him issue in such an old age and lastly after he had issue in that most transcendent effect of his faith the oblation and slaughter of his onely Son in whom were made the promises To him therefore more expressly than formerly God renewed his promise as he did afterward again to David that this promised seed should descend from him in which seed all both he and the rest of his seed i. e. so many as were sons of his faith even amongst all nations as well as the Hebrews should be blessed i. e. should obtain redemption remission of former sin a new sanctification by Gods spirit and ability to observe his laws and lastly the inheritance of the heavenly Canaan See Gen. 22.28 compared with Galat. 3d Chapter which latter may serve for a comment upon the former § 47 This Covenant God made with Abraham's faith And then for the time preceding the coming of this Seed even of this Blessed Infant Jesus who should accomplish this Redemption he instituted for a Seal of this Covenant between them and that as well for all Proselytes of the Gentiles as for Abraham's carnal posterity Gen. 17.12 23. Instituted I say the Circumcision and cutting-off of the prepuce of that member in which after mans fall first appeared the effect of sin and the rebellion of the flesh against the Spirit Of which rebellion our first Parents in the beholding it were so much ashamed which shame also hath adhered to all their posterity By which Circumcision of Abrahams flesh were signified to Him the very same things through this seed then promised as are now to us by baptism through the seed now exhibited namely his renouncing cutting off and mortifying the former lusts of the flesh and of sin in his members and becoming a reformed and new Creature to walk thereafter by grace conferred through this seed in all purity and righteousness at which time God therefore also as to new Creatures gave to him and his wife new names Gen. 17. changing them from Abram and Sarai to Abraham and Sarah § 48 Now in this sacred Ceremony as God engaged on his part of the Covenant redemption from sin and Grace restored through the promised Seed to Abraham and to all those who were his spiritual Sons and who walked in the faith of the Gospel I mean the faith concerning the seed and the means of their Salvation which faith was preached unto them more or less clearly according to the several degrees in different ages of the manifestation thereof so Abraham Gen. 17.1 12. and his Sons on their part engaged the sincere observance of all Gods Commandements so far as in this Covenant was required of them Where also it came to pass but by their own fault that so many of Abrahams natural Children as received Circumcision by which they engaged themselves to the observance of Gods law and yet were not also children of the faith of Abraham according to the revelation of redemption through this seed by which faith they might become partakers of remission of their former sin and of the return of Grace through the same seed so many I say were put in a much worse condition by their Circumcision than they were in formerly contracting by this a new obligation to Gods law without ability by reason of their want of faith to perform it and without a partaking of the merit of this seed whereby to be pardoned their transgressions against it Of which Circumcision therefore may be said the same which the Apostle saith of the Promulgation of the law in the 7th Chapt. to the Romans And the same thing still happens in baptism to so many as receive it without a due faith and without any donation of Grace they making therein a new engagement to the observance of Gods Commandements without ability to perform them § 49 This being the story of Circumcision which was a seal we see of the Evangelical Covenant made in the promised seed and presupposed former sin and through this seed effected a purgation from it this eternal Son of God therefore who came from heaven and who was conceived in the Virgins womb not of the seed of man but by the Holy Ghost and who was this very promised seed that was to redeem Abraham and his posterity needed not at all to be circumcised both because not guilty of sin and because himself was the redeemer and seed promised from whom Circumcision received its efficacy And what greater indignity could happen to his sanctity and purity than to be circumcised in his flesh who never knew any rising or rebellion of the flesh nor contracted from our first Parents any stain thereof For though our Lord was by the flesh taken of his mother a Son of Abraham and Gods law was very strict that every Male of his posterity should be circumcised or else cut off Gen. 17. Lev. 12 yet seeing such a law was prescribed to Abraham's posterity with reference to sin as also most of the laws Ceremonial were such law extended not to any of Abrahams seed that should be without all sin as our Holy Lord was § 50 But though this spotless babe was free from any obligation to Circumcision in this respect yet many other reasons and motives there were for which his divine wisdom chusing such a way as he did for mans redemption thought meet to undergo it as also in like manner he received and passed through all the other Sacraments of general obligation that were appointed by God his Father in the Church both old and new the one as a Son born under the law and all its Ceremonies the other as a Father and founder of the Gospel and all its Rites As for his Circumcision then besides those reasons ordinarily given for it that he admitted it to shew the truth of his human flesh against those Heresies that afterwards arose contending that he had only a fantastical and apparent or if a true a celestial Body Again least that by not receiving it he might seem to disallow of Circumcision or also might appear a breaker of the law to those who knew him not to be pure and exempt from original sin likewise that thus he might bear the true mark and badge of Abrahams seed and not be rejected by them as none of the true Messias on this account who was sent in the first place to the house of Israel Mat. 10.6 and a Minister of Circumcision Rom. 15.8 the defect of which surely would have bin a greater accusation than his Original out of Galilee Again that he might practice an obedience and conformity for peace-sake though in a matter not obliging as he did afterward in paying tribute Mat. 17.27 ut non scandalizemus eos I say besides these reasons sufficient for his non-omission of that sacred Ceremony there seem to be others yet more considerable § 51 For first Circumcision as also baptism afterward was not administred only in relation to sins past as an expiation
