Psalms and elsewhere foretelling this So omnes saith the mourning Psalmist videntes me deriserunt me locuti sunt labiis moverunt caput aperuerunt super me os suum sicut Leo rapiens rugiens subsannaverunt me subsannatione frenduerunt super me dentibus suis dilataverunt super me dixerunt Euge Euge. Psal 68.25 Sustinui qui simul contristaretur non fuit qui consolaretur non inveni Psal 108.2 Locuti sunt adversum me lingua dolosa sermonibus odii circumdederunt me and so Psal 30.14 Audivi vituperationem multorum commorantium in circuitu Et ego factus sum opprobrium illis viderunt me moverunt capita sua Where also their very words Mat. 27.43 He trusted in God Let him deliver him now if he will have him for he said I am the Son of God are set down Psal 21.9 Speravit in Domino eripiat eum salvum faciat eum quoniam vult eum And so Psal 3.3 Multi dicunt animae meae non est salus ipsi in Deo ejus and so in Wisdom chap. 2.16 Gloriatur patrem se habere Deum videamus ergo si sermones illius veri sine Si enim est verus filius Dei suscipiet illum liberabit illum de manibus contrariorum Contumelia tormento interrogemus eum probemus patientiam illius Morte turpissima condemnemus eum erit enim ei respectus apud Deum ex sermonibus suis i. e. if we may believe his words Thus the Holy Ghost foresaw and foretold these their Blasphemies and whilst such ungrateful treatment added to his anguish the fulfilling these prophesies yeilded him great consolation Thus was he exclamed on by all manner of people sustinuit qui simul contristaretur non fuit by the cheif Priests and Scribes and Elders saith the Evangelist who not satiated with their former cruelties it seems came hither also to see him dy by the common people by the Roman Soldiers acting here the second part of that they had done in the Praetorium to this their mock-king by the Passengers on the high way our Lord being crucified near the road that passed to Shiloh and Gibeon Lastly by the very Thief in the midst of his like torments by all these jeering at his pretensions of being Christ and the King of Israel taking Pilats superscription also for a mock at his making himself the Son of God and his constant faith and trust in him and that since he had so near a relation to God they would fain see now if his God would deliver him jeering at his former good works and Miracles and that since he was so bountiful of them toward others they would fain see him now do one upon himself unpin his nails and descend from the Cross at his vain boasting to destroy the Temple and rebuild it in three daies for it seems this for want of worse was spread amongst all the People for his great crime for it was the passengers on the high way that twitted him with it whilst indeed they themselves were now acting that thing he foretold of their destroying the Sacred Temple of his Body that now therefore he should repair his own ruines Ah thou that destroyest the Temple and buildest it in three daies c. jeering at his being Jesus the Saviour of the world that now therefore he should shew it and save himself Such were their scoffings somewhat like Satans former jeers in the Desert whose also these were That since he was Gods Son he should make the Stones there Bread and he should throw himself down from the pinnacle to be held up by Angels and such as those wherewith he usually afflicts the Members of Christ when on their death-bed representing in those their present sufferings their former hope and Faith in God as vain The Thief also hanging by him in the midst of his own like torments could not forbear now despairing of the hopes he had of deliverance by him famous for Miracles but fell also on mocking him and asking him if he were the Christ why he did not save himself and them But the penitent Malefactor on the other hand whose heart God had touched amidst so many blasphemies to Glorify and confess our Lord seeing his silence fell on rebuking his Fellow and asked him if he at least whilst others at liberty said what they pleased had no more fear of God especially being himself in the same sad condemnation and justly for his wicked deeds and so near his End than to fall on railing upon an innocent and just person that had done nothing amiss instead of acknowledging and confessing his own Guilt And this said to his Fellow Theif he with a strong faith beleiving our Lord to be indeed what he was the Christ the Son of God the Saviour of the world the King of Israel began to make his humble Addresses to him and desired that he would remember him when be came into his Kingdom A stupendious faith and divinely inspired now when he saw our Lord upon the very lowest step of his humiliation now when faith perhaps failed his very Apostles Yet there wanted not also some external excitements that might partly raise such a devotion in him to our Blessed Lord as perhaps the great fame of his former Sanctity and Miracles and also many circumstances which he beheld of his passion his divine patience and meekness his compassionate and prophetick speeches to the women of Jerusalem which lamented him his praying for his enemies when they nailed him to his Cross his admirable silence to so many unjust reproaches and particularly to that of his fellow-thief To whom our Lord graciously promised and