the Paschal Lamb his Type without a bone of him being broken Of Moses his smiting of the rock and so water gushing out of it of his nailing a brazen Serpent on a Pole that all who looked with faith upon it might be healed as our Lord also came in similitudine peccati of Aarons dry and withered Rod afterwards rebudding and flourishing of Jonah lying three daies in the Whales belly and afterwards cast up now also he expounded to them Daniels weeks remembred them of Hosea's chap. 6.3 vivificavit nos post duas dies in die tertia suscitabit nos and of Davids Psal 15.10 Non dabis Sanctum tuum videre corruptionem And de torrente in via bibet propterea exaltabit caput Of Zachary's chap. 13.6 7. Quae sunt plagae istae in medio manuum tuarum and his Percutiam Pastorem dispergentur oves These and all the forementioned descriptions of his passion especially in the Prophet Esay chap. 5.3 and in the Ps 21. and 68. he set before them and many more in these Books than man's weak apprehensions hath bin able to discover the whole History and Prophecies of the Old Testament principally prefiguring and representing the great Mystery of the salvation of mankind that was in the latter daies to be wrought by the Son of God These things our Lord discoursed continuing his Speech till they were now arrived at the Village where their business called them whilst their hearts were all on fire in hearing what he said according to that of the Psalmist Ps 18.15 Ignitum eloquium tuum c. Our Lord making as though he would have gone further gave them occasion to shew their hospitality and so importuned by them to stay and eat with them or also to stay all night the day being near an end and they infinitly longing after more of his conversation and discourse he yeilded to their request and so sitting down at Table he took the bread blessed brake and gave it them suddainly appearing to them in his own likeness or also performing this Ceremony in some singular manner of benediction as was formerly his custome well known at least to Cleophas Josephs Brother used to the same table Or because we may imagine our Lords actions done in the most perfect manner in this breaking of bread celebrating with them the memorial of his Passion after his long discourse thereof in the holy Eucharist sometimes expressed by breaking of bread see Acts 20.7 2.46 after he had first sufficiently instructed them in this great Mistery wherein he now when personally departing yet would continue a miraculous presence of himself to his Church to the end of the world After which given them and their hospitality thus amply rewarded upon eating it their eyes also were no longer held but that they clearly discerned with great reverence his Sacred Majesty now in his own form and likeness and knew him and after this he suddainly departed out of their sight § 126 The two Disciples ravished with what they had seen and heard yet by our Lords suddain withdrawing himself their joy not unmixed with some sadness presently returned back that Evening to Jerusalem and told the company there assembled all that had hapned their being two together rendring their testimony more credible where they found the Disciples also relating our Lords appearance to Peter They reported also to them his Sermon and the types in the law and the Prophets presignifying such his sufferings before his entrance into his Kingdom notwithstanding which though many of them were much perswaded yet some others saith St. Mark chap. 16.13 still remained incredulous probably arguing from our Lord 's presently vanishing both from the women and from St. Peter and last from these two at Emaus that it was some Spirit only appearing in his likeness For the same conceit they had also by and by when our Lord appeared to themselves Luk. 24.37 § 127 After so many messages and ocular Witnesses of his Resurrection sent to them for the trial of their faith and all by some of them still discredited now late at night as they were after Supper sitting and debating these things and some it seems still contradicting the doors being fast shut for fear of the Jews who also had spread a report of them that they had stoln away our Lords Body our Lord himself suddainly appeared in the midst of them at which they were at first much affrighted thinking him some night-walking-Spirit knowing the doors to be firmly bolted and perceiving him descending rather then entring in among them But our Gracious Lord soon allayed this astonishment saluting them with a Pax vobis the usual and Antient salutation of the Jews but this pax of his extraordinary and not sicut Mundus Jo. 14.27 working in the Soul the effect whilst he spake with his mouth the words Then mildly reprehended them that they had remained so obstinatly incredulous to the Eye-witnesses that came to them in a matter also so often foretold them nor yet believed their own eyes at present but took him for a Spirit then proceeded to discover and shew them the scars of the wounds he had received in his hands feet and side those noble scars which his glorified Body in heaven still retains eternal Witnesses of his love to mankind and with which he will appear at his second coming for the greater confusion of his Enemies when saith S. John Apo. 1.7 they shall look on him whom they have pierced and whose tender of mercy after it they also rejected He bad them also to feel and handle his true flesh and bones different from Spirits therefore saith the Apostle not only Quod audivimus quod vidimus but manus nostrae contrectaverunt de verbo vitae Then what only remained for their satisfaction whilst the excess of their Joy and wonder still suspended their full assent and belief he called for meat and eat also before them of that poor fare which they were provided of though in this great Feast and to which our Lord also had bin most accustom'd a piece of a broild fish and of an hony-comb the one plentiful in the woods of this countrey and the other a common food among Fishermen perhaps the relicks of their Supper but now ended Of which after he had eaten he gave to them the remainder saith the vulgar in S. Luke chap. 24.43 Et cum manducasset coram eis sumens reliquias dedit eis To partake of what he Sanctified and that they might say they had eat and drunk with him as also those at Emaus See Act. 1.4 After he had thus eaten before them and by all these waies satisfied them excepting only Thomas absent of the truth and reality of that the Testimony of which they were to spread abroad through all the world and for which afterwards to lay down their lives he made much what to them the same Sermon or Discourse as to the two Disciples that went to Emaus instructing them in
and words comp Mat. 3.2 with 4.17 declaring unto them a Kingdom in Heaven which the Lord that followed him would confer on the worthy and the everlasting torments of Hell-fire which he would inflict on the rebellious telling them of a kingdom of God to be erected not abroad but within them and of the Holy Spirit which this King would baptize them with upon their repentance preached by Him freeing them from the thraldom not of the Romans but of sin nor from their servitude under Herod or Tiberius but under the great Prince of all this lower world Satan their spiritual and only dangerous enemy whose captives and children and not Abrahams they unknowingly were till by this Prince delivered This was the great deliverance to come by Jesus which both Holy Zachary spake of in his Benedictus Luk. ◠77 To give knowledg of Salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins and the Angel in his message to Joseph telling him why he should be called Jesus or Savior Matt. 1.21 because he should save his people from their sins Such punishments and rewards liberty and royalty as the Baptist preached being the only that were here worth the speaking of or looking after Thus was the Baptist appointed to be the beginner of the Gospel and the first open promulgator of this new Spiritual Kingdom The Prophets saith our Savior Mat. 11.12 13. prophecied until John 1. of such a thing to come but from the daies of John the kingdom of heaven began to suffer violence people by troopes now pressing into it and every one striving to gain for himself a share thereof whilst they crowded in such multitudes to Johns Mat. 3.5 and our Saviors baptisms Joh. 3 26. Only John began the publishing of this Gospel afar off as it were not coming into the Temple or the cheif Cities to preach it but staying a loof off in the Wilderness and near Jordan leaving these honors to the Lord who followed Him by whom the Gospel was brought still nearer till it visited at last every small Town and Village § 6 And as John preceded our Savior in his new and Spiritual doctrine so he resembled him much what in his Heroical vertues Both in his magnanimity and courage and in his mansuetude and clemency and in his humility and self-denial which was never in any man so great as in our Savior 1 Using the same boldness toward Herod Luk. 3.19 20 as our Savior afterwards did Luk. 13.32 reproving him for all the evil he had done saith the Evangelist Luke 3.19 and particularly concerning his Wife not fearing the implacable wrath of a woman and a Queen tho this cost him his life Again treating the Scribes the Pharisees and Sadduces whose manners he knew by the Spirit and Revelation not having learnt them by experience at the first sight roughly and severely as their incorrigible Hypocrisy and malice deserv'd reproving them in the very same terms as our Savior comp Mat. 3.7 with 23.33 and calling them Generation of Vipers or Serpents they being the brood of the old Serpent the Devil in the resemblance of their manners see Jo. 8.44 in opposition to their boasting of their being Abrahams seed to whom they were nothing like in their lives 2 Meanwhile toward the soldiers the publicans and others notorious but relenting sinners using the same mansuetude as Christ teaching them their duty for the future without upbraiding their former faults This great Saint not bred in the Court or in ceremonial Society but in retiredness and solitude neither reverencing the secular porte and state of the Pharisee nor despising the meanness and low esteem of the Publican Only in general the Baptist seems to personate a greater austerity then our Lord both in his conversation and his preaching pressing mainly the discipline of repentance and threatning much the wrath to come hell-fire and damnation to the disobedient having something more herein of the Spirit of his type Elias whereas our Saviors language was more benign and indulgent publishing remission of sin and promising a Kingdom to the obedient and also telling his Disciples that the Spirit of Elias did not so well befit them Yet were both our Saviors and Johns dispensations suitable to their seasons the one answering to the beginning of an holy life the other to the end and consummation thereof the one laying the foundation with threats and terrors the other building it up with consolations and mercies the Lord doing the rough part by his servant the gentle and mild by himself 3 Again much resembling our Savior also in his great humility accompanied with such eminency of Sanctity He that was so far above the Prophets yet when the Jews sent to him and asked him whether he was Elias or whether he was a Prophet which is to be understood here as in Mat. 16.14 the Jews then holding a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He answered No without telling them that he was that typified Elias which was for to come or that he was more then a Prophet and expressed himself meanwhile by the most diminutive term that could be thought on that he was only Vox clamantis c. before a greater Person that was then coming after him He stood exceedingly upon his guard of lowliness and disparaged himself upon all occasions as the Jews and his Disciples magnifyed him Being conjectured by them for the Messias he nourished not the mistake for his own honor but saith the Evangelist Jo. 1.20 he confessed and denied not i. e. to speak this truth against his own reputation but confessed that he was not He. And Jo. 3.28 he takes solemn witness of such his confession In comparing himself with him he useth an expression to debase himself beneath the lowest of his servants that he was not worthy stooping to untie the latchet of his shoe Mar. 1.7 and Jo. 3.31 he saith that he being earthly did but loqui de terra speak of the Earth i. e. low and mean rudiments for which S. John useth this phrase see Jo. 3. v. 12. in comparison of Jesus who coming from Heaven above spoke of the greater misteries which he had there heard and seen He every where gave place to our Savior left Bethabara in Judea the more publick place of concourse for our Saviors disciples some of whom had formerly bin his to baptize in and retired himself North-ward toward Galilee to Enon near to Salim Jo. 3.23 He transmitted his Disciples to him Jo. 1.35 and resign'd his former Auditors and the multitudes to his conduct and when the people so soon as they saw his great Miracles and heard his divine words now admired and flockt after Jesus much more then they did after John He rejoiced to hear it with an humble acknowledgment Oportet illum crescere me minui and when his ambitious disciples made a complaint to him of it he answered them that he was but a waiter on this Bridegroome of the Church and his joy was
that use the world as tho they did not use it and tho they be as big as Camels yet they must become as small as a thred to get into this Kingdom Mat. 19.16 21 23 24 26. which only admits the small things of this world Which thing since it is so hard to do tho possible therefore hath voluntary secular poverty ever since the times of the coming of this Prince bin had in such esteem because the poor only in spirit that remain still rich in Fortunes are forced to bear one heavy Cross more than any other poor which many of them sink and miscarry under and are not able to go through with it namely the trouble and anxiety of a prudent dispensing those goods and revenues of which God hath made them only his Stewards not Masters and by possessing living in a continual Temptation from them Now since this Kingdom hath such an Antipathy to this present world First none surely are more fit to entertain or be entertained by this King then those who have least of it Like adheres to its like and had the Great ones bin sent to the Stable to worship this Prince lying amongst their horses instead of the Shepheards likely their knees would have bin more stiffe and they that asked Can such a Prince come out of Galilee or Nazareth would much more Can such a Prince come out of a Stable and scorning to be subject to one so far below them would have become Traitors to Him as Great Herod was sooner then Disciples 2ly None so fit also to preach such a Kingdom to the world as the poor and those who were not themselves full of the possession of those things the contempt whereof they counselled to others § 41 Now to return to the Blessed Virgin and her husband We see how the same night that was so full of straits the joyful Shepheards coming in and relating see Luk. 2.19 as an occasion of their coming their vision the message and song of Angels revives their spirits and recreats their affliction Their heaviness endured not all the night but joy overtook it before the morning and the scandal of the Stable was removed by the glorious appearance in the feild whilst the child despised by earth was magnified by heaven And we may observe that this great humiliation of the Son of God was every where mingled with some state state beyond all other sons of men When conceived a great Angel of presence is sent before with the news of it the Virgin going to Elizabeth She inspired from heaven falls a-magnifying him and his Mother return'd to Joseph an Angel declares to Him the Holy Conception and greatness of this Prince Born in so mean a roome at Bethleem Angels appearing in the Air discover it to the Jews and sing a Gloria in excelsis to Him to counterpoise that ignominy in infimis And a new Star appearing in the heavens at the same time manifests it to the Gentiles And so hereafter when presented in the Temple Holy Simeon and Anna proclaim him The Infants life conspired against by Herod an Angel discovers the plot and afterward in Egypt reveals to them the death of his enemy Baptized by John the Holy Ghost in the shape of a Dove comes down and fits on his head Upon his fasting and humiliation in the Wilderness Angels come and Minister unto him Before his going up to Jerusalem to suffer Moses and Elias in