Priest that after their second Captivity at Babylon conducted the People again into the land of promise and rebuilt the Temple of the Lord formerly demolished Against whom in the visions of the Prophet Zachary cloathed in poor and filthy Garments Satan before the Lord bringing great Accusation God rebukes him Satan for it and commands Joshuahs filthy Garments to be taken away from him and him to be clothed with change of Raiment and a Miter and Crown to be set upon his head See Zach. 3.3 c. and 6.11 c. In both which places is joined a promise concerning this our Jesus called there by the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Oriens Or as the Hebrew Germen who was typified by the other and who is our everlasting High Priest That he should build the Temple of our Lord and should bear the Glory and should sit and rule upon his Throne and be a Priest upon his Throne c. § 59 But tho Jesuses these two were before him and both sent deliverers of Gods people after a Captivity and both reconductors of Gods people into Canaan yet far short they came of this Jesus who saved mankind from a far higher slavery and of another kind than those other were and indeed from the only Captivity that could make us truly miserable Viz from the Captivity of sin Satan and death Triumphing in his Cross and Resurrection and descent of the Holy Ghost over these three the only terrible enemies of poor mankind who before that this Saviour came sat in chains and darkness and in the shadow of death trembling under Gods wrath and appointed to eternal torments § 60 This great Saviour came saith the Apostle 1 Thes 1.10 that he might save us from the wrath to come 1 For our salvation from Satan By him saith the Apostle Col. 1.15 we are delivered from the powers of Darkness And 1 Jo. 3.8 for this was he made manifest that he might destroy the works of the Devil And Col. 2.15 He spoiled Principalities and Powers and made an open shew and spectacle and triumph over them both in his life and in a Resurrection from the death that they had most cruelly contriv'd against him 2 And so for our saving from sin Sermo omni acceptione dignus saith the Apostle 1 Tim. 1.15 a comfortable saying beyond all other sayings this that Jesus came into the world to save sinners Especially when our conscience adds Quorum ego primus 3 Lastly for the salvation from death O Death saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 15.55 where is now thy sting O Grave where thy victory Thanks be to God who giveth us the victory over these thro our Lord Jesus And for the manner also of our Salvation by this Jesus much more misterious miraculous and indearing it was as to the delivered than that of any other Saviour whatever hath or can be For this Jesus came if I may so say not so much with his power to save us as with his patience and conquered not by his enemies sufferings but his own 1 To conquer those powerful spirits he took upon him weak flesh by this flesh they conquered us and in this flesh he redeemed us 2 To conquer Death Himself under-went and suffered Death but it could not hold him Act. 2.24 and by this his death destroyed Him that had the power of death Heb. 2.14 To save our lives he laid down his own Jo. 10.15 and healed our wounds with his own stripes Esay 53.5 3 So for sin He came in the likeness of sinful flesh to condemn sin in the flesh Rom. 8.3 And to free us from a Curse became himself a Curse for us Gal. 3.13 Such was this Salvation of this Jesus and such the way of it worthy a God O Blessed Jesu O ever blessed Name A name and the mistery thereof hid from ages and from generations and now made manifest and revealed What comfort could any other name expressing perhaps the Majesty or power or holiness or justice or eternity of this Prince have afforded to a poor guilty sinner trembling and despairing for the judgment to come but only this Or what comfort would this have aforded if it had bin only a Jesus from some temporal Tyranny from a Pharaoh or a Nabuchadnezzar or a Cesar and not a Jesus from the Devil or Hell or the Grave to which these other deliverances though for a time never so glorious would have left us still in bondage and in fear all our lives after a few daies to be devoured and swallowed up by them for ever Blessed name at which all the Spiritual Apolluons and destroyers of mankind all spiritual Pangs and anguishes of souls all the corporal messengers and arrows of death are afraid and tremble and from which only pronounced they do so often fly away Blessed name a poor sinners only consolation on his death-bed when the Grave opens her mouth for him and these spiritual Foes on every side invade him and Hell-fire eternal burns before him Blessed therefore be this name Jesus and exalted above all names at which Name let every knee bow of things in heaven in earth and under the earth and every tongue confess this Jesus Lord to the Glory of God the Father Amen § 61 After our Lord thus had received Circumcision