THE HISTORY OF Christ's Sufferings.
SECT. I. Of the Time of the Passion, and our Preparation for the Thoughts of it.
IT was the Matt. 26.2. Time of the Celebration of the Passover among the Jews, in Exod. 12.17. Memory of their Miraculous deliverance out of Egypt, when the Lord Jesus having Preacht the Gospel, was by the Act. 4.28. determinate Councel of God to return unto the John 20.17. Father through the Passion of Death.
A dreadful Tragedy to those poor [Page 2]Disciples, who had but lately left Mark 10.28. all to follow him, in hopes of partaking of better Fortune in the Grandure of an Empire and the Delights of Plenty; for the people had conceived great hopes of a John 6.15. Triumphing Messiah, who should free them from the Roman Tribute and Exactions, and lift up Judaea unto the Throne of the Universe (their Fundamental errour against the Cross:) nor were these yet wean'd from Temporal expectations of a Reward in his Matt. 20.21. Act. 16. Kingdom, for what they had quitted for his sake.
They were John 15.19. chosen out of the World, and fit for the impression of all other Virtues and Graces of Christianity; but are Matt. 16.22. startled at the apprehension of Persecution of Martyrdom, and cannot understand what they are unwilling should come to pass: So susceptible of the poison of Ambition are the finest Spirits, that the Wisest have rejected it the last of Vices; and so contrary and so contrary to Flesh and Blood at first are the passages of the Spirit through Tribulation to Bliss.
There was need of the forwardness of some extraordinary Zealot to support 'em in such a trial with a Religious Confidence, when all their Pregnant [Page 3]hopes were apparently disappointed. I fear, had not Peter the bold Galilaean stept forth when his Master foretold his Sufferings, and broken the profound Silence and Astonishment into which it had cast the rest of the Apostles, they had Shipwrackt in the very Port of Faith against this Rom. 9.33. Stumbling Stone and Rock of Offence.
Hear then the expressions of an Ardent Zeal replenished with heat rather then light: Matt. 26.33, 35. Though all men shall be offended because of Thee, yet will I never be offended. Though I should die with Thee, yet will I not deny Thee. Likewise also said all the Disciples. We presume we can do any thing in the strength of Passion, while our minds are suspended from serious reflections; but must bewail our imbecility when that is over, and confess our selves naturally weak and impotent, and that all our 2 Cor. 3.5. sufficiency is of God
For, alas! there is one of them contriving his Death, and how he may most Matt. 26.16. opportunely betray him to his Enemies, from the very instant he protests his Fidelity: nor shall he sooner be delivered into their hands, then the rest will Mark 14.50. forsake him, and Peter himself Mark 14.30. deny him.
My dear Reader, thou seest it will concern us in the constant course of our Christian Profession, especially in the time of Persecution and Affliction, and and as oft as we commemorate the Passion of our Lord, among the rest of our Holy Endeavours strictly to examine the Sincerity of our Hearts; and as diligently to apply that excellent precept; Matt. 26.41. Watch and Pray that ye enter not into Temptation. Our Minds may be Vigilant, our Professions Zealous, our Resolutions apparently Good: But who can be secure when one of the Twelve turns Traitor, another forswears himself, and the rest desert.
All the moments of this Militant State are assaulted by the Grand Enemy of Man's Salvation, Studiously wicked, and diligently pernicious to draw all into his Snare and Condemnation. But as the time before our Saviour's Passion was more properly called the Luke 22.53. Hour and Power of Darkness, wherein the Ruler of the Darkness of this World was let loose against him and his Disciples; so we may conceive this everlasting Adversary is never more industrious then to frustrate the means which chiefly conduce to the eradicating our Corruptions, the pulling down the Dominion [Page 5]of Sin, and reconciling us to our offended God: Such is our embracing the Matt. 16.24. Cross of Christ with intirely Crucified Affections and Lusts.
Prayer.
O my God, thou hast given thy Son to dye for me, and to become my Propitiation; but unless thou also give me to Believe on him, and to Adhere to him by a due Application, that Treasury of thy Mercy will be reveal'd to me in vain. Lord I Believe, help thou mine Unbelief, and Strengthen me, I Beseech Thee, against the infirmities of the Flesh, and the Suggestions of the Wicked One; that through the various Sufferings of my Saviour, I may be led to the imitation of his Divine Virtues; till Thou account me worthy to be partaker of his Glory.
SECT. II. Of the Mercy of Christ towards Judas, and the Ingratitude of that Disciple.
JUdas Iscariot was one of the Twelve whom Christ had elected out of the whole World to a free and intimate fellowship of His Person; one of his peculiar Domesticks and Attendance; a partaker of those immense Blessings, which many Matt. 13.17. Prophets and Kings had desired in vain to see and hear: Having seen with his Eyes the Word incarnate, and heard with his Ears the Divine Voice, and received an opportunity to have dwelt in his presence, whom Abraham might only see by the light of Faith: above all having been admited to the great Miracle of his Love, the Ministration of the Mystery of Redemption, the Sacrament instituted at his last Supper; to open his Understanding, to strengthen his Faith, and to purifie Soul.
For Jesus, in the same night he was Betrayed, Luke 22.19, &c. took Bread; and when he had given Thanks, he brake it, and gave it to his Disciples, saying, Take, Eat, This is [Page 7]my Body which is given for you, do this in Remembrance of me. There needed no Remembrance had he not been to be sold into the hands of his blood-thirsty Adversaries to be Slain: and therefore he would lay before him the Egregious wickedness he was going to commit against a Person who had always embrac'd him with an infinite Tenderness, and now was ready to lay down his life for him. Likewise after Supper he took the Cup, and when he had given Thanks, He gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of this, for this is my Bloud of the New Testament, which is shed for you, and for many for the Remission of Sins; another Representation of that Innocent Blood which was now barbarously designed to be shed, enough to have wounded a heart of Marble, or turn'd a Rock into a Fountain of Tears: Since by both it may appear, the perfidious Traitor was not more studious to deliver his Lord to the barbarous cruelty of his implacable Enemies, then the Benign Jesus was to pursue him with Kindness, and to contrive how he might reap the Advantages of his Sufferings, out of an unalterable purpose to do more then die for us, by finding out a way whereby he might live in us for ever.
But it seems the unbelieving and the Slaves of Sin, cannot have experience of the Divine Bounty; because through the Blindness and Hardness of their Hearts, they will not weigh so unspeakable a Gift as the Death of Christ for taking away their Guilt. Something less Mysterious may possibly suit better with a Carnal mind and a Corrupt understanding, and an Action of Humility from the most High, may draw the Admiration of the most insensible.
Jesus therefore knowing that the Father had given John 13.3. all things into his Hands, and that he was come from God, and went to God; (and what could the Evangelists have said more proper to make us Sensible of his wonderful Condescension? For we can never truly esteem his Humiliation, unless at the same time we consider his Sublimity; as we cannot rightly estimate his Charity, without considering how unworthy they were on whom he bestow'd it.) He knew himself to be Lord of all; and that he came from God by Eternal Generation; and was shortly to sit in Glory at his Right Hand: Yet for the love of Men, and to draw them to himself; he laid aside his Power, or rather hid it, and took upon him the [Page 9]form of a Servant, with all the Circumstances of an humble Ministration. Joh. 13.4. &c. He rose from Supper, put off his Garment, girded himself with a Towel, pour'd Water into a Bason, kneel'd down, and wash'd his Disciples Feet.
Who would have thought the Messiah was to come among Men, to execute the Office of a Moabite, or Slave? for thus saith David, Psal. 108.9.Moab is my Washpot; implying, he would humble the Moabites so low, they should serve only to bring Water to wash away Impurities. What Force has conquered him? What Arms have brought him under? What Power has subjected him to so dishonourable a Servitude? Are they not the Charms of his own infinite Love which have render'd him thus enamour'd of his Spouse the Church, that to wooe and gain her he will become any thing? And are they not a Token he intends shortly to cleanse and purifie her in his expiatory Blood?
I am not surprized that Peter should be afraid, and contract himself, saying, Joh. 13.6. Lord! dost thou wash my Feet? when he saw Heaven stoop to Earth, and the Vility of Man, next to infinite, exceeded by a Mercy equal to the Immensity of God. I rather wonder to see so many [Page 10]Christians burn Incense daily to that Idol call'd Point of Honour, when the Son of Man came not to be Ministred unto, but to Mark 10.45. Minister, and to give his Life a Ransom for many. He did not disdain to wash the Feet of his Betrayer, with those Hands which had opened the Eyes of the Blind, cured Lepers, heal'd Diseases, and when lift up to Heaven restor'd the Dead to Life. He might have washed the Head or Hands, a Service something more honourable; but he bends rather to the Feet, for the Opportunity of a more humble Posture and apter Signification of his infinite Charity.
Prayer.
Adorable Jesu! I burn with Love among thy Purifying Waters. I desire affectionately to humble my self: But where shall I find so low a Place as thine, when thou wast humbled before Judas, to wash his Traiterous Feet? I therefore resign my self with thy faithful Joh. 13.9.Disciple; and not my Feet only, but my Hands and my Head, even all that I am: Beseeching thee to work in me what shall be pleasing to thy Will, and to Grant, That by the Waters of Repentance and Regeneration my Soul may be renew'd to everlasting Life.
SECT. III. Of the Divine Predestination in respect of the Betrayer.
I Know not, whether Simon shew'd more Love to his Master, in violently Joh. 13.8. refusing at first, and as eagerly 9. permitting him at last to wash his Feet among the rest of the Disciples; or Judas more Obstinacy, in continuing insensible under such an admirable Dispensation of Goodness. For our Saviour pronounces against his invincible Infidelity, enough to strike Terrour into the most confident and assured. 10. Ye are clean, but not all. 18.I speak not of you all, I know whom I have chosen. Luk. 22.22.The Son of Man goeth as it was determined: but wo unto that Man by whom he is betrayed.Joh. 13.19.Now I tell you before it come, that when it is come to pass, ye may believe that I am He.
O God! what Lightnings, what Darts are here! what a Night without a Day! what a Precipice without a bottom! what an Ocean without a Shore! O Height of the Wisdom and [Page 12]Knowledge of the Almighty! how fearful and horrible are the Mysteries of thy Secrets. All this was long since praedicted by the Esai. 53. Zec. 11, 12, 13. Prophets: All this is acted according to the Counsel and Act. 4.28. Praedetermination of the Divine Majesty; and yet the Actor is in fault. Judas is admitted into the Apostolate, and yet not chosen; to present Grace, but not to final.
May it not suffice, to believe, That no Man is Reprobated without Justice; no Man Saved without Mercy; and that what was decreed from the Beginning to be done by Judas, was now to be fulfill'd, without any new Counsel, in a certain Order of Time, long before seen and determined. Not that Judas was compell'd to betray Christ, lest the Scriptures should be found false; for otherwise he were not to be blamed, but rather praised, yea, his Sin would be charged upon God: But because he was ready to do this of his own accord, the Holy Spirit foreseeing it, foretold it to come to pass.
Prayer.
O dreadful Majesty! who dost justly Condemn, and undeservedly Save Souls; I tremble at thy Judgments, I prostrate my self [Page 13]before thy Mercy; if thou enterest into Judgment with me, I cannot be justified; if thou thinkest upon me in Mercy, I cannot be condemned. Pierce thou my Heart with a Fear of thy Judgments, that I may always dread them, and never feel them. If I forget thee, awake my Memory: If I fly from thee, recall me again. If I defer my Amendment, stay for me in Mercy; and when I return, O cast not out my Soul, but think upon the Rigorous Justice that thou hast executed upon the Son of thy Love, for the Satisfaction of my Sins.
SECT. IV. Of the Grief of Christ, for the Apostasie of his Servant. The dreadful Condition of such as fall from him, and the happy Privileges of Persevering in the Faith.
WE may perceive the great Lover of Souls was extreamly troubled at the Apostasie of one of his Disciples, when he express'd so much Satisfaction in the Preservation of the rest. ( Joh. 17.12, 13. Holy Father, keep through thine own Name, those whom thou hast given me, [Page 14]that they may be one as we are. While I was with them in the World, I kept them in thy Name. Those that thou gavest me, I have kept, and none is lost, but the Son of Perdition.) Nor would he conceal the Grief of his Spirit, foreseeing in him a Representation of all those who should afterwards reject his Admonitions and Benefits, and trample his Love under their Feet.
For though we may have hitherto thought but of one Judas, who falling from his Profession, sold his Lord, deliver'd him to his Enemies, betray'd him to be crucified; yet such is every one, who renouncing the Faith, and following the Motions of Satan and his own Lusts, Heb. 6.6. Crucifies to himself the Son of God afresh, and puts him to an open Shame.
The Wonder, if not the Grief of the blessed Angels in Heaven, (who Luk. 15.7. rejoyce at the Conversion of every penitent Sinner, as Heb. 1.14 ministring to those who shall be Heirs of Salvation,) is, to see so many Christians falling from the Truth, and abasing the great Mystery of the Religion which they profess, by a settled Tendency to Sin and Death. Who have given up their Names, but not their Hearts, to Christ; who have [Page 15]begun well, and are not established; who have partaken of the Holy-Ghost, and have chased him away again; who have eat and drunk at their Master's Table, and are the chief that lift up their Heel against him.
A most miserable Spectacle; and not to be exceeded, unless by that of their departure into everlasting Punishment. For as an Angel falling became the Devil, so a revolting Christian is the worst of Men, because of the Eminency of his former Station; and will have his Mat. 25, 41. Portion allotted him with that Apostate Rebel.
This was that which Joh. 13.21. troubled the Spirit of the Holy Jesus, when he testified, and said, Verily verily I say unto you, That one of you shall betray me. This was that which made the Disciples exceeding Mat. 26.22. sorrowful, and to begin to say, Lord, is it I? And, O that it might have the same effect upon us, to search our Hearts, to examine our Faith, and all our Thoughts, Words, and Works, that we fall not among those who draw back to Perdition.
