active nature spirit and judgment to return to be imprisoned for several years in such an impotent body as to be swathed cradled mute and for all conveniences or necessities wholly disposed-of by another that knows not his mind § 107 3ly Such a perfection and if I may so say man-hood of our Lords Soul and intellect being supposed in his infancy and so much vacancy from any serious external employments as accompanies child-hood we may imagine but Lord to have passed those his first daies continually in praier which also infers silence and Recollection and in Intercessions to his Father for Man's salvation and the business he came for into the world Which also may be inferred from this That when at 30 years of age he had entred on his Office of preaching and that his day-time was taken up with other business and great throngs of people who for their spiritual and corporal necessities continually flocked to him yet He used then to rise on nights and retire into some solitary place and there spend part or sometimes the whole night in Praier See Mark 1.35 Luk. 5.16 6.12 Till then that our Lords growth was capable of corporal Labours we may justly account his time at Nazareth spent much-what like that of S. John Baptist or also his own 40 daies sojourning in the Desart and that all this while he became a fervent Mediator for us now by his taking our flesh become his Brethren and negociated our business so much more with God when hindred by his age for doing it yet with men And his Father who was alwaies well pleased in him accepted his service in this time of nonage and sequestration from human affairs as more immediatly devoted to himself And if mankind is supposed to receive much benefit from the Praiers and Devotions of those Holy Hermits who without any conversation with men apply themselves wholly to these like Moses in the Mount praying whilst their brethren are fighting here with Satan and a thousand temptations how much more strength and succour may we be thought to receive from those infinitely-meritorious intercessions of our Lord in that his silent infancy Whose outward deportment also in this time corresponding with his mind must needs beget great reverence towards him and the like Devotion and silence in the Blessed Virgin and S. Joseph that daily beheld it and the oeconomy of this little family much exceed that of the strictest Monasticks Both these persons being before our Lords Nativity highly enriched with the Graces of the Holy Spirit and also by so near access to his person receiving daily new influences and recruits thereof from him who was full of Grace and Truth as the beloved Evangelist describes him Jo. 1.14 16 and of whose fulness we all receive Grace after Grace and all for and from this fountain of Grace § 108 In such silence and Devotion and conversation with Heaven our Lord seems to have spent his time till now he had run out â—2 years of his Age when happened a very strange accident concerning him It was a law that all Males should appear at the place which the Lord should chuse for his Residence in his Sanctuary or Temple there three times in the year at the three solemn feasts and that then none should appear empty or without an offering i. e. offerings of thanksgiving as God had prospered them to honour the Lord with their substance and first fruits of their increase See Exod. 23.15 17. 34.20 Deut. 16.17 Prov. 3.9 But women and children were dispenced-with and the males are said to be obliged thereto only from twenty years old to sixty or fifty But at the great Pascal feast it was usual from ancient times for the women and their children as well as men to go thither as appears by 1 Sam. 1.3 4. And so S. Luke saith of the Holy Virgin and her husband S. Joseph that they went to Jerusalem every year at the Paschal feast and we may presume took with them the Holy child Jesus after able to travel so far whom considering who He was and on such account how dear to them it would have bin a great affliction to have left behind them and to have relinquisht the Lord himself as it were to go to his house And there missing our Lord when twelve years old and hoping to find him gone before with some of their kindred argues that not to have bin his first journey In which also they would have bin more solicitous of his not straying froth them and their seeking him also in the Temple seems to have proceeded from some observation made by them of his former inclinations and practices there at these Feasts § 109 Now then when Jesus had completed the sacred Number of the twelfth year of his age All Gods works being exactly measured with a certain number of time among which the numbers of 12 and of 7 are very frequent in Scripture going up with his Parents as usually to this Feast it was the Divine pleasure after the Eastern Magi their having already proclaimed the birth of Him at Jerusalem and the Doctors of the Jews also by Herod's assembling and consulting them being then forced to take notice of it now again after 10 years more passed to manifest his Son to Israel and to the most learned thereof and to shew as it were a ray and glympse of his celestial Original and his Divine wisdom and Graces in an age as yet no way capable of acquiring these by studies or Human Art if so be they would now by comparing the Messias his Nativity and considering the transcendent knowledg that made them all astonished appearing in this child discern this Divine person and yeild him a due obedience and Adoration Which appearance also was made when Archelaus Herod's