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
all hereby the more to exalt himself § 137 After that these Preparations were made and Our Lord now also had compleated the thirtieth year of his age at which age the Priests as hath bin said and Levits were admitted to administer in the Sanctuary Numb 4.3 23 and at which age his Father David was installed in the Kingdom of Israel and Joseph advanced to the government of Egypt Types of our Lord Now was the full time come that he should throw off his long disguise and manifest himself And herein should first receive in publick before John and all the people a Commission from his Father speaking to the world from Heaven and a Solemn Vnction to his Office from the Holy Ghost He then to whom also and to his Holy Mother all these things done by John were related by their neighbours that he might fulfil all righteousness and shew obedience to all ordinances instituted by his Father Johns Baptism being from heaven and not of men as he argues against the Pharisees Mat. 21.25 as also that he might give good example to other Galileans for which see what he did Mat. 17.27 ut non scandalizemus eos in doing any thing that lookedlike disobedience not many daies after 30 years old went up as many others from Galilee and humbly presented himself among the other multitude to receive Baptism from John as a penitent so habited so mortified with grief and confusion remembring the burden he had taken upon him for our sakes of the sins of the whole world and compleating the Confession and Contrition of all those poor sinners that stood with him desirous of the same Absolution and among the rest even those of the Baptist himself The place of our Lords Baptism probably from John 1.28 was Bethabara viz. where the waters being divided the people of Israel passed over Jordan with Joshua into the land of promise and whither our Lord also coming out of the Desart returned to John And it seems by S. Lukes words chap. 3.21 in which all the people were baptized c that there was a great conflux of people to John at that very time For indeed one end of John's baptizing was that our Lord should be made manifest to Israel Jo. 1.31 § 138 The Baptist tho living in the same house for three Months with him before they were born had never before seen this sacred person whom he was sent to proclame the Divine Providence for avoiding any suspition of fraud or compact so ordering that they should be educated in two remote and opposite corners of Palestine yet presently upon his appearance by the Spirit knew him to be Christ our Lord. For S. Jonn's Non noveram c. Jo. 1.33 as S. Chrysostome and others is to be understood more largely Viz. of the time before our Lords coming from Galilee and before the solemnity of the Baptism in which solemnity because the most evident testimony was the Holy Ghosts descent and sitting upon our Lord therefore it is instanced in by the Baptist as if he had said I knew him not at all formerly till the time when he came to be baptized and the Holy Ghost in the shape of a Dove visible to all sate upon his Head The Baptist then presently knew him and much astonished at his great humility in offering himself to receive this Baptism of sinners with a like humility prostrated himself before him and telling him that himself had need to be baptized of him desired to be excused from so great a presumption whose shoos-latchet he had formerly told the people Jo. 1.27 he was not worthy to untie But our Lord now no way disguising or concealing himself to John with a word that so he ought to fulfil all righteousness removed his fear and scruple and so in all humble obedience to his good pleasure John performed this Office to him § 139 Our Holy Lord so soon as he ascended out of the water without any entertaining himself with his Cosin and servant the Baptist though this was their first interview immediatly put himself upon the banck of Jordan in the posture of praier wherein we may presume he offered himself according to his words in the Psalme Lo I come as in the volume of this book it is written of me to do thy will O my God to all those hard services and sufferings for the redemption of mankind which his heavenly Father expected from him as we find he did a little before his passion Jo 12.17 desiring him to glorify his name at which time also his Father spake to him Jo 12. being in great desolation from heaven in the hearing of all the people Whilst our Lord was thus praying and the Baptist who had had a preindication from God that he should discern his Son by the visible descent upon him at his Baptism of the Holy Ghost and also the people who could not but observe the extraordinary reverence S. John gave to him or also some of them hear his words had fixed their eies upon him Behold the Heavens were opened and first descended from them with a stream of light the Holy Ghost in the appearance of a Dove the innocency and harmless simplicity of which gaulless peaceful and mourning creature Our Lord recommends Mat. 10.16 and several qualities in it observed to resemble those of the Holy Spirit are mentioned by the Apostle Gal. 5.22 1 Cor. 13.4 which streaming Dove rested or sate upon him as was presignified by God to John and probably remained so according to Jo. 1.33 till hasting toward the Desart he was carried out of their sight § 140 This appearance again was seconded with a Voice from the opened heaven and from the Divine Majesty there declaring to the world This person to be his beloved Son in whom he was well pleased The words as also the descent of the Holy Spirit upon him are pre-related in the Prophet Esay 42.1 and cited also by the Evangelist Mat. 12.18 and do reveal to the world this joyful news as if he had said This is my Son the long expected Messias the new and perfect Legislator that declares all my will that is the Compleatment of all the Prophecies the only Mediator between me and sinners the Redeemer and Reconciler of the world unto me and my meek Lamb that takes away the sins thereof the only Holy and Eternal High Priest Lastly the King and Lord of the Universe In whom nothing at all displeaseth me and in whom I have bin pleased from all Eternity and except in whom none other pleaseth me and in whom all others may please me but unless through him I cannot love sinful man concerning whom the time was that it repented me at heart that I had made him Gen. 6.6 but which grief this my Son hath removed and again reconciled all things to me § 141 The same with which words were spoken a second time in the Holy Mount out of a bright cloud nearer hand when this
