nature and will before it was sacrificed and whilst it was sacrificed was more obedient to his Fathers will than our first Parents senses or affections in their integrity were unto their reasonable soules When hee commeth into the world as our Apostle interprets the Psalmist he saith Sacrifice and offerings thou wouldest not but a body hast thou prepared or fitted for mee In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sinne thou hadst no pleasure then said I loe I come in the volume of the book it is written of me to doe thy will O God This will of God accomplished through the sacrifice of his Sonne was that will of God by which we are sanctified and if sanctified then justified yet not justified without satisfaction before made Of the full meaning of this place and of the true reconciliation of the Seventy Interpreters whom the Apostle followes with the Psalmist or the Originall by Gods grace hereafter Thus much is pertinent to our present purpose that the body which the Sonne of God assumed to do that will of his Father which could not bee accomplished by any other sacrifices though numberlesse and endlesse was a body fitted for all kindes of calamities and crosses which are incident unto mortality a body more capable of paine or deeper impressions from the violent occurrences of all externalls which are naturall than any other mans body was or had been A body as it were moulded and organized of purpose to bee animated or actuated with the spirit of obedience and all manner of patience in suffering which can bee required in a faithfull servant Servants saith S. Peter bee obedient c. For this is thankworthy if a man for conscience toward God endure griefe suffering wrongfully CHRIST JESUS who was the paterne of all obedience required in servants not onely whilest he was to deale with malicious unreasonable men but in the very 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of his Agony when his heart within him was become like melting waxe through the vehemencie of that fiery triall did set the fairest copie of that obedience which S. Peter requires should bee taken out how rudely soever by every servant of God under his owne hand Even in this Agony when his mortall spirits did faint and languish the spirit of obedience was much stronger in him than the pulse of paine and sorow It did not intermit or abate when his paines and anguish did increase Being in Agony saith S. Luke hee prayed more earnestly Luk. 22.44 These words I referre if not to the third yet certainely to the second paroxysme of his Agony one or more of which fits did wring blood from his sacred body being otherwise full of health But most probable it is from S. Lukes relation Chap. 22. ver 44. that hee sweat blood both in the first and second fit and that in all the three hee delivered his supplications 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 kneeling or falling upon the ground The forme of his prayer and maner of deportment in it as was said before exhibite a true document or demonstrative argument that besides his Divine will hee had a will truely humane a reasonable will in that hee did desire or deprecate the removall or asswagement of his present sufferings with greater fervency of spirit and devotion than any sonnes of Adam could deprecate the paines of Hell if they should be beset with them or feele their approach And yet withall hee wholly submits his humane body soule and will unto his heavenly Fathers will who by his consent had free power to dispose of them in life and death as hee pleased Out of this fervent spirit of obedience consecrated unto Gods service by his most devout prayers he was delivered from the paines and terrors which he both feared and felt in the garden 5. As for his sacrifice upon the Crosse albeit we subduct the worth of it in it selfe considered which infinitely exceeds the worth of all other sacrifices it was most properly and most really the sacrifice of a broken heart or contrite spirit For after his naturall strength was spent and his bodily spirits diffused with his blood hee lastly offers up his immortall spirit his very soule unto his Father Father into thy hands I commend my spirit and having said thus he gave up the ghost Luk. 23.46 The spirit of obedience did not expire with bodily spirits it did accompany his soule into Paradise it was not put off with the forme of a servant but cloathed upon with glory and immortality Shall wee yet doubt whether the sacrifice upon the Crosse being offered out of such unexpressible obedience were fully sufficient to make abundant satisfaction for all our disobediences albeit wee should subduct his obedience and patience in that grievous Agony in the garden 6. If any man bee disposed to move further doubt about this point the Apostles authority or rather his reason will put the point out of question Heb. 9.11 12 13 14. But Christ being come an high Priest of good things to come by a greater and more perfect Tabernacle not made with hands that is to say not of this building Neither by the blood of goats and calues but by his owne blood hee entred in once into the holy place having obtained eternall redemption for us For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the uncleane sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh how much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternall spirit offered himselfe without spot to God purge your consciences from dead works to serve the living God The forme and maner of his dispute in this passage as in most others throughout this Epistle is allegoricall but allegories in true Theologie alwayes include arguments of proportion and are as firme as any Geometricall or Mathematicall demonstration The termes of proportion in this argument are especially foure First sinnes meerely ceremoniall that is such errors and escapes as are evill because forbidden not evill in themselves The second the remedy appointed for such sinnes and that was the blood of bulls and goats c. The third sinnes properly so called that is all offences or trespasses against the Law of nature or against the Law of God Things not evill onely because forbidden but rather forbidden because evill in their owne nature The fourth terme is the antidote or preservative against such sinnes as in their nature poison our soules and this soveraigne preservative is onely the blood of Christ The Apostle takes it for granted that the sacrifice of bulls and goats were sufficient to make satisfaction for sinnes merely ceremoniall and the blood available so farre to sanctifie the parties offending against the Law of Ceremonies as that they might be admitted into the Congregation or stand recti in curia after the sacrifice was once offered Of this purification concerning the flesh by the blood of such sacrifices that which the Romanists say of the Sacraments of the new Testament might bee more
exclamation Whether he first said I am a thirst and then cried out with a loud voice My God My God why hast thou forsaken mee Or first cried out My God my God why hast thou forsaken mee and then said I am athirst I will not dispute because I cannot determine The later of the two seemeth to mee more probable However neither his speech nor exclamation intimate any touch of impatience much lesse of despaire but onely a desire to give the world notice that this 22. Psalme was specially meant of him and that all which was meant of him concerning his humiliation or indignities done unto him upon the Crosse were now fulfilled and that there remained one or two sayings of the same or some other Psalmist to bee fulfilled before his death especially by receiving the vinegar For when hee had received it saith S Iohn he said Consummatum est It is finished as if he had said Now my sufferings and indignities are at an end Yet besides the bodily thirst wherewith hee was at the ninth houre more deepely touched then with hunger in the wildernesse there was a thirsty desire of his soule to be dissolved from the body and to be with his Father And in this his last extremity that other complaint of David was most exactly fulfilled I stretch forth my hands unto thee my soule thirsteth after thee as a thirsty land Heare mee speedily O Lord my spirit faileth hide not thy face from me lest I be like unto them that goe downe into the pit I remember the dayes of old I meditate on all thy works I muse on all the works of thy hands Psalm 143.6 7. David was delivered from the pit which he feared but our Saviour was speedily heard for that he prayed which was that his body might goe unto the grave and his soule and spirit unto his Father And albeit S. Iohn instructeth us that after he had received the vinegar and said It is finished he gave up the Ghost Yet S. Matthew and S. Mark tell us that hee cried againe with a loud voice and so gave up the Ghost The articulation of this loud voice or cry is registred onely by S. Luke 23.46 And when Iesus had cried with a loud voice hee said Father into thine hands I commend my spirit And having said thus hee gave up the Ghost And in this cry or speech another Scripture or prayer of David was exactly fulfilled Pull mee out of the net that they have laid privily for mee for thou art my strength Into thine hands I commend my Spirit Psalm 31.4 5. But how was this fulfilled in him Surely as the Prophet or the Holy Ghost by whom hee spake did meane it How then was it meant of him Not meerely Prophetically but typically of the Psalmist and more really and punctually of him The Psalmist in his owne person or as acting his owne part did commend his Spirit to God his Redeemer in hope to be redeemed from death or danger of body intended against him The Redeemer of Mankind using the same words desired bodily death or dissolution of body and soule commending his soule or spirit by a dying wish into his Fathers hands 9. The 143. Psalme as the inscription of the Septuagint informeth us was composed by David when his Sonne Absalom with his complices did pursue him and the sixth verse I stretch out my hands c. is signed with a