no way moved upon the prospect and glory of this City or advance also of his own soon meekly returned him a second answer out of the Scriptures out of the Law too as the former and out of the same book of it prohibiting such a fact upon any such Motive or promsie the text being corrupted by the Devil as to the true sence and due circumstances thereof telling him that it was written that we may not tempt the Lord our God The Text is found in Deut. 6.16 and the instance there made is not to tempt him as in Massah where the Israelites suffering some thirst had not the patience of expecting the time wherein God thought fit to relieve them but irreverently and ungratefully expostulated with and importuned Moses for a Miracle in their supply for drink after they had but now seen that Miracle for supplying them bread in the former Chapter So patient and resigned our Lord remained still in the place and posture as Satan had set and held him in for he who was permitted to place him there had not the power to cast him down thence so to try what would be the issue of it till he confounded thought of changing the Scene again and like Balak of trying his experiments upon him in another place and in a contrary manner § 158 Having therefore now attacked our meek Lord in two of the three ordinary and most effective sorts of temptations as S. John reckons them Concupiscentia carnis as to eating which meat was rendred more alluring by extreme hungar and Superbia vitae some vain glory or Honour when so mounted on the top of a Pinnacle of one of the stateliest buildings of the world by there shewing himself supported and born up by Angels in the Air he now thought of assaulting him with the third Concupiscentia Oculorum and wealth and Coveteousness that that Temptation might not be omitted toward our Lord with which we are most frequently over-thrown and by which wealth and honour once admitted he could at least sooner work his ruine these instruments of his temptation being also great tempters § 159 Now laying aside therefore the glorious suggestions to our Lord of his being the Son of God as in the two former Satan begins now to treat him not as God's but as the Carpenter's Son and to take more upon him and magnifie himself instead of our Lord and to see if he could trample upon our Lords humility in whom he could not beget any pride So taking him from the Pinacle and from the prospect of Jerusalem he transported him to yet a greater and statelier height the top of a very high Mountain as if to a place where himself was Prince and Lord of all and there makes a Scheme and representation unto him of the great and spacious Kingdomes of the Earth and of all the Glory and beauty as it were set forth and spread before him in a large Map and shewed too all at once as it were in a moment saith S. Luke as all lying at his his feet the more to surprize him Then tells him that all these are his and to whomsoever he pleaseth he can give them and the prosperity and flourishing of the wicked for a time in this world seem'd to make good his words that therefore if he would but bow his knee and give him the honour due to such a Patron and Benefactor All should be our Lords and he presently possessed of them Whence our Lord might see that for all the high titles that might be given him he had been in the world but poorly treated hitherto in being advanced no higher than a Carpenter § 161 It is likely that Satan set forth this last Temptation with many more words and shewed the many honours he had formerly bestowed upon his true Servants Hoping also that the sight and view of such worldly Pompe might much work upon such a Novice and one so meanly educated As our first Parents that fell were taken with the gloss and beauty of the forbidden fruit Gen. 3.6 and as the Israelites brought out of the Desart into the land of Canaan were by the plenty thereof Deut. 32.15 drawn away from God Incrassatus impinguatus dilatatus dereliquit Deum Factorem suum But very imprudent and no less silly was such a proposal of his to our Lord and full of Pride and lies Whenas indeed himself was a miserable Bankrupt and prisoner tied up in chains not able to help a poor witch for all her not only worship of but Contracts and giving her Soul to him to a single farthing nor to take his lodging in a filthy Swine without an extraordinary leave and permission and when as most contrary he to whom he spake was the very person to whom all these things were given by the Father and who was the true Lord and heir of all And therefore Satan in this third assault saith nothing of his Son-ship and having all things in heaven earth and under earth to adore and submit to him as such will they nill they even Satan himself And this perhaps was one way how Satan hoped his Temptation might fasten upon our Lord if he could thus at least provoke him unseasonably at this time to the challenging of these things to himself and so some little stain of ostentation and vain glory might possibly run along and mingle with it § 162 But our meek Lord replies no such thing to him takes no notice of his shameful lies nor the cheat of his deluding appearances but after he had shewed the highest detestation of his endeavouring to rob his Father of his due worship and of taking this to himself in those words spoken to him Get thee hence Satan as if his last impudent and blasphemous proposal had clearly discovered to him who he was he with the same spirit of meekness as before answers him a third time out of the Scripture and the Law that we are commanded to worship the Lord our God and him only to serve and in what ever condition we are placed of poverty and want may do no prohibited thing to make our selves rich great or Honourable Which it indeed we would yet by this way we cannot make our selves so And the Devil so oft as he saith this doth but lye to us Thus our Lord stoutly repelled the last temptation also the lust of the eyes the surprisal of which must be greater too in so barren a Desart And so this being the uttermost bait he had with which to have caught our Lord and not able to disobey our Lords words Get thee hence Satan by the power of which words our Lord at last manifested that which he was not pleased to shew at Satans request Viz. that he was the Son of God this evil Angel departed And now after the temptation as usually follows a Consolation as also before the great Honour done our Lord at his Baptism was streight pursued with a great humiliation and for the
of these Samaritans being Israelites and many Jews also when obnoxious to the Laws or for some other secular advantages removing thither out of Judea After which times also another Anti-Temple about one hundred and fifty years before our Lords coming was erected in Egypt for the Jews flying together with Onias a Son of the High Priest when as persecuted by Antiochus Epiphanes which Temple perished as also the other near the time of the destruction of that in Jerusalem and both these forraign Temples seem preludiums of Gods worship shortly to be made common to the whole world This is premised for the better understanding of what follows § 197 Near to this City Sychem and this Mount was a Well digged by Jacob and then made use of by the City And here our Lord travelling on foot and wearied with his mornings journey it being now about noon and the heat of the day sat down on the side of the Well to rest himself it as a place of resort likely having some Trees and shade about it whilst the Disciples went into the Town to buy some meat for his and their dinner For the Jews had no commerce or conversation with the Samaritans when absolute necessity did not require it as this of travellers buying victuals of them so as to ear and drink and lodg with them being accounted by them Schismaticks and unclean which caused also the same enmity against and separation of the Samaritans at least some of them from the Jews see Luk. 9.53 the other Samaritans seem herein more remiss see vers 56. Whilst our Lord was here left alone a Samaritan woman came thither out of the City to draw water This happened also to be a woman that had had already five husbands either all already deceased or she by divorce separated from them for in latter times women also used to procure divorces from their husbands and that now lived incontinently with one not married to her § 198 Our Lord thirsty with his journey and desiring to entertain some further spiritual discourse with her concerning the salvation of this poor wretch requested of her some water to drink upon which she somewhat wondring asked him why he as appearing by his habit and perhaps his speech a Jew would receive water from her and out of her vessel being a Samaritan and one also it seems that for all the impurity of her life was a Zelot of the Samaritan Religion and way of Gods worship and of their separation from the Jews Here-upon our Lord moved with compassion took occasion to preach the new Gospel and to reveil himself to her and turning the mention of water with a Metaphor and to enter without force or abruption into pious discourse as usually and as we find he doth by and by concerning meat and again concerning harvest told her that he was a person from whom she might expect a greater curtesy and that if she had well known the Gift of God and who he was she would have begged water of him rather the true water quenching all thirst and in the receiving of it a Well continually abounding i. e springing up in all spiritual Graces to everlasting life conferred by it Our Lord here speaking as formerly in his discourse with Nicodemus of the Gift of the Holy Spirit which he came to bestow upon the world and which his Death procured of the Father which being conferred in our regeneration by the water of baptism cures all hunger and thirst after earthly things and fully satisfies and beatifies the Soul Consider Jo. 7.38 39. 6.35 Esai 44.3 § 199 The woman saying she should be glad to receive such water Our Lord the more to encrease her faith in him bad her to call her husband as if it were meet that he also with his wife should share thereof thus taking occasion to discover to her his knowledg of all her former life and condition and for the present of her living in secret concubinage She hereby discerning him to be a Prophet and perhaps to divert him from speaking more of her husband presently begun to consult him concerning Religion who in the present division were in the right the Samaritans or the Jews and where God was more acceptably worshipped in Mount Garizim where the Patriarchs Abraham and Jacob and afterward Joshua by Gods appointment and their fore-fathers that came out of Egypt built an Altar and offered Sacrifices as hath bin said or at Jerusalem a place of a latter consecration and sanctity the Samaritans also rejecting any testimonies produced out of the Prophets against them and see the vehement contest and dispute of the Samaritans and Jews that had bin before this in Alexandria before Ptolemeus Philometer made Judge in a cause Joseph Ant. l. 13. c. 4. § 200 Our Lord after he had first told her that the Samaritans not Jews for the time past were peccant and schismatical herein and the right way of salvation to be among the Jews and so also the Salvation through the Gospel first to be communicated to them proceeds to instruct her concerning the times of the Gospel now at hand wherein all such former Divisions and factions concerning the place of worship should be taken away that God was a Spirit not addicted or confined to Place nor taken with corporeal things and external Ceremonies but only as these were types and prefigurations of spiritual things to come and of his real service by and through Christ but that he expected those now who should worship him in what place soever in spirit and in truth intimating here the abrogation from henceforth of the former legal worship and Ceremonies which was accordingly established by the Apostles Act. 15. a thing that at this time the Samaritans would more willingly hear of than the Jews And he speaks also here to her of worshipping not God in general but the Father the true worshippers will worship the Father For that all worship of God now was to be through Christ his Son and by such as were also made his Sons through Christ Worshipping God also in Spirit seems to be the worship of him in and by the Holy Spirit given through Christ according to those expressions of our Lord to Nicodemus before Jo. 3.6 that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit and Mat. 22.43 David in Spirit called him Lord. And of S. Paul whom I serve in the Spirit Rom. 1.9 and Rom. 8.14 those who are led by the Spirit and vers 9. Ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit § 201 The woman upon our Lords saying the Hour cometh c. replyed that she believed when the Messias should come he would declare all Gods pleasure concerning his worship and remove all the present differences Our Lord told her that himself was the Messias She hearing this and much transported with his former discourse whose words were with authority and setting hearts on fire and bidden also by him to call her husband carelesly leaving
