net And it is a note of S. Austin De Civ Dei lib. 18. cap. 49. making much against the Puritan Donatists Habet saith he inter â—os unum Judam quo malo utens bene passionis suae dispositum impleret ecclesiae suae tolerandorum malorum praeberet exemplum § 253 The Morning come he calleth up to him his disciples who it seems attended near hand and took their rest the night before at the foot of the Hill and out of them being a great number Luk. 6.17 that were his more constant followers and Auditors out of which number also he is said after this to have made a second election of 70 or 6 times 12 Luk. 10.1 answerable to the 70 chosen by Moses for his assistance Numb 11.16 He chose 12 persons according to the number of the 12 Tribe of Israel that they should continually wait on him hear all things he taught and bear witness afterward to the world of whatever passed and whom he might send abroad as he thought fit after first well instructed by him for it by two and two together to preach the Gospel as the harvest still encreased to whom also for this reason he gave the name of Apostles These were all Galileans and five of them his Kinsmen viz. 1. and 2. James and John sons to Salome according to the common opinion daughter to Alpheus or Cleophas brother to Joseph and 3ly James the less the 4th Simon of Cana one of James his brothers being called Simon and our Lord having kindred at Cana on which account was the invitation of his Mother to the marriage there and therefore is this Simon of Cana conjectured to be one of the Brothers and a Kinsman of our Lords And the 5th Judas Thadeus James Simon and Judas being suppose sons of Alpheus or Cleophas and of Mary his wife stiled therefore a Sister to our Lords Mother Jo. 19.15 because her husband was brother to Joseph and brother of Salome and called our Lords brethren Which Brethren it seems
this he alfo assured them that tho they were not to do to others what others in any kind of evil did to them Yet that whatever they did to others the same should be done again to them and as they meted in their behaviour and carriage to others in good or evil in forgiving and giving to them or in smiting or robbing them it should be measured to them again Gods justice taking great care of it as he did before being complained-to of the mans paying the last farthing an exact measure full pressed down and shaken together and running over and this done to them by others Gods instruments therein though they saw no cause to expect or fear it from the same persons to whom themselves had formerly done good or harm that therefore on this account they should also forbear judging censuring or condemning others that themselves might not be so And that they should rather endeavour to see the greater faults in themselves than blame the smaller of their Neighbours and to cast the beam out of their own eye before they pick the motes out of other mens that otherwise in their attempting to rectify lead and guide others whilst themselves also are blinded the end thereof will only be their falling both into the pit § 272 Our Lord having thus expounded the true extent of several precepts especially if they would observe them in such a degree as might attain Christian perfection which precepts were formerly much mis-understood proceeds further to instruct them in the manner of their performance in general of their good works and of those three great Christian Duties the first relating to God the second to our Neighbour the third to our selves Prayer Almes and Fasting or mortification and subduing of the flesh to the Spirit of their performing these so as that they might be acceptable to and rewardable with God whilst the Pharisees in all these doing them with a wrong intention lost but their labour and charge Rewardable I say For as in Almes and charities to our neighbour God hath engaged to pay to us again and that pressed down what ever good we do to others So in Prayer he looks upon us as much honouring him thereby and in fasting as suffering something for his sake in order to better serving him by subduing of the flesh and so also for these in his great bounty provides a reward But in all these our Lord saw the vain-glorious Pharisees to loose their recompence with God by doing them to be seen of men as by their sounding a Trumpet for gathering together the poor when they had almes to bestow as is said also to be done in distributing the poors Tithes and as their standing in the market-place to perform their Devotions supposed to be made there for Gods rewarding their Benefactors and for averting his judgments from the people c. By this device gaining much charities from silly women and by their hanging down their heads and looking pittifully when they fast upon like occasions But our Lord told his that these duties to be recompenced by God were to be so cleansed from all applause from men as that in the distributing of their Almes if it were possible the left hand should not know what the right was doing and that in fasting they should rather disguise it by washing their face and anointing their Head and in their prayer that they should betake themselves to their Closet and shut the door after them for that thus the more they endeavoured to hide their work the more would God that seeth all secret things manifest it in a publick rewarding thereof § 273 That also in their prayers they should not use many vain repetitions like the heathen out of any diffidence in God as if he knew or understood not their wants before they asked him or was averse or careless in relieving them before with many words perswaded thereto For that if they so evil natured rejected not the prayers of their children but give all things necessary or good for them how much more would the infinite goodness and kindness of their Heavenly Father do the same § 274 Thus our Lord endeavours to arm them with much faith and confidence in their devotions knowing how necessary this is to the good success of their prayers and to fortify them against all distrust either of his divine omniscience or paternal compassion But here we must not forget that the same our Lord elsewhere much recommends assiduity and importunity in prayer as nâ—cessary to excite those holy affections in us which may render us more capable of his Favours Upon this account pist 121. St. Austine in his Epistle to the religious Lady Proba giving her directions concerning her prayer exhorteth her especially to the spending of much time therein instancing for it in the importunate widdow and neighbour Luk. 18. commended by our Lord. For that saith he there a nobler effect will follow where a more fervent affection goes before And That such importunity and perseverance is necessary that our desire faith hope may not in some manner grow cold For neither saith he is praying long time as some imagine to pray with much speaking Much discourse is one thing a continued affection another For it is written of our Lord himself that he continued all night in prayer and that he prayed longer or more vehemently where what did he but give us an example Luk. 6.12 22.43 c Thus he commending to us not many words but much affection praying long and saying little For their praier also he prescribed them that form full of Spirit but sparing in words Our Father c. where in the first place we give and offer up all Glory to this celestial Father desiring that every where and in all things his name may be Sanctified his Kingdom come and his will be done Then we petition for our selves viz. for the supply of our daily necessaries for the pardon and remission of our former sins and offences against God but for the obtaining of this engaging also the remission of other mens trespasses against us without which he tells us no pardon was to be expected of any from God he indeed remitting us pounds for our remitting pence then for the future his delivering us from any temptations that may hereafter induce us to offend him and from any evil punishment or misery deserved by our former having offended him Only for one of these Petitions the obtaining pardon of our offences against him he layes one burden upon us namely our engaging the remission of other mens trespasses against us and that so full as we desire his towards us without doing which he tells us no pardon is to be expected from him § 275 This of the contents of our Lords Sermon as it seems relating more generally to all Another part of his speech he applyed more particularly to his Disciples telling them that they were the Salt of the earth which he had provided