Selah a note or character as I take it not of musick onely but of some greater mystery to be fulfilled The mysterie in this particular was this that as David after hee had in his owne person prayed for deliverance and was heard so was the Sonne of David instantly after hee had received the vinegar delivered from the torments of death or bodily paines When Iesus therefore had received the vinegar saith S. Iohn hee said It is finished and hee bowed his head and gave up the Ghost 19.30 If we consider either the 143. Psalme or the 31. as literally meant of David there is no intimation of any distraction of mind in him much lesse was there any inclination to any distraction discontent or distrust in JESUS the Sonne of GOD in whom whatsoever was commendably acted by David in his distresse was most punctually and exquisitely fulfilled of this our blessed Saviour in all his sufferings His memory was most fresh and his patience most remarkable when his mortall spirits were expiring 10. That ejaculation Psalm 31.6 Into thy hands I commend my spirit was saith Maldonat meant of Christ in another sense then it was of David rather fulfilled of Christ in a more exquisite sense then it had been verified of David David according to the literall and historicall sense being in distresse commends the tuition or safety of his soule unto God directing his prayer for speedy deliverance from that bodily danger wherewith hee was beset unto Adonai Iehova unto the Lord of truth or the Lord God his Redeemer Pull mee out of the net that they have laid privily for mee for thou art my strength c. Thou hast redeemed me O Lord of truth Psal 31.4 5. The Lord God Redeemer of mankind directs his prayer unto his Father Father into thy hands I commend my spirit after hee had suffered all the disgraces paines and tortures whereof any mortall body was ever capable This delivery or surrender of his life and soule vivâ voce at the very moment or point of death into his Fathers hands did move the heathen Centurion to say Of a truth this man was the Son of God Mar. 15.39 When the Centurion saith S. Luke saw what was done he glorified God saying Certainely this was a righteous man Luk. 23.47 This is in effect the very same which S. Mark saith For in that the Centurion did acknowledge him for a righteous man he did necessarily in his heart acknowledge him to bee the Sonne of God because hee had so profest of himself That righteousnesse which the Centurion ascribeth unto him was the truth of his confession before Pilat when hee was examined upon this interrogatory Art thou then the Sonne of God now more fully proved and declared unto the world by the strange maner of his death 11. The confession of this heathen man was more Christian then the questions which some Schoolemen have moved upon the delivery of his soule vivâ voce into his Fathers hands For so some have questioned whether he were homicida sui or made away himself by actuall dissolution of his soule from his body before the violence and cruelty of the tortures whereto his Enemies put him could by course of nature work this divorce Surely if hee did any way prevent the death intended against him by the Jews or shortned his owne naturall life though but for a moment they had not been so true and proper murderers of him as the Apostle intimateth and we Christians beleeve they were For albeit Abimelech had received a deadly incurable wound by the
Moses in those men which were excluded by oath from the land of Canaan Num. 14.20 21 22 23. And the Lord said I have pardoned according to thy word But as truely as I live all the earth shall bee filled with the glory of the Lord. Because all those men which have seene my glory and my miracles which I did in Egypt and in the wildernesse and have tempted mee now these ten times and have not hearkened to my voice Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers neither shall any of them that provoked me see it All these which were all the Males of Israel above twenty yeares of age save Caleb Ioshua and Moses who was in part involved in this sentence did beare a true type or shadow of those who offending in like manner against Christ and his Gospel we call Reprobates yet not so true types of such a sinne against the holy Ghost as those which went to search the land of Canaan And the men which Moses sent to search the land who returned and made all the Congregation to murmure against him by bringing up a slander upon she land Even those men that did bring up the evill report upon the land after they had seene the goodlinesse and tasted the pleasant fruits of it died of the plague before the Lord. But Joshua the sonne of Nun and Caleb the sonne of Jephunneh which were of the men that went to search the land lived still and many happy dayes after that time Numb 14.36 37 38. 6. Very probable it is though I will not determine pro or con that the irremissible sinne whereof our Saviour and S. Paul speake for which there remaineth no satisfaction was if dot peculiar yet Epidemicall unto those primitive times wherein the kingdom of heaven was first planted here on earth by our Saviour and the holy Catholike Church was in erection by the ministery of the Apostles or in times wherein the extraordinary gifts of the holy Spirit were most plentifull and most conspicuous Even in those times into this wofull estate none could fall which had not tasted of the heavenly gift of the good word of God and of the powers of the world to come and had not beene partakers of the holy Ghost Nor did such men fall away by ordinary sinnes but by relaps into Iewish blasphemy or heathenish Idolatry and malicious slander of the kingdom of heaven of whose power they had tasted God was good to all his creatures in their creation and better to men in their redemption by Christ of this later goodnesse all men werein some degree partakers The contempt or neglect of this goodnesse was not irremissible the parties thus farre offending and no further were not excluded from the benefit of Christs satisfaction or from renewing by repentance but of the gifts of the Spirit which was plentifully poured out after our Saviours ascension all were not partakers This was a speciall favour or peculiar goodnesse whose continued contempt or solemne abrenuntiation by relapse either into heathenisme or Jewish blasphemy was unpardonable not in that it was a sinne peculiarly committed against the person of the holy Ghost but because it did include an extraordinary opposition unto the indispensable law of justice or goodnesse which God the Father Sonne and holy Ghost are 7. Some sinnes then there be or some measure of them which being made up no satisfaction will be accepted for them It is impossible according to the sacred phrase that the parties thus delinquent should bee renewed by repentance But whether according to this dialect of the holy Ghost that grand sinne whereof our Saviour and the Apostle speakes be absolutely irremissible untill death hath determined their impenitency which committed it or onely exceeding dangerous in comparison of other sinnes I will not here dispute much lesse dare I take upon me to determine either branch of the maine question proposed As whether satisfaction were absolutely necessary for remitting the sinnes of our first Parents or their seed Or whether the Son of God could have brought us sinners unto glory by any other way or meanes than that which is revealed unto us in his Gospel It shall suffice me and so I request the Reader it may doe him to shew that this revealed way is the most admirable for the sweet concurrence of Wisdome Justice Mercy and whatsoever other branches of goodnesse else bee which the heart of man can conceive more admirable by much than wisdome finite could have contrived or our miserable condition desired unlesse it had been revealed unto us by God himselfe 8. For demonstration of this conclusion and for deterring all which pretend unto the priviledge or dignity of being the Sonnes of God from continuance in sinne no principle of faith or passage in the sacred Canon can bee of better use then that 1. Ioh. 3.8 He that committeth sinne is of the Devill for the Devill sinneth from the beginning For this purpose the Sonne of God was manifested that hee might destroy the works of the Devill However the words which severall translations doe render one and the same word in the Originall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bee of different signification in point of Grammar yet is there no contradiction betwixt them upon the matter Our later English which I alledged readeth that he might destroy the former that hee might dissolve the works of the Devill Neither of them much amisse and both of them put together or mutually helping one another exceeding well Some works of the Devill the Sonne of God is said more properly to dissolve others more properly to destroy Sinne it selfe as the Apostle tells us is the proper worke of the Devill his perpetuall worke for he sinneth from the beginning And for this cause the man that committeth sinne is of the Devill the Devills workman or day labourer so long as hee continues in knowne sinnes Sinne the best of men dayly doe But it is one thing to sinne and doe a sinfull Act another to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the phrase used by our Apostle a worker or doer of evill operarius iniquitatis Such workmen the sonnes of God or servants of Christ cannot be at lest so long as they continue sonnes or servants The points most questionable in those forecited words of S. Iohn now to bee discussed in this preamble to the manner how the Son of God did dissolve or destroy the works of the Devill are two The first from what beginning the Devill is said to sinne or to continue in sinne The second what speciall workes of the Devill they were which the Sonne of God did or doth undoe or for whose dissolution or destruction hee was manifested in our flesh CHAP. IV. From what beginning the Divell is said by S. John to sinne Whether sinne consist in meere privation or have a positive entity or a cause truely efficient not deficient onely 1 THe word Beginning is some times taken universally and absolutely
