q d. the evidence and clearness of the Fact committed needs no further accusation Do thou Justice there 's no need of any more examination Dost thou question our righteousness Dost thou think we will not do Justice Dost not see who and what we are who have brought this man bound before thee Is this all the respect thou givest to the Priests of the most High God Dost thou make no difference betwixt us and the common Rabble Do not think that we would bring one before thee that were not guilty of death Thou mayst see how strictly we keep the Law for we will not so much as come into thy house we dare not tred within thy doors Nor think thou that we have done any thing in this matter either out of envy or hatred or too precipitate without deliberation and good advice We have considered all things and finde that he doth deserve to die thou hast nothing to do but to pronounce Sentence For if he were not a malefactor c. O the hypocrisie O the lyes and malice of these men Should things be thus carryed Is this to execute Justice Is every prisoner a malefactor and guilty of death Who sees not that they distrust the goodness of their Cause Therefore 1. They go about to blind and delude the Judge with vain and empty words lest they should be put upon it to prove him a malefactor Consider well O Christian the malice of these men They would fain seem to be just and righteous even against the check of their own conscience as if they had never attempted any such thing and never went about to destroy any but a Malefactor when t is evident that they were the men that did most unjustly put all the Prophets to death 2. In this also they shew their malice in that they would have Christ cut off before he was examined or convicted nay they think him not worthy that the Judge should so much as give him audience or that he should be tryed according to any Rule of Law 3. They openly charge him as a Malefactor before the common Barr and in the face of the open Court who had healed all their sick Ask the Lepers whom he cleansed and the blind whose sight he restored c. whether he were a Malefactor c. But thus it is written They rewarded me evil for good and hatred for my love Psalm 35. Again For my love they are my Adversaries but I prayed for them Psalm 109 Christ did here truly pray even when he held his peace considering with himself our sins for which he suffered all this wrong But Pilate being now incensed and moved with some chollar at such proud and unrighteous expressions cryes out to them again Take ye him and judge him after your own Law as if he had said if he be a Malefactor as you say he is but do not prove it why then put your own Law in execution against him The Roman Laws prohibit me to condemn any man before he hath a full hearing Truly Pilate the Law of Moses did enjoyn the same too but so it is by the malice of these men that the Heathens Laws are now prefer'd before the Law of God The Jews very well know it from Exod. 23. and we also know the same from the words of Nicodemus that the Law of Moses judgeth no man untill he be first heard and convinced John 7. But see how they evade it It is not lawfull for us say they to put any man to death Well but who then I pray put Stephen to death Act. 7. What Authority put him to death Therefore they lye grosly Was not this to put Christ to death when they delivered him up to be sentenced to die and laboured with all importunity to have him put to death But they would have him put to death by the laws of Rome that so as well they as their laws might be acquitted from doing any such thing Their Law was to stone to death but the Roman Law was to crucifie This is that they would have They would not barely have Christ put to death but they would have it done with the greatest reproach shame that might be Nor did it so fall out by chance or by their consultation but that the saying of Jesus might be fulfilled when he certainly foretold that he should be delivered to the Gentiles and be crucified by them Mat. 20. Christ also had said that the Son of man must be lifted up as Moses lifted up the Serpent John 3.12 Again When I am lifted up I will draw all unto me Joh. 12. And again When the son of man shall be lifted up then shall ye know that I am he John 8. Now when the Jews perceived that they should miss their aym and that there was no good to be done with Pilate unless they brought some Accusation and certain proof of clear crimes against Christ They began to accuse him of many things Luke 23.2 Mar. 15.3 saying we found this fellow perverting our Nation and forbidding to give Tribute to Caesar saying that he himself is Christ a King Then Pilate entred into the Judgement Hall again and called Jesus and said unto him Art thou the King of the Jews John 18.33 Jesus answered standing before him Mat. 27.11 Sayest thou this thing of thy self or did others tell it thee of me Pilate answered am I a Jew thine own Nation and the chief Priests have delivered thee unto me what hast thou done Jesus answered my Kingdom is not of this World If my Kingdom were of this World then would my servants fight that I should not be delivered to the Jews but now is my Kingdom not from hence Pilate therefore said unto him Art thou a King then Jesus answered thou sayest that I am a King To this end was I born and for this cause came I into the World that I might bear witness unto the Truth every one that is of the Truth heareth my voyce Pilate saith unto him what is Truth And when he had said this he went out again unto the Jews and saith unto them I find in him no fault at all And they were the more fierce saying he stirreth up the people teaching throughout all Jury beginning from Galilee to this place Luke 23.5 This was Christs first examination in Pilates Court where the Jews Accusations are first laid down Lest thou shouldst think O Pilate say they that we have nothing to lay to this mans charge hear we pray thee what just cause we have to hate and abhor him He is a seducer of the Nation the Author of all mutinies he fâ—ribids men to pay Custom and Tribute he calls himself King of the Jews which is no less then high Treason against his Imperial Majesty And is not this crime and cause enough against him What wouldst thou have more Every one of these Accusations is sufficient to condemn him Here thou seest O Christian how truly David said The
quiet as we heard before in the house of Annas so secondly it doth as much complain of Christ that he will and must Raign The world is in bodily fear of losing its Kingdom Thus Herod was exceeding afraid when Christ was born Matth. 2. So here the Roman power is cast into a quaking fit lest it should be destroyed by Christ And thus Worldlings are still afraid that Christ will take away their Riches and Honours from them But there is no ground why these silly men should so fear it He that can give Heavenly Kingdoms will scorn those that are mortal He came not to take our earthly things from us but to give us Heavenly things with them Christ doth not deny us things terrene but teacheth us to make good use of them To Pilates Question Christ makes his answer so that he doth neither deny himself to be a King nor directly affirm it and this he did most wisely For if he had presently answered and said I am a King before he had distinguished his Kingdom from the kingdoms of men he had given Pilate occasion to revile him What then doth he reply Speakest thou this of thy self or did others tell it thee of me Which may be taken 1. By way of Admiration q.d. O Pilate what a great thing and how certain a Truth dost thou speak of which thou art altogether ignorant and unwitting Whence hadst thou it that thou shouldst call me a King whereas none can say that this Jesus is that is that I am the Lord but by the Holy Ghost Doubtless whencesoever thou hadst it whether of thy self or from others thou hast truly spoken a mighty matter if so be thou didst but understand thine own words and know what thou sayest In like manner Christ admired that noble answer of the Centurian who said Lord I am not worthy that thou shouldst c. Mat. 8. 2. It may be taken as a reprehension of Pilate as if Christ had said If thou wouldst fasten this upon me from thine own jealousie then thou dost not the part of a just Judge For a Judge must not judge according to his own private surmises but as the cese is But if others have told thee these Tales of me they must prove what they say let them make it appear that I went about to raise a Rebellion But 3. Christ did thus answer especially to give an occasion to speak what follows Am I a Jew saith he q.d. How should I say this of mine own head when I am no Jew but a Gentile What do we that are Heathens know of your affairs Thine own Nation and the High Priests have delivered thee unto me and have accused thee under this Notion before me They have thus aspersed thee I neither apprehended nor accused thee What is it which thou hast done let me hear it from thine own mouth do thou tell me thy self what hast thou done to cause so many and so great men yea thine own Prelates and Clergy and all the whole Nation to hate thee Christ made no answer to this For he had done nothing to deserve their spite and spleen But all that he did was rather worthy of commendation for he did all things well he did all good things and nothing but good and all good things were created by him But he did answer to the former question and distinguish his Kingdom from the kingdom of the World to shew that he had nothing offended against Caesar My Kingdom saith he is not of this World q.d. Pilate I acknowledge and confess that I am a King and this is all that I have done This is the crime that I am accused of But understand it aright T is true I am a King yet so as that I neither usurp or diminish the power of thy Caesar or intend to pull down the Power or Dominion of any King or Prince And that thou mayest fully know my meaning 1. I am not a worldly but an Heavenly King in whose hand are the hearts of all Kings though thou dost little see it 2. My Kingdom that it is my Principality and Administration or my Kingdom that is my Laws and Statutes or my kingdom that is my officers and subjects this my kingdom is not of this world that is it is not of men but of God I am saith he made a King by him upon his holy Hill of Sion Psalm 2. 3. It is not of this World that is it is not a Temporal but a Spiritual Kingdom For the World and the desire thereof passeth away 4. It is not of this world that is it doth not consist in the things of this world as in Riches Pleasures Pomp for whatsoever is of this world is the lust of the flesh the lust of the eye and the pride of life but in Spiritual things as Righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Ghost Rom. 14. 5. It is not of this world because it hath other Rights and Laws which a worldly Kingdom hath not 6. It is not of this world because it is not corporal but Spiritual 7. It is governed after another manner than the Kingdoms of this world For these are Ruled by a material Sword but my Kingdom hath no need of such a Sword The Sword of my Kingdom is the Word of God The Kingdoms of the world have Cities Towers Towns Villages Hosts Armies Ammunition but my Kingdom doth require nothing but the hearts of men The world doth rule over mens estates and persons but my Scepter swayeth only their hearts and consciences The world vaunts it with carnal power but must stoop to that which is Spiritual I care nothing at all for fleshly strength but I Triumph and Raign spiritually over sin death and hell See how lively Christ sets forth his Kingdom In the same manner almost doth Zachary speak of Christs Kingdom Behold saith he thy King cometh unto thee meek and lowly Zach. 9. Note also that he doth not say my Kingdom is not in this world For he is Lord of the world too All things were made by Christ and by him are they all governed and disposed All power is given unto him in Heaven and in earth Mat. 28. Now if the Kingdom of Christ be not of this world then it will follow that there is another world besides this And therefore 1. If thou dost not see the Promises of Christ fulfill'd in this world yet do not despair for there is another world wherein shall be made good whatsoever was not performed here 2. Whereas the Kingdom of Christ is not of this world therefore we are commanded to pray Thy Kingdom come So then Christ doth here free Pilate from all his fear And by his Example also he doth prove that he did not at all affect the Caesarean or regall power If my Kingdom were of this world saith he 1. I would not march with naked Disciples but would provide me armed men yea I would have my Counsell of War Souldiers an Army c.
