also to him the particular salvation he should bring to the world namely Salvation from their sins Mat. 1.21 repeated again by Zachary and Simeon in their Hymnes Salvation saith Zachary by remission of sin through the bowels of the divin Mercy to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the Shadow of death and to direct our feet into the way of peace and light saith Simeon to the Gentiles as well as the Jews And thus by this Saviour now sent God compleated the Covenant of Circumcision made with Abraham and so for afterward removed this Ceremony at the first Circumcision giving Abram the name of Abraham father of the faithful faith being the Condition required of us in this Covenant and in this Circumcision of our Lord sending the promised seed and giving him the name of Jesus or Saviour Salvation being the condition engaged for on Gods part in this Covenant A name this was compleating all Gods former works and mercies §. 56. n. 2. and which he seems to have reserved as an hidden treasure for the latter end of the world having not revealed it in express term tho he did this in many other names some way implying it to former ages So that as God made himself first known to his Church and to the primitive Patriarks only by his name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God omnipotent but revealed not himself by his name Jehovah importing his sole simple eternal being and Godship the one God living for ever and none besides him till the time of Moses when he began to manifest himself to his Church by greater works and wonders in vengeance upon his Enemies and deliverances of his people and by fulfilling his promises to their fathers as who liveth for ever to make good all his words See Exodus 6.3 comp Exod. 3.14 So he was not known by the name of Jesus in the second person of the Trinity incarnated till now that this person came in the flesh to accomplish and finish the Salvation of the world by his own sufferings and satisfactions which were promised and believed-in indeed before from the beginning but which were not exhibited till this time § 57 Several names indeed of this person were foretold in all ages and these implying Salvation to come to the world by Him Psal 2.2 and frequently elsewhere he was called the Messias or the Anointed translated in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Therefore Herod when he enquired of the Scribes concerning him Mat. 2.4 enquired of him by this name where Christ i. e. the Messias or anointed should be born and upon the Baptist pointing to him and calling him the Son and the Lamb of God his disciple Andrew tells Peter that he had found the Messias which is being interpreted the Christ saith the Text Jo. 1.41 4.25 and our Lord speaks of himself to the Pharisees by the known name of Christ asking them whose Son Christ was to be when he would have instructed them that he was Gods Son as well as Davids and therefore by David himself called his Lord Mat. 22.42 Again Gen. 49.10 comp Ezech. 21.32 he is called by Jacob Silo or qui mittendus est the seed that was promised to his Grandfather Abraham to be sent Haggai 2.7 He is called Desideratus or the desire of all nations veniet desideratus cunctis Gentibus Again Esay 9.6 It is said his name should be called Admirabilis Consiliarius Deus fortis Pater futuri saculi Princeps Pacis Again Zechar. 6.12 It is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Oriens as it is in the Septuagint and Vulgar erit nomen ejus see Zachar. 3.8 a name repeated again by Zachary the Father of the Baptist in his Hymn Luk. 1.78 In quibus nos visitavit Oriens ex alto Often also is he called Germen Domini Germen justitia See Esai 4.2 11.1 and Jerem. 23.5 and 33.15 It is said Hoc est nomen quod vocabunt eum Dominus justus noster or Dominus Justitia nostra and there also is this new deliverance wherein he assumes this name advanced above that out of Egypt where he took the name of Jehovah Exod. 6.3 Esai 7.14 It is said yet more particularly that the Virgin his Mother should call his name Immanuell that is a Synonyma with Jesus involving Salvation to mankind by the Incarnation of God All these are the names foretold of the Lord that should come to redeem us representing to us several excellencies of this Lord. But no where is he forecalled by the ordinary name he bare here on earth and given him at his Circumcision his name Jesus as Josiah Cyrus and some others have bin God if I may so say having provided this best of names for us that they before us should not have all perfection and having reserved the most full expression and manifestation of his mercies in the office of this person until his coming § 58 And indeed it seemed necessary for the accomplishing of his sufferings by which he redeemed us that this his name Jesus should not be foretold as it was also necessary that his birth at Bethleem Davids City foretold and in its time fulfilled should be in the performance thereof unknown and disguised by his Mothers usual aboad in another Town and Country and by his being driven away from thence shortly after born for fear of a slaughter to the place of her former residence for his education and so he was known only as a Prophet of Nazareth and called by a name unmentioned in the Prophets Notwithstanding tho in no places of the Old Testament it is foretold that the name of the Messiah should be Jeshua or Jesus yet in many places speaking of him is this name or some derivative thereof as a proper Epithete applied to him So t is said Habbac 3.18 Exultabo in Deo Jesu meo And in those sentences spoken of the Messiah Gen. 48.18 Salutare tuum expectabo Domine Psal 98. 2. repeated Esai 52.10 Viderunt omnes fines terrae salutare Dei nostri Esai 56.1 Prope est salus mea ut veniat Esai 12.3 Haâ—rietis aquas in gaudio de fontibus Salvatoris some derivative of this word Jeshua as Jeshuahah Jeshuahta c. is used Two persons also that were most eminent types of him were in former times called by the very same name The first of these was the Captain that after a long Captivity in Egypt conducted his people into Canaan the promised Land and fought all their battles with their Enemies to whom Moses by a Prophetical Spirit gave this name Joshua Numb 13.16 or as it is rendred in the Greek Jesus as he is also called Act. 7.45 and Heb. 4.8 adding the first letter of Jehovah to his former name Oshâ—a the type of our Lord Jesus the Captain of our Salvation Heb. 2.10 Fighting our battles and subduing all our most Ghostly Enemies and conducting us into the true land of promise The second was Joshua or Jesus the High
to begin his Office and the business on which his Father sent him in his Fathers house now in the conflux thither of the whole Nation which the Baptist his Forerunner was appointed to do only afar off in the skirts of the wilderness All this according to the prophecy of Malachy chap. 3.1 2. Behold I send my Angel and he shall prepare the way before my face And forthwith the Dominator whom you seek and the Angel of the Testament whom you desire shall come to his Temple And who shall be able to abide the day of his Advent and who shall stand to see him For he is as it were purging fire and as the Herbe if Fullers c. § 180 Entring then into the Temple and seeing it prophaned though this was only in some part of the outer Court thereof with Oxen and Sheep and Doves brought thither to be sold for Sacrifices the place defiled with their Dung and disturbed with their lowing and God also offended with the ordinary frauds and lying that used to be in bargaining Bankers also having brought in their Tables and Baggs hither for changing of forraign Coyne in a place appointed for silent Devotions and Praier and for the Priests reading to and instructing the People perhaps also a greater value set on this Cattel from the sanctity of the place and their being there as it were already set aside for Sacrifice our Lord seized with a great zeal for this dishonouring of his Fathers house first went about to purge it of these and making a whip of small cords perhaps such as was there used about this merchandise with this he drives out the Oxen and Sheep and their sellers and commanded the other to remove their Doves with a Majesty none of them durst to gainsay or oppose but fled