what they were afterwards to instruct the Jews and all other Nations expounding to them the Law and the Prophets shewing them the many predictions concerning the Messias his Sufferings Resurrection and so entrance into his Glory a many of which they mentioned afterward in their Sermons in the Acts opening their understandings to understand the Scriptures § 128 Afterward more particularly addressing himself to his Apostles he told them in this and several other apparitions made to them before his Ascension that he was very shortly to go into Heaven to his Father and leave them here behind him That all power both in Heaven and Earth was given to him that therefore by this his Authority he also sent them to preach the Gospel to all Nations and witness to them the things they had seen and heard from him but beginning their predication first at Jerusalem and to Gods former people the Jews That they should preach to them repentance and remission of sin thro his name and also the observation of all those things which he had commanded them And that they should also Baptize them In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost instructing them that who so believed in him and were baptized which was the Sacrament instituted for washing away their sins for conferring on them the Spirit of regeneration and for initiating them into his Church should be saved and the unbelieving damned And that great signs also should follow them that believed and were of the Christian profession which signs should bear witness to the truth of their faith and Religion That in his name they should speak strange languages cure the sick cast out Devils and have a special command over all the powers of the Enemy as they are called Luk. 10.19 in taking up or treading on Serpents or in hapning to drink any poison not to receive any hurt from them Not that all Believers should do such Miracles but that these should still remain in the Church or Congregation of true Believers Testimonies and Evidences of Gods special favours to and presence with them § 129 At last he proceeded to their solemn Ordination wherein after he had pronounced a second Pax vobis and a sicut misit me Pater ego mitto vos He breathed upon them with his most Sacred mouth and said these words used ever since by them and their Successors in the ordination of others Receive ye the Holy Ghost whose sins ye shall forgive i. e. by Baptism or for those committed afterwards by Absolution upon confession and repentance or penance they are forgiven them and whose sins ye shall retain i. e. by not baptizing or absolving or further binding with Church-censures the impenitent and obstinat they are retained And so solemnly promised to be with them and their Successors with his power and protection till the end of the world and the time of his return to judg it § 130 This said he disappeared also to them as he had done several times already to the other which caused in them now less wonder at the former leaving their hearts replenished with great consolation After this done on the second day of the Feast and the first of his Resurrection he absented himself from them till the Eighth when that solemn Festivals Octave was fully ended and the people were upon their return to their own countreyes and habitations Where for this time our Lords glorious Person was together with those other Saints whose Bodyes were raised with him till his Ascension would be too much curiosity to inquire It seems he was pleased to observe the fixed laws of the Divine wisdom for Souls or Persons already translated to the next life viz. to have no more familiar or long-during converse with those of this for so neither did Elias and Moses make any long stay with our Lord in the Holy Mount. As for other good ends so perhaps for this the greater merit of our faith here concerning the life and affairs of the world to come § 131 S. Thomas one of the eleven was absent when our Lord thus appeared where some imagine from the fear he formerly bewrayed John 11.5 that he might not be as yet returned to the Society since their dispersion on Thursday night at our Lords apprehension and so might not have heard as the rest of our Lord 's former appearings at all to the women and to Peter c He whether the same night or afterwards being come to them and informed of their having seen our Lord yet for a greater manifestation still of our Lords Resurrection and for begetting in this Apostle more humility continued in the same incredulity as to their relations though so many as they had done to the other likely perswaded by the Circumstances of his appearing in the night coming through Doors shut and making scarse any stay at all with persons to whom he had formerly shewed so much affection but suddainly vanishing again that it might be some airy spirit subject in his motions to the order of a Superior power And though they related to him also their having seen his scars and touched his body or at least invited to do it yet he fancied that this was not done to purpose but ought to be better examined and that if he had bin there he would have thrust his hand into the Gash in our Lords side and his fingers into the holes made by the nails c Notwithstanding that this person besides his hearing our Lords many predictions to them of his Resurrection was present with the rest at our Lords raising from death after laid upon the Bier the widdows son at Naim and again at his raising of Lazarus out of his Sepulcher when he had lain longer time there than our Lord had done But this too-much suspicious and despondent inclination of his had appeared also several times formerly that we may see what materials our Lords Grace wrought upon and not to be discouraged as in those words of his at our persecuted Lords return into Judea for the raising of Lazarus Jo. 11 16. He then presently resolving that there our Lord and they must lose their lives and in his words again John 14.5 where our Lord telling his Disciples of his departure shortly and that they knew the place and the way whither he went Thomas dejectedly replied that they knew not whither he went and how could they know the way thither To whom our Lord answered that his Journey was a Return to Heaven to his Father whence he came and that He himself believed-in was the way thither Yet after the descent and renovation of the Holy Spirit this Apostle especially was made choice of to be a most eminent Assertor of the same Resurrection and Propagator of the Gospel throughout India and the remotest Nations of the East fulfilling our Lords words Acts 1.8 Et usque ad ultimum terrae and there at last laid down his life for it § 132 Our Lord then