for seasoning the insipidness and unsavoriness thereof towards God and for preserving it eternally from corruption and that they were the light of the world for illustrating its darkness And lastly a City or Society in which all the world were to be joyned and collected and to become Subjects and members thereof and one Body or Corporation one Faith one Spirit c being therein Eph. 4.4 that therefore they were to provide that this Salt should not become unsavory or insipid for then wherewith could that which is to season all others be seasoned it self And that this light should not be put under a bushel nor this their City hid as it were in a vale or such which should not be eminently discovered for then how could the world know where to joyn themselves to the communion thereof Lastly that also their light and their doctrine were to be accompanied with their good works that people might see the one as well as the other though such good works not done to be seen of men nor that themselves but their heavenly Father working such Sanctification in them might be glorified thereby 2 Cor. 8.21 Rom. 12.17 Their example and practising of their doctrine being much the more difficult and this much more effectually converting others than teaching doth 1 Pet. 2.12 3.16 And that at the last day many of them should come unto him saying Lord Lord and telling what great matters their preaching and prophecying in his name had effected yet should they be rejected on this account that their works were evil And that every tree thus bringing forth ill fruit should surely be cut down and cast into the fire § 276 He told them likewise and herein also gave a precaution to the people that there should arise among them many false Prophets and Teachers who should come in sheep's clothing and counterfeit much Sanctity and use much fair language c. but yet within were very wolves 2 Cor. 11.3.13 and that there was one sure test by which they might know them Viz. by the fruits they bare for that as the tree was bad or good so would the fruit certainly be Which rule our Lord seems to have given them upon a double account Both because truth and goodness or Holiness proceed from the same Holy Spirit within us the fountain of both and are eternally linked together and so errour and vice So that all things truely weighed no true doctrine can ever tend to an evil life nor errour to a good and Holiness alwaies suffers not gains by a lye Therefore also are truth and iniquity frequently opposed -1 Cor. 13.6 Rom. 2.8 1.18 So that no mans wickedness can be the effect or consequent of any truth he holds though who holds the truth may still be wicked from another principle in him That therefore thus true and false teachers may be known by the fruit of their doctrines in their Auditors if these tend to the infusing into them higher degrees of all kinds of piety and charity Or on the contrary do infuse any seeds of impiety injustice uncharitableness sensual liberty uncleanness or sedition and disobedience to Dignities and Superiors This as to the fruit of their doctrines But secondly because as to their persons the root in such false teachers alwaies is evil i. e. their affections and intentions are perverted which perverse affections at last manifest themselves in their lives and practices these either for secular ends teaching doctrines not believed and known by them to be false purposely to deceive which ends and hypocrisy will certainly discover themselves in their works or tho the doctrines taught are also believed by them yet there are some vicious inclinations respecting secular interests which do induce such a beleif especially where they depart from the Traditions of the Church and former Superiours and such secular interests will appear in their works and manners and the heart bad in one thing will be so in another Therefore the Apostles do describe frequently such false teachers as vitious in their lives and seducing with their fair speeches when in their sheeps clothing See Rom. 16.17 18. Phil. 3.19 -2 Cor. 11.3 13. -1 Tim. 4.2 Tit. 3.11 -2 Pet. 2.3 10. c. in which texts they are represented as Sibi placentes gloriae sitientes assentatores invidi maledici obtrectatores ventri dediti suis temporalibus commodis avaritiae servientes suum negocium agentes some way or other non veritati noting them specially as covetous sensual speaking ill of Dignities But here note that by false Prophets are chiefly meant those who know their doctrines to be false and intend to deceive and teach in Hypocrisy and live in disobedience to a Superiour Church-authority Otherwise some good man may teach an errour and some bad truth But as these have or want the Grace of God in their heart and have their will and affections sincere or corrupt so will their fruit mostly be good or bad and among other things their teachings and instructions will have a relish thereof After this our Lord concluded his whole Sermon thus that the Foundation of Happiness was their good works and their not-hearing or teaching but doing what he taught which was laying the Foundation upon a sure rock so that no storms should shake the building raised upon it But that the Hearer of his words and not practicer was like a fool building his house on sand Upon which a time would be when the raines should come and the winds blow and the floods arise and the storms beat vehemently upon it and the fall thereof should be very great and terrible And thus ends our Lords great and famous Predication in the Mount to his Apostles and to all the People who saith the Evangelist were much astonished as at his doctrine so at the manner of his delivery thereof For he spake to them all these things with a kind of Majestical Authority and not as the Scribes An Historical Narration OF THE LIFE OF OUR LORD JESUS PART II. Beginning after the prayer recorded Joh. 17. § 1 GREAT was the present malice of the Devil in this hour of trouble approaching against the rest of his poor Disciples to gain possession of them also as he had already of Judas Jo. 13.27 and Satan had desired Luk. 22.31 32. c. concerning them as he did concerning Job That God who keeps a continual restraint upon this hater of mankind not only for his hurting us after sin but also for his tempting us unto it would but now let him have the sifting of them a little after all the great works they had seen done by this their Master and all the gracious words they had heard from him to try their fidelity to him Our Lord therefore foreseeing the great temptation that at this time they also foreseeing his Fathers permission to these Powers of Darkness were to undergo and how greivously they might otherwise miscarry in it interceded to his Father