attendance they departed praising and glorifying God that a new Saviour was born to Israel and divulging abroad the Vision of the Angels and the wonderful things they had heard and seen concerning this child Luk. 2.17 These poor Shepheards being chosen for the first preachers of the coming of the Kindom of God as afterward were the poor Fisher-men and begetting a great wonder saith the Evangelist Luk. 2.18 in the Bethleemites with their story Yet probable it is according to the poor and unknown condition of life that the son of God had chosen that their wonder by his secret influence upon them was so restrained as not to proceed to any farther inquiry after these Holy persons and that the child and his Mother receiv'd no visits upon it nor better entertainment and accommodation there And this noise that was made upon the jealousy raised afterward in King Herod served only to involve this Infant-Prince and his small family in much greater perils and the peoples present admiration was more unsafe to him then their former neglect Nor did the Bethleemites enjoy the Honour of having this Saviour of Israel born amongst them without their bearing also his Cross and that a heavy one not long after it After this early Predication of the new Messias the poor Shepheards return'd to their flocks rejoycing as for the mercy shewed to Israel in general so for the great favour done them in particular that they should be the first besides his parents that should behold the Messias and hear the Musick of Angels and divulge this good news to the great and to the wise ones of this world § 39 Where I may not pass further without pausing a little to contemplate the ordinary course of Gods wisdom in this matter For many great men doubtless there were Digress of the tribe of Judah at this time in this City who probably would have entertained with joy such a revelation concerning the birth of the Messias who might also with their riches have maintained or with their power protected him Yet God did not think fit to send an Angel with this joyful news to any of them but only to the poor Shepheards from whom the great and learned ones were to receive it As likewise from the very conception of this Prince God had hitherto dealt with low people and the honours done to our Saviours person and to his relatives in the frequent descent and visits of Angels were invisible to the world and communicable to it only upon their relations whom their mean condition made less authentick And we see in this infancy of the Gospel the truth of those scriptures fulfilled Not many mighty not many worldly-wise not many noble are called God hath chosen the weak and base things of this world to confound the mighty Blessed are the poor for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven And our Saviours message to the Baptist Pauperes evangelizantur to the poor the Gospel is preached as if as he came poor so he came only to the poor For which good pleasure of his Father S. Luke chap. 10.21 expresseth upon a certain time a great exultation in our Saviours spirit breaking out into this expression I thank thee O Father Lord of Heaven and Earth and so a free and absolute disposer of all his favours that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them unto Babes Even so Father for so it seemed good in thy sight By which we may gather how welcome to his infancy was this visit of these poor sent to him by his Father § 40 And why such thing seems good in his sight our weakness may discover many reasons 1. Because it is said that he hateth the proud and giveth Grace and favour to the humble Now riches and honour are seldome severed from pride and humility more often accompanieth meanness and poverty An hungry Shepheard trembling with cold in an open feild and over-watched is in a more humble and mortified posture for receiving visits and revelations from heaven then one that is full of all good things well attended delicatly lodged and taking his ease tho elation or demission of the mind commonly rising and falling with the indulgences or sufferings of the body and the flow or ebb of our fortunes But 2ly were all conditions equally disposed for such favours yet he delights as is said before to chuse the meaner and weaker Agents for his instruments in great affairs the more to shew his omnipotency whilst out of these babes mouths he perfects his praise and by the feible things of the world confounds the mighty 3ly He doth this also to imploy and heighten the dignity of mens faith in matters of religion which when it believes only what it sees or is clearly demonstrated to it must needs be of very little esteem and reward with God But great faith is where little sight or conviction and where love and the Will have the greatest hand in the Composition of it To such believers God counts himself exceedingly indebted and wherever our Saviour met with any such faith in the Gospel he fell a-magnifying it very highly and granted presently whatever it desired Great is thy Faith be it unto thee even as thou wilt For the growth therefore of these great faiths it is that God discovers only to a few and those of less authority what he would have to be believ'd by all that so he might rest more engaged to their submission who have the weaker perswasives or impulses to it Or 4ly Had he no other motive at all thus to distribute his favours yet this he may do to have the return of a greater measure of praise and thanks for them from such receivers For God receives the greater acknowledgment for his gifts the more mean and unworthy the persons see themselves to be on whom he bestows them More when he gives them to a poor Shepheard then when to a great Rabbi which commonly whilst they render the one grateful make the other proud But lastly the Kingdom of this new born-Prince was to be quite another and a contrary thing to the Kingdoms of this world It was to be a spiritual and a celestial one and so founded in great humility and mortifications of the flesh and of this worlds lusts founded in denying mens-selves and forsaking all things that are dear unto them and taking up several sorts of crosses and those that enter into this Kingdom are to be only the poor poor one way or other either in estate or at least in spirit so that in this Kingdom wherein those of low degree are exalted Jam. 1.9 the rich and Honourable are to be made low that they may be exalted Let the rich rejoyce in that he is made low Jam. 1.10 And in their affections at least to become another thing then they are in their fortunes They that rejoyce to be as tho they rejoyced not they that purchase as tho they possessed not they
six or seven miles distant from Jerusalem 't is no way imaginable that these Strangers in the Country travelled thither by night And now the Star became their Guide and went before them till they coming near our Lords secret Hermitage the Stable where He lay which poorer lodging now had its conveniencies the Enrolment perhaps being not yet finished in the better securing of his life it descended lower and stood just over it Which thing as it was necessary for the transaction of this visit with the more privacy and happily prevented their asking again the same question at Bethleem as they did at Jerusalem which might have discovered this Infant to some who might have told Herod so the Glory and splendor it cast upon this Grot served well to remove any scandal they might receive from the poverty of the persons they found within it And probably all this passed without the unworthy Bethleemite's either seeing the Star like the cloudy pillar in die wilderness that was darkness to the Egyptians whilst light to the Israelites or taking any notice of the new and strange habited Guests Which Bethleemites also before this had bin as stupid to the Relations of the good Shepheards as the Hierosolymites were but now to these Sages § 66 The Magi having entred the Grot what now might seem mean and vile to them of or in the house was abundantly recompensed in the sanctity and innocency of the persons they saw in it not like to other Mortals And so strong in faith and filled by their near approach to this Infant God with his Holy Spirit and struck with a due fear and reverence and spiritual discovery and Revelation of his Majesty they presently fell prostrat on the Ground Mat. 2.11 before the Babe held in his Mother's Armes and after worshipping for some time opened their Treasures and made their Presents to Him full of silence and respect and testifying their duty more in their actions and humble postures than in their words Behaving themselves rather as in a Temple than in a lodging § 67 The Gifts they presented were Gold Frankincense and Mirrhe the most precious things of their Country and usually offered to great persons see Gen. 37.25 and 43.11 But as is observed more especially proper offerings to this Person Aurum regi Thus Deo Myrrha morituro It being as of a fragrant smell so very exficcative and preservative from Putrefaction and hence much used in the embalming of the Dead Of which mingled with Aloes another Gumm very odoriferous an hundred pound weight was bestowed by Nicodemus on our Lord at his burial with which the linnen cloths wherein his Body was wrapped were besmeared And one of the principal Ingredients this was of the Holy ointment appointed for anointing the Priests and Sanctuary Exod. 30.23 Thy Garments smell of Mirrhe Aloes and Cassia saith the Psalmist of our Lord. And A bundle of Mirrhe is my well-beloved unto me saith the Spouse in the Canticles chap. 1. v. 13. of the same person Such Presents these great Persons for such both their Gifts and their Title of Magi intimate them to be This being a science studied only by the Nobility in those Countries and the skill thereof rewarded with the highest Honours brought to this Infant-Prince as the first Tribute of the Gentiles And so begun to be fulfilled those Prophecies which have not as yet received their compleat accomplishment in Psal 71. Coram Illo procedent Aethiopes inimici ejus terram lingent Reges Tharsis Insulae munera offerent Reges Arabum Saba dona adducent Et adorabunt eum omnes Reges omnes Gentes servient ei And in Esai 60. Surge Illuminare Jerusalem quia venit lumen tuum Et ambulabunt Gentes in lumine tuo Reges in splendore ortus tui Inundatio Camelorum operiet Te Dromedarri Madian Epha Omnes de Saba venient Aurum Thus deferentes laudem Deo annunciantes Madian and Sheba being in Arabia Felix East from Jerusalem from which Sheba came the Queen with such presents to King Salomon and the Sabeans that took away Jobs Cattel Job 1.15 And so was the title of Ethiopia common also to Arabia Numb 12.1 as well as to the Ethiopia lying West of it and further off § 68 Their gifts accepted with smiles after some further devotions and Contemplation made on their knees whilst their hearts were filled and ravished with a supernatural joy or perhaps Extasie they received a smile and Benediction from this Omnipotent Babe and so retired Infinitly satisfied for the long journey they had taken and their illuminated Reason nothing a mated but much edifyed with the mean accomodations they had seen and the humble entrance of this Lord of the Universe into the World to cure its Pride and lastly ready now to invite Herod and all the Jewish Nobility to the enjoyment of that spiritual and sublime Happiness of which they had the honour to be the first tasters not to be found in the Pallaces of Kings § 69 And now whilst they take their rest that night in the Town and are thinking of communicating to the World and especially to the pious King Herod as they had promised the happy success of their journey and the celestial Treasure they had found fit to be removed presently by Him from so mean a lodging into the sumptuous Temple he had newly built for Him Behold in their sleep the 〈◊〉 Lord that had thus far discovered his Son unto them further commands that they should by no means return to Herod as was purposed whose Counsels were treacherous but secretly and speedily depart to their own Country another way which also they successfully performed § 70 Meanwhile what great Consolation may we imagine did the neglected Virgin Mother and her devout Husband receive next to the enjoyment of our Lord in such their desolate lodging from the unexpected appearance of these Royal Guests from a forraign land conducted to that obscure place by a light from Heaven from their suddain prostration and Adoration in their first approach as subjects also of this new-born Prince and from those rich presents an opportune supply of their poverty What admiration and praise of the infinite bowels of the Divine mercy when enlightned with the Holy Spirit of Jesus they understood by this homage paid by these Gentile-Princes that this Babe was to be King of and rule over not only Israel but the whole earth Which thing also they heard afterward from Simeon at his Presentation in the Temple Lumen ad Revelationem gentium as if he had known of this meeting and the Star So God is wont still to mix hardships with Favours and recompence any sufferings of his Saints with double Consolations But in this present satisfaction and repose little did they know that their poor Babe so meanly lodged was the talk of all Jerusalem and envy of Herod or foresee the terrible storm that would shortly arise from thence §