a curious observer at her return she gave a great jealousy to Him not yet acquainted with this secret of her seeming dishonesty abroad after as may piously be conceived she had so religiously covenanted with him at her Espousals a perpetual conservation of her Virginity Where we may note the great humility of this person after so highly favoured of God in going meekly so long a journy to visit a person now so much inferior to her self but more the humility of our Saviour God before all worlds who in this his estate of exinanition devised a way to shew his humility even already when he was scarce form'd in the womb in putting his Mother upon so long a peregrination for his making a visit to his servant John who we may imagine had he had words as well as motion would with his leaping for joy have saluted Jesus as his Mother did the Virgin with an Vnde hoc mihi ut veniat Dominus meus c. In her way or very near it was Jerusalem and the Temple whither it is most probable that she so holy a Creature and now bearing him who sanctifieth all things in her womb went first to say her Magnificat there unto God and to exalt him for this exaltation of her and early to offer this springing fruit of her womb unto his father Especially when we find this her visit of Elizabeth to have bin about the solemn feast of the Passover for it was about three Months before the Baptists birth that she took this journey And there will also be less strangeness in and more Invitation to it if we imagine Joseph her Spouse a pious man doubtless ascending about that time to Jerusalem to the great Paschal feast to have bin acquainted with her purpose and to have accompanied her so far which was the greatest part of her way and so she after having staid there the Paschal Holy-daies to have finished the rest of her journey in the Company of Zacharias her Cousin or some of his Relations But the former design and privacy in this journey seems to me much more probable and a chief motive of it to have bin her absence and forbearing any converse with Joseph till her Gravidation § 16 Safely arrived at her Cousins God Here also entertained her with new testimonies and confirmations of the Angels former message For first she found her aged and sterile Cousin as the Angel had said far gone with child ' And also at her first appearance as if the presence of our Lord and of this his Holy Mother had brought the Holy Ghost with them into that House as the Persons of the Trinity are never separated the child John at his Lords approach began to perform his homage and adoration to him as it were leaping for joy saith the Text in Elizabeths womb and probably he was now first filled by this Lord with the Holy Ghost And again the Mother at the first words which the Holy Virgin breathed out to her was also filled with the Holy Ghost By whose instinct she first sheweth a most profound reverence to her to teach the following ages their duty with an Vnde hoc mihi ut Veniat Mater Domini mei ad me reverence I say tho she the wife of a Sacred Priest and an ancient Matron and Mary a young maid and meanly betrothed to a manual Artificer and then by the spirit she repeats a second time the Angels words Benedicta inter mulieres being the first of all Generations that call'd her Blessed she magnifies her ready faith Beata quae eredidit c. and by a prophetick inspirement prevents her in relating what had happened to her before herself had revealed any thing thereof calling her a Mother tho still remaining as much a Virgin as formerly and going one note beyond the Angel singing a Benedictus also to the new fruit of her womb Benedictus partus ventris tui whilst this chosen vessel meanwhile overflowed with joy in receiving a second Annunciation from the holy Elizabeth And now what doth the Virgin do but having received these Eulogies immediatly without suffering them to rest in her bosom or to swell her to any elevation of spirit offer them unto the Lord changeth their Magnificant eam to her Magnificat Dominum see Luk. 1.46 turns other 's praising her to her praising another the fountain and end of all praise Using somewhat like words as the desolate and humble Hannah the Mother of Samuel and both she and her Song and her Son being a type of this present story and interweaving with Gods praise her own never forgotten lowness and so extolling more the favour by the unworthiness of the receiver Then turneth the rest of her Song to a prophetick narration of the everlasting Kingdom and conquests of her Son and of the General redemption of Israel as appears by the last verse who hath holpen his servant Israel from the slavery of the mighty ones namely of the Prince of this world Satan and his Ministers § 17 And from this time these two holy Persons accompanied with their two holy Babes and headed by such an holy Priest of God ceased not doubtless daily to unite and offer up their praises and joies and Hallelujahs in full expectation of the near manifestation of the Kingdom of God and to rehearse the rich promises made in the Law and Prophets concerning the Messias spending the rest of their time in silence praier and contemplation and without entertaining one another with much secular or unnecessary discourse And here the Blessed Virgin abode by the disposal of Gods providence and the guidance of that little burden she bare in the company of these Holy and grave persons see Luk. 1.6 sequestred far from Joseph her espoused husband that so there might seem to pass no carnal compliances between them nor attempt to be made upon her sealed Virginity till that three Months were ended near to Elizabeths down-lying and that the Virgins being with child might now begin to appear which once discovered we may suppose would keep Joseph afterward being a just man at a sufficient distance from her § 18 And now after such caresses of the Almighty to Mary such applauses first from the Angel and then from Elizabeth since the more beloved any is of God and the greater Saint the more he is to be exercised with trials a very heavy cross is already prepared for her out of the cause of her joy whilst that mistery concerning the Incarnation of our Lord and concerning the election of this Virgin to be his Mother which was so freely revealed by God to Elizabeth and Zachary yet was conceal'd from Joseph to exercise him and his chast Spouse first with many cares and greifs She being return'd home therefore now discernably with child tho others might still look upon her with a good eye supposing her burden from Joseph's having accompanied with her yet Joseph who knew the contrary grew and that not without
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