that with an Amen that he should be remembred and that very day be with him his Lord in the heavenly Paradise appointed for the reception of all blessed Souls till the Resumption of their bodies applying the merits of this his passion to that poor Wretch which first humbly acknowledged his own sins and demerits in saying and we ind edjustly and then confessing our Lord's innocency and personal dignity implored his mercy And thus was the saving of this believing Thief the first fruits as it were of the infinite benefits to mankind of these our Lords sufferings and the early pledg of that eternal mercy which all penitent sinners should receive from him to the worlds end All this while stood first at a greater distance then nearer the Cross as their fears or the Soldiers fierceness or the crowds of people grew less the Holy Virgin the sad Mother of our Lord and the Women our Lords former Attendants that accompanied her among whom was Mary Magdalen and Mary of Cleophas our Blessed Lady's sister-in-law her husband being brother or else she sister to Joseph which Mary was the Mother also of James the less and Joses and Simon and Judas that were called our Lord's Brethren i. e. near Kinsmen by the relation they had to Joseph For if
be at his return from the Sepulcher whilst John as swifter on foot was then also gone before him to tell the Disciples the strange and joyful news For he doubtless together with John had much argued the case as knowing the Soldiers report of the Disciples a fable and that Enemies in spoiling the Tomb would in the chief place have taken the linnen and spices and friends not have stript the Body of them and from this also had called to mind the predictions of our Lord and of the Scriptures concerning his rising again intimated by St. John chap. 20.9 and so returned full of joy faith and hopes to see and reenjoy him But this appearance to Peter seems to have bin later being not known to the rest whom this Apostle would immediatly have acquainted with it when the women brought the same news nor yet when Cleophas and his companion took their journey to Emaus who knew nothing of it To this Apostle our Lord first appeared both as being the chief of them by whom he would have the rest confirmed in this faith before he further manifested himself to them and also as being one that more exceedingly loved him see John 21.15 and so more passionatly lamented the absence and loss of him as he also appeared to Mary Magdalen before the other women And also to him as one more dejected and disconsolate for so late and cowardly a denial of him at which also he might think our Lord having taken some great Displeasure withheld that gracious sight and fruition of him from him which he vouchsafed to the women for which denial so soon as our Lord was pleased to comfort his grief with this most beatifying sight we may imagine he straight fell down at his feet and with many tears begg'd pardon And so after our Lords suddain departure who now glorified entertained no long conversation with Mortals he hasted to the rest of the Society to confirm his Brethren herein as one of the greatest Authority with them and the first man that our Lord made choice of to preach the Resurrection to them But several of them still to force as it were our Lord to a more open and publick discovery of himself and not to entertain a joy hastily which defeated again would so much more deject them remained incredulous both after the testimony of Mary and of the women and of Peter see Mark 16.13 nor at first did they believe when he himself appeared to them For the apparition of spirits ran still in their mind see Luk. 24.37 and not seeing as too much of seeming human reason usually darkens-faith why our Lord if risen and having conquered Death should thus appear and disappear a sign the Apparition had no reality in it and should not come along with Peter to them and shew himself either to his friends or also to all the rest of the Jews to consolate the one and confound the other else who would credit a report of him risen that was not forth-coming or to be seen § 124 The same day two of the company in which were several other Disciples and Followers of our Lord besides the eleven Apostles consulting concerning the present affairs expecting no better news wept in the afternoon about some business into the Country to a Village called Emaus lying Westward some seven or eight miles from Jerusalem and not in the road towards Galilee One of these was Cleophas who was thought to be Brother to Joseph and so our Lords Uncle and his wife to be Mary of Cleophas Jo. 19.25 who is also called there sister to the blessed Mother of our Lord and who was one of the women that stood with the Blessed Virgin by the Cross and that this morning had visited the Sepulcher and brought the good news from thence who was also the Mother of James Jude Joses and Simon or Simeon All which were called our Lords Brethren and who probably all lived in the same family at least after the death of Joseph the Blessed Virgins Husband and lived at Capernaum after our Lords residence there see John chap. 2.22 Luk. 8.19 20. Mat. 12.46 of which sons of Cleophas and this Mary two James and Jude were chosen Apostles James in relation to the other Apostle James