what abundance of tears may we imagine especially his Holy Mother to have powred forth so that she had great reason to represent this her sorrow to her Son as soon as she regained him Your Father and I have sought you sorrowing How may we imagine this desolate Virgin now to have lamented like the Spouse in the Canticles cbap 3.1 2 c which also in a special manner was the Type of her as one above all other Spouses the dearest to her Beloved for ever Quaesivi quem dilexit anima mea quaesivi illum non inveni Surrexi circuivi Civitatem per vicos plateas quaesivi quem dilexit anima mea quaesivi non inveni All this grief meanwhile was well known to and foreseen by her Son amidst his Devotions in the Temple But these afflictions are the things which exceedingly endear the Saints to God and perfect in them his love and therefore he is so liberal in bestowing these upon them § 113 The next morning they return back with speed toward Jerusalem and at night repairing ta their former lodging neither there it seems heard they any thing of him which argues for this time of his absence his pernoctation in the Temple and so they must pass this second night also in great desolation On the third day morning conjecturing perhaps by his former practice the place of his affections they repaired to the Temple and there happily they found him this sorrow and joy being a Type of that they were for the like time to suffer at his Death and after three daies of their recovery of him again in a joyful Resurrection And here saith the Evangelist they found him sitting in the midst of the Doctors I suppose in the manner before related unless this his sitting among them and also his proposing Questions to them may be thought to argue his taking some authority upon him as an extraordinary Embassadour sent to them from God where the most apparent maturity of his Celestial wisdom abundantly supplied the defect of his age At this fight his Parents also were amazed saith the Text For as it repaired their joy so it could not but cause in them also great admiration that he who had hitherto observed so much humility and silence and privacy at home among the simple people there should now on a suddain disclose so much spirit and confidence wisdom and Eloquence abroad among the most learned sought out by him for that purpose § 114 Our Lord upon their presence dutifully rising and coming to them and taking this occasion to withdraw himself from that admiring Assembly his Mother in whom this sight had made still greater impressions of Reverence toward him asked him not to blame his action at all but rather to be informed of the reason of it as also lovingly to condole her past sorrows for the loss of him why he had done so to them Fili quid fecisti nobis sic telling him that she and his Father had undergone a great deal of care and grief in seeking for him Where we may note her modest including all she saith of his action that caused her so much pain in one monosyllable sic To whom he answered as unconcerned in any human relations and pleading no other thing than obedience to his Father for his excuse as he frequently doth else-where See John 2.4 Mat. 12.48 that they might have spared such their solicitude that he was to mind and attend the business for which that his Father had sent him Which early fervour of his for yielding in all things exact obedience to the will of his Father calls to mind what in the like case he said afterwards Jo. 4.34 in answer to his Disciples that it was his meat to do the will of his Father and Jo. 9.4 That he must work the works of him that sent him and Jo. 14.31 That as the Father gave him commandment so he did and Jo. 18. That for this cause he came into the world to bear witness to the Truth Which now first when yet a child he did in the midst of the Great Doctors by his Father's special appointment and order and of the Holy Spirit and wisdom wherewith he was replenished if perhaps now they would take any notice of this their Messiah by seeing the Holy Spirit and wisdom wherewith his immature years were replenished and by comparing his present age with the time of his Nativity which God formerly made known to them by the Magi whereas they carelesly then neglected those homages to him which Strangers performed § 115 The Holy Virgin and S. Joseph did not as yet well understand what our Lord meant by such an answer They knew well what he meant by his Father but not by his business Those things in particular which our Lord was to do and suffer in this his Mission from God for the Redemption of mankind being not as yet discovered to them As indeed no Saint was ever so great to whom God hath manifested all his mysteries and Counsels but this is done by certain Degrees that all may depend herein wholly on his good pleasure Neither is the ignorance of these things any fault in this Blessed Mother of our Lord. In Luc 2. c. 50. Of whose perfections thus Cardinal Tolet Licet magnam gratiae fidei copiam acceperit in Conceptione sua quando filium concepit tamen fide gratia ac Sanctitate indies augebatur And Possunt saith he multa mysteria ignorari absque ulla culpa Of which Mysteries also he observes that Saepe datur majora agnoscere non minora in his quae non propria virtute sed divina gratia assequimur ut sic ostenderetur omnia accepta esse a Deo ex gratia benevolentia § 116 Meanwhile the Holy Virgin whose great Reverence toward our Lord hindred any further inquiry into the meaning of his words or making any further reply let none of his words fall to the ground but carefully treasured them up in her heart From whom 't is likely the Relaters of these passages to S. Luke received them because this Evangelist makes several times particular mention of the diligence of the Mother of our Lord in keeping such an exact account So our Lord returned with his Parents to Nazareth He after this publick manifestation of himself and great applause continuing still the same obedience to them in all things and they observing him still with a greater degree of Admiration and Devotion In all which passages it seems strange that these Doctors after such a Visit and light given them of the extraordinary quality of his person should take no further notice of nor make any further inquiry after him nor yield him any sutable entertainment But perhaps the coming-in of such mean people there appearing as his parents might serve in some manner to abate their esteem of him and to draw a veil over the face of such lazy inquirers or also already
rejoicing at the presence of our Lord when he also yet in his Mothers womb and their acquaintance only before they were born after his infancy his leaving his Fathers house and retiring into the Desart and solitude his rigid dyet raiment and habitation in some grot there his non-conversation with men and so neither corrupted with their manners nor distracted at all with human affairs and the Holy Spirit supplying to him all that knowledg of men's persons that was necessary to his high employments the many resemblances he had to Elias and also to our Lord in his doctrine and in his Heroical Virtues and especially in his stupendious humility and sufferings these things I say have bin partly described before § 4. c. in the Relation of the Baptists Nativity where the inquisitive Reader may review them § 129 To this great person therefore as yet in the Desart being about 30 years of age the appointed age under the law Numb 4.3 23. for the Priests and Levits to enter upon the exercise of their functions and half a year elder than our Lord as who was to be his forerunner and to appear abroad sooner came the word of the Lord that he should now leave his solicitude and enter upon the Office for which he had bin thus prepared and which emploiment doubtless he had much expected and longed for Upon which John came forth not immediatly to Jerusalem or into the Cities of Judea this honour being left for our Lord himself and the Kingdom of Heaven being to approach still nearer by certain degrees but into the out-skirts of the Desart of Judea and from thence removing to Bethabara where also our Lord sojourned for some time a little before his Passion Jo. 10.40 beyond Jordan near to the great Road from the East for passing over the River into Judea by which way the Israelites when they came out of Egypt walking through Jordan a type of Baptism as also their passing through the red Sea entred into the Holy Land and by which way they were afterwards carried away Captives from it to Babylon where also Elias the type of John after passing this Jordan was taken up in a fiery Chariot Here then John in his Spirit began to appear again and to proclaim as it were at a distance and afar off the speedy coming of the Jew's Messiah and of his Kingdom and to fulfil the Vox clamantis in deserto spoken of in the Prophets Some conjecture also the beginning of Johns thus proclaiming our Lord to have bin in September or the feasts of Trompets which was the beginning of the Civil year of the Jews Lev. 23.24.25.9 and this same year also to have bin a year of Jubile which well agrees with Esay 61.2 Vt praedicarem annum placabilem Domini and in which year of Jubile also was a greater concourse of people from all Forraign parts but the various computations of the age of the world renders this thing very uncertain § 130 Now then the Baptist began for a due preparing of the Nation for the reception of so great and Holy a Prince to exhort the people to a Confession and repentance of their sins and the receiving Baptism to that effect which he had orders from him that sent him to confer on all such as were penitent and to a speedy reformation of their lives for that now shortly all flesh should see the salvation of God and for that this Lord would come with his Fann in his hand and would throughly purge his floore gathering the Wheat into his Garner but burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire and because that now the Axe should be laid to the root of the Trees and such as brought not forth good fruit should be hewn down and cast into the fire Which things delivered with such an authority and gravity put his Auditors into a great consternation and fright and suddainly alarmed the whole Nation and especially the Hierosolymites being at no great distance from the place of his preaching and much frequenting him Whose wonder also was encreased by his appearance in such a desolate place and not coming into their Cities And his strange Habit of hair-cloth and being tyed with a leather-Girdle like Eliah and several of the ancient Prophets Esay 20 2◠2 King 1.8 Zech. 13.4 and his strange abstinence not eating any bread nor drinking Wine nor needing at all any human supplies for his food one part of his diet being a kind of Locust or Grashopper to be found every where upon the grass and which it seems was a Fare sometimes of the poorer sort in a case of necessity eaten by them either raw or boyl'd or also salted and dried mentioned in Levit. 11.22 and allowed there for a clean food and another part when these Locusts not to be had wild honey such as the wood-bees wrought in the hollow parts of Trees plentiful in this Country See 1 Sam. 14.26 and his abstinence such as the Pharisees concluded supernatural and so effected by his being possessed with a Devil his lodging also the hard ground in some Cave or Grot By which things this Preacher of Penance appeared also the greatest Example thereof that as yet the world ever saw These things I say still advanced their great esteem and admiration of him and gave greater weight and credit to his words the Pharisees ostentation of fasting being quite eclypsed by it § 131 To this also may be added his discovering the secrets of their hearts that came to him and discerning their several sins and delinquencies Mat. 3.7 tho having no knowledg of or conversation with them The Counsels and advices he gave them high and sublime and like unto those of our Lord. As among others that given to the people for the larger extent of their charity that he that had two Coats should impart to them that had none and so also should do for Bread and Meat These his Counsels rightly also fitted to every ones condition whilst for the amendment of their manners each one desired to learn from him the several Duties of their calling the things belonging to which he knew not by experience but the Holy Spirit His admitting contrary to the Pharisees all persons with an equal mansuetude and affability and not keeping more distance from those esteemed greater Sinners Publicans or Soldiers this reprehending the greatest with all freedom and without fear before all the people and receiving the humble though great offenders without expostulation or reproach All these wrought in the people an Opinion of the Baptist that he was some eminent Prophet or also the Messias though himself sufficiently disclaimed it § 132 Upon this fame To this new burning and shining Light as our Lord stiles him a great conflux was made after some time out of the whole Nation not only out of the nearer parts of Judea but also of Galilee From which Countrey among others we find Peter and Andrew his brother intermitting their fishing and