sumptuously rebuilt by Herod as it were for the more solemn reception and honour of this Lord thereof though intended by Herod for his own Begun to be rebuilt by him in the 21 year of his Reign and in some Eight years finished and Dedicated as to the chief Body of the house but all the outworks and buildings not finished till 46 years afterwards and about the time when our Lord receiving Baptism from John began his predication See John 2.20 § 77 Here whilst our Lord as it were took possession of his Fathers house and whilst these Ceremonies were performed by the Priest And the blessed Virgin and S. Joseph who further considered whose Son it was and to whom offered were continuing their devotions and infinit thanks to God for this new-born Saviour of man-kind and the honour he had done the humility of his hand-maid chosen for his Mother and were reflecting also on the strange things spoken to them of this Divine off-spring by the Angel Gabriel and others by S. Elizabeth by the Shepheards and on the Homage of the Sages there came at the same instant into the Temple tho holy old man Simeon uncertain whether a Priest but conjectured rather none from the Evangelist's silence herein who enlightned by the prophecies and the common expectation that was in those daies see Luk. 2.38 of this new King for this Nation by the Divine Providence had bin detained ever after the Babylonian Captivity less or more under the servitude of forraign Nations and of the great Empires of the world to cause in them a more ardent desire and dependance upon the promised Messias for freeing Israel as they imagined from the Roman heavy-yoke but Simeon with more spiritual eyes expelling it for freeing the world from the servitude of sin and Satan who I say had for many years longed-after and prayed-for the comming of this Messias and the Redemption of all Mankind For to this devout person we may imagine his seeing the world so over-run with sin and held captive by Satan caused much grief for the offending of God and loss of so many souls and that he often brake out into the like passion with the. Prophet Esaiah chap. 62. 1. For Sion's sake I will not hold my peace and for Jerusalems sake I will not rest until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness and the salvation thereof as a Lamp that burneth And vers 6 11. I will not hold my peace day nor night I will give him no rest till he establish till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth till the salvation of Sion cometh and his reward is with him and his recompence before him And upon such fervent supplications of his the Holy Ghost for his consolation revealed unto him that notwithstanding his old age and small distance from the Grave yet he should not dy before he had seen the Lords Christ And at this time the same Holy Spirit again gave him notice of our Load 's being then in the Temple a small infant in the arms of a poor Virgin § 78 Upon which coming in thither at this Instant with great Devotion and Humility he took this Divine Child out of his Mother's Armes being herein a representative of the Church accepting from God's hands this her Redeemer and in the embracing of him filled with the Holy Ghost as Elizabeth was before Luk. 1.41 and lifting up his eies to Heaven joyfully sung before the company there assembled his Nunc dimittis servum tuum in pace secundum verbum tuum blessing God for the salvation he had prepared not only for the Jewish Nation but all the world and for this childs being as the glory of Israel so the light of the Gentiles This suddain action and prophecy of this reverend old Man putting our Blessed Lady and S. Joseph into a new joyful wonder after all those other testimonies concerning the child heard before and adding still more matter to the Holy Virgins treasure out of which all these things came to the knowledg of Posterity § 79 After this he delivered the Holy Infant again to his Mother And in giving as an old Man if not also a Priest his Benediction to the thrice happy-parents and by the revelation of the same Holy Ghost foreseeing also the great sufferings of our Lord that were to follow and the oppositions that would be made to his new Kingdom of which sufferings one heavy one was then immediatly to break forth he made his more particular addresses to the Mother of our Lord for S. Joseph before those saddest times was to be at rest and told her That as the child was born for the advancement as he had already said of many in Gods people Israel such as should yeild to his Scepter so also for the fall and utter ruine of many others such as should not believe and acknowledg him and those secularly Great and that this age should throughly discover the goodness or wickedness of mens hearts And that he should be set up as a sign to all the world that should be much contradicted and spoken against by the great ones thereof as more especially he was at his death being lifted up on high on the pole of the Cross and all the people about him blaspheming See Psal 105.18 After and for which followed also the destruction of Jerusalem and the dispersion and Captivity of that Nation until this day When also as it were a sharp sword should pierce her Soul out of Maternal compassion towards him whilst she should stand by and behold such things done to the innocency of the Holy One of God After which words spoken by him much what in the expressions of the ancient Prophets See Esay 8.14,15 42.6 49.6 52.10 11.10 65.2 as we usually find those later in the new Testament to deliver their predictions in the language of the Old both coming from the same Dictator and he receiving again from the Infant the Benediction he bestowed on the parents he now joyfully retired waiting and preparing himself for his near approaching death and dissolution from the many infirmities of his old age § 80 No sooner had he finished his discourse causing much admiration in the hearers but that this first Divine testimony concerning our Lord now openly given in the Temple might be celebrated and ratified by two witnesses and those of both Sexes as both were equally concerned in this happy news a woman also of a great age Anna a Prophetess too detained in this life as Simeon was for her beholding the Lord Christ came in at the same time and seconded Simeon in the like Relation concerning this child his being the new-born Messias and Saviour of the world To which the Holiness of her person and severity and sequestration of her life from common converse somewhat like that of the Baptist added very much Whom the Evangelist thus sets forth That she had lived in perpetual widowhood from her youth after only having seven years enjoyed