How sad was this Feast, where both the Master and the Disciples sympathize in an inexpressible Grief? One, that he must be betray'd to Death by his Friend; [Page 16]the others, that one of them should be the accursed Betrayer: One, that he knew the miserable Estate of that Wretch, for whom it had been Mark 14.21.better that he had never been born; the others, that they are not yet deliver'd from their Fear, which it should be of whom he spake, and whose Being should be worse than not to be at all.
Ah! Sinners, where are we? Alas! do we not remain under the same Suspence? One of you shall betray me, is a fearful Saying; and the Eccho of this Voice is addrest to all, and loudly resounds the Danger of Sin and Impenitency. Is this to live, to have a Being worse than none? And can we call that a desirable Estate which will inevitably tend to the Abyss of Misery, through Pains, Torments, Terrors, and Deaths?
O Life, how sweet art thou, when thou dost fear and love nothing but God! O Death, how dreadful art thou, when we have forsaken him, and devoted our selves to the Creature! What Favours and Benedictions are there in the Life and Death of a Virtuous Man! But what Horrours, Anathema's, and Maledictions, during the Course and at the End of the wicked Life of a Sinner!
Blessed was that Disciple, who all this while might rest securely in the Joh. 13.23. Bosome of his Lord. Whether Grief or Fear had inclin'd his Head; or whether it were the Sweetness of his Master's Actions, which ever drew the Admiration of the Beholders; or whether it were Love, which minds not what it does, but silent in a sublime Tranquility of Passions, adheres to its Beloved for an Eternity, not admitting the least Disunion; or whether it were Excess of Rapture and Contemplation of what he writ afterwards of the Joh. 1. Divinity of the Word; surely never any Mortal had so sweet a Repose, or near Approach to the Beatifick Vision: Since he might lean on his Breast, to be admitted to whose Feet, many Prophets and Kings would have accounted it the greatest Felicity.
A Spirit separated from the Pretensions of the World, and purified from all the Forms of the Creatures, intire to God, and which lives by the flames of holy Love, has a mighty Privilege with the Prince of Purity, and neither doubts to ask, nor fears to be deny'd; while ungovernable Zeal receives many Repulses, and hinders not a Votary from being less Matt. 16.23. Satan, than he that [Page 18]favoureth not the things that be of God, but those that be of Men.
Peter, therefore, whose Rashness had often been rebuk'd, yet impatient, and desirous to be rid of his Fear, Joh. 13.24. &c. beckon'd to him who was lying on Jesus Breast, that he should ask who it should be of whom he spake. And Jesus answered, He it is to whom I shall give a Sop when I have dipped it. And when he had dipped the Sop, he gave it to Judas Iscariot the son of Simon, That theJoh. 13.18. Psal. 41.9.Scripture might be fulfilled. He that eateth Bread with me hath lift up his Heel against me. And after the Sop Satan entred into him.
A Speech truly dreadful, but much more the thing it self; for a Man to arrive at that height of Misery, through the Obstinacy and Impenitency of his Heart, as to be cast off, reprobated, and given up to the Devil: Yet such is the admirable Analogy and Proportion between the Judgments of God and our Sins, when we continue to despise the means of Grace. He Libravit Iter, Psal. 78.51.weighs a way to his Anger, as it were in Scales, punishing our Sins with evil Habits; our evil Habits, with hard Hearts; our hard Hearts, with Obstinacy; our Obstinacy, with Impenitency; our Impenitency, with Damnation. Judas, who had [Page 19]wilfully given up himself to Covetousness, Hypocrisie, Ingratitude, and Contempt of all that was Holy, is now deliver'd to be obsirmated by Satan, and made incurable of his Sin; that being like the Devil, he might never return. And this is the Malediction which the Holy Ghost had long since imprecated by the mouth of David, Psal. 109.6.Let Satan stand at his right hand.
Prayer.
Great Judge of all Men, Thou hast made but two Ends, one in Heaven, and the other in Hell; one with thy self, and the other with the Devils; and all our Motions are always tending to these. We no sooner leave thee, the Center of our Happiness, but we wander into those unfortunate Labyrinths of Misery which lead at last to the Abyss of Torment. O, let me abide for ever in thy Presence, fixed there by a strong Faith, an earnest Hope, and an endless Charity; that the Suggestions of Satan may never have Opportunity to withdraw me from those Pleasures which are at thy Right Hand; but passing the time of my Sojourning here in Fear and Caution, assisted by thy Grace, and guided by thy Spirit, I may safely arrive at the Consummation of thine Elect.
SECT. V. Of the miserable Departure of Judas from the Presence of Christ, and his selling him to the Chief Priests.
AGitated by the Prince and Powers of Darkness, Joh. 13, 30. He went out immediately, and it was Night; hoping to cover himself with the Shades of that, to act his more horrible and black Designs. But alas, poor Disciple! where can he find Rest, who goes out of the Presence of his Saviour? How can he chuse but stumble and fall, who hideth himself from the Sun of Righteousness; who is absent from the Light of the World; who wanders out of the way of Life; who is beyond the Voice of that Word, which only succours, instructs, and guides? A lost Sheep, out of the Care of the Shepherd, will soon meet with the Infernal Lion; and the Opportunity will invite him to the Assault.
The Devil was a Joh. 8.44.Murderer from the Beginning, and never fails to promote any Evil Purpose, takes hold on this [Page 21]Advantage to ruin Judas, the Jewish Nation, and (if it were possible) the Messiah. He leads this fugitive and desolate Wretch, with the strong Chain of imaginary Profit (his 1 Tim. 6.10. surest Snare to draw us from the Faith) to the Chief Priests, who, out of Joh. 11.47. Mark 11.18. Envy to Christ's Miracles, had frequently taken Counsel to put him to Death, and waited only for an Opportunity in the Mat. 26.5. Absence of the People.
As was the Seller, such were the Buyers, the Chief Priests and Elders of the People, excecated by the just Judgment of God, to Mat. 23.22.fill up the Measure of their Fathers Iniquity: Otherwise they could never have found fault with Innocence, deny'd the Truth, or envy'd a Divine Power, all employ'd only to do them good: So far does the Punishment of Sin reach to many Exod. 20.12. Generations of them that hate God. Which made the Evangelical Prophet, foretelling the coming of Christ, foretell also the Blindness and Obduracy of this People: Mat. 13.14, 15. From Isa. 6.9, 10. Their Heart is waxen gross, their Ears are dull of hearing, and their Eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their Eyes, and hear with their Ears, and understand with their Hearts, and be converted, and I should heal them.
A mutual Inclination soon makes a Bargain. Judas says, Mat. 26.15. What will you give me? And they, knowing his avaricious Mind, covenant with him for Thirty Pieces of Silver. Dr Hammond in loc. Which, according to the Greek and Latin Manuscripts, being equivalent to Staters or Shekels, amounted to Three Pound Fifteen Shillings; which was the common Price of a Servant in those days, a Freeman being valued at twice that Rate. So truly did he, who was in the Phil. 2.7. Form of God, and thought it no Robbery to be equal with God, make himself of no Reputation, and take upon him the Form of a Servant, that he might exalt us to the Privilege of of Sons: So sordid and vile the Heart of the Betrayer, to undervalue his Master in the Bargain of his Blood.
How unlike was this Action to that of the Luk. 7.37. Noble Convert, Mat. 26.13. never to be forgotten while the Gospel shall be preached; who, when Jesus was in the House of Simon the Leper, came with an Mark 14.3. Alabaster Box of Ointment of Spikenard, very precious, and worthy the greatest Monarchs (for such had Cambyses sent to the King of Ethiopia;) and when she had first shed a Flood of Tears, enough to Luk. 7.38. wash his Feet, [Page 23]and had wiped them with her hairs, and kissed his Feet, in an Extasie of Love, Sorrow, and Admiration; she brake the Box, and poured it upon his Mat. 26.7.head, and Luk. 7.38. anointed his feet, to the great amazement of all the Beholders, and Mark 14.4. indignation of some, who lookt upon it as Wast.
It had not yet been used to anoint the Feet of Kings, and was afterwards, when received into the Roman Prodigality by Otho, in Honour of Nero, lookt upon as a Prodigy of unnecessary Profusion. But she thought nothing rich enough for his Sacred Feet, whom she acknowledged above all the Potentates of the Earth, and not to be valued, but to be loved above her Life. She now melted in the Limbeck of holy Desire, and her Heart distilled out by her Eyes; her Hairs, which were the Nets wherein so many Captive Souls had sigh'd under the Yoke of wanton Love, are now trampled under the Feet of her Conqueror; the Kisses which carried the Poyson of a Luxurious Passion, now breath from her nothing but the Delicacies of Chastity; her pleasing Odors, which were before vow'd to Sensuality, are now become the sweetest Exhalations, and bring an odoriferous Perfume [Page 24]to Christ. Judas on the contrary thought it more worth than his Head, and under pretence of Charity to the Poor (because he was a Ioh. 12.5, 6. Thief, and had the Bag, and bare what was put therein) would have had it sold, that he might have stoln from the Price.
Covetousness aims at base and low Purchases, whilst Holy Love is great and comprehensive, and designs at nothing less than Infinity. The Love of God is a Holy Fountain, limpid and pure, sweet and salutary, lasting and eternal: The Love of Money is a vertiginous Pool, sucking all into it self, to destroy 'em; it is troubled and uneven, gidy and unsafe, serving no end but its own, and that in a restless and unequal Motion. The Love of God spends itself upon him, to receive again Reflections of Grace and Benediction; the Love of Riches spends all its Desires on it self, to purchase nothing but unsatisfying Instruments of Exchange, supernumerary Provisions, and Occasions of Sin; and ends in Dissatisfaction, Emptiness of Spirit, and a bitter Curse.
O, ye unhappy Treasures of the World, which cause the same Barrenness in the Hearts of Men, as ye do in the [Page 25]Mountains in which ye grow, and consume all Natural and Divine affection, and become the 1 Tim. 6.10. Root of all evil, and pierce us through with many Sorrows till we are involv'd in a certain Matt. 19.23, 26. Impossibility of Salvation! Why were ye reveal'd from your dark Repositories? Why were you not suffer'd to lie buryed for ever? that wanting the occasions of Injustice and Luxury, we might Innocently have enjoy'd the necessaries of Life, and have had our desires free to have waited on our God, the only Adequate Object of our Immortal Souls.
But Mary has taught us the right use, to convert 'em to the benefit of the Members of Christ, and we cannot but think it the most excellent distribution which draws us to the nearest resemblance of our Maker, whose Nature is to Jam. 1. [...]. Matt. 5. [...] Give and to do good; which 1 Pet. [...]. covers Sins; which is Psal. [...]. everlasting Righteousness; and Ascends for a Acts [...]. Memorial before God; an Phil. [...]. odour of a great smell, and an acceptable Sacrifice; which shall Rev. [...]. follow us; and be Matt. 25. [...]. own'd by the Great King in the last day; and Matt. 5. [...]. obtain Mercy in the Time of Judgment.
Ye Candidates of Eternity, whose business shall be Charity in the other World when Faith and Hope shall cease; [Page 26]the Time is coming (and we know not how suddenly) that Death shall disarray us to the very Bones, and leave us nothing but what we have given to God, Matt. 26.11. Deut. 15.11. and to the Poor in his Absence. Let us therefore commence here our Heavenly Conversation, and Bless the hour wherein we have opportunity to evidence our Love to God and Man, and to part with something for the sake of our Dear Saviour; to buy with the Superfluities of a trifling stock an 1 Pet. 1.4. inheritance incorruptible and undefiled in Heaven, where neither Matt. 6.9. Moth nor Rust do corrupt, and where thieves do not break through and steal. How comfortable will the reflections of our Charity be at the Hour of Death, and in the Day of Judgment; when Mercy shall rejoyce against Judgment, Jam. 2.13. and Love shall constitute a part of Heaven, and help to make up the enjoyment of that State?
Prayer.
Amiable Jesu, since we cannot pour our Grateful Odours upon thy Head, nor wash thy Sacred Feet with our Tears; let us reach thy Divinity and Humanity with our Faith; and let our Charity diffuse it self upon thy [Page 27]Mystical Body, the Church: That we may never esteem any thing too Precious to be bestow'd for thy sake, never value any thing in competition with thy Service, who art the true Riches of thine Elect.
SECT. VI. Of the Benignity of Christ supporting his Disciples, in the absence of the Betrayer, against the Time of their Trial.
JUdas is gone, and the Holy Jesus not more streightned with the thoughts of his Passion then with the Sorrows of his Disciples, begins a most Heavenly and Salutary Discourse to enlighten their Understandings, and alleviate their Minds.
Joh. 13.31.32. Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God be glorified in him, God shall also glorifie him in himself, and will straightway glorifie him.
Now he was Glorified as to his Mystical Body by the recession of the Son of Perdition from his Society: Now he was Glorified by the Separation of Judas, prefiguring his future Glorification when he shall separate the Just from the [Page 28]Unjust, and his Power, Truth and Justice shall appear: Now he was Glorified by the beginning of his Passion upon which depended the whole Mystery of Redemption: Now he was Glorified in Relation to that Glory, of which he had said, John 12.32. When I am lift up, I will draw all men to me.
He had before been glorified by his Miracles when the People were astonished, and Mark 7.37. said he had done all things well; when upon his satisfying Five Thousand with five Loaves, they would have taken him, and made him a John 6.14.15. King; when upon his suppressing the Winds and Waves, they began to adore him as the Matt. 14.13. Son of God; when upon his restoring Lazarus to Life they receiv'd him publickly into Jerusalem with Psalms and John 12.13. Acclamations due to the Eternal God: But the Consummation of his Glory was to be raised from his Passion, the Phil. 2.9. groundwork of his Exaltation, and Adorable Name.