who should guard me as their Generall with their Swords in this my necessity and would hazard their lives for me Or 2. If I sought a worldly Kingdom the Angels themselves would defend me from the violence of the Jews But I have no need of the help of Angels or men My own right hand is able to supply me with ayd sufficient Here the weakness of a worldly Kingdom is seen which hath no strength of it self but all from its Subjects and Officers and if these fail a King is but in an ill case But if they do list themselves under him they may prove false and betray him many wayes But the Kingdom that is from above is sufficient of it self and needs not the help of any From all this Christ concludeth that his Kingdom is not from hence as if he had said Thou mayst certainly assure thy self by this Argument that my Kingdom is not worldly or earthy What ever thou or thy Caesar hath shall be in no danger for me I covet nothing of yours I care not for all the glory and riches of the world which you so highly esteem These things were spoken to Pilate but they do as much concern us 1. For if Christs Kingdom be not from hence Why then O Christian dost thou seek after the Riches and Honours of this world 2. If the Kingdom of Christ be not of this world then Christians must expect to suffer in the world so long as they have the peace of their consciences in Christ John 16. Wonder not then that the godly meet with so much trouble in the world A good man in all his afflictions should comfort himself with this word saying My Kingdom is not from hence 3. If Christs Kingdom be not from hence they are much mistaken then who place the Kingdom of Christ in outward things and the Elements of the world The Kingdom of God saith he is within you Luke 17. Which is not so to be understood as if this lower world were not created by God or did not belong unto God as having nothing to do with it as Manichaeus was of opinion For it is certain that all the ends of the earth are his the sea is his and he made it c. Psalm 95. But however Christ put a clear difference between his Kingdom and the kingdom of the world yet the name of King did stick in Pilates stomack For he was never wont to hear in all the dubblings of honour amongst their Princes that ever any did usurp the Royal Title And he conceived that this Title ought not to be given to any without Caesars consent and approbation Therefore he saith Art thou then a King notwithstanding thy Kingdom be not of this world He stickles much at the Title King this he could not bear For he saw it would follow that if his Kingdom were not from hence it must be from somewhere else Let the Kingdom be whence it will a Kingdom it was and would be Wherefore by way of conclusion he infers upon him Art thou therefore a King The question had been better put thus where is then thy Kingdom Where is that other world thou talkst of He might perhaps have had an answer to this question that might have done him some good But he asked not after any of these things he was afraid of his own kingdom and office Christ therefore doth undauntedly answer him Thou sayst that I am a King as if he had said what need I tell thee when thou thy self sayest it Is it not enough that thou sayest it thy self which is all one as if he had plainly said I am I grant that I am a King Christ doth Emphatically repeat the name King to shew us that he did not repent him nor was he ashamed of his Celestial and Spiritnal Kingdom but had rather that by all means it should be known to Caesar himself as well as to all men For inasmuch as the salvation of us all doth depend on this Kingdom it ought not to be denyed or concealed And it is a sweet comfortable word for Christ to say that he is a King He is truly a King as it is said I have set my King c. Psalm 2. Again Thou madest him to have Dominion over the works of thy hands Psalm 8. Wherefore if thou sinnest do not presently despair for thou art not without the Kingdom of Christ till thou ceasest to be the work of God Hence saith the Wise man Though we sin we are thine Wisd 15. He will acknowledge thee for his possession if thou wilt acknowledge him to be thy Lord. But that Pilate might not further be offended at the Title of King Christ proceedeth to explain his Kingdom yet more fully as if he had said Pilate understand this business well and lay aside all suspition of a worldly Kingdom and Tyranny Thus stands the case I will not deny that my Kingdom is altogether and wholly Spiritual whether before thee or before Caesar himself Only know this that t is not my purpose to molest any with Arms or to Raign in State like other Kings but only to raise up and establish the truth of God upon earth To this end was I born and for this cause came I into the world that I might bear witness unto the Truth I say I came for that end and was born for that cause and not to fight with the Sword but that I might teach and preach the Gospel and the Truth of God which is his power to salvation to every one that believeth Rom. 1. And as I publish the Gospel so I rule by the Gospel in the hearts of Believers over Sin Death and the Devil that for sin I might bestow Righteousness for Death Life for the Cross Joy and Heaven instead of Hell These are the Tenures or customary Holds and Priviledges of my Kingdom of which none can be partaker but he that heareth my Voyce and believeth with his heart I do not endow my followers with Riches Cities and other Fee farms Manours c. but through my Word I bestow upon them Joy Peace Life and Heaven it self My Gospel is the Scepter of my Kingdom And what prejudice are these to the Roman Emperour Would Caesar have none born would he have no man come into the world that should bear witness unto the Truth Would it be any stain to his honour if any of his Souldiers should hear his voyce that is a witness of the Truth Who would not utterly detest and abhor him that should harbour such a thought in his breast The very Name of Truth is am able yea the Nature of man it self agreeth to this that the Name of Truth is most honourable and though arrant knaves hate the thing yet never any had the face to dislike or find rault with the Name of Truth 1. And truly Christ testified the Truth with a witness For the Testimony of Truth is the confusion of falshood The world was mistaken
in the use of Temporal things For those things which were given only to be used in these the world place their love and confidence Christ by reproving this falsity bare witness to the Truth 2. The Jews erred in a wrong understanding of the Law The Gentiles were deceived by their Idolatry 3. Christ in reprehending bearing down both their errors did bear witness to the Truth Well then might he say that therefore he came to that end was he born For this cause saith he I became man for this purpose am I now here that errour iniquity may be destroyed that truth and righteousness may raign This I do and this I will do it is and ever shall be my business to beat down keep under and crush the Devil that God alone may be exalted and Raign If thou therefore art a child of Truth if thou dost love the Truth if thou desirest nothing but the Truth thou wilt hear my Voyce with joy and gladness For I am Truth it self and can speak and teach nothing but the Truth Which thing we that are Christians and are of the Truth do not only believe it but are also the thing it self The Voyce of Christ is Truth which abideth for ever yea though Moses Jupiter Mahomet Hereticks and Antichrist die nay Tyberius and Pilate too yet this liveth for ever Therefore every one that is of the Truth heareth my Voyce Hereby teaching us who they be that belong to his Kingdom He doth not say every one that truly is or hath truly a being for the Devil and wicked men have truly a being but he saith he that is of the Truth A lye is that which is not or is not manifest Adam is not the World is not He then that is of Adam of man or of the World is of a lye He is of the truth that loveth the constant truth that seeketh the everlasting Good that thirsteth after Righteousness and eternal Life This is he that heareth my Voyce this is he that belongeth to my Kingdom and one that subjecteth himself to my Government Christ therefore is no Lord and King to those who covet Riches aspire to the Honours of this world and hunt after pleasures Nor is he their King who are mutinous and raise seditions but he is their King who thirst for Righteousness earnestly breath after the Celestial Joy and willingly hear and obey the Truth From all which it is plain and evident that Christ had not at all offended against Caesar When Christ had given so high a commendation of the truth Pilate being somewhat moved and taken therewith and as an Ethnick to whom such things were somewhat uncouth he asked Jesus what was Truth An excellent question indeed if it had proceeded from his heart and that he had been in earnest For what is more profitable and pleasant to search after then the truth All the world invocateth the truth as we read 1 Esdras 4. Yea wicked men themselves though they be lyars and false yet will press others to speak the truth and would not be cheated and deceived Much more beautifull is truth in spirituall things But Pilate did not ask this question heartily but as it were scornfully and disdainfully as if he had said Dost thou broach any other truth then what your High Priests and our Priests teach Thou hast said enough and more then enough there 's no need of any more at this time I came not hither to hear a Sermon There are other matters in hand We have more Irons in the fire Wicked men loath nothing more then the Word of God and those things that tend to their good and salvation here they stand upon thorns and think long ere they be at liberty 1. Pilate should have been warmed and encouraged by Christs Word But he was no more moved then if he had offered Gold or most Orient Pearls to a blind man he was as blind as a beetle the Sun was darkness to him He whose understanding is darkened cannot discern the splendor of Truth which darts the rays of its lustre into the minds of the godly Pilate indeed was not worthy to hear an answer to his question He heard enough if he would have believed it 2. But Christ would no longer linger out his Passion And what need was there to enquire what was truth Lo Christ that stood there present was and is the Truth Whatever Idolatrous Priests trifle about Vertue or the Jewish High Priests teach concerning fleshly righteousness they are all but lyes nothing but Christ and the Gospel only is Truth and what follows and is drawn by consequence from the Gospel But Pilate having not received an answer to his mind went out to the Jews again He supposed that the Laws of Caesar would have served his turn and that he needed no other knowledge of the truth Secondly He perceived that this did not much concern the case in hand Thirdly He saw the Jews were in haste and t was no time to talk any longer with Christ For the Jews were afraid lest Christ should mollifie the mind of the Judge with his words which they knew were very efficacious and penetrating Lastly He had now learned by experience that there was nothing in Christ whereby he might defend himself if he were put to death and complaint thereof should be made to Caesar against him for his unjust punishment for the Prince of all just men and the King of Righteousness had put on Righteousness for a Brest-plate and true Judgement for an Helmet and equity for an invincible Bâ—…kler that no man could by any means catch him in his words Therefore he who first went forth that he might hear some Accusation against him doth now go out to excuse Jesus before his Accusers I find saith he no fault in this man Here we find again a civil Righteousness in Pilate For 1. Although there were rich and potent men on one hand from whom he might hope for gain or fear some loss but Christ was all alone a poor man quite cast off by all his friends from whom he saw no ground to expect any advantage or fear any detriment yet he takes Christs part against the Jews which is the duty of a Righteous judge though such be rare to be found Whence it is that the Princes of the Jews are so often reproved for not judging the cause of the Fatherless Isa 1. Therefore Moses would have such Judges that hated covetousness Exod. 23. For bribes will make men blind Hence it is that Judges are so often call'd upon to fear the Lord Be instructed ye that judge the earth serve the Lord in fear Psalm 2. 2. Pilate doth not only take his part and stand for Christ but he doth clearly confound his Adversaries by proclaiming him guiltless and that after he had throughly examined the whole business although they had bound him as a Felon and one that deserved to die 3. He doth plainly prove them lyers