away from him The Bankers also for hast leaving their money which he as if this in such place were more offensive than the rest poured out and threw down their Tables telling them all that they were not to make his Fathers house herein declaring himself to be the Son of God an house of Merchandice But there seems more to be mystically signified in this action Viz. Our Lord the Truth and the reality now come into the world and his driving out of Gods worship all the former Types and Figures of him all the Legal Sacrifices and Ceremonies as also instead of the material Temple setting up the living Temple of his own Body now to be sanctified and filled with the residence therein of the Holy Ghost Gods dwelling in the Manual Temple being also a type of the Deity dwelling in our Lords Humanity See Col. 2.9 § 181 In doing this he was attended with his Disciples calling to mind that saying of the Psalmist The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up and with a multitude of People beholding this action and wondring at so strange a Courage and attempt and the success One of the greatest miracles faith S. Jerome In Mat. 21.12 c. that ever our Lord did and which must needs raise great expectation in the people what things would follow such a beginning And there appears an extraordinary hand of Gods providence and protection in it that our Lord should suffer no molestation for the damages those persons must suffer hereby or stop by the Gards of the Temple at such great Feasts very vigilant and how equitable soever the fact yet being Censurable in that it did not appear done by the ordinary hand of authority No sooner was this done also but that the persons thus ejected by him had soon acquainted the publick Officers and Magistrates with the fact and this joyned with the Testimony of John concerning our Lord and the fame that was already spread abroad of him laid the Foundation of that jealousy and hate toward him envying the greatness of any besides themselves which at last ended in their killing him The Court of the Temple thus cleansed our Lord began therein to preach to the people the Gospel and so declare his authority and Mission from God and to do Miracles that sufficiently attested the truth of his words And among these his Auditors was Nicodemus a chief Magistrat among the Jews and a Pharisee who presently upon sight of such miracles became his Convert But those other among them that already envied and had conceived a prejudice against him through very hard heartedness not satisfied with what strange things they saw desired upon so high pretensions of his he would shew them some sign i. e from heaven to confirm them the Jews require a sign saith S. Paul 1 Cor. 1.22 as they did often afterward notwithstanding the Miracles they beheld at the same time wrought by him which miracles our Lord on the contrary used to plead as a sufficient testimony from God of the truth of these things he delivered Our Lord though he might now as elsewhere have urged to them the Signs i. e the miracles they already saw done yet here took occasion presently to declare to them but somewhat parabolically and obscurely as their perversness well deserved that great and most admirable of all his works that he would perform for the salvation of the world see Rom. 1.4 Act. 2.36 namely the raising up again of his sacred Body from the Dead after they had slain him By which Resurrection of our Lord He and his Father confirmed to the world the truth of his person and doctrine and he also shewed the first Experiment in himself of what he promised to us § 182 This further sign therefore he then promised them not satisfied with his miracles using only these few words Destroy ye this Temple and in three daies I will raise it up Speaking of his Body saith the Evangelist which he might well call a Temple since the Deity inhabited it See Col. 2.9 as also S. Paul calls the Saints Bodies the Temples of the Holy Ghost They were already Tempters and Hypocrites requesting a sign of him not to see one but he who for ostentation did nothing not giving them one to decry him and he knowing their thoughts answered them accordingly with a Parabolical speech exceeding their understanding not worthy to be plainlier dealt with Mat. 13.10 11. And thus at the first in this speech our Lord laid a Foundation as it were seeing how they would misconstrue his words for his future passion So afterward at Capernaum when he had done before them such miracles as the people saith the Text were amazed at being impudently asked by the cavilling Pharisees that he would shew them some sign he answerd them to the same purpose that there should be no sign given to that evil Generation but that of Jonah his being three daies and three nights in the Whales belly and afterward coming forth from it Now foretelling them of the great design of his Death and Resurrection In Galilee again after the Miracle of the Loaves Jo. 6. they desired also at that very time
take up his bed and walk Upon which the impotent man was instantly cured and carrying his bed on the Sabbath was presently questioned by the Jews probably these inquirers being either the Pharisees great zelots for the Sabbath or some of their Disciples for the breach of it in so doing who answered them that he was bid to do so by the person that cured him But our Lord there being a throng of people in the place he presently conveyed himself away and returned into the Temple All which occasioned the cure to be more taken notice of and the person looked after that had done it nor could the poor man give any account of him But a little after he repairing also to the Temple probably there to render more solemn thanks to God for his cure Our Lord now discovers himself to him and minding him of the mercy he had received exhorted him to amendment of life least a worse thing yet should happen unto him in die irae if not in this Rom. 2.4 5. yet after this life § 245 The man after he had paid his due adoration and thanks hasted to the former busy enquirers after the Author of his cure and told them it was Jesus doubtless thinking he should advance his honour and esteem with them thereby But it happened much otherwise for instead of this they sought his death for his own breaking in doing this cure and causing the other man also to break the Sabbath Our Lord then questioned by them concerning it as he was often for the like and made them great variety of answers and defences for it by which they were still silenced at this time answers them as absolute Lord of the Sabbath that he was to do the works for which God his Father had sent him among which was restoring the lame giving sight to the blind c. Mat. 11.5 whether this were on Sabbath or week daies or whoever should suffer scandal thereat But his answer now again was made by them worse than his fault collecting hence an higher accusation for destroying him because faith the Text he not only hath broken the Sababth Jo. 5.18 but said also that God was his Father and made himself equal with God which equality had the Jews miscollected from our Lords words as the Arrians say they did probably our Lord or the Evangelist would have reflected on it § 246 But our Lord well knowing his time not yet come of being delivered into their hands with the same undaunted courage and infinite charity and zeal after their salvation prosecuted his former discourse and took this opportunity to declare to them plainly and fully who he was his Union and intimacy with God his Father and why he was sent by and from him into the world and with what authority and power that all might provide for their Salvation by the believing in and the honouring of him as they did the Father See his Sermon made to them Jo. 5. The chief Contents whereof were these That in nothing he sought his own will our Lord having the same natural affections as other men but these in all things subjected to the Divine good pleasure and disposal but the will of his Father That he did nothing of himself but what he saw his Father do and that as he heard of him so he judged that all judgment also was by the Father committed into his hands see the like Mat. 11.27 Jo. 3.35 and the power of doing whatever the Father doth That every one who heard his words and believed