an husband and now aged 84 years departed not from the Temple where many chambers belonging to it we may imagine she might have some little Cell for her self and her necessary provision brought to her thither and beside her Devotions might do some little services more proper for women in assistance of the Priests And some such thing of women serving and attending on the Tabernacle we read in Exod. 38.8 and again in 1 Sam. 2.22 And after the settlement of the Gospel in 1 Tim. 5. is mentioned such a sequestration and retirement of widows living together and taken care-of for their maintenance by the Church for the peculiar service of God and his Saints Where vers 5. it is said of these also that Desolate and trusting in God to whom they dedicated their continency and service for their subsistence they continued in supplications and praiers night and day So From the Temple this Holy widow saith the Evangelist departed not but served God there with fastings and praiers night and day With fastings as this being the best preservative of chastity and preparative for Devotion by allaying and calming the Spirits and Passions and mortifying and taming the flesh The chief subject of whose Devotions as of Simeons probably were the Redemption of God's people by his sending quickly the promised Messias then much spoken of She then at this blessed sight and the fulfilling of it first fell on praising and giving thanks to God and witnessed the same things with Simeon her coming also casually after him removing the suspition of any combination concerning this Heavenly child to all there present nor only to them but to all those pious people in Jerusalem that resorted to her and expected also this Redemption Luk. 2.38 which by her eminent sanctity and her being noted also for the gift of Prophecy must make no small noise in the City after the Magi had spread this news there before by their solicitous inquisition after this new-born King § 81 This that passed so publickly in the Temple after King Herod's long expectation of the return of the Magi supposing them perhaps to have travailed further to see the Country or that disappointed of their expectation out of shame they had secretly with-drawn themselves from a publick derision soon gave him a new alarm and so quickned his bloody intention of destroying the Holy Infant Meanwhile these holy rites devoutly performed and such praises and acclamations received at Jerusalem as were before at Bethleem the Holy Mother treasuring up all these things in her heart and Holy Simeons last words bodeing great afflictions as well as the first returned with her husband S. Joseph the same day to Bethleem For an immediate return of them from Jerusalem to Nazareth which some imagine seems not so well to sute with the following story of their being sent away into Egypt For at Nazareth they being so far removed from Bethleem their stay seems to have been secure enough or their flight from thence would rather have bin directed North-wards to some part of Syria near hand than Southwards into Egypt as beating again the way they came thro all their Country first and flying from Herod just the way toward him § 82 To Bethleem then they returned for ordering some little matters there or also giving their little one some repose but purposing a return to Nazareth with all convenient speed and with great apprehensions of the Consolations they should have in shewing to her parents and kindred her new-born Son and in providing for his better accomodation as also in the recounting to them the many strange things of her journey when behold they had no sooner after a weary journey setled themselves and the Infant to take some rest but that the Angel probably that very night appeared to Joseph and commanded him immediatly to take the young Child and his Mother for so it is observed the Angel in reverence stiles her v. 13. and again v. 20. and not his wife and to secure him by a speedy flight from that place for that Herod sought immediatly to slay him and this a flight not to some neighbouring Village or to his own Country Galilee but quite contrary still removed further from home and friends into Egypt a country of above 200 miles distance through a vast Desart in a cold season with a Child only six weeks old after a wearisome travel of it and them the day before unto a people of another language left also uncertain how long their stay which was to be so long as Herod lived Where what tolerable entertainment could they expect when they had received such mean accomodation among their friends and kindred Such was Gods command to Abraham and his obedience Gen. 12.1 but he much better provided and attended § 83 The Holy Man without replying or disputing why not Galilee thought a place remote enough or why not God take away Herods life to save his Sons He rose immediatly and departed by night without any conscious thereof their poverty being free from encombrances taking Jesus their treasure with him He and the Mother to whom he had communicated the Angels message being perfectly resigned and full of confidence in God and she also instead of disswading animating and hastening him thereto And the same resignation was also in the little Jesus to the will of his Father now engaged in a greater suffering than that of the Straw and Cratch or yesterdaies travel to Jerusalem smiling upon them in the midst of their cares concerning him and already beginning to fulfil the prophecies that were written of him A type of whom was that of Israel called also Gods first-born Exod. 4.22 and of whom he saith Hose 11.1 when Israel was a child then I loved him and called my Son out of Egypt in its first child-hood being by the Divine appointment carried into Egypt for its Education and brought thence with a strong hand after that Pharaoh was destroyed as our Lord was after Herod which Pharaoh also as Herod had appointed that all the Male-children of Israel so soon as born should be slain thinking thus to have destroyed Gods first-born Israel § 84 Our Little Lord rejoyced also at his going now as it were to take possession of his promised Psal 2.8 inheritance of the Gentiles to whom he brought salvation as well as to the Jews And as in Bethleem he had already received the Homage of the East so now he went himself in person to this Southern Region to establish his new Kingdome there where was at that time the very throne and seat of Satan and which was the chief Mother of Idolatry and Superstition in the whole Gentile world and the Source where the rest of the Western and Northern parts learnt and whence they derived it But again which after this gracious visit of his and by his Redemption its being subdued to the Gospel became no less exemplaplary to the rest of the Christian world in an extraordinary Sanctity