great glory visit him In his greatest agony and faintings in the Garden an Angel is sent to restore strength to him And to shew the common intercourse he had with Angels and how he had these subjects of heaven continually at his beck and service see what he saith to Nathaniel Jo. 1.51 and to Peter Mat 26.53 Lastly when murthered by the Jews the Sun loseth its light and the earth so trembleth that the Rocks of it rent in peices when his body buried Angels sit at the Head and feet of his Grave After so shameful a death followed so glorious a resurrection and ascension into Heaven in a bright cloud of Angels Thus to great humiliations God not only giveth afterward after a resurrection or so but presently intermingleth great honours and like exaltations and hath given an example thereof in this Head that the same might be securely expected by the members § 42 Now whilst these honours were done Mary's Blessed Infant from on high in which honours of their children Mothers use to glory more then in their own the Evangelist noting the modest and silent behaviour of the Virgin saith that whilst all that heard wondred at and magnified these things she kept and pondered them in her heart Luk. 2.18 19. took great notice without much talk tho her glorying in Him had bin a right glorying being glorying in the Lord. 1 Cor. 1.31 covering all these things that had happened for the present with great taciturnity and humility and perhaps not without some presage of the hatred and envy which her Son was afterward to suffer which things in due time after our Saviours humiliation and resurrection was passed she revealed to the Apostles and other disciples from whom this Evangelist received them Luk. 1.1 Meanwhile we may imagine how these strange accidents still increased if capable of increase the silent and reverent deportment both of Joseph and Mary toward the child Jesus whilst the little Babe in the cratch by the secret influence of his divine power guided all these occurrences and made these persons so near him to do only such things as done might be acceptable to Him § 43 A compleat week was now passed over and the eighth day the number for all perfection was now come at which time the law required Circumcision of all male children Lev. 12.3 so to enroll them into the family of Gods Church and render them heirs of the Covenant made with faithful Abraham of redemption benediction and an eternal inheritance thro his seed that was to come our Lord Christ Of which Covenant Circumcision was from Abrahams time appointed in Gods Church as a Sacrament and seal Gen. 17. The Blessed Virgin therefore and her most â—â—us husband diligently performed to this Holy Babe the solemnities thereof Of which solemnity if we may make where the Law is silent any conjecture of the Ancient from the modern rites the manner of later times is that it may be done by any person even the Father of the Child and we see Moses his Sons were circumcised by their Mother Exod. 4.24 but yet is usually procured to be done by some person well experienced in the practice thereof may be done also in any place either more solemnly in their School or Synagogue or more privatly in their own house Two of the kindred or near relation are as it were a God-Father and God-Mother to the Child the woman bringing the Infant to the place of Circumcision The man sitting down and holding it in the Circumcision after which done with a
sumptuously rebuilt by Herod as it were for the more solemn reception and honour of this Lord thereof though intended by Herod for his own Begun to be rebuilt by him in the 21 year of his Reign and in some Eight years finished and Dedicated as to the chief Body of the house but all the outworks and buildings not finished till 46 years afterwards and about the time when our Lord receiving Baptism from John began his predication See John 2.20 § 77 Here whilst our Lord as it were took possession of his Fathers house and whilst these Ceremonies were performed by the Priest And the blessed Virgin and S. Joseph who further considered whose Son it was and to whom offered were continuing their devotions and infinit thanks to God for this new-born Saviour of man-kind and the honour he had done the humility of his hand-maid chosen for his Mother and were reflecting also on the strange things spoken to them of this Divine off-spring by the Angel Gabriel and others by S. Elizabeth by the Shepheards and on the Homage of the Sages there came at the same instant into the Temple tho holy old man Simeon uncertain whether a Priest but conjectured rather none from the Evangelist's silence herein who enlightned by the prophecies and the common expectation that was in those daies see Luk. 2.38 of this new King for this Nation by the Divine Providence had bin detained ever after the Babylonian Captivity less or more under the servitude of forraign Nations and of the great Empires of the world to cause in them a more ardent desire and dependance upon the promised Messias for freeing Israel as they imagined from the Roman heavy-yoke but Simeon with more spiritual eyes expelling it for freeing the world from the servitude of sin and Satan who I say had for many years longed-after and prayed-for the comming of this Messias and the Redemption of all Mankind For to this devout person we may imagine his seeing the world so over-run with sin and held captive by Satan caused much grief for the offending of God and loss of so many souls and that he often brake out into the like passion with the. Prophet Esaiah chap. 62. 1. For Sion's sake I will not hold my peace and for Jerusalems sake I will not rest until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness and the salvation thereof as a Lamp that burneth And vers 6 11. I will not hold my peace day nor night I will give him no rest till he establish till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth till the salvation of Sion cometh and his reward is with him and his recompence before him And upon such fervent supplications of his the Holy Ghost for his consolation revealed unto him that notwithstanding his old age and small distance from the Grave yet he should not dy before he had seen the Lords Christ And at this time the same Holy Spirit again gave him notice of our Load 's being then in the Temple a small infant in the arms of a poor Virgin § 78 Upon which coming in thither at this Instant with great Devotion and Humility he took this Divine Child out of his Mother's Armes being herein a representative of the Church accepting from God's hands this her Redeemer and in the embracing of him filled with the Holy Ghost as Elizabeth was before Luk. 1.41 and lifting up his eies to Heaven joyfully sung before the company there assembled his Nunc dimittis servum tuum in pace secundum verbum tuum blessing God for the salvation he had prepared not only for the Jewish Nation but all the world and for this childs being as the glory of Israel so the light of the Gentiles This suddain action and prophecy of this reverend old Man putting our Blessed Lady and S. Joseph into a new joyful wonder after all those other testimonies concerning the child heard before and adding still more matter to the Holy Virgins treasure out of which all these things came to the knowledg of Posterity § 79 After this he delivered the Holy Infant again to his Mother And in giving as an old Man if not also a Priest his Benediction to the thrice happy-parents and by the revelation of the same Holy Ghost foreseeing also the great sufferings of our Lord that were to follow and the oppositions that would be made to his new Kingdom of which sufferings one heavy one was then immediatly to break forth he made his more particular addresses to the Mother of our Lord for S. Joseph before those saddest times was to be at rest and told her That as the child was born for the advancement as he had already said of many in Gods people Israel such as should yeild to his Scepter so also for the fall and utter ruine of many others such as should not believe and acknowledg him and those secularly Great and that this age should throughly discover the goodness or wickedness of mens hearts And that he should be set up as a sign to all the world that should be much contradicted and spoken against by the great ones thereof as more especially he was at his death being lifted up on high on the pole of the Cross and all the people about him blaspheming See Psal 105.18 After and for which followed also the destruction of Jerusalem and the dispersion and Captivity of that Nation until this day When also as it were a sharp sword should pierce her Soul out of Maternal compassion towards him whilst she should stand by and behold such things done to the innocency of the Holy One of God After which words spoken by him much what in the expressions of the ancient Prophets See Esay 8.14,15 42.6 49.6 52.10 11.10 65.2 as we usually find those later in the new Testament to deliver their predictions in the language of the Old both coming from the same Dictator and he receiving again from the Infant the Benediction he bestowed on the parents he now joyfully retired waiting and preparing himself for his near approaching death and dissolution from the many infirmities of his old age § 80 No sooner had he finished his discourse causing much admiration in the hearers but that this first Divine testimony concerning our Lord now openly given in the Temple might be celebrated and ratified by two witnesses and those of both Sexes as both were equally concerned in this happy news a woman also of a great age Anna a Prophetess too detained in this life as Simeon was for her beholding the Lord Christ came in at the same time and seconded Simeon in the like Relation concerning this child his being the new-born Messias and Saviour of the world To which the Holiness of her person and severity and sequestration of her life from common converse somewhat like that of the Baptist added very much Whom the Evangelist thus sets forth That she had lived in perpetual widowhood from her youth after only having seven years enjoyed
what abundance of tears may we imagine especially his Holy Mother to have powred forth so that she had great reason to represent this her sorrow to her Son as soon as she regained him Your Father and I have sought you sorrowing How may we imagine this desolate Virgin now to have lamented like the Spouse in the Canticles cbap 3.1 2 c which also in a special manner was the Type of her as one above all other Spouses the dearest to her Beloved for ever Quaesivi quem dilexit anima mea quaesivi illum non inveni Surrexi circuivi Civitatem per vicos plateas quaesivi quem dilexit anima mea quaesivi non inveni All this grief meanwhile was well known to and foreseen by her Son amidst his Devotions in the Temple But these afflictions are the things which exceedingly endear the Saints to God and perfect in them his love and therefore he is so liberal in bestowing these upon them § 113 The next morning they return back with speed toward Jerusalem and at night repairing ta their former lodging neither there it seems heard they any thing of him which argues for this time of his absence his pernoctation in the Temple and so they must pass this second night also in great desolation On the third day morning conjecturing perhaps by his former practice the place of his affections they repaired to the Temple and there happily they found him this sorrow and joy being a Type of that they were for the like time to suffer at his Death and after three daies of their recovery of him again in a joyful Resurrection And here saith the Evangelist they found him sitting in the midst of the Doctors I suppose in the manner before related unless this his sitting among them and also his proposing Questions to them may be thought to argue his taking some authority upon him as an extraordinary Embassadour sent to them from God where the most apparent maturity of his Celestial wisdom abundantly supplied the defect of his age At this fight his Parents also were amazed saith the Text For as it repaired their joy so it could not but cause in them also great admiration that he who had hitherto observed so much humility and silence and privacy at home among the simple people there should now on a suddain disclose so much spirit and confidence wisdom and Eloquence abroad among the most learned sought out by him for that purpose § 114 Our Lord upon their presence dutifully rising and coming to them and taking this occasion to withdraw himself from that admiring Assembly his Mother in whom this sight had made still greater impressions of Reverence toward him asked him not to blame his action at all but rather to be informed of the reason of it as also lovingly to condole her past sorrows for the loss of him why he had done so to them Fili quid fecisti nobis sic telling him that she and his Father had undergone a great deal of care and grief in seeking for him Where we may note her modest including all she saith of his action that caused her so much pain in one monosyllable sic To whom he answered as unconcerned in any human relations and pleading no other thing than obedience to his Father for his excuse as he frequently doth else-where See John 2.4 Mat. 12.48 that they might have spared such their solicitude that he was to mind and attend the business for which that his Father had sent him Which early fervour of his for yielding in all things exact obedience to the will of his Father calls to mind what in the like case he said afterwards Jo. 4.34 in answer to his Disciples that it was his meat to do the will of his Father and Jo. 9.4 That he must work the works of him that sent him and Jo. 14.31 That as the Father gave him commandment so he did and Jo. 18. That for this cause he came into the world to bear witness to the Truth Which now first when yet a child he did in the midst of the Great Doctors by his Father's special appointment and order and of the Holy Spirit and wisdom wherewith he was replenished if perhaps now they would take any notice of this their Messiah by seeing the Holy Spirit and wisdom wherewith his immature years were replenished and by comparing his present age with the time of his Nativity which God formerly made known to them by the Magi whereas they carelesly then neglected those homages to him which Strangers performed § 115 The Holy Virgin and S. Joseph did not as yet well understand what our Lord meant by such an answer They knew well what he meant by his Father but not by his business Those things in particular which our Lord was to do and suffer in this his Mission from God for the Redemption of mankind being not as yet discovered to them As indeed no Saint was ever so great to whom God hath manifested all his mysteries and Counsels but this is done by certain Degrees that all may depend herein wholly on his good pleasure Neither is the ignorance of these things any fault in this Blessed Mother of our Lord. In Luc 2. c. 50. Of whose perfections thus Cardinal Tolet Licet magnam gratiae fidei copiam acceperit in Conceptione sua quando filium concepit tamen fide gratia ac Sanctitate indies augebatur And Possunt saith he multa mysteria ignorari absque ulla culpa Of which Mysteries also he observes that Saepe datur majora agnoscere non minora in his quae non propria virtute sed divina gratia assequimur ut sic ostenderetur omnia accepta esse a Deo ex gratia benevolentia § 116 Meanwhile the Holy Virgin whose great Reverence toward our Lord hindred any further inquiry into the meaning of his words or making any further reply let none of his words fall to the ground but carefully treasured them up in her heart From whom 't is likely the Relaters of these passages to S. Luke received them because this Evangelist makes several times particular mention of the diligence of the Mother of our Lord in keeping such an exact account So our Lord returned with his Parents to Nazareth He after this publick manifestation of himself and great applause continuing still the same obedience to them in all things and they observing him still with a greater degree of Admiration and Devotion In all which passages it seems strange that these Doctors after such a Visit and light given them of the extraordinary quality of his person should take no further notice of nor make any further inquiry after him nor yield him any sutable entertainment But perhaps the coming-in of such mean people there appearing as his parents might serve in some manner to abate their esteem of him and to draw a veil over the face of such lazy inquirers or also already