that God had sent him should not come into condemnation .i. e. for his former sins now remitted in him but was passed from death to life speaking of death and life spiritual and eternal and of their regeneration thereto by the Spirit See 1 Jo. 3.14 that they who marvelled now so much at the present works he did namely in curing of diseases c. should yet hereafter see far greater from him namely upon the hearing of his voice by the Archangel all that are in their graves coming forth and receiving from him their final doome the good to the resurrection of life the evil to the resurrection of damnation the like things of his hereafter coming in the clouds c. he told to them before his passion Mat. 26.64 and to Nathanael Jo. 1.51 Angels waiting upon him and going hither and thither as he sent them that therefore it was the Fathers pleasure that all should believe in and do honour unto the Son as they did to the Father whose words and actions were the same and they saw and heard God the Father in the Son And concerning his being such a person and the words he spake to them Truth that they had an abundant testimony though considering his person his own was sufficient Jo. 8.14 16. First from his Father 1 both that which he gave them from heaven concerning him at his Baptism the like to which was done twice afterwards at our Lords tranfiguration before three witnesses Mat. 17.5 which is mentioned again by S. Peter 2 Epis 1.16 17. and at his solemn entrance into Jerusalem before his passion God the Father then from heaven speaking to him Jo. 12.20 23. perhaps for a testimony also to the Greeks or Gentiles see Jo. 7.35 who then first admitted by the Apostles came to worship and to make their humble addresses to him which foresignifyed salvation to be shortly after communicated to them by his now approaching death And a-again 2ly that testimony which his Father gave to him in the Miracles which he wrought by him which testimony he frequently urgeth See Jo. 10.25 38. 15.24 2ly A Testimony from John the Baptist though having that of God he needed not that of men which John was sent before him amongst them as a burning and shining light till the time he was to be eclipsed and silenced and they some of them at least were willing for a season to rejoyce in his light 3ly Testimony also from the Scriptures in which they thought were contained the way to eternal life which Scriptures had they duly searched they might have found them abundantly witnessing of him Lastly testimony from their lawgiver Moses in whom they had so much confidence who also spake clearly of him Jo. 1.45 Deut. 18.15.18 where upon petitioning that they might not hear again the voice of God nor see that terrible fire c he tells them that God would raise them up a Prophet like unto him and would put his own words into his mouth c and to him they should hearken whose words would sufficiently accuse unto God his Father their infidelity though our Lord should hold his peace But that notwithstanding such witness and evidences they would not believe because they had not the love of God in them nor as our Lord did sought the honour that only cometh from him through whatever worldly disesteem but was envious ambitious which shews he spake chiefly to the Pharisees and
Sanctuary to make an atonement for the world and was carried thither by himself the Priest as well as the Sacrifice none else worthy or sufficient for either of these There they brought him to a rocky Hill on the North-West side of the City where it seems Executions were usually made by the Hebrew name of it Golgotha signifying a skull perhaps from some bones of the Malefactors lying scattered upon it where the rock affordeth little conveniency for covering them Here in the soft stone of the rock were digged several holes wherein to put the crosses Three such are there seen at this day about Eighteen inches deep saith Eugen. Roger. La Terre Saincte lib. 1. cap. 14. and nine the Diameter and the distance one from another near two yards and between two of these a rent or cleft in the rock from the one side of the Hill to the other which hill runs length-way Northward about a Palme breath but the profundity of it he saith not discoverable And on this same Hill probably it was that Abraham was appointed by God to offer up his only Son Isaac Gen. 22.2 For it was to be upon a certain Hill that God would shew him in terra Moriae or visionis as the land thereabouts was called of which Hills that of Calvary was one God having placed his own people and his true worship in the middle of the Nations round about Ezec. 5.5 and again Jerusalem in the middle of this § 95 Arrived now at the place of his suffering it is said to have bin the custome of the Jews from the precept given them Prov. 31.6 but so was it also of the Romans from a natural compassion to tender to persons condemned before the undergoing their torments some comforting and strengthening drink and that ordinarily mingled with some aromatical ingredients that had a stupifying quality and one of these to be Myrrhe To observe the custome therefore and as it were to prepare and strengthen our Lord for the great sufferings that were to follow who was almost spent by those endured already and who but now fainted under his Cross they brought him some of this compounded wine but their malice first mingled it with gall changing this cup which common pity provided for the consolation and refreshment of poor condemned persons into a Nauseating and bitternes not to be endured A circumstance of their barbarous treatment of him not neglected to be taken notice by the Psalmist in the description of his sufferings Dederunt in escam meam fel c. Psal 68.21 for it was given to him whatever was deserved by us of whom the Prophet Jer. 8.14 Potum dedit nobis aquam fellis peccavimus enim Domino Our Lord though he well knew their inhuman composition of this cup yet to avoid the shewing any offence or passion tasted it and consolated himself in calling to mind the prophecy of it but here left to his liberty would not drink it though no doubt he then laboured with very great thirst if we consider all his former usage the time of the year the climat the crowd about him no sustenance since that which he said should be his last cup at the Paschal Supper at which time doubtless a cup of cold water would have bin a great refreshment to him but none offered it to him He would not drink it as no way serving for that end for which he needed it the quenching of thirst but rather the contrary and again as not admitting any artificial means of accelerating his death or stupifying his senses if such a vertue this drink had for he knew how great our debt in this kind to his offended Father was and desiring to pay it to the uttermost would accept nothing that might any way lighten or mitigate it § 96 After this they hasting to his Execution the Centurion with the rest of the Cohort standing by as a Guard four of the meanest of the Soldiers to whom this base imployment might be a little beneficial stript our Lord of all his clothes whatever which fell to their share onely putting a small cloth over those parts which for decency were to be covered and leaving him his Crown of Thornes the points of which we may imagine as so many weapons sticking in the wounds and never drawn out whilst he lived after thrust into them caused a perpetual torture from the time of his mock-coronation till his giving up the Ghost Thus made naked and the wounds which he had received but an hour or two before exposed to the cold air and made raw again by their pulling away his clothes that sticking to them served him for a plaister they spread him upon the wood of the Cross and racking his arms to their utmost extent with great spikes of Iron driven through the palmes of his hands fastned them to the cross-piece thereof and so also his feet stretched out and put one upon the other with one spike driven through them fastned them to the long beam of the Cross whilst our Lord without reluctancy permitted them facere etiam in se quaecunque voluerunt Mat. 17.12 yielding his body and stretching out his Limbs so as they required cum pateretur non comminabatur sed tradebat judicanti se injuste 1 Pet. 2.23 saith S. Peter and meanwhile amidst those sharp