what abundance of tears may we imagine especially his Holy Mother to have powred forth so that she had great reason to represent this her sorrow to her Son as soon as she regained him Your Father and I have sought you sorrowing How may we imagine this desolate Virgin now to have lamented like the Spouse in the Canticles cbap 3.1 2 c which also in a special manner was the Type of her as one above all other Spouses the dearest to her Beloved for ever Quaesivi quem dilexit anima mea quaesivi illum non inveni Surrexi circuivi Civitatem per vicos plateas quaesivi quem dilexit anima mea quaesivi non inveni All this grief meanwhile was well known to and foreseen by her Son amidst his Devotions in the Temple But these afflictions are the things which exceedingly endear the Saints to God and perfect in them his love and therefore he is so liberal in bestowing these upon them § 113 The next morning they return back with speed toward Jerusalem and at night repairing ta their former lodging neither there it seems heard they any thing of him which argues for this time of his absence his pernoctation in the Temple and so they must pass this second night also in great desolation On the third day morning conjecturing perhaps by his former practice the place of his affections they repaired to the Temple and there happily they found him this sorrow and joy being a Type of that they were for the like time to suffer at his Death and after three daies of their recovery of him again in a joyful Resurrection And here saith the Evangelist they found him sitting in the midst of the Doctors I suppose in the manner before related unless this his sitting among them and also his proposing Questions to them may be thought to argue his taking some authority upon him as an extraordinary Embassadour sent to them from God where the most apparent maturity of his Celestial wisdom abundantly supplied the defect of his age At this fight his Parents also were amazed saith the Text For as it repaired their joy so it could not but cause in them also great admiration that he who had hitherto observed so much humility and silence and privacy at home among the simple people there should now on a suddain disclose so much spirit and confidence wisdom and Eloquence abroad among the most learned sought out by him for that purpose § 114 Our Lord upon their presence dutifully rising and coming to them and taking this occasion to withdraw himself from that admiring Assembly his Mother in whom this sight had made still greater impressions of Reverence toward him asked him not to blame his action at all but rather to be informed of the reason of it as also lovingly to condole her past sorrows for the loss of him why he had done so to them Fili quid fecisti nobis sic telling him that she and his Father had undergone a great deal of care and grief in seeking for him Where we may note her modest including all she saith of his action that caused her so much pain in one monosyllable sic To whom he answered as unconcerned in any human relations and pleading no other thing than obedience to his Father for his excuse as he frequently doth else-where See John 2.4 Mat. 12.48 that they might have spared such their solicitude that he was to mind and attend the business for which that his Father had sent him Which early fervour of his for yielding in all things exact obedience to the will of his Father calls to mind what in the like case he said afterwards Jo. 4.34 in answer to his Disciples that it was his meat to do the will of his Father and Jo. 9.4 That he must work the works of him that sent him and Jo. 14.31 That as the Father gave him commandment so he did and Jo. 18. That for this cause he came into the world to bear witness to the Truth Which now first when yet a child he did in the midst of the Great Doctors by his Father's special appointment and order and of the Holy Spirit and wisdom wherewith he was replenished if perhaps now they would take any notice of this their Messiah by seeing the Holy Spirit and wisdom wherewith his immature years were replenished and by comparing his present age with the time of his Nativity which God formerly made known to them by the Magi whereas they carelesly then neglected those homages to him which Strangers performed § 115 The Holy Virgin and S. Joseph did not as yet well understand what our Lord meant by such an answer They knew well what he meant by his Father but not by his business Those things in particular which our Lord was to do and suffer in this his Mission from God for the Redemption of mankind being not as yet discovered to them As indeed no Saint was ever so great to whom God hath manifested all his mysteries and Counsels but this is done by certain Degrees that all may depend herein wholly on his good pleasure Neither is the ignorance of these things any fault in this Blessed Mother of our Lord. In Luc 2. c. 50. Of whose perfections thus Cardinal Tolet Licet magnam gratiae fidei copiam acceperit in Conceptione sua quando filium concepit tamen fide gratia ac Sanctitate indies augebatur And Possunt saith he multa mysteria ignorari absque ulla culpa Of which Mysteries also he observes that Saepe datur majora agnoscere non minora in his quae non propria virtute sed divina gratia assequimur ut sic ostenderetur omnia accepta esse a Deo ex gratia benevolentia § 116 Meanwhile the Holy Virgin whose great Reverence toward our Lord hindred any further inquiry into the meaning of his words or making any further reply let none of his words fall to the ground but carefully treasured them up in her heart From whom 't is likely the Relaters of these passages to S. Luke received them because this Evangelist makes several times particular mention of the diligence of the Mother of our Lord in keeping such an exact account So our Lord returned with his Parents to Nazareth He after this publick manifestation of himself and great applause continuing still the same obedience to them in all things and they observing him still with a greater degree of Admiration and Devotion In all which passages it seems strange that these Doctors after such a Visit and light given them of the extraordinary quality of his person should take no further notice of nor make any further inquiry after him nor yield him any sutable entertainment But perhaps the coming-in of such mean people there appearing as his parents might serve in some manner to abate their esteem of him and to draw a veil over the face of such lazy inquirers or also already
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
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
