26 de Verb. Domini to demonstrate it was both a remarkable blessing to him and that he loved him above the rest and the exchange was happy when in lieu of a mother the wife of a Fisher he took the mother of a Saviour the best of women full of grace and blessed in her Sex But 1. He that diligently observes may gather hence Christs desires to suffer for our salvation to be infinite and inexpressible that thereby our redemption might be most full and copious Other men think it an augmentation to their sorrows to have their kindred friends and alliances spectators of their death especially of that which is violent and infamous but Christ not contented with his own real passion which was most cruel and full of dishonour would have his Mother and this Disciple to be also present that the Sympathetical sorrows of his dearest might add to and reduplicate his own personal sufferings Three Maries and a Disciple stood near the place of his sufferings that as four Fountains of blood issued from his body on the Cross so from their mournful eyes might spring four Fountains of tears so that it is questionable whether he felt more sorrow for the effusion of his own blood or their tears Methinks I hear Christ bemoaning himself The sorsows of death have compassed me Psal 17.9 but the sword foretold by Simeon which should pierce the soul of my innocent Luk. 2.35 mother doth as much Lacerate and wound my heart Most bitter death that separate not only the soul from the body but also a Mother and such a Mother from such a Son God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son for the Redemption of it and he so loved the Father that for his honour Rivelets of blood streamed from him that we should not perish but have everlasting life Yet we give such a disobedient resistencie to his goodness that we had rather be confounded in the just fury of an omnipotent God then tast the sweetness of his compassion One drop of his most precious blood might have been a sufficient Ransome for the Redemption of more worlds and yet he would sacrifice all for this one thereby as well to endear us as fully to satisfie the justice of his Father 2. But there are many considerations that arise from a mystery of the three women that stood near the Cross Some out of a petulancy of wit to maintain Paradoxes and such singularities have called in question the abilities and faculties of women in the Root thereof in the Reasonable and Immortal Soul but no man of Piety and conversation in Scripture can admit such a doubt Here are women that were sedulous and constant in their religious offices to our Saviour to the last gasp Mat. 28.6 and after that he was interred they came with a pious intention to see the Sepulchre and out of a civil respect to embalm his body in the Monument where they thought to find it When others even his own Disciples through timer ousnesse and infidelity had deserted their Master these like inseparable friends followed him to his grave and would not rest there till an Angel of heaven had assured them of his Resurrection The zeal and piety of women have equalled if not surpassed the best of men S. Paul testifies in their behalf that they were great instruments for the advancing of true Religion At Thessalonica Act. 17.4 of the chief women not a few great and many Neither do we read of any woman in the Gospel that assisted the persecutors of Christ or furthered his afflictions even Pilats wife disswaded it Jerome writ many letters to divers holy Ladies for the most part all of one Stock and kindred and all so Religious as that he sayes If Jupiter were their Cousin and of their kindred he believes Jupiter would be a Christian he would leave being such a god as he was to be their fellow servant to the true God Woman as well as Man was made after the image of God in the Creation and in the Resurrection her sex shall not diminish her glory Of which she receives one fair beam and inchoation at the Passion of Christ that women continued in their attendance on him to the last and that by the ministry of Angels the glad tidings of his Resurrection was communicated to them before any other 3. And because they were worthy to be known the Holy Ghost celebrates them by their names and qualities we will therefore consider who they were and what they were their Names first and then their Conditions There is an Historical relation and observation Badin de Repub. l. 6 c. 4 That in divers Kingdoms in Europe the Crown did fall at one time upon women of one name Mary It was so in England Scotland Denmark and Hungaria all four Maries Here we have but three Mary Magdalen Mary the wife of Cleophas and Mary the Virgin and yet such three as wear now Immortal Crowns in Heaven Indeed it is a Noble and a Comprehensive Name Mary It is the Name of woman in general according to some of the Learned Gen. 2.23 for when Adam sayes of Eve She shall be called Woman in the Arabick Translation there is this name She shall be called Mary and the Arabick is perchance a Dialect of the Hebrew But in pure and Original Hebrew the word signifies Exaltation and whatsoever is best in the kind thereof and worthily are they to be ever exalted for their diligence and perseverance in their devotion This is also like if not