considering their human infirmity when his divine Society or his fortifying grace is never so little suspended or also already being faln into Satans temptation elevating our abilities by Grace into presumption which is the usual forerunner of every fall returned an hasty and confident Answer against the infallible Word and prophecy of their Master that they would never forsake him viz. That as they had abode with him hitherto in his temptations twice followed him of late when he fled for his safety and when he returned to his dangers when also one of them Jo. 11.16 that was afterward as backward in his faith as any resolutely said Let us also go that we may dy with him so they would still be faithful and constant to him But especially Peter as more affectionatly loving our Lord so more forward in expressing it now also carrying one of the two Swords said That though all the rest should possibly withdraw themselves and he stand alone yet he would never leave him would go with him into prison and to death would dye with him and for him To whose confidence our meek Saviour replyed onely to this purpose That though it was now already night yet before the Cock-crow of the very next morning he that was so forward now to dye for him should not once but thrice deny him And indeed amongst others at the questioning of a silly Maid he did not onely say but swear and curse not onely that he was none of his followers or company but that he not so much as knew him A Passage very punctually related by all the Evangelists though Peters friends That this example might remain for ever upon Register to shew the world what the best of men what the very chief of the Apostles of God is when in an hour of temptation God's supporting grace is for never so little time withdrawn from him that the highest Saints to keep themselves from falling might learn to walk in profound humility and perpetual fear of falling and might also learn to compassionate the falls they daily see of their weaker Brethren and to bear with them their burdens Gal. 6.2 3. whilst as the Apostle if any man whatever thinketh himself to be something except only our Lord who stood in his temptation and by his standing we also stand when he is nothing he deceiveth himself Yet after this which was said by our Lord to Peter we find that Peter replyed again more vehemently That if he should dye with him he would not deny him in any wise Mark. 14.31 § 9 Thus he passed through the vally of Jehosaphat the vally of Judgment as some think it shal be and over the Brook Cedron an Emblem of the torrent of Gods wrath of which he was now to drink to the full Psal 110. and so came to the garden a Garden of sorrows to expiate herein what the first Adam had trespassed in a garden of pleasure Of which Passage of our Lord David in some manner seems to have bin a Type when he passed over the same brook toward Mount Olivet flying from the face of his ungrateful son Absalon conspiring against him and seeking his life see 2 Sam. 15.23 Where also he worshipped wept and prayed vers 30.32 And was heard and delivered from death but not so our Lord Where Ittai also his friend vers 21. promised like St. Peter and the Apostles to live and dye with him but was more faithful and stedfast herein than St. Peter was And where Hushai another friend vers 34. departed from him to the adverse party that sate in Concil against him as also Judas did but it was to betray them not him Here arrived this careful Shepheard seeing this great storm now ready to fall first thinks on the safety of those poor sheep whom his father had committed to him and seeing greater danger toward their souls from Satan who was now permitted to invade both them and their Master with all his powers of darkness and who had gotten one sheep from him already by his wiles not by any defect of this vigilant Pastor Jo. 17.12 but by his own naughtiness and Gods permission than toward their bodyes from their Fellow-Disciple and his Troops our Lord sets no sentinels nor provides no defence against these corporal Enemies but the better to prepare his Disciples for the tryal and sufferings approaching so soon as entred into the Garden straitly chargeth them not to sleep that night but to spend it in watching and prayer that they might not fall into or at least in their Temptation Thus leaving eight of his Disciples who perhaps might have bin apt to take some offence at the sight of his Agonies to their devotions near the entrance of the Garden and foreseeing his own great desolation of spirit approaching he takes those three of them more especially loved and familiarly treated by him and conducts them to the further part of the Garden that those whom he had formerly as it were to forearme their faith against this hour taken apart into Mount Tabor to behold his Glory might now be Spectators also of this his great Eclipse and exinanition § 10 And thus far all things being managed with most divine calmness readiness and courage now the combat begins not onely with his followers but himself Righteous Job yet not altogether sinless was delivered into the hands of Satan and Powers of Darkness but with a Reservation of his life But this Righteous and sinfree Person was delivered into the hands of that Enemy of Mankind and of his cruel Instruments life and all Abraham was strongly exercised and tempted by God concerning the loss of his onely Son but in fine his sons life was preserved and there was a commutation of the Sacrifice Isaac the Type proceeded so far as the carrying of his Wood but escaped the being burnt upon it But now the bowels of God his Father for the yearning of his bowels upon us had no compassion on this righteous Job stript first of all he had even to his innermost vesture nor on this onely Son the King and heir of Heaven and Earth but dy he must and the manner thereof to be committed to the malitious contrivance of the Enemy of God and man § 11 And in his entrance thereto first begins a spiritual combat far more sharp and desolate than those corporal ones that followed As in all afflictions commonly the first assault is the most grievous and least supportable Where we are to imagine that not only a natural fear of Death seized on our Lord by the suspending of other thoughts and considerations that might counterpoise it but also a most extraordinary and supernatural desolation and terror was brought upon his Spirit and that those divine consolations which God sometimes withdraws from his Saints which hath left them in very great perplexity heartlesness and aridity whereof they also make sad complaints as of even the greatest of mortal sufferings the same but in a much
by it on those who deprive themselves of their share in the sufferings of this Lamb of God Under the weight then of this heavy burden freely undertaken by him for love of us and our eternal safety he falls down on his knees and prayes on this manner Abba Father Mat. 26. peircing words like those of Isaac Gen. 22.7 from so innocent a person and also an onely Son going to the slaughter If it be possible as all things are possible unto thee Mark 14.36 let this cup pass from me And thus far as he being true man Nature for self-preservation presents to God its own innocent and harmless desires and inclinations but then as also being a most faithful Subject and servant obedient in all things to the will of God proceeds further in another Note Nevertheless Not what I will but what thou wilt And herein consisted his innocency not in wanting these natural desires of self-preservation for this would take away all merit of obedience but in submitting them Such desires of nature being sinful not wherever they are but onely where they rule contrary to what a Superiour power exterior or interior commandeth or requireth of them And to instruct us that no man ought to take such desires arising in him so long as the