Let then the Wicked One do what he can, Sell, Betray, and incense even the whole World: The Glory of the Son of Man is his Cross. He is ravisht by the object of his Death, and transported by the Idea of his Sufferings; He encourages himself to the Combat with [Page 29]the Prospect of Glory; He looks upon the Cross as the Fountain of his Happiness, and Plants his Elevation upon the lowest Abasement. He teaches us that Treachery, Calumny, and Death, how horrible soever they seem in this World, yet to a just Man are desirable, or at least easily to be born by him, forasmuch as there is no other way to Glory. Let us never think then to be worthy of him, till we bear the Ensigns of his War, as well as the Ornaments of his Peace. Every thing is a Paradise to him that knows how to love the Cross, and every thing is a Hell to them that fly from it, tho' no body flys from it but shall find it: It is the Gate of our Mortality through which we needs must pass before we can Acts 14.22. enter into the Kingdom of God.
Behold, when the Sovereign Love comforts, what Rivers of Balm flow from his Tongue, and spread themselves with admirable Sweetnesses and refreshments into the wounds of afflicted hearts. He gives as it were a foretaste of the Glory to be reveal'd hereafter, and to which all present Sufferings are not worthy to be compar'd, that we should ever have respect unto the recompence of Reward, and repose our whole confidence [Page 30]in him that has promis'd. He speaks of his Death in so desirable a manner, that he draws his Disciples into the highest Consolation, at the same time that he humbles them in the depth of Sorrow.
Little Children. The very Appellation bespeaks a Paternal Favour and Providence, and that now by his Death and Sufferings for them they should be call'd, and be the Son of God. Nor do we read in the Holy Gospel they were ever stil'd before by this Name. Whereby he seems to show an extraordinary affection, because of the Tenderness of his Love, and the infirm Infancy of their Understanding and Faith. John 13.33. Yet a little while I am with you. A very little while, but while Judas can go to the Jews, and return again, and then I shall be no longer with you, unless that for a short space I shall see you again. Not that he was to leave them, and be no more with his Church; For as when he came from God he left not God, so when he went to God he left not men; and himself says expresly in another place, L [...] I am with youMatt. 28.20.always to the end of the World: But because he was now to be with them but a little time in a Visible Mortal Body, as he [Page 31]had been hitherto, therefore he says, yet a little while; and that they might more ardently enjoy him present, and more diligently imprint in their minds what he should speak.
John 13.33. Ye shall seek me. For ye shall meet in my absence Persecution with great Fury, both of Jew and Gentile, insomuch, that with anxiety ye shall desire my Presence, of which you have thought it was Matt. 17.4. good for you to be there: Be not therefore terrified, but prepare for the worst.
I know the desires of your Souls are with me, and you would rather be for ever where I am. But as I said to the Jews, whither I go ye cannot come; So now I say unto you. Nevertheless that ye may decline as much as possible the Envy of the World which will hate you, because ye are not of it; and support one another under all contingencies with mutual consolation; and after my Example of Patience, Meekness, Love, Gentleness, and an universal Charity, trace the paths of Divine Perfection John 13.34. A New Commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another: as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. The Pharisees have obscur'd the Law by their Traditions, and have indulg'd the Lev. 19.18. Matt. 5.43. [Page 32]hatred of an Enemy: But my will is, you should love your Enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them who despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the Children of your Father which is in Heaven: For he makes the Sun to rise on the Evil and on the Good, and sendeth Rain on the Just and on the Unjust. And that all men may John 13.35. hereby know you to be my Disciples, who have loved you freely, voluntarily and plenarily, without motive from abroad, and according to what is in God, and not what is in man.
Here it was that Peter throughly pierced with the rays of such immense Goodness and Clemency, his Heart melting in the Fire of Love, found himself unable to bear a separation; and would fain know the reason why he must be left behind, who had never hitherto been deny'd his Society; and whither it was the Blessed Jesus would go from those, for whom he had exprest and to whom he had taught so much Love. John 13.36. Lord whither goest thou? Fountain of all Blessings, what will become of me when thou art absent by whom I live and move and have my being? If thou shalt hide thy Face all will be Barren, Desolate, and Night, Eternal [Page 33]Night; or whither is it Thou wilt go, that we may not accompany Thee now, who upon thy first call Luke 5.11. Left all to follow Thee, and ever since have Luke 22.28. continued with Thee in all thy Temptations? Have I especially been affected with so many Benefits, and shall I ever fall to that Ingratitude to desert thee? Have I been Elected by thee, and fed with the John 6.33. Bread of Heaven, and the living John 7.38. Waters of Comfort; and tasted thy Celestial Joys upon the Matt. 17.4. Mount, and thought it was good for me to be there, and Shall I leave thee at the appearance of danger? Lord, I am ready to go with Thee into Luke 22.33.Prison and to Death. Yea I will lay down my John 13.37.Life for thy sake.
Ah Peter what hast thou promis'd? Thou hast shew'd thy Fidelity but hast not consider'd how great a point of Wisdom it is to know ones self. How soon may a Man lose that by negligence, which he hath by much Labour, and a long Time, and a Mighty Grace, scarcely obtain [...]d? The Proud have fallen; the Presumptuous been Disgrac'd; the boldest talkers in the time of Peace have been most Dejected, and Pusilanimous in the day of Temptation. Thou esteemest thy self strong, but in the sight of God who knows what is in Man, [Page 34]will be found weak. We cannot trust to our selves, for that understanding is often wanting, and the small Light that is in us we lose by Negligence, and sometimes we perceive not our inward Blindness, we are moved with Passion, and think it Zeal. Whenever we trust to our Stock of habitual Grace, and depend on our own resolution, we are then in a dangerous and declining State.
For what saith the Truth? Luke 22.31. Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as Wheat. Thou art not apprehensive of the Devils power, who lies in wait for the Souls of the Faithful, and to precipitate thee into ruine as he has done Judas. But I have prayed for thee that thy Faith fail not; for he is not yet conquer'd and trampled under by the Elect. For this very 1 John 3.8.purpose was the Son of God manifested that he might destroy the Works of the Devil. The conquest over him and the infernal Powers is to be a part of the Col. 2.15. Triumph of my Cross.
Thou believest thou canst follow me in the way of my Passion, but thou hast not yet tasted the Power of my Death. For thô there have been some who have died for their Country, and others have exposed themselves to be slain for their [Page 35]Kindred; yet all this proceeded from a Carnal Affection: But to die for another, in the judgment of Our Lord himself, or to die for an Enemy, this is not of the Flesh; this is the Work of the Spirit of God. This Isa. 63.3.Winepress I must tread alone. These strengths of Death I must first break, to make a way for my Ransomed to pass. And therefore, tho' now thou standest, take heed least thou fall. John 13.38. Verily, Verily I say unto thee, thou shalt not long be insensible of humane weakness, for the Cock shall not crow till thou hast denied me thrice. Nevertheless when I have pulled out the sting of Death, and thou shalt be endued with Luk. 24.49. Power from on High, and have received the Holy Spirit to Strengthen thee, and to reform thy Nature into an entire Charity, then shalt thou John 13.36. follow me without dread by the same way that I go to the Father.
Considering these Speeches, I wonder not that St. Peter, who had found such Fruit and Sweetness in the Words of Eternal Life, such Virtue in this Treasury of the Power of God, should think it blessedness to enjoy his Society, and to partake with him in the worst of Miseries: I rather grieve to see so great a mixture of Faith and Flesh, I [Page 36]had almost said a Predominancy of the latter in the same Soul. The desire and purpose came from Faith: The Confidence and Resolution came from the Flesh; To let us see the holiest of all actions are too often mingled with Self-dependence, Pride, and Presumption; and that all our Confidence should be in Grace, and the assistances of the Eternal Spirit.
Prayer.
When, O when! My Gracious Redeemer, wilt thou enable me so to address my Vows, that I may withstand the assaults of Temptation, and persevere in what I promise and intend. Great are the Snares and Fears to which I am Subject, being cast into a frail Body. And with what may I support my self but by the ravishing thoughts of thy incomparable Sweetnesses and Compassions? Pity my Infirmities. Guide me with thy Grace. Open mine Eyes that I may see my danger. Strengthen my Heart that I may fight Valiantly, and never be wanting in my Fidelity to Thee. All that I am to have I owe to thy Gracious Favour, and I hope for Salvation, not by any proportion of my own Virtues, but by the Boundless Liberalities which only do Crown all our Works.
SECT. VII. Of the Legacy of Comforts Christ left to the Faithful, and his leaving Jerusalem, for a Terror to Infidels.
PEter being silenced, and the rest of the Disciples bearing no less confusion in their Hearts then in their Faces, by reason of the great conflict of Indignation, Shame, and Sorrow, which their mistrust had raised at the Sufferings of their Lord, the fall of Judas, and the danger of Peter; The Benign Jesus resumes his Discourse, and opens an admirable Treasury of Comfort; revealing the abundant sufficiency of his Kingdom, where he was going to Joh. 14.2, 3. prepare a place for them, that they might reign with him for ever: discovering himself to be the John 14.6. Way, the Truth, and the Life; through whom and no other we have access unto the Father: Shewing the wonderful operations of Faith, by which all the John 14.12. Miracles of the Church were to be wrought: Promising the Mission of another John 14.16. Comforter, which should abide with the [Page 38]Faithful for ever: Teaching the indispensable necessity of union with him, and John 15.7. remaining in his Love to which our obedience is the way, and which opens a door for our Supplications in Heaven: closing all with an earnest John 17.9. Prayer, that they might for ever be precious before God; that his Holy John 17.11. Father would take them into his Tuition, and protect them in the discharge of their Apostleship, and John 17 20. all others from Peril and defection, who should believe on him through their word. That they might live to Teach and Learn uniformly what he had taught 'em, as he receiv'd it from the Father; and that after a Faithful Discharge of Duties in the Preachers and Hearers of his Divine Word, they might arrive to the John 17.24. same place of Happiness, and his Eternal Glory be conferr'd upon them.
Amen. Be it so, My Jesu. Grant unto us Grace to Understand, Diligence to Consider, Care to lay up and reduce to Practise all these intimations of thy Goodness and Will. And since the end of all is to unite us to thy self, embrace us we Beseech Thee, with the Arms of thy Mercy. When Thou art present all is well; when Thou art absent every thing is difficult. When Thou speakest, [Page 39]we feel Consolation; when Thou art silent, we have no comfort. How hard and dry are our Hearts without Thee; but how happy is the hour when thou call'st us to Spiritual Joys? to be without thee is a grievous Hell; to be in thy presence is a sweet Paradice. In thee we have protection; without thee all are Enemies. In thee we have a Treasure and a Good above all Goods; without thee we are Poor, and Naked, and Destitute. Vouchsafe, we beseech thee, to dwell in our Hearts, that we may live in thee for ever.
When Jesus had thus Taught, and Pray'd for his Disciples, and sung an Mark 14.26. Hymn giving praise to the Soveraign Disposer for what was past, and what was to come; He went out of the unhappy City Jerusalem, as the Light of the World in the close of the Day, being himself made the end of the Light to that miserable People; and left them in Darkness and the Shadow of Death, as the Jer. 12.7. Prophet had foretold, I have forsaken my House, I have left mine Herritage, I have given the dearly Beloved of my Soul into the hand of her Enemies. For this Egression of Christ prefigured the desolation of the Temple and the City, the time being come that the [Page 40]Carnal Worship being Abolished the true Worship of God should Commence in John 4.23. Spirit and in Truth. And of God's thus giving them over when they had first left him, and moved him thereto by their manifold provocations; another 1 Kings 9.7, 8, 9. Scripture saith, I will cut off Israel out of the land which I have given them; and this House which I have hallowed for my Name, will I cast out my sight, and Israel shall be a Proverb and a by-word among all people: and at this House which is high, every one that passeth by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss; and they shall say, why hath the Lord done thus unto this Land, and unto this House? and they shall answer, because they forsook the Lord their God: therefore hath the Lord brought upon them all this evil.
O let the people of the World hear, and let all the Nations of the Earth tremble. Israel, the Beloved of the Lord is Rejected; Jerusalem, once the Holy City, cast out of his sight, and his own house given up to be destroyed, because of the Transgressions and Obstinacy of his People. And can there be any hope but the same Sins will ever produce the same Judgments, or that Luke 13.3. except we repent we shall all likewise perish. Joel 2.17. Let the [Page 41]Priests, the Ministers of the Lord weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thine heritage to reproach; that the heathen should rule over them. Wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God? And Jonah 3.8, 9. Let Man and Beast be cover'd with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the Violence that is in their hand. Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and receed from his fierce Anger that we perish not.
Prayer.
Merciful Father, all whose Severity, in respect of its Act, is accidental, (for thou never strikest till insufferably provok'd) who leadest us as dear Children by gracious Promises, and never correctest us but with the Chastisement of Sons, for our Amendment, and the Example of others, obliging us to our Duty, and binding us to our Happiness, by a double tye of Love and Fear; Change, O change the hard Fetters of Fear into the inestimable Chains of Love: That, dreading thy Justice, we may avoid whatsoever may expose us to it, and may dwell for ever in the Contemplation of those Good things which thou hast wrought and prepared for them that love thee.
SECT. VIII. Of the Agony of Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane.
NOW there was a Valley between Jerusalem and Mount Olivet, of the vast Profundity of 400 Cubits, called Cedron from the Obscurity of the place, where Foggs and Mists seem'd to dwell in the bottom, to such as lookt down into it from the Temple; and a 18.1. Brook running there of the same Name.
Which Brook sometimes swell'd with impetuous Torrents, descending from the hard and lofty tops of Mount Moria, and Mount Acra; sometimes it trickled with a gentle Murmur in its own Source, without additional Waters, inviting the wearied Traveller to rest; an Emblem of the Vicissitude of Humane Condition, and the wavering Image of capricious Fortune, whereby a Man is sometimes over-born with Force, according to that of David, Psal. 69.1, 2.Save me, O God, for the waters are come in, even to my Soul, I stick fast in the deep Mire where no ground is, I am come into deep waters, [Page 43]so that the Floods run over me; sometimes there is a wonderful Tranquility and Smoothness over the Face of all his Affairs, which burys the apprehension of the least Storm.