as a Son of Abraham and entered into Gods Covenant and the name of Jesus as ordained the Saviour of the World and whilst Joseph and Mary abode still at Bethleem because this City near to Jerusalem and their own country very remote expecting the appointed time of the Purification of the Mother and presentment of the Child in the Temple certain persons both rich noble and Learned and probably much addicted to the study of Astronomy being directed by a Star came from the Oriental parts much more famed for wisdom to adore and do homage to this new-Born King and to present him with the most precious things those Countries afforded in behalf of the Gentiles as the poor and simple Shepheards being instructed by an Angel had done formerly in behalf of the Jews The Divine Providence so disposing it that our Lord to the Gentiles more contemplating the Creature should be manifested by a Star rather and the Jew as acquainted with the true worship of the Creatour by an Angel For both Jew and Gentile were now to have an equal share and a General Union in this Prince of Peace And the event corresponding exactly to these beginnings hath shewed us that after some few for the most part poorer and meaner and so humbler sort of the Jewish Nation were for the present by our Lord and his followers converted to the Faith represented by the Shepheards the riches and wisdom of the Gentiles hath bin brought into the obedience of the Gospel represented by the Magi till a compleat harvest of both shall be reaped by the Addition to them of the full Body of the Jews § 62 Now the Adoration and doing homage of the
stone-knife some drying medicines are applied to the wound and so it is bound up and usually within two or three daies perfectly healed During the action the 128 and some other Psalms are sung by which also the Infants crying is not heard and a name given to the Child by his Parents appointment See Luk. 1.59 Lastly some festival entertainments and Congratulations are made to the Parents by their kindred and friends as in a time of joy See Leo Modena a Jewish Rabby in his Ritus Hebraici Part. 4. cap. 8. § 44 Now considering that the Blessed Virgin and her husband were meer strangers in this place The Lord seeming to have said to this his Son for his greater exinanition even before he was born and to his poor Mother as he did to Abraham Egredere de terra tua de cognitione tua Gen. 12.1 de domo Patrum tuorum removed from all Consolations or assistance of Kindred or acquaintance and their Condition also very poor it is probable that our Lords Circumcision was suitable to his birth done after the rudest and plainest manner and with small or no attendance some mean lodging perhaps hired by Joseph in the Town wherein this Ceremony was performed or also as some rather think dispatcht in the Stable or Grott by Joseph himsel In which Grott also or in some private hired room this Holy Family may be imagined according to the highest rule of perfection to have sojourned till their departing into Egypt without any secular acquaintance in great Solitude silence and Devotion and exceeding reverence to the Holy Child Jesus as the divine Off-spring Joseph by the gain of his Trade providing necessaries for the Virgin and the Babe and trâ—â—ting the Mother also as a consecrated Temple of the Holy Ghost with a most pure and chast honour and respect Jesus meanwhile by his omnipotent influence working in both their hearts what was acceptable to his Fathers will to be done unto him Restraining also by the same divine oeconomy the wonder and devotion both of the Shepheards and other Inhabitants to whom these had told their discoveries in such a manner as that all expected rather what would follow afterward than curiously searched into what was transacted for the present and so as that their great awe presumed not so far as to visit this new-born hope of Israel or to perform any respect or service to him which did not suit with that low Condition he had chosen of living poor unknown solitary and exposed to all hardships in which his Parents also may be thought to have served him in great privacy and silence and without talking or conversing much abroad As also the Evangelist observes that whilst the Shepheards divulged the wonders of his birth yet his holy Mother kept all private and pondered them in her heart as a much-considering silent woman Luk. 2.18 19. And so we may conjecture that the visits both of the Shepheards and the Magi were both performed by them and received by Mary and Joseph with such a profound reverence modesty and silence as became a Temple rather than a Stable and as was suiting to the presence of so great a Majesty though mean and weak in his outward appearance for this appertained to his present state of Humiliation yet most commanding and powerful in his divine influence and energy on all those who approached him and whose Conversation he admitted For already his humanity also by the union to it of his divine person is to be esteemed replenished from his first Conception with the Holy Ghost and with all wisdom and not to have as the bodily so also the mental impotencies or weaknesses of Infancy § 45 This his Circumcision therefore seems to have bin performed as with the greatest reverence so privacy hardship and inaccomodation And if the Institution and Signification of this sacred Ceremony be well examined we shal find our Lord here entring upon the stage of his sufferings with the performance of one of the greatest acts of humility and voluntary obedience that his whole life afforded and that his Circumcision and his Cross i. e. the first and the â—ast act of his life were the two greatest abasements that his celestial pure and unspotted Person descended-to In both which he was content to appear to the world in the Similitude of sinful flesh Rom. 8.3 and to be numbred amongst the Transgressors Esay 53. and to bear the penalties of sin as if he had bin a sinner As in that last act to be condemned for the greatest Malefactor and Blasphemor and destroyer of the law so in this first to suffer as a sinful Son of Adam an expiation of that Original Guilt with which he was never stained and that not a washing only with water as it is now in baptism but a shedding of his blood For though Circumcision then was a Sacrament of the same Evangelical Covenant as now Baptism is yet was not this expiation then to be without shedding of blood as a type and figure of what was to come till the true blood of our Redemption should be shed upon the Cross after which now the Ceremony of a mundation only with water sufficeth § 46 To digress a little here the more exactly to weigh the just importment of this Ceremony which if you think an impertinency you may pass on to § 56. For Circumcision and the obligation which then the people of God had to it thus the case stood Adam being fallen from his original righteousness and so having lost the Grace of God and being become unable to observe his commands and by the breach of them liable to eternal death and the loss of the heavenly inheritance yet God in compassion to him then promised a seed that should bruise the head of that serpent that seduced him Gen. 3.15 and by whom should be had redemption pardon of former sin restorement of Grace and of the Holy Spirit to keep Gods commands so far as this Covenant of Grace required and a new benediction and introduction into the heavenly inheritance to all the faithful and children of the Gospel And so by this promised seed and in this faith and Covenant Evangelical were all the holy men preceding Abraham even from Adam Abel Enoch Noah c. redeemed and saved And Fathers of the faithful also before Abraham all these were in respect of their spiritual posterity and probably had some different ceremony from the rest of mankind by which they were initiated into this Evangelical Covenant and constituted members of Gods Church tho Abraham first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bare this name for his faith in God singularly eminent among the rest He believing as the Apostle saith Rom. 4.18 with his wife and family in hope even against hope first in relinquishing at once his country and kindred at Gods bare command not knowing saith the Apostle Heb. 11.8 when he went out whither he went 2ly and then in believing Gods power to give
thereof but also as a door of entrance into the Church family and houshold of God and into a new Covenant with God for the time to come by which from Abrahams daies till the accomplishment of our redemption this family was distinguished from all the rest of the world and a strict pact and Covenant passed between God and all such persons for the future whereby they engaged themselves on their parts to walk sincerely in his laws in newness of life as his obedient Children receiving then as it were a new nature as well as a name and God engaged on his part to be their Father and protector and exceeding great reward in bestowing upon them the inheritance and possession of an heavenly Canaan Now as to such significations of Circumcision and the other Church Sacraments though not as to the real effect of them upon him as the effect of the Sacrament is also by others many times had before the receit thereof these were more compleatly fulfilled in our Lord than in any other For he entred into the Church and houshold of God not as a simple member but as the Father and Head thereof not as a Son of God by Adoption but as that true natural Son and seed through whose merits all others entred into this Covenant of Grace As for the performance of the Condition of this Covenant never any undertook and walked therein in such perfect obedience and new life and circumcision of all carnal and rebellious lusts as himself Nor ever any received so high an eternal inheritance from God by vertue of this Covenant observed as his Humanity did § 52 But 2ly yet further as Circumcision hath relation to fin so the humility of our Lord also entertained both it and all other sacred expiations of guilt in the disguise of a sinner For his eternal wisdom thought meet for the more proper and satisfactory destroying of sin to cloth himself in the likeness of sin and to take all the appurtenances and shames thereof save only the very guilt it self which his purity could not admit and being without sin to suffer to the utmost what to other sinners was due and to perform to the utmost what of others as sinners was required That he might thus as it were in their stead give all satisfaction to his Fathers justice in his sufferings and to his laws in his obedience to his laws not only the Moral first given to man in innocence but also the Ceremonial prescribed to sinners for remission of guilt in observing which Ceremonies they also a second time failed and so these also as well as the Moral were a hand-writing against them Coloss 2.14 Eph. 2.16 There therefore he also undertook that by the merit of his exact observing these laws and satisfying his Fathers justice therein he might remove also this second hard and unsupportable yoke from off their necks Act. 15.10 and purchase for them the perfect spiritual effects thereof So by Christs Circumcision saith the Apostle Col. 2.14 Eph. 2.15 Gal. 3.24 25. Gal. 4.3 4.9 we are circumcised with the Circumcision made without hands in out putting off the body of the sins of the flesh which cleansing from carnal lusts is the Spiritual Grace of the carnal Circumcision § 53 Again the Ministry of the Baptist succeeding that of the law who was sent to sinners with a baptism of repentance to prepare them for receiving afterward from our Lord the baptism