Son that Ruled in Judea and that might be dreaded as heir of his Fathers malice also to the new Messias was before this supposing our Lords stay in Egypt not above two years and Herod's reign according to Josephus De Bell. Judaic lib. 2. cap. 6. only nine ejected out of his Government by Augustus and banished to Vienna in France and a Roman President substituted in his place After therefore the Feast was now ended and the multitudes returning homeward Our Lord in obedience to the will of his Father in Heaven on a suddain with-drew himself from his Parents here on earth without giving them any notice of his purpose which made known to them might to their human reason have seemed somewhat extravagant and perilous and so have received some obstruction from their great solicitude for his safety Wherein He hath also shewed to us how little any Relations of Kindred many times great lets of Piety are to be regarded when any way hindring our service of God Of which disengagement from Kindred he also gave us examples afterward upon several occasions He therefore immediatly returned to the Temple carried hither with the same zeal and fervour of the Holy
for seasoning the insipidness and unsavoriness thereof towards God and for preserving it eternally from corruption and that they were the light of the world for illustrating its darkness And lastly a City or Society in which all the world were to be joyned and collected and to become Subjects and members thereof and one Body or Corporation one Faith one Spirit c being therein Eph. 4.4 that therefore they were to provide that this Salt should not become unsavory or insipid for then wherewith could that which is to season all others be seasoned it self And that this light should not be put under a bushel nor this their City hid as it were in a vale or such which should not be eminently discovered for then how could the world know where to joyn themselves to the communion thereof Lastly that also their light and their doctrine were to be accompanied with their good works that people might see the one as well as the other though such good works not done to be seen of men nor that themselves but their heavenly Father working such Sanctification in them might be glorified thereby 2 Cor. 8.21 Rom. 12.17 Their example and practising of their doctrine being much the more difficult and this much more effectually converting others than teaching doth 1 Pet. 2.12 3.16 And that at the last day many of them should come unto him saying Lord Lord and telling what great matters their preaching and prophecying in his name had effected yet should they be rejected on this account that their works were evil And that every tree thus bringing forth ill fruit should surely be cut down and cast into the fire § 276 He told them likewise and herein also gave a precaution to the people that there should arise among them many false Prophets and Teachers who should come in sheep's clothing and counterfeit much Sanctity and use much fair language c. but yet within were very wolves 2 Cor. 11.3.13 and that there was one sure test by which they might know them Viz. by the fruits they bare for that as the tree was bad or good so would the fruit certainly be Which rule our Lord seems to have given them upon a double account Both because truth and goodness or Holiness proceed from the same Holy Spirit within us the fountain of both and are eternally linked together and so errour and vice So that all things truely weighed no true doctrine can ever tend to an evil life nor errour to a good and Holiness alwaies suffers not gains by a lye Therefore also are truth and iniquity frequently opposed -1 Cor. 13.6 Rom. 2.8 1.18 So that no mans wickedness can be the effect or consequent of any truth he holds though who holds the truth may still be wicked from another principle in him That therefore thus true and false teachers may be known by the fruit of their doctrines in their Auditors if these tend to the infusing into them higher degrees of all kinds of piety and charity Or on the contrary do infuse any seeds of impiety injustice uncharitableness sensual liberty uncleanness or sedition and disobedience to Dignities and Superiors This as to the fruit of their doctrines But secondly because as to their persons the root in such false teachers alwaies is evil i. e. their affections and intentions are perverted which perverse affections at last manifest themselves in their lives and practices these either for secular ends teaching doctrines not believed and known by them to be false purposely to deceive which ends and hypocrisy will certainly discover themselves in their works or tho the doctrines taught are also believed by them yet there are some vicious inclinations respecting secular interests which do induce such a beleif especially where they depart from the Traditions of the Church and former Superiours and such secular interests will appear in their works and manners and the heart bad in one thing will be so in another Therefore the Apostles do describe frequently such false teachers as vitious in their lives and seducing with their fair speeches when in their sheeps clothing See Rom. 16.17 18. Phil. 3.19 -2 Cor. 11.3 13. -1 Tim. 4.2 Tit. 3.11 -2 Pet. 2.3 10. c. in which texts they are represented as Sibi placentes gloriae sitientes assentatores invidi maledici obtrectatores ventri dediti suis temporalibus commodis avaritiae servientes suum negocium agentes some way or other non veritati noting them specially as covetous sensual speaking ill of