therefore He was ordered to appear not in feasting or in glorious array or in some rich and stately Court or populous City or Pallace but in that most rigid fasting and in rough apparel and in an uncultivated desert Thus was he sent before to baptize and clense the whole Nation and to purge them from their former sins by repentance that they might be rendred a people fit to entertain so Holy a Prince and capable to receive the large effusions of his Spirit And so we find Mat. 3.7 the whole Nation as it were upon his appearing and telling them that One followed who brought his Faun in his hand to purge his Floor and who would burn the chaff with fire unquenchable Mat. 3.11 12. flocking unto him confessing sins especially the meaner people Publicanes Soldiers and such as had no high opinion of their own righteousness and receiving baptism and inquiring of him concerning their several duty and amendment of life See Luk. 3.10 c. 7.29 And among others we find also repairing to this forerunner out of the remoter parts of Galilee several of those whom our Lord afterward entertained for his Disciples learning as it were their first rudiments from this Baptist As Andrew John Peter Philip Nathanaiel Jo. 1. c. and not unlikely Matthew also amongst other Publicans Luk. 7.29 Only the Pharisees and Lawyers much conceited of their own Holiness frustrated the Counsel of God against themselves and would not come to confession to or receive baptism from Him Luk. 7.30 and as they first refused John's principles and discipline so afterward they profitted as little under that of the Messias 3. Lastly this Sacred person was ordained to proclaim and bear witness of the Messias before his face to all the people so soon as he should appear and with his finger to point out unto them his very Person Jo. 1.26 Only because he came so near the time of our Lord no miracles were to be wrought by him lest he should turn mens eyes upon himself from him that followed Him to whom these were reserved as a Royal prerogative and therefore our Savior enumerated these to Johns Disciples questioning who he was Mat. 11.5 6. to shew them that he was the Messias and a greater Person then their Master See Mat. 11.5 § 4 St. John Baptist being designed to so high an imployment all things suitably in him were very extraordinary and transcending the common condition of other men His Parents were chosen by God persons eminently holy and near akin to the Mother of the Messias Luke 1.6 36. He was conceived miraculously as Isaac had bin formerly when concupiscence and lust was now ceased in his Parents being very old and past procreation of children as if he was not to be a child of the flesh but of the Spirit Gal. 4.29 He was sanctified and filled with the Holy Ghost even in the womb leaping there for joy saith S. Luke 1. c. 44. v. three Months before his Nativity at the approach of our Saviors presence as it were indicating thus early the Messias to his Mother His conception was first foretold to his parents by an Angel and that the same Angel Gabriel who six Months after annunciated our Lords conception to the blessed Virgin and who being singularly admitted into the secrets of God and one of the Angels of special presence Luk. 1.19 had long before those times revealed to the greatly beloved Daniel the punctual time of our Lords coming â—an 9.24 24. The Baptist thus miraculously entred into the world lived also such a life here as never any man lived before him after his infancy as one who was not like other Prophets taken for Gods service from leading a common life but from the womb filled with the Spirit He left his Fathers house who lived in a City in the Mountains of Judah and retired into the Wilderness was never corrupted with any acquaintance with men nor interessed in any affairs of human life nor learned at all the sinfully-compliant acts of ordinary society that so he might afterward as an equal stranger to all and independent on any for the necessaries of his life more freely reprehend the faults of every one whilst none could tax any in himself He lived in a remote Desert where doubtless he had much converse with God and holy Angels for what can we less imagine of him who was from the womb so singularly sanctified He used not at all the ordinary food of men at least after his sojourning in the Wilderness neither eating any Bread nor drinking any Wine so that the Jews seeing such abstinence affirmed he was possessed See Luk. 7.33 His raiment rough and suitable to his diet and such as he might receive from any dead beast for it was but Leather and woven Hair Of both which his diet and his Apparel our Savior pleased to take particular notice to the people as betokening an extraordinary person Mat. 11.8 Luk. 7.33 from whose unerring mouth he received such a testimony as never any had the like See Mat. 11.9 11 14. where tho the 11th verse there seems to intimate that the least of our Saviors disciples or followers should be made greater than he 1. in some sort more happy in hearing and seeing our Saviors words and works in enjoying clearer manifestations of the Gospel lastly in doing greater things than he namely all sorts of Miracles by the power of our Lord yet might they be notwithstanding and were most of them much inferior to him in the eminency of a continued Sanctity from his birth and the dignity of his office Who was chosen to be the first Minister of the Gospel and whose hallowed Tongue first shewed to the world the person of the Messias and whose Sacred hands baptized Him Elias the most eminent of all the Prophets as I said was his Type who prefigured him in his rough apparel and solitary abode and silvestrian fare living for the most part in the Forrest of Mount-Carmel as may be gathered from 1 King 18.19 42. comp 2 King 4.25 the habitation of his successor Elisha fed by Ravens in solitude and drinking of the Brook fasting beyond all others save Moses and Jesus typifying in his passing thro the divided waters of Jordan the baptism there of this his successor Bold in rebuking vice in Ahab as John in Herod and persecuted by Jezebel as he by Herodias § 5 And as the great Elias was the type of John so was John Baptist the most express and near Pattern and Semplar of the Messias both in the course of his life and in the manner of his doctrine and in his sufferings and death Miraculously conceiv'd in one kind as our Savior was in another and both foretold by the same Angel reserved in privacy and solitude all his younger years tho full of the Holy Ghost till about the 30th year of his age then beginning to preach and baptize as afterward did our Savior and preaching in the same new manner