person our Lord appeared also in great beauty and Majesty and like himself that this was his beloved Son Mat. 17. in whom he was well pleased And this then added to it that after Moses and Elias the law and the Prophets vanished they should in the last place hear him for which purpose viz. their hearing and obeying this Lord also was this voice made unto the people here at Jordan Again a third time when the same our Lord a little before his Passion was in great desolation and desired to be delivered from the approaching paines of death Jo. 12.27 but then afterwards resigning his natural will as in the Garden prayed that his Father would not spare him but glorifie his name Viz. in our Lords passing through all those bitter sufferings preappointed for him his Heavenly Father himself vouchsafed with a voice from heaven to answer his Praier telling him he would glorifie his name yet again Viz. in the admirable Resurrection and Ascension of his Son as he had done already viz. in his glorious Miracles where also our Lord told the people concerning this voice from heaven that it came not for his sake or satisfaction who alwaies knew his Fathers will concerning and Love to him and the glory he had and ever was to enjoy with and from him not for his sake I say but for theirs that they acknowledging this glory the Father both had and would bestow upon his Son should accordingly honour and obey him As also now at his Baptism the visible descent of the Holy Ghost was for the peoples-sake that they might hereby know that he who was full of the Holy Ghost as much before as after this visible descent thereof had it in his power by baptism to confer on others § 142 Often therefore also doth he mind the people for their admittance and believing on him of this his Fathers bearing witness to him Of his Fathers sending him and Sanctifying him see John 8.18 54. 5.32 37. 10.36 which relates as to his Fathers testimony of him by Miracles so doubtless to this signal one received before the beginning of his Ministry at his Baptism and to his Sanctification at this time by the visible appearance of the Holy Ghost sitting on him And this very manifestation thus of our Lord to Israel the Baptist names as one of the ends of his own coming and Baptizing Jo. 1.31 And most congruous also it seems that our Lord's Institution of conferring Baptism for ever being in the name of the Blessed Trinity Father Son and Holy Ghost all these should first after this manner manifest themselves in his own Baptism Which Vnction of his with the Spirit foretold by Esaias chap. 61.1 our Lord also in his Sermon Luk. 4.18 openly applies to himself And this was the first Scripture he as it were casually opened at to explain it to his own country men at Nazareth § 143 After this Testimony given to God the Son by God the Father and God the Holy Ghost at his Baptism in the midst of the admiration and expectation of John and the people beholding him our Lord in the Vehemency of the same Spirit which alwaies remaining in him in the same plenitude and not given by measure yet acted more or less in his Humanity as occasion was offered suddainly departed out of their sight and went speedily toward the Desart from whence John formerly appeared Immediatly saith S. Mark the Spirit drave him into the Wilderness And such Rapts of the Holy Spirit have bin formerly seen in Elias see 1 King 18.12 2 King 2.16 and others Act. 8.39 with an elevation of their bodies also into the Air tho probably not so here of our Lords By wilderness also is here meant the most desolate invious and unfrequented recesses thereof Where were the dens latebrae of wild beasts for their safety for the Evangelist saith he was there with the wild beasts whence we may conjecture John Baptist's Desart also to have bin such however some would mitigate it Where also we may say is the most ordinary dwelling and haunt here on Earth of evil Spirits not so much by their choice though in some respect they hate the places frequented by men and where is some greater appearance of Devotion and of Gods service and worship as from their Condemnation and the Divine restraint See Mat. 12.43 the evil Spirit when having lost his possession of the man his walking in drie or barren and desolate places and Mark 5.3 their haunting the Tombs and Esai 13.21 and 34.14 the Satyrs dancing in such places and Apocal. 18.2 Desolate Babylon becoming the Habitation of Devils To which may be added the experience of Hermits that inhabiting Desarts are more molested with them and here also our Lord met and had his chief combat with the Devil § 144 Into this solitude then our Lord retired after his being anointed with the Holy Ghost and now shortly to enter upon his Ministry retired as we see with great fervency of Spirit to fulfil his Fathers will i. e. the foreseen great Mortifications he was there to undergo no way remitting but advancing this holy impetuosity And here he remained and separated himself during forty daies This being the round number used for 7. sixes of daies or 6. multiplied 7. times and a number in Scripture most frequently prescribed by God according to his Creation of the world in six daies for the dispatch of any great work labour or sufferings Of which may be given very many instances if this would not too much divert the Reader See Gen. 7.4.17 Ezec. 4.6 Jonah 3.4 Gen. 6.3 thrice forty years Deut. 8.2 Gen. 15.13 ten times 40. Judg. 13.1 Apoc. 2 3. and about so many months was the time of our Lords preaching See before § For this time then he sequestred himself to be vacant without admitting the distraction of any human converse or secular business and with those advantages that bodily fasting gives to the operations of the Soul for supplication and praier for the solemn preparation for that high service and ministry he was now entring upon and designed-to and again for the making a more solemn oblation of himself to his Father as to the most voluntary undertaking of all those hardships and sufferings that were set before him and that were desired by him in all these the more to glorifie his name Now though our Lord for such a more intimate conversation with God and perfect Contemplation needed not to use such exteriour means as retirement and abstinence from food and dismission from other Emploiments by reason of the supernatural perfections which from his Deity and plenitude of the Spirit were infused and refunded into his human Nature Yet as Suarez observes In 3. Thom 2. Tom. Disp 2◠§. 1. Per cognitionem anima naturalem non poterat sine speciali miraculo multa simul perfecte considerare neque per operationem phantasiae simul comitari operationem intellectus si circa
baptism and to whom his commendation and testimony had procured so much reputation for which they thought he should have had the more respect for John fell on Baptizing also and gathering Disciples and that all people repaired unto him they meanwhile making no mention also of his miracles § 190 To whom the humble Baptist as one over-joyed to hear this news to allay their murmurings answers on this manner and took this occasion to make them a Sermon on this subject the last of his that the Gospel mentions wherein he first told them that no man could advance himself any higher than he had received favours from above to be Jo. 19.11 that they themselves could witness the witness which he had alwaies born to our Lord and how he taught that himself was not the Christ but one sent before to make way for him as a paranymphus to go before him that this indeed was the true Bridegroome of the Church and himself only the Bridegroomes friend who rejoyceth in seeing the Bridegroomes caressing of his Bride and in hearing all the sweet and gracious words he speaks to her and in her amorously gathering and adhering to and panting after him and that in this now his joy was compleated That himself was to decrease and cease this his office after a little time but not so the other but his Kingdom to be dilated and encreased more and more that he being an earthly man could of himself speak only low and earthly things to them but that this was the Son of God to whom his Father gave not the Spirit by measure as to others Col. 2.3 1.19 1 Cor. 12.11 1 Pet. 4.10 Jo. 5.19 20 30. Apoc. 1.1 but that he perfectly knew all his Fathers secrets and was now descended from him and from Heaven to reveal to the world what he had there heard and seen 1 Jo. 5.10 and that whosoever believed his words only set his seal to the truths of God but yet that many were so hard-hearted as not to receive his Testimony finally that God loveth this his Son and hath given all things especially touching mans salvation into his hands and that the whole world being sinners and lâ—ing under the wrath of God he came hither that so many as believed on him should not perish but have remission of their sin and eternal life Jo. 17.2 3. but for those who did not so Gal. 3.10 the wrath of God still remained upon them § 191 Much mitigated and lenifyed with this Sermon somewhat contrary to their expectation Johns Disciples acquiesced in their Masters Testimony Nor had any more contention in this matter But yet after this some scruples and controversy we find made by them concerning our Lords Disciples their non-observing some solemn times or hours of falling as they and those reputed the holyest persons among the Jews the Pharisees did they not knowing that our Lord the Bridegroomes Gracious presence and Virtue supplied to these his attendants all proficience in spiritual matters without the usual preparations and helps belonging thereto By which we see how prone men are even in spiritual things to partiality and siding and factions effects of some relicks of self-love in those who seem most perfect And lastly John after he was imprisoned thought fit to send some of them to our Lord himself to see and so report to the rest his great works for the more confirming their faith of his being the Messias § 192 The Baptist meanwhile a burning and shining light as our Lord calls him continued his preaching in the coast of Galilee not to draw men from but to send them in faster to the Saviour of the world Nor had he long remained in those parts nearer the Kesidence of Herod but that He being though an Idumean by his descent yet a Proselite of the Jews Religion and hearing of his same esteemed by all the people as a Prophet Mat. 21 26. 14 5. either came to his Sermons in the place where John taught and Baptized or which is more probable sent for him to his Court. Of whom the Evangelist further saith Mark 6.20 that he feared John knowing him to be a just and Holy man and that he heard him gladly and did many things according to his advice and directions § 193 Now Herod having bin very faulty in his manners and Government for our Lord calls him a Fox and at last he was for his crimes ejected out of it by the Emperour and died in Banishment the Baptist having access to him and being a preacher of penance and doubtless illuminated by the Holy Spirit to know those affairs and faults of his with which his Education in the Desart could have bin little acquainted freely reproved him for his many evil deeds and among other for his taking his Brother Philips wife contrary to Gods express command Levit. 18.16 20 21. and that whether his Brother were alive or deceased for that his Brother had had a child by her the Daughter that danced so well before Herod And in this thing Herod was still the more guilty because he had already a former wife the Daughter of Aretas King of Arabia whom in his falling in love with Herodias upon a new compact made with her he put away and so provoked Aretas in revenge of his Daughter to make war upon him wherein he was deservedly very unfortunate Josephus imputes the cause of such his ill success Antiq. Judaic l. 18. c. 10. chiefly to his slaughter of the Baptist but however this war happened very opportunely for affording Herod less leasure to look after the motions of our Lord or giving any disturbance to them But returning to the Baptists reproof we find by the words in the Text It is not lawful for thee c. that this was not spoken of Herod in his absence but made to himself whether publickly or in private or the one after the other both being lawful according to several circumstances and the former sometimes necessary 1 Tim. 1 20. is uncertain § 194 This reproof of Herod for marrying her soon came to the ears of Herodias who perceiving Herods good inclinations to John and his obsequiousness in several matters to follow his Admonitions from which she might have some fears of her being removed from his bed and so the troubles of the war also with Aretas declined was fill'd with an implacable wrath and hatred against the Baptist Who coming in the Spirit of Elias and shewing the same zeal tor observance of Gods laws to Herod as the other to Ahab found a like persecution from her as Elias from Jezabel when as the two Husbands were more indulgent Herod overcome with her importunity and the power she had over Him sent his officers and took John and bound him Matt. 14.3 saith S. Matthew and cast him into prison For which imprisonment he wanted not a more specious pretence of fearing from the concourse of people made to him some sedition and tumults