Dignities But here note that by false Prophets are chiefly meant those who know their doctrines to be false and intend to deceive and teach in Hypocrisy and live in disobedience to a Superiour Church-authority Otherwise some good man may teach an errour and some bad truth But as these have or want the Grace of God in their heart and have their will and affections sincere or corrupt so will their fruit mostly be good or bad and among other things their teachings and instructions will have a relish thereof After this our Lord concluded his whole Sermon thus that the Foundation of Happiness was their good works and their not-hearing or teaching but doing what he taught which was laying the Foundation upon a sure rock so that no storms should shake the building raised upon it But that the Hearer of his words and not practicer was like a fool building his house on sand Upon which a time would be when the raines should come and the winds blow and the floods arise and the storms beat vehemently upon it and the fall thereof should be very great and terrible And thus ends our Lords great and famous Predication in the Mount to his Apostles and to all the People who saith the Evangelist were much astonished as at his doctrine so at the manner of his delivery thereof For he spake to them all these things with a kind of Majestical Authority and not as the Scribes An Historical Narration OF THE LIFE OF OUR LORD JESUS PART II. Beginning after the prayer recorded Joh. 17. § 1 GREAT was the present malice of the Devil in this hour of trouble approaching against the rest of his poor Disciples to gain possession of them also as he had already of Judas Jo. 13.27 and Satan had desired Luk. 22.31 32. c. concerning them as he did concerning Job That God who keeps a continual restraint upon this hater of mankind not only for his hurting us after sin but also for his tempting us unto it would but now let him have the sifting of them a little after all the great works they had seen done by this their Master and all the gracious words they had heard from him to try their fidelity to him Our Lord therefore foreseeing the great temptation that at this time they also foreseeing his Fathers permission to these Powers of Darkness were to undergo and how greivously they might otherwise miscarry in it interceded to his Father
with our persons Heb. 10.19 § 109 Together with this stream of blood gushed out also another very Miraculous stream of water distinct from it for otherwise by reason of the strong tincture of blood this water could not have bin discerned if mingled with it A Type of which was Moses his smiting the rock and the water gushing out whereof the Apostle also speaking saith the rock was Christ 1 Cor. 10.4 And these two the water and blood lively represented the two Sacraments left by our Lord to the Church for the cleansing of sin and commemoration of his death the Sacrament of Baptism and of the Eucharist And thus as out of Adams side when lying a sleep was formed his Wife Eve so by the water and blood issuing out of Christs lying in the sleep of his death was formed in these two Sacraments his Spouse the Church regenerated in the one by Christs Spirit and nourished in the other with his grace redeemed by the shedding of blood and cleansed by the water § 110 St. John a spectator all this while and diligent observer of all that passed takes great notice of this with these words concerning it And he that saw it bare record and knoweth that he saith true that we might believe By which he saith the Prophecies were fulfilled that the Executioners should pierce his Sacred body but not break a bone and saith that this water and blood in the two Sacraments and the plentiful effusion that was not long after accomplish'd at Pentecost of the Holy Ghost and which also continues to the end of the world begetting and nourishing children to God joined with them are the three Witnesses that here on Earth give testimony continually of this redemption which the same Evangelist that saw this prosecutes also thus in one of his Epistles 1 Jo. 5.6 8. This is he that came by water and blood Jesus Christ not in watâ—r only but in water and blood and in these it is the Spirit that testifyeth that Christ is the Truth For there be three that give testimony in Earth the Spirit Water and Blood Thus S. John Meanwhile abstracting from this contemplation we may imagine what a ruful Spectacle this was to our Blessed Lady and the women with her in beholding such barbarous cruelty used to her Son even after his death and his most precious blood so spilt on the ground § 111 Whilst these things passed Joseph of Arimathea a noble Senator and one of the great Council of the Sanedrim a good man and a just saith S. Luke chap. 23.50 of him one who had not consented to their Counsel and doings but expected the Kingdom of God formerly a Disciple also of our Lord but secretly as also was another great man Nicodemus for fear of the Jews their estates and their Esteem lest either should be lost making them more timorous this Nobleman residing constantly in Jerusalem and rich had in a garden of his close by the place of our Lord's execution newly caused to be hewed out of the soft rock of the hill a Monument or Sepulcher for himself but ordained by the divine predesignment for the interring of our Lord's body near hand so that all things might the better serve for the evidence of his ensuing Resurrection He therefore though so timorous before and who had now also a special reason of not touching or coming near a dead