of the Spirit our Lord hasted now again among other sinners to receive from John this baptism of repentance and to fulfil this righteousness or duty of sinners as if he had bin a sinner too to the wonder of the Baptist to whom God then revealed him and his all-sanctity and after it he betook himself to a long penance of solitude in a desert of fasting and praier accompanied also with strong temptations from Satan for six weeks and afterward all his life long he endured reproaches as a sinner Rom. 15.3 and though the Holy one of God he sequestred not himself from the more publick offenders but conversed freely with them not out of love to sin but to the sinners though it turned much to his disesteem and prejudice with those who pretended more sanctity among the people § 54 Thus he not only as the second Adam descending from heaven entred upon the first Covenant of works Hocfac vives and fully performed the natural or moral law in all the points thereof but also as a Son of Adam faln and taking upon him the curse of his sin though not deriving from him the guilt of it he entred upon the Covenants of Grace and expiations of sin made with Abraham and the Patriarks and in the stead of sinners performed exactly all the Ceremonial Law as it related to sin and thus by his perfect obedience became heir of the Promises of the eternal inheritance made first to Adam for his works and then to Abraham for his faith and by these his merits whilst he owed nothing of what he did and suffered for himself became also the purchaser of mercy and of remission of sin and of the Spirit for all other sinners believing in him by which Spirit they are also enabled to keep the Covenant of Grace and to inherit the promises made to it Rom. 8.3 4. Gal. 3.14 â—4 6 § 55 This Digression perhaps not unprofitably made to shew to them more clearly the motives or reasons of the Circumcision of our Lord. Now I proceed Next At the Circumcision as being the Sacrament of Regeneration and admission into Gods Covenant family and Son-ship under the law accordingly a new name was given to the circumcised imposed by the Parents or more usually by the Mother See Gen. 4.1.25 16.11 29.32 1 Sam. 4.21 Esai 7.14 a name which ordinarily signifyed something that related to piety and Religion in reviving the memory of some former holy Person or thing in acknowledging some special favour or Grace received from the divine Majesty in devoting the circumcised to some virtues or qualities acceptable to God or also when the name was imposed by God or persons directed by his Spirit foretelling the nature actions and successes of the person circumcised God also many times by his secret providence guiding the Parents though knowing nothing to give such names as do correspond to future events Hence also as was said in the first institution of Circumcision were two new names given by God to Abraham and to his wife § 56 n. 1. When therefore this Son of God came to be circumcised God his Father appointed his name to be Jesus or Jeshua as he was called in the Syriack the language which the Jews then ordinarily spake 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or us being the Greek and Latine terminations thereof i. e. Saviour God signifying this before-hand by an Angel first to his Mother at his Conception and afterward to Joseph her husband upon his first discerning her to be with Child specifying then
most unreasonably a further sign from him and urged that Moses had given them Manna from Heaven and there also in like manner our Lord presently told them of his Death and his feeding them with his Flesh and Blood and then of their having everlasting life by it and his raising them up at the last day things at which some of them also then took great offence So here also they whether misconstruing his words as if he had said first that he would destroy their Temple for this at his Death they urged against him and the false witness Mark. 14.5 to speak home interposeth that he said he would destroy the Temple made with hands and in three daies raise up another made without hands and then that he in three daies would build it again a Temple that they said was forty six years in building in the one made him impious in the other ridiculous and so turned his mention of this his greatest work for the salvation of mankind into a great scorn and flighting of him and into the cause of a quarel against him till at last they contrived his Death the destroying of the Temple he here speaks of and brought these his words against him to justify it and so He in raising up again this Temple of his Deity thus destroyed exhibited to the World this great Sign which at this beginning of his preaching he engaged here This was the success of our Lords first Sermon and appearance amongst them as to the Pharisees and their followers already much degusted with him and filled with envy § 183 Yet many others there were that seeing his Miracles believed on him at least that he was some great Prophet sent from God among whom was Nicodemus But our Lord saith the Evangelist did not commit himself unto them admitting them not into his familiar society nor relied on their fidelity for he knew well what was in them and that several of them would fall away and especially in his last tryal most unworthily desert him Therefore our Lord usually when at Jerusalem after his publick teaching them in the Temple and his daies work there done withdrew himself and had no private meetings and conferences as he said at his tryal that in secret he had said nothing and many times at night removed with his Disciples out of the City neither though several in the Country are mentioned do we hear of our Lords admitting any entertainments in the City though we may presume he wanted not some Invitations And all this was but necessary