rejoicing at the presence of our Lord when he also yet in his Mothers womb and their acquaintance only before they were born after his infancy his leaving his Fathers house and retiring into the Desart and solitude his rigid dyet raiment and habitation in some grot there his non-conversation with men and so neither corrupted with their manners nor distracted at all with human affairs and the Holy Spirit supplying to him all that knowledg of men's persons that was necessary to his high employments the many resemblances he had to Elias and also to our Lord in his doctrine and in his Heroical Virtues and especially in his stupendious humility and sufferings these things I say have bin partly described before § 4. c. in the Relation of the Baptists Nativity where the inquisitive Reader may review them § 129 To this great person therefore as yet in the Desart being about 30 years of age the appointed age under the law Numb 4.3 23. for the Priests and Levits to enter upon the exercise of their functions and half a year elder than our Lord as who was to be his forerunner and to appear abroad sooner came the word of the Lord that he should now leave his solicitude and enter upon the Office for which he had bin thus prepared and which emploiment doubtless he had much expected and longed for Upon which John came forth not immediatly to Jerusalem or into the Cities of Judea this honour being left for our Lord himself and the Kingdom of Heaven being to approach still nearer by certain degrees but into the out-skirts of the Desart of Judea and from thence removing to Bethabara where also our Lord sojourned for some time a little before his Passion Jo. 10.40 beyond Jordan near to the great Road from the East for passing over the River into Judea by which way the Israelites when they came out of Egypt walking through Jordan a type of Baptism as also their passing through the red Sea entred into the Holy Land and by which way they were afterwards carried away Captives from it to Babylon where also Elias the type of John after passing this Jordan was taken up in a fiery Chariot Here then John in his Spirit began to appear again and to proclaim as it were at a distance and afar off the speedy coming of the Jew's Messiah and of his Kingdom and to fulfil the Vox clamantis in deserto spoken of in the Prophets Some conjecture also the beginning of Johns thus proclaiming our Lord to have bin in September or the feasts of Trompets which was the beginning of the Civil year of the Jews Lev. 23.24.25.9 and this same year also to have bin a year of Jubile which well agrees with Esay 61.2 Vt praedicarem annum placabilem Domini and in which year of Jubile also was a greater concourse of people from all Forraign parts but the various computations of the age of the world renders this thing very uncertain § 130 Now then the Baptist began for a due preparing of the Nation for the reception of so great and Holy a Prince to exhort the people to a Confession and repentance of their sins and the receiving Baptism to that effect which he had orders from him that sent him to confer on all such as were penitent and to a speedy reformation of their lives for that now shortly all flesh should see the salvation of God and for that this Lord would come with his Fann in his hand and would throughly purge his floore gathering the Wheat into his Garner but burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire and because that now the Axe should be laid to the root of the Trees and such as brought not forth good fruit should be hewn down and cast into the fire Which things delivered with such an authority and gravity put his Auditors into a great consternation and fright and suddainly alarmed the whole Nation and especially the Hierosolymites being at no great distance from the place of his preaching and much frequenting him Whose wonder also was encreased by his appearance in such a desolate place and not coming into their Cities And his strange Habit of hair-cloth and being tyed with a leather-Girdle like Eliah and several of the ancient Prophets Esay 20 2◠2 King 1.8 Zech. 13.4 and his strange abstinence not eating any bread nor drinking Wine nor needing at all any human supplies for his food one part of his diet being a kind of Locust or Grashopper to be found every where upon the grass and which it seems was a Fare sometimes of the poorer sort in a case of necessity eaten by them either raw or boyl'd or also salted and dried mentioned in Levit. 11.22 and allowed there for a clean food and another part when these Locusts not to be had wild honey such as the wood-bees wrought in the hollow parts of Trees plentiful in this Country See 1 Sam. 14.26 and his abstinence such as the Pharisees concluded supernatural and so effected by his being possessed with a Devil his lodging also the hard ground in some Cave or Grot By which things this Preacher of Penance appeared also the greatest Example thereof that as yet the world ever saw These things I say still advanced their great esteem and admiration of him and gave greater weight and credit to his words the Pharisees ostentation of fasting being quite eclypsed by it § 131 To this also may be added his discovering the secrets of their hearts that came to him and discerning their several sins and delinquencies Mat. 3.7 tho having no knowledg of or conversation with them The Counsels and advices he gave them high and sublime and like unto those of our Lord. As among others that given to the people for the larger extent of their charity that he that had two Coats should impart to them that had none and so also should do for Bread and Meat These his Counsels rightly also fitted to every ones condition whilst for the amendment of their manners each one desired to learn from him the several Duties of their calling the things belonging to which he knew not by experience but the Holy Spirit His admitting contrary to the Pharisees all persons with an equal mansuetude and affability and not keeping more distance from those esteemed greater Sinners Publicans or Soldiers this reprehending the greatest with all freedom and without fear before all the people and receiving the humble though great offenders without expostulation or reproach All these wrought in the people an Opinion of the Baptist that he was some eminent Prophet or also the Messias though himself sufficiently disclaimed it § 132 Upon this fame To this new burning and shining Light as our Lord stiles him a great conflux was made after some time out of the whole Nation not only out of the nearer parts of Judea but also of Galilee From which Countrey among others we find Peter and Andrew his brother intermitting their fishing and
person our Lord appeared also in great beauty and Majesty and like himself that this was his beloved Son Mat. 17. in whom he was well pleased And this then added to it that after Moses and Elias the law and the Prophets vanished they should in the last place hear him for which purpose viz. their hearing and obeying this Lord also was this voice made unto the people here at Jordan Again a third time when the same our Lord a little before his Passion was in great desolation and desired to be delivered from the approaching paines of death Jo. 12.27 but then afterwards resigning his natural will as in the Garden prayed that his Father would not spare him but glorifie his name Viz. in our Lords passing through all those bitter sufferings preappointed for him his Heavenly Father himself vouchsafed with a voice from heaven to answer his Praier telling him he would glorifie his name yet again Viz. in the admirable Resurrection and Ascension of his Son as he had done already viz. in his glorious Miracles where also our Lord told the people concerning this voice from heaven that it came not for his sake or satisfaction who alwaies knew his Fathers will concerning and Love to him and the glory he had and ever was to enjoy with and from him not for his sake I say but for theirs that they acknowledging this glory the Father both had and would bestow upon his Son should accordingly honour and obey him As also now at his Baptism the visible descent of the Holy Ghost was for the peoples-sake that they might hereby know that he who was full of the Holy Ghost as much before as after this visible descent thereof had it in his power by baptism to confer on others § 142 Often therefore also doth he mind the people for their admittance and believing on him of this his Fathers bearing witness to him Of his Fathers sending him and Sanctifying him see John 8.18 54. 5.32 37. 10.36 which relates as to his Fathers testimony of him by Miracles so doubtless to this signal one received before the beginning of his Ministry at his Baptism and to his Sanctification at this time by the visible appearance of the Holy Ghost sitting on him And this very manifestation thus of our Lord to Israel the Baptist names as one of the ends of his own coming and Baptizing Jo. 1.31 And most congruous also it seems that our Lord's Institution of conferring Baptism for ever being in the name of the Blessed Trinity Father Son and Holy Ghost all these should first after this manner manifest themselves in his own Baptism Which Vnction of his with the Spirit foretold by Esaias chap. 61.1 our Lord also in his Sermon Luk. 4.18 openly applies to himself And this was the first Scripture he as it were casually opened at to explain it to his own country men at Nazareth § 143 After this Testimony given to God the Son by God the Father and God the Holy Ghost at his Baptism in the midst of the admiration and expectation of John and the people beholding him our Lord in the Vehemency of the same Spirit which alwaies remaining in him in the same plenitude and not given by measure yet acted more or less in his Humanity as occasion was offered suddainly departed out of their sight and went speedily toward the Desart from whence John formerly appeared Immediatly saith S. Mark the Spirit drave him into the Wilderness And such Rapts of the Holy Spirit have bin formerly seen in Elias see 1 King 18.12 2 King 2.16 and others Act. 8.39 with an elevation of their bodies also into the Air tho probably not so here of our Lords By wilderness also is here meant the most desolate invious and unfrequented recesses thereof Where were the dens latebrae of wild beasts for their safety for the Evangelist saith he was there with the wild beasts whence we may conjecture John Baptist's Desart also to have bin such however some would mitigate it Where also we may say is the most ordinary dwelling and haunt here on Earth of evil Spirits not so much by their choice though in some respect they hate the places frequented by men and where is some greater appearance of Devotion and of Gods service and worship as from their Condemnation and the Divine restraint See Mat. 12.43 the evil Spirit when having lost his possession of the man his walking in drie or barren and desolate places and Mark 5.3 their haunting the Tombs and Esai 13.21 and 34.14 the Satyrs dancing in such places and Apocal. 18.2 Desolate Babylon becoming the Habitation of Devils To which may be added the experience of Hermits that inhabiting Desarts are more molested with them and here also our Lord met and had his chief combat with the Devil § 144 Into this solitude then our Lord retired after his being anointed with the Holy Ghost and now shortly to enter upon his Ministry retired as we see with great fervency of Spirit to fulfil his Fathers will i. e. the foreseen great Mortifications he was there to undergo no way remitting but advancing this holy impetuosity And here he remained and separated himself during forty daies This being the round number used for 7. sixes of daies or 6. multiplied 7. times and a number in Scripture most frequently prescribed by God according to his Creation of the world in six daies for the dispatch of any great work labour or sufferings Of which may be given very many instances if this would not too much divert the Reader See Gen. 7.4.17 Ezec. 4.6 Jonah 3.4 Gen. 6.3 thrice forty years Deut. 8.2 Gen. 15.13 ten times 40. Judg. 13.1 Apoc. 2 3. and about so many months was the time of our Lords preaching See before § For this time then he sequestred himself to be vacant without admitting the distraction of any human converse or secular business and with those advantages that bodily fasting gives to the operations of the Soul for supplication and praier for the solemn preparation for that high service and ministry he was now entring upon and designed-to and again for the making a more solemn oblation of himself to his Father as to the most voluntary undertaking of all those hardships and sufferings that were set before him and that were desired by him in all these the more to glorifie his name Now though our Lord for such a more intimate conversation with God and perfect Contemplation needed not to use such exteriour means as retirement and abstinence from food and dismission from other Emploiments by reason of the supernatural perfections which from his Deity and plenitude of the Spirit were infused and refunded into his human Nature Yet as Suarez observes In 3. Thom 2. Tom. Disp 2◠§. 1. Per cognitionem anima naturalem non poterat sine speciali miraculo multa simul perfecte considerare neque per operationem phantasiae simul comitari operationem intellectus si circa
no way moved upon the prospect and glory of this City or advance also of his own soon meekly returned him a second answer out of the Scriptures out of the Law too as the former and out of the same book of it prohibiting such a fact upon any such Motive or promsie the text being corrupted by the Devil as to the true sence and due circumstances thereof telling him that it was written that we may not tempt the Lord our God The Text is found in Deut. 6.16 and the instance there made is not to tempt him as in Massah where the Israelites suffering some thirst had not the patience of expecting the time wherein God thought fit to relieve them but irreverently and ungratefully expostulated with and importuned Moses for a Miracle in their supply for drink after they had but now seen that Miracle for supplying them bread in the former Chapter So patient and resigned our Lord remained still in the place and posture as Satan had set and held him in for he who was permitted to place him there had not the power to cast him down thence so to try what would be the issue of it till he confounded thought of changing the Scene again and like Balak of trying his experiments upon him in another place and in a contrary manner § 158 Having therefore now attacked our meek Lord in two of the three ordinary and most effective sorts of temptations as S. John reckons them Concupiscentia carnis as to eating which meat was rendred more alluring by extreme hungar and Superbia vitae some vain glory or Honour when so mounted on the top of a Pinnacle of one of the stateliest buildings of the world by there shewing himself supported and born up by Angels in the Air he now thought of assaulting him with the third Concupiscentia Oculorum and wealth and Coveteousness that that Temptation might not be omitted toward our Lord with which we are most frequently over-thrown and by which wealth and honour once admitted he could at least sooner work his ruine these instruments of his temptation being also great tempters § 159 Now laying aside therefore the glorious suggestions to our Lord of his being the Son of God as in the two former Satan begins now to treat him not as God's but as the Carpenter's Son and to take more upon him and magnifie himself instead of our Lord and to see if he could trample upon our Lords humility in whom he could not beget any pride So taking him from the Pinacle and from the prospect of Jerusalem he transported him to yet a greater and statelier height the top of a very high Mountain as if to a place where himself was Prince and Lord of all and there makes a Scheme and representation unto him of the great and spacious Kingdomes of the Earth and of all the Glory and beauty as it were set forth and spread before him in a large Map and shewed too all at once as it were in a moment saith S. Luke as all lying at his his feet the more to surprize him Then tells him that all these are his and to whomsoever he pleaseth he can give them and the prosperity and flourishing of the wicked for a time in this world seem'd to make good his words that therefore if he would but bow his knee and give him the honour due to such a Patron and Benefactor All should be our Lords and he presently possessed of them Whence our Lord might see that for all the high titles that might be