the same as Miriam the sister of Aaron and Moses that with her Quire of women assisted at that Eucharistical Sacrifice that triumphant Song of thanksgiving upon the destruction and subversion of Aegypt in the red Sea Exo. 15.20 As Joshua and Jesus is the same to men so Miriam and Mary is the same name in women according to some The word denotes Greatness not only in Power but in Wisdom And great are they in the eyes of God and to be magnified by men to all Posterity 4. But we intend not to dwell upon this circumstance but pass to another considerable that springs from the Quality of the women in relation to their Spiritual state We find Mary Magdalen personates the penitent or incipient the other Mary the proficient the Virgin Mary those who are perfect All three had need of Christ and to stand near the banner of the Cross The Incipients that are to war with many sins and concupiscences want the guidance and assistance of so great a General as Christ that beholding him struggling with so subtil and malicious an enemy as the old serpent and openly triumphing over him they might be animated to fight the Lords battel against all the assaults of the divel and not to desist untill they have obtained an honourable victory The Proficients who are represented by Mary of Cleophas who was a married woman and a mother of sons
above and this is not to be found in the Athens of the world but in the most Divine Academie of Gods Spirit Jam. 1.5 the Treasure and fountain of all true knowledg who gives liberally to all and reproacheth none Thither only we must make our humble addresses for this holy Gemme and not desist in our Prayers untill we have by our teares and cryes undeafed the eares of the Almighty 1 ANd now O God of all pity and Patience we are confounded to consider thy great goodness in suffering that extremity of thirst and pain for us on the Cross enable us to bear patiently all afflictions Corporal or spiritual and to submit our wills to thine in sickness as in health in woe as in wealth in death as in life 2. Make us to thirst after the Kingdom of heaven and its righteousness teach us to prize the salvation of our soules above all earthly possessions for they are spiritual immortal and precious these but transitory and subservient if we seek thee in the first place who art All in All no blâ—ssings whether corporall spirituall or eternal can be wanting to us for every good and perfect gift proceeds from thee above Iam. 1.17 O Father of lights The sixth Word JOHN 19.30 It is finished THIS implies no more in sound construction then that the wonderful work of the Passion is now consummated and completed for the Father enjoyned the Son two weighty offices or works one of preaching the Gospel the other of suffering for man of the first the Lord formerly said That he had finished the work which he gave him Joh. 17.5 6. and manifested his name unto men The other injunction is intimated in these words O my Father if this Cup may not pass away from me Mat. 26 42. except I drink it thy will be done Now he had fully exhausted that bitter cup of his Passion nothing remained but his dissolution and so with an inclining head he gave up the Ghost But being neither our Saviour nor S. John explained what was Finished occasion is given us to make such mysticall applications of the Word as may be fruitfull to our souls Aug. â—om in â—cum One of the Fathers affirmes That in this place is meant an impletion of the Prophecies foretold of Christ Esay 7. Mick 2. and that all those predictions were true as his conception of a Virgin his Nativity in Bethlehem Numb 23. the apparatition of a new Starr Psal 71. the Adoration of Kings the Preaching of the Gospell Isay 61. His Miracles his riding upon an ass Esay 35. Psal 21.68 Esa 53. Jer. 11. Zach. 12. And his whole Passion is described by parts by David in his Psalmes Esay Jeremy Zachary and others and this the Lord himself being to pass to his sufferings spake Behold Luck 18. we go up to Jerusalem and all things that are written by the Prophets concerning the Son of Man shall be accomplished which is also here averred that their Testimonies might he verrified and received as the dictates of the Holy Ghost 2. Another of the Fathers understands here Chrysost that the power which was permitted to Men and Angels against Christ was now consummated at his Death and to this effect he speaks to the Chief Priests and Captains of the Temple and the elders that were with him this is your hour Lu. 22.53 and the power of darkness now his laborious peregrination now the condition of his mortal life according to which he hungred and thirsted and was weary and obnoxious to injuries wounds and to death it selfe is fully ended and determined 3. Another makes this Construction Now the chiefest Sacrifice was Consummated that in which all the Sacrifices of the old Law as it were types and shadowes did rest and into which they run as Rivolets into the main Ocean or as the stars when the Sun appeares with his glorious rayes see no stars at all so those typical oblations all vanished at the presence of this Son of Glory when he was to be immolated Concerning these prefigurations one speaks thus Lord thou hast attracted all things to thy selfe Leo Serm. 8. de