to every tittle that the Body of heaven and earth was after a certain time to vanish and pass away but no so one letter of Gods word Again that for the moral commandements and precepts of the Law much less came he to give any relaxation to mens former obedience thereto but to exact the observance of them to the least iota having procured for them from his Father the Holy Spirit for enabling them also to such observance and that he who did not endeavour to keep those that were slighted and accounted the least of these Commandements some of which he mentions below vers 22 28 34 39. not being angry not lusting in our heart not swearing at all c. not rendring evil for evil c. as well as those thought greater could not reach Heaven or eternal happiness In prosecution of which our Lord began to expound to them the true meaning and just extent of several of these Laws corrupted by the former glosses of the Pharisees and human Tradition That the precept of not killing or committing murder extended not only to not taking away our Neighbours life but to any reproaching or vilifying them by words as calling him silly or a fool which said without cause and in malice toward him incurreth not the sentence of a Civil Judg to some corporal punishment or also death in these lesser Courts in the several Cities or that greater at Jerusalem but even of damnation to hell-fire again extendeth also to any anger or disaffection against him in our heart Therefore that before they brought any Sacrifice offering or gift or made any addresses to God concerning themselves or implored his pardon of their faults or any his favours to them they should call to remembrance if there were any displeasure or disgust between them and their neighbour and should presently procure a reconciliation with him especially if such neighbour have any just quarrel against them on the former account that thus they might wisely prevent their neighbours complaints to God the Supreme Judg of all Whose exact justice upon such wrong done would certainly cast them into prison and before any releasment require of them the uttermost farthing if they were not diligent thus before hand and whist they have opportunity in this life to make their composition and peace with him § 266 Our Lord having said this in exposition of the Commandment proceeds to the second of committing Adultery the most natural impetuous and troublesome of our passions being these two Anger and Lust the one from an excess of hate towards another the other of Love After the bridling of the one he now prescribes that of the other and to this purpose tells them that this precept also of not committing adultery extended not only to not actually lying with our neighbors wife but not to much as looking on her or any other woman not our own wife with any lustful thoughts for that all such persons were guilty of committing adultery already with such persons in their heart And therefore that it even our right eye or right hand should be the instrument or tempter to offend God in such a manner it were better if we could procure no other remedy of committing such sin without doing this even to pluck out this though our right eye or cut off our right hand than to sin against God and so have not this eye or hand only lost but our whole Body cast for such offence into eternal flames Intimating at least our cutting-off the observed occasions of sin even though these seem as precious and dear unto us as our eye or right hand That also in marriage they were religiously to observe such an Holy Contract and patiently bear this great Yoke when not well and discreetly engaged without expecting any relief or indulgement of a separation or divorce afterward contrary to the great liberty they had taken herein except in the case of Fornication And in such case also that the parties might not upon this presently clap up new marriages better suting with their new affections and amours but were to live continently and single for God gives ability in such a separation Things which said by our Lord elsewhere the Disciples so check d at Mat. 19.10 that they concluded it was better to forbear marriage if having so streit obligations upon it § 267 From this he proceeds to some liberties and indulgments they practised contrary to the intention of the Divine Law in their conversation with their neighbour especially in a custome of oaths and other aggravating asseverations mostly coming from an evil root in their discourses and treatings which is contrary to the simplicity and moderation that ought to be in their words and reverence towards God and his creatures in relation to him that ought to be observed in their Oath In which matter he instructs them that the precept concerning an oath Lev. 19.12 and Deut. 6.13 Viz. that they should not forswear themselves and should perform unto the Lord their Oaths did not allow them a liberty to swearing also whenever they spake a truth swearing either by God himself or by any of his Creatures Or secure them that swearing also by some of Gods creatures at least such as by some Consecration had not a more special relation to him as the Sacrifice the Gold of the Temple c. signifyed nothing and had no guilt in it according to their false Glosses thinking reverence in using Oaths was only confined to the name of God and to his name not as to swearing but only false-swearing by it But that Mat. 23.16 excepting where necessity and matters of great consequence required it in which case we find Gods greatest Saints for advancing truth to have used it Heb. 6.16 And an end of all strifes among men faith the Apostle is an Oath their ordinary communication and discourse and dealing with their Neighbour was to be without any swearing at all either by God himself whose name they were at no time to take in vain Or by any of his Creatures over the least of which even an hair they had no power to make it white or black and all which they ought to reverence for the relation they have to him who at the first made them and alwaies replenishes and dwelleth in them But that their ordinary communication should be plain and simple and without endeavouring with any such attestations or artifice to add weight to their words Yea Yea Nay Nay as our Lords Amen Amen their assertion only being reiterated where less credited for that what was more than this came of Evil i. e. some irreverence toward God in himself or in his Creatures and again of evil either others having more jealousy of the truth of our words than they ought which in them is malice or from our own desiring to add more weight to our words than the matter requires which in us is a faulty ambition See this Lesson of our Lord repeated
by it on those who deprive themselves of their share in the sufferings of this Lamb of God Under the weight then of this heavy burden freely undertaken by him for love of us and our eternal safety he falls down on his knees and prayes on this manner Abba Father Mat. 26. peircing words like those of Isaac Gen. 22.7 from so innocent a person and also an onely Son going to the slaughter If it be possible as all things are possible unto thee Mark 14.36 let this cup pass from me And thus far as he being true man Nature for self-preservation presents to God its own innocent and harmless desires and inclinations but then as also being a most faithful Subject and servant obedient in all things to the will of God proceeds further in another Note Nevertheless Not what I will but what thou wilt And herein consisted his innocency not in wanting these natural desires of self-preservation for this would take away all merit of obedience but in submitting them Such desires of nature being sinful not wherever they are but onely where they rule contrary to what a Superiour power exterior or interior commandeth or requireth of them And to instruct us that no man ought to take such desires arising in him so long as the person thus concludes them in Not what I will to be sin the Son of God also for our consolation sheweth them in himself And from him we may also learn that he as we dayly had and underwent all those other harmless appetites and inclinations of Nature respecting food rest apparrel lodging society and other delights of the senses and that in the confining of these within their due limits in obedience to his Fathers commands consisted the merit of his innocency never any one of these appetites throughout all his life though from time to time motioning their natural contents yet having bin for once any way exorbitant or transgressed the bounds his Father and his God had prescribed it § 16 Therefore we find that two or three daies before as he was in the Temple upon the like natural sense of Death he made the like prayer set down by St. John chap 12. as it were in lieu of this in the Garden which that Evangelist wholly omits who it seems writ his Gospel upon occasion of some Hereticks so early denying our Lords Divinity chiefly to Register therein those discourses and works of our Lord which more manifested to the world his Divinity than those discovering his human infirmities In the Temple then certain devout Gentiles by the divine providence now desiring to be brought to him and to be made acquainted with him as it were already suing to be admitted into his fold which thing was only hindred by his death not as yet accomplished our Lord took great notice of it and upon this occasion foretelling the coming in of the Gentiles and how assoon as he was once lifted up upon the Cross assoon as this standard was erected and he displayed upon it he should draw all the world unto him Upon the mention of that cruel death he there also let fall this expression to them Jo. 12.27 Now is my soul troubled and what shall I say And there also first he makes his request as a man sensible of misery Father save me from this hour but then as a Son and a Servant perfectly obedient he with his Superior reason and the Spirit restrains these sensitive desires in their true bounds in saying to himself again But for this cause came I unto this hour and then adds an Act of Resignation Father Glorify thy name i. e. in any sufferings of mine whatsoever which may be for the enlarging of thy Glory even to the Gentiles and to all the world At which time also after his prayer his Father answered him with a voice from heaven which the People called an Angel's speaking to him Jo. 12.29 as here he sent an Angel to him to shew that he alwaies heareth and accepteth prayers joined with such a Resignation from all his sons See Jo. 12 30.-11.42 So again at the Table in looking upon the horrid design of his own Servant against him read in his heart it is said by the same Evangelist that he was troubled in Spirit chap. 13.21 But straight his absolute Resignation to his Fathers will appears in his permission of Satan to enter and act further against him in that malitious Soul and in his saying then That thou dost do quickly So in his last sufferings on the Cross wherein he seems to have undergone a second Desolation of Spirit when he began those words of the 21 Psalm composed by his Father David touching his Passion My God My God why hast thou forsaken me This also was then accompanied with a most placid Resignation of himself into his Fathers hand that smote him saying presently after these words Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit But to return This Request and perfect Resignation being offered together that Model that should be of all our prayers also he returns in this his Agony to receive the solace of the company of his three dearest Disciples left not far behind him as also like an ever-careful shepheard to look to his sheep and so afford them his company and assistance in this hour of their temptation as well as his And behold he finds them being stupified with sorrow Luk. 22.45 and amazement at such a fight of his sorrow and amazement and for the sad presage he had made to them of his approaching death Peter and all fallen a sleep Our Lord straight awakening them asks Peter who had but now made such great promises of going to Prison and dying with him how it chanced that he and his Followers could not for so little a time as he had now to spend with them even for one hour so much as watch a little with him And this for his own sake too to spend it in prayer to be delivered from that great temptation that was coming especially on Peter But this meek Lord what with one word he questioned presently with another he excuseth in saying with much compassion for them The Spirit indeed is willing but the Flesh is weak Upon which Flesh of theirs not onely their greif but Satan probably at this time was permitted to have some influence in this first degree of their desertion of our Lord Where also by his mentioning the weakness and infirmity of their Flesh which he now also felt extraordinarily in himself but without sin he excites them also to a stronger vigilancy over it Then repeating again to them the same charge of watching to praier in this dreadful hour of temptation which he gave them before He departs again to a certain distance sore prest with that great weight that lay upon him and on his knees made a second time the same request with an earnestness of Praier Luk. 22.24 increasing according to his Agony when also his innocent words conclude