wherewith our first Parents and in them their whole posterity were bound by Satan For albeit the first sinne found entrance into our nature by incogitancy and had its period or accomplishment in pride yet were not pride or incogitancy the only strings of that snare wherein Satan had taken us The bonds and ties by which hee tooke and holds us captive are mentioned by S. Iohn in his first Epistle 2. Chap. ver 15 16. Love not the world nor the things that are in the world If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him For all that is in the world the lust of the flesh the lust of the eye and the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world From these three heads or sources all the overflowing of ungodlinesse may be derived and these found entrance into this visible world through our first Parents folly and Satans subtilty For albeit the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life tooke their distinct specificall being or live-shape from the first sinne yet were the seeds of all these sinnes sowen by Satan in our first Parents soules and senses before the body of sinne with its members were framed or animated There was an extravagant desire of the eye an irregular appetite of the flesh by which the Serpent tolled on the first woman to eat the forbidden fruit and the eating of it did hatch this three-fold brood in kinde The woman saith Moses Gen. 3.6 saw through false spectacles of Satans making that the tree was good for food here was the embryon or seed of the lust of the flesh and that it was pleasant to the eye here were the first lineaments of the lust of the eye and a tree to bee desired to make one wise this was the inchoation of the pride of life And shee tooke of the fruit thereof and did eate and gave also to her husband and hee did eate and by their eating the former desire of forbidden food was turned into the lust of the flesh The curiosity of the eye was turned into the lust of the eye and the desire of knowledge or proper excellency was changed into the pride of life So that the truth of S. Iames his observation Chap. 1. ver 13 14. was remarkably experienced in the manner of our first Parents fall Let no man say when hee is tempted I am tempted of God For God cannot bee tempted with evill neither tempteth be any man But every man is tempted when hee is drawen away of his owne lust and entised Then when lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sinne and sinne when it is finished bringeth forth death Now to dissolve these three temptations or cords of vanity wherewith our first Parents were taken captives the Sonne of God immediatly upon his Baptisme was led by the Spirit into the wildernesse to be tempted 2. Our first Parents being placed in Paradise a place furnished with variety and plenty of food by too much indulgence unto their appetite or by incogitancie to bridle it by reason could not abstaine from that fruit which onely was forbidden them Power they had to have abstained but they did not use it when they had no necessity no urgent provocation to eate at all much lesse to eate of that fruit The Sonne of God made a man more subject to bodily harmes by long forbearance of meat than our first Parents were after forty dayes continuance in a vast and barren wildernesse wherein no food or fruit did grow could not in his hunger bee tempted to eate any food which the ordinary providence of God did not reach unto him Ingeus iedam necessitas Necessity as we say hath no law there is no fence against it Cogit ad turpia it makes men otherwise honest to doe many things which are not comely And for this reason the great tempter at the first bout assaults our Saviour with this fiery dart of necessity If thou be the Sonne of God command that these stones be made bread As if he had said Long fasting hath made it apparant that thou art a man subject to weaknesse and infirmity and if thou be withall the Sonne of God thou canst and a necessity is laid upon thee as man to provide thy selfe of food for without food man cannot live Yet this fiery dart though steeled and pointed with the tempting delight of manifesting his owne worth or excellencie is wholly diverted by that shield of Faith It is written Man shall not live by bread onely but by every word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God So Moses had said unto Israel I fed thee with Manna to teach thee that man liveth not by bread but by every word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God doth man live Israel then did live for a long time both by Manna and by the word of God on which without Manna they would not have relied Manna was as the body and the word of God spoken by Moses as the soule or spirit of that food by which they lived both Manna and that word of God make but an Emblem or type of the eternall Word of God who is the food of life Life it selfe and yet at this time as man was an hungred So then as hee was the Sonne of God hee was able of stones to make bread and as he was a man subject to infirmities hee had just occasion at this time to use his power Yet as man invested with the forme of a servant he could not be induced to use this power For as hee often professeth he came not to doe his owne will no not in things lawfull and most agreeable to nature but the will of him that sent him though that did enjoyne him to doe or suffer things most displeasant to nature This was the time wherein he was by his Father appointed to conquer the irregular appetite of the sense of taste and the lust of the flesh 3. Our first Parents being Gods Vicegerents here on earth Lords of all his visible creatures not therewith content by Satans inticements aspired to be like unto God higher than Angels than other powers or principalities The Sonne of God albeit hee were by nature Lord of men and Lord of Angels cannot be allured to exercise his command over them albeit they were commanded to attend him Satans pretence in his second assault was very faire and seemed to be countenanced by Scripture If thou bee the Sonne of God cast thy selfe downe for it is written Hee shall give his Angels charge concerning thee and in their hands they shall beare thee up lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone Fitter occasion to any mans seeming could not be offered for the exquisite verification or exact fulfilling of this Prophecy than by this adventure to throw himselfe downe from the pinacle of the Temple But the Sonne of God who gave the Law being now made under the
hence follow that he should at all times know either the true quality or exact measure of the paines which hee was at the time appointed by his Father to suffer for accomplishing this great worke undertaken by him For of all things that can bee knowen by men the knowledge of paines either for quality or the distinct measure of them is least possible without experimentall knowledge or sensible feeling of them Many Physicians haue learnedly discourst of the severall sorts of feavers and calculated their degrees more mathematico as Mathematicians doe the quantity of figures or solid bodies or revolutions of the Heavens But the reall paines or languishments of hecticall pestilentiall or other feavers the most learned Physician in the world cannot distinctly know or calculate unlesse hee feele them Or in case by sensible experience he knew the nature or quality or severall degrees of every feaver he is not hereby enabled distinctly to apprehend the maladies which attend the Gout untill he feele them Or suppose he knew these maladies from the highest to the lowest degree this will not indoctrinate him to know the extremities of the Stone so perfectly and distinctly as his meanest Patient doth which hath sensible experience of it though in a middle degree Our Saviour long before his last resort unto the garden of Gethsemane was a man of sorows had plentifull experience of humane infirmities or bodily maladies For he had felt the griefe and paine of all the diseases which he had cured by most exact and perfect sympathy with the diseased His heart was tunable to every mans heart that did seriously impart his griefe of minde or affliction of body unto him Onely in laughter or bodily mirth hee held no consort for ought we reade with any man But the griefe and sorow which in the garden he suffered could not be knowen by sympathy The protopathy was in himselfe and no man not the Apostles themselves could so truely sympathize with him in this griefe as he had done with them or the meanest of their brethren in other grievances or afflictions For never was there on earth any sorow like unto the sorow wherewith the Lord had afflicted him in this day of his wrath Yet was his obedience more than equall to his sorow and this obedience he learned by his sufferings 7. But if in this houre or any other hee learned obedience this seemes to argue that he was either disobedient before or at lest wanted some degree or part of obedience For no man can be said to learne that lesson which he hath already most perfectly by heart To this wee say That how ever the Sonne of God or the man Christ Jesus did never want any degree or part of habituall or implanted obedience yet the measure of his actuall obedience was not at all times the same The obedience which the Apostle saith hee learned was obedience passive and all passive obedience doth properly consist in patient suffering such things as are enjoyned by lawfull authority or in submitting our wills and affections not our bodies onely unto the just designes of Superiours Our Saviour at all times wholly submitted his humane will unto his Fathers will had alwayes undertaken with alacrity whatsoever his Father had appointed him to undertake or undergoe but his Father had never called him to such hard service as in this houre was put upon him Now if obedience passive consist in patience of suffering it must needs increase as the hardnesse of the sufferings increase