given him he had been in the world but poorly treated hitherto in being advanced no higher than a Carpenter § 161 It is likely that Satan set forth this last Temptation with many more words and shewed the many honours he had formerly bestowed upon his true Servants Hoping also that the sight and view of such worldly Pompe might much work upon such a Novice and one so meanly educated As our first Parents that fell were taken with the gloss and beauty of the forbidden fruit Gen. 3.6 and as the Israelites brought out of the Desart into the land of Canaan were by the plenty thereof Deut. 32.15 drawn away from God Incrassatus impinguatus dilatatus dereliquit Deum Factorem suum But very imprudent and no less silly was such a proposal of his to our Lord and full of Pride and lies Whenas indeed himself was a miserable Bankrupt and prisoner tied up in chains not able to help a poor witch for all her not only worship of but Contracts and giving her Soul to him to a single farthing nor to take his lodging in a filthy Swine without an extraordinary leave and permission and when as most contrary he to whom he spake was the very person to whom all these things were given by the Father and who was the true Lord and heir of all And therefore Satan in this third assault saith nothing of his Son-ship and having all things in heaven earth and under earth to adore and submit to him as such will they nill they even Satan himself And this perhaps was one way how Satan hoped his Temptation might fasten upon our Lord if he could thus at least provoke him unseasonably at this time to the challenging of these things to himself and so some little stain of ostentation and vain glory might possibly run along and mingle with it § 162 But our meek Lord replies no such thing to him takes no notice of his shameful lies nor the cheat of his deluding appearances but after he had shewed the highest detestation of his endeavouring to rob his Father of his due worship and of taking this to himself in those words spoken to him Get thee hence Satan as if his last impudent and blasphemous proposal had clearly discovered to him who he was he with the same spirit of meekness as before answers him a third time out of the Scripture and the Law that we are commanded to worship the Lord our God and him only to serve and in what ever condition we are placed of poverty and want may do no prohibited thing to make our selves rich great or Honourable Which it indeed we would yet by this way we cannot make our selves so And the Devil so oft as he saith this doth but lye to us Thus our Lord stoutly repelled the last temptation also the lust of the eyes the surprisal of which must be greater too in so barren a Desart And so this being the uttermost bait he had with which to have caught our Lord and not able to disobey our Lords words Get thee hence Satan by the power of which words our Lord at last manifested that which he was not pleased to shew at Satans request Viz. that he was the Son of God this evil Angel departed And now after the temptation as usually follows a Consolation as also before the great Honour done our Lord at his Baptism was streight pursued with a great humiliation and for the
16. chap. saying Rabbi thou art the Son of God for so the Baptist also before had several times stiled him thou art the King of Israel that hath bin so long expected by this Nation § 171 Our Lord upon Nathaniels mentioning his Kingship answered that they should hereafter see much greater Confirmation of this their faith and that the time should be when they should behold the Heavens opened and Angels ascending and descending upon the Son of man for so our Lord usually out of humility shall I say or rather a strong love to his Creature man stiled himself ascending and descending upon him as he being alwaies in Heaven as well as on Earth and the sole Mediator between Earth and Heaven who also only had traffick with Heaven and knew all his Fathers secrets there and again when they should see infinite numbers of them attending on him in his appearing at the last day in the full Glory of that his Kingdom which Nathaniel now confessed alluding in all this to the Honour that was done to their fore-father Jacob after his lying in the field alone so desolate and forsaken As also but a little before when our Lord was in the Desart the Angels had descended and ministred unto him In the same manner after this when his Judges asked concerning his being the Son of God he answered them that hereafter they should see the Son of Man coming in the Clouds of Heaven i. e Clouds of Angels flying and waving about him Mat. 26.64 Jo. 6.58 62. And elsewhere some of his followers wondring at his speech of his feeding them with bread which came down from Heaven What and if saith he ye shall see the Son of man ascend up into Heaven where he was before And so his young Schollar Nicodemus wondring at his Sermon of mans being born again of the spirit he tells him of things of greater wonder Viz. of the Son of Mans ascending up into Heaven again as he had descended from Heaven Jo. 3.9 44. and also was then in Heaven § 172 Thus our Lord often represented to his Disciples and others his future Glory his Resurrection Ascension Coming in great Majesty to Judgment and that their faith in him might not languish from the mean appearance of things present And also this suddain and resolute Confession of Nathaniel who but now disputed the matter must needs be a great corroboration and consolation to the four former Discipies gathered to our Lord. All these five being persons of much zeal and piety tho most of them not wealthy had left their daily imployments and trade for a season to come and hear the Sermons of John receive as his penitents baptism from him and some of them at least were admitted into some more familiar acquaintance with him and by this had more notice of our Lord and God looking upon such their sincerity conferred on them the honour after thus prepared by John to be the first Disciples and Attendants on his Son § 173 In this our Lords journey into Galilee he arrived at Cana Nathaniels Town not far distant from Nazareth and about a daies journey from Capernaum as may be gathered from Jo. 4.47 compared with vers 52. which Cana also our Lord took in his way in the second journey he made from Jerusalem into Galilee See John 4.46 Now so it fell out that on this day he came thither was solemnized a Marriage and hither also were assembled our Lords Mother and his Brethren invited to this wedding probably of some of their near kindred the care our Lords Mother had concerning the Wine and her colloquy with the Servants shewing she had some particular interest therein Hither therefore our Lord coming with his new chosen Disciples they were also invited to the marriage And all this seems punctually so ordered by the Divine Providence that whereas our Lord had led his former life so obscurely Now the dignity of his person and Mission from Heaven and his Father there might be manifested in the first place to these his nearer Relations according to the flesh for the rectifying any their former misapprehensions and their believing on this common Saviour and being made partakers of so great a joy and that also his inauguration into and entrance upon his Office might be celebrated with a festival and this marriage signify that which he was one day to consummate with his Spouse the Church and therefore is he very Emphatically by the Baptist stiled the Bridegroome on whom himself attended Jo. 3.29 that whereas John came with fasting he might enter upon his Office with a feast and the children of the Bride-chamber rejoyce with him therefore also his Miracle here was corresponding changing water and penance into Wine and mirth answerable to Johns baptizing with water and he with the Holy Spirit § 174 To give an occasion to our Lord's first Miracle whereby in this publick meeting he was to manifest who he was whether by the multitude of Guests more than were expected among which was our Lord and his company or by some other disappointment for there being a Governor of the feast besides the Bridegroom and a good attendance of Servants and Wine supplyed in so great a quantity for the Guests are signs that that the Married were no very poor or mean persons it happened so that at the end of the feast there wanted Wine Our Lords Mother perceiving it and solicitous of their credit to whom she had so near relation presently told our Lord of it expecting he should relieve them herein either from his doing formerly some such domestick and private miracles upon some necessity in his youth at Nazareth or from the Holy Virgin 's having some prerevelation concerning this future fact By our Lords reply we may conjecture that this was spoken by his Mother before some of his Disciples or Kindred and perhaps in the midst of some Discourse when as our Blessed Lady imagined some urgent necessity thereof Hereupon our Lord for their Edification returned this answer to her What is it to me and thee woman in this matter my Hour or time is not yet Signifying his already well fore-knowing by his omniscience this want or wine and the due time of supplying it and that he was not to be sweyed in his actions by any human relations or respects how near soever but must act all things only according to the will of his Heavenly Father And thus frequently he takes occasion to Vindicate his Divinity and heavenly Original to beget early in his followers a right apprehension of his person and authority and omniscient conduct Some such answer as here he gives also to his Kindred Jo. 7.6 when they minding him of going up to Jerusalem at the feast and shewing his strange works there saying my time is not yet come So after his desputing with the Doctors he answered his Mother when she told him that they had sought him sorrowing why did they so since he was
Deeds confirming his words who henceforth continued his faithful though secret Disciple and in the Council when our Lord was spoken against Jo. 7.51 desired they would but hear him what he might say for himself thinking that thus themselves might be as much taken with him as was their Officers in Jo. 7.46 and himself here This of our Lords gratious discourse with Nicodemus but whether all that is said in S. John chap. 3. from vers 10. to the 22. be our Lords words or part thereof from vers 16. be S. Johns dilating upon them is uncertain And the like happens in many other discourses found in the Evangelist much resembling one another § 186 The Paschal feast ended our Lord not trusting himself to the Hierosolymites Jo. 2.24 Jo. 2.24 where the Pharisees that had already conceived so much hatred against him in seeing his boldness and spirit far beyond the Baptists and the great concourse of the People to hear him had so much power and followers departed thence and went into the Country and the other Cities of Judea where he was also followed by very great multitudes as appears Jo. 3.27 and preached to them we may presume such things as before to Nicodemus concerning repentance and the washing away their former sins by Baptism and their Regeneration of the Spirit concerning his Passion and Mission from God his Father and belief in him for remission of sin All which he confirmed also every where with charitable miracles among them in ejecting Devils and healing their Infirmities which miracles the Baptist did not therefore his Brethren afterward Jo. 7.3 making mention of the Disciples and followers he had in Judea advise his return to them and the shewing his mighty works among them § 187 Here also he caused such as were his Penitents for he and his also in the first place preached Repentance as well as John See Mark 1.15 6.12 Luk. 10.13 Act. 2.38 and Converts to be baptized probably many of them together in places convenient to be baptized by his Disciples saith S. John himself not baptizing except those his Disciples that baptized others Epist 108. or some one of them to administer it to the rest For as S. Austin he that descended to the Humility of washing their feet would much more to the ministring of baptism but yet if the Apostle saith he was sent to preach not baptize much more might our Lord busied in greater affairs in teaching and relieving the peoples necessities delegate this inferior office to his Apostles as a thing which was to be continued after his departure in the succession of them to the end of the world whereas we do not find that the Baptist committed or propagated this Office to any of his Disciples but continued it only himself till it utterly ceased after that our Lord became more publickly known at the time of Johns imprisonment which followed shortly after For Johns Baptism was only preparatory to that of our Lords his signifying remission and cleansing from former sins through faith in him that came after him Act. 19.4 Our Lords conferred an ability also to live holily for the future by giving the Holy Spirit and planting Gods Grace in the Baptized for newness of life and bringing forth good works Though those extraordinary Gifts of the Spirit also was not as yet conferred as were after our Lords Ascention and sending down the Holy Ghost at Pentecost in all its miraculous and Stupendious operations and effects Of which effects it is that the Evangelist speaks when he saith chap. 7.39 That the Spirit was not yet given because that Jesus was not yet glorified Such a difference therefore being between John's and our Lords Baptism S. Johns hindred not but that those baptized by him came and received it afterward from our Lord by the hands of his Disciples as we see S. Paul meeting at Ephesus with some that had received Johns Baptism yet rebaptized them in the name of the Lord Jesus Act. 19.5 and it cannot be thought but that many of those thousands of Penitents Act. 2.41 and 4.4 that were Baptized by the Apostles had received it formerly from John § 188 The Baptist also to give way to our Lord so soon as he began to make his peragrations in the Country and Cities of Judea had removed farther off toward Galilee and so nearer also to the Court of Herod He having often changed his station to communicate his Ministry during his time appointed more freely to several parts of the Nation Who at the first preached on the West or hither side of Jordan in the wilderness of Judea where he had formerly spent his life not very remote from his Fathers house after removed to Bethabara beyond Jordan in Peraea belonging to Herods Jurisdiction where our Lord was baptized by him Hence also departed further from Jerusalem left as I said to our Lord and from the Pharisees his great Enemies into the more Northern parts baptizing now not in Jordan but in Enon upon the coasts of Galilee not far from Jordan and where was a River flowing into it Whence probably King Herod also hearing of his Fame sent for him heard his Sermons and consulted him also in his Affairs But of this more hereafter § 189 Whilst our Lord thus preached in Judea and John in the Borders of Galilee the self same Doctrine and Gospel Repentance and the Kingdom of Heaven and Salvation brought into the world by the Son of God Jesus to whom John bare witness as such and whilst both were frequented by much people but our Lord by many more than John as for other reasons his great Majesty and authority in Teaching his Miracles of all sorts so for Johns sending and referring all men to Jesus and Johns Baptism also relating to his for compleating it Satan upon this begun to stir up some emulation and controversy between their followers and also concerning the dignity of their persons as appears by John's answer to them which was to be preferred the Disciples of John having a zeal for their Master strangely severe and mortified in his diet apparel fasts retreats and one from whom our Lord also received his Baptism and yet seeing a much greater concourse of people after our Lord one more free and popular in his Conversation and many more receiving Baptism from him than from John and on the other side our Lords followers among the Jews justly and that from the Baptists own mouth and frequent confession preferring both the Baptism and Person of Jesus This then doubtless was some ground of their Contest but some think there might be some disputation also between the Disciples of John and of the Pharisees concerning the Virtue of the former Mosaical Purification and cleansing viz. whether those not equal or much preferrable with this new Rite introduced by the Baptist and afterward continued by Jesus Hence S. John's Disciples came to him and told him complainingly that the person who came to him for