pains he must needs feel in those most nervous and sensible parts afflicted himself for their sins and compassionating their condition as he did before in the way that of the Daughters of Jerusalem he prayed for them to his Heavenly Father and pleaded to him their ignorance of what a person he was Prayed for them not only for those Soldiers who so cruelly tortured him but for all whosoever Jew or Gentile that had their hands in his death saying aloud those words which might have melted down such stony-hearts Father forgive them for they know not what they do Which admirable Pattern of this meek Lamb of God who had no gall in him being set to all his Followers in whatever their sufferings the Prophet Esay in his prophetick History of him chap. 53.12 le ts not pass unmentioned where he saith Ideo dispertiam ei plurimos fortium dividet spolia pro eo quod tradidit in mortem animam suam cum sceleratis reputatus est peccata multorum even of those scelerati tulit pro Transgressoribus rogavit Whose prayer also was heard by his Father not only for the more simple but even for the most culpably ignorant so they were penitent a great company of the Priests also afterward becoming obedient to the Faith Act. 6. And among others St. Paul a great Persecutor of our Lord in his Members saith he obtained mercy 1 Tim. 1.13 Quia nesciens fecit And S. Peter Act. 3. invites the People and their Rulers to repentance for this fact upon this account for that if they had known who he was they would never have done it And a great
envious rivals in the by-standing people's much admiring his discoveries of their ignorance that they could not discern him When-as indeed his mean parentage if known to them should rather have caused a more diligent inquisition the more they saw no human means either in so young an age of his attaining such science or in a mean education such confidence But this unworthy Generation was to be as enlightened in some things so blinded in others that what was decreed might be done unto Him § 117 Of the life and conversation our Lord from the 12th to the 30th year of his Age the appointed time of the third and yet more solemn manifestation to Israel we find only this short account given by S. Luke who yet was more punctual than the other Evangelists in relating the passages of our Lords Nonage that he was subject to his parents and that he increased in wisdom and stature and in favour with God and Man that is with those few with whom he had some familiar acquaintance and else-where that he assisted Joseph his reputed Father in his Trade and manual Emploiments And from this our Lord 's permitting that so much of the story of his life in whose both words and actions to those who were witnesses thereof must needs appear infinite wisdom and sanctity and charity should be so unknown to the world we may learn the little account we ought to make of our own fame or Reputation therein and to content our selves as our Lord herein did with the approbation and acceptance which our good works or Virtues if we have any find with God and the everliving and only right-judging world of his the innumerable Angels and Saints that are above For He only hath true Glory and Honour not whom men but whom the Lord valueth and esteemeth and Tantus quisque only quantus apud Deum § 118 But yet from some passages in Scripture some other things concerning our Lord's life and Conversation in this time may rationally be collected For first it may be gathered from S. Lukes words chap. 2.44 where his parents missing our Lord are said to have sought him among their Kinsfolks and acquaintance that as in the time of his manifestation and preaching his conversation was free and common with all sorts and conditions of men so that in his youth as to those who had any nearer relation or neighbourhood to him he carried himself with much familiarity and affability for he being in no peril of temptation or contagion of sin what needed he the relief of a more strict solitude when the case is much otherwise with any of us Again from S. Lukes saying as chap. 2. vers 40 that he waxed strong in Spirit and was filled with Grace and wisdom so vers 52 that he increased in favour with God and man i. e. as he grew elder he more and more did things acceptable both to God and men Non quod sanctior aut gratior saith Cardinal Tolet progressu temporis fuerit sed quod pro aetatis incremento perfectioribus gratiae sanctitatis operibus incubuerit or sapientiora verba opera proferret apud or coram Deo hominibus as the Sun alwaies equally full of light and heat yet is said to increase them as it draweth nearer to us and we more partake them I say from vers 52 compared with vers 47. that in the 12th year of his age the Doctors and people in the Temple were astonished at his understanding and answers may be gathered that during this time of his minority in his words and actions he discovered and sent forth continually many raies of his infinite prudence Sanctity and charity not only before his Mother and S. Joseph but among his other Kindred and familiar acquaintance and that for this he was exceedingly loved and admired by them and they clearly saw concerning him as it is said of the Baptist Luk. 1.66 that the hand of the Lord was with him Out of which great admiration of him we find those called his Brethren to have followed him afterwards as well as his Mother But yet from Matt. 13.54 c. and Luk. 4.16 amp c. it also appears that he cast such a veil over these his divine Excellencies and was so reserved in his Conversation that no great reputation or fame of him was spread abroad not so much as in his own City And hence the most of them wondred afterwards at the first appearance of these Divine Graces in his preaching at Nazareth they excepting though not against any delinquency or deficiency in his manners yet the meanness of his condition the common object of contempt and his illiterate Education § 119 2ly From the words his Mother spake to him privatly at the Marriage at Cana in Galilee where also our Blessed Lady shewed her charity and pitty to her poor friends or also kinsfolks upon their wanting Wine which words imply her desire that our Lord should furnish them therewith and upon his demur yet her speaking also to the servants to do whatsoever be should bid them it may be rationally collected that he had done privatly many miracles before-time in his youth in some domestick necessities in the like manner or also in some matters belonging to his Trade Tho this miracle in Cana may notwithstanding still be said the first i. e. publick one done by him after his beginning when Baptized to manifest himself unto the world unless here we will say the Blessed Virgin had some particular Revelation before-hand of this first miracle of her Son Nor may such Domestick Miracles in his youth be thought to anticipate the time appointed by his Father for shewing such works any more then his disputes and answers to the Doctors at 12 years old the constituted season of his Publick preaching The answer also then made to his Mother that his time was not yet come perhaps is not to be taken so in general that his time of doing any Miracles was not yet come which was already commenced upon his Baptism but rather that his time of doing that miracle was not yet fully seasonable till the failing of the wine more appeared or not now seasonable to do it in such a publick manner as she expected our Lord to shew who he was should have done it before all the Guests see the like expression Jo. 7.6 about our Lords going up to the feast For our Lord thought fit to do it more privatly none knowing thereof but the Servants upon which also perhaps intimated to her it was that she spake to them to do what he appointed But however if this be here understood of publick Miracles it opposeth not his doing them privatly and within his own family even from and in his Infancy upon necessary occasions § 120 3ly From other Texts it sufficiently appears that after our Lord was of a competent growth he assisted with his own corporal labour his parents Domestick necessities and wrought at his reputed-Fathers trade with