of a thorn that we can hardly endure it 1. First Then these thorns were the covetousness and riches of the Pharisees which moved them to persecute Christ The world cannot be content to scratch it self with its own thorns i. e. Riches but it must vex its Neighbour too and dishonour God either by getting them dishonestly or keeping them too niggardly 2. Secondly These thorns are our sins For because of mans sin the earth fell under this curse that it should bring forth thistles and thorns Gen. 3. So that we also as well as the souldiers did put this Crown of thorns upon the holy head of Jesus For 't was we that sinned though Christ bare the punishment of our sins See and consider this thou graceless and grateless man who dost now give up thy self to vanity and pleasure while Christ sits with a Crown of thorns on his head See I say how grievously Chrirst was afflicted for the expiating of our pride and vanity For this Crown besides the pain that it caused was contemptuous and reproachfull it was full of confusion Both which were our due as well the punishment as the eternal consusion Wherefore Christ underwent both for us O the unspeakble charity of Christ indeed towards us But on the contrary O the detestable ingratitude of us for the same 4. The souldiers put a Reed into the hands of Christ for his Kingly Scepter and this they did out of disdain to him thereby signifying that he had made himself a King and yet he had nothing to carry it out in the port of a King but such as his Scepter was such was his Kingdom even a vain empty and frail Kingdom 5. They bowed the knee before him mocking and scoffing at him in that scornfull salutation saying Hail King of the Jews Here we may much bewail the great malice of these wicked men For how could they have more basely abused the most vile and contemptible man in the world and yet for all that our Jesus doth still continue to be the true King of Israel even in spite of Pilate and his souldiers notwithstanding they had used him worse than they did I say he is still a King now they are hurried into the infernal fire to be burned everlastingly Therefore we are not ashamed to hear of those unheard of abuses of our Lord but are thereby rather strengthened and incouraged to undergo the like Now these wicked Worshippers shadowed those Hypocrites who by their outward deportment and a pish gestures feign themselves to be very godly people when their hearts are lewd and unbelieving and most remote from God 6. They smote him on the face with the palms of their hands There is nothing more cruel and more void of all compassion than a wicked man And therefore in the Psalms the Persecutors of Christ are compared to Lions Buls Dogs and Calves by reason of their petulancy and cruelty Moreover Ungodly men do always add sin unto sin as if they could never sin enough Hence saith Isaiah Wo unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity Isa 5. After they had done mocking Christ they buffet him They fall from jest to earnest from sport to spurning from words to blows for so wicked men are wont first to scoff then to strike and so to spue up and disgorge all their rage and fury against those that are made miserable Thus it befell Christ the King of all Glory and thus it befalls all those that bear his Cross after him However we know that as all scourgings and whippings so all buffetings and beatings which the godly do undergo are all sanctified in Christ And therefore he that gives blow for blow what else doth he but thrust away and cast off sanctification from him 7. They spit upon him which is the highest disdain and contempt of all Eternal God how comes it to pass that thy creature man should be so unspeakably wicked and abusive as to bespit his own Lord and Saviour Who can but tremble to hear it only Brethren consider here that wonderfull patience of Christ and his truly to be admired silence 8. They smite him on the head with a reed on that head which all the devils in hell should tremble at and all the powers of Heaven reverence and which all the Saints do worship I say that everlastingly blessed head from which all blessing is derived unto us and doth descend upon us By this smiting the prickle of the thorns did more and more pierce the crown of his sacred head whence it did still bleed and the blood gushed out afresh so that all his body neck and face were tinctur'd and dyed therewith and by reason of the execrable spittle of the souldiers which was mixed with it they made his beautifull and lovely face look most rufully and like a Leper according to the Prophesie so often already alledged Isa 53. We saw him saith he and there was no comliness that we should desire him he is despised and rejected of men and we hid our faces from him or his face was hid from us It was hid indeed because of the tumours wounds spittle and blood Therefore saith he we accounted him as a Leper and stricken and humbled of God The souldiers then did all these things unto him because the Jews had told them that he did much affect to be a King and to reign over the Jews This was the ground of all the sport which they made with the Crown Clothing Scepter and scoffing adoration See here a Spectacle never before in the world nor never heard of untill now except that afterwards some of the Martyrs suffered the like in contempt of Christ Who could have believed these things or who would have dared to preach them if they had not been written in the Gospel But because they are written we boldy believe and preach them Who can but tremble to hear these things seeing it is most certain that we must have endured them eternally I mean the worm and sting of conscience the dirision of all the creatures and a final separation from God himself if Christ had not voluntarily undergone them for us This grain of wheat was thus to be multiplied it is sown in most abominable contempt that it might sprout and grow up most wonderfully unto Glory Thus the Kingdom which was not of this world did conquer and overcome the proud world not by cruelty of battel but by humility of sufferings and patience The tremendous and fearfull power was hid and concealed awhile that the imitable patience and sufferings of him might be set forth and commended unto us Mean while what those souldiers did in greatest contempt and cruel mockery this Christ the Power and Wisdom of God did not only undertake and endure but took care that it might be done profitably and with good advantage which was mystically thus 1. The Mystical sense The Purple Robe which was a sign of royal Majesty did signifie that Christ
having overcome all enemies to wit the Devil Sin the World and Hell it self should set all mankind at liberty again Or by the Purple mantle is signified the service of love which he performed for us and to us in his Passion For Scarlet in grain is of the colour of fire which the Lord commanded should be taken for the service of his Tabernacle when it was twice dipt Exod. 28.5 to signifie our love to God and to our Neighbour whence it is that whatsoever we offer by fire and that will endure the test is well pleasing in the sight of God Now Christ out of his exceeding great love to us did drink off the cup of his Passion to the bottom Well therefore might he be clothed with a purple Robe to express this his overflowing charity to us or else it was to shew that he himself was that very self-same one signified by the red Heifer in the Law whose body was commanded to be burnt for a sin-offering without the camp and the ashes thereof to be sprickled upon the people in water Numb 19. 2. The crown of Thorns signified that the Kingdom of Christ is not of this world that is it doth not glitter with stateliness or pomp nor doth it consist of outward force and might but it is thorny and of a scarlet dye that is it is subject to sufferings and afflictions The crowns of the Kings of this world are made part of Iron part of Silver and part of Gold intimating that the Empire of this world consisteth in carnal power lustre and nobleness But Christs crown is made of Thorns thereby hinting unto us that the Kingdom of Christ doth consist and is full of Thorns and Afflictions Such a King as Christ is himself such Kings doth he make us obnoxions to all tribulations If then thou wouldst raign with Christ do not startle at or throw aside the thorny Crown for if thou art crowned here with him with thorns hereafter thou shalt be crowned with him with a crown of Glory and honour Psal 8. 2 Cor. 1. 3. The Reed in his hand signified that he had power to lay down his life and to take it up again Iohn 10. Although they thought no such thing Seeing Christs Kingdom is such a one as grows up among Thorns no marvell that the world doth so scoff and jeer at it 1 Cor. 1. For the Gospel and the preaching of the Cross is foolishness to the world When they heard say that Christ was a King but seeing him crowned with Thorns they disdained and made light of him hearing that the Gospel promiseth freedom from all evil and seeing it come along accompanied with nothing but the cross they â—…out and â—…eer at it When they hear that Christians are Kings over sin and death yet seeing that they are sick and dye as well as others they do but laugh at it Christians therefore do look like fools to the world because they hope for ayd and deliverance but for all that are at present overwhelmed with all manner of miseries Hence it was that Iobs Wife said to him Dost thou still retain thine integrity Curse God and dye Job 2. But however the cross and afflictions crush Christ he is nevertheless and will be a King with all Saints which will appear to be so one day whether the world will believe it now or no. It follows John 19.4 Pilate therefore went forth again and saith unto them Behold I bring him forth to you that you may know that I find no fault in him Then came Jesus forth wearing the Crown of Thorns and the Purple Robe and Pilate saith unto them behold the man When the chief Priests therefore and the Officers saw him they cryed out saying Crucifie him Crucifie him Pilate saith unto them take ye him and crucifie him for I find no fault in him The Jews answered him we have a law and by our law he ought to dye because he made himself the Son of God When Pilate therefore heard that saying he was the more afraid and went again into the Judgement Hall and saith unto Jesus Whence art thou But Jesus gave him no answer Then Pilate saith unto him speakest thou not unto me Knowest thou not that I have power to crucifie thee and have power to release thee Jesus answered Thou couldest have no power at all against me except it were given thee from above therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin And from thenceforth Pilate sought to release him But the Jews cryed out saying if thou let this man go thou art not Caesars friend whosoever maketh himself a King speaketh against Caesar 'T is not to be uttered what the malice of the Jews plotted against Christ how earnestly they did press and urge against him what various and several things they invented to crucifie an innocent Christ As for any thing concerning the civil Laws Christ ought to have been set at liberty inasmuch as the Judge was satisfied in his opinion and the civil Laws do appoint but one punishment for one offence But thus Christ and they that are his do speed in this world they can scarcely find civil honest Judges Christ ought to have been absolved by the Judges sentence forasmuch as he had now suffered the punishment pronounced against him But wickedness is so insatiable that it will not be satisfied when punishment is inflicted although the Judge himself doth omit nothing that might tend to Christs liberty but doth use his utmost endeavour to effect it excepting only this that in the end he doth suffer himself to be prest to do open injustice for fear of his Superiours How much had he done and stood hitherto on the behalf of Christ How many consultations had he and how did he debate the business in his behalf But all his art and skill neither could nor ought to take place for God had otherwise determined Indeed Pilate doth now openly and sharply speak to the Jews endeavouring what possibly he could to maintain what was just and honest And then he examineth Jesus in private that he might find out the truth of the mattter but all that he attempted was to no purpose Now when his servants had most miserably and most shamefully abused and made sport with Jesus he offers to shew him to the people in that pittifull pickle and deformity if thereby happily he might move them to some compassion Pilate therefore went out again but not altogether so hot and zealous to do him right as when he went out before He had not a little swerved from the right Rule of true Justice when he did but scourge innocent Jesus Now he brings him out again and sets Christ before them that ye may know said he that I find no fault at all in him He doth here again acknowledge that Christ was innocent and that it was plain injustice to proceed any further against him Nay he doth clearly confess that he had gone beyond his
this Ceremony shall endure But after Christ there is another generation another Testament nor are the Jews any longer the people of God so that the offering of that Paschal Lamb ceased This the Prophet Jeremy foretold Behold the dayes come when it shall be no more said the Lord liveth that brought the children of Israel out of Aegypt c. Jer. 16. In short we now eat the true and new Passover in the kingdom of God in the Church wherein God truly raigneth and is acknowledged as King Christ saith Paul is our Passover 1 Cor. 5.7 John 1. And John Baptist seeing Christ saith Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world Whatsoever was done and commanded concerning that Lamb heretofore is now fulfill'd and still will be fulfill'd in this true Lamb viz. 1. Though Moses was present with the Israelites when they were bondmen in Aegypt Exod. 12. and did terrifie that Tyrant of Aegypt with many plagues yet he could not deliver them till the Lamb was slain Pharaoh was overthrown by the blood of the Lamb even so neither the Judaicall Law nor the Leviticall Priesthood could save mankind till CHRIST came who was the true Lamb. 2. When the Lamb of God was there slain the Promises of God concerning the deliverance of Abrahams seed and the bringing them into the Land of Canaan began presently then to be fulfilled So when Christ is slain all the Promises of God are now Yea and Amen 1 Cor. 1. 3. As that Lamb was to be taken out of the flock but to be without blemish a male of a year old so he that was to be our Saviour must be a man yet without spot of sin a Male for the strength of his spirit but a year old a man acquainted with poverty and weakness 4. As the Lamb was to be taken and separated from the flock on the tenth day of the first moneth and offered the fourteenth day so on the tenth day of the moneth Christ entered Jerusalem the place of his Passion He came to Bethany six dayes before the Passover the next day he went to Jerusalem where the multitude received him as the Lamb to be offered the fourteenth day 5. That Lamb was to be offered at the full Moon so Christ was crucified in the fulness of time Gal. 4. at full Moon according to the letter 6. Nor was that Lamb to be offered at any full Moon but only at that which next followed the Spring Equinox when the day waxeth longer than the night Thus when Christ suffered the light of Righteousness began to overcome the darkness of sin There was before a long and deep night of sin and the light of legall Righteousness was very short and cloudy But now all things are otherwise Rom. 13. The night saith Paul is past and the day is at hand Again ye were sometimes darknesss but now are ye light in the Lord Eph. 5. 