in case the hardest service bee borne with equall patience or undertaken with the same measure of submission unto his will which enjoines them that meaner services are Againe if the true measure of bodily paines or sorow of minde cannot otherwise be knowen than by experience the Sonne of God himselfe as man and in the forme of a servant was to learne obedience at lest some new degrees of it by gaining experience of unusuall paines and sufferings And such questionlesse were those anguishes whether of soule or body which he suffered in the garden That hee had often prayed before this time wee reade and no doubt had alwayes tendred his petitions to God as to his Father with such humility of spirit as became an obedient Sonne and faithfull servant as did best befit the Ideall paterne of all true obedience But we doe not reade nor have wee any occasion or hint to conjecture that at any time before this hee did so humble himselfe in prayer as at this time he did whether we respect the forme or tenour of his supplications or his voice or bodily gesture in the delivery of them All the circumstances of these his supplications are accurately recorded by the Evangelists He was withdrawen or did withdraw himselfe from his Apostles about a stones cast And yet in this distance his Apostles though drousie and heavie did heare him pray distinctly who had taught them and us to pray for our selves in secret so secretly as that none besides our heavenly Father might heare them As for his gesture or posture of body that at the first delivery of his prayer and supplications was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So S. Luke Cap. 22. ver 41. Hee went forward saith S. Mark a little and fell on the ground and prayed Mark 14.35 So hee might doe and fall on his knees as S. Luke relates But S. Matthew addes he went a little further and fell on his face and prayed saying O my Father if it bee possible let this cup passe from me That he thrice used this forme or tenour of prayer whether at each time hee used the same posture of bodie or rather falling on his knees than on his face is not so cleare though most probably hee did so Now that which these three Evangelists doe intimate or imply in the accurate relations of these circumstances is more expresly recorded by S. Paul Heb. 5.7 to wit that in the dayes of his flesh hee offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and teares And no wonder if streames of teares gushed from his eyes when his whole body as S. Luke informes us did distill blood The full importance of this sacred passage of S. Paul Heb. 5. from the fourth verse to the ninth seeing it containes matter of deeper mysteries than most Interpreters which I have read have taken any great paines to sound must be part of the subject of another following Treatise concerning his consecration to his everlasting Priesthood Thus much in the meane time I take as granted that the forecited seventh verse of the fifth Chapter to the Hebrews doth in speciall referre unto the supplications made by our Saviour in his Agonie and will be the best Comment I know upon the Evangelists for clearing that point now in question what Cup it was for whose removall hee thrice so earnestly prayed 8. Hee offered up these his prayers saith the Apostle unto him who was able to save him from death This is exactly parallel
probably said Conferebant gratiam ex opere operato The ceremoniall sinne was taken away by a ceremoniall offering From this knowen maxime concerning the law of Ceremonies or Legall sacrifices S. Paul takes his rise unto the high mysterie of the Gospel to wit that the offering which the Sonne of God did make upon the Crosse was more sufficient as well for making full satisfaction unto God for all sinnes committed against his Law as for purifying the conscience of offenders from dead works more effectuall to make men partakers of the true celestiall Sanctuary than the blood of beasts was for making them legally cleane Purification from sinne or sanctification alwayes presupposed full satisfaction for the sinnes committed To cleanse men from sins meerely ceremoniall or to sanctifie them according to the flesh the bloody sacrifice of bruit beasts was sufficient although they suffered no other paines than naturall albeit they felt no force or assault of any agents but meerely naturall much more is the blood of Christ of force sufficient not onely to make a full atonement for us but to cleanse us from all sinnes although he suffered no paines supernaturall although he had suffered no force or impression of any agents more than naturall All this is but a branch of our Apostles inference For albeit sinnes committed against the Morall Law of God doe in a maner infinitely exceed sinnes committed against the Law of Ceremonies onely yet are not the sinnes of the one kinde so much more hainous than the sinnes of the other as the blood of Christ doth for vertue exceed the blood of bulls and goats Nor is there that odds of difference betwixt sinnes Moral and sinnes Ceremonial which is between the Priests of the Law and the high Priest of our soules the Sonne of God And yet the maine ground of our Apostles inference doth not simply consist in the superexcellency of the high Priest of our soules or of the sacrifice which hee offered in comparison with legall Priests and their sacrifices but withall in the admirable union of our high Priest and his sacrifice For admit it as possible first that there might haue been some matter of sacrifice as pure and spotlesse as the body of our Saviour more pure and glorious than the Angelicall substances Secondly that this pure and spotlesse sacrifice had been offered by a Priest for dignity equall to the Sonne of God as by the Holy Ghost the third Person in Trinity yet his offering or service could not have been so acceptable unto God as our Saviours offering or service was because the infinite worth of the Priest or Person sacrificing could not in this case have conferred any worth or vertue truely infinite upon the sacrifice or offering made by him though as holy and glorious as any created substance can bee unlesse it had been so personally united to him that in offering it hee had offered himselfe as our Saviour did This is the maine stemme or rather the root of our Apostles emphaticall inference or surplus in the forecited place How much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternall Spirit offered himselfe without spot to God purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God 7. Answerable to this hypostaticall or personall union betweene our high Priest and his sacrifice was that union between his obedience to his Father and his mercy and compassion towards men Obedience mercy and sacrifice were so united in his offering as they never had been before his owne death was the internall effect of his mercy towards us and obedience to his Father the period of his humiliation of himselfe Hee humbled himselfe and became obedient unto death even unto the death of the Crosse That we know was a cruell and servile death but no part of the second death not charged with the paines of Hell otherwise our Apostle would have mentioned them as the accomplishment of his obedience or of his service which without them did exceed the very abstract or paterne either of service or obedience Quid est servitus nisi obedientia animi fracti arbitrio carentis suo Servitude saith Tully is nothing else but the obedience of a broken or dejected minde utterly deprived of all power or right to dispose of it selfe or of its actions It is indeed dejection of minde a broken estate or basenesse of condition which make men willing to become servants unto others or inforceth them to resigne all their right and power unto their Masters will But it was no dejection of minde no want of any thing in heaven or earth but onely the abundance of mercy and compassion towards us miserable men which moved the Sonne of God to renounce this world before he came into it and to deprive himselfe of all that right and interest which every other man hath over his owne body and soule by voluntary resignation of his entire humane nature unto the sole disposing of his Father Other servants were obedient unto their Lords upon necessity or dejection of minde hee voluntarily became a servant to his Father that he might accomplish the office of a servant in the sacrifice of a broken and contrite spirit This was the internall effect of his service and obedience and this sacrifice thus offered was all-sufficient to make satisfaction for all the disobedience of men for the sinnes of ten thousand worlds of men CHAP. XIV That our Saviour in his Agony at least did suffer paines more than naturall though not the paines of Hell or Hellish paines That the suffering of such paines was not required for making satisfaction for our sinnes but for his Conquest over Satan 1 BUt albeit the bloody sacrifice of the Sonne of God were as God himselfe is all-sufficient to these purposes may wee hence collect that hee suffered no paines more than naturall or of no other kinde than his Martyrs Apostles or Prophets have done God forbid Betweene paines naturall and the paines of Hell there is a meane to wit paines altogether supernaturall in respect of the Agent and somewayes more than naturall in respect of the Patient and such paines out of all question the Son of God did suffer in the garden though not upon the Crosse Nor were these his sufferings superfluous though no way necessary for paying the full ransome or price of mans redemption or reconciliation unto God Most expedient they were if not necessary to other purposes As first for his absolute conquest over Satan Secondly for his consecration to his everlasting Priesthood Of his conflict with Satan in the garden a place sutable to that wherein hee had conquered our first Parents Iobs second temptation was the type or shadow His Father exposed him to the second temptation as he had unto the first temptation in the wildernesse and permitted Satan to exercise the utmost of his power against him onely over his soule or life hee had no power These were takē from him by the malice