some reluctance we may conceive of his Parent 's inclinations and their greater admiration of such an humiliation considering his person but this inclination checked with a most exact observance of him in whatsoever he seemed addicted to I say this sufficiently appears from the words Mat. 13.55 56. and Mark 6.3 where upon our Lords entring upon his office and after some time coming also to his own Town Nazareth with a train of his Disciples and a great fame of his Miracles following him there to preach the Gospel among his Kindred and acquaintance it is said the Citizens wondred whence he should have that wisdom and knowledg and those mighty works considering his mean education and Kindred among them stiling him there the Carpenter's Son and in S. Marke plainly Maries Son and himself called the Carpenter for before that time it seems S. Joseph was deceased Wherein we see it was his Fathers good pleasure the more to shew Our Lords wisdom and knowledg to descend from above and to be infused by him that sent him that he should neither be sent to the famous School in Jerusalem for teaching and learning the Law as S. Paul was Act. 22.3 nor to any of those Synagogues mentioned Act. 6.9 Nor educated in the Temple among the Priests as Holy Samuel was being from a child dedicated to the Lord nor should retire into the Desart for Solitude and Contemplation as the Baptist Lives surely our Lord if indulging his own will would much sooner have chosen but in this his state of Exinanition should descend far below John and take on him not the form of an Hermit or Contemplatist but of a Servant and a poor Apprentice to an ordinary Trade and herein should earn his own victuals and serve his neighbours also as any had use of him for the greatest part of his life And as it was appointed that at 12 years of age before such Divine knowledg could be acquired by Industry he should make an admirable discovery thereof among the Doctors in the Temple tho this was then ungratefully or also enviously not taken any notice of by them so it was ordained also that all his youth should be spent in this laborious handycraft Whereby it might be most evident he stood in no need of human Arts or Sciences and also he might give the world an example after so great an humiliation of his being Gods only Son not to disdain to serve our neighbour in the lowest manual offices in any necessities concerning his Body or also Estate as well as Spiritual but whereby also he might the better disguise and hide the Dignity of his person till he had descended yet further to the lowest step of his Humiliation and accomplished his Passion on the Cross sect 121 For we find this education and mechanick trade of his to have bin a main scandal and after that his admirable doctrine and works had given an occasion of his being more enquired after to have bin spread all abroad and well known not only at Nazareth or in Galilee but at Jerusalem For Jo. 7.15 in the third year of his preaching as he taught in the Temple it is said the Jews marvelled and said How knoweth this man letters or learning having never learned From which also may be gathered that in his Sermons like to that discourse of his in going to Emaus were mixed many profound and convincing Expositions of the Law and Prophets and such as were not attainable by others if at all without much study therein To whom our Lords answer in the next verse giving this reason Viz. that they might know that his doctrine was not his acquired by any his industry or Art but his that sent him Learnt and revealed from above and brought out of the bosome of his Father Jo. 1.18 And his very kindred from this mean exercise of his youth when afterward he began to open and discover the hidden treasures of his wisdom not believing on him saith the Text Jo. 7.5 asked him why if he was such as he made himself he staid amongst them in Galilee and went not into Judea to shew himself there among the Learned when indeed our Lords usual abode in Galilee was for the safety of his Life Thus our Lords Carpentership was made no small mortification to him § 122 But yet this is imagined such Carpentors work as was exercised at home Some think that of a Wheel-wright and making Ploughs and Yokes and other instruments of husbandry for the service of his Neighbors Aratra conficiens Juga boum saith S. Justin Martyr Contra Tryphonem a very ancient Father this suting much better with the retirement and Devotions of so Holy a family and also with the privacy of our Lord's education than seeking here and there work abroad in other men's houses And this trade it is probable our Lord followed for some time after Josephs decease by those words in S. Marke Is not this the Carpenter the Son of Mary and so a little after our Lords Baptism mention is made of his Mother only none of Joseph as Jo. 2.1 Matt. 12.47 It seeming good to the Divine wisdom to leave our Lord for some time before his manifestation without any reputed Father here on Earth whose true Father was in Heaven Thus our Lord the second Adam eat his Bread for many years in the sweat of his browes subjecting himself herein to the curse laid upon the first his sinning fore-father in a Trade requiring much strength and force And his Trade an Emblem if happily an house-wright of his rebuilding that house of God which the other former had destroyed § 123 4ly It may further be gathered from the many hardships suffered even in our Lords tender Infancy his being born in a poor Stable carried away presently after in so weak an age some hundreds of miles into a strange Country and again brought back from thence as also from what is prophetically said of him by David In Laboribus a juventute mea Again from his many times professing that he came not to do his own will but the will of his Father where his own will denyed intimates natural inclinations different from his Fathers appointments concerning him but yet exactly subjected thereto and that he came not to be ministred to but to minister and when he had so many attendants that his behaviour amongst them was as of one that served and as one that waited on and provided for them whilst they sate at Table See Luke 22.27 spoken upon occasion of their striving among themselves for Honour and about that time also his washing their feet and lastly from the Apostle's expression that he took on him the form not of a man only but a servant From all these I say we may well argue that his youth was not passed without many mortifications and hardships such as poverty and handy-labour affords many great self-denials an exact obedience of his child-hood to his Superiours according to the flesh
such as a wise man suffers whose duty obligeth him to the service and sometimes undiscreet commands though in things lawful of a person of much less understanding unless we may rather think that the Holy Spirit by him guided his Parents in all those commands whereto it required his obedience § 124 And among such his mortifications this seems no small one that considering who he was the word and wisdom of God and by whom God formerly made the world he should have a law of silence for so long a time imposed upon him as to any function as yet of his ministry or discovery of his wisdom even when there was in his seeing the great follies of the world occasion shall I say or rather a great necessity thereof Nay in the Sabbaths when all frequented the Synagogues which were in every City and there the law and Prophets read to the people Act. 13.27 and among others his most devout Parents together with himself that after his forementioned dispute with the Doctors at Jerusalem and after he was now arrived to mans estate from 20 years old till 30 he should patiently stand there among the rest in the quality of a mean labourer and this the Law-giver himself in silence hear the expositions of it not alwaies free from errour by others which rendered his fellow-Citizens so astonisht when afterward he who had bin so long an Auditor with them now shewed himself a Doctor A stupendious Humility and Obedience this so long practised in so Soveraign a dignity and an hard lesson for those to imitate who have parts To our Lord therefore stooping by Obedience to such a condition seems principally to be applied that complaint of the Psalmist Psalm 38. Posui ori meo custodiam cum consisteret peccator adversum me Obmutui humiliatus sum silui a bonis sermonibus dolor