7. That Lamb was to be offered by all the Assembly of the children of Israel so Christ died for all And all whosoever either before or since did then and now do hope for Salvation by his sacrifice only 8. As the Israelites were once freed from the Destroyer only by the blood of the Lamb yet were to offer a Lamb every year in memory of that Deliverance so Christ suffered but once Heb. 9. yet will he have us remember that his sacrifice every year yea every day and celebrate it publikely This do saith he in remembrance of me 9. Lastly That Lamb was offered that it might be eaten for the meat is incorporated to a man being eaten so Christ is set forth unto us for no other use but that we might be incorporated with him and he with us Thus you see that this Lamb was nothing but a figure of Christ when the Truth is come there is no need of type or shadow The Jews then are mistaken who think themselves yet bound to legall observations So do the Ebionites err too who say that because Christ did eat the Lamb after the Jews manner when he instituted the Sacrament therefore we also should do the like it is very false For certain it is that Christ is the true Lamb and the true Passover Therefore the Ceremony of that former lamb is abolished and with it the whole Law Old things are passed away 2 Cor. 5. behold all things are become new Therefore letting pass the legall lamb let us consider the true Lamb which followeth And as they did eat Jesus took bread Mat. 26.26 and when he had given thanks he brake it and gave it to his Disciples and said Take eat this is my Body Which is given for you this do in remembrance of me Luke 22.19 Mat. 26.27 And he took the cup and gave thanks and gave it to them saying Drink ye all of it For this is my blood of the New Testament Mat. 26.28 which is shed for many for the remission of sins This do in remembrance of me Added by the Author A premonition of the Translator concerning the Exposition following Reader BE not surpriz'd with prejudice It may be thou maist meet with some passages and expressions in the explication of these words This is my body which do not concur with thy opinion And likewise what he saith concerning the coercive power of the Magistrate Consider the time and place in which the Author lived and thou wilt find him ingeniously sober and modest not given to vain jangling or railing bitterness but conscientiously serious diligently trading with his Talent The world is full of divisions and diversity of opinions in matters of Religion and saith every one pleads for the preheminence of his own Give some allowance to this man who was but a man yet doubless a godly man If thou see any chaff in his heap of good grain do not blow and puffe away the weighty Wheat with the light and empty dust Hear what he saith This is the most sacred Supper of Jesus Christ which he made and most religiously observed with his Disciples near about the time or a little after the Jews Passover The words of the Evangelist are here to be observed with all diligence pondered seriously in the heart held fast with a stedfast and unshaken memory specially in these dangerous dayes now there are so many dissentions and contests about these words when every person almost fancieth to himself a particular Mass and Sacrament It is much to be lamented that since there was a Church no Doctrine or Article of Faith ever raised so much strife and mischief notwithstadding there is not any thing more comfortable to the Church Good God! what hath not Satan attempted to do against this Sacrament What horrid errours what differences and dissentions hath he stirred up against it none can express the misery and calamity thereof The Devill hath and doth try all wayes to render this Sacrament
yet because Luke hath inserted it in the Passion of our Lord we will not pass it by For it doth fairly picture out the humane nature and disposition that was in the Apostles who contended for primacy at that time when they saw such great Patterns of Humility and Modesty and when the greatest tribulation was at hand But what our Translation renders strife or contention that Luke calleth Philoniciam i. e. Love of Victory We read more then once how the Apostles contended about Primacy Matth. 18. 20. After the payment of tribute they askt Christs opinion and desired him to decide the matter which of them should be the greatest So when the sons of Zebedee sought the uppermost seat in Christs Kingdom then they strove about this thing And here in this place 1. Perhaps Judas his going from them gave the occasion For till his hatred was discovered they suspected one another and so from hence quickly fell to quarrelling every one disdaining to be inferiour to other and to be or but thought to be less faithfull to Christ 2. Their Lords own withdrawing which he spake of before to them might happily give them occasion to enquire what they should do and who should have the chief management of things when their Master was gone from them Here now as commonly it is none could well bear to submit to another and so as he thought be undervalued which is no strange thing that it should be so with the Apostles who were men and not yet confirmed by the Holy Spirit nor fully understanding the Kingdom of Christ Now Christ neither will nor can he endure by any means this Philotimie or greedy desire of Glory which is the root of Philonicie or love of Victory whence all contention ariseth For where one will rule and none submit where all will be Lords and none subjects there Christ hath no more to do What then My Disciples and Children saith he do not do thus it is very unseemly and doth not at all become you I would not have it so among you Consider I pray what think ye Do you not desire to Lord it like the world but do you see any such thing in me where got ye this thought whence came this great desire ye that are servants would ye once more be greater than me your Lord Indeed the Romans and other Gentiles go about to compass to themselves worldly glory and greatness and above all things desire to domineer and rule over others They hunt after great Titles not only to be called Kings Princes Euergetae Pater patriae and Rulers but also Benefactors and Fathers of their Country as if they did help do good and provide for all and were more like Fathers than exactors and oppressors when indeed they do generally behave themselves otherwise And ye fisher-men of Galiles will you be like these and do as the Heathen do Indeed ye are very fit for that glory such honour would well become you which the Gentiles have and so much aspire unto But if the name and profession of a Jew will not beat you off from following the Gentiles yet at least let my Example take ye off Ye see what I do For I am your Lord and Master I might command I might Lord it I might call every creature to serve me yet I forbear I abase my self so far as to serve and let you sit still I wait on you as your hired servant John 6. The Kingdom was mine and 't was offer'd to me but I would none of it I refus'd it What I might have had Angels as well as men to serve me but you see I do not so See I say and consider well how low and how abased I am I have put off the form of God wherein I was and have taken upon me the form of a servant Phil. 2. Psalm 8. I have made my self a little less than the Angels What a shame then would it be to you to grow proud under so humble a Master After this manner Christ checks the ambition of the Apostles and elswhere also he useth almost the same expressions But every where he doth smartly nip them knowing what a Tyrant Ambition would be and what mischiefs it would bring in if it were not restrain'd and kept under If ever any King or Prince might be called Euergeta a Benefactor surely never any better deserved the name then our Lord Jesus the King of Israel Pliny writing of Trajâ—n saith Thou of all men dost least esteem thy own courtesies whereas thou livest in the City as a Parent with his Children But what was that Paternal love which Trajan shewed to his Citizens in comparison of Christs charity to the Apostles and to us all But what follows Ye are they which have continued with me in my Temptations And I appoint you a Kingdom c. There is a good coherence between these and the foregoing words As he had sharply reproved them before so now he doth smooth them with Promises and stroke them with Praises yet so directeth his speech that the Apostles might well desist from their ambition q.d. Why do ye so hunt after worldly power and domination Stay a little I will promote you to Heavenly Power John 6. There are better and greater-things laid up for you than ye are aware of For ye are they that have stood it out with me when many others turned their backs upon me being offended at my approaching Passion but Judas especially Acts 1. he went to his own place but ye have not flincht at any of my Temptations those many which Satan hath raised against me these three years For this your doing be assured that I will prepare a Heavenly Kingdom for you by my Passion where ye shall raign with all power and glory as true Kings and Princes And because earthly Kings abound with all delicacies of meat but specially of drink Lo I provide so for you too that there ye may eat and drink with me at my Table as my fellow-heirs Rom. 8. Which we must not so understand as if there were eating and drinking in Heaven but Christ speaketh anagogically or as Theophylact saith Metaphorically because there is most of that in Kings Courts Lastly saith Christ lest ye should want any thing to compleat your Government whereas worldly Kings use to sit upon stately Thrones 1 King 10. and Judge others as we read of Solomon Behold I prepare this also that ye my Apostles may sit hereafter with me upon Royal Thrones and Judge all the Tribes of Israel which believe not in me If ye seek to rule over Israelites lo they shall be subjected to you What look ye for more Can ye wish or desire more Is there the like again in all the world What 's the glory of the world the kingdom of the world the delights of the world to the Glory Kingdom and delights of heaven Who then would not willingly despise the glory of the
discouragements resolving within our selves that if we may but touch this hem of his garment we shall be whole Mat. 9.20,21 Mar. 5.27,28 For doubtless all that do touch it really truly believingly spiritually and indeed are made perfectly whole Mat. 14.36 17. The necessity of descending into this low estate of self-denial Humiliation Mortification and Death is fully and significantly proposed by our blessed Lord and Redeemer John 10. where he saith that he is the door of the sheep The door is the entrance into the house and is placed in the lowest part thereof at the bottom not at the top of the house Christ is our new and living way When Longinus the souldier pierced his side with the spear there was an entrance a door made for us into the holiest that we might go into it with liberty or boldness to be saved and go in and out and find pasture John 10.7,9 chap. 19.34 Hebrews 10.19,20 18. But wo and alas how many spiritual Thieves and Robbers are there now adays in the world How many pass by the door and seek to climb into the sheep-fold some other way There are too many who profess the death of Christ with their tongue but in their deeds deny and make void the same Men can talk much of free Grace and Justification by the death of Christ but continue hypocrites deceitfull proud envious ambitious covetous contentious c. Corruptio optimi pâ—ssima This is to turn the Grace of God into wanttonness and corrupt the best things which is the worst thing of all These are Thieves and Robbers who think to steal into the Sheep-fold of the divine Nature without crucifying the flash with the affections and lusts Such thieves cannot enter into the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. 6.10 For such men rob Christ of the vertue of his sufferings and death and make him die in vain in that they refuse to fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in their flesh Col. 1.24 and deny to bear about in their body the dying of the Lord Jesus 2 Cor. 4.10 Psalm 76.4 But God is of more Honour and Might then the hills of the Robbers more glorious and more excellent then the mountains of prey he will pull down these mighty ones from their seat he will abase these high lofty vain conceited men and exalt the humble and meek Eph 4.28 Wherefore let him that stole steal no more but rather let him labor in Gods Vineyard doing his work and will not slothfull in this great business but fervent in spirit serving the Lord and working out his own salvation with fear and trembling Romans 12.11 Phil. 2.12 5. Fifthly 19. So long as men continue in the old state of their sinfull nature they can have no assurance of the life to come therefore it is necessary that they know and conform to the death of Christ for the crucifying of that which hindreth their assurance When Hezekiah was sick the sign of his recovery was the Suns going back ten degrees 2 King 20.10 This retrogradation of the Firmamental Sun in the Dyal of Ahaz the Jewish Doctors do mystically apply to the Exinanition of the Sun of Righteousness to Christs emptying himself till he became of no reputation whose declination from the height of his fathers glory till he came under the contradiction of sinners against the shame of the Cross they distribute it into ten degrees The first gradual descent towards his abasement was into an Angel for he is the Angel or Messenger of the great Counsel of God who came out of the bosom of the Father to reveal him unto the sons of men and is as willing a Messenger from man to present his desires with much incense unto God John 1.18 Rev. 8 3. His second descent was into the Patriarcks the figures of himself filling them with the Mysterie of himself for he that ascended did also first descend into the lowest parts that he might fill all things The third degree was in giving the Law in which he spake to the Jews and which was disposed by Angels in the hand of a Mediator Fourthly Into Joshua as being the true Joshna or Jesus that leadeth the whole Israel of God into the spiritual land of Promise His fifth descent was seen in the Judges it being he that governed that people by those men who is the great Judge of the quick and the dead before whose Judgement seat all must appear to give an account of things done in the body His sixth in the Kings of the Jews in whom he reigned over that people as the true and rightfull King of the inward and faithfull Jew Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews was his unrepealable title upon the Cross John 19.19,22 Psalm 2.6 He it is that is set as King upon the mount of Gods holiness to reign in Righteousness Isa 32.1 To be Ruler in Israel Mic. 5.2 Who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords Rev. 19.16 Seventhly In the Prophets It is he that spake by the mouth of his holy Prophets which have been since the world began Luke 1.70 This is the Prophet which Moses said should come up after him whom we ought to hear Deut. 18.15 To fulfill that saying And they shall be all taught of God Isa 54.13 John 6.45 Eighthly In the high Priests for they were all but shadows of whom Christ was the substance read the Epistle to the Hebrews Ninthly In man when he assumed our nature It was for us men and our salvation that the Almighty Word of God leapt down from Heaven like a fierce man of War into the midst of a land of destruction and was incarnate by the holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary and was made flesh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and pitcht his Tent among us or in us Wisd 18.15,16 John 1.14 Tenthly In his Humiliation unto that ignominious death of the Cross Here was the winter Solstice or shortest day of the year at which time some say Christ was born This is the tenth degree of descent in the Dyal of Ahaz the lowest and utmost declination of thâ— Sun of Righteousness was in his death burial descention into hell 20. What censure soever the eight first Degrees may undergo as Cabalistical conceits is not much material There can be no Dspute about the two last by any that acknowledge Christ to be come in the flesh For he was truly a man in our nature with which nature of ours he harnessed himself like a man of War Exod. 15.3 and fought it out hand to fist in a single Duel with the Devil in which Combate he stood it out unto the death and thereby overcame him that had the power of death to wit the Devil Heb. 2.14 And withal vanquishing death and hell 1 Cor. 15.55 Hos 13.14 Read Col. 2.14,15 Thus he put off his harness of flesh and blood of which he took part with the Children Heb. 2. as well as put it