to God calling him Father in the midst of that severe handling of him and meekly resigning his dying Spirit into his hands Lastly in his dying before the other two and sending out a loud voice at his expiring which shewed his Divinity and that he gave up his life not upon any constraint of torments but voluntarily and when he pleased § 88 Seventhly This manner of death by the lifting up of the body in it towards heaven seems very significative that we now after and in imitation of it should exalt and remove our eyes and affections henceforth from the Earth towards Heaven Therefore our Lord gives it this honourable name of his Exaltation And I saith he if I be exalted from the Earth will draw all unto me Jo. 12.32 And the Apostle calls it his triumph having taken out of the way the Decree that was contrary to us he fastned it to his Cross and having despoiled the principalities and potentates triumphed over them in it Col. 2.15 So also in the nailing and fixing of the flesh of our Lord to the Cross significative of the mortifying and crucifying of the flesh and its lusts that is required of us in imitation of our Lord so disenabling it to stir hand or foot as it were any more to the breach of Gods commands and signifying our now dying to sin as he for it and this death of the Cross is often thus alluded to by the Apostle § 89 Eightly and Lastly the posture of this death carryed in it a lively Representation of his love to mankind with his arms stretched out as it were to embrace and receive all those who would come to him and his head declining to kiss them Having made this Digression upon the Jewes so often vehement demanding and at last Pilats consent to our Lord's Crucifixion to shew the multiplicity of the divine wisdom in the choice of this manner of death rather than any other I proceed now in the relation of the story after Pilats having committed to the Roman Guards the execution thereof § 90 The time now after Pilats four or five returns into the Praetorium and Exits to the Jews whilst he endeavoured by all means to have preserved our Lords life i. e. so far as his own safety with Cesar and his reputation with the Jews would permit and after our Lords being sent to and returned from Herod and the soldiers scourging and dressing him so as to be made a fitter object of the hard-hearted Jews Pity drew well towards Noon Jo. 19.14 Luk. 23.44 about the sixth hour saith St. John and St. Luke though called as yet the third hour by St. Mark because the sixth hardly yet begun The scoffing Soldiers then seizing on our Lord after some further abuses which both in words and actions by Satans instigation were committed both in the way and at the place of Execution as we may gather from the very Theif in the midst of his torments not tempering himself from reviling of him with the rest stript our Lord of his Purple and put on him his own garments whose prize shortly they were to be and so making all speed laid a cross already prepared upon his torn shoulders and so led away this only Isaac of God carrying the wood of his Sacrifice upon his back § 91 And to fulfil a second time after his being coupled with Barabbas the Prophet Esay's cum sceleratis reputatus est Esay 53.12 and that there might be some greater appearance of Justice and our Lord mingled with company whom the people might think like himself there were two notable Thieves on either hand one joined with him and haled along to their Execution but these also or one of them at least railing at him even when suffering with him and such companions he was to have of his greifs as offered him no solace therein And indeed if we consider the person he now took on him what Malefactor or crimes so great as could match him or his for he carried on his shoulders all the sins of the whole world present and past and to come and even those too of these Malefactors and so also this Anathema as the chief was crucified in the midst and the reason in the Prophet of his cum sceleratis reputatus seems very apposite quia ipse peccata multorum tulit Graced with this company and laden with an heavy Cross the long beam thereof being probably more than twice the length of a man for his body was to be stretched at its full length upon it and to be exalted to such a convenient height as might render him a spectacle to all the multitude and de facto so high it was that the Soldier to pierce his side used not his Sword but his Lance and to give him drink they tyed a spunge to the end of a long reed and so reached it to his mouth It was also to carry a Title over his head and to be fastned in the ground and the cross Beam of it also was to equal the breadth of his body and length of his arms I say thus laden he made a painful but most chearful march under it through a good part of the City the Governours Palace being near the Temple on the East side of it and Calvary the place of Execution at the North-West side thereof till when coming without the Gate he fainted away under it his body being now grown very feeble and his spirits exhausted by reason of his cruel scourging and other base usage of the three Guards of Officers Caiphas's Herod's and Pilats he had passed through and of his being kept all night without the least sleep or repose or refreshment or his former temperance having any superfluous humors to feed on Because our Lord alone was unable to bear it any further and it was an ignominious thing to carry or touch the instrument of the Execution of a Malefactor whence the word Furcifer was a common name of reproach by chance a poor man that came then out of the countrey one Simon a stranger of Cyrene in Africk where was then a great Colony of the Jews Act. 2.10 6.9 Joseph de Excid Hieros l. 7. c. 38. meeting them the Soldiers laid hold on him and forced him to bear our Lord's Cross after him either the whole or the heaviest end thereof whose sons Alexander and Rufus are particularly named by the Evangelist Mark 15.21 which shews that they were not only Converts to the Christian Faith but persons of some note amongst the Primitive Christians see Acts 19.33 Romans 16.13 it those the same And it is to be presumed that our Lord rewarded this service done him to their Father also in making him a Member of the Church and of his Kingdom and that he was saved by the Holy Cross he bore who thus had the honour even in the truest sense to take up the cross and follow our Lord and to partake of his reproach and ignominy But the divine Counsel
carnal Sacrifices any more but in spirit and in truth 3. To signify that God was now departed from the Jews and left the place of his former residence amongst them as also Josephus saith that a little before the destruction of the City a voice was heard in the Temple Eamus hinc because they had forsaken his laws refused the Gospel and crucifyed his Son for which this Garment of the Temple was also rent as in a time of Mourning § 105 Whilst these things happened the Roman Centurion that stood over against the Cross of our Lord and commanded the Guards which watched him having learnt before both from their mocking and from his accusation in the Court that he made himself the Son of God and hearing from him such a loud and strong Cry at his giving up the Ghost and considering the darkned Sun the Earth-quake that followed it and the renting the very rock he stood upon Luk. 23.47 surprized with great fear in the midst of these hard-hearted Spectators Glorified God saith St. Luke and said that certainly this was a righteous man Nay further confessed that surely he was the Son of God as he had in his arraignment confessed himself to be and the Guards also that attended there sore affraid made the same confession with their Commander saith another Evangelist Mat. 27.54 that truly he was the Son of God The common people also that came together to this sight filled with terror and their hearts accusing them for what they had either done or consented to not shaking their heads at him as they had done a few hours before in derision but smiting their breasts Mat. 27.39 went away mourning and sorrowful as they came full of jeers and merriment § 106 Our Lord 's blessed Mother and the other Galilean women his former Attendants and St. John stood there still by him though not having so much as his dead body in their power nor knowing how to recover it out of the hands of Justice but waiting on the Divine providence and good pleasure concerning it To whom it was some consolation to see his heavenly Majesty shew himself by these strange accidents so sensible of the cruel execution of his only Son and to hear after that of the penitent Malefactor the confession of our Lords Deity come from those strangers the Roman Centurion and Soldiers and to behold the peoples resentment at last of their former cruelties done to him though now too late for the preservation of his life Meanwhile of the repentance and relenting of the Governors of the Jews we hear nothing who probably in seeing these wonders said of these at his death as they had of those in his life that all came from the Devil That this darkness Earthquake and renting the Rocks were effects of the rage of Satan thus deprived by their Justice of his prime Minister and Instrument for overthrowing of their law or else that they were expressions of the Divine displeasure against such an Impostor and Blasphemer as almost all prodigies and strange accidents receive a double and contrary interpretation as the person wisheth their prognostication and so predictions hinder not events though after these they manifest the divine predisposal of them wherein also they were the more confirmed by that high affront that seemed to be done to his Divine Majesty in the renting of the Sacred Veil that covered his Sacred presence in the Temple For otherwise if this man had bin so dear and nearly related to God why did he not rather save his life And if these things were done by his power why not he rather by it unfasten his nails and descend from the cross § 107 These Governors therefore nothing dismayed and as religious observers in every thing of their law hasted to Pilat to request him for the taking down of the Malefactors from the Cross assoon as might be lest their hanging longer might pollute that great high Festival that approached which began over night at the Vespers of the former day On which day also being the Sabbath they might not be taken down which also was desired according to what God had expresly commanded in Deuteronomy chap. 21.23 that the body should not remain all night upon the Tree but that they should in any wise bury it that day for he that is hanged is accursed of God that the land might not be defiled Thus the Text. They besought him therefore that though some of them not yet dead they might by all means be taken down having their legs first broken to hinder if any strength yet left in them their escape from the Guards well knowing also that their cheifest prize our Lord was made sure and dead already the mangling of whose body also thus though no torment yet might be a further disgrace The Roman Governour at their request presently sending such order to the Soldiers of breaking the Malefactors legs and taking them away they executed it upon the two Thieves who they saw as yet have some life in them but when they came to our Lord already deceased they forbare this because indeed it was his Fathers good pleasure that his body should not be mangled nor a bone of him broken which was also punctually observed in the rosted Paschal Lamb the Type of him This thing was done saith St. John Jo. 19.36 Exod. 12.46 that the Scripture might be fulfilled A bone of him shall not be broken to which end also his death was hastened inflicted on the others in whom they perceived some life § 108 Thus our Lord's Body in which were to remain the scars of his Passion being not disfigured by any bone broken only one of the Soldiers wantonly with his Lance pierced his side from the opening of which gusht out a stream of blood greater doubtless then what the piercing of a dead body could naturally send forth falling down and poured out as that of the Sacrifices was at the foot of this Altar on which this Lamb of God was laid Our Lord by this precious stream washing away all our filthiness and this his blood spilt not as Abels calling aloud for vengeance but pardon Of which what can we imagine less than that it was though invisibly received and recollected by the Angels and so afterwards presented by our ascending Lord in the Sanctum Sanctorum not made with hands above when he entred into it before the Throne of God his Father whereby the Celestials themselves are said to be purified and prepared for our Lords Pontifical service of Intercession for us there Heb. 9.23 which sprinkling of the blood of Jesus upon us saith St. Peter 1 Pet. 1.2 Sanctifieth us with his spirit And we are now come to the Mediator of the new Testament and to the sprinkling of blood that speaks better things than that of Abels saith S. Paul Heb. 12.24 and by which blood we also have confidence of entring into the Sanctum Sanctorum now with our prayers hereafter