meus renovatus est Concaluit cor meum intra me in meditatione mea exardescet ignis whilst he whom a fire of Zeal for his Fathers glory and for the salvation of mankind continually burnt and consumed See Jo. 2.17 Conversed among the ignorant and sinners without being permitted either to instruct the one or reprove the other whilst he who to use the expression of Elihu Job 32 was full of words and his belly as new Wine without vent and that breaketh new Vessels was so long to be dumb and as one that heareth not and in whose mouth are no reproofs No discourses I say saving such as did not transcend the appearance of his exteriour condition and manner of Education and emploiment and such conversation as in a private life gave good example to his few acquaintance and friends remaining so many years even whilst repairing in the State of his man-hood to Jerusalem and the Temple and the great Assemblies of the Nation at the publick feasts as it were a Candle hid under a Bushel and not suffered to diffuse its light walking in this most difficult obedience for so many years to the good pleasure of his heavenly Father as also the same obedience practised the like silence whilst he suffered so many false accusations before his Passion § 125 And the Nazarens rude and uncivil entertainment of him when visiting them afterward and his Brethren and kindred their not believing on him shew well how much he had in his youth ecclipsed and made himself of no account among them at least those that were not more intimately acquainted Wherein he gave the world a great lesson and example of trampling under foot any vain honour and Reputation save that with God and the Citizens of Heaven But indeed had our Lord sooner manifested himself to Israel supposed even from his youth we may conjecture such effect thereof either that the glory of his wisdom and mighty works with the envy of the Great ones accompanying these would have hastened his Death and brought it so much sooner Or such his Excellencies and Dignity of his person in a long time of Conversation with them better known to the Nation would have daunted his enemies and prevented his Death and deprived the world of the precious Benefits thereof and we may say his Father was pleased that he should be so long concealed to us that he might dye for us § 126 In this time of our Lords living at Nazareth and before the 30th year of his age is supposed to have happened the death of S. Joseph there being no more mention made of him as of his Mother and our Lord's Brethren after our Lords publick appearance either at the Marriage in Cana or else-where It seeming good unto his heavenly Majesty that after his Manifestation though a Mother did yet no Father real or reputed should appear that God might be the more looked-on as his Father who also was professed by him to be so no other being in sight nor receiving any honour as such Therefore also is our Lord in St. Mark probably after Josephs decease himself called the Carpenter and the Son of Mary But when ever S. Josephs Death happened doubtless it was undergone with great Resignation and content and after our Lord 's having first made known his heavenly Father's good pleasure both to him and his Mother in which all three most affectionately acquiesced though Joseph by his Death in some sense was to leave and lose his most beloved Jesus Viz. as to the presence of his Humanity wherein his Saints by death do now enjoy him § 127 Now that after so profound an Annihilation and latitancy of our Lord in so mean a fortune and obscure place the time drew near of his manifestation to Israel being God at last descended upon earth to reveal to men the whole Will of his Father and all the Secrets of Heaven A great person and one sanctified from the womb and Quo non major inter natos mulierum as our Lord saith of him was sent some time before to proclaim to the world the near approach and appearance of this heavenly Prince for begetting a greater reverence in them to his person And also to prepare all men by a due Confession of and repentance and doing penance for their sins and correction and amendment of their evil lives which is called the levelling Hills and filling Valleys and making the high waies streight and lastly by their being purified by Baptism for a more worthy and Honourable reception of this great Lord whose Kingdom was not temporal but Spiritual that so nothing in his Subjects at his coming might disgust or displease him And lastly was sent after his making such a proclamation of him before hand to shew also and demonstrate with the finger his very person to them for removing all possible mistake or just excuse § 128 The miraculous Nativity of this Forerunner of Christ in the old age of his Parents foretold by the same Angel as was our Lords and his being full of the Holy Ghost from his very first Being his leaping and
to qualify and lessen the great and suddain fame that might be of him which also was done for our example from that publick testimony they saw given by the other persons of the Trinity the Father and the Holy Ghost as also in the rest of his life he used frequent concealments of himself and enjoyned others silence for the non-preventing his future sufferings that so his six weeks absence and non-appearance might a little remit the former expectation and the Baptists immediatly sending all men after him whose manifestation was only to be discovered by certain degrees and therefore when returning from the Desart his stay with the Baptist much proclaiming him was only for two or three daies § 150 After his forty daies abode in this desolate place prostrated as Moses in his Fast before the Divine Majesty in praiers and intercessions and such Contemplations of God as his types Moses and Elias had formerly enjoyed and probably accompanied as they with a suspension of his natural faculties and a perpetual fast our Lord began when such his Devotions were ended and nature returned to its ordinary functions to be vehemently an hungred The Devil even the Prince of them as may appear from Matt. 25.41 Apoc. 12.9 who had narrowly watched Him hitherto and looked upon him with such an envious eye as he did on our first parents in their Innocency but could not attack him whilst in praier when this was ended and he saw also so great an hunger to pinch our Lord which our first parents had not when he prevailed with them to eat forbidden meats had entertained hence some hopes of prevailing upon his infirm humanity as he did on theirs viz. not to wait for his Fathers Provision for him in due time of such food as was necessary but with a power of Miracles presently in an extraordinary manner after such a meritorious Act of forty daies fast to supply himself with it In which Temptation also he hoped to make some advantage in reminding him of the dignity of his person and suggesting unto him that he was the Son of God Especially at this time the honour done him lately not only by the Baptist but from God himself both the Father and the Holy Ghost from heaven and now also the great Change of his life entring upon the office of the Messias might seem to have elevated his thoughts and ambitions above the temper of his former meanly entertained condition For tho the Devil had heard those glorious words pronounced from Heaven but lately at his Baptism and in his ranging every where for prey probably was well acquainted also with all the former miraculous passages of his life lead also hitherto without all sin and with all the prophecies concerning our Lord if we see how readily he afterwards quotes Scripture to him and how in his first accosting of him he pressed his being the Son of God yet since our Lord was also clothed with our infirm flesh he might not so perfectly discern the Hypostatical Vnion of such his lately assumed Humanity with the Deity nor how far it might be invested or assisted therewith and its weakness receive influences from it For this General enemy of mankind saw this his human nature clothed with all the infirmities as here in suffering hungar and passions or affections of it Whereby his flesh or sensitive appetite at that of others did naturally desire things delectable to it as meat drink rest sleep c. But yet these desires were alwaies such as were perfectly