are counted as sheep for the slaughter Nay in all these things we are more then conquerours through him that loved us From these holy presidents we may learn how to master our afflictions and to sweeten our persecutions and to deem them as the embrioes of eternal life We may bear them with all spiritual joy if we look not on them but on him that imposed them on us who without doubt was the Father Almighty without whose Providence not a hair can fall from our heads and therefore let us with Moses esteem his rebukes greater riches then the treasures of Egypt Heb. ii 26. having respect unto the recompence of the reward 1. ANd now O Saviour of the world how great a compass wentst thou in this act of our redemption before thou didst bring it to this happy Period from thy swathing to thy shrowding from thy cold lying in a manger to thy cold dying upon the Cross what didst thou do and suffer Nay what didst thou not do and suffer for us The work of our Creation was great but this far greater That was done with a Fiat with the breath of thy mouth thou speakest the Word and all was done here was a miraculous conjunction of God and man in one person maid and mother in another when it was but begun thy omnipotencie indeed appeared in the first but thy mercy and justice in the latter such a work didst thou finish here that neither Man nor Angels or thy deity alone could well accomplish Oh! Thou that didst so much for us teach us to do somewhat for thee Thou that madest thy self a perfect victime for our sins grant that we may sacrifice our sins and mortifie all carnal concupiscences that so our souls and bodies may be offerings of a sweet smelling Saviour in thy Nostrils Thou that didst conquer the Prince of this world and all the enemies upon the Cross assist us against the conflicts and temptations of our spiritual adversaries save us from the roaring Lyon that he may never prevail O thou that art the Lion of the tribe of Judah But because we are ignorant of our selves what to do aright 1 Cor. 12.6 we pray thee guide us with thy Spirit thou Isa 28.21 who workest all in all work thy work in us and bring to pass thy act thy strange act whatever it be Let us perform what thou requirest of us and that is let us do justly shew mercy and walk humbly with thee Mic. 6.8 and walk humbly with thee our God Preserve thy Church that issued from thy side on thy Cross thou art her husband O Christ save thy spouse thou art her head save thy body protect her as thine from infidels hereticks and schismaticks from bad men and Devils from all errours and dangers Make her unto thy self glorious without spot or wrinkle holy and without sin Ephes 5.7 And though like thee shee sorrows and suffers often while militant here yet make her triumphant with thee in the world to come Let every member of her profess thy name to the end with courage and constancy after thy glorious Examples let us not be carried away from our duties to thee with the vanities of the world or the enticements of the flesh or the suggestions of Satan O thou that art immutable without shadow of change Yesterday to day and the same for ever fix our fickle thoughts on thy fear and establish thy holy Spirit within us that we may alwayes praise thee who never ceasest to bless us By the grace and merits of him who finished the grand works of eternal redemption for us living and dying to save us Lord make us live and dye thy servants that we may be partakers of that happiness which by his blood he hath purchased for us in the Kingdome of Bliss Amen The seventh and last Word LUKE 23.43 Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit ANd well might he call him Father because he had merited the name of an obedient Son to the last minute of his life and therefore most worthy to gain attention But here a doubt occures what we are to understand by the hands of God are we with the Anthropomorphites to ascribe the form and lineaments of man unto God Theod. l. 4. c. 10. as if he had eyes and ears and hands and other parts and faculties like unto us far be it for God is a spiritual substance of an invisible and indivisible nature without body parts or passions of infinite power wisdome and goodness but for the better explanation of this and the like expression in holy Writ we must make use of that known adage of the Hebrew Doctors Lex loquitor linguam filiorum hominum That is the holy Ghost in the Scripture descends to the capacity of man speaks man's language that is so as he would be understood by man and therefore presents him in the faculties of the mind of man and in the lineament of the body of man not that he hath really either of them for he is a most pure and a most simple entitie without any corpority or composition And so the hands of God do denote unto us his wisdom and power or which fals into one meaning his intellect knowing all things and his will enabling all things for with these two as it were two hands God did all things The will of God is his power for all things whatsoever he would he did in heaven and earth My Spirit There are divers significations of this word Spirit in Scripture which if not rightly apprehended may occasion divers errours it is spoken of God or of Angels or of men or of inferiour creatures Of God it is spoken sometimes Essentially sometimes Personally God is a Spirit Jo. 4.24 and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and truth So also Isai 31.3 So also The Egyptians are men and not Gods and their Horses flesh and not spirit for if they were God they were Spirit so God altogether and considered in his essence is a Spirit but when the word Spirit is spoken not essentially of all but personally of one then that word designeth the holy Ghost Matth. 