the Son of Zebedee being called James the less Mark 15.40 and Jude in the recital of the Apostles names Luk. 6.16 Jude 1. called his Brother so that those texts Mark 3.21 and John 7.3 5. are to be understood of his kindred or friends more remote or with exception at least to these only James there being called the son of Alpheus Alpheus is imagined to denote the same person with Cleophas or if this be not admitted we must stile this Mary not wife but Daughter of Cleophas and Alpheus to be Josephs Brother and her husband This Cleophas or Alpheus then we see had a near Relation to our Lord two of his sons being Apostles James and Jude and two of them afterwards Bishops of Jerusalem James first and after his Martyrdom his Brother Simeon § 125 He and his companion discoursing by the way of the things of which their hearts were full the merits of our Lord the Injustice and cruelty of the Jews and the defeatment of all their hopes by his death our Lord in the disguise of a Traveller overtook them and seeing them much dejected chearfully asked them what they were talking of that rendred them so disconsolate and sad upon which familiarity Cleophas thinking he could be no stranger to what had hapned nor to our Lords well known merits fell on deploring to him his cruel sufferings and all their hopes cut off by his death who had thought he a Prophet so mighty in word and deed should have bin the person that would have redeemed Israel Moreover that this was the third day after his sufferings on which formerly had bin some speech of his rising again that some women of theirs also going early to his Sepulcher there found not his Body and also said they had seen a Vision of Angels that told them he was alive and that some of their men also repairing thither found what they said true concerning the empty Sepulcher but no tidings or appearance to them of our Lord at all Whereupon our compassionate Lord representing himself also as a Disciple and great Admirer of Jesus freely and with a certain authority shewed them in running through the Books of Moses and the Prophets that those sufferings of the Messias and of his Death things which so startled them were necessary before his entring into his Glory and were every where presignified and foretold in the Scriptures Here he shewed them how all the legal Sacrifices were only Types of the killing and Oblation of the Messias and expiation of sin by his blood Here he remembred them of the representation of this only Son of God his being offered up by his Father by Abraham's offering of his only ion Isaac of the roasting of
more endeared and enamoured the Lord with her Vertues § 13 And secondly which may seem to make her yet somewhat lower and to take off somewhat from the Lustre of her dearest Jewel a Virginal purity and integrity we find her by the over-ruling of Gods providence and the negociation and importunity of her friends and parents already espoused and made sure to an husband made sure to a righteous and holy man indeed but one also of a low fortune and a poor Trade whereby her condition as it was for the present but mean so neither was it now for the future advancible by a rich or noble marriage so to make more credible to her the Angels news of her high advancement Luk. 1.28 And by Gods forecasting providence was it thus ordered That before she was with child she should have a titular husband First so to sheild the wisdom of God and the honour of the Virgin from the calumnies of men For better for her to be thought abroad in this our Saviours supernatural conception and birth not a pure Virgin then an Harlot and better the Son of God to be thought the son of a Carpenter then illegitimate and spurious Yet which titular Father was to be taken away out of sight before the Son of Gods publication to Israel As may be collected from Jo. 2.2 3 12 where no mention of him Secondly so to provide a foster-Father for the new-born Infant and one that might do the offices of a husband and Master of a family to the Virgin when now made a Mother As likewise thirdly to hide our Saviours divine Original from those who were unworthy to know it who reputed him Josephs son until the accomplishment of his sufferings and the better to conceal him till his manifestation under a mean roofe Meanwhile much humiliation was here both of the most pure and chastly-devoted Virgin to be thought a wife and of her divine Son which she would take to heart more then her own crosses to be esteem'd a Carpenters which was not spared to be often laid in his dish Nor could the perplexed Mother when she was present and heard this from the unbelieving and malicious Jews prudently or safely declare the contrary § 14 Now after the Angel had thus told her in General of her happiness and her low conceit of her self stood amazed at his words he further opens his message to her saying that God would make her the Mother of a king whom she should call by the name of Jesus and that he should be a King eternal over Gods Israel sitting upon the Throne of her Forefather David unchanged any more for ever But here again she instead of feeding her thoughts upon hers or her sons Greatness fixed them rather upon her honesty and the just Guard of her resolved Virginity and modestly enquired how she not