subjected to the guidance of right reason and wholly ordered and moderated by it and such wherein he had hitherto never sinned though it is most likely that Satan had not forborn before to tempt him as others to some exorbitancy therein even from his child-hood and again were such wherein he was also by reason of the Hypostatical Union of this nature to the Deity and perfect sanctification thereof by it utterly impeccable though this not known to the Devil Our Lord saith the Apostle not only felt our infirmities Heb. 4.15 but was in all points tempted like as we are i. e. by external objects occurring and inviting his nature to the use of them but without sin this sensitive nature was ever so overruled by reason as never by the least consent of his will to proceed to any excess beyond the bounds set by the Divine Commands Poterat quidem anima Christi saith S. Thomas 3. Q. 15. Art 4. resistere passionibus ut ei non supervenirent praesertim virtute divina sed propria voluntate se passionibus subjiciebat And In nobis quandoque hujusmodi motus non sistunt in appetitu sensitivo sed trahunt rationem quod in Christo non fuit quia motus naturaliter humanae carni convenientes sic ex ejus dispositione in appetitu sensitivo manebant quod ratio ex his nullo modo impediebatur facere quae conveniebant § 151 Therefore from this his liability to passions and the new change of his life Satan conjectured a fair opportunity for begetting in his humanity in his former life hitherto so poorly treated some Elation of mind and vain ostentation of its transcendent dignity and present advancement Or supposing Satan knew such an Union of this his humanity to the Deity as that our Lord could not possibly commit the least sin and that his present temptations were but in vain as all his former had bin yet was his malice to him so extream as it could not let him rest so far as God permitted and he rejoyced to give him some molestation though with a greater mischief to himself a quality we observe also in the Devil's children malicious men who do not forbear to afflict their neighbors in their own suffering much greater dammage § 152 He then as soon as God had relaxed his chain invades our Lord and probably appears to him in some comely and Glorious shape as we may conjecture from his last temptation wherein he desires Adoration from him Or as some think to be more sutable to the place shewed himself in the habit of some religious Hermite Or perhaps not disguising at all who he was which also was well known to our Lord subtilly desired some evidence of the supereminent Dignity of our Lords person as it were for his own satisfaction and that he might know his due subjection to him His request therefore was that if he were the very Son of God as he was lately proclaimed from heaven to be he would for the honour also of his human nature hitherto so meanly treated now shew an act of his Divine omnipotency and taking some pitty of its present necessities command those Stones that lay before him to become so many loaves of bread especially since in that desart place he could expect no other ordinary supply As indeed long ago in the like necessity the same Lord out of the stony Rock in the Desart brought forth water And the more kind
and harmless the request here seemed to be the more dangerous the temptation Whilst hereby the Devil hoped to allure him for the glorifying of his humanity to shew some superfluous and vain-glorious act of his power as he mingled with our first parents taking the forbidden fruit a vain ambition of knowing good and evil and to make some breach of his former resignation and obedience in this his state of humiliation to his heavenly Father as the impatient Israelites also in the Desart when pinched with hungar presently became clamorous against Moses and would not attend Gods good time and leasure for making provision for their wants § 153 Our Blessed Lord standing upon his Guard and acting all things according to the present design of his coming into the world Viz. to do entirely and only his Fathers good will and pleasure through whatever sufferings though he might here with his most Soveraign authority have presently banished Satan from his presence as he did at the last and have dismist him with some sharp reproof Yet to give us herein an example he chose rather to answer him though such an one in the Spirit of meekness and according to what S. Michael the Arch-Angel did Jude 9 or our Lord not indulging himself so much not medling with the person of the tempter chose to reply to the Temptation And here also he preferred to frame all his three replies out of the word of God A direction which the Apostle hath left us Tak saith he the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God as for the most powerful way of repelling this evil Fiend by our shewing to him Gods command contrary to his suggestions As also our Grandmother Eve when yet in innocency at first answered Satan tempting her Gen. 3.3 That she had a command from God to the contrary This well but she stood not firm to it § 154 To this first Satanical temptation therefore that he should presently with an extraordinary hand make the Stones about him bread to satisfie the hungar of such a Supreme Lord and one so dear to God he as it were reflecting on the former miscarriage of Gods people when an hungred and thirsty in the Wilderness in their presumptuously demanding a Miracle before its time returneth to this Tempter those words of Moses in Deut. 8.3 spoken by Moses concerning the Manna given to them so miraculously from heaven telling Satan it was written there That Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God The context there runs thus He humbled thee and suffered thee to hunger and fed thee with Manna which thou knowest not that he might make thee know that Man lives not by bread only but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord. Intimating that we are for any our wants with patience to depend on the Divine providence and provision who is all-sufficient and able with a word to supply our necessities as he did that of his people in the Desart with Manna as also that his meat and drink and life was the observing his Father's word and command and the yielding a punctual obedience thereto As if our Lord had said here to Satan what elsewhere to his Disciples Jo. 4.32 34. I have meat to eat that thou knowest not of My meat is to do the will of him that sent me But lastly what need of a Miracle here where he could as he pleased satisfie his hungar by other ordinary means either by feeding on Johns food in the Desart at hand or by speedily quitting the desart receive it elsewhere Yet this our good Lord who would not here at such a person's request relieve his own forty-daies-fast with a Miracle did afterward out of compassion and also to hew thee who he was with a Miracle supply the peoples fast though suffered only for a day or two Mat. 15.32 Thus the Devils temptation instead of elevating our Lord to some pride by which himself fell or curiosity in shewing vain-glorious and superfluous wonders or sensuality in lusting after food produced in him only an act of humble submission obedience and resignation to his Fathers good pleasure and Orders § 155 The Devil finding no entrance of Pride or self-exaltation into our Lords humanity this way presently devised another Our Lords hungar being also thus longer continued until all his temptations were finished and removes our Lord out of this privacy and melancholick recess into a place of greater State magnificence and resort and so taking him up saith the Text carried him speedily out of the Desart into Jerusalem Which taking him up the Preface to the temptation following is to be reckoned also no small temptation and trial of our Lords humility and annihilation to suffer himself to be hugged upon the shoulders or embraced in the arms or touched with the pawes of such an horrid and accursed Beast as our Lord in whatever external shape knew him to be For the transportation seems to be literally understood and real not representative only in a Vision Which Vision would either imply that our Lord's humanity must be so far imposed-upon and deceived by Satan as to think it real or if this transportation known to our