of glory out of their minds Where ambition is Prov. 13. there even brethren fall together by the ears Proud men are ever quarrelling Never any thing so rent Christian unity in pieces like ambition when one will not yield to another The Words of Christ carry an Emphasis in them And ye ought c. to let us know that t is not so much his Counsell as his Command which must not be sleighted and that we shall incur great punishment if we obey it not Therefore he addeth I have given you an Example c. And truly a very excellent one worthy of all diligence Christ was Lord not only of men but Angels too Matth. 11. 28. to whom the Father had given to share with him in all things who had all Power in Heaven and in Earth who was one with the Father yet so he humbled himself John 14. even to the feet of fishers Who ever heard the like of any of the Kings and Princes of this world So great a price did the Son of God set upon us Let us then do the same Let us walk humbly towards one another Let us love one another If this Pattern of Christ will not work upon us nothing will do us good He must needs be obstinate and obdurate nay both blinded and desperate that is not softened with this Example of Christ Here let thy disdain proud man be confounded who art so proud thou canst not tell whether thou goest on thy head or feet thou knowest not what cloaths to wear or how to jett it out in thy gesture Doest thou not see Christ girt and going up and down among them serving with a Bason and water And who or what art thou to him Blush for shame wretched man saith he I have given you an Example I mean you Christians These things were not done and written for Turks but for us Whence comes so much pride so much loftiness so much pomp and state not only among Lay-Christians but even among the Bishops themselves the successors of the Apostles Is this to imitate Christ What Christ by all means endeavoured to prevent to wit ambition pride pomp especially in the Ministers of the Church this very thing is now grown to the height to the great prejudice and scandal of the Church c. Let us take heed then to this word of Christ I have given you an Example c. In this speech Christ is to be considered two wayes 1. As our Minister and as a gift given us of God For he did not only give him for us but he gave him also to us 2. 1 Pet. 2. Matth. 11. As our Example Thus Peter Christ hath suffered leaving us an Example And Christ himself saith Learn of me for I am meek c. So also are all Christs works and sufferings 1. They are the Ministries wherewith Christ ministred unto us they are the very gifts which he gave us For whatsoever he did and suffered he did it and suffered it for us and so he ministred unto us yea he hath given and by Faith still doth give all his works and merits to us 2. What he did and suffered are our Examples to which we ought to conform as here you expresly hear it They see but with one eye who respect Christ but only as a gift or only as an Example when his will is that we should consider him both wayes Whereas he addeth As I have done so do ye we must understand it according to our ability For there is no man that can do every way as Christ did nor doth Christ require it at our hands As a Master sets his scholar a fair Copy that he should imitate his hand to the utmost yet doth he not require or expect that he should at first essay write as well as he for he knows it cannot be This Word As I have done may be refer'd especially to those things which we have heard that Christ did when he washt their feet For herein if we diligently mark it is the office of the Apostles clearly exprest 1. They ought by Christs example to rise from the supper of Moses to the supper of Christ from knowledge to practice from meat to labour from letter to Spirit 2. They should lay by their garments cast aside whatever hindereth godliness and not be slothfull but serious in business 3. Gird themselves with a white Towel with a pure Life according to that Let your loines be girt Luke 12. 4. Gird themselves lest while they cleanse others they pollute themselves 5. They must pour water out of the pitcher into the Bason draw and pour forth the water of saving Knowledge out of the Bark of Scripture 6. Then presently wash but specially the feet first mend the heart and affections 7. Wipe with Linnen build them up whom they have washed with their own wholsome and clean conversation and what they cannot do by words let them effect with works and an exemplary Life 8. When they have so done let them retire to a private silence and look to their own salvation 1 Cor. 9. lest when they have preached to others they themselves become cast-awayes The like let other Christians do for themselves and those committed to them Now to make this his Example of more force to perswade Christ useth another Argument The servant saith he is not greater then his Lord q.d. There 's no reason why ye should be ashamed to follow my Example For what are ye but my Apostles and servants whose Lord and Master I am You are not above me And if hereafter either you or your Successors shall rise to any preferment yet ye will not then be greater or know and do more than I have done and known There is no cause therefore why you should blush at humility and charity who are but servants whereof I your Lord have not been ashamed So then Christ doth here beat down all proud and ambitious Church-men let them be either Popes or Bishops or Cardinals or Doctors c. What are they but servants And if they are servants as all will easily confess they should so do as not to climb above their Lord. How this may be let them well consider c. But I have not time now to pluck up this stinking weed Their own conscience will tell them wherein they are unlike Christ yea wherein they strive to be above Christ c. Christ doth often inculcate this saying Mat. 10. Luke 6. The servant is not greater c. But here he rehearseth it with great weight of words Verily verily I say unto you c. Every body knows that the servant is not greater than his Lord. But every word of Christ though he doth not swear it is more stedfast than Heaven and earth Luke 21. as himself saith Heaven and earth shall pass away but my words shall not pass away yet here he binds it with an oath First to make the deeper impression Secondly
he had much more Authority and power then any of the Roman Praetors ever had And no doubt but he was a man of very great command and prudence Which doth most plainly appear by this History in that he behaved himself far more just and upright than all the High Priests Priests and Pharisees of the Jews The Jews then bring Christ to Pilates Judgement Hall imagining that if they did not put him to death themselves the guilt of the Fact would not be imputed to them Nor is be brought thither by one or two but by all of them together that so by their presence and multitude they might both amaze the Judge and vex and grieve Christ the more with their envy But they forsooth the Priests out of an implanted and inbred hypocrisie whereby they were ever superstitiously observant of small matters but altogether neglecting the weightier things would not go into the Judgement Hall for fear of being defiled but that they might eat the Passeover as if hitherto they had nothing polluted themselves at all by their unworthy dealing with Christ or as if the house only of an uncircumcised man would contaminate their Sanctity whereas they spare not by all ways and means to hunt and chase the innocent to death They had a murtherous minde and murtherous tongues they bribed the Traitor they hired a Band of Souldiers they procured false Witnesses they forged false accusations Besides they urge and threaten the Judge and yet all this while they wipe their mouth and what have they done they are pure and clean and fit to celebrate the Passeover but upon no other ground but because they refrained to go into the Judgement Hall A most egregious purity indeed or rather a stupid and sordid blindness could another mans house pollute them and would not their own wickedness defile them See how cleanly these hypocrites are how neat they make the outside of the cup when the inside is full of ravenous cruelty Mat. 23. See the preposterous and disorderly righteousness of these men which consisted not at all in the heart but altogether in the outward shew painted Sepulchers they were Their righteousness also consisted only in observing mens Traditions as though the precepts of God did conduce nothing to purity and righteousness It was an Humane constitution that no Jew should go into the house of any uncircumcised man that the unclean and uncircumcised might not defile him But Gods Law was Thou shalt not hate thou shalt not kill thou shalt not bear false witness This Law of God the Jews violate and contemn whilst they are zealous of mens Ordinances Thus the greater part among us rely more upon humane constitutions only and from thence flatter themselves into a conceit of righteousness and yet wholly sleighting the commands of God as being of no account with them Against these the 23. chapter of Matthew was written as well as against the hypocrites of old among the Jews For although for the most part they are wholly wicked yet they cloak and hide their wickedness just as the Jews here did with obedience to mens Traditions Who would not have thought that they were a very holy people and so had just cause against Christ who with so great Devotion and Religion did observe the Canons and constitutions of their Holy Fathers If they make conscience to keep a good mans Law how much less are they to be suspected to break Gods commands You see their hypocrisie But Christ taught us another manner of righteousness when he said Sanctifie them O Father with the truth Joh. 17. That is true Sanctification when the Father possesseth our hearts renewing and enlightening them with the knowledge of Christ Faith and the remission of sins The flesh will not acknowledge this sanctification but conceiteth some carnal kinde of holiness made up by abstinence from certain meats and the company of some sort of men as the Jews here did neglecting the true righteousness Now whereas it is said That they might eat the Passover it is not to be understood of the Paschal Lamb which they did eat the night before but of the unleavened bread which they use to eat all the seven days as also of the other solemn Sacrifices which was lawfull for such only as were clean to be eaten For Christ did not as some would have it prevent the use of the Paschal Lamb one day as doth plainly appear by Luke who saith expresly chapter 22. that the night wherein Christ did eat the Paschal Lamb it was necessary to kill and eat that Paschal Lamb. But enough of this already The Jews indeed did eat the most excellent Passover not to themselvs but unto us That true Lamb which they by their wicked act offered is sufficient for us For this is the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world Joh. 1. and is our Passover 1 Cor. 5. Pilate therefore went out to those Jews which refused to come in unto him and that contrary to the custom of other Governours who were not wont to condescend so low to the people And though he was a Gentile and an Heathen and had only his reason and the Laws of Caesar to regulate his actions by yet he carried himself more justly and civilly than the Jews who had the Scripture and Law of God and were counted the people of God For 1. It was a great civility in Pilate to conform himself to the custom of the people and give place to their obstinacy For when he saw that they abhorred the house of an Ethnick he did not compel them by any tyrannical force to come into the Judgement Hall contrary to the custom they had received but waving his own power he went forth to them A Superiour must not always stand stifly upon his prerogative but sometimes accommodate himself to the manners of his Subjects And therefore 2. We read in Josephus concerning Pilate that he behaved himself as pliable to them when the Statues of Caesar were commanded to be set-up in the Temple at Jerusalem for when he saw that the resolution of the people was such that they would rather die than endure those Statues there he yielded to them and removed the Statues out of the Temple although he might have destroyed them all with that Army which was raised for that purpose unless they would have submitted Pilate shewed a great deal of Justice in that he did not presently condemn Christ before he heard him as they desired that brought him before him He did much disappoint their expectation for the Judge would do nothing rashly but would first sift out the bottom of the business Therefore he said What accusation bring ye against this man No man is said to be condemned if he be not first accused and have leave to answer for himself This Ethnick here observed the equity of this Law but on the contrary the Jews cry out If he were not a Malefactor we would not have delivered him unto thee