knowing a man could have a child for it seems that the Angels speech represented so much to her that Virgin as she was she should also be a Mother whereupon the Angel further instructs her in the manner thereof that she should conceive this child not by man but by God Himself by the Holy Ghost supervening upon her and the power of the Highest overshadowing her and therefore that her Son should be called his and then the more to confirm his speech and her faith familiarly added that her Cousin Elizabeth tho not a Virgin yet of a long time formerly noted for barren and then also much overaged for children was now six Months gone of such a supernatural conception And now tho many questions the Virgin might further have asked still concerning this miracle of miracles for who can sound the depth of so great a mystery and we see how weak and incredulous in comparison of her the Holy Priest Zachary was for a birth of much less marveil and therefore the Virgins undisputing and ready faith is much taken notice of by the Holy Ghost in the mouth of Elizabeth with a beata annexed to it beata quae crediderit Luk 1.45 and tho many scruples she might have made also concerning what the just Joseph would think and what the world would say Yet here her great prudence stopped all further curiosity and the suggestions of such low fears and she meekly acquiesced in Gods good pleasure answering the Angels High Ecce Mater Domini with her Low ecce Ancilla Domini Fiat mihi secundum Verbum tuum This her ready faith and modest consent and submissive resignation of her self into the hands of God making and compleating this divine espousal instantly upon which followed the Conception of Jesus and this Mother became one whom all Generations should call Blessed Blessed and honoured above all the Creatures of God as they have done unto this day § 15 Soon after this the overjoyed Virgin having heard from the Angel that strange story concerning her Cousin Elizabeth called her Cousin Because tho we find her stiled Luk. 1.5 a daughter of Aaron and is supposed to have an Aaronite for her Father Yet her Mother is said to have bin one of the race of David and Sister to the Mother of the Blessed Virgin As it had bin of a long time usual for the Tribes to intermarry especially that of Levi dispersed in Israel and for such women as had no inheritance So Jehoiada the High Priest married King Ahaziah's sister 2 Chron. 22. And David Sauls daughter a Benjamite I say the Blessed Virgin having heard this strange and joyful news of her Cousin Elizabeth and having this as it were given her for a sign of the truth of these things which should happen to her self being now acted by the Holy Ghost to do extraordinary matters and filled with a courage unusual to a Maid undertook all on the suddain and before any cohabitation with her espoused husband Joseph as appears in Matt. 1.18 a very long journy to a place far remote from her own habitation and Friends some 70 or 80 miles thro some part of it an hilly and difficult way quite Cross Palestine Luk. 1.39 to give her Cousin Elizabeth a visit To confer with her about spiritual affairs to congratulate with her for the great favours God had done unto her and to joine with her in his praises But chiefly such a remote journey at this time presently upon her Conception of our Lord seems to be undertaken and so long a stay also there by the special Divine Providence that there might be no cohabitation nor matrimonial correspondence or commerce with Joseph her Husband therefore the Angels visit seems also to have bin presently after the Espousals till she was first apparently with child which commerce Her great wisdom purposely declined that nothing might be seen that might resemble any carnal or conjugal satisfaction She departing saith the Text not without some Mortification to herself cum festinatione Luk. 1.39 And therefore after so long a stay abroad till she began now to be apparently with child to
to which the Pharisees also were not wanting to give their assistance in representing John the Author of a new Sect and acting without and against authority which though this crafty man knew to be envy in them yet he made use of this colour to cover the true Cause of this imprisonment and therefore this reason thereof is given by Josephus Antiq Judaici l. 18. c. 12. Veritus saith he cum ad audiendum cum quamplurima multitudo concurreret ne forte doctrinae ejus persuasione populi a suo regno discederent c. and our Lord also intimates the Pharisees and Governours of the Jews to have had a hand in this restraint Mat. 17.12 where he saith that they knew him not but did to him whatever they listed as they should afterward do to himself Thus cast in prison Herodias not appeased or secured herewith next solicits Herod also for the speedy taking away his life but both the fear of the people esteeming John a Prophet and his own reverence of him as yet with-held him from it For which cause also in prison he laying the blame thereof upon his wife indulged him so much liberty as to have some converse with his friends and his Disciples there to come to and attend upon him and so neither here as also afterward S. Paul was he an useless servant to our Lord. § 195 Leaving the Baptist now a Prisoner and an end