corps because of eating the Paschal Lamb at even prohibited to any unclean as those were to be for seven daies that touched a dead body Numb 19.14 yet probably much animated both by our Lords patient and innocent sufferings and besides his former Doctrine and Miracles the many signs he saw now from Heaven and Earth of the transcendent dignity of his person and that he was what he believed him to be having heard also of the order of the persons executed their being presently taken down or perhaps being one of them also that procured it boldly saith the Text went in to Pilat to beg our Lord's Body of him though well foreseeing he must incur a great hatred from the cheif of the Jews his acquaintance herein Pilat after he had called the Centurion and certainly informed himself of his being already dead and no design herein of saving his life freely gratified him with it and commanded it should be delivered him not prohibiting him a decent Burial whom he had alwaies esteemed an innocent person That Joseph might not undergo this sad office alone without a companion and for the greater honour of our Lords funeral the time of whose humiliation was now expired with his death Nicodemus another great person one that had formerly by night conversed with our Lord and also in the Council spoken in his defence John 7.51 and probably more familiarly acquainted with Joseph by reason of their condiscipleship joined with him in this service mutually encouraging one another against the Priests and Elders of the Jews who must needs be much displeased with this fact as upbraiding them with the Murther if not of the Messias or a Prophet yet of a just person Joseph therefore suddenly prepared fine linnen for a Syndon and Nicodemus a great quantity of Spices about an hundred pound weight saith the Text and so coming to Calvary by the Governours authority took down the naked body from the Cross and removing it into Joseph's Garden close by probably there performed to it all the usual Ceremonies before burial washing his stripes and wounds and cleaning it from all those indignities the malitious Jews and Soldiers had done to it anointing it with sweet Oyles and wrapping it in the linnen filled with the spices and sweet odours and binding a Napkin about his head used for hindring the falling of the Jaws all to make good that in the Prophet Esay 11.10 Et erit Sepulchrum ejus gloriosum In which office we may imagine these great persons were assisted as with their Servants so with the help of the blessed Mother of our Lord and S. John more punctually relating this story than the rest who we may not think left our Lord after expired but waited still in the same place to observe how God would dispose of his Sacred Body and no doubt were much comforted in seeing that authority committed into the hands of those honourable persons our Lords Devotes and formerly known to them as such § 112 The Body thus decently and sumptuously accommodated was presently carried by this small train of Mourners and laid in the new hewn Sepulcher near at hand a place as convenient for the future events of our Lords Resurrection so a Monument durable and not subject to ruin as other the noblest Sepulchers ordinarily are For what more permanent than a Cave made in a Rock but such as also the place wherein he first lay when he came into the world the Manger that might continue to all posterity and such as remains to this day and is continually visited by a great confluence of devout
fulfilled to stand silent by and hear his sweet colloquies with his Bride Jo. 3.29 § 7 2 Lastly after the like vertues and actions to our Saviors John also run before him in the like sufferings Persecuted by the Pharisees and call'd by them a Demoniack as our Savior was Luk. 7.30 34 persecuted by Herod and ungratefully imprisoned by him at the solicitation of his Wife whom before he had heard gladly and in many things obeyed his Holy Counsel Mark 6.20 and afterward kill'd by him only for bearing witness unto the truth a year before our Savior a well-dancing Girle being preferred before this great Prophet Kill d whilst Herods conscience pleaded for him as Pilat's did for Jesus and both were by both out of a base fear destroyed Kill'd at a solemn Feast in Galilee that was kept on Herods birth day as our Savior was at the Pascal feast none of the many great Guests there opening their mouth for him beheaded in prison privatly and unheard condemn'd without witnesses as Jesus by false ones Put to death by Herod partly out of religion too to keep his oath forsooth as Jesus was by the Jews to preserve their Law And then his Reverend Head and countenance which living none beheld without a religious awe and respect not committed to a decent Grave but carried away in triumph and serv'd up in a dish at Herods bloody Table who now feared no more his righteous Tongue there rejoiced over and made merry with the fate of great Saints Rev. 11.10 and exposed to the derision and abuse of his malicious enemies as also our Saviors sacred Head and countenance was treated but this when alive both by his blind folders and his Crowners hands knocked spit on peirced by them at pleasure and lastly as it was exposed to derision also for many hours upon the Cross With such sufferings God here rewards his worthiest Servants And thus much being said in honour of this great I know not whether I may say in some manner the greatest excepting the Blessed Virgin of Saints the Baptist Now let us turn our eyes toward our Blessed Lord that followed him § 8 Six months