Lord to be only a shew must much weaken the Temptation § 156 Brought hither he carries him streight to his Fathers house the Holy Temple sumptuously built by Herod and sets him on the very highest place thereof one of the Pinacles we may imagine of the Porticus or tower which was raised higher than the rest of the Fabrick and which faced the Courts Here Satan supposing the place might some way also sublimate our Lord his thoughts if it did not work the other way upon him that his danger of falling might beget some fear in him and diffidence towards God Here I say he minds him again of his being stiled the Son of God and that if he was so he would shew to him and perhaps to all the people that stood in the Courts if such his station was visible to them who he was and would by an act of his power provide for his safety in securely casting himself down from thence and relying on the support of his Servants the Angels waiting there to catch him an hand he had much rather fall into than those of Satan Especially when from this summity where he was placed there were no stairs or other passable descent And because also it appeared by our Lords last answer that he made his Fathers word his Rule Satan now also produced Scripture as he usually doth to those he deceives but misapplied that God had given his Angels charge concerning him and that in their hands they should bear him up c. which place if not particularly meant of him alone yet spoken in General of all Gods Servants must also be truely extended to his Son § 157 Our Lord still remaining fixt upon the basis of his humility and
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
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
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
again in the same manner Not my will My Father but thine be done And as S. Matthew gives his last words Mat. 26.42 If this Cup may not pass from me except I drink it Thy will be done Then rising up and adding no more words after these as it were hereby restraining his innocent desires of self-preservation from being too importunate and shewing his perfect resignation also in the shortness of his Request he visits again agitated still to and fro with his unparallelled sorrow his three most trusted Friends and finds them fallen asleep again speaks to them and now receives from them no answer For saith the Evangelist their eyes were heavy neither wist they what to answer him thereunto like to those three Comforters of Job who sate down by him but in a deep silence Thus solitary and destitute of any Companion in his sorrow not answered by his Father nor his Friends here those complaints of the Psalmist are verifyed which he spake of him in this his state of Desolation Psal 141. voce sua ad Dominum clamavit voce sua ad Dominum deprecatus est Effudit in conspectu ejus orationem suam tribulationem suam ante ipsum pronunciavit in deficiendo ex se spiritum suum ante ipsum qui cognovit semitas suas rectas Considerabat ad dextram videbat non erat qui cognosceret se Periit fuga ab illo non erat qui requirat animam ejus qui sollicitus esset de vita ejus servanda Yet knowing this for at time of his treading the Wine-press all alone Esay 63.3 he again straight withdraws himself from them and as the floods of his Anguish grew still higher who drank a larger cup of Desolation than ever any other man did according to his greater capacity to receive it and greater cause the sins of the whole world past and to come of undertaking it He returns a third time in the continuance still of the heavy hand of his Father upon his spotless Innocency who stood now over him as it were with a knife in his hand ready to slay his only Son to save the life of some inconsiderable wretches He returns I say a third time to the ordinary remedy of afflicted persons And now falling prostrate on his face he beseecheth him yet once more on the same manner but still concluding with the same perfect obedience and resignation rendred so much more precious to the Divine Majesty by how much the natural motions of his Humanity were more intense to the contrary saying again O My Father not my will but thine be done In all this leaving to us a perfect pattern of our behaviour in Prayer when distressed both of perseverance in demanding what we have need of and of resignation to acquiesce in what God pleaseth to grant § 17 And now that we may understand how terrible this Spiritual combat was and how great this Desolation and desertion being now come to its height besides his strong cries and tears mentioned by the Apostle though not by the Evangelists When Heb. 5 7. saith he in the daies of his Flesh he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death he was heard c. I say besides these his whole body though in a very cold Evening for they made a fire in the High Priests Hall Mark. 14.54 poured out a Sweat and this no ordinary Sweat of a Dewy tenuious and aqueous matter but a thick viscous and clammy Sweat such only as is seen to happen in great agonies and in the Pangs of death But yet his sweat beyond this too for it was saith the Evangelist as it were great drops of blood the pores of his body by the strange pressure of his Spirit from within opening and enlarging themselves and letting out the grosser part also of that substance running in his Veines and this in such quantity as the drops fell on the ground where he lay whether true blood or some other glutinous humor clotted like it who can tell But a strange and miraculous Sweat it was and a miraculous cause it must have and such as no other Son of sorrow hath tryed the like And could we now go no further what world can there be so numerous or its sins so great that the only Son of God might not end his Passion here and offer only this as over-sufficient to redeem it and thus pay the due sufferings in such an afflictive Deprecation of his sufferings § 18 And now in this extremity God his Father heareth him and sendeth help But this sutable to the present state of his humiliation not immediatly but by the Instrumency of one of those creatures to whom our Lord had formerly given and at this instant also sustained their very life and being who now comes to sustain his and administer strength to it for still more sufferings before its dissolution When methinks in great confusion this his Vassal prefaceth to him in some such manner as his servant John did at his Baptism Lord I live and move and have my being by thee and must my Lord thus be strengthned by me To whom this answer seems to be returned I Permit it to be so now For thus it is meet to fulfil all sufferings and to give my Servants an Example of disdaining help from none of Gods Creatures though in Dignity never so inferior to them This Angel then some think the chiefest S. Michael some S. Gabriel named Gods strength and the Messenger formerly of our Lord's Incarnation appears from Heaven strengthening him strengthening him corporally that his sufferings might not end here where it seems Nature was brought to the utmost of her passibility and was dissolving her self in a mortal Sweat and strengthning him spiritually in the Ministery of of those Motives and consolations externally to him which internally he himself withheld from his lower self probably representing to him the infinite Glory to God and benefit to men and Exaltation to himself The fulfilling of Prophecies and of the will of his Eternal Father the rescuing of mankind from everlasting destruction according to his Father's preconstitution His approaching Resurrection and entrance into Glory that should arise from accomplishing the rest of his appointed sufferings Our Lord vouchsafing now to receive as it were by the reflection of an Angel the vivificating sound of his own words that were spoken but two or three daies before in the Temple with much rejoycing in his future Passion when he said Jo. 12.23 c. Now the time is come when the Son of man should be glorified And except a corn of Wheat fall into the ground and dy it abideth alone but if it dy it bringeth forth much fruit And Father Glorify thy name Now shall the Prince of this world be cast forth And I if I be lifted up from the earth will draw all men unto me And if any man
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