reward promised there to them we may also gather the generality of this their fact § 209 With them then he returned into Capernaum and there on the next Sabbath day according to his custome wherever he was see Luke 4.31 he entred into the Synagogue and there taught the people In which Synagogues or Jewish Churches built in all places even in Jerusalem were exercised first the Reading of Moses and the Prophets Acts 15.21 Luk. 4.16 Then an expounding of them and Sermons of exhortation by the learned the Priests Scribes Lawyers c. See Act. l3. 14 15 16. Luk. 4.20 1 Cor. 14.31 In these also were used Praier Hymns and Psalms some entiteled pro Sabbato Collections also for the poor Only no sacrificing save at the Temple in Jerusalem Here as our Lord taught the people saith the Evangelist were astonished at his doctrine for that his words were with power and he taught them as one that had authority Mark 1.22 Luk. 4.32 and not as the Scribes authority both internally with more satisfaction and conviction and power over mens spirits by the Holy Ghost at the same time working in their understandings and hearts enlightening subduing enflaming and setting them on fire and externally also with more assurance and asseveration Amen Amen dico vobis Qui habet aures audiendi audiat Quodscimus loquimur telling them who sent him and strengthening such testimony with miracles and doing these also commandingly and with authority with authority commanding the evil Spirits saith the Evangelist Mark. 1.27 Luk. 4.36 Increpans rebuking the diseases the Seas the Winds all done with great Majesty This teaching with authority is in the Gospel frequently noted of our Lord Mat. 7.29 after his long Sermon in the Mountain This made the High Priests Officers in hearing him say Never man spake like this man and the woman in his Sermon cry out Blessed is the womb that bare thee and the brethren going to Emaus reflect afterwards upon it that whilst he spake their hearts burned within them And the men of Nazareth that had so much prejudice against him there meanly and illiteratly educated Luk. 4.22 are said to have wondred at the words of grace that proceeded out of his mouth And many times his Adversaries were so a mated with his speeches Psal 45.2 that they would not reply one word to him All this according to the prophecy Diffusa est Gratia in labiis â—uis and Esay 49.2 Os meum quafi gladius acutus And this Power and Spirit he communicated also to his Apostles whence S. Paul 1 Cor. 2.4 My preaching was in demonstration of the Spirit and of power And 1 Thes 1.5 out Gospel came to you in power and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance and so he directs Titus Chap. 2.15 Loquere exhortare argue cum omni imperio Now if the Holy Spirit such in the servants what was it in the Lord § 210 As he was speaking thus in the Synagogue to the people a man that was possest with an unclean Spirit all Devils being ordinarily called thus because delighting in all impurity therefore they desired rather to enter into Swine standing amongst them all possessed not being continually agitated or molested by the evil Spirits but by fits perhaps when the disposition of the Body the humours at such times do also concur with it The Devil that was within him either not able to endure the presence of our Lord or also having received some secret command already from him as those Mark 5.7 8. to quit his prey or terrified with his words speaking of the destruction of the Kingdom of Satan cryed out desiring that he would let him or them alone and not destroy them sometimes speaking in the singular number and sometimes in the plural the like request to which we find elsewhere Mat. 8.29 and Luk. 8.31 and Mark â— 10 where in Matthew the Devils beseech him that he would not torment them before their time and in Luke that he would not send them into the Abysse and in Mark that not send them out of the country We find also several other passages in Scripture that may further explicate the present condition of these miserable and cursed creatures unto us As their being said by S. Peter 2 Pet. 2.4 Jude 6. and S. Jude to be reserved in chains under darkness or as S. Peter to be cast down to hell unto or until the judgment of the great day Eph. 2.2 6 12. and S. Pauls calling Satan the Prince of the power of the Air and these evil Spirits the Rulers of the darkness of this lower world and Satan being said that He goeth about here seeking whom he may be permitted to devour 1 Pet. 5.8 and the like is said in Job 1.7 and the evil Spirit cast out of a man his being said to walk in dry and defart places and so finds no rest there Mat. 12.45 till permitted to return to his former lodging by new finning better prepared for him their crowding also so many of them as they get leave into one person and so much more mischevous there than a single one could have bin as we hear of seven cast out of Mary Magdalen and of the Spirit returning with seven more worse and fiercer than himself and of a Legion in the furious Gadaren and we have them answering our Lord sometimes in the singular sometimes in the plural number by what is spoken Apoc. 20.3 Of a closer imprisonment of Satan and so of his Regiment of evil spirits that shall be before the worlds end than is yet for the present § 211 Now I say by all these well considered it seems first That the evil Angels suffer not such torments now as they shall hereafter when they shall be judged at the last day by our Lord and also by his Saints 1 Cor. 6.3 Apoc. 20.10 compare 3.7 And 2ly that Though they are cast down to hell or the inner bowels of the earth full of darkness as their proper Prison and place of present sufferings whither also the souls of wicked men descend and are tormented with them yet both they and the chief Prince of them are permitted by God to come forth of this lower prison upon the earth such of them and for such duration of time and extension of place as the Divine Majesty pleaseth for the greater exercise and trial of the just here and for the afflicting and executing of Gods justice on the obstinatly wicked sometimes even to the possessing and inhabiting them even many of these evil Spirits in one man After the same manner as the good Angels descend from heaven their place of Bliss for the Protection of the just and regular government of this lower world against the malice of these malign Spirits Which evagation of evil Spirits and their inhabiting here a less darkness and especially the hurt they can do to any men seems by some of the former expressions to afford some solace
Ship and for the more convenience out of it preached to the multitude that followed him still until the evening he without returning to Capernaum or taking some repose appointed his Disciples to dismiss the people and staying still in the ship bad them presently to pass over to the other side of the Lake perhaps having some great compassion of the miserable Demoniacks that were there But there being several other small ships in the Port some others also entred into them and still accompanied him In their sailing thither-ward there descended a great storm of wind upon the Lake whilst our Lord wearied with his daies service or rather to try the faith of his Disciples was retired into the hinder part of the ship and there lay a sleep upon a pillow when by the waves beating into the Ship and it already seeming full of water and ready to sink the Disciples exceedingly affrighted having forborn hitherto to disturb our Lords rest suddainly awaked him saying Master Master save us we perish Whereupon he streight rebuked the Wind and the Sea saying Peace be still and then blamed them not for repairing to him in this their danger but for their great fear and want of faith as he doth very frequently want of faith in God who expects a confidence in him which also cannot be without some degree of love of him not only in the just and his Servants but also in sinners among whom also the just ought to reckon themselves a confidence sutable to the most vigilant Divine providence extended not only to the good but to all the Creation Whilst he is as exceeding faithful to the righteous so exceeding merciful also to sinners when they make their humble addresses to him and this also is a great honour to his mercy that sinners also believe in it and this faith also in them is a very effectual means of receiving such his mercies But our Lord might much more blame their want of faith in him after that they had now acknowledged him the Son of God and seen so many of his former Miracles After his rebuking the winds and Sea followed immediatly a great calm and a very great wonder and astonishment and fear and reverence of him timuerunt timore magno both in the Disciples and those in the other Ships accompanying him partakers we may suppose both of the same danger and deliverance this being the first miracle they had seen of this kind § 221 Our Lord the next morning landed in the Country of the Gadarens or Gergseans a region given by Moses to the tribe of Reuben Dan and half that of Manasses probably now inhabited partly by Israelites the cause of our Lords going thither partly by Gentiles as may be gathered by such store of swine nourished there to be sold to the Gentiles Roman Soldiars and others which seems by the mischief happening to these swine to have bin a fault in those of the Jewish Nation and to have so many waies displeased our Lord. Upon his arrival presently two possessed and strangely distracted with some torn rags about them came running towards him which if they had not of themselves none could have brought them to him and fell at his feet and worshipped him Both of them hideous spectacles but one much fiercer than the other who tore all his cloths and day and night making grievous outcries cut his flesh with sharp stones and who having bin often bound with chains when the fits came on him brake them in pieces nor could he be shut up in any house but both of them ranged in the Mountain and among the Tombes which were placed out of the cities and commonly digged in some rocky places see 2 King 23.16 places of greater horrour sought out by the Devil in which these men lay and were so outrageous against any they met with as none durst pass by that way Yet so soon as our Lord was landed they came submissively to him for the Devils soon perceived his presence and had had already some intimation from him of their departing and releasing those miserable creatures And first like the former possessed person in the Synagogue confessing who he was and pleading they molested not nor gave any affronts to him they besought and then adjured him by God by whose eternal laws their extreme sufferings were yet deferred that he would not presently send them away into the Abysse nor torment them before the time of which see before § 210. nor yet expel them out of that country these having by Gods permission perhaps certain regions and circuits of their ranging assigned to them wherein they are with all diligence to serve their Prince the God of this world as the Apostles stile him and being perhaps more addicted to the places wherein they have done much mischief § 222 Our Lord the more to discover what a condition and crowd of them were gotten into one of these miserable wretches which also caused such a strength and fury in him beyond ordinary Demoniacks no way to be mastered and to shew what a palace they esteemed such a lodging and what solace the mischief they can do in and to it when ever permitted asked this unclean Spirit what was his name the evil Spirit for the great multitude of them gotten into this hold and perhaps for moving the more his compassion to them being so many expressed it by the word Legion a military term as these evil Spirits serve a perpetual warfare against man which hath bin used by the Romans in several times for a various number but ordinarily for many thousands From which may be gathered what an infinite multitude of faln Angels there be and which coast up and down in these lower Regions out of envy seeking the perdition of men As likewise what a strict guard and protection God hath over us that the malice of so many thousands of them should be confined to and imprisoned as it were in one person and lastly from which is manifested the great Majesty and power of our Lord not only over single but whole armies and Legions of them supplicating at his feet and flattering him with his Titles § 223 Now there being higher in the Mountain and not far off an herd of about two thousand Swine feeding the Devils therefore besought our Lord the rather hoping to obtain such their request of a Jew that they might enter at least into the Swine Unclean Spirits into these unclean Beasts which our Lord permitting they carried the swine down a precipice from the hill and drowned them all in the Lake Wherein these evil Spirits presently betrayed their malice endeavoring by this to incense the Gadarens and the owners of the swine doubtless no small number of persons against our Lord as indeed it happened though by this means they presently dispossessed themselves of that harbour and lodging for which they so earnestly importuned our Lord. Which shews also in the possession of men their greatest consolation to be
left all rose up and followed him Luk. 5.28 But the Glory and wisdom of our Lord was exceedingly set forth in this passage whereby he first shewed them again what he had said before that he had power to forgive sins and what he said to them afterwards that he came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance that by the example of his own humility condescendence and mercy to the most despised conditions endeavouring to abate the Pharisees pride and encourage like the Baptist before him all penitents in what ever state of life to apply themselves to him not breaking a bruised reed or extinguishing the smoking flax but above all whereby he shewed that he did not find but make fit for his service those whom he admitted to it and acted all things with a great Majesty over mens spirits like a God and himself this operation upon the mind of the Publican in the midst of his business being a greater miracle than that done but now upon the Body of the Paralytick § 232 St. Matthew much overjoyed and so his fellow-Publicans with this singular favour done him streight quitted his Bank and the same day invited our Lord and his Disciples to his house and there made him a great feast saith S. Luke though S. Matthew himself passeth over the matter more slightly only with a factum est cum occubaret in domo without an ipsius and so also when he names himself he adds Publican and Matthew the Publican chap. 10.3 which Feast also served for a farewel entertainment to his friends and former acquaintance a many of which were Publicans and so also these sate down at the Table and eat with our Lord and his Disciples in which matter of eating and drinking the Jews especially used the greatest caution of any defilement and therefore the Pharisees refused the invitement or to mix with such a Society And now their displeasure growing to the height began to break into words which before was smothered in their thoughts § 233 They then after this entertainment question yet not with out Lord himself but his Disciples first why they and especially their Master a man of so much Sanctity did so familiarly converse and eat arid drink with Publicans and sinners By sinners meaning the common sort of people not so strict in their lives nor wary for their conversation nor diligent in their purifications nor frequent in their fasts and Devotions nor strict in their tithes and other severities as the Pharisees were therefore reckoned by them unclean besides those who were scandalous for other faults Luk. 7.39 Upon which account the Pharisee elsewhere wonders that our Lord would suffer Mary Magdalen to touch him and from his companying with such liberty they aspersed him as a glutton and a wine-bibber Our Lord overhearing them or otherwise knowing their words then as their thoughts before first answered them as usually in a Parable that they that are found and whole need not the company of the Physitian but they that are sick And thus he justified such his conversation upon the account of his being a Physitian and sent not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance so his disciples were excused as being there not for theirs but his company But otherwise doubtless for these that are not spiritual Physitians but themselves also sick such company ought most carefully to be declined 1 Cor. 6.10 2 Thes 3.14 all