28 19. Go and baptize all in the Name of the Father and Son and the Holy Ghost Rom. 8â— 6 And the Spirit it self beareth witness c. And as of God so of Angels also it is spoken in two respects of good Angels sent forth to minister for them that shall be heirs of Salvation And evil Angels Heb. 1.14 The lying Spirit that would deceive the King by the Prophet 1 Kin. 22.22 Hosea 4.8 The spirit of whoredom when the people asked counsel of their stocks And spiritus virtiginis the spirit of giddiness or perversities which the Lord doth mingle amongst the people in his judgment Of man also is this word Spirit spoken two wayes sometimes for the Soul sometime for those animal spirits which conserve us in strength and vigour
Job 6.4 The poyson of Gods arrows drinketh up my spirit and also for the superiour faculties of the soul in a regenerate man as there My Soul doth magnifie the Lâ—rd and my spirit rejoyceth in God my Saviour Luke 1.47 And then lastly of inferiour creatures it is taken two wayes too of living creatures The God of the Spirits of all flesh Num. 16.22 and of creatures without life other then a metaphorical life as of the wind often Ezâ—k 1.21 And of Ezekiels wheeles the spirit of life was in the wheeles Now in this place the Spirit of Christ may be taken either for his soul which is the substantial form of the body or for life it self because spiration is a sign of life and they that breath live and when the leave off to breath they leave off to live If by the spirit we understand his soul this caveat must be had we must not imagine that danger impending to it by leaving the body as is usual to dying men who commend their souls in pensive supplications because they go to the Tribunal of the Great Judg to receive glory or punishment Such a commend his soul needed not because it was blest from its creation as well in regard of its personal conjunction to the Son of God as because it left the body in a glorious triumph being a terrour to whole Legions of devils So that in this sense the words imply no more then that his soul which was formerly in the body as in a Tabernacle should be deposited in the hands of his father until he be restored when the time of restoring should come but it is more credible that by the spirit is here understood the corporal life as the meaning may be this I do now deliver the spirit of life by which I do leave off to breath and leave off to live and this spirit this life Father I commend to thee that thou mayst shortly regive it to my body for with thee nothing perisheth but all things live who by calling those things which are not givest them a being and those things which do not live givest them a life And this construction is most agreeable to the Psalmist Pull me out of the net Psal 31.4 that they have laid privily for me for thou art my strength into thy hands I commend my spirit Where by spirit is meant life for he humbly beseecheth the Almighty not to suffer him to perish by the malice of his enemies but that he would preserve his life the like is evidenced out of those Apostolical words Heb 5.7 Who in the dayes of his flesh when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death and was heard in that he feared These words cannot be referred to his prayer in the garden as some interpret for these Mark 14. the Lord prayed not with a loud voice neither was he nor would he be heard that he might be safe from death but to shew that he had a natural desire not to die thereby demonstrating himself to be a true man whose nature abhors death but they rather signifie that he desired not to be swallowed up by death and that he might only taste of it and so return to life And in that he was heard for he was not long detained in the black vaults of the grave but had a speedy and a glorious resurrection So that here the Lord was not troubled for his soul for he knew that to be safe as being beatified from its creation by a vision of God face to face but he was solicit ous concerning his body which seemed by the sting of death to be disappointed of life and therefore prayes that it might not long remain under its tyranny and in that his request was fully obtained Here then we may satisfy those Hereticks such as the Cerdonites the Euticheans the Manicheans were which brought Christ upon the stage to play a part and say he was born and lived and dyed in Phantasmate in apparence only and representation and not really For if he dyed not where is the contract between him and his father that Christ ought to suffer all this and so enter into his Glory is that contract void and of none effect where is the ratification of that contract in all the Prophets wherefore doth Esay say Esay 5 3.4 9 Surely he hath born our sorrows and he made his grave with the wicked in his death where is the consummation and the testification of all this doth not the Gospel here say And he bowed his head and gave up the Ghost immediately after this his last prayer is that fabulous God forbid in vain had we all been created if we had not a regeneration in his true death Christ truly dyed so as was contracted so as was prophecied so as was related But this I may boldly affirm that he did not die so as other natural men dye for there is this distinction between them Christ dyed because he would dye other men admitted to the dignity of Martyrdome are willing to dye but they dye by the torment of the executioners they cannot bid their souls go out and say I will dye as he did I lay down my life for my sheep 〈◊〉 10.15 17 18. sayes he No man taketh it from me I lay it down of my self And De facto he did lay it down he diddye before thetorments could have extorted it from him Many crucified men lived many dayes upon the Cross the theeves were alive long after Christ was dead and therefore Pilate wondered that he was already dead his soul did not leave his body by force Mar. 15 44. but because he would when and how he pleased Besides Christ was not subject to the law of death which appertained only to them who were derived from Adam by carnal and sinful generation he being miraculously conceived of a virgin by the overshadowing of the holy Ghost and being he was not involved in a general rebellion and so had not incurred Gods displeasure it follows that he was not involved in the general penalty and so needed not to have dyed by the rigour of any law as we must And then when out of his own pleasure and to advance our salvation he would dye yet he dyed so as that though there were a disunion of body and soul which is truly death yet there remained a nobler and faster Union the Hypostatical Union of the Godhead to his body and soul to this I add death hath that dominion over men that they have no power to raise themselves from it Christ had for even in spight of death he retained in Almighty power and delivered his body and soul by a Victorious and Triumphant Resurrection So then as it is true Christ Jesus dyed else none of us could live so he dyed not as others dye not by the necessity of any law not
in all things 8. VVhile we thus censure and assault each other what advantages we give to our common adversary who takes pleasure to see us bickering with our selves And how far are we from that Legacy of thy Son that true Love he recommended to his Disciples Lord then we pray thee glew our hearts together by the grace of thy holy Spirit and purge our of them all the drosse and dregs of hatred malice schism and heresie 9. If it must be with us as with those two famous Rivers of the East the Sava and the Danuby that runne together threescore miles in one channel with their waters divided in very colour from each other yet let it be as it is in them without noise without violence 10. Keep us from Satan the Spirit of Division grant that we may live as Children of thy family Doves of thy flock and Lambs of thy fold by forgetting and forgiving all that is spoke or done against us Make us all Lord the sons of Peace even for his sake who is the Prince of Peace Jesus Christ our Lord Amen! The Second Word LUKE 23.43 Verily I say unto thee This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise The Explication THe occasion of the Word is this When two Theeves were Crucified with our Saviour one on the right hand the other on the left the one aggravating his former sins did blaspheme Christ and objected unto him an Imbecility Ver. 39. If thou be the Christ save thy self and us the other defended him and gives this modest check to the blasphemer Fearest thou not God Ver. 40 being thou art in the same condemnation But the other Evangelists seem to affirm the two theeves to be guilty of blasphemy Mat. 27.44 Mar. 15 3â— how then doth Luke speak but of one Aug. l 3 de Consensu Evang c. 16. Augustine resolves the doubt thus Matthew and Mark do take there the number of multitude for the number singular as it is frequent in holy Writ And so the Apostle speaks of the Prophets Heb. 11.33 37 how they silenced the mouth of Lions how they were stoned they were hewn asunder how they wandred up and down in Sheep skins and in Goats skins And notwithstanding he which stopt the mouth of Lions was only Daniel and he that was stoned was only Jeremiah and he that was hewen asunder was only Isaias Some think the good thief to have changed his opinion upon the hearing of Christ presenting those compassionate speeches to his Father Father forgive them c. But Luke doth evidently declare those words to be delivered before the wicked thief began to blaspheme and this also is consonant to the judgment of another Father of the Church Ambros in Luc. 23 who saith One only to have blasphemed the other to have as well praised as defended Christ and therefore rebukes the sausiness of his companion Fearest thou not God c. Happy thief as well in regard of his fellowship in suffering with a Saviour as of that divine light which began to open it self thus unto him he was no sooner converted himself but he begins to make a Proselite of his brother And then proceeding in a good work and those sparkles of grace increasing in his now happy Soul he confesseth his own sins Ver. 41. and preacheth the innocency of Christ And we truly are justly condemned to the death of the Crosse for we receive things worthy of what we have done but this man hath done nothing amisse Afterwards the Sun of illuminating Glory shining more brightly on him his Soul breaks forth into thiâ— holy Ejaculation Lord remember me when thou comest into thy Kingdom