possion dom for the vaile of the Temple being rent the holy things of the most holy departed from the unworthy Priests that the figure might be turned into the truth Prophecy into manifestation and the law into the Gospel and a little after the variety of carnal sacrifices now ceasing the oblation of thy body and blood have made one perfect and entire sacrifice For in this Sacrifice the Priest is God-man according to his Hypostatical union Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchizedeck Psal 109.4 The Altar was the Cross which by how much the more base it was before by so much the more illustrious and noble it was made after Christs death the Sacrifice was the Lamb of God innocent and immaculate of whom the Prophet said That he was brought as a sheep to the slaughter Isa 53.7 and as a sheep before the shearer is dumb so he openeth not his mouth The fire of the Holocaust was his immense charity Cant. 1.8 which did so flame in his brest that the floods of persecutions could not extinguish it the fruit of the Sacrifice was the redemption of Mankind the expiation of the sins of all the sons of Adam for Isa 1.29 behold he is the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world But here is the difference between the sacrifices under the Law and this of the Gospel there it was the Office of the Priest to kill and to prepare the Sacrifice but here Christ was both Priest and Sacrifice not that he layd violent hands on himself but because he willingly yielded to the slaughter for Gods glory and the propitiation of our sins their reconciliation was obtained by the blood of beasts Col. 1.20 here peace is made through the sacred blood of Christ Jesus not his as he claimes all the beasts of the forrest all the cattell upon a thousand hills Psa 50.10 and all the foules of the Mountains to be his not his as he is Lord and proprietary of all by Creation so all blood in his no nor his as the blood of all the Martyrs was his which is a neer relation and Consanguinity but his so as it was the blood of his Cross the precious blood of his body the seat of his soul the matter of his Spirits and the knot of his dear life 4. We may further understand in this place that at the death of Christ a great battell was finished between him and the Prince of this world of which he intimates in those words Now is the judgement of this world Jo. 12.31 now shall the Prince of it be cast out but this battell was judiciall not military the encounters were in litigations not armes for the devill did strive with the Son of God about
dayes Exod. 10.21 which was a signification of their superstitious blindness and ignorance of the true knowledg of God and the obstinacy and disobedience to Gods Commandment And as then Meses brought the Israelites from the Egyptian bondage they were in under Pharaoh so the true Moses here Jesus Christ brings all that believe in him from the bondage of Satan unto everlasting happiness Let us now come unto the words themselves My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Psal 22.1 and these we find to be taken out of the Psalmist and in them Christ complains in a voice more then ordinary that he was relinquished of God the Father at that instant For the better clearing of the sense we must observe that Christs derelictions of the Father may be understood five several wayes whereof one only is true and here meant there were five conjunctions or unions in the Son of God The first is that of Essence between the first and second Person of the Glorious Trinity and that as it is natural and eternal so it is perpetual and inseparable of which Christ himselfe speaks I and my Father are one and therefore he said not My Father Joh. 8.16 but My God why hast thou forsaken me For the Father is not called God of the Son till after and by reason of the Incarnation 2. The second is the Conjunction of the Divine and Humane nature in the second Person and this can never be dissolved for what he once took he never puts off And the Apostle saies Christ that is God and Man suffered for us 1 Pet. 2.21 The third is the union of Grace Joh. 1.14 For Christ was a Man full of Grace and truth and this doth and shall remain The just dyed for the unjust 1 Pet. 3.18 the death of Christ had nothing profited us if there had been a separation of Grace The fourth is the union of Glory for the soule of Christ saw God from its very conception Joh. 1.14 and according to its superiour part was already truely blessed Aquin. 