noster with the Lords prayer the Creed and the ten Commandements For I dare undertake to make good that there is not either branch or fruit blossome or leafe in that sacred garden of devotions which doth not naturally spring and draw its life and nourishment from one or other of the three former roots to wit from the Lords prayer or from the Creed set prayer wise or from the ten Commandements And hee that is disposed to reade that most Divine part of our Liturgie with a sober minde and dutifull respect shall finde not onely more pure devotion but more profound Orthodoxall Divinity both for matter and forme then can bee found in all the English Writers which have either carped or nibled at it Not one ejaculation is there in it which hath the least relish of that leven wherewith their prolix extemporary devotions who distaste it are for the most part deepely sowred But here I had ended my Treatise of the qualification and undertakings of the Sonne of God for dissolving the works of Satan had not a new Quaere presented it selfe to my meditations in the latter end of these disquisitions and the Quaere is this 3. Why our Saviour in his Agony or his other sufferings upon the Crosse should not tender his petitions unto God in the same forme or tenor wherein the Psalmists or other holy men which were types or figures of him in his sufferings had done theirs in their anguish or distresse or in the same forme which he once and no oftner than once did use upon the Crosse My God my God why hast thou forsaken me The ancient stile of prayer used by Gods servants or Ambassadors as well in their humble supplications as in their gratulatory hymnes but especially in their fervent and patheticall ejaculations for deliverance from present dread or danger was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 my God and my Lord or my Lord and my God Besides the observations before made to this purpose out of Masius or rather out of the Liturgie of the Ancient Jews avouched by him and of the Primitive Church well observed by Faber many passages in the Psalmes which did respectively both forepicture and foretell his Agony and sufferings upon the Crosse are most pregnant Of the ingratitude of his people toward him of the indignities and cruelties done unto him by the Jews no Psalmist the Author of 22. onely excepted hath a more lively punctuall representation than that which is Psal 35. and 38.40 David in the very 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or paroxysme of the grievances which he suffered from such of Sauls followers as he had well deserved of delivereth his petitions in this forme Avenge thou my cause my God and my Lord Psal 35.23 Iudge me according to thy righteousnesse O JEHOVAH my Lord Psal 35.24 and 38.16 whether David or some other were the Author of it Quia ad te expecto tu respondebis Domine Deus mi. And againe Psal 40.6 Multa fecisti tu JEHOVAH Deus meus c. 4. But when the houre was come wherein all these Propheticall ejaculations of the Psalmists were to be exactly fulfilled in our Saviour Christ and by him hee preferres his supplications stilo novo in a forme or stile unusuall before but familiar and usuall to him when his passion and death drew nigh as Ioh. 12. Father not Lord God what shall I say save mee from this houre c. And Ioh. 17. Father glorifie me c. Hee used the same forme in his Agony thrice Father if it be possible let this cup passe from me And in the last words which hee uttered in the forme of a servant hee said not My God my God or my Lord God But Father into thy hands I commend my spirit This variation betweene this most faithfull Servant of God and other holy men Gods faithfull servants in the forme of their supplications or gratulatory ejaculations conceived and uttered upon the like occasions suggests thus much unto us if I mistake not that of all Gods servants or holy men the man CHRIST JESUS onely was his true Sonne not by adoption as others were and wee now are but his Sonne by right of inheritance and yet being such a Sonne was for a time as truely his Servant as his Sonne He who alwayes had been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or God the Lord Hee whose title it was to heare his peoples prayers and unto whom all flesh shall come Psal 65.2 doth now tender his prayer not to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not unto 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for that had been to preferre a petition unto himselfe whereas hee was now to preferre his petition unto his Father whose Servant he now was as man but did not thereby cease to be as truely his Sonne Had hee been his Sonne by creation onely or in respect of the admirable integrity and superexcellencie of his performances as man hee had doubtlesse tendred his petitions in the same stile or forme which other godly men and Gods faithfull servants before had used though much better than they did But however hee was the Servant of God after a more peculiar maner than any other had been yet he presents his supplications in such a stile as hath relation to himselfe rather as he was a Son than as a Servant The eternall Sonne of God was the party supplicant unto the eternall Father for his mortall servant For hee was a servant onely according to his humane nature and according to that onely as it was mortall whereas he still remaineth Mediator betwixt God and man not as man onely much lesse as a mortall man but according to his eternall person and his immortall manhood This his manhood is now dignified with the reall and actuall title of Lord. He was our Lord and Mediator before he assumed our flesh into the unity of his Person but then Mediator according to his Divine Person or as God onely When he is instiled by the Prophets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or God the Lord this later title was more Propheticall than historicall and did import as much as that he who was then Iehovah our God at the time appointed should come to be our Lord by peculiar right of dominion purchased by his sufferings for our redemption And for this reason I take it his Apostle Thomas being convinced of incredulity unto the report of his resurrection supplicates to him for pardon in the same stile or forme as the Psalmist and other godly men had done in their distresse My Lord and my God which is the full and punctuall expression of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For now hee was not onely spe but re become both Lord and Christ SECTION 3. Of the harmonicall parallel betweene the predictions or types of the old Testament and the Evangelicall relations concerning our Saviours triumphant comming unto Ierusalem and of his entertainment there untill the institution of
of his purpose that Sathan himself had he beene present could not have reply'd unto it 4 For that 8. Psalme as the Jews cannot deny was composed in honour of the God of Israel that it was also propheticall and to be fulfilled in time is to all Christians apparent from our Apostles allegation of another place to the like purpose Hebrews 2.6 7. of whose fulfilling hereafter The first part of the prophecie that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God their Lord which as hath beene before observed was the peculiar title of God the Sonne or of God to be manifested in the flesh was never punctually fulfilled untill the children cryed Hosanna to the Sonne of David in the Temple In these congratulations they did by divine instinct or disposition of the All-seeing providence proclaim the expected Son of David to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that very God their Lord in whose praise this Psalme was conceived The Babes then did spel the Prophets meaning not amisse But our Saviour and the present circumstances of the time did put their lisping syllables together more rightly and fully answerable to the meaning of the Propheticall vision For so it followeth in the same Psalme that this God their Lord did therefore ordain his praise out of the mouths of babes and sucklings because of his enemies that he might still the Enemie and Avenger Psalme 8.2 And so the malicious Priests and Scribes were put to a Non plus upon our Saviours allegation of this prophecie in justification of himself and of these Infants whose testimonies they sought to elevate and to impute the acceptance of it to his folly Now albeit our Saviour left them at this Non plus for the present yet within a day or two after he putteth the very Pharisees the most learned of them to a greater non plus by another testimony parallel to this of the 8. Psalme While the Pharisees saith S. Matthew were gathered together Iesus asked them saying What think ye of Christ Whose Sonne is he They say unto him The Sonne of David He saith unto them How then doth David in spirit call him Lord saying The Lord said unto my Lord Sit thou on my right hand till I make thine enemies thy footstoole If David then call him Lord how is he his Sonne And no man was able to answer him a word neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions Matth. 22.41 42 c. All this argues a full conviction of their consciences and that unlesse they had suffered their splenatick passions to conquer their consciences for the present or had not hoodwinked their intellectuals with malicious habits of their hearts they must of necessity have confessed as much as the little children in this expression before had done to wit that he was not onely the promised Sonne of David but that the promised Sonne of David was to be Davids Lord this whole peoples God and Lord. For it is observable that David in the beginning of the 110. Psalme saith not Iehova said unto Iehova but Iehova said unto Adonai Sit thou on my right hand not thereby denying that this Adonai was to be Iehova but that he was to be as the Author of the 8. Psalme saith both his God and his Lord It is againe to my present apprehension observable that after Nehemiah had revived the solemnity of the feast of Tabernacles and moved the people to renew the Covenant which their forefathers had made for faithfull observance of Gods Laws given by Moses they nuncupate this their solemn vow unto 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the Lord our God And the rest of the people to wit all besides those who had sealed to the Covenant before with Nehemiah the Priests the Levites the Porters the Singers the Nethinims and all they that had separated themselves from the people of the Lands unto the Law of God their Wives their Sonnes and their Daughters every one having knowledge and understanding They clave to their Brethren their Nobles and entred into a curse and into an oath to walk in Gods Laws which were given by Moses the servant of God and to observe and doe all the Commandements of the Lord our Lord and his judgements and his statutes Nehem. 