teeth of the children of men are spears and arrows and their tongue a sharp sword Psal 57. Thou seest also the perverse mind of those men They think to be converted is to pervert they put good for evil and evil for good Lastly they lye most notoriously They accuse him for three things 1. He perverteth the Nation say they from the Law and Worship of God This they were by no means able to prove For Christ never led away or call'd any man off from the Law and Worship of God but rather put all men upon the observation of Gods Law and Service Mat. 5. where he saith I came not to destroy the Law and the Prophets c. And therefore he doth there expound the Law unto them To be turned from the Pharisaical Traditions is not to be drawn off from God or from Gods Word and Worship 2. They object against Christ that he forbad to pay Tribute to Caesar This was a manifest falshood for it is evident to all the world that Christ commanded to give unto Caesar the things that were Caesars Mat. 22. And not only so but Christ himself paid the toll-mony Mat. 17. Finally he took care by the Apostle Paul that this very thing should be given in charge to all Christians Ro. 13. 3. They charge him for saying he was the King Messias Neither did these lying men hear Christ speak any of all this For he never spake so plainly of himself although it was all very true For he was I say and is the King Messias and hath proved him self to be so for which he doth not so much deserve to be accused as commended How durst thou then O thou Jew to cry out He said that he was the Messias Why didst not thou put this in also that he was born after the same manner nature time and place as the Messias was to be born And that he preached the Kingdom of God and did work such Miracles as never any else did yea and those very Miracles which the Prophets foretold of the Messias But here their malice blinded them that they could see nothing but what made against Christ These wicked men knew that Pilate would be netled and grow impatient to hear of Treason Therefore they harp so much on this string and so often with envy inculcate the name of King For his other Names as Christ and Messias Pilate did not so much regard Christ was charged with these three things as a Transgressor of the Law of God of the Law of man and of the Law of nature 1. As a Transgressor against the Law of God as one that had taught false Doctrine and did labour to draw men off from God 2. Against the Law of man in that he moved sedition 3. Against the Law of nature as one denying Tribute to the civil Magistrate These are the Accusations which our conscience must have been charged with all and that justly too before the Judgement seat of God But Christ took them all upon him that we might for ever be freed from them Therefore 1. Be thou thankfull unto him who was unjustly accused and was contented so to be to deliver thee from a just Accusation 2. Learn thou also to bear the unjust slanders of men patiently For thou art not greater then thy Lord. And by all means do thou beware that thou accuse not Christ by murmuring against God c. Now when Pilate had heard the Accusation he went again into the Judgement Hall wherein he did the duty of a just Judge For 1. Although the Jews flockt together in great multitudes as if they would force the Judge to pass sentence yet Pilate was not daunted And t is the Wise mans Counsell that none should defire the place of a Judge unless he hath a spirit and courage enough that dares controll wicked men though never so potent and not to fear the faces of any so as to pervert Judgement for them Eccl. 7. 2. Although the Jews laid many and grievous things to the charge of Christ yet he did not suddenly give credit to them notwithstanding they were men of great power and Authority but doth first examine the cause 3. He doth ask Christ privately by himself and question him alone lest Christ should be baffled by his potent Adversaries and not suffered to answer for himself 4. He doth not threaten or rayl at him but speaks him fair and gives him very good language It becomes a Judge to be civil and courteous For he also must come before his Judge Wisd 7. 5. Lastly Of all the Accusations which the Jews brought in against him he takes notice but of one the rest he past over in silence These are the Properties of a good Judge There was nothing wanting in Pilate but Faith and the fear of God which whosoever hath not he will not long continue just and honest as we shall see anon in Pilate But what is that about which Pilate did examine Christ Art thou saith he the King of the Jews This was the crime which he enquired after because it concern'd Caesars Majesty and the publique peace and was that which might have some probability in it For about Christs time there were many mutinies and seditions among the Jews raised by Judas of Galilee and by a certain Aegyptian Prophet also by one Theudas and Caphedon as Josephus reporteth It was probable Christ might be of the same gang with those seditious persons inasmuch as he taught some new things never heard of before and the common sort of people were wonderfully taken with him Now those seditions did spring from hence viz. because the seventy weeks spoken of in Daniel 9. were now almost expired and the Messias was earnestly looked for every moment to restore the people to their former freedom and deliver them from the Roman Yoke Many therefore arrogating to themselves the honour of the Messias and promising the people liberty became thereby the Ring-leaders of such as revolted from the Roman Empire And most of the people did conjecture that Jesus was that long expected Messias For if he had not made an escape they had chosen him King John 6. Pilate therefore understanding nothing of the Spiritual Kingdom of the Messias and minding only a carnal Kingdom and Empire could not but take notice of the Title King which was fastned on him not so much out of fear for Caesar as himself Therefore demanded whether he were King of the Jews For the Wise men had called him King of the Jews Mat. 2. And the people called him King of Israel John 12. And truly so he was King of the Iews and of Israel too but not in Pilates sense But why do I say King of the Iews Christ was and is King of all Kings yea and of all people in the World 1 Tim. 6. Psalm 47. Now as in the first place the Worlds great complaint against Christ is that he will not hold his peace and let the World alone and be
Counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed Psalm 2. The Gentiles did rage indeed like bruit beasts for they knew not what they did The people to wit the Jews imagined vanity They laid their heads together as it is written Psalm 109. They compassed me about with words of hatred the Kings that is Pilate and Herod Hence the Apostles composed their mournfull prayer Of a truth Lord say they against thy holy child Jesus both Herod and Pontius Pilate with Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together c. Acts 4. To this may be added that of the Psalmist They are confederate against thee the Tabernacles of Edom and the Ishmaelites of Moab and the Hagarens Gebal and Ammon c. Psalm 83. They are like Sampsons foxes their tails be tyed together and like the scales of the Leviathan sticking so close together that no air can come between them Job 41. So when it comes to persecution of the godly and to propagate ungodliness now wicked men are easily reconciled and made friends But all this while Christ is not set at liberty but compel'd to the Cross and die he must Thus Tyrants for the most part now adays are quickly quiet one with another after they have robbed and spoiled and plundred and utterly undone the poor and not one amongst them all will restore or help the poor man to that which is his right Concerning this peace of the wicked David saith I was envious at the wicked when I saw the prosperity of sinners Psalm 73. But a little after he saith Thou didst set them in slippery places thou castest them down into destruction How are they brought into desolation as in a moment They are utterly consumed with terrors As a dream when one awaketh so shalt thou make their image to vanish out of the City Psalm 73. All this was fulfilled in these two men for both of them were banished It follows And Pilate when he had called together the chief Priests and the Rulers and the people said unto them Luk. 23.13 Ye have brought this man unto me as one that perverteth the people and Behold I have examined him before you and I have found no fault in this man touching those things whereof ye accuse him No nor yet Herod for I sent you to him and lo nothing worthy of death is done unto him I will therefore chastise him and release him And when Jesus was accused of the chief Priests and Elders Mat. 27.12 Mar. 15.3 he answered nothing Then saith Pilate unto him answerest thou nothing Behold how many things they witness against thee But he answered him to never a word insomuch that the Governour marvelled greatly Christ is now brought back again from Herod to Pilate but so as without doubt many godly men wept to see how miserably he was led along We use to say when innocent men suffer Thieves and Robbers should be thus dealt with not honest and just men But the Lord Christ was neither Thief nor Robber and yet he endured all this and was so tossed to and fro from one to another and with such disgrace too that it would have made one shed many a tear to see the veryest Rascal in the world so used Paul an Apostle of this Jesus was tost and tumbled up and down in the same manner For as the Lord Jesus had his Annas's Caiaphas's Pilates Herods so Paul had his Annanias's Felix's Festus's Agrippa's c. Why should the Scholler speed better then his Master And let it not repent thee Brother of the Cross be not thou ashamed of it for thy Lord and mine did never blush at it Holy truths can no otherways be brought to light Good men must look for no other usage Pilate and Herod have no better entertainment in their houses Innocency Humility Simplicity the Spirit Knowledge c. are nothing worth in their market they make but a piff of these Thou must be their Mocking-stock and make them fools sports yea though thou wert as good as Elias unless thou will say and do as they please that is to say and do the filthiest and basest wickedness in the world Satan knows his time and advantage and can tell well enough how and when to make wicked men friends but so as that their reconciliation shall be thy ruine and destruction But Pilate who was a little honester than the Jews and Herod that he may seem not to wrong any man doth once more call together the chief of the Jews and leaves no stone unturned but useth all means possible to set Jesus at liberty and release him safe and sound Ye have brought this man to me saith he and have accused him of many things and I have examined him as strictly and as narrowly as possibly I can to sift out the truth and sound the business to the very bottom to bring things to light I have taken him aside and asked him alone and examined him in private and now I have questioned him in your presence before your own faces and yet I cannot hear or understand any thing but that he is wrong'd exceedingly and all that I can do for my life and heart I can find no cause of death in him And if ye will not believe me behold Herod also his own Lord under whose jurisdiction he is doth think and say the same he is of one mind and opinion with me in this matter For he under whose power he is hath sent him back again without punishment which he would never have done if he had found him faulty What therefore will ye do seeing according to the truth of the business there is nothing to be found in this man worthy of reprehension or wherefore he should be put to death Will you use violence to him and kill him contrary to all Law and Reason Doth your Law teach you to serve men so Surely Solon Lycurgus Minos and the Roman Tables allow no such thing much less command it The chiefest Law of Lycurgus was that no man should be punished before he was convicted and condemned Nor did ever any Law-maker allow of so notorious a wickedness as to cut off and destroy the innocent How much less ought you to do any such thing who go under the name of Religion and are professors of the most holy Law Let me desire you therefore to hearken to my advice which I suppose may somewhat pacifie you I will chastise and scourge him after the manner of the Romans that it may not be said you have bound him and brought him before me without a cause but I neither can nor will I put him to death because I find no such fault in him See here Pilate doth again bear witness of Christs innocency against the impiety of the Jews that by the righteous Judgement of God their damnation might be the greater You shall shortly see the Sun and the Heavens the Earth and the stones testifie against them and proclaim
were the Son of God or no. For whereas they accused him of sedition he was cleared and quitted of that charge already 2. He did ask it too unseasonably For then was the time for Christ to keep silence 3. Pilate was now unworthy to hear it having torn off the wool of the Lamb of God by whipping him and polluted his hands with his innocent blood 4. Christ doth here hold his peace because he had told them often enough before that he was not of this world Joh. 19. 5. He also told Pilate that they only who were of the Truth could hear his Voyce Now he knew that Pilate was not of the Truth nor did he ask that question in love to the Truth but only out of fear of some shrewd turn or Temporal loss that might befall him 6. Christ doth hold his peace that he might not seem to endeavour an escape and so be unwilling to suffer and go thorow his Passion And therefore 7. He would do nothing nor say any thing that might hinder his suffering This is that silence of which Isaiah speaks He is brought as a Lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb so he openeth not his mouth Isa 53. And David in his person saith I was dumb with silence I held my peace even from good Psalm 39. By this his silence Christ taught us 1. That all the Learning and Education in the world is nothing worth if it be not employed in love to godliness but either out of a vain affectation or fear of punishment therefore he gave no answer before unto Herod who asked him out of curiosity nor now unto Pilate who asked him out of fear Just so do many men run after Sermons some out of vain glory others for fear of Hell but very few in love to Righteousness and Truth Therefore the first sort of these shall be deprived of their hope for let them hear the Word never so greedily God will not answer them Nor shall the second escape damnation For that which the wicked feareth shall come upon him The last only shall obtain their desire For blessed are they that hunger and thirst after Righteousness Mat. 5. 