Behold with what an holy confidence he presents his Petition He whom Peter thrice denied this poor Penitent openly confessed and called him Lord. Thomas the Apostle denies to believe unless he could feel Christ the thief but beholding him miserably tortured on the Cross proclaims him boldly and in the face of his adversaries an heir apparent to a Kingdom He confessed him a Lord whom he beholds naked wounded grieved and openly derided and he stiles him a King when there was no probability of reigning in him for Kings only reign while they live and some scarce so long but when they leave off their weed of Mortality they part with their robe of Majesty Neither doth he petition for any thing in particular but only to Remember him .i. If Christ did but cast a thought on him and glance but the gracious eye of his favour towards him it were a plenary consummation of all his desires because he was fully assured of his power goodness and charity But what Kingdom is here understood Not that temporal Kingdom on earth which the Jews expected and yet he had a title to reign over them and was of the blood Royal of Israel and therefore the Wisemen after his Nativity made this enquiry Where is he that is born King of the Jews Matth. 2 And himself told Pilate Joh. 18.37 Thou saist that I am a King for this cause am I born and for this cause came I into the world that I should bear witness unto the truth But though he was a King in the world yet was he not pleased to exercise his Soveraignty but lived as a Pilgrim among enemies and received instead of honours due to a Royal person contempt and reproach But the Kingdom here meant is that Spiritual and Eternal one in the heavens that where there is a perfect Beatitude of the soul by which man is free from all servitude and the subjection of things created and subject only to God whom to serve is to reign And that which is intimated in the Parable of a certain noble man Lu's 19.12 that went into a strange Country to receive for himself a Kingdom and so to come again That is Christ was to pass by the wearisom steps of a bitter death to another life there to receive a glorious Diadem and then to return in the day of Judgment to render every man according to his works And that Kingdom as much as appertained to the Beatitude of the soul Christ indeed had from his very Conception but what belonged to his body he had it not de facto or in a glorious actualitie but de jure and in an honourable inheritance until after his Resurrection for while he sojourned on earth he was subject to all humane infirmities sin only excepted yea to death it self but there belonged to him a true glorious body which after death he was to enjoy for so he testifieth of himself It behoved Christ first to suffer Luk. 24.26 and then to enter into his Glory And so it is for this Kingdom of Glory that this Thief prayes for his cravings are not temporal or carnal but his divine and new-fashioned soul aims at things Sempiternal and sublime which makes Christ more compliable to his desires for he had no sooner ended
had need of him too least the cares and troublesomeness of this world should choake the good seed sown in their hearts Christ not content with good works many and great which he had formerly done ascends by the Cross to higher and descends not from thence till he beholds a vanquished enemy prostrate at his feet Nothing more hurts a Proficient then when he languisheth in his course and stifles his proceedings according to that old Moral In the way of Virtue not to go on is to go backward Bern. ad Ganinum as Bernard doth rightly exemplifie in an Epistle in which he produces an instance of Jacobs Ladder where all do either ascend or descend none keeps a fixt station Those also who are Perfect and Virgins as Mary and John were and for that cause the more beloved of our Saviour I say those do much need the assistances of Christ's sufferings for they are in an higher condition and ought much to fear the tympanies and swellings of pride and self-conceit which can no better way be asswaged and taken down then by looking into the glass of the Cross There they may find an admirable president of true humility even Omnipotency it self yielding to most contemptible sufferings He in whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledg Col 2.3 permits himself to be illuded and reputed may by Herod and his armie He that sits between the Cherubims and can blast a star with a breath Psal 99.1 and melt a Church with a look and molder a world with a touch even he suffers himself to be crucified in the midst of theeves and to die the most ignominious death the death of the Cross Learn hence O man not to be proud of thine honor wealth learning no nor of thy Piety it self but lay them all down at the feet of Christ and learn to be meek and lowly in heart Mat. 11.29 for so was he 5. And lastly we may observe hence the Reciprocal love of Parents to their Children and of children to their parents 1. The Virgin-mother did most accurately demonstrate this when she stood near the Cross with much sorrow and constancy and how could she chuse but bestow on him her choicest love whilest he was not only her son but also the Son of glory a Son that according to his Divine generation had a Father without a Mother and according to his Humane generation had a Mother without a Father and therefore may be stiled unigenite her