for deferring the Conspiracies of his enemies till the due time of his offering-up appointed by his Father § 184 Our Lord continuing his publick teaching in the Temple and doing Miracles during the Paschal feast Nicodemus a Pharisee a ruler of the Jews as he is stiled here vers 1. One of the Sanedrim and a person studied in the law for our Lord chap. 3. vers 10. stiles him a Master in Israel shewing also herein to him that he knew who he was and on that account blames his ignorance being already a Convert as it is said Jo. 12.42 many other among the chief Rulers were afterward but timorous to confess him came privatly to our Lord by night for fear of losing his Reputation with his fellow-Rulers which shews a great envy and hatred toward our Lord already kindled in them to be farther instructed of him in the matters of the Kingdom of God and life eternal confessing to him that his Miracles had convinced him that he was an extraordinary Teacher sent from God Our Lord very courteously received him and in a few words manifested to him fully who himself was and the whole substance of the Gospel At the first he began to acquaint him with the first Foundation of the Christian Religion Regeneration which at the beginning he proposed some what obscurely perhaps to humble Nicodemus his too much conceit of his own knowledg telling him that to enter into the Kingdom of God one must necessarily be born again which word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translated here again signifies also from above which Nicodemus much wondring at and speaking of entring again into our Mothers womb our Lord graciously explained it to him that he must be born again not of a woman or the flesh which would produce nothing but flesh but of water the external Ceremony appointed by God to be used in the new birth signifying a being cleansed and purifyed from former sin and of the Spirit which might render a man spiritual and enabled therewith to bring forth good works which spirit inspires as it pleaseth 1 Cor. 12.4 Mark 4.27 unperceived by sense and being as the wind of which we know not whence or whither it goes but by its effects do discern the presence thereof and then gently reflected on Nicodemus his ignorance so to render him more docible and humble that he being a Master in Israel should know nothing of this For this Holy Spirit and our Renovation by it is frequently spoken of in the Old Testament and so also many types of Baptism and of the Sacraments of the new Testament found there See Psal 50.12 13 14 9. 142.10 11. Ezec. 11.36 1 Cor. 10.2 3 4. Further told him that these things he now spake to him were the lowest matters but that there was much higher that he came to reveal to mankind from Heaven and from God his Father For that he was the only begotten Son of God descended from Heaven and again ascendeth thither and which also according to his Divinity remains alwaies there who spake nothing but what he knew and had seen with the Father See the like vers 32. and Jo. 8.38 5.19 30. Because God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that men might not perish but have everlasting life i. e so many as believed in him and that as Moses lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness so he was to be lifted up See the like Jo. 8.28 So acquainting him but obscurely with his death sufferings That whosoever stung with sin beheld and believed on him might not perish but that those whoso did not believe on him were already condemned by occasion of his preaching to them not for their former sins which he came to take away but for their disbelief See Jo. 9.39 12.47 48. without which belief in him no forgiveness of Sin That he was the Light that was come into the world avoided only by those whose works were evil and so who feared the discovery of them by it and therefore made such opposition to him But that he that did truth would come to it as not fearing the manifesting of his deeds by it § 185 All these things he gratiously revealed to Nicodemus which delivered with his accustomed Majesty and Power must needs elevate Nicodemus into the highest admiration and reverence of his person love and gratitude towards his mercy and familiar condescendence especially having already seen his mighty
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
to God calling him Father in the midst of that severe handling of him and meekly resigning his dying Spirit into his hands Lastly in his dying before the other two and sending out a loud voice at his expiring which shewed his Divinity and that he gave up his life not upon any constraint of torments but voluntarily and when he pleased § 88 Seventhly This manner of death by the lifting up of the body in it towards heaven seems very significative that we now after and in imitation of it should exalt and remove our eyes and affections henceforth from the Earth towards Heaven Therefore our Lord gives it this honourable name of his Exaltation And I saith he if I be exalted from the Earth will draw all unto me Jo. 12.32 And the Apostle calls it his triumph having taken out of the way the Decree that was contrary to us he fastned it to his Cross and having despoiled the principalities and potentates triumphed over them in it Col. 2.15 So also in the nailing and fixing of the flesh of our Lord to the Cross significative of the mortifying and crucifying of the flesh and its lusts that is required of us in imitation of our Lord so disenabling it to stir hand or foot as it were any more to the breach of Gods commands and signifying our now dying to sin as he for it and this death of the Cross is often thus alluded to by the Apostle § 89 Eightly and Lastly the posture of this death carryed in it a lively Representation of his love to mankind with his arms stretched out as it were