10.28 29 c. But this solemne vow and Covenant confirmed by oath of keeping Gods Laws was more shamefully broken by this perverse and gainsaying generation then those Laws themselves had been by Antiochus or other Heathen which had never sworne vnto them For the chiefe Priests the Scribes the Elders notwithstanding the former convictions of their consciences hold on to persecute this God their Lord unto whose honour their forefathers had dedicated this vow with greater cruelties and more malicious indignities then Antiochus had used towards the meanest of his people and so at length to bring that curse annexed to the former vow upon themselves and upon their children unto this day 5. Thus much of the Prophecies or foresignifications of his triumphant ingresse into Jerusalem and of his entertainment there untill the Feast of the legall Passeover whose mystery he did accomplish by his death Points not handled either so fully or so punctually as was requisite by any Commentators Postillers or others whom I have read And this hath emboldned me to enlarge my meditations upon this small part of my Comments on the Creed As for the Prophecies types or other foresignifications of what he did or suffered from the time of his sacred Supper untill his resurrection from the dead these have been so plentifully and so punctually handled by many especially by the learned Gerard that much cannot be added without a great deale of superfluous paines And yet I know it will be expected that I say somewhat of this argument SECTION 4. The Evangelicall relations of the indignities done unto our Saviour by sinfull men and of his patience in suffering them respectively prefigured and foretold by the Prophets and other sacred Writers Or a Comment upon the Evangelicall History from the institution of his Supper unto his death and buriall CHAP. XXIII Of the betraying of our Saviour of his apprehension and dismission of his Disciples And how they were foretold or prefigured in the old Testament 1 OF the sweet Harmony betweene the institution occasion and celebration of the legall Passeover and the continuation of the Lords Supper or Sacrament of his body and blood instituted in lieu or rather in remembrance of the accomplishing of it I have in other meditations delivered my minde at large And if if it shall please the Lord God to grant mee life and health what I have either uttered in Sermons or otherwayes conceived concerning this Argument shall be communicated to this Church wherein I live if not to others in the Article of the Catholique Church which did beginne to bee on earth from our Saviours resurrection or from his ascension into heaven and descending of the Holy Ghost At the accomplishment of
which had thus disesteemed him and delivered thē over to be destroyed by the Romans But saith this Author lest wee should grant that the Prophet Zachariah did by the same fact or resolutiō represent both the person of Christ and of Iudas it is more probable that the prophecy of Zachariah is different from that of Ieremiah which S. Matthew alledgeth For Hierom upon the 27. of S. Matthew tels us he had lately read a book of Ieremiah in the Hebrew tongue which one of the sect of the Nazarens had imparted unto him in which he found S. Matthews allegatiō word for word Thus farre Castrius Desinit in piscem mulier formosa supernè He begins his verdict in the spirit of wisedome and discretion continueth it perplexedly and concludeth it according to the foolishnesse or forgetfulnesse of the flesh For that inconvenience which he so much feared will be never a whit the lesse albeit we grant him that S. Matthews words do not referre to the forecited place of Zachariah but to those books of Ieremiah which S. Hierom had seene or to any other Prophet whatsoever whether his works be extant or lost And thus being blencht in his right course by the shadow hee falls foule upon that very stumbling block or rather a farre worse then that which he sought to avoid For by his conclusion the often forementioned allegation of S. Matthew cannot be literally or concludently referr'd to any Prophet at all CHAP. XXVIII The cleare resolution of the third difficulty proposed of the fearfull end of Judas and how it was both forepictured and foretold 1 SHall we say then that either Zachariah or any other sacred Author of the Prophecy alledged by S. Matthew did represent both the person of Iudas the Traitor and of JESUS CHRIST whom hee betrayed There is no necessity to avouch thus much nor would it be any absurdity to grant all this and somewhat more The parallel betweene the Evangelist and the prophecy of Zachariah as now it is extant whether in the Hebrew or Septuagint whether he onely foretold the event or foreacted it also by like matter of fact which latter is more then probable is most exact For Zachary as he himself affirmeth did require his stipend for his propheticall function and they weighed him thirty pieces of silver Zacharie 11.12 But this stipend after he had received it was so contemptible in the sight of the Lord that he said unto him Cast it unto the potter a goodly price that I was prized at of them And so he took the thirtie pieces of silver and cast them to the Potter in the house of the Lord. In thus undervaluing the Prophets person and paines they did undervalue the goodnesse and person of that Lord whose Ambassadour he was Iudas in like sort goeth to the high Priests and asked of them What will ye give me and I will deliver him unto you and they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver Matthew 26.15 This was the highest price which this last and worst generation of Israel did set upon the chief Shepheard of their souls not the hire or stipend for his paines for these they set at nought And by this act they did exactly fulfill both the Prophet Zachariahs words and the measure of their forefathers sinnes in undervaluing his ministeriall labours and person The same Lord which commanded Zachariah to cast his contemptible stipend unto the Potter did now cause Iudas to throw downe the price for which he sold and delivered his Lord Master unto the chief Priests and Officers in the same house of God or Temple after he had seen that it was the price of his Masters bloud not the stipend onely of his treachery That Iudas did thus farre repent as to acknowledge his sinne in saying I have sinned in betraying innocent bloud this was the Lords doing or as the Evangelist saith that which the Lord appointed him to doe Matthew 27.12 And no Christian need be afraid to say that Iudas was moved or appointed of the Lord as Zacharie was to cast downe the thirty pieces of silver in the Temple to the end that his prophecy and his fact might be exactly fulfilled Their forefathers in offering unto Zachariah thirtie pieces of silver for his hire did forepicture that their ungracious posterity would set as low a price upon the Lord himself And those words of the Lord unto the Prophet verse 13. A goodly price that I was prized at have the same sense importance with the like words before cited unto Samuel They have not cast thee off from being King but mee If we compare the 13. verse of the 11. of Zacharie with the 12 and consider the alteration of the persons speaking they will beare this sense or importance or rather require this construction Be content to forgoe thy stipend for they have not onely undervalued thee and thy ministeriall paines but they have undervalued mee For as this present generation hath done by thee so and much worse will their ungracious posteritie deale with me This is the very brief or abstract of S. Matthew Chap. 27. ver 9 10. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by the Prophet saying And they took the thirty pieces of silver the price of him that was valued whom they of the children of Israel did value and gave them for the Potters field as the Lord appointed mee These last words cast a scruple or rather a stumbling block in many Interpreters wayes how the Prophet Zachariah should be appointed of the Lord to buy the Potters field But this is presently takē away if we consider that the Evangelist in the 9 and 10. verses doth make a paraphrase or exegeticall exposition upon the Prophets words Now it was ever lawfull yea the office of the Apostles and Evangelists not onely to quote the Prophets but to paraphrase upon or expound aswell the literall as mysticall sense of their words or portendments of their facts And if we consult the Prophet himself in the originall or in the Translation of the Seaventie that exposition which we have made as well of his words as of S. Matthews paraphrase is most naturally emergent out of the Grammaticall signification of the words and the persons speaking When the Prophet speaks unto the people in his owne person hee saith If yee think good give mee my stipend or hire not my price as some render the Originall But when the Lord speaks thus unto him Cast it to the Potter hee saith not a goodly stipend that I was rewarded with but a goodly price that I was prized at of them And this distinction of the words perswades mee that the Prophet did really demand and they did really pay his stipend And in this their undervaluation of his person and paines they did portend their posterities disesteeme of the great Prophet the Lord himself 2. One scruple yet remaines which if I did not every observant Reader of the Prophet would cast