person thus concludes them in Not what I will to be sin the Son of God also for our consolation sheweth them in himself And from him we may also learn that he as we dayly had and underwent all those other harmless appetites and inclinations of Nature respecting food rest apparrel lodging society and other delights of the senses and that in the confining of these within their due limits in obedience to his Fathers commands consisted the merit of his innocency never any one of these appetites throughout all his life though from time to time motioning their natural contents yet having bin for once any way exorbitant or transgressed the bounds his Father and his God had prescribed it § 16 Therefore we find that two or three daies before as he was in the Temple upon the like natural sense of Death he made the like prayer set down by St. John chap 12. as it were in lieu of this in the Garden which that Evangelist wholly omits who it seems writ his Gospel upon occasion of some Hereticks so early denying our Lords Divinity chiefly to Register therein those discourses and works of our Lord which more manifested to the world his Divinity than those discovering his human infirmities In the Temple then certain devout Gentiles by the divine providence now desiring to be brought to him and to be made acquainted with him as it were already suing to be admitted into his fold which thing was only hindred by his death not as yet accomplished our Lord took great notice of it and upon this occasion foretelling the coming in of the Gentiles and how assoon as he was once lifted up upon the Cross assoon as this standard was erected and he displayed upon it he should draw all the world unto him Upon the mention of that cruel death he there also let fall this expression to them Jo. 12.27 Now is my soul troubled and what shall I say And there also first he makes his request as a man sensible of misery Father save me from this hour but then as a Son and a Servant perfectly obedient he with his Superior reason and the Spirit restrains these sensitive desires in their true bounds in saying to himself again But for this cause came I unto this hour and then adds an Act of Resignation Father Glorify thy name i. e. in any sufferings of mine whatsoever which may be for the enlarging of thy Glory even to the Gentiles and to all the world At which time also after his prayer his Father answered him with a voice from heaven which the People called an Angel's speaking to him Jo. 12.29 as here he sent an Angel to him to shew that he alwaies heareth and accepteth prayers joined with such a Resignation from all his sons See Jo. 12 30.-11.42 So again at the Table in looking upon the horrid design of his own Servant against him read in his heart it is said by the same Evangelist that he was troubled in Spirit chap. 13.21 But straight his absolute Resignation to his Fathers will appears in his permission of Satan to enter and act further against him in that malitious Soul and in his saying then That thou dost do quickly So in his last sufferings on the Cross wherein he seems to have undergone a second Desolation of Spirit when he began those words of the 21 Psalm composed by his Father David touching his Passion My God My God why hast thou forsaken me This also was then accompanied with a most placid Resignation of himself into his Fathers hand that smote him saying presently after these words Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit But to return This Request and perfect Resignation being offered together that Model that should be of all our prayers also he returns in this his Agony to receive the solace of the company of his three dearest Disciples left not far behind him as also like an ever-careful shepheard to look to his sheep and so afford them his company and assistance in this hour of their temptation as well as his And behold he finds them being stupified with sorrow Luk. 22.45 and amazement at such a fight of his sorrow and amazement and for the sad presage he had made to them of his approaching death Peter and all fallen a sleep Our Lord straight awakening them asks Peter who had but now made such great promises of going to Prison and dying with him how it chanced that he and his Followers could not for so little a time as he had now to spend with them even for one hour so much as watch a little with him And this for his own sake too to spend it in prayer to be delivered from that great temptation that was coming especially on Peter But this meek Lord what with one word he questioned presently with another he excuseth in saying with much compassion for them The Spirit indeed is willing but the Flesh is weak Upon which Flesh of theirs not onely their greif but Satan probably at this time was permitted to have some influence in this first degree of their desertion of our Lord Where also by his mentioning the weakness and infirmity of their Flesh which he now also felt extraordinarily in himself but without sin he excites them also to a stronger vigilancy over it Then repeating again to them the same charge of watching to praier in this dreadful hour of temptation which he gave them before He departs again to a certain distance sore prest with that great weight that lay upon him and on his knees made a second time the same request with an earnestness of Praier Luk. 22.24 increasing according to his Agony when also his innocent words conclude
serve me let him take up his Cross and follow me and where I am there also shall he be Thus then serenely contemplating his Cross for the joy set before him he despised the shame thereof that afterward he might sit down at the right hand of the Throne of God and his Servants by him By such ministerial applications from the Angel of that which the Angel originally derived from himself his great anguish of soul was asswaged and exduditus est pro reverentia sua and his companionate Father afforded him now in due time a Deliverance though not from his fore-designed designed sufferings yet from his present fears from the present amazement toedium and mortal contristation he was seized with restoring his mind to its former serenity and courage § 19 Thrice our Lord iterated this his request the first compleat Plurality of number arguing some importunity and so thrice did his servant Paul afterwards iterate his for Deliverance from another temptation the Practice of them both being such as our Lord had before prescribed to his Disciples in the parable of the importunate Widdow and necessitous Neighbor Thrice both prayed and both Denyed as to the first matter and intent of their Prayer concluded in the Sacrifice of their own will unto God's and in a holy Resignation much more meritorious and beneficial to them than had bin the granting of their first request Instead of which both received another Grant much better viz. of the divine consolations and joy in their sufferings which they petitioned to have had removed S. Paul by our Lord 2 Cor. 12.9 speaking to him our Lord by an Angel speaking to him Luk. 22.43 Heb. 5.7 And thus both their prayers were heard as all those of all Saints rightly made with the clause of Resignation alwaies are And God ever upon such Prayers straight gives some new thing to the suppliant either some new thing without him or some new thing within him either Grants externally the thing prayed for or changeth internally for he is omnipotent the desire of the person praying for it Thus he who perfectly resigns his own Will to God's hath at last his own will because it is God's and God's will now so far his that to grant him his former Will would be a thing against his will and giving to him his past would be but a denial of his present desires And far better