only begotten Son A Son that was qualified with most special endowments as well of body as soul far excelling both men and Angels And yet even for this Son she had no inordinate no impatient grief but though his Passion was violent unparallell'd yet she beholds him with a holy and a Religious Courage humbly subjecting her self her son and all to the Divine will and dispose of the highest Thereby giving us this instruction That we look not upon any natural relations but with a love subordinate to the love of God for he hath told us He that loveth son or daughter above me Mat. 10.37 it not worthy of me And that whensoever he calls us to part with them we must not unmeasurably grieve for them but chearfully resign even our dearest comforts to that God that hath given them unto us 2. Neither was there a mutual retribution of love wanting on our Saviour his part towards his parent when notwithstanding he was then in the midst of most distracting torments he forgot not to recommend her to the care of his bosome friend and dearest Disciple It is a saying among the Heathens Diis Parentibus Magistris nunquam redditur aequivalens The Gods Parents and Teachers are never sufficiently gratified I need not inlarge my self upon this point even nature it self dictates unto us what love respect obedience and assistance is owing to those that begate us and did for us when we could do nothing for our selves They are therefore to be recompensed by performing these duties to them Eph. 6.1 Heb. 12.9 1. To obey them in all things in the Lord. 2 To bear their corrections with submission 3. To reverence them Mal. 1.9 in giving them all outward submission and fearing to offend them 1 Tim. 5 16. 4. To cherish and maintain them in time of need This the Apostle clearly teacheth If any faithful man or woman have widows that is to their mothers or aunts let them minister unto them and let not the Church that is other Christians be charged 1. O Most glorious God and gracious Father that sentest thy Son in no sort to assume the shape of Angels but the nature of a woman the seed of Abraham and didst glorifie that substance with the bright robe of immortality and place it at thy right hand We hope and pray that every one of us may have a portion in that sacred body of our Lord Jesus Christ 2. Make us partakers of his Divine nature as he was of our Humane make us free from sin as he was holy as he was holy and in the end glorifie both our souls and bodies with his in thy heavenly Kingdom 3. O thou Saviour of the world that wert pleased on thy Cross to cast an affectionate thought on thy dear Mother and amidst all thy sorrows to chuse her a Guardian to have her in his cares teach us never to forget those duties we owe them that are under thee the makers and preservers of our lives Give us grace to love serve obey and cherish them that so we may be as children of their love so heirs of their blessing the blessing which thou hast promised to loving and obedient children 4. And we beseech thee Lord to teach all parents by her example who loved thee to the last to be constant in their affection and care of their children and to bring them up in thy fear Let them know that thou art the Father of their spirits they but of their bodies Heb. 12.9 let them then put all confidence in thee for them as their best Father and make their daily supplications to thee for all goodness to them 5. Thou that didst favourably look at thy dear Disciple and adopt him of thy servant thy mothers son we pray that the light of thy countenance may shine on all us that professe thy Name make us who are by nature the children of wrath by thy grace inheritors of heaven 6. Teach us with Magdalen to repent with the wife of Cleophas to proceed in all good and pious works and with the Virgin Mary to attain to a good measure of perfection Let us be ashamed that the weaker Sex should excel us in the acts of pietie or religion yet powre forth thy grace upon all Sexes and all degrees of people that they may all know and serve thee the only true God and Jesus Chist whom thou hast sent Joh. 17 for that is eternal life The Fourth Word MATTH
Protection Thy Father left thee O Son of God in that sad Agony that thou mightest the more gloriously triumph he left thee to struggle with Death that thou mightest unsting Death and having overcome the sharpness of it open the Kingdome of heaven to all believers Thou mightest have had a numerous Army of Saints and Angels for thy defence against thy enemies and death it self for all Power in heaven and earth was given unto thee O Lord but thou wert pleased to permit that Divine decree between thee and thy Father and thy Spirit that thou shouldst first suffer all these things and then to enter into thy Glory But tell us we pray thee Thou Lever of Men whether or no did the vehemency of thy sorrowes in that space silence thine heart from thine accustomary devotion for we when we are but toucht with any affliction can scarce lift up a thought to thee or speak of thy praises But O our Saviour it was not so with thee for though thy flesh was weak yet thou didst bear a Spirit prompt to all holy exercises We know that though thy tongue moved not yet with the mouth of thine heart thou didst send implicit ejaculations to thy Father for us neither didst thou only pray in heart but in wounds and blood And as many wounds as were in thy Sacred body so many