At this Water-course, being the Sink of the holy City, they us'd to cast in every accursed thing; as the Powder of Maachah's 2 Chron. 15.16. Idol, which Asa stampt and burnt there; the Idolatrous 2 Chron. 30.14. Altars, that were in Jerusalem; and the 2 King. 236. Grove, that was taken out of the House of the Lord; and all the 2 Chron. 29.16. uncleanness that was found therein. Which is the reason of that Metaphorical way in Scripture of understanding Affliction and Troubles by Water, and particularly of those Words concerning our Blessed Saviour, who, after passing this, was to enter upon his Sufferings, That he should Psal. 110.7.drink of the Brook in the way. Nor may we hope to be exempt from it, who have given up our Names to be his Followers, since in the Torrent of Tribulation are found the living Waters of Comfort, which spring up in the Soul unto eternal Life.
Here holy 2 Sam. 15.23. David past in Grief, when he fled out of his Palace from his Son Absolom, and all the Country wept with a loud Voice. And now this Mark 12.35. Son of [Page 44] David passes over it sorrowing, in his way to Mount Olivet, (where grew abundance of Olives) to meet the Anger of his incensed Father, due to the rebellious Children of Men.
The Gen. 8.11. Olive signifies Peace; and Psal. 104.15. Oyl, Gladness; prefiguring (it may be) the Reconciliation to which his Sufferings there were preparatory, and the Joy they should create to all Believers: But to him it was to be the Theatre of unexpressible Dolours, and to which the Disciples followed with a sad Heart, fearing, and trembling, for the Words he had spoken, Zech. 13.7. Matt. 26.31. That in this night the Shepherd should be smitten, and the Sheep of the Flock should be scatter'd abroad.
We read at other times they went Luk. 10.1.before into every place, whither he himself would come: But the Evangelist has observ'd, now they Lide 22.39. follow'd him, as unable to precede in the way of Sufferings, (for poor Nature abhors the Cross, and clings to the Principles of Self-preservation) though after he had sanctified it, it became more agreeable, and they embrac'd it with Alacrity, as desirous of nothing more than to bear about in their Bodies the Dying of the Lord Jesus, and to be made conformable to his Death, believing, That in following [Page 45]him, they should arrive at the same Glory. And our 2 Cor. 1.7. hope is stedfast, that as we are Partakers of the Sufferings, so shall we be also of the Consolation.
At last they arriv'd at a Matt. Village called Gethsemane, scituate at the foot of the Mount of Olives, where were many pleasant Gardens, into one of which he entred with his Disciples; as chusing a place for his satisfactory Pains, answerable to that of the first Scene of Humane Misery, Gen. 2.8. where Adam fell, and ruin'd Mankind, and wherein he might best attend the Offices of Devotion, Prayer, and Meditation, before his Crucifixion. Here the second Adam would begin his Passion, in order to our Redemption from that contagious Guilt spread over his Posterity by the first Man; here he would become obedient unto Bonds, and mercifully take our Sentence upon himself, that he might free us from all Bondage of Satan, and vindicate us into the Liberty of the Sons of God.
Behold then on this Stage three marvellous Agonies, of God and Death, Joy and Sorrow, the Soul and the Flesh; beginning in the Sweat and Blood of our dearest Lord, but ending with the loss of his precious Life.
God and Death were two things very incompatible, since God is the first and the most universal of all Lives, who banishes from him all Operations tending to Death: And yet the Son of God having taken upon him our Nature, would suffer in it all the Pains that could attend Death, to rescue us, for whom he died, from the Pains of Death eternal.
The Joy of Beatitude was an absolute Fruition of Celestial Delights and Comforts, without any mixture of what might interrupt it, or be displeasing: And yet the blessed Jesus would suffer his innocent Soul to be overwhelmed with inexpressible Griefs, and to descend by our Steps to the Anguishes of Death, to raise us to the greatest Joys of Life.
There was also a great Duel between the affectionate Love, and the Virginal Flesh of Christ: His Soul did naturally love a Body, which was so Heb. 10.7. Psal. 40.70. obedient to the Will of his Father, and his Body follow'd wholly the Inclinations of his Soul. There was so perfect an Agreement between the two Parties, that their Separation must needs be most dolorous.
Yet Jesus would have it so, and for Witnesses of the Combat, takes with [Page 47]him Mark 14.33. Peter and James and John, commanding the rest to Mark 14.32. sit down, and compose themselves, till he should go and pray yonder, that they might not be moved with any thing that should befall him, but keep themselves steady against the Fears of Danger: But these three Disciples who had seen his Sublimity in his Mat. 17.1, 2. 2 Pet. 1.18. Transfiguration upon the holy Mount, he would have be present at his extream Dejection. By that they had an undeniable Proof of his Divinity, when they were so ravisht at the Glimpse of it, that they desir'd to dwell there: By this they were to know the Truth of his Humanity, and be able to give a sure Testimony to both, as well as learn the Subject of their Imitation and Hope. Ye blessed Spectators, how different was this Sight from that which so lately fill'd your Eyes, when you Matt. 17.2.3. saw his face shine as the Sun, and his Raiment white as the Light, and Moses and Elias talking with him? He receives no Honour now from the Father, and that excellent Voice is silent which proclaim'd him the Matt. 17.5. beloved Son of God, and that his Name was Joh. 12.28. Glorified in him; Nor from his Face do there dart any chearful Rays, nor do his Garments appear Glorious, nor the Heavenly [Page 48]Courtiers wait upon him; but as a Man dastitute of all Help, he begins to be Mark 14.33. afraid, to be sorrowful and afflicted, shewing in himself what usually happens to those who are no more than Men, at the approach of so great a Tempest.
The Evangelists have in such Language declar'd his Agony, as cannot but raise in us the highest Admiration of the Bitterness of his Passion. He began to beMatt. 26.37.sorrowful, saith St. Matthew; to be sore Mark 14.33.amazed, saith St. Mark; to be very Ibid.heavy, say both; and yet these Words in our Translation come far short of the [...]. Original Expressions, which render him suddenly, upon a present and immediate Apprehension, possest with Fear, Horrour, and Amazement, encompass'd with Grief, overwhelm'd with Sorrow, prest down with Consternation and Dejection of Mind, tormented with Anxiety and Disquietude of Spirit.
This he first exprest when he said to his Disciples, My Soul is Matt. 26.38.exceeding sorrowful; and lest they should not fully apprehend the Excess, added, even unto Death; as if the Pangs of Death had already encompast him, and the Pains of Hell had got hold upon him. He we [...] but a little farther, before he said the [Page 49]same to his Father, Matt. 26 39. falling upon his face, and praying with Heb. 5.7.strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from Death. Nor were his Cries and Tears sufficient Evidences of his inward Sufferings; nor could the Sorrows of his Breast be poured forth, either at his Lips or Eyes, but the innumerable Pores of all his Body must give a Passage to more lively Representations of the bitter Anguish of his Soul; and his Luke 22.44.Sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground, according to that of the Psalmist, Psalm 22.14. I am poured out like Water, all my bones are out of joynt, My Heart also in the midst of my Body is even like melting Wax. His Heart melting as it were with Fear and Astonishment, and all the Parts of his Body at the same time inflam'd with Anguish, well might that Melting produce a Flowing, and the inflam'd and rarefi'd Blood force it self a Passage through the numerous Pores.
But neither will these Expressions give us a true Sense of the height and bitterness of his Grief, unless we also consider the Occasions of it; for God laid on him the Isai. 53.6. Iniquities of us all; and as we were oblig'd to be sorry for our particular Sins, so was he to be grieved for the Sins of us all. If then we consider [Page 50]the Perfection of his Knowledge, he understood all the Sins for which he suffered, all the Evil and the Guilt, all the Offence against the Majesty, and Ingratitude against the Goodness of God, which was contain'd in the Sins of all Men, past, present, and to come. If we look upon his absolute Conformity to the determined Will of God; he was inflam'd with most ardent Love; he was most zealous of his Glory, and most studious to preserve that Right which was so highly violated by those Sins. If we look upon his Relation to the Sons of Men, he lov'd 'em all far more than they did themselves; he knew their Sins were of themselves sufficient to bring Destruction upon their Bodies and Souls, and at the same time consider'd them he so dearly loved, as lying under God's Wrath, whom he so truly worshipped; and all was heightned with the great habitual Detestation wherewith his Innocent Nature abhorred Sin. If we consider all these Circumstances, we cannot wonder at his excessive Sorrow: For if the true Contrition of one single Sinner, bleeding under the Sting of the Law, only for his own Iniquities, (all which notwithstanding he knoweth not) cannot be performed without great bitterness [Page 51]of Remorse; what Bounds can we set to that Grief, what Measures to that Anguish, which proceeds from a full Apprehension of all the Transgressions of so many Millions of Sinners?
Add unto all these Apprehensions the immediate hand of God, pressing upon him all this Load, laying on his Shoulders at once a heap of all the Sorrows which can happen to any of the Saints; that he being touch'd with the Heb. 2.17, 18.4.15. Feeling of our Infirmities, might become a merciful High-Priest, able and willing to succour them that are tempted. And from hence we must conclude, That the Saviour of Man, as he took upon him the whole Nature of Man, so he suffer'd in whatsoever he took; in his Body, by Infirmities and external Injuries; in his Soul, by Fear, Astonishment, and Sorrows; in both, by unknown and inexpressible Anguishes.
Behold, O ye Faithful, the Baptism of your Redeemer; and think not any longer the Way strait through which you are to enter into Life. Behold how he is Luke 12.50. straiten'd till it be accomplisht, and never do you sink under any Discouragement from working out your Salvation with Fear and Trembling. What matter is it how much, or what we suffer in [Page 52]this Life, so at length we may arrive at a Blessed Eternity?
Prayer.
And while we behold our Sins, which are the Cause of all thy Sufferings, O thou afflicted Jesu! Grant that our imperfect Sorrow and Contrition may be heightned by thy Example, and accepted in Union and Confederacy with it. It was because the temporal Misery of a finite Creature could never satisfie for the Infinite Guilt of Sin, contracted by offending an Infinite Majesty, that thou vouchsafedst to make an Equivalent Ransom, by the Dignity of thy Person suffering. In this thy Love is all our Confidence; in full Assurance of it we approach the Throne of Grace; and we bessech thee, That we may find Help in the Time of Need.
SECT. IX. Of Christ's Prayer in his Agony, and his admirable Resignation of himself to God.
WHen the Holy Jesus had tasted this bitter Cup, being himself the great Physician of Souls, he betook himself to that Universal Antidore which [Page 53]he had prescrib'd to all the World. For having commanded his Disciples to Luk. 22.40. watch with him, and to pray, lest they fell into Temptation, (forasmuch as vain is the Prudence of Flesh, and unprofitable all carnal Help, unless God be present) he withdrew a little way, he Luk. 22.41. kneel'd down, he fell on his Face, and Mark 14.35.36.pray'd, that if it were possible, the dreadful hour might pass from him. And he said Abba Father, (which name he ingeminates, because it is of the greatest Consolation to believe him a Father in all our Afflictions, and that our Troubles proceed from his Good Will, by which he deals with us as with Sons) All things are possible unto thee, and the World might have been otherwise Redeemed than by my Death: Take away this Cup from me; This deadly Cup, which being drunk, will cast me into the Sleep of Death. Nevertheless, not what I will, but what Thou wilt; For this is the manner pre-determined from Eternity, and thus it ought to be, and to this end am I come. He prays with an Intention great as his Sorrow, and yet with a Submission so entire, and a Conformity to the Divine Will so ready, as if it had been the most indifferent thing in the World for him to be deliver'd to Death, or from it. For though his Nature did decline [Page 54]Death, as that which has a natural Horrour and Contradiction to the present Interest of its Preservation; yet when he lookt upon't as what his Father had put into the Order of the Redemption of the World, it was then the Baptism wherewith he was straitned till it were accomplisht, and a thing preferrable to all the Pleasures of Life.
As he had truly taken the Nature of Man, he had different Affections of Flesh and Spirit, and different Prayers in respect of both. The Flesh resolutely shunn'd the Cross, as what was contradictory to its Preservation: The Spirit corrected and overcame it, being in Obedience to the Father of Spirits. He did not deprecate Death out of Fear, (for how could the Son of God be afraid of Death?) but he pray'd according to the Affection of the Flesh, that he might overcome the Prayer of the Flesh by the Prayer of the Spirit, as he says in another place, John 12.27. Father, save me from this Hour; and presently subjoyns, But for this Cause came I to this Hour. He seems also to have pray'd in this manner, lest by the occasion of his Passion the Condemnation of the Wicked might be the greater: For he saw, That by his Death, Judas, one of the Twelve, [Page 55]would become the Son of Perdition, and his Consanguinians the Jews cast off, and the City and Temple laid wast: On the other hand, he knew, That by his Sufferings he should overcome the Gates of Hell, and break a Way for his Redeemed to pass: And therefore, as unwilling they should perish by his Passion, he says, Father, if it may be, let this Cup pass from me; but for the Salvation of the rest of Mankind, which was to be redeemed by his Death, he Luk. 22.42. says, as it were correcting his former Prayer, Not my Will, but Thine, be done. I know, O Father! it is the Decree of thy Will, that thus it should be, and thus I must suffer; My Heart is ready, my Heart is ready. In the Volume of the Psal. 40.10. Heb. 10.7.Book it is written of me that I should fulfill thy Will, O my God: I am content to do it; yea, thy Law is within my Heart.
O! what a great Secret is here reveal'd, which teaches us to hate our Soul, that we may preserve it; to despise it for a time, that we may Honour it for Eternity; to punish it in this Life, to give it thereby a perpetual Rest in the World to come; to handle it roughly, that it may be establisht in all Delights, and we may love it without end? This is the way the blessed Jesus [Page 56]has taught us to arrive at the chiefest Point of our Felicity.
Prayer.
Thy Will, O God, is the measure of Holiness: Thy Providence, the great Disposer of all things, tying all Events together in order to thy Glory and the Good of thy Servants, by a wonderful mysterious Chain of Wisdom: O, let it be also the Meas [...]re of my Desires; For I know, That whatsoever thou sayst is true, whatsoever thou commandest is just, whatsoever thou dost is good. So shall I be pleas'd with all the Accidents thou permittest, patient of all the Punishment thou inflictest, a Lover of all the Good thou enjoynest, and a Hater of all the Evil which thou forbiddest; till at last my Conformity to thy Divine Will, shall arise up to the Degrees of Union with thee.