after the conception of the Baptist the same glorious Angel Gabriel was sent to an opposite side of Palestine far distant from the country of the Baptist that the validity of his testimony concerning Jesus might not be weakned by any acquaintance between these two Kinsmen to Nazareth a small and contemptible City see Jo. 1.46 of Galilee by the Jews a much despised Country see Jo. 7.41 52. a place the farthest remote from the Royal City and the Temple and from the noble Tribe of Judah and the Linage of David from which was expected the Messias and a place of extraordinary darkness and ignorance as we may gather from Mat. 4.15 16. a people that sat in darkness and in the region and shadow of death bordering upon and being it self half Gentile And this remote ignoble Region Gods wisdom chose for the habitation and education of his own Son and the Lord of all the Earth For which country of his our Savior suffered much mortification and scorn all his life from the great ones of the Jews saying that the Messias could not come from such a place and was also afterward by the enemies of Christianity Julian and others reproachfully call'd the Galilean And this we may imagine done by the Divine Wisdom for many reasons First that his own Son might here in all things represent to us the greatest humility and man might hereafter be ashamed to be proud and boast himself of the Nobleness of his City or Country And secondly that he might here the better be concealed and live in obscurity who was to suffer death from sinners before his publick exaltation and glory 3ly Again that where more darkness was there they might enjoy the more light and the efficacy of the Divine Grace more manifest it self in Mans weakness much of our Saviors teaching being spent amongst this dull and ignorant people and that the more to exalt Gods power from this dark region those persons should cheifly be taken by our Savior being his own Country-men who should enlighten the whole world 4ly And lastly that by this Countries confinment upon and mixture with the Gentiles God might shew his Son a common Savior coming to all not only the Jew but us Gentiles § 9 Hither was this great Angel sent from God in his name to salute and in a special manner espouse unto Him if I may use the expression of the Prophets Ezech. 16. Hos 2.19 that holy Virgin Mary a Daughter of David found out in this obscure corner so far removed from the Tribe and house of her progenitors and kindred a person singled and chosen out of all the daughters of Adam of all generations curiously viewed by his all-searching eies whom he thought the most worthy to make the Holy Mother of his only Son and the second Eve to bring salvation to mankind as the first had caused their ruin Which person since she was thus singularly gratious in Gods eies above all mortals that ever were and destined to that high honor as never any other creature was to have a God to be her Son and cloth himself with part of her substance to be nourished with her milk to hang on her Brests and to be carried about in her armes And since God makes all things proportionable and fit for the ends he designs them to we may justly imagine her purity and cleanness from sin her graces and perfections in all vertues to have surpassed those of the greatest Saints whatever And all those enamoured praises which God giveth in the Canticles to his Spouse the Church Behold thou art fair my Love behold thou art fair thou hast Doves eies Thou art all fair my Love there is no spot in thee A garden inclosed is my Spouse A spring shut up a Fountain sealed How fair and how pleasant art thou O Love for delights looking-forth as the morning fair as the Moon and clear as the Sun c. Cant. 4.1 7 12. 7.6 We may conceive in a singular manner to be verified above all other faithful in this Blessed Virgin the most high and the most elevated amongst all the members of this his Spouse the Church If therefore the Baptist who was to be but our Saviors Messenger was for this office filled with the Holy Ghost from the womb Luk. 1.15 Surely so was she who was to be his Mother and probably this is the reason that when as the Evangelist saith of Elizabeth and of Zacharie before their Doxologies and Hymns and of Peter and others before their Sermons that they were filled with the Holy Ghost yet no where is such expression used of this Blessed Virgin either before her Magnificat or on any other occasion because she from her very beginning was so § 10 And then she being supposed so sanctified from the womb First what holy stories see
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
meo custodiam cum consisteret Peccator adversum me Psal 37.13 Opprobrium insipienti dedisti me And obmutui non aperui os meum quia tu fecifti Qui inquirebant mala mihi locuti sunt vanitates dolos c. Ego autem tanquam surdus non audiebam sicut mutus non aperiens os suum And Factus sum sicut homo non audiens non habens in ore suo redargutiones Ego in flagella paratus sum dolor meus in conspectu meo Quoniam iniquitatem meam That of the whole world taken upon me annuntiabo cogitabo pro peccato meo i.e. meorum § 34 This silence as the High Priest much wondred at so he little imagined the reason of it seeing the great advantages he had of a Reply And convinced already without his Plea of the vanity and contradiction of the accusation deviseth another way that might succeed better and being the main matter upon the stage that had bin many times undoubtedly heard from him and which either affirmed or denyed must equally ruin