and more satisfying seems this change of our mind within us than of the world or its affairs without us Wherein also Gods course is many times unalterable by our Prayers For our mind to us is all in all and not the things without us Joy and sorrow Pain and pleasure lodg here and the heavenly Physitian works the shorter cure when we come to him for some ease in applying his medicines to the soul it self and in altering and with his Cordials strengthning and supporting it than in altering external things for its satisfaction And when we beg these things to content it he doth not deceive us if he give the same content to it without them or also in the contrary to them and it seems to come all to one either to receive or possess a thing or not at all to want or desire it or also now to desire to want it And S. Paul after our Lord 's speaking to him and his new Grace given him was as much satisfyed and transported and took as much pleasure in his infirmities which he would have had removed and in the thorne sticking in his Flesh as if he had had it at his request pulled out Especially if this also be put into the Scale That God in denying any present Good wished for presents alwaies to us the possession of a future good much more valuable in the same kind and indeed denyes this present good in order to our attaining this future and also for the present feeds the mind in its instant pressures with most strong hopes thereof and consolations therein And thus it is declared of our Lord himself in this matter Heb. 12.2 That for the Joy that was set before him he endured the Cross § 20 After then that our Lord had paid these dues to the proper inclinations of his human nature and passed through and experienced all the innocent fears languishings and also the spiritual aridities thereof that so he might be a more compassionate High Priest and Intercessor for his brethren labouring in the like sorrow as also that he might the more encourage them perceiving him in all such sufferings to have trod the way before them And lastly That he might teach them therein behaviour in such sufferings repairing to earnest Prayer and the issue thereof a certain return of consolations Behold on a suddain all his anxieties vanish and his contristated humanity now retains its former chearfulness and security and thirst for sufferings Seeing therefore his Enemies now not far off his resolute courage longing after the Cross and sollicitous also for the safety of his dismayed sheep thought it not meet that this Band should seek for him or should find him hid or withdrawn into some remote corner of the Garden or that they should first surprize or fall upon his sleeping Disciples whom he endeavoured to preserve safe from their fury But rather to meet the Enemy and voluntarily to offer himself into their bloody hands so providing also for his fearful companions a better opportunity to escape With this resolution he riseth from the Ground and coming to his second Guard the three selected Disciples whom he found again a sleep after he had smilingly said unto them that now was a time indeed to take their rest He bids them rise and go along with him for the Betrayer he told them of and the forces conducted by him were now at hand and the same he said when he came to the other Eight § 21 By this time was the armed multitude come in sight and Judas our Lords servant who had covenanted for Mat. 26.15 but not yet received his bloody wages marching at some distance before them the better to discover our Lord and give them notice with his salutation and kissing of him which was He. Whom our most meek Lord though well he knew his design admitted not only to his presence but also embraces and to a kiss not onely to leave us an Example of his infinite meekness and how we also ought to love our Enemies but to shew his perfect obedience to the will of his Father in this first tast of his bitter cup. And so in a most mild manner stiling him Friend asked him for what purpose he came By this as it were fore-pitying his great Damnation to reduce him now at least to some reflection upon his bloody Treason and prostrate himself at his feet to beg pardon And then he being silent spake yet more plainly to him the rest of the Disciples standing by Judas betrayest thou the Son of man i. e. The Son of
Sanctuary to make an atonement for the world and was carried thither by himself the Priest as well as the Sacrifice none else worthy or sufficient for either of these There they brought him to a rocky Hill on the North-West side of the City where it seems Executions were usually made by the Hebrew name of it Golgotha signifying a skull perhaps from some bones of the Malefactors lying scattered upon it where the rock affordeth little conveniency for covering them Here in the soft stone of the rock were digged several holes wherein to put the crosses Three such are there seen at this day about Eighteen inches deep saith Eugen. Roger. La Terre Saincte lib. 1. cap. 14. and nine the Diameter and the distance one from another near two yards and between two of these a rent or cleft in the rock from the one side of the Hill to the other which hill runs length-way Northward about a Palme breath but the profundity of it he saith not discoverable And on this same Hill probably it was that Abraham was appointed by God to offer up his only Son Isaac Gen. 22.2 For it was to be upon a certain Hill that God would shew him in terra Moriae or visionis as the land thereabouts was called of which Hills that of Calvary was one God having placed his own people and his true worship in the middle of the Nations round about Ezec. 5.5 and again Jerusalem in the middle of this § 95 Arrived now at the place of his suffering it is said to have bin the custome of the Jews from the precept given them Prov. 31.6 but so was it also of the Romans from a natural compassion to tender to persons condemned before the undergoing their torments some comforting and strengthening drink and that ordinarily mingled with some aromatical ingredients that had a stupifying quality and one of these to be Myrrhe To observe the custome therefore and as it were to prepare and strengthen our Lord for the great sufferings that were to follow who was almost spent by those endured already and who but now fainted under his Cross they brought him some of this compounded wine but their malice first mingled it with gall changing this cup which common pity provided for the consolation and refreshment of poor condemned persons into a Nauseating and bitternes not to be endured A circumstance of their barbarous treatment of him not neglected to be taken notice by the Psalmist in the description of his sufferings Dederunt in escam meam fel c. Psal 68.21 for it was given to him whatever was deserved by us of whom the Prophet Jer. 8.14 Potum dedit nobis aquam fellis peccavimus enim Domino Our Lord though he well knew their inhuman composition of this cup yet to avoid the shewing any offence or passion tasted it and consolated himself in calling to mind the prophecy of it but here left to his liberty would not drink it though no doubt he then laboured with very great thirst if we consider all his former usage the time of the year the climat the crowd about him no sustenance since that which he said should be his last cup at the Paschal Supper at which time doubtless a cup of cold water would have bin a great refreshment to him but none offered it to him He would not drink it as no way serving for that end for which he needed it the quenching of thirst but rather the contrary and again as not admitting any artificial means of accelerating his death or stupifying his senses if such a vertue this drink had for he knew how