and words comp Mat. 3.2 with 4.17 declaring unto them a Kingdom in Heaven which the Lord that followed him would confer on the worthy and the everlasting torments of Hell-fire which he would inflict on the rebellious telling them of a kingdom of God to be erected not abroad but within them and of the Holy Spirit which this King would baptize them with upon their repentance preached by Him freeing them from the thraldom not of the Romans but of sin nor from their servitude under Herod or Tiberius but under the great Prince of all this lower world Satan their spiritual and only dangerous enemy whose captives and children and not Abrahams they unknowingly were till by this Prince delivered This was the great deliverance to come by Jesus which both Holy Zachary spake of in his Benedictus Luk. ◠77 To give knowledg of Salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins and the Angel in his message to Joseph telling him why he should be called Jesus or Savior Matt. 1.21 because he should save his people from their sins Such punishments and rewards liberty and royalty as the Baptist preached being the only that were here worth the speaking of or looking after Thus was the Baptist appointed to be the beginner of the Gospel and the first open promulgator of this new Spiritual Kingdom The Prophets saith our Savior Mat. 11.12 13. prophecied until John 1. of such a thing to come but from the daies of John the kingdom of heaven began to suffer violence people by troopes now pressing into it and every one striving to gain for himself a share thereof whilst they crowded in such multitudes to Johns Mat. 3.5 and our Saviors baptisms Joh. 3 26. Only John began the publishing of this Gospel afar off as it were not coming into the Temple or the cheif Cities to preach it but staying a loof off in the Wilderness and near Jordan leaving these honors to the Lord who followed Him by whom the Gospel was brought still nearer till it visited at last every small Town and Village § 6 And as John preceded our Savior in his new and Spiritual doctrine so he resembled him much what in his Heroical vertues Both in his magnanimity and courage and in his mansuetude and clemency and in his humility and self-denial which was never in any man so great as in our Savior 1 Using the same boldness toward Herod Luk. 3.19 20 as our Savior afterwards did Luk. 13.32 reproving him for all the evil he had done saith the Evangelist Luke 3.19 and particularly concerning his Wife not fearing the implacable wrath of a woman and a Queen tho this cost him his life Again treating the Scribes the Pharisees and Sadduces whose manners he knew by the Spirit and Revelation not having learnt them by experience at the first sight roughly and severely as their incorrigible Hypocrisy and malice deserv'd reproving them in the very same terms as our Savior comp Mat. 3.7 with 23.33 and calling them Generation of Vipers or Serpents they being the brood of the old Serpent the Devil in the resemblance of their manners see Jo. 8.44 in opposition to their boasting of their being Abrahams seed to whom they were nothing like in their lives 2 Meanwhile toward the soldiers the publicans and others notorious but relenting sinners using the same mansuetude as Christ teaching them their duty for the future without upbraiding their former faults This great Saint not bred in the Court or in ceremonial Society but in retiredness and solitude neither reverencing the secular porte and state of the Pharisee nor despising the meanness and low esteem of the Publican Only in general the Baptist seems to personate a greater austerity then our Lord both in his conversation and his preaching pressing mainly the discipline of repentance and threatning much the wrath to come hell-fire and damnation to the disobedient having something more herein of the Spirit of his type Elias whereas our Saviors language was more benign and indulgent publishing remission of sin and promising a Kingdom to the obedient and also telling his Disciples that the Spirit of Elias did not so well befit them Yet were both our Saviors and Johns dispensations suitable to their seasons the one answering to the beginning of an holy life the other to the end and consummation thereof the one laying the foundation with threats and terrors the other building it up with consolations and mercies the Lord doing the rough part by his servant the gentle and mild by himself 3 Again much resembling our Savior also in his great humility accompanied with such eminency of Sanctity He that was so far above the Prophets yet when the Jews sent to him and asked him whether he was Elias or whether he was a Prophet which is to be understood here as in Mat. 16.14 the Jews then holding a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He answered No without telling them that he was that typified Elias which was for to come or that he was more then a Prophet and expressed himself meanwhile by the most diminutive term that could be thought on that he was only Vox clamantis c. before a greater Person that was then coming after him He stood exceedingly upon his guard of lowliness and disparaged himself upon all occasions as the Jews and his Disciples magnifyed him Being conjectured by them for the Messias he nourished not the mistake for his own honor but saith the Evangelist Jo. 1.20 he confessed and denied not i. e. to speak this truth against his own reputation but confessed that he was not He. And Jo. 3.28 he takes solemn witness of such his confession In comparing himself with him he useth an expression to debase himself beneath the lowest of his servants that he was not worthy stooping to untie the latchet of his shoe Mar. 1.7 and Jo. 3.31 he saith that he being earthly did but loqui de terra speak of the Earth i. e. low and mean rudiments for which S. John useth this phrase see Jo. 3. v. 12. in comparison of Jesus who coming from Heaven above spoke of the greater misteries which he had there heard and seen He every where gave place to our Savior left Bethabara in Judea the more publick place of concourse for our Saviors disciples some of whom had formerly bin his to baptize in and retired himself North-ward toward Galilee to Enon near to Salim Jo. 3.23 He transmitted his Disciples to him Jo. 1.35 and resign'd his former Auditors and the multitudes to his conduct and when the people so soon as they saw his great Miracles and heard his divine words now admired and flockt after Jesus much more then they did after John He rejoiced to hear it with an humble acknowledgment Oportet illum crescere me minui and when his ambitious disciples made a complaint to him of it he answered them that he was but a waiter on this Bridegroome of the Church and his joy was