3. p. q. 46. ar 8. and therefore this conjunction could not be dissolved because a soule once truely blessed is alwayes blessed blessednesse being the summ and compendium of all goodness There remains a fifth union which is that of Protection whereof he speaks He that sent me is with me Joh. 8.29 and hath not left me alone And this for a short time was suspended and dissolved that the oblation of a bloody sacrifice might take place for the Redemption of mankind God was able divers wayes to have protected Christ and to have withstood his Passion according to that prayer of his in the Garden Marck 14.36 Father all things are possible to thee take away this cup from me nevertheless not what I will but what thou wilt Nay Christ could have defended himselfe and commanded Legions of Angels to have guarded his Person Mat. 26.53 No man could take his life from him but he laid it down himself Joh. 10.18 and he might as well bestowed on his body the gift of impassibility as that of incorruption But it pleased the Father it pleased the Son it pleased the Holy Ghost to permit the common decree that humane cruelty should prevail against him then he told his bebetrayers the hour was come Mark 14.41 in which the Son of man should be delivered into the hands of sinners God then so left and forsook his Son that he suffered his humanity for that Space to be without any consolation to endure for our sins most bitter sorrows yea the torments of hell it self And he put himself to those unspeakable sufferings by reason of the greatnesse of mans sin which he took on his body to expiate for us that we being delivered from sin 1 Pet. 2.24 should live in righteouseness by whose stripes we are healed And as this sin was infinite as being against a person of an infinite value the Lord God so the person Satisfying was to be of an incomprehensible dignitie and excellency And though one drop of his precious blood had been an ampler ansom for all mankind yet that his passion might be esteemed by us the more meritorious and gain more Souls he shed all because he did undertake for the sins of the whole world therefore it pleased him to suffer a world of torments when he laboured under that Dereliction of his father 1. Learn hence O man how infinite and inexpresible was the love of Christ to thee when he suffered with so much patience and humilitie such wonderful torments for thy sins His soul was very heavie unto death Man 26.3 There is no Christian but will acknowledge that our Saviour was ten thousand times more able to suffer then the most Constant Martyr that hath suffered for his Name and if he were more able to bear whence could it happen that he was prest with such sorrow such heaviness and such feare but that he alone suffered more then all the martyrs ever since righteous Abel to this day this should work an imitation in us to love the bitter cup of repentance and to reject the cups of Consolation and Secular delights to rejoyce in afflictions and to trample on the seeming felicities of this world Doth God visit our land with Plague Famine War or other judgements O! remember that these Calamities are but as a drop to that vast Ocean of sorrows the Son Gof od suffered for us and that they are far less then our sins deserved for they are but temporal and reach no further then our bodies but by his sufferings we are exempted from those miseries which might justly fall on our souls and bodies eternally We then are as prisoners once condemned for capital crimes but released again with our lives and only chastized with some few stripes have we not then great cause to rejoyce that we have escaped greater judgments 2. But though God seems for a while to forsake his friends and leave them in durances and to withdraw his grace and favour from them yet his indignation cannot last for ever in the end he will return unto them and shew them the light of his gracious Countenance and be merciful unto them if they call upon his glorious name in their distresses Christ upon the Cross suffered a great dereliction his Glory was obscured his divinity seemed to be hid the light of heaven was substracted from him in stead of a Diademe he wore a Crown of thorns in stead of a Scepter a Reed in stead of a statelyretinue belonging to a King they afforded him the ignominious fellowship of two theeves thus was he dejected and scorned and exposed to all imaginable crosses but behold upon his humble expostulation and prayer to God the sence was altered and a speedy Period put to all these calamities the heavens were unmantled the light appeared his last and worst enemy Death was conquered his body and soul
much facility Cyprian ser de patieut Charity which is the Queen of virtues the ground of peace the link of unity greater then either faith or hope or Martyrdom take from it Patience and it remains desolate take from it the substance of suffering and it hath no root no strength to persevere without this the chaste man cannot resist uncleanness the just cannot be free from corruption nor the peaceable from a desire of Revenge The Psalmist saies Psal 9.18 the expectation or Patience of the Poor or humble shall not perish for ever but the fruit of it shall be perpetually verdant the husband-man loses not the sweats of his brow when he beholds his seed flourishing in the eare And the patient souldier deserves as great trophies as the greatest Conquerour when by the sweetness of his sufferings he doth as it were trampled on the victories of his enemies he that endureth to the end shall receive a Crown of Glory Ja. 1.12 We need no other Motive to induce us to this Royal vertue then the King of sufferings Christ Jesus thirsting on the Cross for not to speak of all his afflictions and miseries which continued from his cradle to his grave this his tedious and vehement thirst is sufficient to enflame our souls with a religious patience in all our tribulations But least we should mistake the practice of it with the Romish Saint Macarius who having killed a gnat which pricked him Vitae P. P. as if he had committed a great act of impatience went for the space of six moneths exposing his naked body to all the flies gnats and wasps of the wilderness to be revenged upon himself let 's take these few directions 1. To bear a little with our selves and be content with those conditions and callings wherein we are placed it is the property of imprudent persons to be weary with the present and ever gaping for the future 2. To be full of mildness and lenity towards others bearing with their infirmities some hath more disturbances then the winding Eruipus hath waves but what unreasonableness is it that a man full of rebellions against God should desire that men and beasts serve him according to all his humours 3. 