what they were afterwards to instruct the Jews and all other Nations expounding to them the Law and the Prophets shewing them the many predictions concerning the Messias his Sufferings Resurrection and so entrance into his Glory a many of which they mentioned afterward in their Sermons in the Acts opening their understandings to understand the Scriptures § 128 Afterward more particularly addressing himself to his Apostles he told them in this and several other apparitions made to them before his Ascension that he was very shortly to go into Heaven to his Father and leave them here behind him That all power both in Heaven and Earth was given to him that therefore by this his Authority he also sent them to preach the Gospel to all Nations and witness to them the things they had seen and heard from him but beginning their predication first at Jerusalem and to Gods former people the Jews That they should preach to them repentance and remission of sin thro his name and also the observation of all those things which he had commanded them And that they should also Baptize them In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost instructing them that who so believed in him and were baptized which was the Sacrament instituted for washing away their sins for conferring on them the Spirit of regeneration and for initiating them into his Church should be saved and the unbelieving damned And that great signs also should follow them that believed and were of the Christian profession which signs should bear witness to the truth of their faith and Religion That in his name they should speak strange languages cure the sick cast out Devils and have a special command over all the powers of the Enemy as they are called Luk. 10.19 in taking up or treading on Serpents or in hapning to drink any poison not to receive any hurt from them Not that all Believers should do such Miracles but that these should still remain in the Church or Congregation of true Believers Testimonies and Evidences of Gods special favours to and presence with them § 129 At last he proceeded to their solemn Ordination wherein after he had pronounced a second Pax vobis and a sicut misit me Pater ego mitto vos He breathed upon them with his most Sacred mouth and said these words used ever since by them and their Successors in the ordination of others Receive ye the Holy Ghost whose sins ye shall forgive i. e. by Baptism or for those committed afterwards by Absolution upon confession and repentance or penance they are forgiven them and whose sins ye shall retain i. e. by not baptizing or absolving or further binding with Church-censures the impenitent and obstinat they are retained And so solemnly promised to be with them and their Successors with his power and protection till the end of the world and the time of his return to judg it § 130 This said he disappeared also to them as he had done several times already to the other which caused in them now less wonder at the former leaving their hearts replenished with great consolation After this done on the second day of the Feast and the first of his Resurrection he absented himself from them till the Eighth when that solemn Festivals Octave was fully ended and the people were upon their return to their own countreyes and habitations Where for this time our Lords glorious Person was together with those other Saints whose Bodyes were raised with him till his Ascension would be too much curiosity to inquire It seems he was pleased to observe the fixed laws of the Divine wisdom for Souls or Persons already translated to the next life viz. to have no more familiar or long-during converse with those of this for so neither did Elias and Moses make any long stay with our Lord in the Holy Mount. As for other good ends so perhaps for this the greater merit of our faith here concerning the life and affairs of the world to come § 131 S. Thomas one of the eleven was absent when our Lord thus appeared where some imagine from the fear he formerly bewrayed John 11.5 that he might not be as yet returned to the Society since their dispersion on Thursday night at our Lords apprehension and so might not have heard as the rest of our Lord 's former appearings at all to the women and to Peter c He whether the same night or afterwards being come to them and informed of their having seen our Lord yet for a greater manifestation still of our Lords Resurrection and for begetting in this Apostle more humility continued in the same incredulity as to their relations though so many as they had done to the other likely perswaded by the Circumstances of his appearing in the night coming through Doors shut and making scarse any stay at all with persons to whom he had formerly shewed so much affection but suddainly vanishing again that it might be some airy spirit subject in his motions to the order of a Superior power And though they related to him also their having seen his scars and touched his body or at least invited to do it yet he fancied that this was not done to purpose but ought to be better examined and that if he had bin there he would have thrust his hand into the Gash in our Lords side and his fingers into the holes made by the nails c Notwithstanding that this person besides his hearing our Lords many predictions to them of his Resurrection was present with the rest at our Lords raising from death after laid upon the Bier the widdows son at Naim and again at his raising of Lazarus out of his Sepulcher when he had lain longer time there than our Lord had done But this too-much suspicious and despondent inclination of his had appeared also several times formerly that we may see what materials our Lords Grace wrought upon and not to be discouraged as in those words of his at our persecuted Lords return into Judea for the raising of Lazarus Jo. 11 16. He then presently resolving that there our Lord and they must lose their lives and in his words again John 14.5 where our Lord telling his Disciples of his departure shortly and that they knew the place and the way whither he went Thomas dejectedly replied that they knew not whither he went and how could they know the way thither To whom our Lord answered that his Journey was a Return to Heaven to his Father whence he came and that He himself believed-in was the way thither Yet after the descent and renovation of the Holy Spirit this Apostle especially was made choice of to be a most eminent Assertor of the same Resurrection and Propagator of the Gospel throughout India and the remotest Nations of the East fulfilling our Lords words Acts 1.8 Et usque ad ultimum terrae and there at last laid down his life for it § 132 Our Lord then
miraculously fed the Multitudes Mat. 15.29 and which was more convenient for the assembling of his Converts of which see what is said before § 251. P. 1. And such a place our Lord seems to have chosen for the greater Eminency Solitude and Privacy thereof free from Buildings High-waies or Passengers he purposing no general manifestation of himself to the Jews or to the World but only to some chosen Witnesses that some contradiction might add the more virtue to the Christian Faith Here then were assembled with many others the eleven Apostles with the Mother of our Lord and doubtless the other Galilean women who carried the first message both from the Angel and afterwards from our Lord himself to the Apostles of his meeting them in this place To whom our Lord first shewed himself at some distance from them upon which they presently fell down and adored him Mat. 28.17 but some of them saith the Evangelist unless he intimates here the doubt not that was then but had bin formerly viz. not of the Eleven but of the company had some doubt whether it was he i. e. at the first yet which by his nearer approach and discourse with them was presently after removed Our Lord then approaching told them that the time of his Exinanition being now finished all Power the exercise of which was suspended before see Mat. 11.27 Jo. 3.35 was given to him by his Father in Heaven and in Earth and upon this he renewed his charge unto his Apostles that they should go forth in his name and by his authority and proclaim him Lord of all and deliver his Laws and Commandements taught to them not only to the Jews but all other Nations that they should baptize Believers in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost declaring to them that such as believed and were baptized should be saved but the unbelieving damned then further promising them That he though corporally departing yet in his Grace and Holy Spirit would remain with and assist them and their Successors to the end of the world that he also gave them Authority over all the Power of the Enemy of mankind and in his name to do all sorts of wonderful works repeating here again what he had formerly said to them in his first Apparition at Jerusalem which see before Sect. 127. P. 11. Lastly commanding them to bid an Adieu to their country and return to Jerusalem in which place they were first to begin their work Where they should also after a few daies re-enjoy his presence and take their last leave of him his so often-foretold Ascension into Heaven to his Celestial Father being now at hand and necessary as for his own Glory so for the further promoting with him the business of their's and the world's salvation § 141 After this publick manifestation of our Lords Resurrection made not only to the Apostles but to the general Body of his former Converts and Believers most dwelling in Galilee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 15.7 afterward our Lord appeared singly to St. James i. e. our Lord's Brother shortly after made Bishop of Jerusalem perhaps out of a singular honour to him or also for negotiating something with him relating to his office whose constant residence was to be at Jerusalem and who was a Person of special Eminency among the Apostles as appears Gal. 1.19 2.9 and Acts 15.13 19. But the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used by the Apostle perhaps may not signify afterward in that Text as denoting a Posteriority of time to the appearance in Galilee But only besides as it is used by him 1 Cor. 12.28 and the apparition to James be rather in some part of the day of his Resurrection see St. Jerome de viris Illust in Jacobo between whom as being a Domestick in the same family and our Lord passed a more intimate familiarity and from his appearance to James we may also much more presume of his frequent particular apparitions to the Blessed Virgin his Mother though none mentioned § 142 Forty daies was the time predesigned of our Lord's stay upon Earth for the manifestation of his Resurrection and for the preparing of his Apostles for their future employment of propagating the Gospel and advancing the Kingdom of Christ in mens hearts over all the world A number frequently observed in Scripture for the accomplishing of any great work made up of six the number of the daies God spent in creating the world seven times multiplied as the number of 7. is a number of perfection and rest after the finishing such a work answering to the 7th day the Sabbath only in 42. the last two are usually cut off to make it a round number So Gen. 7.4 in the flood the rain descended for forty daies and after the abating of it Noah stayed forty daies and opened the window of the Ark Gen. 8.6 For thrice forty years God had patience with the old world before he destroyed it with the flood Ten times forty years the children of Israel were to sojourn in Egypt Forty two Generations were to pass between the coming of the Messias and the promise made to Abraham thereof of which forty two generations two sevens were to run out before the Kingdom of David and two sevens again in this Kingdom before the captivity and two sevens till the coming of Christ See Mat. 1.17 Acts 7.23 Moses when forty years old visited his Brethren and would have undertaken their protection and ibid. vers 30. after forty years more was sent by God to them for this purpose Again forty daies he stayed in the Mount for receiving the Law and for this time was continued his fast as also that of Elias and of our Lord. During forty daies were the persons deputed to view the land of Canaan Numb 13.25 and during forty years were the children of Israel appointed to do penance and bear their Iniquity for the Evil account given of it and murmuring concerning it Numb 14.33 34. Forty daies were allowed to the Ninevites for a time of Repentance before their City was to be destroyed Forty daies after the womans bearing of a Male child and twice forty daies after a Female were to be accomplished before their coming into or presenting their Son in the Sanctuary In the Judges we find whether rest or troubles given to the land of Israel ordinarily for the space of forty years The Prophet Ezekiel Ezek. 4.5 6. is appointed to do penance by lying on his side for forty daies for so many years of God's patient suffering the iniquities of Judah and for so many years again God forbare the wickedness of the Jewish Nation after their crucifying our Lord and persecuting Christianity until the destruction of Jerusalem And forty two Months i. e seven sixes of Months is the time prescribed for the duration of Antichrist and the last great affliction of Gods Church This to shew that all Gods works are pondered before hand and contrived in