sin being very contagious and also by our withdrawing from it to be discouraged This account given for himself He also knowing the Pharisees great defect herein zealous in their shew of service toward God but failing in their charity and mercy toward their neighbour bids them learn better the meaning of that saying in Osee Chap. 6.6 I will have mercy and not Sacrifice God preferring mercy to our Brethren before Sacrifice to himself By which most prudent answer of his those poor penitents that surrounded our Lord received much consolation and the Hypocritical Pharisees an inward conviction and confusion § 234 Silenced here they proceed again to question our Lord and to expose him to some publick shame in a matter they supposed yet much less defensible in which also to make their party the stronger they joyned with them the disciples of John the Baptist notwithstanding the great disesteem they had both of him and his followers Now these disciples also had an emulation of the great fame of our Lord and also had learnt of their Master the frequent practice of fasting and had also received from him certain forms and directions for prayer see Luk. 11.1 as our Lords disciples afterwards did from him and from the erant jejunantes Mark 2.18 some think this was one of their fasting daies These therefore rather chosen to be the speakers more to aggravate the matter from the rules and prescriptions of the Baptist one so much commended by our Lord applyed themselves now to our Lord himself but questioned him only concerning his disciples as before they asked the disciples concerning him And it was at a very seasonable time too when they both came but now from a feast their demand was why whenas both they and the Pharisees used frequent fasts his Disciples did not so but did eat and drink thinking hereby to force him either to condemn fasting or his own followers for omitting it § 235 Our Lord neither discouraging the Disciples of John nor prejudicing his Order nor as yet discovering the Pharisees Hypocrisy in their fasting which he well knew see Mat. 6.16 answers them again in a Parabolical manner first that the children of the bride-chamber could not mourn and fast whilst the Bridegroom was with them in a time of joy and a ready supply from him all-powerful of all their requests and desires but that the daies would come when the Bridgrome should be taken from them and then they should fast in those daies Fast and also make praiers in such a superlative degree as that those of the Baptists disciples and of the Pharisees were no way to be compared to what hath bin practised since in the Church of Christ And among the Christian fasts our Lord also is thought here to have had a special regard to the solemnizance of Lent which the Church should observe for ever specially relating to this Bridgroome at that time his being taken away from her by a most cruel death But after this reason of his disciples not mourning and fasting for the present the joyful presence of the Messias Our Lord adds another but this also delivered in Parable viz. that a new piece of cloth was not to be sowed on an old garment lest the rent should thereby be made worse nor new wine poured into old bottles lest so they should be burst and the wine spilt intimating that for the present before their renovation by the Holy Spirit his Disciples were not as yet so capable of receiving or practising the strictness and severity
take up his bed and walk Upon which the impotent man was instantly cured and carrying his bed on the Sabbath was presently questioned by the Jews probably these inquirers being either the Pharisees great zelots for the Sabbath or some of their Disciples for the breach of it in so doing who answered them that he was bid to do so by the person that cured him But our Lord there being a throng of people in the place he presently conveyed himself away and returned into the Temple All which occasioned the cure to be more taken notice of and the person looked after that had done it nor could the poor man give any account of him But a little after he repairing also to the Temple probably there to render more solemn thanks to God for his cure Our Lord now discovers himself to him and minding him of the mercy he had received exhorted him to amendment of life least a worse thing yet should happen unto him in die irae if not in this Rom. 2.4 5. yet after this life § 245 The man after he had paid his due adoration and thanks hasted to the former busy enquirers after the Author of his cure and told them it was Jesus doubtless thinking he should advance his honour and esteem with them thereby But it happened much otherwise for instead of this they sought his death for his own breaking in doing this cure and causing the other man also to break the Sabbath Our Lord then questioned by them concerning it as he was often for the like and made them great variety of answers and defences for it by which they were still silenced at this time answers them as absolute Lord of the Sabbath that he was to do the works for which God his Father had sent him among which was restoring the lame giving sight to the blind c. Mat. 11.5 whether this were on Sabbath or week daies or whoever should suffer scandal thereat But his answer now again was made by them worse than his fault collecting hence an higher accusation for destroying him because faith the Text he not only hath broken the Sababth Jo. 5.18 but said also that God was his Father and made himself equal with God which equality had the Jews miscollected from our Lords words as the Arrians say they did probably our Lord or the Evangelist would have reflected on it § 246 But our Lord well knowing his time not yet come of being delivered into their hands with the same undaunted courage and infinite charity and zeal after their salvation prosecuted his former discourse and took this opportunity to declare to them plainly and fully who he was his Union and intimacy with God his Father and why he was sent by and from him into the world and with what authority and power that all might provide for their Salvation by the believing in and the honouring of him as they did the Father See his Sermon made to them Jo. 5. The chief Contents whereof were these That in nothing he sought his own will our Lord having the same natural affections as other men but these in all things subjected to the Divine good pleasure and disposal but the will of his Father That he did nothing of himself but what he saw his Father do and that as he heard of him so he judged that all judgment also was by the Father committed into his hands see the like Mat. 11.27 Jo. 3.35 and the power of doing whatever the Father doth That every one who heard his words and believed that God had sent him should not come into condemnation .i. e. for his former sins now remitted in him but was passed from death to life speaking of death and life spiritual and eternal and of their regeneration thereto by the Spirit See 1 Jo. 3.14 that they who marvelled now so much at the present works he did namely in curing of diseases c. should yet hereafter see far greater from him namely upon the hearing of his voice by the Archangel all that are in their graves coming forth and receiving from him their final doome the good to the resurrection of life the evil to the resurrection of damnation the like things of his hereafter coming in the clouds c. he told to them before his passion Mat. 26.64 and to Nathanael Jo. 1.51 Angels waiting upon him and going hither and thither as he sent them that therefore it was the Fathers pleasure that all should believe in and do honour unto the Son as they did to the Father whose words and actions were the same and they saw and heard God the Father in the Son And concerning his being such a person and the words he spake to them Truth that they had an abundant testimony though considering his person his own was sufficient Jo. 8.14 16. First from his Father 1 both that which he gave them from heaven concerning him at his Baptism the like to which was done twice afterwards at our Lords tranfiguration before three witnesses Mat. 17.5 which is mentioned again by S. Peter 2 Epis 1.16 17. and at his solemn entrance into Jerusalem before his passion God the Father then from heaven speaking to him Jo. 12.20 23. perhaps for a testimony also to the Greeks or Gentiles see Jo. 7.35 who then first admitted by the Apostles came to worship and to make their humble addresses to him which foresignifyed salvation to be shortly after communicated to them by his now approaching death And a-again 2ly that testimony which his Father gave to him in the Miracles which he wrought by him which testimony he frequently urgeth See Jo. 10.25 38. 15.24 2ly A Testimony from John the Baptist though having that of God he needed not that of men which John was sent before him amongst them as a burning and shining light till the time he was to be eclipsed and silenced and they some of them at least were willing for a season to rejoyce in his light 3ly Testimony also from the Scriptures in which they thought were contained the way to eternal life which Scriptures had they duly searched they might have found them abundantly witnessing of him Lastly testimony from their lawgiver Moses in whom they had so much confidence who also spake clearly of him Jo. 1.45 Deut. 18.15.18 where upon petitioning that they might not hear again the voice of God nor see that terrible fire c he tells them that God would raise them up a Prophet like unto him and would put his own words into his mouth c and to him they should hearken whose words would sufficiently accuse unto God his Father their infidelity though our Lord should hold his peace But that notwithstanding such witness and evidences they would not believe because they had not the love of God in them nor as our Lord did sought the honour that only cometh from him through whatever worldly disesteem but was envious ambitious which shews he spake chiefly to the Pharisees and
person and set him in the midst of the Assembly as an object of great pity before he cured him and that he might do it as it were with their good leave and consent or with the more shame and confusion to them asked them what they thought of it whether it was lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil to save life or to destroy it there being no medium between bene male facere in any necessity of our neighbour the non-releiving of which if in our power is a sin to which they being silent not only to let him go forward in his purpose but because they knew not what safely to answer he demanded further who among them having one Sheep faln into a pit would not streight go lay hold of it and pull it out on the the Sabbath and then how much a man better than a sheep and a greater charity this where less our own interest And thus saith the Text when he had looked round about on them with anger being grieved for the hardness of their hearts upon his only bidding the man stretch forth his hand and his doing so it was restored whole as the other Where it seems somewhat hard to find a breach of the Sabbath as to any corporal work Our Lord held his hands still touched him not only spake to him the man stretched out his hand and who doth not this on the Sabbath without guilt yet it appears they were though silenced not satisfied but rather more filled with madness § 249 So that they went presently upon it and joyned themselves with the Herodians whom we find also Mat. 22.16 combining with the Pharisees and questioning our Lord about the lawfulness of paying tribute And in Mark 8.15 Our Lord warns his Disciples to be-ware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of Herod i.e. of the Herodians where S. Mat. c. 16.6 saith of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Saducees It seems then they were a looser and more prophane Sect much what of the Saducee-opinions much more addicted to and complying with Herod and the present Roman Government than the Pharisees were and so sufficiently odious to them but yet these as siding with the Secular state able to do more mischief and so they were made use of by the Pharisees in the persecution of our Lord. With these then the Pharisees consulted how they might destroy our Lord and that presently as appears by his suddain removal out of that place which probably was Capernaum From whence he went as he used to the Sea of Tiberias giving order to his disciples that a small ship should wait upon him so to avoid the press of the people and more commodiously to teach them out of the ship For an infinite multitude of them from all Quarters from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon and of the other side of Jordan and from Idumea as well as Judea and Galilee followed him what way ever he moved Partly for hearing his most admirable and ravishing discourses and prudent answers partly for having their sick cured by him cured without suffering any repulse or delay and all diseases whatever equally remedied and no more necessary for it than only the touching of him Which thing also caused the greater press upon him and forced him to the help of a ship As for the possessed the unclean Spirits presently fell down and adored and with loud cryes confessed him to be the Son of God though rebuked by him for it and silenced Where S. Matthew who beheld these things in writing his Gospel takes occasion to set forth the meekness charity patitience humility and complyance of our Lords compassionate carriage towards every ones infirmity in the words of the Prophet Esay foretold concerning him Esay 42.1 Behold my Servant whom I have chosen my beloved in whom my Soul delighteth I will put my Spirit upon him and he shall shew judgment to the Gentiles He shall not contend or use rigor or violence in his Office nor imperiously command and cry ou ts nor shall any man hear his voice aloud in the streets A bruised reed shall he not break and the smoaking flax shall he not extinguish but treats his infinite supplicants with incredible tenderness and meekness and against his as weak adversaries no way shews his power until by his own patience and sufferings he send forth judgment unto victory and perfectly establish righteousness in the earth and in his name the Gentiles received to mercy shall also trust and believe and become Subjects to his Scepter § 250 In those daies not long after our Lords return into Galilee from the second Paschal feast and about a year of his preaching being in all about three years and an half Or half a week of years now run out and as some conjecture now about the time of Pentecost at which time also God promulgated his law on Mount Sinai to the children of Israel as appears in Exod 19.1 and 11. compared with chap. 12.18 from the 14th day of the first Month to the 3d day of the 3d Month being just 50. daies and at which very time also our Lord afterward sent his Holy Spirit upon his Apostles enabling them to keep the law formerly delivered and lastly when now also our Lord saw the multitudes that flowed to him from all Quarters still greatly increasing and more labourers necessary for so great an harvest at this time I say and on such a necessity our Lord thought fit to make a Solemn Election out of the number of his Disciples and followers of 12 persons according to the number of the 12 Tribes to whom they were to be sent that they might assist him in his Ministry and whom after some time of their instruction he might disperse abroad to preach the new Kingdom of the Gospel concerning him in the several Cities of that Nation and for giving the more authority to their Doctrine to cure all diseases and eject Devils but this not in theirs but in his Name that so all might believe in this their new Saviour and obey his Doctrine and Commands § 251 On the Night therefore preceding this his Election when in the Evening the people with whom he spent the day were departed to take their rest he retired into a Mountain probably not far distant from Capernaum for in the context Mark chap. 3. Luk. 6. chap. we find our Lord after his departing from their Synagogue by the Lake teaching the people out of a ship because they thronged him immediatly before this And there is an high hill a few miles distant from Capernaum westward towards Bethsaida described in Eugene Rogiers Terre Sancte Lib. 1. chap. 10. that is called to this day Mons Beatitudinum On the top of which was anciently built a Church the ruines whereof still remain We find also in Mark 1.35 mention of a Desert not far from Capernaum into which our Lord retired for prayer and so from thence went into