SECT. X. Of Christ's Anxiety for the Security of his Disciples.
THE afflicted Jesus, having in few Words exprest the innocent and harmless Desires of humane Nature, is [Page 57]toucht at the same time with Compassion towards it, and in the mid'st of his Agony returns to visit that little Flock which was so soon to be dispersed, and at present liable to the Assaults of Satan. But, alas! Grief had Surcharg'd their heavy Hearts, and Sorrow had closed their weeping Eyes: So far had the Tempter prevail'd upon 'em to avert 'em from Prayer, the Meditation of the Passion, and the Remembrance of their Frailty.
Finding 'em Sleeping, he first Addresses himself to Peter, who had always exprest most Zeal for his Interest, Maak 14.37. saying, Simon, Sleepest Thou? Is this thy Constancy, Courage, and Promise; and is it thus thou wilt go with me into Prison, and to Death? Great Promises require great cares; and he that is deeply engaged, must be very Vigilant, or very Faithless, to his Master. How is it that after such Asseverations of thy Fidelity, I find thee at rest while I am Sweating Blood; and that this Garden is the Bed of thy Repose, which is the Theatre of my inimitable Anguish? Ah, Simon! could'st thou not watch one hour? Thou hast much to learn before thou canst follow me. The Nights of a Resolv'd Martyr, must be spent [Page 58]in the Studies of Patience, not in security and ease; he must exercise a Holy Cruelty upon his Flesh by Crucifying the Lusts and Affections thereof, before he can overcome the inventions of his Tormentors in a holy and undaunted perseverance. Hadst thou watch'd with me, thou mightest have received further Encouragement in thy Resolution to die for me, and learnt from the extremity of my pains willingly to embrace the present opportunity of Glorifying God by a constant Death.
Then turning to the rest, he Luke 22.46. says, Why sleep ye? (For sloth is reprehensible in all Christians) it is not a time to rest when danger is imminent, and the grand Adversary as a roaring Lion, walking about to see whom he may devour. He is full of Wiles, his darts are fiery, his insinuations subtile and undiscernable; Mark 14.38. Watch therefore and be of good courage, least ye be overcome, and ensnared unawares: Nor is this enough, (for none is of himself safe without the Almighty's assistance) and therefore Pray also least ye enter into Temptation; the Spirit truly is ready, but the Flesh is weak.
I know you have a good mind to endure the Combat; but the infirmity of the Tabernacle hinders the willingness [Page 59]of the Soul. The Spirit would do what it ought; but the Flesh retards it from its Duty, which is not affected but towards what is convenient to it. The Flesh neither willingly Watches nor Prays, is affrighted by adversity, sties the Cross, is offended and denies, and does nothing that is good l But the Spirit is Confident, Prays, Watches, is constant in Adversity, and confesses freely.
Thus as often as the Spirit is compar'd with the Flesh, it signifies the Holy Spirit of God and his working in us to Will and to Do of his good Pleasure; and the Flesh signifies humane nature with all its motions, but without the help of the Spirit. The Spirit is therefore willing because it affects what belongs to it, and moves us to all good things: but the Flesh is Weak because it is often Rebellious, and not in Subserviency to the Spirit, according to Rom. 7.15, 17, 18. that of the Apostle, What I would, that do I not; but what I hate that do I. Now then, it is no more I that do it, but Sin that dwelleth in me. And I know that in me (that is in my Flesh) there dwelleth no good thing. For tho' to will be present with me, yet to perform that which is good I find not. Hereby it came to pass that Judas and the Jews fail'd not in their [Page 60]diligence to do the evil to which they were enclin'd, but the Apostles slept, because they were admonish'd to dogood.
Prayer.
O Lord, thou teachest me I am but Dust and Ashes, and if I esteem better of my self, thou standest against me who formd'st me out of the Earth, and my own frailty presently condemns me: But if I abase and humble my self, and esteem my self as nothing, Thy Grace will be favourable to me, and thy Light will be near my Heart, and all Selfesteem shall be swallowed up, and Perish everlastingly in the d [...]pth of my nothingness. There thou showest my self unto me, what I am, what I have been, and whither I am come; for I am nothing, and I know it not. O how Meanly and how Lowly ought I to think ever of my self? how little, and how much less then a little ought I to esteem it, if I seem to have any good? O with what profound Humility and Reverence ought I to submit to thy Bottomless Judgments, in compare with which I am nothing, even less then nothing? Blest be thy Love, Most Gracious Father, with which thou freely preventest so poor a Creature, and relievest me in so many Necessities, and preservest me from grievous Dangers, and deliverest me from innumerable Evils, and would'st make me something by Participation of thy Infinity. [Page 61]O give me Grace to be frequent and Fervent in the Happy Intercourse between Thee and my Soul, and then shall I experience it my Safeguard against Temptation; I shall feel the Wind blowing upon my Heart, and the Spirit fanning the Sparks of Holy Life till it be kindled to a Flame; I shall see my self Transported, and Ascending above all the Allurements and Terrors of the Devil, to receive the Undefiled and Immortal Crown.
SECT. XI. Of the Candour of Christ towards his Sleeping Disciples, and his continuation in Prayer to God.
SUch was the incomparable Sweetness of the Benign Jesus, to pass so favourable a censure upon the Sloth of his Attendants, from which a natural Man would have drawn Prodigies, and represented it horrible as the shades of Hell. For what could be more Reasonable then the small Request that they should watch with him a little while in his Dreadful Agony undergone for their Sakes, the Company of Friends [Page 62]being some small Refreshment to a Person under such Sad and Fatal Circumstances? Was it not their great Lord and Master whom now they were to attend in his great Anxiety, ready to lay down his Life for them, and Bleeding already under the first Skirmishes of Death, and expecting every Moment when all the Powers of Darkness would fall upon him with their utmost Fury? But all these considerations were drownded in a profound security: The Men were a Sleep, and regarded not, as if nothing but Ease and Softness were to be dream'd of. A Prodigious Negligence, the height of Unconcernedness, and the Coldest and Indifferentest Affection in the World. Nevertheless he imputes it not to their Supine carelesness, Ingratitude, or want of due Affection; but meerly to the Infirmity and Weakness of their Temper, himself making excuse when they could find none, from the Frailties and Necessities of Indigent Nature.
And having thus Taught us to put a charitable Conitruction upon those Actions which are capable of various Interpretations, he receeds a little way, and Prays after the same manner; if Peradventure they would now joyn with [Page 63]him in Heart, Matt. 26.42. O my Father, if this Cup may not pass away from me except I drink it, thy Will be done. He had before Pray'd with the most Humble Submission and Affectionate Desires to the Eternal Majesty, the God of all Comfort and Consolation, and yet found not himself heard by any abatement of his Horrors or Relaxation of his Fears; and now tries a second time, that we may not think it much if we are not immediately reliev'd from Heaven, especially when we Pray out of the Affection of the Flesh. Afterwards returning again to his Disciples, he found them in the same posture, but much more heavy with Sorrow, under the greatest oppression of Drowsiness and Grief; and so far had the Tempter prevail'd upon their unwariness, that they wist not what to Mark 14.40.answer to what he spake.
He leaves them therefore the Third time, but with an unspeakable increase of Grief, to see their Deplorable Condition as well as his own, since hereby was prefigured the obscuring of their Faith, which should immediately ensue his Apprehension, and his own dereliction, that he should be left alone to the Barbarous Cruelty of his Blood-Thirsty Enemies, according to that of [Page 64]the Psal. 38.10, 11. Psalmist, My Heart panteth, my Strength hath failed me, and the sight of mine Eyes is gone from me. My Lovers and my Neighbours did stand looking upon my trouble, and my Kinsman stood afar of.
But as his Dolours increased, so did his Faith; so did his Fervency in Supplication to God: And it is not without reason the holy Penmen of the Gospel have plac'd the whole event of all his Petitions in the Will of his Father For if Christ, whose Will is not divided from that of his Father, nor can Will any other thing then what the Father Willeth, did thus resign himself intirely to that Will; much more ought we to give up our selves, whose Will is often Reluctant to the Divine, and to whom it would many times be a detriment if God should Grant us all that we would.
Luke 22.44. Here therefore the Evangelist says, he Pray'd more earnestly with the utmost intention of all the powers of his Soul; whereby he has shew'd us that Prayer is our Treasury, where all Blessings are kept in store, our Armory, where all our Strength and Weapons are laid, the only great Preservative and Conservation of our Peace, the very Vital heat of Divine Love, the [Page 65]Sanctuary of Troubles, and the Cure of Grief; and that the Principal Lesson of saving Christianity, is to desire only what God will, and to execute all the Decrees of Divine Providence as our chiefest helps to attain Perfection.
Prayer.
O Heavenly Guide of our Devotion and Love, who hast Commanded us in thy Word, and Taught us by thy Example, to offer up Prayers in all our Necessities; Give unto thy Servant the Spirit of Supplication, a great Desire, and a pregnant Hope; and let the Beams of thy Holy Spirit descending from above, enlighten and kindle it with great Fervors, holy Importunities, and an unwearied and unsatisfied Industry; that I may seek Thee and obtain thy Blessing by the assiduity of an ardent Zeal, and the perpetuity of Religious Offices. Sanctifie my Heart, that I may Sanctifie thy Name; and let my Oblations come before thy Presence, and the lifting up my Hands be a daily Sacrifice. Unite my Prayers to thy Powerful Intercession, and to a Communion of those Offices the Blessed pay at the Celestial Altar; that my Prayers being hallowed by thy precious Merits may Ascend thither where thy Glory dwells, and whence Mercies and [Page 66]Benedictions Descend upon the Church. So shall I be wrapt in Contemplation of thy Bounties, absorpt in consideration of thy Beauties, and wholly dive into thy Heart by the Sacred ardours of Love.
SECT. XII. Of the Glorious Effect of Christ's Prayer, and God's Fatherly Kindness to all that call upon him Faithfully.
BLessed are all they whose daily exercise is to converse with God by Prayer, offered with an humble Resignation to his Will, a Patient Hope, and a Strong Faith; since the mighty Effects recorded in Scripture seem to have raised us to a certain Omnipotency, That Matt. 21.22. whatsoever we ask in Prayer believing we shall receive, and that all things shall be Mark 9.23. possible to him that so believeth.
This is the Sovereign Charm which has 2 Kings 20.5. cured Sicknesses, made the 1 Sam. 1.20. Barren fruitful, stopt the mouths of Dan. 6.20.Lions, quencht the violence of Dan. 3.28.Fire, open'd and shut the storehouses of Jam. 5.17, 18.rain, arrested the Jos. 10.12.Sun, and stay'd the Chariot of the Moon, driven [Page 67]away2 Cor. 12, 8.temptation, overcome the Mark 9.29.Devil, procur'd the Ministry and Service of 2 Kings 19.35. Dan. 6.22.Angels.
Thus while the Holy Jesus was combating with the Powers of Darkness, and striving with Death in an inexpressible Agony, at his reitterated Prayers to God, there appear'd an Luke 22.4 [...]. Angel to him from Heaven strengthning him; by representing to him how necessary it was that he should die for the Glory of God, whose Justice, Power, Wisdom and Mercy should shine forth in his Sufferings: That unless he did die all the World should Perish, but his Precious Blood should obtain their Pardon, open the Gates of Heaven, repair the ruin of the Angels, establish a holy Church upon Earth productive of innumerable adopted Children to God, whom himself should make heirs of the Celestial Paradise: That his Passion should be soon over, his Father so far hearing and granting his Requests, that the Cup should speedily pass from him, and that it should be followed by a Glorious Resurrection, with Eternal Rest and Glorification of his Humanity, with the Exaltation of his Name above all, with a Supreme Dominion over Hell and Death, and that his Father would [Page 68]make him King of Kings and Prince of his Holy Catholick Church.
Such are the Kindnesses the Almighty has in store for all that place their whole Strength and Confidence in his Goodness; such is the admirable Dispensation of Spiritual Comfort, wherewith he Visits and Relieves his Servants; That thô he does not always take away the Evil because of the ends of his Providence which are to be served, yet he comforts Internally, and gives power to bear it: Tho' he does not immediately remove the pressure, and it may be will not till the 2 Cor. 12.8. third time, that is, after a long expectation, a patient Sufferance, and a lasting Hope; yet in the intrim he 1 Cor. 10.13. supports with a secret Hand, and in his own time will refresh the Soul with Visitations of his Angels and the comforts of his Spirit. Know this also that not only the Holy Angel, but the Matt. 18.20. Lord of Angels himself stands by every Godly Person when he Prays, and tho' he drew before his glorious Presence the Curtain of a Cloud, which renders him invisible, yet he takes care we shall not perish, and in a just season dissolves the Cloud, and makes it, distil healing Dew, Sweet as Manna, Pleasant as Nard, and wholesom as the breath of Heaven.
Prayer.
Heavenly Father, by the Agony of thy Son, I cannot but perceive so great must have been thy Terror at the remembrance of thy incensed Majesty, and before the Tribunal of thy Justice: For if thou enter into Judgment with thy Servants, who shall answer thee one of a Thousand? And if I bring not the Nuptial Garment, I must hold my Peace, and be cast out. But when I consider thine infinite Compassions and Mercies, vouchsaft to all that call upon thee faithfully, and how thou hast sent forth thy holy Angels to Minister to those who shall be Heirs of Salvation: My Spirit revives, and I cast my self wholly into the Armes of thy Protection, beseeching thee to give them the charge over me to direct and keep me in all my ways, that with them and Archangels, and all the Host of Heaven, I may Laud and Glorisie thy Holy Name for my Preservation and Salvation, for ever.
SECT. XIII. Of the Apprehension of Christ by his own Permission, and the Horror of Judas's Hypocrisie.