him And that he might no way be defeated by his silence he solemnly adjures him by the living God a custome amongst the Jews in their Courts where wanting some other Evidence see 1 Kings 8.31.32 Numb 5.19 1 Thess 5.27 to declare then openly whether indeed he was the Messias and the Son of God Which if he now denyed having before professed it he might pass for a grand Impostor and Deceiver formerly or if he confessed it with the Court it amounted to blasphemy and the punishment thereof Death and which the divine Wisdom then so ordered That what our Lord had so often declared in his life and confirmed with Miracles he might also witness before all the world at his Death and seal this great truth with his blood for the greater confirming of true Believers and greater conviction of all Opposers at the day of Judgment § 35 Thus therefore our Lord presently confessed openly what he was without those qualifications with which formerly he was wont sometimes to veil it thereby not to prevent or anticipate his sufferings His answer there Thou sayest that I am being amongst the Jews a modest way of Asseveration concerning a thing that includes some self-dignity or commendation Thou sayest that I am being as much as thou sayest that which I am See the same language used by our Lord before to Judas Mat. 26.25 and the High Priest his renting his clothes for Blasphemy shews our Lords Answer to be understood as a clear confession Therefore S. Mark puts instead of it more breifly I am And it may be here observed that when as he said the same thing often in his life time and they upon it had charged him with blasphemy and so went about to stone and kill him see Jo. 5.18 Jo. 10.32 c. He there confuted them and stopped their mouths by many proofs that this was no falshood or blasphemy viz. by his so many miraculous works by the Testimony of the Holy Baptist by the immediate testimony of his Father from heaven lastly by the infallible Scriptures calling those Gods to whom God had given some extraordinary commission or authority whereas himself had received beyond them such a Plenitude of Sanctification appearing by the Descent of the Holy Ghost upon him at his Baptism by the Purity of his life and Doctrine and mighty works see Jo. 5.20 21 33 37. the 10.33 37 yet here at their crying Blasphemy he repeats no such defence notwithstanding all the Nation could witness the truth of it but retireth again to his former silence as loath to disappoint their purpose now his hour was come § 36 Only in great pity and charity to his impious oppressors and to remove the scandal taken at that which ought to be infinitely admired his present voluntarily-assumed humiliation he modestly tells them that although these titles he owned might seem somewhat disfutable to his present low condition yet one day their eyes should behold this now so mean a Son of man exalted to sit on the right hand of Power as David had foretold of the Messias Psal 109.1 which Messias his sitting on the right hand of Power and so being Davids Lord the Pharisees could not reconcile with the Messias being also Davids Son when our Lord asked them this question Mat. 22.44 No more than they could now his bonds with it and that they should also see him come in the clouds of heaven as Daniel had foretold of the Messias Dan. 7.13 to judg the world and even them his then Judges Of which he had also in his preaching told his auditory many times before see Mat. 16.27 Where advising them not to mind the gain of this world but to save their poor Souls in the next he tells them that the Son of man for so he stiles himself also there shall come in the glory of his Father which shewed him the Son to another higher than man with his Angels and then reward every one according to his works And this his premonition here given to his unjust Judges shall again bear witness against them in that his day of Judgment when saith the Prophet Zachary chap. 12. Aspicient in eum quem transfixerunt And Ecce venit in nubibus videbit eum omnis oculus qui eum pupugerunt saith S. John Apoc. 1.7 Nay a-modo saith S. Matthew chap. 26.64 very suddenly within three daies after his saying this they should see the beginning of this his Exaltation and Glory He being exalted by the right hand of God saith S. Peter Acts 2.33 after his Resurrection and Ascension hath shewed forth this ye now see and hear In which speech of our Lord thus standing at the bar we may observe that his singular modesty was accompanied with a great freedom Authority and Majesty Nor had their treatment any way daunted him or remitted the resolution and courage belonging to an innocent person to the dignity of his office and to the necessary confession of truth as appears in his whole carriage at his apprehension Are ye come out as against a Theif c. I sate with you teaching in the Temple c. And here at his appearance before the High Priests and Jewish Courts Askest thou me ask them that heard me And afterwards before the Roman Governor sayest thou this of thy self c. And for this cause come I into the world c. And every one that is of the Truth heareth my voice And Thou couldest have no Power against me but what is given thee from above Jo. 19.11 § 37 But this forewarning them of his Exaltation and judgment to come which should have struck some fear into them and in which his Servant S. Paul had better success Acts 24.25 their malice made also ill use of and improved it so much more to compleat his blasphemy And presently the High Priest fell a rending his clothes as it was the manner