to embrace and receive all those who would come to him and his head declining to kiss them Having made this Digression upon the Jewes so often vehement demanding and at last Pilats consent to our Lord's Crucifixion to shew the multiplicity of the divine wisdom in the choice of this manner of death rather than any other I proceed now in the relation of the story after Pilats having committed to the Roman Guards the execution thereof § 90 The time now after Pilats four or five returns into the Praetorium and Exits to the Jews whilst he endeavoured by all means to have preserved our Lords life i. e. so far as his own safety with Cesar and his reputation with the Jews would permit and after our Lords being sent to and returned from Herod and the soldiers scourging and dressing him so as to be made a fitter object of the hard-hearted Jews Pity drew well towards Noon Jo. 19.14 Luk. 23.44 about the sixth hour saith St. John and St. Luke though called as yet the third hour by St. Mark because the sixth hardly yet begun The scoffing Soldiers then seizing on our Lord after some further abuses which both in words and actions by Satans instigation were committed both in the way and at the place of Execution as we may gather from the very Theif in the midst of his torments not tempering himself from reviling of him with the rest stript our Lord of his Purple and put on him his own garments whose prize shortly they were to be and so making all speed laid a cross already prepared upon his torn shoulders and so led away this only Isaac of God carrying the wood of his Sacrifice upon his back § 91 And to fulfil a second time after his being coupled with Barabbas the Prophet Esay's cum sceleratis reputatus est Esay 53.12 and that there might be some greater appearance of Justice and our Lord mingled with company whom the people might think like himself there were two notable Thieves on either hand one joined with him and haled along to their Execution but these also or one of them at least railing at him even when suffering with him and such companions he was to have of his greifs as offered him no solace therein And indeed if we consider the person he now took on him what Malefactor or crimes so great as could match him or his for he carried on his shoulders all the sins of the whole world present and past and to come and even those too of these Malefactors and so also this Anathema as the chief was crucified in the midst and the reason in the Prophet of his cum sceleratis reputatus seems very apposite quia ipse peccata multorum tulit Graced with this company and laden with an heavy Cross the long beam thereof being probably more than twice the length of a man for his body was to be stretched at its full length upon it and to be exalted to such a convenient height as might render him a spectacle to all the multitude and de facto so high it was that the Soldier to pierce his side used not his Sword but his Lance and to give him drink they tyed a spunge to the end of a long reed and so reached it to his mouth It was also to carry a Title over his head and to be fastned in the ground and the cross Beam of it also was to equal the breadth of his body and length of his arms I say thus laden he made a painful but most chearful march under it through a good part of the City the Governours Palace being near the Temple on the East side of it and Calvary the place of Execution at the North-West side thereof till when coming without the Gate he fainted away under it his body being now grown very feeble and his spirits exhausted by reason of his cruel scourging and other base usage of the three Guards of Officers Caiphas's Herod's and Pilats he had passed through and of his being kept all night without the least sleep or repose or refreshment or his former temperance having any superfluous humors to feed on Because our Lord alone was unable to bear it any further and it was an ignominious thing to carry or touch the instrument of the Execution of a Malefactor whence the word Furcifer was a common name of reproach by chance a poor man that came then out of the countrey one Simon a stranger of Cyrene in Africk where was then a great Colony of the Jews Act. 2.10 6.9 Joseph de Excid Hieros l. 7. c. 38. meeting them the Soldiers laid hold on him and forced him to bear our Lord's Cross after him either the whole or the heaviest end thereof whose sons Alexander and Rufus are particularly named by the Evangelist Mark 15.21 which shews that they were not only Converts to the Christian Faith but persons of some note amongst the Primitive Christians see Acts 19.33 Romans 16.13 it those the same And it is to be presumed that our Lord rewarded this service done him to their Father also in making him a Member of the Church and of his Kingdom and that he was saved by the Holy Cross he bore who thus had the honour even in the truest sense to take up the cross and follow our Lord and to partake of his reproach and ignominy But the divine Counsel