THe Afflicted Jesus supported by these Refreshments against the worst events that were to follow, returns to his Disciples, and awaking 'em, Matt. 26.45, 46. tells 'em, they might now sleep on and take their rest, if they thought it a time longer to remain there where danger was so near, and the Betrayer at hand. And scarce were they offering to depart thence, when Lo, Judas, who had sold him, John 18.3. came with Lanthorns and Torches because of the Obscurity of the Night, and a great multitude with Swords and Staves from the Chief Priests and Elders of the people to take him. A Captain now of Murderers, and the Furious Rabble, who was so lately a Companion of Christ; a Betrayer of his Master, and but just risen from his Table; forgetful of his Piety, Hope, and Office, and preferring a little filthy Lucre before the inestimable Blessings of his [Page 71]Calling; The dismal Figure of all Apostate wretches.
How great an Advantage had this Miserable Disciple to know where his Master was, and where he might be found, if he had made a right use of it? For what does the Cant. 2.7. Bride in the Canticles desire, but tell me O thou whom my Soul loveth, where thou feedest, and and where thou liest down? But abusing his knowledge to his own destruction, and so much more wicked then the rest of the People, as the Serpent was by being wiser then theother Creatures, and for that a more opportune instrument of Homicide to the Devil; the Devil makes use of him to destroy the Celestial Man in his Body, as he had made use of the Serpent to destroy the Terrestrial in his Soul.
But Jesus nothing surpris'd at what he fore-knew would come to pass, and to give an undeniable evidence that his Death was voluntary, and not caused by the Treachery of Man; prevents the Betrayer, and John 18.4. offers himself to his Enemies, alone against a multitude, unarm'd before their Weapons, plain and sincere without regard to to their Malice.
He had formerly John 12.36. hid himself when they admir'd his Miracles, and John 6.15. departed from 'em privately when they would have made him a King. But now he meets them notwithstanding their Hostility, because the hour prefixed by the Father was come. For as we are not to tempt God by inconsiderate Rashness in our affairs, so are we chearfully to resign up our selves to his will and obey him with great readiness of Mind, when he calls us to [...]ffer for a good Conscience, and for the Confirmation of his Truth. He teaches us Submission is the way to exaltation while he expects to ascend unto the Father from the Cross, and lets us learn for the Hope of future Glory to despise all present and Momentary Evils, and not consider what it is we suffer, but that it brings us to the Father.
He might justly have reprehended 'em for their Ingratitude and Impiety against so many Benefits he had conferr'd on them, or destroy'd 'em with the least breath of his Displeasure, as unworthy of Life who came to destroy the Lord of it. But now was the time of Mercy and not of Judgment, of Patience and Long Suffering, and not of Anger, and the greatest Evil was to [Page 73]be overcome of Good. He asks in the most familiar, though convincing manner, Joh. 18.4. Whom seek ye? and what would you have? Is it an Enemy, or a Robber, against whom you are come with these Arms? or have ye heard of any Insurrection against the State, or Rebellion against Caesar, that ye have made this great Preparation? or do ye come out against an innocent Person, who sat daily with you in the Mark 14.44.Temple teaching, and ye laid no hold on him? If this be your Intention, you might long since have taken him; there needed not this Charge, and Trouble, and Pains. But consider what it is to destroy a harmless Man: The Blood of the Guiltless Gen. 4.10.cries from the ground to Heaven, and how much more will the Blood of the Son of God? They answering said. John 18.5.We seek Jesus of Nazareth. And Jesus said unto them, I am He.
Terrified at which Sound of the Divine Voice, they went Joh. 18.6. backward, and fell to the ground: The fatal Omen that all shall be cast down that rise up against the Lord and his Anointed, but particular Intimation of the Fall of that People whom his Miraculous Works had rendred inexcusable. For if he did this in the Form of the Lamb, what will [Page 74]he do when he comes in that of the Lion? If he did this, being himself to be judged, what shall he do when he comes to judge the World? If he did this when he was to dye, what will he do when he shall Reign eternally? If such were the Dew of his Sacred Word, who shall be able to abide the Thunder?
The least Rays of Divinity are so powerful in Nature, that its very Shadow cannot be seen by us without a holy Horrour and Concern: Which is the Reason that even Virtue has such venerable Attractives, we cannot approach it without Love and Reverence. Yea, the Soul of a just Man is the Isai. 57.15. Throne of God, the Theatre of his Power, the List of his Courses, the Field of his Battles, and the Palace in which he makes his Abode; which is the Cause the Saints have done so many Wonders in the World, the Gen. 7.9. Dan. 6.22. Luk. 10.19. wildest Beasts changing their Natures before them, and all the Gen. 7.19.8.16.9.22.10.21. Elements, though insensible, seeming reasonable to obey them.
But the Divinity and Humanity of the Blessed Jesus did so communicate in Effects, from his Nativity to the day of his Death, that no great Action past, but as the Sun shining through a Cloud, [Page 75]they gave Illustration and Testimony to each other. He was born a tender and crying Infant, but was ador'd by the Mat. 2.11. Wise men as a King, and by the Luk. 2.13. Angels as a God. He was circumcised after the Law as a Man, but had a Luk. 2.21. Name given him which signified him to be the Saviour of the World. He fled into Egypt, like a distressed Child, under the Conduct of Helpless Parents; and as soon as he entred into the Country the Isai. 19.1. Euseb. de Demonst. c. 20. S. Athanas lib. de Incarnat. Vrbi. Idols fell down and confest his Divinity. He was presented in the Temple as the Son of Man, but by Simeon and Anna was Luk. 2.32, 38. own'd for the Messiah, and celebrated with Divine Praises. He was baptised as a Sinner by John in Jordan, but the Holy Ghost descending upon him, proclaim'd him the Joh. 3.17. Beloved Son of God. He was hungry in the Wilderness, and tempted as a Mortal, but was supported by his Divinity, and the holy Matt. 4.11.Angels came and ministred to him as supream Lord. A little before his Passion, when he was to take upon him all Affronts, Miseries, and Exinanitions, of the most despised and abject; he received Testimonies from above, and was wonderfully transfigur'd upon the Matt. 17.2. 2 Pet. 1.18. holy Mount. And now, being to be taken by rude hands, they are repell'd by the [Page 76]Majesty of his Person and the Glory of his Presence.
Seeing therefore they had no Power to take him without his Permission, he recovers them out of their Confusion with the same Words, saying unto 'em again, John 18.7. Whom seek ye? And when they said, Jesus of Nazareth; he answered, I have told you, I am he. If then you are sent to take him, I resign my self; I am that Jesus, I am your Prisoner, let these go their way: That the John 18.9. Saying might be fulfilled which he spake of his Disciples, Of them which thou gavest me have I lost none; and that he might give Demonstration of his infinite Charity, while to save others he would be slain himself, according to that of the Isai. 63.3. Prophet, I have trodden the Winepress alone, and of the People there was none with me.
The Truth would conceal nothing, though he knew it would lead him to Bonds, Irrision, Scourgings and Death. But, O God! What Hypocrisies, what Counterfeitings and Lyes are there in the Intentions and Practices of Sinners, whose Hearts are deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, who can know 'em? Judas had sold him, but is not contented, unless he also signifie him by a Sign to the Multitude, that [Page 77]he may be sure they may not mistake; yet not a common token neither, but full of Hypocrisie as well as Hostility; Mat. 26.48 Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is He, hold him fast. He draws near with a seeming Endearment, and according to the Expression of Oriental Civility after Absence, gives the treacherous Sign. He breaks the Peace by the Symbol of Kindness: He begins his Enmity with a Kiss: He thought as yet his Malice was undiscover'd, and he might deceive his Master by a feign'd Love, that he might not endeavour to fly, or hide himself.
Dreadful Impiety! which stands in opposition to the Divine Virtue residing in the Bosom of God. The design of God is to be known such as he is; the design of the Hypocrite is to appear what he is not, to erect a Sepulcre externally glorious, with Marble, Gildings, Characters and Titles; but within, Bones, Putrefaction, and Ashes, a Retreat of Serpents, a Den of Dragons. And thus it is he damns himself by the very means which should save him, Professions which if true, would doubtless be accepted. But he mingles Virtue with execrable Vices, good Actions cursed Intentions; magnifies Sin by debauching [Page 78]Piety, and might much more innocently profess wickedness.
It is not more remarkable that Christ throughout the Gospel has given such strict Caution we should beware of this Mat. 16.6.Leaven, and denounces the severest Matt. 23.14. Punishment against it, than that he does at this time so patiently bear with it in the known Betrayer of his Life: For he treats him still with unparalell'd Kindness, saying, Mat. 26.40. Friend, wherefore art thou come? I invite thee to Friendship, tho' I know what thou hast been about. I am ready to forgive thee, and to restore thee to thy Station. Consider what thou art doing, and how little I have deserv'd it. Who is it has brought thee, or what has forct thee? Others are instigated, but thou comest of thy self; and therefore thou hast the greatest Sin. O Judas! I pitty thee however, and thy Perdition troubles me, for whom I suffer in vain. Alas! for what art thou come? for thy own Destruction, and not for mine; the first person in whom my Blood is depriv'd of its fruit and saving efficacy. My poor Servant, wherefore art thou come? why in this manner, and what means this Kiss? Why dost thou add Hypocrisie to thy Guilt, and endeavourest to out-do all in Malice? Thou thinkest to deceive me, and I long since knew it; nor is it hid from me what thou hast been acting [Page 79]with the Jews, and what now thou intendest, to deliver me into their hands. Let this convince thee how great a Crime it is to deliver the Innocent to Death. At least consider whom thou betrayest, and at what a price thou hast sold my Blood: For tho' hitherto I have nam'd my self but the Son of Man, know now, thou deliverest the Son of God; thy Father by Creation, thy Lord by Preservation, thy Saviour by Redemption, thy Brother by Incarnation, thy Master by Doctrine, thy Friend by Election, and thy Judge by final Retribution. Behold how many Sins thou committest in one Act, and all with a Kiss, under the sign of Love. This is the end for which thou art come, to shed my Blood by the Office of Charity; and to put me to Death by the Instrument of Peace.
Ah! Christian, let us no longer say with our selves, such a one has done us harm, and no man can put up the wrong; but think with our selves, what our great Master said to him that betraid him with a Kiss to Death; Luk. 22.48. Judas, betray'st thou the Son of Man with a Kiss? who would not be softned with these words? What Heart would not such a Voice bow, and encline to it? What Tyger, what Addamant is there, that it would not move? Say not to me hereafter, Such a one is a Deceiver, [Page 80]such a one is a Murderer, and the like, and I cannot abide him, I will prosecute him to Death: I tell thee, if he be ready to thrust his Dagger into thee, and to baptize his Right hand in thy Throat, kiss that Right hand, and embrace that Dagger, since Christ kist the mouth of his Betrayer and Murtherer. Thou art the Servant, I say, of him that kist the Traitor, (for I will not cease to repeat it again and again) of him that spake words to him softer than a Kiss, and sweeter than the kindest Blandishments of Love: For, mark it, he does not say, O! thou Villain, thou Traitor, dost thou make me this Requital for all my Kindness? But he only says, Judas, calling him by his proper Name, Can'st thou find in thy heart to betray me on this fashion? Yea, I may observe that he calls him Friend, which is a Word of great Sweetness to such an unworthy Person; and after this, he does not say, Why dost thou betray thy Master, thy Benefactor, thy Lord, the Messiah? But, Why betrayest thou the Son of Man with a Kiss? If he was not thy Master, yet would'st thou betray any Man who deals so courteously with thee, and vouchsafes to kiss thee, even when thou betrayest him [Page 81]with that Kiss? O! what an Example has the blessed Jesus given us in this Action of Humility and Forgiveness?
Prayer.
O Light eternal and Fountain of Purity, who seest all things, and art incapable of Mixture; Whither shall I go then from thy Spirit, or where shall I hide my self from thy Presence? If I climb up into Heaven, thou art there; if I go down to Hell, thou art there also. If I take the Wings of the Morning, and remain in the uttermost parts of the Sea, even there also shall thy Hand lead me, and thy Right Hand shall hold me. If I say, peradventure the Darkness shall cover me, then shall my Night be turned into Day; for the Darkness is no Darkness with thee, but the Darkness and the Light to thee are both alike and thou art he that hast covered me in my Mothers Womb. Grant me, I beseech thee, that Innocency of Intention, that I may never go about to deceive others, or to hide my self from thy Sight, who seest in secret, but wilt reward openly, and hatest our Concealment even beyond our Sin: Prov. 28.13. For he that covereth his Sins shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth. and forsaketh them, shall have Mercy.
SECT. XIV. Of the Rigour of Christ's Enemies at his Apprehension.
THere are Hearts of Wax, capable of Divine Impression; (and blessed are all they that are ready to receive it) and there are Hearts of Marble, Rocky Hearts, reverberating Minds, which beat back all Kindnesses, and are rather hardned than softned by 'em; it being the Purpose of the Almighty, That either Grace shall cure Sin, or accidentally encrease it. Such were the hearts of these Ravenous Wolves, who now furiously storm against the Lamb of God, it being their Luk. 22.53. Hour, and the Power of Darkness.
All Thoughts of Divinity, Truth, Justice, and Humanity it self, are in the mean time suspended by the Malice of Satan instigating their Rage; who represents him to their Fancies as the worst of Mankind, a most pernicious Seducer and Subverter of their Religion, whose Ignominy and Punishment would be so much more grateful to their Princes, [Page 83]by how much more Cruelty it was executed upon him. With their Swords and their Staves they proclaim their Malice; and there were some had hardly Patience to wait his Tryal, (as usually happens in popular Tumults) for how should they spare him in their first heat, who never after left persecuting him, till he expir'd on the Cross?
It is in vain for the Disciples to attempt a Rescue; and Peter's Zeal is here more unseasonable than ever. He draws his Joh. 18.10. Sword, and strikes one of the forwardest, a Servant of the High-Priest, by name, Malchus, and cut off his Ear; but is immediately rebuked for the Intemperance of his Passion; and the Mischief he had done Jesus Luk. 22.51.heals with a Touch. (For the Christian Religion was not so to be Planted, nor were such to be the Arms of the Catholick Church, whom Tears and Prayers were to become better than any illegal Expresses of Revenge.) The Lord himself will now be wounded of Sinners, rather than the meanest Slave shall suffer; nor may the Mat. 26.53. Angels themselves assist him, who had ministred to him at all other Seasons of his Mat. 2.13.4.11. Necessity, and preserv'd the Faithful from the hand of their Enemies: For the Scriptures [Page 84]were to be fulfill'd, That thus it must be. It is the John 18.11. Cup which the Father has given him, and he resolves to drink it.