put to his publick preaching after that our Lord was sufficiently manifested to the people of Israel and begun to be assisted in his work by other new Disciples let us return to our Lord. He had now continued preaching and baptizing in Judea after the Paschal Feast for about some eight Months for when removing hence he came into Samaria it is said Jo. 4.35 that it wanted but foure months to the next harvest and so to the next Pasch which Feast was celebrated at the beginning of the harvest at which time was offered a sheaf of the first fruits of their Corn Lev. 23.10 Deut. 16.9 as at Pentecost the first loaf of bread after Harvest gotten in between these two feasts In this time our Lord converting to the Gospel and faith in him as the Saviour of the world and so baptizing by his Disciples such multitudes of people far beyond the actings of John and this so near to Jerusalem had already alarm'd the Pharisees and rulers of the Jews and more and more incensed their wrath against him who could not rest from devising some way for his death or restraint especially after they had bin so succesful against the Baptist and we find afterward in Jo. 7.1 the reason more plainly given of our Lords residing no more in Judea but in Galilee because the Jews i. e these chief Governours and Leaders of them sought already to kill him By which we see also that our Lord for most of his time after he appeared once went in great danger of his life for in flying from the Pharisees in Judea in Galilee also there was an Herod Therefore Our Lord saith S. John Jo. 4.1 knowing the Pharisees had heard of his making and baptizing more disciples than John Matt. 4.12 and having heard also the severity used toward the Baptist purposed to leave Judea and return into Galilee so to decline for the present the evil designs of the Pharisees a gainst him and also to carry the light or the Gospel into those remoter places where it had not yet appeared and where John was interrupted in his Ministery For though Herod lived in the same quarters yet was he by the Divine providence so diverted by other affairs and especially the new dissentions between him and Aretas and his mind also so much afflicted with the unjust imprisonment of John as that he had little inclination to persecute any more Prophets and when at last after his murthering of John our Lords same from every side sounded in his ears his guilt presently imagined him John reviv'd and so rendred him less inquisitive after matters that would little redound to his Honour § 196 Our Lord thus removing with his Disciples out of Judea into Galilee came in his way hither to a City of Samaria situate in Mount Ephraim called Sychar but the same with the Ancient Schechem or Sychem of which see Gen. 33.18 c. the place where Jacob returning into Palestine from Laban purchased a field of the Children of Hamor Father to Sechem that afterward defloured Dinah and there first erected an Altar probably on Mount Garizim or Ebal since Altars used to be erected on the most eminent places and nearest to Heaven being two tops of the same Hill near one another where also viz. on Mount Ebal God commanded the Israelites that soon after their entrance into Canaan they should erect an Altar See Deut. 27 4. c. and Josh 8.30 c. and also should set up some great Stones on which plaistered over should be written the law and also on these two tops of the Hill one o're against another that there should be solemnly pronounced by the Levites the Benedictions and Curses the people saying Amen Which twelve Curses are there set down the matter of Benedictions being supposed to be the observing the Contrary to these Maledictions of which see more in Deut. 28. Hereabouts also and perhaps in the same place Abraham at his first entrance into Canaan upon Gods appearing to him in that place built an Altar see Gen. 12.6 7. At this place also Joshua assembled Israel before his Death and made a Covenant with them before the Lord c. See Josh 24.1 26. And this Hill Garizim was so near to this City that Jotham is said from the top or side of it to have spoken to the Sychemites Judg. 9.7 and the Samaritan woman calls it this Hill Jo. 4.20 as a place very near to her This City also was the first place as it were for a preludium taken possession of by armes by the seed of Abraham the Sons of Jacob in revenge for dishonouring their Sister Of which see what Jacob saith Gen. 48.22 Afterward being destroyed by Abimeleck Judg. 9.45 it was reedifyed by Jeroboam and made his regal seat Antiq. l. 11. cap. 7.8 and so it was saith Josephus in Sanballats time a Gentile Governour of Samaria under Darius Whose daughter being married to Manasses a Son of the High Priest and he for it ejected out of the Priesthood Sanballet calling him into Samaria by Alexander the Great 's leave who had then conquered those Provinces built a Temple for the worship of the God of Israel on Mount Garizim in emulation of that of Jerusalem in the rebullding of which the Samaritans before had offered their concurrence but was rejected Ezra 4.2 3. wherein Manasses his Son-in-law should officiate This was done some three hundred years before our Lords Incarnation which occasioned a Schism between the Samaritans and the Jews like to that former of Jeroboam Part