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
God to save thee become the Son of man by which name to express the state of his humiliation our Lord usually stiled himself to death with this dearest expression of love to him Tu unanimis meus notus meus Who but now simul mecum dulces capiebas cibos and but this day in domo Domini ambulavimus cum consensu as the sad Psalmist in Spirit foreseeing this Tragedy aggravates it After which said and this Satan-possessed miserable creature no way relenting our Lord moves forward towards the Band that was coming on to apprehend him his Disciples following And asking them first with great Majesty whom they sought for there and they answering for Jesus of Nazareth upon his speaking two words Ego sum as if it had bin the terrible name Jehovah or Ego sum in Exodus they all recoiled as if repulsed with some mastering force and fell flat upon their backs before him so that he and his company might not only have gone from them but marched over them if they had pleased In which action he sheweth to them and to the world his All-Powerful Godhead and that oblatus est as the Prophet quia ipse voluit Esai 53.7 and that not by their force but his own meer good pleasure it was that he would be taken bound and led away by them as also used this act of his power as a means to reduce them to their duty and prevent their Guilt and make them next to turn to another prostration forward in a due reverence and honour to his Sacred person Jo 7.32 46. moved with the like Spirit as those were who came formerly to apprehend him in the Temple But they after a while by his permission recovering their strength made toward him a second time perhaps thinking their former fall an effect of his Magick or black Art able to procure a Blast to throw them down but not to hold them there and full ignorant that they rose again onely by the strength he infused Again he asked them the same Question And answered by them as before he next layes a powerful command on them which though assaulted by his Followers they punctually obeyed That seeing he was the man they sought they should dismiss and not touch the rest of his company mystically shewing thereby his sufferings to be our ransome and his apprehending our freedom He in the yeilding up of himself yet taking most tender compassion as S. John observes of his poor sheep Jo. 17.12 That though they might be scattered yet cone of those whom his Father had given him might be lost by falling into that storm which he well saw now all the Powers of Hell were let loose that none could withstand but himself and that Satans sifting them at that time would have turned to the ruin of their Faith and all of them bin if not as Judas Betrayers yet Denyers of him For if Peter when at free liberty and only asked the question by a Maid did so what may we imagine would he or the rest have done under Restraint and tortures § 22 Yet the Disciples well acquainted with this his omnipotency on several occasions and strongly animated also by seeing the former sudden Prostration of his Enemies had so much courage as to draw and ask him leave to use the few Swords they had in his defence and Peter had such an hasty Valour also according to his usual zeal and late promise to our Lord as without expecting an answer he made a blow at one of the High Priests servants one of the forwardest of the company to lay hands on our Lord upon his Masters instigations thinking to have cleft his head in sunder with it But our merciful Lord diverted it onely to the lopping off one of his ears which had too facilely received his Masters wicked commands and then presently compassionating this mischance desired permission of his Enemies thus far as to touch him and set it on again Thus returning good for evil and preventing the accusation of any resistance or harm done by him or his to the Ministers of publick justice as also in this demonstrating his love and charity to these his Enemies as he had before his power over them § 23 After which turning back towards Peter he bad him to put up his Sword telling him those that used it i. e. without a just Commission as he then did and especially against the ordinary Ministers of the secular Powers Gen. 9.6 and of Justice as those sent then to apprehend him were should incur the old Lex talionis mentioned in Genesis and perish by the Sword Adding also that he needed not his nor any others defence having at his command more than twelve Legions of Angels and had he pleased to have opened theirs as he did the Servant of Elisha his eyes they might have seen all these celestial Armies now environing him but what needed this when they saw the late powerful effect of his breath only in the pronouncing of two words enough had he pleased to have unmade the whole world as also it was made only with a word After which he concluded his speech with those gracious words full of patience humility and resignation after his usual manner to the good pleasure of his Father The cup that my Father hath given or appointed me shall not I drink And if I now make such a rescue how shall that which is written of me be fulfilled Taking care that not one syllable of his Fathers good pleasure declared in the former Scriptures concerning him should fall to the ground and accepting these his sufferings with all willing submission not as from the hands of the Enemies but of his Father § 24 After this addressing his Speech to the chief Priests and Captains of the Temple and Elders that were come to apprehend him Luk. 22.52 he expostulateth with them thereby to reduce them to some remorse of their fact why they came against him thus by night as against a Theif and a Robber and one that sought concealment who indeed was not a Destroyer but the Saviour of mankind and who conversed amongst them all the day publickly in the Temple at what time they had nothing to say to him Then presently as it were recalling himself from this arguing with ungrateful men and resuming the sweet contemplation of the divine preordination But saith he Luk. 22 53. This is your hour Intimating that only by the divine Dispensation and his own full consent to it the Powers of Darkness were now let loose upon him and these their wicked Instruments licensed to act in a time sutable to their designs § 25 So our meek Lord patiently yeilded himself into their hands who took and bound him their first Dejectment and fears now serving only to increase their present fierceness and rougher usage of him as imputing their former prostration to a feat of his Magick or black Art able to play some pretty pranks but
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
with our persons Heb. 10.19 § 109 Together with this stream of blood gushed out also another very Miraculous stream of water distinct from it for otherwise by reason of the strong tincture of blood this water could not have bin discerned if mingled with it A Type of which was Moses his smiting the rock and the water gushing out whereof the Apostle also speaking saith the rock was Christ 1 Cor. 10.4 And these two the water and blood lively represented the two Sacraments left by our Lord to the Church for the cleansing of sin and commemoration of his death the Sacrament of Baptism and of the Eucharist And thus as out of Adams side when lying a sleep was formed his Wife Eve so by the water and blood issuing out of Christs lying in the sleep of his death was formed in these two Sacraments his Spouse the Church regenerated in the one by Christs Spirit and nourished in the other with his grace redeemed by the shedding of blood and cleansed by the water § 110 St. John a spectator all this while and diligent observer of all that passed takes great notice of this with these words concerning it And he that saw it bare record and knoweth that he saith true that we might believe By which he saith the Prophecies were fulfilled that the Executioners should pierce his Sacred body but not break a bone and saith that this water and blood in the two Sacraments and the plentiful effusion that was not long after accomplish'd at Pentecost of the Holy Ghost and which also continues to the end of the world begetting and nourishing children to God joined with them are the three Witnesses that here on Earth give testimony continually of this redemption which the same Evangelist that saw this prosecutes also thus in one of his Epistles 1 Jo. 5.6 8. This is he that came by water and blood Jesus Christ not in watâ—r only but in water and blood and in these it is the Spirit that testifyeth that Christ is the Truth For there be three that give testimony in Earth the Spirit Water and Blood Thus S. John Meanwhile abstracting from this contemplation we may imagine what a ruful Spectacle this was to our Blessed Lady and the women with her in beholding such barbarous cruelty used to her Son even after his death and his most precious blood so spilt on the ground § 111 Whilst these things passed Joseph of Arimathea a noble Senator and one of the great Council of the Sanedrim a good man and a just saith S. Luke chap. 23.50 of him one who had not consented to their Counsel and doings but expected the Kingdom of God formerly a Disciple also of our Lord but secretly as also was another great man Nicodemus for fear of the Jews their estates and their Esteem lest either should be lost making them more timorous this Nobleman residing constantly in Jerusalem and rich had in a garden of his close by the place of our Lord's execution newly caused to be hewed out of the soft rock of the hill a Monument or Sepulcher for himself but ordained by the divine predesignment for the interring of our Lord's body near hand so that all things might the better serve for the evidence of his ensuing Resurrection He therefore though so timorous before and who had now also a special reason of not touching or coming near a dead corps because of eating the Paschal Lamb at even prohibited to any unclean as those were to be for seven daies that touched a dead body Numb 19.14 yet probably much animated both by our Lords patient and innocent sufferings and besides his former Doctrine and Miracles the many signs he saw now from Heaven and Earth of the transcendent dignity of his person and that he was what he believed him to be having heard also of the order of the persons executed their being presently taken down or perhaps being one of them also that procured it boldly saith the Text went in to Pilat to beg our Lord's Body of him though well foreseeing he must incur a great hatred from the cheif of the Jews his acquaintance herein Pilat after he had called the Centurion and certainly informed himself of his being already dead and no design herein of saving his life freely gratified him with it and commanded it should be delivered him not prohibiting him a decent Burial whom he had alwaies esteemed an innocent person That Joseph might not undergo this sad office alone without a companion and for the greater honour of our Lords funeral the time of whose humiliation was now expired with his death Nicodemus another great person one that had formerly by night conversed with our Lord and also in the Council spoken in his defence John 7.51 and probably more familiarly acquainted with Joseph by reason of their condiscipleship joined with him in this service mutually encouraging one another against the Priests and Elders of the Jews who must needs be much displeased with this fact as upbraiding them with the Murther if not of the Messias or a Prophet yet of a just person Joseph therefore suddenly prepared fine linnen for a Syndon and Nicodemus a great quantity of Spices about an hundred pound weight saith the Text and so coming to Calvary by the Governours authority took down the naked body from the Cross and removing it into Joseph's Garden close by probably there performed to it all the usual Ceremonies before burial washing his stripes and wounds and cleaning it from all those indignities the malitious Jews and Soldiers had done to it anointing it with sweet Oyles and wrapping it in the linnen filled with the spices and sweet odours and binding a Napkin about his head used for hindring the falling of the Jaws all to make good that in the Prophet Esay 11.10 Et erit Sepulchrum ejus gloriosum In which office we may imagine these great persons were assisted as with their Servants so with the help of the blessed Mother of our Lord and S. John more punctually relating this story than the rest who we may not think left our Lord after expired but waited still in the same place to observe how God would dispose of his Sacred Body and no doubt were much comforted in seeing that authority committed into the hands of those honourable persons our Lords Devotes and formerly known to them as such § 112 The Body thus decently and sumptuously accommodated was presently carried by this small train of Mourners and laid in the new hewn Sepulcher near at hand a place as convenient for the future events of our Lords Resurrection so a Monument durable and not subject to ruin as other the noblest Sepulchers ordinarily are For what more permanent than a Cave made in a Rock but such as also the place wherein he first lay when he came into the world the Manger that might continue to all posterity and such as remains to this day and is continually visited by a great confluence of devout
that the Glory quite took away his fight Resembling spirits also in passing how soon and whither they please without any gravity or retardment or impediment of solid bodyes interposed we may imagine according to the swiftness of a Sun-beam or of our thoughts with which we render our selves in our imagination present in places most remote and acting there what we please Mary as commanded hasted to the main Body of the Disciples that remained together and told them this joyful news as they mourned and wept saith S. Mark chap. 16.10 11. But they saith he aggravating their great incredulity and disconsolation when they had heard that he was alive and had bin seen of her yet believed not and so she hasted again toward the Sepulcher to meet with our Lord again or at least the women her companions § 121 Meanwhile the other Galilean women also were arrived therewith great store of spices prepared much sollicitous by the way how they should remove the stone from the Sepulcher such men as were our Lords Friends not daring to appear or herein to assist them and seeing the great Stone that troubled them so much rolled away presently went into it where they saw the body gone and an Angel in the form of a yong man clothed with a long shining robe sitting as Mary's Angel did on the right side of the Sepulcher where our Lord had lain at which sight being much affrighted he bid them take courage he knew whom they sought our Lord that was crucified but that he was not there they saw the place empty but was risen again as he had often told them which now they well remembred when he was with them in Galilee that they should presently carry this joyful news to the Disciples and to Peter particularly named as the chiefest of them and the most respected by our Lord and perhaps as was said before he and John not lodging with the rest telling them that after such a time they should depart into their own Countrey Galilee where was the greatest frequency of his Disciples and Followers and most liberty for their meeting together from the disturbance of the Jews and there in such a Mountain apart and at such time assembled they should all together see him and enjoy the consolation of his presence The holy women filled with great fear and joy to whom also by this Mary Magdalen had joined her self and related her happy adventures also hasted with this second message to the disconsolate Disciples who dared not to stir abroad or see themselves how things were And upon the way as they were going our Lord suddainly appeared to them also saying All hail to them too Before whom they presently fell down and took hold of his feet and adored him A thing which to Mary when all alone he would not permit but here indulged perhaps that this might the more confirm to them as also to the Disciples to whom they carried the news the reality of his person And so them also he presently dismissed to go and tell his Brethren as he stiled them that he was risen and in Galilee they should all have a full view of him and vanished again out of their sight § 122 Come to the Disciples their message was also entertained with the same obstinate incredulity as Mary Magdalen's and perhaps also St. Peter and St. John's Relations For St. John saith of himself that when he came to the Sepulcher