supplicants there were for us to thy heavenly Father and as many drops of blood so many tongues petitioning mercy for us O our God! we are justly confounded in the Abysse of thy love and mercy to the sons of men O were our sins so great that no sacrifice could at tone thine Anger but the blood of thy Son thy only begotten Son in whom alone thou art well pleased O superabundant love O prodigious Mercy But Lord teach us by his example not to cast cur affections on the pleasures and vanities of this world but to delight in the cup of affliction whereof he drank in an overflowing measure Make us fear to sin for his sake who sinn'd not and yet so highly suffered for our sins and when me fall under the rod of thy displeasure for them correct us not in thy fury lest we should be consumed and brought to nothing Though thou dost eclipse thy savours sometimes from thy deaâ—est ones yet we are confident thou wilt not totally and finally forsake those who do not so forsake thee Therefore we pray thee be not farre from us O God and though we attribute to thy Justice the glory of our deserved sufferings yet let thy mercy have the glory of our deliverance from them for the Passion of thy son's sake Amen The fifth Word JOHN 19.28 1 Thirst FOr the better explanation of This it is necessary to add the precedent and subsequent words of the Evangelist After this Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished that the Scripture might be fulfilled saith I thirst now there was set a vessel full of vinegar and they filled a spunge with vinegar and put it upon hyssop and put it to his mouth The Lord would have a full Consummation of all the Propheticall predictions of his life and death this only remained according to the Psalmist Psal 69.21 They gave me vinegar to drink Our Lord said I thirst The Prophet foretold it because he foresaw it the prediction or prevision is not the cause of a thing to Come but the thing to come is the ground of either The emission of so much blood could not chuse but provoke an extremity of thirst as I knew a man grievously wounded who called for nothing but drink which notwithstanding he entertained with a patient silence from the beginning of his Crucifixion His flesh had been long unacquainted with any moysture his veines his tongue his Palate and all his Interiours did labour under a miserable dryness but O sad refreshment in stead of giving him Cordials or pleasant drinks they offer him that which might either increase his torments or hasten his dissolution The summ of all is this As a little before his affixction to the Cross they offered him Wine mingled with Gall Mat. 27. so in the last period of his life they brought him Vinegar that from the beginning to the end he might have a continued Passion not mixed with any solace or refreshment The new Testament is for the most part an explanation of the Old but in this mystery of the Lords Thirst the words of the Psalmist may be styled a Commentary on these words of Christ I looked for some to sorrow with me Psal 69. but there was none and for Comforters and I found none they gave me gall to eat and vinegar to drink And of such the Lord here complains and saies I thirst Hence learn first O Man 1. To possesse thy soul in patience in thy afflictions after the great example of our Lord and Master Christ though in the fourth word there shined his humility joyned with his Patience yet here it appeares in its proper place This is it which setteth a seal upon all vertues even the first in the list and last in the triumph It is the Crowned Pomegranate which hangeth among bells in the lowest border of the high Priests robe of the old Law all was imperfect without the Crown of Patience it is the Salt of the Prophet Elisaeus which purifieth the polluted waters and sweetneth all the bitterness of life it is the School of Christianity So learned are we as we have Patience Ambross in Prov. 19 so much do we participate with God as we can endure by his example he hath taken a body to be able to suffer and to make himself the mirrour and reward of sufferours But we must distinguish true Patience from false True patience is that which commands us to suffer the evils of punishment that it may not enforce us to commit the evils of sin such was the patience of true Martyrs who would rather undergo the torments of villanous executions then deny the saving faith of Christ and would rather tolerate the loss of all they had then adhibit any adoration to false Gods false patience is that which perswades us to suffer all evil things that we may obey the law of lust and to loose eternal things to conserve the Temporal such is the patience of the Devils Martyrs who will easily suffer hunger thirst cold heat the loss of a good name and which is to be admired of the kingdom of heaven that they might augment their riches satisfie carnal concupiscence and ascend to the slippery mount of honours It is the innate property of true Patience to continue in a good cause to the end till by working it hath polished us Jaâ—â— 1.1 and made us perfect men and that is it which the Apostle declares in the Encomiums of it other vertues cannot long subsist without it in regard of some difficulties which are found in their actuations which by her assistance are conquered with