or in any visible attendance of Angels or Saints or fiery charet and horses to conduct him as Elias or Cloud till elevated to some considerable distance perhaps to remove from his Disciples and the world to whom they were to testify it any scruple of the reality of this Ascent without having their eyes dazled with light or that such elevation might seem to have bin performed by the assistance of others and not by his own power and virtue as also to detain them for the present rather in the meditation of his Passion than of his Glory which was not fully to be revealed to Mortals till his return § 146 But had our Lord been pleased to have opened their eyes as Elisha obtained for his servant in the Mount how great would they have seen the solemnity of this day Jo. 17.4 5 Concerning which he had a little before his Passion besought his Father that now he had with all fidelity glorified him on Earth and finished the work here on Earth He had appointed him to do He would glorifie him i.e. his Humanity also in which he had finished it though extreamly difficult to flesh and blood with that Glory which in his Divinity he also alwaies had had with him before the world was which Petition was also then ratifyed by God the Father with a voice from Heaven Jo. 12.8 And now was the time come of accomplishing it and the time of his taking possession of those Joyes which being set before him saith the Apostle Heb. 12.2 be endured the Cross and despised the shame and is now set down of the right hand of the Throne of God § 147 Now then we may presume that all the Court and Militia of Heaven descended to meet this his Sacred Humanity in the Ayre and that it was exalted above the Heavens to the Throne prepared for it with great Jubilation and Triumph cum voce tubae as the Psalmist with which Humanity the Earth only had hitherto bin beatified bona si sua nosset and the Father had received all his praise and worship and service from it at a great distance from the place of his residence And if as the Apostle Heb. 1. when his Son came into this lower world and appeared in all the infirmities of our flesh God said let all the Angels worship him much more did he now command it at this his Exit after so many sufferings passed through and victories obteined and exact obedience in all things performed and the most severe prophecies fulfilled How overjoyed must those Citizens above be and with them all the Spirits of the Patriarchs and Prophets and the Church of the first-born and of just men consummated that in those Celestial habitations now they should for ever possess their dear Lord the Author of all their happiness and behold for ever his infinit Majesty and beauty And amongst these especially those predignified Souls who ever they were that were selected by him and revested with the robes of their glorified Bodyes to accompany and wait upon him as the first-fruits of the Resurrection and of his conquess over death With what Joy and Triumph to exprese it in those ravishments with which the Apostle speaks of him was this only Son and the brightness of Gods glory and express and visible Image of the Person of the Invisible God Heb. 1.3 compared with Col. 1.15 the first born of every Creature and the first-born again 〈◊〉 the Dead that in an things he might have the preeminency who was appointed by God Heir of all things and by whom all things were created that are in Heaven and in Earth visible and invisible whether they be Thrones or Dominions be Principalities or Powers viz. all the Angels as well as men All things created by him and for him and by the word of whose Power all things afterward also do still consist and are upheld Col. 1.17 compared Heb. 1.3 after he had by himself purged our sins and made peace through the blood of his Cross Col. 1.20 Heb. 1.30 and God had by him reconciled all things unto himself and by him collected all things in one by him whether things in Heaven or things on Earth Col. 1.20 those persons already received into glory there and those yet in their warfare here here both of the Jew and the Gentile all united in him the Head of all Eph. 1.10 22. With what Joy and Triumph I say was this most Sacred person Gods only Son bearing in thither his our humanity this day first received into his Armes and welcomed by God the Father With what solemnity did this Eternal High Priest when he had first through the Eternal Spirit offered himself without fault to God Heb. 9.14 Enter into the Heavenly Sanctuary the Gates there of set open whereof the Earthly was a Pattern there to appear in the presence of God his Father for us his Brethren and with what solemnity did he with the precious blood of his Sacrifice dedicate and purify the heavenly things themselves Heb. 9.23 and so set himself down on the right hand of the Throne of the Majesty in these Heavens far above all Principalities and Power and Might and Dominion and every name that is named not only in this world but in that also which is to come made Head over all things to his Church and expecting there till his Enemies wicked men and unbelievers Antichrist Satan Death be made his Footstool Eph. 1.21.23 c. Heb. 10.12.12.9 § 148 Our Blessed Lady and the Disciples and the rest of this holy company beholding this fell down and adored saith the Evangelist Luk. 24.52 with their eyes fixed upon him as he ascended when two men appeared standing by them in glorious and shining Vestments two of our Lords Train whom he left behind as also he had done before at his Resurrection Luk. 24.5 John 20.12 to entertain them with a new Message and divert them from this partly joyful partly sorrowful sight as they thought of our Lords honour or of their own loss who asked them why they looked so intently and wishfully after him for that they should not be deprived for ever of this their Lord but as he had often told them the same Jesus that was now thus taken up from them into Heaven should thence descend again in the same manner as he ascended thus the Angels briefly for their present consolation But this his second appearance and return to this world is described elsewhere much more particularly and that it shall be in the greatest Majesty and glory cum nubibus as this his ascent but with a shout and the voice of the Arch-Angel and sound of Trumpet and his brightness shining from the East unto the West with all his mighty Angels attending on him and he bringing all the Saints that were in foretimes deceased with him and those then living also meeting him in the Ayre and that he then sitting on the Throne of his Majesty all the Nations of the
Elias was yet alive in his body and was to return among them to rectify all things before the coming of the Messias the darkning of the Sun also filled them full of wonder and expectation of some other strange things their hearts also now being somewhat mollified and beginning to entertain another opinion of our Lord than not long before § 103 After this our Lord entring into his last Agony said I thirst as if it were to accomplish the drinking up the last dregs and portion that remained of the cup of Gods wrath against sinners remembring the words that follow in the same prophetick Psalm vers 16. Aruit tanquam testa virtus mea lingua mea adhaesit faucibus meis in pulverem mortis c. and Psalm 68.22 potaverunt me aceto And there being a vessel of vinegar or small sour Wine with which mingled with water the Soldiers and common people used to quench their thirst one of the By-standers running and drenching a sponge in it put this upon the top of a long reed and so applied it to our Lords mouth the darkness now diminishing to refresh him and prolong his life a little in expectation of what perhaps Elias would do for him whether he would come at last and take his Fellow-prophet down from the Cross After our Lord had received the Vinegar which was as it were the last dregs of the bitter cup prepared for him by his heavenly Father to drink he said those precious words so full of consolation to poor sinners consummatum est that all was finished a Passiones consummavi now as he said an opus consummavi before he entred on his passion Jo. 17. All the prophecies being now fulfilled the Sacrifice offered and the Ransome of mankind from Gods wrath and the Prince of Darkness and from eternal Death fully paid And so with another loud and strong voice like the former recommending his now departing Spirit into the hands of his celestial Father in the words again of the Psalmist changing Domine there into Pater and exhibiting this as the last act of his dutiful submission to all his Will he pronounced those last words of his on the Cross In manus tuas Pater commendo spiritum meum Psal 30 And so meekly bowing down his head which perhaps hitherto was held erected towards heaven in prayer see Heb. 5.7 gave up the Ghost not when the torments of death forced it away but when he pleased seeing all now fulfilled voluntarily to regive it Shewing in his strong out-cries his miraculous power and strength to have kept it longer in being about the ninth hour the time of offering up the Evening Sacrifice and in the end of the sixth day of the week as entring into his Sabboath of rest The two Malefactors that suffered with him being both yet alive not that our Lord any way abbreviated for himself the torments of this cruel death but that the barbarous usage of him all that day and the night precedent without any sustenance refreshment or repose and the loss of so much blood under his coronation and scourging had so debilitated and exhausted him which was also seen in his fainting under the Cross that these his last torments on the Cross must needs have a speedier period unless he should have continued his life by miracle § 104 All the passions of our Lord thus at last come to an End and his bloody Sacrifice for our redemption finished the Sun which seemed this while to have sympathized with his sufferings began to recover its strength and now the infernal powers of darkness their hour expired to quake and tremble and with them the Earth also to shake in such a manner that the Rocks were rent asunder with it and particularly that of Mount Calvary where our Lord suffered cleft asunder some two or three foot from the hole wherein our Lords Cross was fastned from one side of the Hill to the other to be seen at this day gaping about an hand breath and the depth of it not to be sounded Yet the infinit mercy and long-suffering of God who to shew his displeasure rent the rocks forbare to take present vengeance on the Murderers of our Lord giving them longer time to repent as some of them also did The veil of the Temple also remote from this place and standing at the other side of the City was rent in two saith the Evangelist from the top to the bottom Which veil divided the Sanctum Sanctorum where was the Ark the symbol of Gods presence from the outer Temple and into which the High Priest entred only once every year carrying in thither the blood of the Sacrifice to sprinkle it before the Ark on the solemn day of Expiation The renting of which Veil at this time was very significative of the effects of our Lords passion 1. To shew now an end and consummation and so Abolishment of all the former Typical Ceremonies of the Mosaical Law this new High Priest succeeding and abrogating now the former Aaronical Priesthood who having offered the only pleasing Sacrifice to God on the Altar of the Cross was to enter with the blood of it into the celestial Sanctum Sanctorum and there with it sprinkled before God's Throne to make an atonement for the sins of the whole world Who saith the Apostle much prosecuting this matter in his Epistle to the Hebrews took away the first covenant that he might establish another following and dedicated to us a new and living way of access to the throne of Grace and entrance into the Holy of Holies through the veil of his Deity that is his Flesh which veil also was rent on the Cross the members of the body rent first and at last his soul also rent from the Body And chap. 9.11 c. Who saith he an High Priest of good things to come by the Holy Ghost offered himself unspotted to God and so by or through a more ample and more perfect Tabernacle not made with hands i. e. the Heavens vers 24. nor by or with the blood of Goats or Calves but by his own blood entred into the Holies eternal redemption being thus found and effected 2. Again to shew that the Partition was now taken away between Jew and Gentile and his service no longer confined to his Temple at Jerusalem but that it was to be every where equally accepted of him and his Church to be spread over the whole world and a general and free access admitted for all people to God the Father and to the Divinity through this veil of our Lords humanity Neither Jew nor Greek saith the Apostle Gal. 3.28 neither bond nor free c. now But all one in Christ Wherefore our Lord foretold to the Samaritan woman Jo. 4. That the time was coming when they should neither in that Mount of Samaria the Temple of Garizim nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father but the true worshippers should worship him every where not with