2. Christ doth here teach us silence that we should not be like fools who multiply words whereas nature it self teacheth silence having given two ears to man and but one mouth First then consider that an account must be given of every idle word at the day of Judgement Mat. 12.36 Secondly Locutum fuisse saepe me poenituit c. That of the Heathen is to be observed I have often repented saith he for speaking but never for my silence Thirdly That of James especially He that bridleth not his tongue this mans Religion is vain Jam. 1. Pilate being somewhat displeased at Christs silence for he thought he had sleighted him speaks to him a little more sharply A proud man of all things cannot endure to be scorned Speakest thou not unto me Thou saith he who art but a vile and mean fellow to me who am in highest Power and Authority If he had known the person of Christ who he was he would have spoken a little more mannerly and modestly to him But the world despiseth all those who carry no great port and pomp outwardly And the men of this world who are proud and presume upon their power and riches do scorn and contemn all others in comparison of themselves 1. And whereas Pilate saith further to him Knowest thou not that I have power to release thee and to crucifie thee It is the expression of a wicked Magistrate who thinks he may lawfully do what he pleaseth 2. In Pilate here is clearly manifest what the disposition and nature of humane Reason is in the gifts of God For he that is more then ordinarily endowed with the gifts of God and yet hath not faith he doth not acknowledge them as Gods gifts but as his own deserts And so he thinks he may do what he listeth with them But Faith teacheth that the gifts which God bestoweth on a man are not to make him a Lord but a Servant and a Minister to improve them and the greater gifts any man hath received the more industrious and laborious should he be Hence saith Christ The Princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them they are proud of their power and abuse it at their pleasure but it shall not be so among you but whosoever will be great among you let him be your Minister c. Mat. 20. Magistracy therefore or Power is the gift of God but if it be conser'd upon wicked men they do but Arrogate to themselves something of Law and right in or by that gift And if a good man hath this gift bestowed upon him he doth acknowledge himself so much the more a Servant by how much the greater his gift is that he hath received Pilate was ignorant of this Therefore he spake so proudly of his power But by this his vaunting he condemned himself both before God and before men Out of his own mouth is this evil Servant to be condemned because when by his own confession he might have acquitted the innocent and just one yet he chose rather to condemn him and to crucifie him But have a little patience Pilate and he will speak to thee hereafter and tell thee whence he is The Lord I say who is now weak and held prisoner under thy power at present he shall go forth as a strong man he shall lift up his voyce and cry I held my peace I alway kept silence But must I still be dumb and never speak Yea I will speak as a woman in travel Then shall he speak to thee in his anger telling thee plainly what thou now askest of him He hath made me King in Sion c. Psalm 2. But Christ cannot forbear to reprove that so proud presumption of Pilate and to check his Arrogant boldness lest by his â—ilence he should seem to acknowledge and grant what Pilate said to be true that he was at his own dispose and might do with men as he saw good Christ cannot bear blasphemy or impiety Pilate did usurp and attribute to himself that which belonged to God For God the Father was the chief Author of Christs suffering But Pilate claimed this power to himself I saith he can crucifie thee Christ can no longer endure to hear this blasphemy and unrighteousness Thou couldest saith he have no power against me c. q.d. Shouldest thou or any man else have power over the Son of God No such matter Thou with thy whole Military force and all the Jews together couldst not touch so much as an hair of my head if the Counsell and Will of my Heavenly Father had not determined that I should suffer Wherefore thou hast no power from Caesar nor from those who by their great exclamation strengthen thine arm against me but from him that is above all is this power given thee
cast off both God and their Messias when they say We have no King but Caesar Justly therefore is it said of them The Princes of Israel have forsaken me and I have forsaken you But whilst Pilate sat on the Tribunal his wife sent to him straitly charging him that he should not pass any severe sentence against Christ affirming that she had suffered many things by reaof him O miracle saith Theophylact he that is judged doth terrifie the Judges wife What that womans vision was in her dream of Christ the Evangelifts do not express Nor can any man positively conclude it But certain it is that this Vision was not shewed to that woman without divine providence God knows how to pre-ordain and dispose all things better then all the wise men in the world can imagine Pilates wife was in some measure converted unto Christ and did labour all that possibly she could to withdraw her husband and hinder him from doing any hurt unto Christ Herein doubtless she is to be commended above all the Jews in that she durst acknowledge Christ by his proper Epithite and pronounce him a just man which was as much as to accuse all the Jews of a lie and unrighteousness This Vision was not shewed to the man but to the woman because happily he was not worthy of it nor would any have believed him because he had so laboured to set Christ at liberty Some there are who do attribute all these things to the Devil as he who now laboured might and main by this woman to hinder the Passion of our Lord which before he had endeavoured with all industry For now he perceived that it was himself and not Christ that would be ruined by that Passion which that he might the more speedily prevent and hinder he makes choise of a woman a very fit and familiar Instrument for him by which he might destory mankind But now he had out slipt his time and staid too long for he had already swallowed the hook Haman heretofore was strangled on that Gallows which he had provided for Mordecai Esth 7. so the devil was destroyed upon the Cross which he had prepared for Christ For upon the Cross it was that Christ spoiled Principalities and Powers c. Col. 2.15 Thus much concerning Pilates wife But all this while Pilate was nothing wrought upon he resolves to pass sentence for all this for his carnal prudence thought it more safe if he served the common good with the loss of ones mans life Sedition thought he is a grievous inconvenience and of great damage to the Common-wealth therefore he will please and satisfie the multitude A Typeof those who will do Justice so far as the world and the worlds friends will allow of it they will keep so long to the rule of Righteousness that they will be sure to lose nothing of their wealth and honour However Pilate was yet in a great straight He was willing to gratifie the Jews but on the other hand the sheding of innocent blood did stare fearfully in his face And therefore he doth call for water and wash his hands before them all by which he would signifie that he had no hand in shedding this innocent blood And this he did not after the custome of the Gentiles but of the Jews For David saith I will wash my hands in innocency Psalm 26. This Pilate would fain imitate and wash his hands he did but not his heart For the Lord had said before that he sinned in what he did though not so much as the Jews and Judas did I am clear saith he from the blood of this just person See ye to it I am but the Minister of the Law 't is your cry hath shed the blood and not I. But thou must not think to escape so O thou Judge who must also thy self be judged who dost not judge the cause of the poor and fatherless but art dastardly afraid of the clamours and threats of the base people and swervest from doing Equity and Right Knowest thou not what courage and constancy becomes a Judge that he should rather die a thousand deaths than not do Justice Therefore the wise man saith Seek not to be Judge being not able to take away iniquity lest at any time thou fear the person of the Mighty and lay a stumbling block in the way of thy uprightness Ecclus 7.6 Why dost thou suffer Liers to turn thee from the truth O thou double tongu'd Judge who with the same mouth dost three or four times excuse and by and by condemn most unjustly Thou dost condemn the innocent and yet dost pronounce him innocent Wretched man who did thus bewitch thee Who infected the purity of thy mind Why dost thou thus pervert Judgement Seest thou not what enmity thou causest to the Roman dignity hereby It is a slur to Ceasar a stain to thy Honour and Reputation thou rendrest thy self odious and insamous to all men finally thou dost give an ill example to other Judges to do as bad as thou dost Hast forgot what oath thou didst take Art not afraid of the wrath of thy Gods To what purpose are the Laws and the Power and Authority of Governours if it be lawfull to do thus All the Elements may justly rise up and arm themselves against thee inasmuch as thou dost what in thee lies to destroy their Maker What needest thou fling all the fault upon the Jews when thou thy self mightst have rescued him Thou knewst full well that for envy he was delivered and it was in thy hand by thine own confession to absolve or condemn him But he from whom thou hadst thy power will one day examine thy works and search out all thy thoughts because when thou wast an Officer of his Kingdom thou didst not judge justly nor keep the Law of Righteousness and didst not walk according to the Will of God But what do the Jews answer when they heard Pilate cast all the guilt of Christs blood upon them and lay the sin at their door They are not in the least startled but count it rather a trifle and make light of it Let not this say they trouble or binder thee Take thou no further care Be this Jesus just or unjust let him be good or bad all the guilt of his death be upon us We would have the business dispatched We would fain be guilty of his blood Do thou only give sentence His blood be on us and on our Children O wicked Parents by this one word they destroyed themselves and all their posterity A Generation of Vipers indeed Mat. 3. Therefore O ye naughty Jews be it unto you as you have said for in as much as ye have unanimously desired it let all the righteous blood that hath been shed from the beginning of the world rest upon you Mat. 23. Your hands are defiled with blood therefore ye pray in vain Isa 1. Your house shall be left desolate to you and yours Ye shall be Runagates and
Vagabonds upon the earth like Cain Gen. 4. And no doubt but ye have felt the smart of it long since how sorely this blood of Christ hath lain upon you But now 1659. years and opprest you and your Children now more than these fifteen hundred years Nor shall you ever have rest and quiet till ye be converted and turn to him and acknowledge your iniquity After Pilate had washt his hands and thought himself whiter than the snow then he gives sentence against Christ to put him to death He thought it a small matter to adjudge a poor mean man to die He thought no body would revenge his blood but he found it otherwise at last What matter is it if a godly man hath no man to take his part or none to revenge his quarrel so long as he hath God to avenge his wrong Vengeance is mine saith he I will repay Deut. 32. Thus Barabbas the Robber is let go without any punishment but innocent Jesus is whipt and judged to death even the death of the Cross The just for the unjnst So those sons of men Whose teeth are spears and arrows and their tongue a sharp sword did prevail and get the day because they stifly stood it out and held on their clamour so long till at last he was delivered to them to be crucified And so he that gives life to all bare the sentence of death for us For in the righteous Judgement and Court of God this sentence of death was due to us But Christ took it upon himself Thus I say He to whom the heavenly Father had committed all Judgement John 5. And who shall call to the Heavens from above and to the earth that he may judge his people Psalm 50. 2 Pet. 2. At whose Judgement the Powers of Heaven shall be shaken and the firmament shall pass away with fervent heat Hell shall give up its dead and every creature shall tremble he it this day set at naught and despised as the vilest fellow in the world and condemned to die But wo and alas 1. How were the hearts of his Disciples and the rest of his friends overcharged with sadness and grief when all hope of life was taken away and they heard that their faithfull Master their Lord and Helper was condemned by a most unrighteous Judgement 2. On the contrary what a frantick fit of jollity and howling exultation were these mad dogs put into when they had at last prevailed with the Judge by their importunate clamours to grant them their most abominable and horrid request which he had so often denyed them before when the wicked Judge delivered up Jesus the Saviour to the cursed and most cruel will of those who thirsted so much after his blood 3. How did the hopeless sadness of his friends and the furious mirth of his foes torture and afflict this meekest Lamb now in the midst of Wolves 1. Here we see Christians what we must have expected at Gods Judgement day even the Sentence of Eternal Death if Christ had not took pity on us and taken it upon himself 2. We see what little confidence we are to put in the World when Pilate who had hitherto so often stood in defence of Christ now to gratifie and please the Iews doth crucifie him without any other cause in the world So Herod heard Iohn willingly yet cut off his head at last Mark 6. This unrighteous Sentence Christ took and accepted of to free us from the most just Sentence of damnation and to teach us not to fear the unrighteous judgement of the World Let us alwayes remember this Judgement that we may with all our might and whole hearts give thanks to our Lord Christ who would be condemned to death for us and be delivered to the will of the wicked Iews yea he delivered himself that we might be able to stand before the Judgement of God And they took off the purple from him Mar. 15.20 and put his own cloaths on him and led him out to crucifie him And he bearing his cross went forth John 19.17 And as they came out they found a man of Cyrene Simon by name Mat. 27.32 who passed by coming out of the Countrey the father of Alexander and Rufus Mark 15.21 and they laid hold upon him Luke 23.26 him they compelled to bear his cross Mat. ibid. and they laid the cross on him that he might bear it after Iesus And there followed him a great company of people and of women which also bewailed and lamented him And Iesus turning unto them said Daughters of Jerusalem weep not for me but weep for your selves and for your children For behold the dayes are coming in the which they shall say Blessed are the barren and the Wombs that never bare and the paps which never gave suck Then shall they begin to say to the Mountains fall on us and to the Hills cover us For if they do these things in a green Tree what shall be done in the dry Luke 23.27 Dearest Brethren and friends of God you who wait to hear the end of the saving crucifying of the blessed Lord and beloved Jesus the good God imprint in your hearts the memory of this great suffering that thereby you may not only be more strengthened in your Faith but also animated and encouraged in patience to undergo the like if need so require Amen Invocate the Lords mercy and with most fervent minds pray for all Iews Pagans Hereticks sinners and sinneresses that God the Father and Creator of all would bestow his Grace and Mercy upon all men whereby they may be converted from unbelief to the Faith and from a wicked life to godliness O thou most high God remember this so infinite Passion and be not angry with us for ever These things I thought good to premise to stir up your minds and make ye more attentive to those things which now follow We have heard first what our Lord suffered before finall sentence was past upon him We have heard secondly what that sentence was to wit that he should be crucified Now thirdly we shall hear next how that sentence was put in execution Here then let us give all attention not so much with the ears of our body as of our mind The next thing to be done is to open the Veins of the Fountain of living Waters that that precious balsam which pierceth and softeneth the hearts of all the godly may flow out After that wicked sentence was pronounced those truculent and bloody Wolves took that meekest Lamb Jesus to rend him in pieces and destroy him utterly a thing which they had long desired and now at last had obtained So that what Christ had foretold was now fulfilled to wit that the world should rejoice in his sufferings Ioh. 15. Then is the world glad when it may do what it listeth without controul when there is none to reprove it when it hath those that rebuke it under its own power they took Christ