great our debt in this kind to his offended Father was and desiring to pay it to the uttermost would accept nothing that might any way lighten or mitigate it § 96 After this they hasting to his Execution the Centurion with the rest of the Cohort standing by as a Guard four of the meanest of the Soldiers to whom this base imployment might be a little beneficial stript our Lord of all his clothes whatever which fell to their share onely putting a small cloth over those parts which for decency were to be covered and leaving him his Crown of Thornes the points of which we may imagine as so many weapons sticking in the wounds and never drawn out whilst he lived after thrust into them caused a perpetual torture from the time of his mock-coronation till his giving up the Ghost Thus made naked and the wounds which he had received but an hour or two before exposed to the cold air and made raw again by their pulling away his clothes that sticking to them served him for a plaister they spread him upon the wood of the Cross and racking his arms to their utmost extent with great spikes of Iron driven through the palmes of his hands fastned them to the cross-piece thereof and so also his feet stretched out and put one upon the other with one spike driven through them fastned them to the long beam of the Cross whilst our Lord without reluctancy permitted them facere etiam in se quaecunque voluerunt Mat. 17.12 yielding his body and stretching out his Limbs so as they required cum pateretur non comminabatur sed tradebat judicanti se injuste 1 Pet. 2.23 saith S. Peter and meanwhile amidst those sharp pains he must needs feel in those most nervous and sensible parts afflicted himself for their sins and compassionating their condition as he did before in the way that of the Daughters of Jerusalem he prayed for them to his Heavenly Father and pleaded to him their ignorance of what a person he was Prayed for them not only for those Soldiers who so cruelly tortured him but for all whosoever Jew or Gentile that had their hands in his death saying aloud those words which might have melted down such stony-hearts Father forgive them for they know not what they do Which admirable Pattern of this meek Lamb of God who had no gall in him being set to all his Followers in whatever their sufferings the Prophet Esay in his prophetick History of him chap. 53.12 le ts not pass unmentioned where he saith Ideo dispertiam ei plurimos fortium dividet spolia pro eo quod tradidit in mortem animam suam cum sceleratis reputatus est peccata multorum even of those scelerati tulit pro Transgressoribus rogavit Whose prayer also was heard by his Father not only for the more simple but even for the most culpably ignorant so they were penitent a great company of the Priests also afterward becoming obedient to the Faith Act. 6. And among others St. Paul a great Persecutor of our Lord in his Members saith he obtained mercy 1 Tim. 1.13 Quia nesciens fecit And S. Peter Act. 3. invites the People and their Rulers to repentance for this fact upon this account for that if they had known who he was they would never have done it And a great
relenting and change of mind was found afterward in many of those that stood by him in these sufferings seeing the strange things thereof not onely among the People but the Roman Soldiers and their Commander the Centurion whom the Gospel describes beating their breasts greatly fearing and glorifying God and confessing him not only a righteous man but the Son of God All effects doubtless of this our Lord's prayer on the Cross § 97 Next by Pilat's order and according to the custome of the Romans was fastned also to the Cross over our Lord's head a Title in great and legible Letters of the accusation or crime for which he suffered which Title that it might be understood in that great confluence of strangers to this Feast by all that looked on it the Governour which was very extraordinary caused to be written in the three most universal languages Hebrew Greek and Latin and it was this Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews Many came thither saith St. John it being so nigh the City for now this Sacred Hill of Calvary is taken into it and reading this Title thus exposed in so many tongues the chief Priests much resented it which in plain terms affirmed Jesus to be their King and made them the Betrayers and Crucifiers of him Which Kingship of his it is most probable from what hath bin said that Pilat verily believed in such a sense as our Lord had challenged it and as he had often confirmed it with Miracles of all sorts not unknown to Pilat and so indeed held them guilty of his blood whilst he thought himself by his open Declaration to have sufficiently cleansed his hands of it They therefore hast to Pilat to procure an alteration of the Title not to run that he was but that he said he was their King From whom they received only this sullen Answer that what he had written he had written tâ—â—t what he had written should stand so It being the Divine pleasure that without any of their false glosses it should now be published to their shame who he was and how unjustly betrayed by them viz. the King of Heavens only Son Jesus their Saviour sent with the Gospel of everlasting happiness and peace to reign over them for ever and by them thus deserted and rejected tortured and made away But Pilat also perhaps might reflect on the loyal service herein he might be thought to have done to the Roman state in a Nation noted for rebellion by his executing their Prince of the race of David And besides had he corrected the Title to their mind namely that he said he was so considering in what manner our Lord both said it and menaged it not intermedling at all with terrene powers he had but the more divulged his own injustice in taking away his life only for his saying so But what motives soever Pilat had of this he seems guided herein as Caiphas in his prophecying by the Divine hand that this title might be presented by this High Priest of the new covenant before the Lord as was that on Aarons Miter Sanctum Domino Exod. 28.36 38. whilst he thus bare the iniquity of the people and dyed for them and Pilat in some sense was thus the first Apostle declaring to the world his Sacred persons § 98 All thus prepared and our Lords naked body thus fastned the Soldiers raised up him and the Cross together and fastned the foot of it in the hole provided in the Rock And thus was this only Son of God and most innocent Lamb like the Serpent in the Wilderness lifted up upon a pole that as the peoples lives were saved by beholding the Serpent so what sinner soever should with the Eye of faith look on him thus lifted up should not perish but have eternal life as once comparing himself to this Serpent he said to Nicodemus Jo. 3.14 15. Thus out of too much love to us though equal with God he descended from his Throne above and emptied himself became a servant or slave so far as to be obedient to the death even this death accursed and stepping in between the Divine vengeance and us was voluntarily thus made an Anathema and Curse in our stead and hanged up before the Lord and before the Sun taking the malediction and the handwriting of the Decree that was gone forth against us away and fastning it with himself unto the Cross Col. 2 14 15. as the Apostle writes in contemplation of our Lords passion a thing that when preached was a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles and a thing strangely incredible at first to the Heathen also now whom the Churche's Missioners endeavour to convert to Christianity § 99 Our Lord thus secured the four Soldiers his Executioners went to divide the poor spoil they had taken from him his Garments