Thus being permitted, they took Jesus, and Joh. 18.12. bound him. These cruel Robbers lay violent hands upon the Bishop of their Souls: This degenerate of-spring rise against their Father: These Children of Darkness seize the true Light: These hardned Sinners captivate their God; and regardless of all the Miracles and Mercies he had wrought for 'em, who lent not his hand of Pity to the lapsed Angels, but took on him the perishing Seed of their Heb. 2.16. Father, and daily supported them by the Arm of his Power, and went about doing good: They bind him with Cords, (as Judas had premonisht 'em, That same is he, hold him fast) hoping thereby to secure themselves from the John 11.48. Romans, who, upon pretence of some Insurrection to have been made by him, might have come and taken away their Place and Nation.
But as Men have different Sentiments of Christ's Sufferings, so have his Sufferings different Effects on them; and as Judg. 16.30. Sampson, taken by the Philistines, slew more at his Death, than he had done in all his Life; and the Captive [Page 85] 1 Sam. 5.7. Ark was the Cause of great Affliction; so Christ's Bonds became the Destruction of the Jews, for which they were shortly after given up to the Romans, and ever since have sought for a Deliverance in vain: Whereas to those who look on 'em with the Eye of Faith, how they were in order to our Deliverance from the Tyranny of Sin, Death, and the Devil, they are become Liberty, Redemption, and Salvation.
Prayer.
O Sweetest Jesu, who didst receive Judas with the Affection of a Saviour, and suffer'd him to kiss thy Cheek with the Serenity of God, and didst cure the wound of the Enemy with the kindness of a Parent and the tenderness of an infinite Pity, and didst permit the Soldiers to bind thee, with Patience exemplary to all Ages of Martyrs; O kiss me with the Kisses of thy Mouth, embrace me with the Entertainments of a Gracious Lord, and let my Soul dwell and Feast in thee, who art the Repository of eternal Sweetnesses. Bind me with those Bands which tyed thee fast, the Chains of Love, that I may get my Liberty. Cure my Wounds by the touch of thy hand, and let the Breath of thy Mouth restore me to the Integrity of a [Page 86]holy Penitent; That so I may please thee, and love thee, and sing Praises to thee for my Deliverance, for ever and ever.
SECT. XV. Of the sorrowful Separation of Christ and his Disciples, his first Examination before Caiaphas, and incomparable Clemency towards his Disciples.
THE Disciples terrified with the Insolence of the Multitude, who were now practising all things that might signifie their Contempt and encrease their Rage towards their silent Captive, Mat. 26.56. forsook him, and fled, but with trembling Hearts, and pierc'd through with a thousand Darts of Grief. For their Condition must needs be miserable, and this a lamentable Separation, when having left all for him, they must leave him too, whom they loved better than their own Parents, and that in the hands of his cruel Enemies. The time past caus'd 'em to remember all the Gracious Words they had heard, all the mighty Works they had seen; the present, with the greatest Affliction that [Page 87]might be represented, to their Fancies, all the Blessings they were to lose; and that which was to come, could be nothing else to 'em but a bottomless Pit of Terrour and Affrightment. They apprehended, both for themselves and their Master, as many Dangers as there are Thorns in the Woods; could promise to themselves nothing but endless Miseries, Days without Comfort, and Nights full of Horrour; in the deep Sense of which they pour'd out their Tears, frequently intermingling the most dolorous Sighs, having no other Eloquence but that of their hearts.
On the other hand the compassionate Jesus was much more troubled to be parted from those whom he had chosen from among all Men, and carried about with him, as it were in his Bosom; for the Prophet Isaia, speaking in his Person, Isai. 49 15. says, Can a Woman forget her sucking Child, that she should not have Compassion on the Son of her Womb? Yea they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Especially, now he had some need of their Society, being given up to the Necessities of humane Nature, and to suffer whatsoever might be found to afflict it; for it is not the least point of Consolation, to have in our Sorrows our Friends about us, [Page 88]by complaining to whom, we may ease our Hearts, and they alleviate the Pressure of the Calamity, by seeming to share it among themselves.
In those deplorable Circumstances they hurry him away towards the City with loud Clamours, much irrision, many affronts and great hast, till they came to Mount Sion where was the house of John 18.13. Annas father-in-law to Cajaphas, and Prince of the Sanhedrim. But he could do nothing without the seventy Assessors, and therefore sent him to Cajaphas who was High-Priest and President of the Rites of the Temple for that year, and had declar'd his John 11.49. opinion openly in full Councel concerning the Miracles and Person of Christ, that by professing himself to be the Messiah he would doubtless attempt to make himself a King, and by the admiration he had gotten among the People might soon be assisted to it, if not timely prevented; the Consequence of which would be, that the Romans to whom they were Subject, would look upon it as a defection from their Government, and thence take occasion to come with an Army, and destroy the Holy City and Temple of God. That therefore they were no longer to consult at large [Page 89]in what way of Justice to proceed with this Man, but to consider their interest in point of Policy, and that they might do any thing, thô otherwise never so unlawful, to keep the Publick from destruction; concluding it was John 11.50. expedient and much better, that one man should be sacrific'd for the Sins of the People, then that the whole Nation should perish.
Behold here the wonderful Procedure of Eternal Wisdom to bring to pass its mighty designs, and how we truly accomplish the Divine Will while we seem never so irregularly to thwart it, and do our own. It was the Voice of a Man, but really an Oracle of God, as the Evangelist observes, John 11.51. He spake not of himself: but being High Priest that Year, he Prophesied that Jesus should die for that Nation: and not for that Nation only, but that he should gather together in one the Children of God, that were scattered abroad. And what more contrary to his Intention than this effect? He was meditating upon Injustice, and makes way for Mercy; he intended Cruelty, and opens the door of hope. What more Wicked then to presecute Christ to Death? And what more Beneficial then that Christ should die?
Thus the Holy Jesus was already condemned in the intention of his Judge, and of the people, prejudiced with a dreadful Suspicion, that through him they should fall into an irrevocable Bondage; insomuch, that forgetful of his gracious Doctrine, glorious Miracles, and spotless Innocency, they want only a colour for his utter Destruction. And because the Instigator of all this the Devil, tho' he be the very Father of lyes, could object nothing against his God-like Life; they are forced to raise all their malicious Questions about his John 18.19. Disciples, and his Doctrine. About his Disciples, as where they were, why he had chosen 'em, and to what end he designed 'em? Supposing by this to have gain'd an opportunity of inditing him for Sedition and Alteration of the Government: About his Doctrine, as what it was, whence he had it, and whether it were agreeable to Moses and the Prophets? Hoping from thence to accuse him of Heresy, and of Seducing and perverting the People.
But our Patient Master would answer nothing as to his Disciples, at a time when he could say so little good of 'em; for one had Betrayed him, another wounded the High-Priest's Servant and [Page 91]incens'd the multitude by his Rashness, all the rest had forsaken him and fled: nor would he reveal these evils of 'em, to teach us to conceal the infirmities of our Brethren. But as to his Doctrine, least he should be thought to repent of it, and receed from the Gospel he came to Propagate, he confirms it, teaching us never to deny it, (having before laid an Matt. 10.33.Anathema upon all that do) and declares where he taught it and before whom. That he had never taught in Private, as they who design evil lest their Wickedness should be discover'd, but always in the light as a professor of Truth. John 18.20. I spake openly to the World: I ever taught in the Synagogue and in the Temple whither the Jews daily resort, and in secret have I said nothing. For this he appeals to the Judgment of his Auditors, and at the same time touches the Conscience of his Judge. John 18.21. Why askest thou me? ask them that heard me, what I have said unto them behold they know what I said. Why askest thou me? Why pretendest thou to Enquire, who art resolved never to Believe, and seekest not after Truth but occasion Calumnie? Why askest thou me what thou knowest thy self, for none of my actions have been done in a corner? Let thy [Page 92]own Conscience answer for me, or ask them that heard me. I appeal not to my Disciples, who might be thought Partial, but to all these my Enemies standing by, who have heard me in the Temple, in the Synagogues, in the Ships, in the Mountains, in the Fields, every where publickly, and in great numbers. If I have transgrest in any point, let 'em testify against me.
Happy are those Natures which will receive Instruction, and recant their error when convinc'd with Reason; But very miserable are all they who are impatient under Reproof, and grow more furious because of the Truth, which Seals the Incorrigible Soul to Damnation. Such were the Wretches who made the Scheme of this Tribunal, whereof an Officer that stood by stroke Jesus with the Palm of his hand, John 18.22.saying, answerest thou the High Priest so?
It was not long since that being sent to take him he return'd a Confessor of all his gracious words, confirming in the Presence of 'em all John 7.46. that never man spake like this man. But now to please his Masters, and be commended for his officiousness, he strikes with a horrible Insolence and Temerity, the Lord of Majesty who has the Soveraignty [Page 93]of the World, and to whom the Creatures pay such an Obedience that every knee bows at his Phil. 2.10.name, in Heaven, in Earth, and under the Earth. But such it seems was the practice of this wicked Court, where none might hope for Justice or the least pitty, and every one had power over the Prisoner before Judgment, as appears afterwards in the case of St. Paul, where the Acts 23.2. High-Priest himself commanded those that stood by to strike the Apostle on the mouth.
An injury sufficient to have raised a Tempest in any heart but that of Exuberant Love. And if James and John would have commanded Luke 9.54. Fire from Heaven, as Elias did, to consume the inhospitable Samaritans; How much more worthy of it were the Abettors of this Indignity? But the Admirable Jesus all whose Nature was Patience, to teach us there is nothing so great, as for a Man to conquer his Passion under Affronts and Injuries, suffers it with absolute composedness of mind, and as much Clemency and Commiseration, opening his Mouth with the greatest Sweetness, while his Face is smitten with a servile Hand. If I have spoken evil, bear Witness of the evil: but if well, [Page 94]why smitest thou me? That I have well answered thou thy self confessest, in that thou canst object nothing against my Words, and therefore I admonish thee to be more wary for the future, and not to act contrary to undeniable Truth. Thou strikest me who hast nothing to lay to my Charge: Thou strikest me who art not Judge over me: Thou strikest me whom once thou didst admire: Thou strikest me who have done thee no injury at all: And yet I rail not against thee, I revenge not my self, but freely pardon thee, and advise thee to be sorry.
Ah Christian! Such are thy Saviour's Sentiments, and shall the least word of disdain raise a storm in thy mind, and every rash action a clap of Thunder? how long wilt thou say he has injur'd me, he has struck me, I cannot put it up, I will have his Life? Knowest thou not that Revenge is only proper to weak minds, and that Clemency resides always in a strong Spirit; that Cruelty is Tyranny, but Meekness a true Empire; That to want power of retaining any bad Resentment, is to be truly Invulnerable, but Malice cherished fills the Soul with Darts, Wounds and Putrifying Ulcers; that neither God nor Man [Page 95]have any compassion for those, who cannot grant a Pardon to an inconsiderate Action; but sooner or later, there are Treasures of Graces bestow'd upon those amiable Inclinations, which are Mortal Enemies to Revenge and Cruelty.
Prayer.
O Dearest Lord, who wast smitten Extrajudicialy with the circumstances of Despite in the Presence of a Judge, yet barest the Insolency, and Cruelty of the Affront with an Admirable Compassion towards the rashness of the Transgressour; Give me the like Temper, that I may look on Injury with the mildness which arises from a sense of my own frailty; That tho' I be not able to bear it with Joy, yet I may take it with Patience, and pardon it, and turn my eye to thee who wer't afflicted for me, and wilt have me to be afflicted for thee, and not to the man that persecuted and troubled me. Then shall I be capable of that inestimable Benefit which thou hast propos'd on this condition, the Forgiveness of my Debts as I forgive my Debtors, and shall be acceptable to my Heavenly Father.
SECT. XVI. Of the False Witnesses that arose against Christ, and the Wickedness of the High Priest.
ONE of the greatest Tragedies in the life of Man, which makes the Curious to Question, the Wise to Wonder, the Good to Groan, and the Wicked to Rejoyce; is to see a Magistrate willfully pervert judgment, and the Innocent opprest under colour of Justice. Yet such was the Judge, and the case of the Holy Jesus, who being resolv'd to espouse our Miseries to the utmost, would pass through the Rigors and Formalities of the Wicked, cover'd with a pretext of Judgment and Equity. Matt. 26.59. The Chief Priests and Elders and all the Counsel sought false Witness against him to put him to Death.
Cajaphas had examin'd him about his Disciples, and his Doctrine, and because he had answered otherwise then he expected; because he had so answered that he could lay no hold on it; he resolves now to patch together an accusation [Page 97]out of the flying rumours of the People, and therefore commanded, that whatsoever they could say, they should alledge against the Prisoner. He had so much tenderness for his own Reputation as not to sentence him without cause; but so much Wickedness as to be contented with a pretended one, rather then he should escape out of his hands: So there be but some Witnesses true or false, he hopes it may excuse his Tyranny and Oppression. Nevertheless tho' many Matt. 26.60. false Witnesses came, and according to the Psalmist, Psal. 35.11. rose up against him, and laid to his Charge things that he knew not, yet found they Matt. 26.60.none, that is no sufficient Testimony upon which they might ground the least plausible accusation; for whatsoever one spoke, the next deliver'd it otherwise, their Witness did not Mark 14.56.agree together.
Such had been the Excellency, exemplary Piety, and Prudence of the Life of the Immaculate Jesus, that if they pretended against him Questions of their Law, they were not Capital in a Roman Court; if they affirm'd he mov'd the people to Sedition and Affected the Kingdom, they saw that all the World wou'd convince 'em of the Untruth. At last after [Page 98]many attempts, that his Innocency might more fully appear, came two false Witnesses near the same, and accuse him of a Trope or Figurative Speech, which they neither understood, nor his Intention when he spake it. One said, This Fellow Matt. 26.61.said, I am able to destroy the Temple of God, and to build it in three days. The Mark 14.58. other, I heard him say, I will destroy this Temple that is made with hands, and within three days I will build another made without hands. But neither so did their Witness Mark 14.59.agree together.