hands of a woman yet hee died by the hands of his Page or Armour-bearer And a certaine woman cast a piece of a milstone upon Abimelechs head and all to brake his scull Then hee called hastily unto the young man his Armour-bearer and said unto him Draw out thy sword and slay mee that men say not of me A woman slew him And his young man thrust him through and hee died Judg. 9.53 54. But as some Schoolemen have in the disquisition of this point gone too farre so others have acutely resolved the difficulty and elegantly reconciled the difference in opinions Mors Christi non fuit verè miraculosa erat tamen miraculum in morte Christi Christ did no way make away himself or die by miracle but by course of nature Yet was it a true miracle that his life and spirits being so farre spent he should have speech and memory so perfect as to make delivery of his soule into his Fathers hands viva voce at the very moment of his expiration The Jews and Romans did truely and properly take away his life and yet hee did as truely and properly animam ponere lay downe his life for his sheepe in that hee patiently submitted himself to their tyrannicall cruelty and more sweetly and placidly resigned up his soule into his Fathers hands at the instant of death by course of nature or perhaps a little after it than a sheepe doth his fleece unto the shearer or his owner In this resignation or bequeathing of his soule thus placidly into his Fathers hands in his inimitable patience in all his sufferings whether of torture or indignities there was a most exact concurrence or coincidence rather of all former sacrifices and obedience more then the quintessence of those sacrifices wherewith God was alwayes best pleased that is the sacrifice of a contrite spirit and broken heart not humbled but humbling it self unto death The most ful and proper satisfactory sacrifice that could be required by God or desired by man a sacrifice so compleat as no wisedome besides wisedome truely infinite could have conceived no person besides the person of him that was truly God could have offered or performed CHAP. XXX That the Sonne of God should be offered up in bloody sacrifice was concludently prefigured by the intended death of Isaac 1 THat the Sonne of God should be thus offered as a true and proper bloody sacrifice was concludently prefigured by the sacrifice of Isaac intended by his father Abraham That the Crosse whereon he offered himselfe should be the very Altar of Altars the body which the legal Altars did foreshadow and that this Crosse should be erected without the gate of Jerusalem was foreshadowed by other matters of fact recorded by Moses To begin with the first type to wit Isaac The place appointed by God himself for the sacrifice of Isaac was either the Mount whereon the Temple stood or some Mount neer unto it if not Calvary it self And when Abraham came neere to the foot of the Mount which of the Mountains of Moriah soever it were he laid the wood for the burnt offering on Isaac his sonne Isaac then bare his crosse unwittingly and was afterwards willing by gentle perswasions to die upon the wood which he bare For if he had detested or abhorred the fact intended upon him hee was of years and strength sufficient to have resisted his father he being at least twenty five years of age and Abraham one hundred twenty five Now our Saviour as the Evangelists record went forth bearing his crosse unto a place called in Hebrew Golgotha either a place where the sculs of dead men were laid or rather for the forme or fashion of it like a scull But here some curious Inquisitor or one disposed to examine or scann the relations of the Evangelists as Lawyers doe later evidences by more ancient deeds would interpose this or the like exception Non concordat cum originali For our Saviour CHRIST as the Evangelists record was really sacrificed actually crucified and put to death but so was not Isaac as Moses tels us But all this will inferr no more then all good Christians must of necessity grant to wit that the Evangelicall records are more than meer exemplifications of Moses For that which was verified or truly foreshadowed in Abrahams readinesse to sacrifice his onely sonne and in his sons willingnesse to be sacrificed by him was to be really and exactly fulfilled of God the Father who had bound himself by promise to give his onely sonne unto Mankinde and in the willingnesse of this his onely sonne JESUS CHRIST to be offered up in sacrifice for the sinnes of the world Our Apostle is not afraid to say that Abraham by faith offered up his onely sonne that very man upon whose life or death the fulfilling of the promises made to Abraham and his seed did depend accounting or being resolved that God was able to raise him up even from the dead from whence also he received him in a figure Heb. 11.17 18. Isaac then was a true figure both of Christs death and resurrection And Abraham first in stretching forth his hands to slay his onely sonne and secondly in being prohibited by God from accomplishing his resolution did accurately foreshadow those fundamentall truths which wee Christians beleeve concerning the true and bodily death and resurrection of our Lord and Saviour Abraham by benigne Interpretation of the minde or resolution for the very fact or deed did both sacrifice his onely son and receive him from the dead 2. But was there no more then a tentation or tryall of Abrahams faith in that story of Moses Gen. 22 If no more then so the tempting or tryall it self might seem superfluous For God who knoweth all things aswell possible as determinate or future did most infallibly know what Abraham would do upon his command what hee would leave undone upon expresse prohibition This onely concludeth that the omnipotent and all-seeing Father of power did not stand in need of the determination of Abrahams will either to foresee or determine that which upon this actuall obedience of Abraham he did first binde himself by oath to performe That which long before he had decreed ad extra and in his generall expression of his mercy and loving kindnesse he had promised to doe We had his promise before Mankinde was actually propagated or multiplyed upon the earth that the womans seed should bruise the old Serpents head which had seduced her The like comfortable words were at sundry times interposed by God himself to Noah and Abraham 3. But upon this present fact of Abraham the same Lord interposeth his oath and it was the first oath which we reade that God did make for the fulfilling of the generall promise in one of Abrahams seed Because thou hast done this thing and hast not spared thine onely sonne by my self have I sworne that in thy seed all the Nations of the Earth shall be blessed But did not
the conflict betwixt the Serpent and the womans seed continued As it is the property of some biting Serpents to make way or entrance by their venemous teeth for the infusion of more deadly poison from some other parts of their body so this generation of Vipers which persecuted the Sonne of God used the civill power of Pilat and the Roman souldiers to open his veines and lance his flesh that their tongues might instill the poison of Aspes into his glorious stripes and bleeding wounds But with the bitter taunts and indignities offered unto him even whilest he was upon the Crosse I am not to meddle in particular they have proper seasons allotted for their memoriall It sufficeth therefore to observe that the obedience and patience of the Sonne of God in these most grievous sufferings were so absolute that wee must borrow the patience of Iob not in the second temptation by bodily grievance but in his first temptation by losse of goods or worldly substance for a scale to set it forth In all his sufferings in all that his enemies tongues or hands could doe or say unto him this servant of God did not sinne so much as in word but offered the sacrifice of prayers and supplications with the sacrifice of his soule and spirit for his persecutors 3. Yet admit Iobs patience in his bodily afflictions had been more perfect than in the first temptation it was for losse of bodily goods and his obedience most compleat both without mixture of impatiencie without staine of disobedience the full measure of both had not been equivalent to the least scantling of the obedience or patience of the Sonne of God made man for those acts though otherwise equall are alwayes best which are done ex officio Prayers or solemn services officiated by a Priest and justice awarded by a Magistrate are more acceptable unto God and more beneficiall unto men than if the same Act or Offices were more accurately performed by private men without a calling Now Iob and other holy men became pro modulo in some sort the servants of God by obedience It was the greater measure of their obedience which made their service more acceptable But the obedience of the Sonne of God made man did result or issue from the forme of a servant which hee voluntarily and on purpose tooke upon him that hee might in it and by it performe obedience more than sufficient for dissolving the force and strength of that disobedience and rebellion which the Devill had wrought in the Father of mankinde which with its curse became hereditary to his sinfull posterity The first Adam was created in the image of God not in respect of holinesse onely but in respect of soveraignty and dominion The second Adam though he were the Son of God was molded in the forme of a servant even from his first conception For as the Apostle saith he who was in the forme of God did empty or annull himselfe taking upon him the forme of a servant This was the terminus ad quem the intrinsecall terme of the Sonne of Gods first humiliation for as was said before the Sonne of God did not humble or empty himselfe onely in his manhood or according to his manhood after it was