which God his Father might now behold as Jacob that of his dearly loved Joseph all besmeared not with a counterfeit as Joseph's was but his own blood whilst he so also hung by them cruelly murdered His Garment we may imagine was such as the meaner people of Galilee and his Disciples wore An outer loose garment having at the bottom four skirts see Deut. 22.12 and a coat closer to his body and it seems his was made a knit one all in one piece as Wast-cotes use to be perhaps the work of his poor Mother the Blessed Virgin for securing him the more against cold who often lodged abroad a-nights not having where else to lay his head Whether our Lord had any linnen under this close cote either covering his whole body or at least the secret parts or whether this knit coat was next his body and another coat over it is somewhat uncertain His outer garment made of four pieces the Soldiers divided into four parts to share it equally but the coat not dividable without spoiling it they cast lots for and so fulfilled that prophecy Psal 21.19 very punctually as to all the circumstances of our Lords sufferings They divided my garments and on my vesture cast Lots Thus our Lord saw his poor goods all he had seized on and distributed before his face but as God would not suffer them to break a bone of him so neither to tear his coat a Type of his Church which will never admit any Schism and they that offer to tear it cease to be of it § 100 Whilst our patient Lord hung thus before them languishing in his mortal torments one of which was the perfect enjoyment in this manner of death of his senses hearing and seeing all the sad things that passed about him the Evangelists relate how by the Devils instigation all manner of persons when no other cruelty remained unexecuted fell on railing and insulting over him and shot out their arrows against him thus set up as a mark for them even bitter words and with these afflicted him whom God had thus wounded fulfilling herein punctually the many prophecies in the
see Acts 10.34 15.7 And as S. Paul had an extraordinary Mission from Christ Acts 9.11 So had he one from the Church of Antioch Act. 13 3. and both his Baptism and Mission from the Ministry of those who received this Power from the Colledge of the Apostles of which Peter was the Head Our Lord to make this charge effect the deeper impression on Peter and all his Successors ceased not thus but repeated it asking him again and again only omitting the first comparison till Peter was grieved Jo. 21.17 and ashamed whether he loved him and upon the same Answer of his appealing to our Lords omniscience made now three times from whom our Lord may seem to require this trinal confession to expiate and reverse his former trinal Denyal he thrice iterated to him the same charge that in the absence of himself he should return this love to his little ones whom he sometimes called Lambs sometimes Sheep to shew all in his fold old or young committed to his government and that all strong or weaklings have need of the Pastors feeding them and were subjected to him After our Lord had thus instructed this chief Servant and Steward of his houshold Peter what he should do he began to preacquaint him also with what he should suffer for him the more to pre-arm him for future Events and that nothing hapning unexpected or that was not known to be by the divine Providence predesigned such things might afterwards less surprise him and that the conceit of a present secular Kingdom of our Lord and their advancement in his Court might be removed out of his mind He then began to tell him with a double serious Amen pronounced before it That as in his yonger age he had gone whither and done what he pleased so hereafter in his old age he must expect a change That as he must undertake great labours for his sake so undergo great afflictions and be made like unto his Master he so loved Mat. 26.35 as in his preaching of so in his sufferings for the truth and fulfil the promise he had once engaged of dying if not with yet for him That one day as himself had done he must stretch out his hands and another gird him and carry him away whither he would not to Prison and to the Cross signifying to him that he should glorify God his Father by Martyrdom and the Cross as himself had done Which accordingly happened in the thirteenth year of Nero after he had diligently fed Christ's sheep after this transiens universa visiting all places Acts 9.32 for thirty five years § 138 And so our Lord rising up and saying to Peter chiefly intended in a mystical sense follow me i. e. my example in undergoing such Events as he had discovered to him with all valour alacrity and constancy he walked on the shore Peter at a nearer distance attending him Who turning him about and seeing John coming after them probably somewhat before or faster than the rest presuming on the love our Lord bare to him to whom also Peter as well as our Lord had an extraordinary affection he took the boldness having heard his own doom to inquire of his al-knowing Master concerning this his dear friend what the Divine good pleasure had ordeined also touching him To whom our Lord repressing the Apostles curiosity returned somewhat a dubious Answer That if he would have John tarry till his coming this nothing concerned him but that he should prepare himself to follow him in that way of death and suffering as himself had trod before him See Jo. 13.36 Now Johns stay till our Lords coming being capable of several senses viz. either our Lords last coming to the general Judgment in those times imagined not far off or his coming in that signal Judgment of his upon the Jewish Nation at the destruction or Jerusalem which St. John only out-lived or his coming when he calleth and removeth his Servants away from hence by natural death ordinarily in Scripture-language called his coming see Mat. 24.42 46 50. Apoc. 2.24 3.5 this last we may imagine from the Event was our Lord's meaning though the Disciples either hearing these words from our Lord or related to them by St. Peter from hence gathered that John our Lords Favorite should not dye but remain till his second coming then commonly thought near at hand to which imagination of theirs as also of others following St. Johns long life and some miraculous deliverances gave still more strength who died not till sixty seven years after this was spoken by our Lord and remained alive almost thirty years after the Destruction of Jerusalem This opinion St. John now much aged when he writ this his Gospel endeavoured to remove telling them our Lord had expresly said no such thing but left our Lords words any further unexpounded as not seeming any way to decline or wave his own Martyrdom which doubtless he much thirsted for and had in some manner already undergone and outlived it Tertull de Praescript Cap. 36. being in Domitian's persecution of the Christians sent by the Proconsul of Asia as a chief Heresiarch to Rome and there cast into a vessel of scalding Oil to have taken away his life but was miraculously preserved to make good our Lords words and so banished into Patmos from whence returned he writ his Gospel shortly after which our Lord came to call him away in a natural and peaceable death when above ninety years old § 139 After these occurrences besides the Sea of Galilee related by S. John in a Post-script chap 21. after he had finished his Gospel Chap. 20. One Motive of which Postscript perhaps was the rectifying a mistake in some of the Disciples concerning our Lords Prophecy of his staying till he came Our Lord suddainly disappeared leaving them in a longing expectation of his return to them and a more publick manifestation of himself in Galilee at the time and place preappointed § 140 At which time a great Multitude of our Lords Converts in Galilee having notice of it from the Apostles were gathered together this being supposed the Apparition St. Paul speaks of 1 Cor. 15. when he saith he was seen of above five hundred Brethren at once in a certain Mountain of Galilee imagined the same upon which he was transfigured and where Moses and Elias appeared to him and which was by St. Peter called the Holy Mount This Mount is by many thought to be Mount Tabor a most beautiful Hill exactly round and ascensible only on one side not so steep as the others and having a Plain for about half a mile Diameter at the top which hill our Lord living so near it situate about some three or four miles from Nazareth perhaps had sometimes frequented in his youth But it seems rather to be another Mountain nearer to Capernaum the place of his ordinary Residence in Galilee where also a-nights he frequented Prayer called his twelve Apostles delivered the Beatitudes