cross death hell And he so blessed all these things by his touching them and so sanctified them that they shall never more burt but help never more be for evil but for good to them that believe And therefore whensoever any of these afflict thee see that above all things thou look to Christ in thy cross and tribulation which if thou doest thou shalt not only bear up in thy affliction or against the cruel rage of persecutors but shalt withall glory and triumph in thy adversity and affliction Rom. 5. A figure hereof was in the Waters of Marah which were so bitter that none could drink of them but when Moses had cast the wood which God shewed him into them they became sweet and pleasant Exod. 15.25 This is that Tree of Christs cross which sweetens all bitter things to us So the poverty of Christ makes our poverty comfortable his death makes ours joyfull c. Learn hence patiently to endure thy travell in the way to Heaven And cheer up thy self from this that thou maist be able to bear thy cross Come hither I say whosoever thou art that art hunted and hurryed to death either for Righteousness-sake or Innocency For in this leading of Christ away to the cross yea even at the cross thou shalt there by faith find thy self that even as Christ seemed to the world to be led to a most filthy and shamefull death and yet indeed was guided to a glory far more glorious then all glory so if thou art a member of Christ by Faith thou wilt seem to be carried away into extream misery but yet thou shalt be convoyed unto eternal Joy For to this end Christ came unto this hour that he might lead thee along with himself thorow death unto life This is our comfort that Christ bare his cross Let none therefore despair under his sins or faint under his outward sufferings but in both conditions let him look up unto Christ it will lighten his burden and he shall receive strong consolation But observe this that it is not enough to bear a cross For every cross doth not lead to life but only the cross of Christ There are four sorts of men that carry the cross First Some bear it willingly as godly men do Some unwillingly as wicked and worldly men for they also are not without their cross but they carry it very unwillingly like Simon Others bear the cross but t is other mens not their own this they utterly refuse and reject as the Hypocrites do There are others who bear the cross indeed yet they follow not Christ but the Devil rather as all ungodly men do Look thou therefore to it that thou bear thine own cross and follow Christ also But hear what follows And as they came out they found a certain man passing by c. Here we see that verified which Paul saith 1 Cor. 10. God is faithfull who will not suffer you to be tempted above what ye are able but will with the temptation make a way of escape that ye may be able to bear it In this respect that Simon here named was sent to meet Christ Nor shalt thou want some Simon or other to ease and comfort thee if thou constantly hold out in persecution and temptation Therefore do the Evangelists so punctually describe this man by his name his countrey and his condition for the greater confirmation of our Faith and that we may not doubt but that we shall find some to succour us in our distress His name was Simon which signifieth attentive or obedient None but the attentive and obedient do bear the cross profitably By countrey he was a Cyrenaean from Cyrene which was a Pentapolis or one of the five Cities This Simon happily might be a Proselite or perhaps some Jews might then dwell there Moreover his children are here named that none may doubt of what was done The Souldiers laid hold on him and compell him to bear the cross which no man else would so much as touch they were all so affrighted with that word of Scripture concerning the curse of the Tree Therefore they compell this Simon to bear the cross not out of any good will to lighten or ease Christ in the least of his heavy burden but either because Christ went so falteringly and feebly they had not patience to go so slowly all delay was tedious and they thought long before they came to the place or else because they would reserve him for greater tortures Thus whom the world doth cheer up make merry for a time those it doth torment afterward with its courser usage So the Aegyptians at first entertained the Israelites with greatest respect and honour but into what streights and troubles did they force them afterward Read Exod. 1. 2. And David was first sent for from the sheep-fold to the Kings Court but afterwards was forced to flye for safety of his life The friendship and good will of this world doth end in enmity and hatred 1. But that which is here reported of Simon The Mystical meaning did not fall out without a Mysterie For first this Simon may be a Type of all obedient Christians who with Christ do carry their cross although their flesh stand in such reluctancy that it must be compelled to that which is for its welfare And therefore Origen calls this a wholsome compulsion For our flesh will not bear the cross except it be forced and mortified by the Spirit of God which compulsion is yet very profitable for it 2. Whereas Simon did indeed bear the cross but did not dye upon it he is a figure of those who for a time do carry the cross with Christ but do not persevere and hold out to the end 3. Nor doth it want a Mysterie that Christ did first carry the cross and afterward Simon For none of us had been able to bear the cross if Christ had not born it first But what more did yet happen in this progress And a great multitude saith he followed Jesus It behooved and t was fit that all the people should be present when the High Priest did offer and compleat his Sacrifice But they did not all follow him with the same mind and affection The High Priests who had so earnestly importuned his death did follow him being glad to see him dye The women followed him as they that loved him when he lived and desired that he might yet live longer but when he was going to dye when he was dying and when he was dead they greatly lamented his loss But it did not cause the women only to bewail him so as if they alone and not very many men too were most sorrowfull for his suffering but because the female sex which is least taken notice of in such cases might be more bold to express their grief when the Rulers were present The women then did religiously lament him but they bewailed only his humanity And indeed what Unbeliever what Infidel so he
The Disciples believed because they were incouraged by being promised to sit upon twelve Thrones Mat. 19. Thou never sawest any of all these things Thou hast not read the Scriptures thou hast seen no signs thou hast heard none of the Promises and yet thou believest nay thou dost make glory appear out of infirmity and innocency out of condemnation Have but a little patience thou shalt not stay long without a reward of so great a faith For although thou art now hard by the gates of death and the Ax is cutting down the tree of thy life yet thou art come in good time and seasonably enough There is place yet for pardon the gate of Mercy is not yet shut nay the fountain of Grace and Favour doth now flow more abundantly than it was wont to do Go to Be it unto thee according to thy Faith Faith stopt the womans issue of blood it shall cleanse thee from the contagion of all thy sins Faith freed the Cananitish daughter that was vexed with Devils it shall quit thee of the serpent that lurketh at thy heel deliver thee from the snare of the Hunter and from the expectation of thine enemies whom thou hast served By faith the Lepers were cleansed the blind made to see the sick of the Palsie restored to health thou by this thy faith shalt obtain eternal Glory and the salvation of thy soul By this thy faith thou shalt not with Enoch see the bitterness of death thou shalt he saved from the flood with Neah thou shalt with Abraham receive a place which thou knowest not for an Inheritance thou shalt not with Moses be smitten with the destroying Angel and shalt pass safely through the sea Thou like another Caleb shalt enter into a land flowing with Milk and Hony I Jesus will conduct thee thither It shall be better and more honourable for thee that thou hast hung by my side than if thou hadst sate before Caesar in golden Hangings and in his Ivory Chair Thou shalt have much more Honour and Renown than Augustus himself It shall be more sweet and pleasant to thee to partake with me in my torments than if thou hadst been Monarch and sole King of all the earth For what had it profited thee if the whole world had been subdued under thee for a moment and thy soul tortured with eternal pains and darkness Mat. 16. What good would a little paltry pelf do thee if thou shouldst lie under perpetual torments Verily I say unto thee Verily I say to thee I shall not bring thee into fools Paradise with tempting and inticing allurements rely upon what I say be secure my Word is as much as my Oath But because of the excellency of faith I did heretofore swear to Abraham and the Fathers and I will swear to thee also but much more happily I swear unto these that which I performed many Ages after but what I swear to thee I will presently perform To day To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise This shall be thy Reward To day I say lest long delay become tedious to thy expectation This day is salvation come into thine house Luk. 19. This day will I begin to exalt thee before all Israel that they may know that I am with thee This day shalt thou take the Land of the living which thou hast trampled upon with thy feet for thine eternal possession because thou hast followed the Lord thy God This petition of thine seems but a light Request to those that are without for what is more easie than to remember Thou thinkest that thou hast asked but a small matter but they are great things that thou suest for and such only as none but my faithfull servants pray for even to remember thee in my Kingdom For whom I remember they are not forsaken but whom I forget they are thrown aside out of my hand and do vanish away as the smoak Those on whom I have Mercy I remember them whom I remember on them also I have Mercy They cannot but be blessed whom I remember in my Kingdom So that in this short form of prayer thou hast asked more than thou art aware of for I ever give more than I am desired Wherefore remembring I will remember thee and bless thee Memory Thou shalt be had in everlasting Remembrance and shalt not be afraid of evil Tidings Psalm 112. With me Thou shalt be With me lest at any time thou shouldest slip out of mind mine eyes shall be still upon thee thou shalt be born upon my shoulders I will cover thee with my feathers and thou shalt put thy trust under my Wings Psalm 91. Thou shalt be with me with whom that the Saints might be they desire to be dissolved Thou shalt be with me thou shalt fear none ill for I the Hand of the Lord and as a mighty man of War am with thee Thou shalt be with me free from fear full of joy in peace and safety Thou shalt be with me who am every where and am All in All. Then thou shalt see what and how honourable a thing it is to be with me thou shalt overflow and thy heart shall be enlarged For In Paradise Thou shalt be with me in Paradise Nor shall that flaming Sword or guard of the Cherubins drive thee thence Adam who hid himself out of my sight was justly expelled that Garden Gen. 3. But thou who hast turned to me that I might remember thee shalt mercifully be led thereinto 1. Thou shalt be in Paradise not in the earthy but Heavenly garden of pleasure where thou shalt be enlightened with the inaccessible Rayes of Light which enlighteneth the eyes of Angels cheareth the youthfull minds of the Saints where thou shalt drink of and be filled with the Fountain of Life where thou shalt celebrate the Sabbaths and keep Holy-day in the celestiall Jerusalem in the pure and pleasant beauties of peace Thou art the first that entered that Kingdom prepared for good men before the world began No man shall go into it before thee None had ever so much and so many good things bestowed upon them before Thus they that honour me I will honour them 1 Sam. 2. And thou shalt be for a Sign that all may know from the greatest to the least how Saving how Honourable how fruitfull the Faith of Believers in me is 2. Thou shalt be with me in Paradise and the Kingdom of the Church which this day I erect with my blood 1. That whosoever shall know that thy wickedness is pardoned he may not despair of the forgiveness of his own but that he also may be turned to me that he may seek salvation and find it ask of me that he may receive pardon 2. I say thou shalt be an Example and a Spectacle of my mercy in whom all that are laden with sin shall see that my mercy is greater than mans frowardness so that they will but return to me that I also may