assumed but in the very assumption of the manhood thus moulded in the forme of a servant His humility as man was the humility of a servant it was not affected but a native branch of his present calling His obedience was not forced by constraint or feare it was more than a branch the very essence of his calling For he tooke upon him the forme of a servant it was not put upon him against his will as it was upon Iob. Nor was his obedience as man more excellent than any other mans had been in respect of its root or originall onely as being the formall effect of his calling that is of the forme of a servant which he tooke upon him but most compleat in respect of the end or finall effect For having annulled himself by taking upon him the forme of a servant hee further humbled himselfe and became obedient unto death even to the death of the Crosse Other servants may with their earthly Masters consent be set free and supreme authority may in some cases command their Masters to set them free But the forme of a servant was so closely united or wedded unto the Sonne of God manifested in the flesh that it could not bee cut off or divorced from him save onely by death and by the death of the Crosse which was a servile death and the accomplishment of his service But in what peculiar acts was the obedience or exercise of the forme of a servant which the Sonne of God tooke upon him most conspicuous or more remarkable than they have been in other men 4. It is a great deale more usuall to our Saviour than to any Prophet to any sacred Writer or other Messenger of Gods will to tell his hearers that hee came not of himselfe but was sent that being sent he came not to doe his owne will but the will of him that sent him that hee spake nothing of himselfe but as his Father had appointed him so he spake and so he did What was the reason that hee that spake as never man spake and did those works which none besides could doe should so often use these or like speeches to his Auditors Sure his speeches unto this purpose are neither apologeticall nor preventive as if his authority had been more questionable or his practices more suspitious than the authority and practices of the Prophets and other holy men had been And what was it then that gave occasion to this peculiar forme of speech or made the use of it so familiar and frequent All his speeches to this purpose are but the characters or expressions of the forme of a servant which hee tooke upon him His whole course of life his undertakings and encounters with this stubborne people or with Satan and his instruments might have testified to any considerate unpartiall man that no man being left free to himselfe would have adventured upon them out of the deliberate choise of an humane or reasonable will Specially his last sufferings were such as no wise man how godly soever would have undergone unlesse they had been put upon him by authority supreme and irresistable We may further observe how the forme of a man and the forme of a servant which had layed quiet for three and thirty yeares without any Crisis of their difference did upon the approach of his death and passion begin to struggle but without all strife or hostile dissention as Esau and Iacob towards the time of their birth had done in their mothers wombe Even in the height of that triumphant and more than royall entertainment which the multitude made him at his entrance into Jerusalem as if hee had then come to take possession of the Crowne of his father David even whilest his
eares were filled with these and the like acclamations Hosanna to the Sonne of David He began to be troubled in spirit whilest the forme or nature of man did suggest one thing and the forme of a servant correct what the forme of man did suggest and sway him another way What shall I say Father save me from this houre So the reasonable soule of man could not but wish it could not but apprehend this houre as an houre of evill and evill as evill cannot bee desired by the will of man Reason cannot but desire or wish the prevention or removall of it But though he were the Sonne of God yet as the Apostle speakes Hee learned obedience by the things which he suffered Hee resolves not to doe according to his owne liking but as his Father should appoint him And hence hee instantly overballanced the former naturall desire or inclination of the forme of man with the serious consideration of his office or present calling as he had taken upon him the forme of a servant For as it were recalling himselfe he addeth but therefore came I unto this houre to wit that hee might suffer all the evills incident to man in this world 5. Afterwards when his agony came upon him his wonted naturall inclination of the forme of man or sway of the reasonable soule became more strong and hence he puts his former wish or intimation Father what shall I say save me from this houre into the forme of a prayer Father if it be possible let this cup passe from mee and yet overswaies this naturall inclination or desire as hee was man with a stronger desire or delight to doe the office of a servant and counterchecks that prayer which hee had conceived as man with a prayer which hee had conceived ex officio with a prayer of consecration neverthelesse not as I will but as thou willest as if hee had said Though it bee just and reasonable which I desire so just as thou wouldest not deny the like to any other man in my case yet seeing I am thy servant and the Sonne of thy handmaid in such a manner as no other man hath beene I wholly submit my selfe unto thy will and consecrate my selfe unto thy service how hard soever it shall prove Abraham wee know waxed bold with God by often reiterating and renewing the forme of his petition for Sodom First hee prayed that God would spare the Citie for fifty righteous men then for forty then for thirty and lastly descends to ten His boldnesse was grounded upon a dictate of nature or common principle of faith that it was farre from him who was to doe justice to all the world to slay the righteous with the wicked Suppose God had said to Abraham at his first petition thus Abraham at thy request I will for this time spare the men of Sodom upon condition that thou and such as supplicate for them will become their baile and stand between them and that storme of fire and brimstone which must shortly goe out against them from my fiery presence would this hard condition have been accepted by Abraham or accepted with patience Would hee not have opposed this former principle with greater vehemencie and passion To slay the righteous for the wicked that be farre from thee O Lord shall the Judge of all the world thus farre transgresse the rule of justice Yet may we not think that righteous Abraham though instiled the friend of God was so much lesse sinfull than the most sinfull man in Sodom as the man CHRIST JESUS was more righteous than Abraham And what then could restraine this just and holy One for making the same plea for himselfe which Abraham for himselfe might have made which without offence unto his Lord hee did often make on the behalfe of so many righteous men not as were but as he supposed possibly might be in Sodom Onely this the Sonne of God who is equall with God to the end and purpose that hee might dissolve the works which the Devill had wrought in our nature had taken our nature upon him had made his humane flesh and humane blood the flesh and blood of God himselfe though not as parts of the Divine nature yet as appurtenances of the Divine person and was not onely found in the fashion of man but was invested with the essentiall forme of a servant And it is the perfection of a servant not to doe his owne will but the will of his Lord. Now the body or humane nature of the Sonne of God was not a servant to his Divine person but to the person of his Father whose will hee was in the humane nature to performe whatsoever the performance of it should cost him For unto this purpose onely and no other did hee take both the nature of man and forme of a servant upon him that hee might in them and by them accomplish the will of his Father As for his body that during the time of his humiliation was in bonis patris the goods and possession of the Father as every servant properly so called is the goods and inheritance of his Master His sufferings in this nature were to be extended untill the full price of our redemption was paid The just measure of these his sufferings and full price of our redemption he did as he was man learne by experience CHAP. XII Of Christs full satisfaction for the sinnes of men and whether to this satisfaction the suffering of Hell paines were necessarily required And of the Circumstances of his Agony 1 THe undertakings of the Sonne of God for mans Redemption did for the most part consist in his sufferings Though he were a Sonne saith the Apostle Heb. 5.8 yet learned he obedience by the things which hee suffered Though he were alwayes a Sonne the onely Son of God yet suffer hee did not any longer than whilest he was in the forme of a servant Of all true service or Apprentiship obedience is the speciall property the greatest perfection whereunto the condition of a servant or one under legall command can pretend Now the perfection of obedience cannot by any meanes either bee better exemplified or approved than by patience in suffering Servants saith S. Peter 1. Pet. 2.18 19 c. be subject unto your Masters with all feare not onely to the good and gentle but also to the froward For this is thanke worthy if a man for conscience toward God endure griefe suffering wrongfully For what glory is it if when yee bee buffeted for your faults yee shall take it patiently but if when you doe well and suffer for it yee take it patiently this is acceptable with God For even hereunto were yee called because Christ also suffered for us leaving us an example that yee should follow his steps who did no sinne neither was guile found in his mouth who when hee was reviled reviled not againe when he suffered he threatned not but committed himselfe to him that judgeth