2 Sam. 16 10 11. To suffer calumny and slanderous words as David did those of Shemei 4. To endure all humane accidents as sicknesses loss of goods hunger and thirst imprisonments banishments death of friends and neer Relations and whatsoever hath sadness and horror in nature ever acknowledging that they are but scourges for our sins which deserves greater and that none of them happen without the permission of the divine power to which we must all submit that so the incensed God being appeased may vouchsafe us his benedictions and enbosom us as his sons by his paternal favour 2. But besides this corporal thirst the Lord seems to me to intend a spiritual one and to have spoken these words in the same sense as those to the women of Samaria Give me to drink Afterwards unlocking the mystery of his speech he adjoynes this if thou knewest the gift of God Io. 4.7 10. and who it is that saith to thee give me to drink thou wouldst have asked of him and he will give thee the water of life When I behold Christ upon the Cross as it were upon the high Mount looking on so many millions languishing through the inflamations of their sins I behold the same Lord commiserating their sad conditions and saying though I truly thirst for the exhausted and dried humour of my body yet I more thirst and covet that man at length may by faith acknoledg me to be the true fountain of that living water and that they may come to me and drink and so they shall not thirst eternally To this purpose are the words of the Prophet Ho Everyone that thirsteth come to the waters Isa 55.1 and he that hath no money come buy and eat come I say buy wine and milk without money without price That you may conceive they are not screw'd to too high a value he invites you with a second call these waters are said to be bought because they are not to be had without some labour and industry but they are had without any commutation because they are given freely neither can there be any price found to parallel the greatness of their worth what he first called Water he afterwards cals Wine and Milk thereby to display unto us the excellency and perfection of the gift what is called Water is divine Wisdom which quencheth the flames lusts of Concupiscence by Wine is meant that celestial calefaction which doth warm and brisk the soul making it to covet things heavenly and sublime and it is called Milk because it sweetly nourished the Infants in Christ with eternal food 1 Pet. 2.1 Some thirst with a most flaming desire and insatiable greediness after the transitories of this world which the vulgar call blessings as honours wealth and pleasures but our desires must mount higher and have these three Objects the glory of God the honour of Christ and the salvation of our souls that these were the vehement desires of Christ all his works all his preachings all his sufferings and all his miracles do voice and speak it The Prophet cries out As the hart brayeth for the rivers of water Psal 42.1 2. so panteth my Soul after thee O God My Soul thirsteth for God even for the living God when shall I come and appear before the presence of God Behold how this King who was clad with the rags of mortality and soyled with the vileness of carnal vanities thirsts after Gods honour and service here and to enjoy the beatifical vision of him hereafter Rom. â— 3 Pauls zeal towards Gods Glory was such that he would redeem the rejection of the Jews with his own damnation to testifie his great desire for their Salvation he wisht to be anathematized from Christ He had rather be deprived of the heavenly Glory then that Christ should be deprived of so great a fault of his passion which would have appeared in the conversion of so many thousand Israelites Now if Christ if Paul and others so eagerly thirsted for our salvation why do we our selves neglect it Why do we so vehemently covet these temporals which are weightless and momentaneous and not place our whole effections on that happiness which is glorious and eternal The reason peradventure is because everlasting Glory is not empaled within the dominion of sense we have not that external experiment of it as of corporal felicity which makes us earnestly covet this slightly desire the other and therefore the natural man who sees not beyond the Region of sense perceiveth not the things of the Spirit of God 1 Cor. 2.14 for they are foolishness to him But he that is spiritual discerneth all things There must be a spiritual wisdome in us before we can long for the things