by the violence of any executioner nor by the seperation of his best soul if I may so call it the Godhead nor by such a separation of his natural and humane soul as that he would not or could not nor did not resume it again From what hath been premised thou maist learn O man First How that Christ shewed his Power his Wisdom and his Charity even then when he seemed to be infirm and void of all consolation They who naturally dye do by degrees loose their voice and strength but he in the last passage of his dissolution used a louder acclamation then formerly And not only that but as arguments of his further power he caused the basis of the universe to tremble the stones to be cleft the Sepulchres to be opened and the vail of the Temple to be disjoynted All which want not their several mysteries as the earthquake and the Scision of the Rocks signifieth that by the passion and death of Christ men should be moved to repentance and the obdurate hearts of the obstinate should be cut in pieces as it appeared by those who went from this sad spectacle Luk. 23. striking their breasts the apertion of the sepulchres denote the glorious resurrection of the dead bodies which were to be raised by vertue of his The renting of the vail of the Temple whereby the Sanctum Sanctorum did appear did imply that for the merits of Christs death the Caelestial sanctuary should be opened and that the holy should be admitted to enjoy the beatifical vision Neither did he shew his wisdome only in these shadowy Mysteries but also in that he produced life out of death which was typified by Moses when he made the water flow from the flinty rock And Christ for the same cause compared himself to a grain of wheat Numb 20.8 9. that dying fructifieth abundantly Jo. 12.24 for as from the corruption of that grain sprouts a living stalk and eare so from his death on the Cross issued a life of grace to many nations as the first man being gull'd with the sweet apple infected his whole posterity with death so the second man swallowing the most bitter apple of death brought all who were in him re-born to eternal life And what shall we say of his charity which was divers wayes wonderfully demonstrated at the instant of his death His life which was the most precious of all lives the life of a King the most powerful of all the life of the wisest and best of all the life of God-man he voluntarily laid down for his enemies for the wicked for the unthankful From the flames of hell he frees them that he might make them his brethren and Co-heirs and empale them within the blessed territories of heaven Is there any then so transported with cruelty to himself and so insensible of his own good as not to enbosome Christ with a thankful love Is there any so negligent of his own eternity as not to embrace him with a sweet recordation of his mercies Lord melt our stony hearts that they may take the impressions of such divine and unspeakable favours 2. Here offers it self also to our consideration the great obedience of our Saviour to his heavenly father in this recommendation of his spirit to his paternal protection whereby is verified what the Apostle sayes Phil. 2.8 That he humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the Cross It was so admirable that it had its imitation from his very conception and without intermission like an indivisible line lasted to his very death Neither was it determinated to one kind of work but extended to all those things which it pleased his Father to command to this do those expression of his tend Jo. 4.34 Jo. 6. It is my meate to do his will that sent me and to finish his work I came down from heaven not to do my own will but his that sent me And because Quia per victimas aliena Caro per obedientiam propria voluntas muctatur Gregor mor. l. 35. c. 11. Obedience is the best of sacrifices therefore as many works as he did during his peregrination on earth so many most pleasing sacrifices he offered to God Almighty Hence such varieties of them that sometimes we find him fasting in the desart and lodging with wild beasts sometimes in the frequency of men eating and drinking sometimes at home obscure and silent and that not for few years sometimes glorious as well in wisdome as eloquence and unclapsing his power of doing miracles sometimes with great indignation throwing the buyers and sellers out of the Temple sometimes as it were weak declining from the company of the multitude all which did require the noble qualities of an excellent soul which shewed him no way subject to the swayes of any passionate will of his own And as he practised so he taught the rule of perfect Obedience He that will follow me Mat. 16.24 let him deny himself Man must renounce his own before he can submit to the will of Christ The Celestial orbs do not resist the Angels that move them whether they be driven to the East or to the West because they have no proper propensitie either to one part of the heavens or to the other and the Angels themselves are at Gods beck to observe all his mandates because there is no repugnancy between their wils and his but seem to be so happily consolidated to him as if they and he were but one spirit And certainly if we will become Christs true disciples we must disband our own desires and natural affections and wholly resign our selves to his dispose and so become one with him 3. And lastly We may make this benefit of this last prayer of the Lord to use it as a holy Ejaculation upon all emergencies more especially at the hour of death for if the soul then leaving the body fals into the clutches of the Devil Ab inferis nulla redemptio there is no possibility of its redemption for as the felicity of the Saints so the torments of the damned are eternal but if it happily comes into the paternal hands of God the potency of enemies is not to be feared but it will be re-united to the body and both of them shall in the end enjoy a blessed and a glorious resurrection And herein lyes an ocean of comfort to all believers for as Christ the head did rise so shall every member of his mystical body be raised from corruption to incorruption 1 Cor. 15. 