this Mary had bin the Blessed Virgin 's own sister her Name would not have bin also Mary this being not usual or convenient to call two sisters undistinguishable by the same Name There was also present Salome John's Mother and others and John likewise our Lords beloved Disciple whose confidence above the rest we saw in the High Priests Palace was there with them but likely none other of the Eleven at least so near affraid of being apprehended if they should have appeared and perhaps John more presuming here as in the Palace because known to the High Priest Here then stood the sad Mother of our Lord beholding and hearing all that was done to and said against her Son with the like patience and resignation as he suffered it and ready with Abraham for the love of God to have offered him up her self had he commanded it Here she and the rest heard also that admirable confession of our Lord by the penitent Thief and our Lord 's gracious answer to him which must needs be a great consolation to them After which Answer our Lord looking down upon his Mother and compassionating her condition as well as Grief spake to her first and calling her Woman perhaps for preventing those affronts to which her near relation to him hated of all if it had bin known made her liable recommended John his beloved Disciple to her love and affection instead of himself as one that thence forward would perform the duty and observance to her of a Son and then speaking to John recommended to him the care and providing for her now aged about fifty and a desolate widow Joseph being formerly dead and now also her only Son taken from her as his Mother he being a single person and Virgin as she and having no Wife or family of his own to take care of as many others had and by reason of his wealthy parents out of which wealth also Johns mother formerly made provision many times for our Lord having the command of so much maintenance as was necessary for their decent subsistance Which recommendation of our Blessed Lady to John shews that notwithstanding the mention we find of her sister and four of our Lords Brethren yet that they were not of so near a Relation as that our Lords Mother after the death of Joseph had any family of her own or these had any constant habitation with her so as that she might rather have bin committed to their care and provision in her now declining age § 101 Our Lord having thus made his Will and disposed of his onely charge his dear Mother whom St. John took to himself and served with all fidelity and supplied with all necessaries till her death spake not at all after this for near the space of three hours from about the sixth till the ninth hour a little before he gave up the Ghost but continuing in silence and prayer and his countenance lift up towards heaven went on finishing that Sacrifice which was to be the redemption of the world consuming and melting away in the flames of Gods wrath toward sinners now in its effects seizing on him in their stead for all the offences of all mankind that had or should be When as he grew nearer to his end the Sun now at midday see Amos 8.9 and when not capable of any natural Ecclipse the Moon being now at the full and at its greatest distance from it began to be darkned and to lose its light this noblest body of the Creation sympathizing as it were with its Lord and covering its face at such a horrid Spectacle and indicating to the hard-hearted Spectators the true Sun of righteousness and that true Light that enlightneth every one that cometh into this world to be now setting and its glory ecclipsed so far as the malice of the Prince of Darkness and his Instruments could effect it and intimating now also the cheif reign of the power of darkness permitted by God to the Prince thereof § 102 All things were now full of terrour and amazement and mens hearts with fear began now to melt and relent and their former taunts and merriments to be changed into a deep silence and expectation what would be the Issue suspecting more miraculous things to follow when about the ninth hour or three of the clock in the afternoon the solemn time of offering up the Evening Sacrifice our Lord when now seeming to be quite spent and near his expiration cried out with a loud and strong voice and such as was not usual to such a manner of death exhausting all their spirits and strength before taking away their life to shew that he laid his life down not compelled but when he pleased though without shortning the time of the sufferings belonging to that cruel death and to testify also against Hereticks the Reality of his sufferings saying with great force that all the multitude heard him those first words of the Psalm penned by the Holy Ghost for a Description of his Passion Eloi Eloi lamma Sabbacthani My God My God why hast thou forsaken me expressing the last pangs of death now approaching and the inexplicable torments and anguish of Body and Soul due to our sins that now lay upon him which he calls his sins in the following part of this verse of that mourning Psalm longe a salute mea verba delictorum meorum and which sin of ours made this patient Lamb of God after three hours silence so break out into this complaint under them where more greivous than the corporal sufferings was the interior anguish of Spirit in his Divinity its suspending from his Humanity all those consolations which might any way relieve its sorrows and with which his Servants in their greatest sufferings are usually refreshed This like to that his Agony in the Garden but now without an Angel where the Apostles mention Heb. 5.7 of our Lord in the daies of his flesh offering up to God prayer and supplications with strong cryes and with tears may well be understood as of the tears and prayers and strong cryes made and shed in the Garden so of these now iterated on the Cross for the weight of Gods wrath lying on our sins which he assumed is inexplicable These words of that prophetick Psalm might have hinted to the learned High Priests and Elders that the Tragedy of this Psalm was just now acted and lively expressed in every part of it and they those miserable Wretches by whose persecutions this prophecy was fulfilled and so might have begotten some compunction in them But either they so blinded as not to understand those words or the other common-people at least mistaking them nor knowing them for the beginning of the Psalm and hearing them pronounced with such a loud voice thought from the similitude of the word Eloi twice repeated that our Lord called upon Elias that he would not forsake him in this his misery but come to help him For it was the common belief that