miraculously fed the Multitudes Mat. 15.29 and which was more convenient for the assembling of his Converts of which see what is said before § 251. P. 1. And such a place our Lord seems to have chosen for the greater Eminency Solitude and Privacy thereof free from Buildings High-waies or Passengers he purposing no general manifestation of himself to the Jews or to the World but only to some chosen Witnesses that some contradiction might add the more virtue to the Christian Faith Here then were assembled with many others the eleven Apostles with the Mother of our Lord and doubtless the other Galilean women who carried the first message both from the Angel and afterwards from our Lord himself to the Apostles of his meeting them in this place To whom our Lord first shewed himself at some distance from them upon which they presently fell down and adored him Mat. 28.17 but some of them saith the Evangelist unless he intimates here the doubt not that was then but had bin formerly viz. not of the Eleven but of the company had some doubt whether it was he i. e. at the first yet which by his nearer approach and discourse with them was presently after removed Our Lord then approaching told them that the time of his Exinanition being now finished all Power the exercise of which was suspended before see Mat. 11.27 Jo. 3.35 was given to him by his Father in Heaven and in Earth and upon this he renewed his charge unto his Apostles that they should go forth in his name and by his authority and proclaim him Lord of all and deliver his Laws and Commandements taught to them not only to the Jews but all other Nations that they should baptize Believers in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost declaring to them that such as believed and were baptized should be saved but the unbelieving damned then further promising them That he though corporally departing yet in his Grace and Holy Spirit would remain with and assist them and their Successors to the end of the world that he also gave them Authority over all the Power of the Enemy of mankind and in his name to do all sorts of wonderful works repeating here again what he had formerly said to them in his first Apparition at Jerusalem which see before Sect. 127. P. 11. Lastly commanding them to bid an Adieu to their country and return to Jerusalem in which place they were first to begin their work Where they should also after a few daies re-enjoy his presence and take their last leave of him his so often-foretold Ascension into Heaven to his Celestial Father being now at hand and necessary as for his own Glory so for the further promoting with him the business of their's and the world's salvation § 141 After this publick manifestation of our Lords Resurrection made not only to the Apostles but to the general Body of his former Converts and Believers most dwelling in Galilee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 15.7 afterward our Lord appeared singly to St. James i. e. our Lord's Brother shortly after made Bishop of Jerusalem perhaps out of a singular honour to him or also for negotiating something with him relating to his office whose constant residence was to be at Jerusalem and who was a Person of special Eminency among the Apostles as appears Gal. 1.19 2.9 and Acts 15.13 19. But the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used by the Apostle perhaps may not signify afterward in that Text as denoting a Posteriority of time to the appearance in Galilee But only besides as it is used by him 1 Cor. 12.28 and the apparition to James be rather in some part of the day of his Resurrection see St. Jerome de viris Illust in Jacobo between whom as being a Domestick in the same family and our Lord passed a more intimate familiarity and from his appearance to James we may also much more presume of his frequent particular apparitions to the Blessed Virgin his Mother though none mentioned § 142 Forty daies was the time predesigned of our Lord's stay upon Earth for the manifestation of his Resurrection and for the preparing of his Apostles for their future employment of propagating the Gospel and advancing the Kingdom of Christ in mens hearts over all the world A number frequently observed in Scripture for the accomplishing of any great work made up of six the number of the daies God spent in creating the world seven times multiplied as the number of 7. is a number of perfection and rest after the finishing such a work answering to the 7th day the Sabbath only in 42. the last two are usually cut off to make it a round number So Gen. 7.4 in the flood the rain descended for forty daies and after the abating of it Noah stayed forty daies and opened the window of the Ark Gen. 8.6 For thrice forty years God had patience with the old world before he destroyed it with the flood Ten times forty years the children of Israel were to sojourn in Egypt Forty two Generations were to pass between the coming of the Messias and the promise made to Abraham thereof of which forty two generations two sevens were to run out before the Kingdom of David and two sevens again in this Kingdom before the captivity and two sevens till the coming of Christ See Mat. 1.17 Acts 7.23 Moses when forty years old visited his Brethren and would have undertaken their protection and ibid. vers 30. after forty years more was sent by God to them for this purpose Again forty daies he stayed in the Mount for receiving the Law and for this time was continued his fast as also that of Elias and of our Lord. During forty daies were the persons deputed to view the land of Canaan Numb 13.25 and during forty years were the children of Israel appointed to do penance and bear their Iniquity for the Evil account given of it and murmuring concerning it Numb 14.33 34. Forty daies were allowed to the Ninevites for a time of Repentance before their City was to be destroyed Forty daies after the womans bearing of a Male child and twice forty daies after a Female were to be accomplished before their coming into or presenting their Son in the Sanctuary In the Judges we find whether rest or troubles given to the land of Israel ordinarily for the space of forty years The Prophet Ezekiel Ezek. 4.5 6. is appointed to do penance by lying on his side for forty daies for so many years of God's patient suffering the iniquities of Judah and for so many years again God forbare the wickedness of the Jewish Nation after their crucifying our Lord and persecuting Christianity until the destruction of Jerusalem And forty two Months i. e seven sixes of Months is the time prescribed for the duration of Antichrist and the last great affliction of Gods Church This to shew that all Gods works are pondered before hand and contrived in