42 43. from dishonour to glory It is storied of an Indian King that when he had been Catechised so far in the articles of our Christian Religion as to come to the suffered and crucified and dead and buried impatient of proceeding any father asked only is your God dead and buried then let me return to the worship of the Sun for I am sure that will not die whereas if he had but
the patience to learn the following Article he might hear of his Triumphant Ascension into heaven and sitting there in Majesty and power on Gods right hand all the consolation of a Christian consists in this principally that after a troublesome warfare here he shall be carried to Abrahams bosome the Celestial Paradise to the durable Jerusalem to his Masters joy to an inheritance immortal undefiled reserved in the heavens to a rest from his labours and to behold the glory of God O how it behoves each man then to secure his interest in those felicities and daily and hourly commend his soul to that God that made it We are all careful enough when death approaches to put our houses in order and dispose of our temporals but few take a thought for that which is spiritual We had rather with King Asa seek to the Physitian then to the Lord 2 Chr. 16. when seized with sickness or with the Pharisees tithe mint and cummin and leave the weighty Matters of the Law undone but so we do but present God with maim not perfect with dead not living sacrifices Nothing can enter into the Kingdom of heaven but what is pure and immaculate and therefore our chiefest care should be if we desire to have admission there to prepare our souls by true faith and timely repentance without which our prayers and tears will nothing avail for without holinesse no man shall see the face of God He made our souls spirits let us not then make them carnal by feeding on corrupt lust He made them immortal let us not murder them with our sins and deprive them of eternal life He made them noble and after his own image let us not make them brutish and earthly by doting on the pleasures and vanities of this transitory world For what shal it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul TO thee therefore O thou Father of our Spirits do we make our humble addresses that thou wouldst be pleased to be a Protector of our souls and bodies both here and to all eternity Thou art our Rock and our Fortresse therefore for thy Names sake defend and guide us We have no confidence in saints or Angels for thou hast charged the best of them with folly but in the multitude of thy mercies for thou alone hast redeemed us O Lord God of truth Thou that didst shew thy power in weakness and shake the foundations of the earth when suffering on thy Cross make us to tremble through the horror of our sins and to fear thy judgments for them which we justly merit As thou didst then cleave the Rocks and rend the vail of thy sanctuary so melt our stony hearts with the beams of thy grace that they may receive the impressions of thy favors and that we may enter into the Holy of Holies above which thou hast prepared for thy chosen The height of our love is but to lay down our lives for our dearest relations but thou didst depose thy precious life for thy enemies that rebelled against thee Lord who by thy active and passive obedience wouldst leave nothing undone or unsuffered for our salvation O teach us to obey thy word to embrace thy metions to practise what thou commandest Let our wills be wholly resolved into thine and make us conformable to thee as thy saints and angels in heaven are We confess Lord that the wages of sin is deaeth and that we justly deserve to be reduced to our first nothing but O let not death which is the work of the divel have dominion over thy creatures who are the work of thine own hands Before we receive a summens to our end we pray thee furnish us with all requisite graces that we may be clothed with the wedding garment of holinesse and righteousness to meet thee the sweet Bridegroom of our souls Let us not commend unto thee foul sinful spouses but clean and sorrowful spirits for thou despisest not Lord humble and contrite hearts At the hour of death Lord speak comfortably to our souls and seal in our hearts by thy holy Spirit the pardon of all our sins Assist us with thy presence against all the assaults of our spiritual adversaries for if thou wilt be with us we shall neither fear nor feel any evil though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death And grant that though our souls and bodies be separated by death for a short space they may be re-united at thy great day and by vertue of thy Resurrection be raised to live in thy ever blessed eternity Grant this for his sake who lived and dyed and rose again for our salvation Jesus Christ Amen FINIS