and saw how things were there he believed But the rest of the Disciples would credit nothing as sorrow is loth to be deceived lest such deceit discovered should redouble it and this perhaps because the reports brought them were only of suddain apparitions and these presently vanishing again though they touched him not able to detain him which they might take either for the delusion of some spirits for such things they could not imagine of a solid body or else strong imaginations of the fancy advanced by our Lords former predictions and by a longing expectation especially this thing hapning only to the women and first to her that was most transported with love and also they presuming that our Lord if truly risen would have honoured his holy Mother of whose visit to her or Peter they as yet knew nothing or them sooner with his presence than these others or rather would have returned in a more publick manner manifesting himself to all the world as now being Death-free and so above all the effects of his Enemies malice and would have entred upon the administration of his kingdom for such a thing ran in their mind and such thing they were harping upon Act. 1.6 Whilst on the other side our Lord this while afforded his presence to others and withheld it from them to try and give occasion to the greater operation of their faith a thing in us ever most highly prized and valued by him as who had bin more particularly instructed by him concerning this reviving than others and should have needed less conviction for the perswasion of it and yet in this outdone by the High Priests who much suspected it and therefore at St. Peter and Johns repairing to the Sepulcher no Angels appeared nor was the message there delivered by an Angel to the Disciples but women But this was done also to shew them their great weakness and hardness of heart which also in his next apparition in the Evening he objected to them and had a good effect for preserving in them the greater humility without which no person can be gracious to him the courage of these women meanwhile well deserving those manifestations of our Lord of which their fears were unworthy But indeed the Divine providence also seems thus to have disposed things that their Testimony who were to publish to all the world the Gospel of our Lords Resurrection might be rendred the more credible from the great averseness and difficulty themselves had at first to admit or believe it as also S. Thomas his standing out and trying further experiments after all the rest convinced served for the same ends This also much more illustrated the wonderful operations of the descent of the Holy Ghost upon them that was shortly after obtained of his Father by our Lords Ascention shewing all their spiritual strength and courage to have bin from its efficacy Who though now full of fears and incredulity they hid themselves and despaired as it were of the Divine Omnipotency and Goodness then proclaimed to all the world the Magnaliae Dei and feared neither Prisons nor death for the Testimony of Jesus Quales Doctores Sanctae Ecclesiae ante adventum bujus Spiritus fuerint scimus post adventum illius cujus fortitudinis facti sunt conspicimus saith S. Gregory § 123 The same day also before any other of the Apostles our Lord appeared to S. Peter at some time when alone Luk. 24 34. 1 Cor. 15 5. An Apparition mentioned by St. Paul and St. Luke some think it might
what they were afterwards to instruct the Jews and all other Nations expounding to them the Law and the Prophets shewing them the many predictions concerning the Messias his Sufferings Resurrection and so entrance into his Glory a many of which they mentioned afterward in their Sermons in the Acts opening their understandings to understand the Scriptures § 128 Afterward more particularly addressing himself to his Apostles he told them in this and several other apparitions made to them before his Ascension that he was very shortly to go into Heaven to his Father and leave them here behind him That all power both in Heaven and Earth was given to him that therefore by this his Authority he also sent them to preach the Gospel to all Nations and witness to them the things they had seen and heard from him but beginning their predication first at Jerusalem and to Gods former people the Jews That they should preach to them repentance and remission of sin thro his name and also the observation of all those things which he had commanded them And that they should also Baptize them In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost instructing them that who so believed in him and were baptized which was the Sacrament instituted for washing away their sins for conferring on them the Spirit of regeneration and for initiating them into his Church should be saved and the unbelieving damned And that great signs also should follow them that believed and were of the Christian profession which signs should bear witness to the truth of their faith and Religion That in his name they should speak strange languages cure the sick cast out Devils and have a special command over all the powers of the Enemy as they are called Luk. 10.19 in taking up or treading on Serpents or in hapning to drink any poison not to receive any hurt from them Not that all Believers should do such Miracles but that these should still remain in the Church or Congregation of true Believers Testimonies and Evidences of Gods special favours to and presence with them § 129 At last he proceeded to their solemn Ordination wherein after he had pronounced a second Pax vobis and a sicut misit me Pater ego mitto vos He breathed upon them with his most Sacred mouth and said these words used ever since by them and their Successors in the ordination of others Receive ye the Holy Ghost whose sins ye shall forgive i. e. by Baptism or for those committed afterwards by Absolution upon confession and repentance or penance they are forgiven them and whose sins ye shall retain i. e. by not baptizing or absolving or further binding with Church-censures the impenitent and obstinat they are retained And so solemnly promised to be with them and their Successors with his power and protection till the end of the world and the time of his return to judg it § 130 This said he disappeared also to them as he had done several times already to the other which caused in them now less wonder at the former leaving their hearts replenished with great consolation After this done on the second day of the Feast and the first of his Resurrection he absented himself from them till the Eighth when that solemn Festivals Octave was fully ended and the people were upon their return to their own countreyes and habitations Where for this time our Lords glorious Person was together with those other Saints whose Bodyes were raised with him till his Ascension would be too much curiosity to inquire It seems he was pleased to observe the fixed laws of the Divine wisdom for Souls or Persons already translated to the next life viz. to have no more familiar or long-during converse with those of this for so neither did Elias and Moses make any long stay with our Lord in the Holy Mount. As for other good ends so perhaps for this the greater merit of our faith here concerning the life and affairs of the world to come § 131 S. Thomas one of the eleven was absent when our Lord thus appeared where some imagine from the fear he formerly bewrayed John 11.5 that he might not be as yet returned to the Society since their dispersion on Thursday night at our Lords apprehension and so might not have heard as the rest of our Lord 's former appearings at all to the women and to Peter c He whether the same night or afterwards being come to them and informed of their having seen our Lord yet for a greater manifestation still of our Lords Resurrection and for begetting in this Apostle more humility continued in the same incredulity as to their relations though so many as they had done to the other likely perswaded by the Circumstances of his appearing in the night coming through Doors shut and making scarse any stay at all with persons to whom he had formerly shewed so much affection but suddainly vanishing again that it might be some airy spirit subject in his motions to the order of a Superior power And though they related to him also their having seen his scars and touched his body or at least invited to do it yet he fancied that this was not done to purpose but ought to be better examined and that if he had bin there he would have thrust his hand into the Gash in our Lords side and his fingers into the holes made by the nails c Notwithstanding that this person besides his hearing our Lords many predictions to them of his Resurrection was present with the rest at our Lords raising from death after laid upon the Bier the widdows son at Naim and again at his raising of Lazarus out of his Sepulcher when he had lain longer time there than our Lord had done But this too-much suspicious and despondent inclination of his had appeared also several times formerly that we may see what materials our Lords Grace wrought upon and not to be discouraged as in those words of his at our persecuted Lords return into Judea for the raising of Lazarus Jo. 11 16. He then presently resolving that there our Lord and they must lose their lives and in his words again John 14.5 where our Lord telling his Disciples of his departure shortly and that they knew the place and the way whither he went Thomas dejectedly replied that they knew not whither he went and how could they know the way thither To whom our Lord answered that his Journey was a Return to Heaven to his Father whence he came and that He himself believed-in was the way thither Yet after the descent and renovation of the Holy Spirit this Apostle especially was made choice of to be a most eminent Assertor of the same Resurrection and Propagator of the Gospel throughout India and the remotest Nations of the East fulfilling our Lords words Acts 1.8 Et usque ad ultimum terrae and there at last laid down his life for it § 132 Our Lord then
a certain number weight and measure and the precedent works exact patterns of the succeeding and nothing here casually hapning especially the numbers of six and seven have bin very mystical and Sacred ever since the work of the creation in six and rest on the seventh day § 143 Before this time then was expired the Eleven Apostles and some other Disciples also and the Galilean women with the Blessed Mother of our Lord and his Brethren were now returned to Jerusalem and there remained together probably in the place where our Lord had celebrated his last Supper and which our Lord had first made choice of in the house of some wealthier Disciple when he sent Peter and John to provide the Paschal Feast for the more commodious transacting of all these affairs And there our Lord the last time shewed himself unto them and having discoursed several things concerning the Kingdom of God and their publishing and proclaiming to all Nations the universal power and Glory that was now given by God to him he promised before their going abroad in his service to endue them also speedily after his Ascending with power from on high by sending upon them the promise of his Father he had so often told them of which you may see promised of old in Joel 2.28 cited for it by St. Peter Acts 2.17 Zach. 12.10 Ezec. 36.26 Telling them that John baptized only with water but that they not many daies thence should be baptized with the fire see Mat. 3.11 or flame of the Holy Ghost for so in the likeness of a flame at Pentecost it descended and was poured forth upon them and so charging them that they should remove no more from Jerusalem till this thing was accomplished § 144 The Disciples hearing our Lord speak of things pertaining to his kingdom Act. 1.3 as also before in Galilee that all power was given to him in Heaven and Earth of their receiving power also from on high and a charge not to depart as yet from the Royal City joined perhaps with what he had formerly said unto them of their sitting on twelve Thrones things not then understood so spiritually by them as they ought but they imagining some temporal dominion of the Jews now to be restored in our Lord to the race of David over all other Nations like to that of Solomon the quite contrary to which followed shortly after namely their utter ruine A thing that ran in the mind of these two Disciples also that went to Emaus Luk 24.21 presently asked our Lord whether now the time was come of his restoring the Kingdom to Israel This they inquired notwithstanding our Lord had so often told them the contrary and informed them that his Kingdom was not of this world and that as it had treated him their Master so should it them the servants that they should be persecuted banished killed for his name sake and for the Gospel preached by them Our Lord therefore not too much to contristate them and knowing them not well prepared as yet for the communicating of such secrets in which by the Descent of the Holy Spirit he more fully instructed them afterwards and at how great a distance his Kingdom was in such a sense as they meant it when the Twelve were to sit upon twelve thrones did with great prudence and as much meekness and supporting of their infirmities return them only this Answer That it was not for them to know the times or the seasons which his Father had put in his own power much what so as he had answered to the Mother of James and John concerning who should sit at his right hand Dabitur illis quibus paratum est a Patre meo Mat. 20.23 and to Peter inquisitive concerning John Si eum volo manere c quid ad te And indeed there are many futurities with which it is better that our human weakness be not preacquainted as perhaps fit here that hope deferred might not too much contristate them for the Disciples as yet to be ignorant of such a long revolution of many ages as was to be before the day of Doome and our Lords return to take possession of the kingdom or before that prosperous and flourishing condition of his Church which was at last to precede his Kingdom Which coming of his in Glory many as appears by St. Paul 2 Thes 2.1 2. 2 Pet. 3.4 9. perhaps by understanding Mat. 24.34 and 1 Thes 4.17 expected even in the Apostles daies and the great terror in those that heard St. Peters first Sermon in the Acts shews that they then apprehended it not far off But saith he ye shall receive power after this Holy Ghost promised is come upon you and shall be witnesses unto me and preach this my kingdom boldly to all the Nations of the world § 145 After such discourses past in that large Caenaculum at Jerusalem the time of his return to his Father being fully come he led them first out of the City through the plain about a mile in breadth as far as Bethany that was at the foot of the Mount of Olives his Friends of that place making also part of his Train and so ascended to the top of the Mount of Olives But we may imagine this their procession out of the city was by his miraculous power in such a manner ordered as that neither himself was seen by others save them at least in a known shape nor so great a company perhaps by dividing themselves much noted Arrived at the top of the Hill he lift up his hands which shewed in the midst of them the dear marks of his suffering for them towards heaven from whence all Blessing comes and therefore this an usual gesture in all Invocation and Prayer and gave them his Benediction after his redemption of man as God the Father also did after his Creation Gen. 1.28 And as Aaron the former legal High Priest according to the Divine command Numb 6.23 is said Levit. 9.22 to have lift up his hands toward the people and blessed them before his going into the Sanctuary when also the fire descending afterward from the Lord upon the Sacrifice typified the Descent of the Holy Ghost And so saith the Evangelist he was parted from them and ascended slowly and by degrees so as they might keep their eyes upon him and discern his Motion till at some height a Cloud received him out of their sight to put an End to their further gazing after him Thus our Lord who was clothed with so much Splendor and glory at his Transfiguration and who had Moses and Elias waiting upon him and a bright Cloud of rays compassing himself and his Disciples and who Acts 22.6 when he was afterwards seen by St. Paul Acts 22.6 11. appeared in such a glory at Noon-day transcending that of the Sun that the light thereof struck him blind yet now entring upon the real possession of this glory admitted no alteration at all in his external appearance