He had said indeed, when the Jews desir'd a Sign, John 2.19. Destroy this Temple and in three dayes I will raise it up, meaning the Resurrection of his Body the third day after his Death, should be the Sign of his Veracity to the Whole World; but the Witnesses both perverted it, and added to it, affirming it to be threatned against the Temple at Jerusalem, and that he had a design to subvert their Worship: Nor did the wiser Jews understand it otherwise, which is plain from their words to Pilate after his Death, Matt. 27.63. Sir, we remember that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, after three days I will rise again: Only the Ignorant supposed it to be of the Temple, and [Page 99]the Council willingly let it pass having no other occasion of accusation against him.
The High Priest being frustrated by this faultring of all the Witnesses, and silence of Christ, which prevented him the opportunity of laying hold on any thing from himself against him, rises up in Passion, (his malice making him uneasie) and Mark 14.60.says, answerest thou nothing? What is it that these Witness against thee?
But there needed no reply, for what should the Innocent answer against such lying and disagreeing Testimonies? They had born false Witness out of his true sayings, adding and diminishing what they pleas'd, and yet the most Subtile and Industrious of his Enemies could not make it out that the Temple was in any danger from him: Jesus therefore Matt. 26.63.held his peace. For as was the Judge, such were the Witnesses; as was the Council, so was the Auditory; they carry'd the Face of a Court of Judicature, but were a concourse of Bloody Murderers. He knew, as he was God, that whatsoever he should answer they would pervert to an accusation against him, and that by his answer he should rather irritate than appease them, and [Page 100]that the more he satisfied 'em the greater would be their Sin; especially that it was written of him in the Evangelical Prophet, Isai. 53.7. He was oppressed and Afflicted, and yet he opened not his mouth. He is brought as a Lamb to the Slaughter, and as a Sheep before her Shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth.
Cajaphas the more enraged at his silence, supposing it was done out of contempt to his Person, and vext that neither the Witnesses nor his own Authority could draw an answer from him, which might bear colour of Censure, collects all his Malice and Rage together and darts it at him in one terrible Exorcism, Mat. 26.63. I adjure thee by the living God that thou tell us, whether thou be the Christ the Son of God, agreeable to the last refuge of Satan in the distracted and furious man,Mark 5.7.I adjure thee by God that thou torment me not.
Our Saviour not mov'd by the Power of Exorcism (for if there were no Numb. 23.23. Inchantment against Jacob, much less cou'd there be against his God) but least it might not consist with the honour which is due and ever to be paid to the Sacred Name, or he might seem wanting to the saving Truth which he came down on Earth to reveal to the World, [Page 101]or the Jews might take occasion thereby to defend their perfidiousness, and propagate their error after his departure, saying, That Nazarene being askt by our High Priest, and adjur'd by the Tremendous Name whether he were the true expected Messiah, would not answer that he was, otherwise we had believ'd him, and receiv'd him as such: For these Reasons he would not here be silent, that he might leave them without Excuse, but in two Sayings declares the Truth:
Mat. 26.64. Thou hast said, or it is true which thou hast said. I need not answer, thou thy self hast said it. Or rather, he directs it to his wicked Conscience; Why seekest thou so deceitfully to draw from me that which thou knowest already so well? I need not tell thee I am the Christ, since, John 11.47. because I raised up Lazarus from the Dead, thou would'st put me to death. Thou hast not hitherto believed me for my Miracles, and intendest never to believe me for my Words. Nevertheless I will yet more clearly confess, and I tell you plainly, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of Man sitting at the Right hand of Power, Mat. 26 64.and coming in the Clouds of Heaven. But none could thus ascend to equal Power with God, [Page 102]none could again descend with the Clouds of Heaven (which the Jews themselves expounded of the Glorious Attendance of the Angels) unless the true Messiah and Son of God. With these words he passionately endeavours to move 'em with the Terrors of the Lord, at the consideration of that just Judgment they must at last undergo before his Tribunal, how Vile and Abject soever he now appeared, since he had tried in vain to reduce 'em by his Innocency and Benefits.
But now Hypocrisie and Ostentation as well as Obstinacy reign in Cajaphas, Mark 14.63.64.He rent his Clothes and said, what need we any further Witnesses? Ye have heard the Blasphemy: What think ye? And they all condemned him to be guilty of Death.
Why, What have ye heard, O ye blood-thirsty men, but that great Truth of the coming of Christ's Kingdom, which the Patriarchs, Prophets, and all good men long'd for with earnest expectation? Where is your Anointing ye Priests and Sons of Aaron? Where are the Prophecies ye Scribes and Teachers, which long before mentioned these things of the Messiah? Where will be your portion, ye Sons of Israel, who renounce an Interest in the Saviour of [Page 103]the World, and condemn the Son of the Great King, and think by killing him to seize upon his Inheritance? 1 Chron. 22:8. David was not suffer'd to build the Temple, because his hands had shed Blood: And how shall you build up the House of the Lord, who imbrue your hands in the blood of God? What Herod thô otherwise cruel will not dare, and what Pilate tho' a Barbarian shall be afraid of, you have wilfully pronounc'd against the Lord of Life: Therefore shall the Samaritans and Heathen be your Judges, yea out of your own mouth shall ye be Judged, how much your impiety was greater than theirs, and your Injustice crueller than that of Herod or Pilate.
It was the first time that Cajaphas had heard he call'd himself the Son of God and declar'd himself to be come from Heaven, as appears by manifest John 5.18. passages in the Holy Evangelists. He might much more easily have believed that Truth, knowing how he had raised Lazarus from the Dead, then the poor blind Man for the cure of his sight, or Nicodemus from the general report of his Miracles, who John 3.2.9 33. both confess, that if he had not been of God, or God had been with him he could have [Page 104]done nothing: But here out of Vain Glory he rent his Clothes, (a sad Presage prophetically foreshewing that the Priesthood shou'd be rent from him and that Nation,) and crys as if he had heard some strange thing, (which personated Admiration became also the type of his own punishment, and consign'd the Nation to utter destruction,) and the whole Assembly devoted to his will, the Priests, the Pharisees, the Scribes and Elders, [...] Mark 14.64. all conspir'd in the same Guilt. Whereby it is evident whatsoever he had said, they were all ready to confirm it, when immediately with one Voice without any Hesitation, all condemn him to be guilty of Death. There was no body here had a word to speak for the Innocent, none desir'd a time for defence of the Prisoner; neither Reason, nor Justice, nor Humanity are regarded, but Cajaphas will have it so, and Christ must die.
Thus was our Saviour suppposed guilty of Blasphemy, who in all things sought his Father's Glory; and proclamed worthy of Death who did no Sin, neither was guile found in his Mouth; and that holy Name abus'd and vilifi'd, which is above every Name, and to which every knee should bow, Because [Page 105]we were really Blasphemous and Wicked, and had transgrest all the commandments of our God, from the guilt of which he came to deliver us by his Condemnation.
Prayer.
O Spotless Innocence who wert judged wrongfully, but shall come to judge the World in Righteousness; Grant Impartialtiy to all the Judges of the Earth, that they Administer true Justice without Covetousness or Respect of Persons; Sincerity to all Witn [...]sses, that they may bear Testimony to the Truth; Integrity to all the Professors of thy Holy Precepts, that they may serve thee in purity of Intention; and if after the example of thy own injuries, we shall be brought before ungodly Magistrates to suffer for Righteousness and the Gospels sake; Give us the like Patience, Who art the true Peace, and Comfort of all that put their trust in thee.
SECT. XVII. Of Peter's Fall.
WHile these things were transacting concerning the Lord, Mark 14.54, &c. Peter who follow'd him afar off into the Palace of the High-Priest, and sate with the Servants and others, and warm'd himself at the fire (for it was then a cold season) being engag'd in a strange and evil company, in the midst of danger, without time to deliberate, invent subterfuges, or fortifie himself; was surpris'd with the Questions of a Servant Maid, and twice deny'd shamefully that he belong'd to him, and at the third time began to curse and swear that he knew not this Man of whom they spake, who yet was known to him as his own heart, and was dearer to him then his Eyes, and for whom he had profest a little before, he would go into Prison and to Death. So Vain and Frail are the greatest Spirits being left destitute to themselves, they become Barren, suffer Ecclipses, and give examples of Terror to the World.
But the Merciful Jesus in the midst of his own Sufferings was not unmindful of his Servants danger. Notwithstanding the dishonour of his present condition, the sense of his Fathers Indignation, the Foresight of his approaching Desertion, while he is wholly possest of weakness, he is yet at leisure for an act of Power. The Righteous Justice of his God, and the unjust cruelty of Men, are not able to drive him from the exercise of his Mercy. He came to suffer all these things for Man, and in the midst of his Troubles remembers Man, honouring the Scorns and Buffets of his Judgment with the Conversion of a fallen Apostle.
He cast a Gracious Eye upon him when the Cock crew, according to the Luke 22.61. prediction he had made of his Fall, and the piercing Animal was made the Preacher, and his Look was the grace that made the Sermon effectual.
Who will not admire the Sage Prudence, and Miraculous Conduct of his Designs, to bring to pass his abundant Mercy? Who will not remain astonished in Contemplation of his wonderful Operations? and above all when he shall discern the care he always has for the preservation of his Elect? Alas! [Page 108]How stupid is the Wisdom of Men? How Imprudent their Resolutions? How feeble are the Forces of their understanding, when they are sever'd from the Blessed Jesus? But there needs but one heavenly raye of his to enlighten all the obscurities of the Earth, but one single drop of his Dew to soften all Hardned and Rocky Hearts, but one glance of his Eye to give a Soul and Life to all the most inanimated bodies in Nature: Yea when a Man thinks himself utterly lost, then presently he shows him his way in the midst of all his wandrings; and there is no climate so dry, no soil so unfruitful, where his Omnipotent Goodness cannot cause a Thousand Fountains and Springs to rise; to the end it may be everywhere known and Extoll'd, that he is the source of all Living and Salutiferous Waters.
Methinks I see in his Face a conflict of the Affections of Pity, Mercy, Favour, and Grace, striving together in this compassionate Action; Pitty commiserating the frailty of his Disciple; Mercy forgiving and converting him; Favour inviting him, and Grace assisting him.
Prayer.
O Amiable Eyes of my Dear Jesus! Stay, O stay, Benign Lord, and never let thy saving Face be turned from me. Cast upon my dull and heavy Soul one beam from those thine Eyes, which make all storms Clear, and all disasters Happy. The very Faithful themselves would lie still in the Depth of Sin, whereinto they have been plunged by their inadvertency, did not thy pitty raise them up. They cannot remember their Danger or thy Word, till thou remember their Misery, and Relieve them. O let me dwell for ever in thy Presence, for out of the sight of thine Eyes there is no safety.
SECT. XVIII. Of Peter's Rise.
NO sooner did Peter remember the words of Jesus, and what slight esteem he had made of that Caution which should have arm'd him against Temptation, but he went out and Matt. 26.75. wept [Page 110]bitterly, [...] Mark 14.72. [...] Theophylact. covering his Head, and mingling his Tears with the Sighs and Groans of his broken heart. Leaving it disputable whether he felt more Joy or Sorrow, in the acts of Love or the remembrance of his Fall.
Alas! says he, How true is it that a proud Felicity has reeling Feet; That when we trust to our own strength, we are then in most danger; That negligence and presumption are the Forerunners of a Fall? Thou who didst defie the gates of Hell, hast yielded thy self to the voice of a simple Woman. All those Conquests thou didst promise to thy self, are become the Trophies of so weak a Hand. Return to the Combat, and since she has Triumph'd over thee, do thou at least Triumph over thy self. Alas, I am afraid to behold the place of my Fall, and the weak snares of a foolish Woman appear to me as rigorous as Chains of Iron. Yet what can he fear who is resolv'd to die, or make himself a Sacrifice to his offended Lord? But our Soul is yet too foul for an Oblation to his Service, let us wash it with Tears, till its impurities are cleansed. I fell before the Fire, and I will rise by the Water, the salutary waters of Repentance. I [Page 111]have Matt. 14.29. walked upon the Sea to come to my Jesus, and I will now return to him by the way of my Tears. I will now speak only by my Eyes, since I have lately talk'd so wickedly with my Mouth. Since we have nothing left free to us but Sighs and Groans, let us make use of the last liberty that is left; and when all is spent return to the Mercy of Jesus, which all the Sins of the World can never evacuate. I will from henceforth be a perpetual Example to the Church by my Fall, and rising again from Death, for the comfort of Sinners, and a warning to the Faithful; and the fault of one Night shall be lamented by me all the days of my Life, in a kind of continual Martyrdom. Come and Rejoyce over me, ye holy Angels, since the greater is my Sin the more will his Mercy be magnified in my Forgiveness and Conversion.
Let all such as Stand here these Words, and take heed lest they Fall, Let such as are Fallen imprint them in their Hearts, that they may endeavour in like manner to Rise. Here is not propos'd an Example of Falling, but an Example of Rising after Falling. And since none but the Tears of the Damned are Remediless, let us hasten with [Page 112]this Penitent to the Pool of Contrition, and bath our Souls in those Salutiferous Waters. Now are our Pains profitable, our Tears acceptable, our Groans audible, our Grief pacifieth God and purgeth the Heart; hereafter there shall be weeping without Comfort, and gnashing of Teeth, and irremediable Vexation.
Prayer.
Gracious Redeemer, the Fountain of Pardon; I have sinned against thee in denying thee by my works, and estranging my heart from thee, who art desirable above all things. And where shall I find punishment enough to avenge me of my self, and tears sufficient to wash away my guilt? Every slight Worldly sorrow is apt to draw plenty of Waters in mine Eyes, but when I would weep for my Sins, which are the greatest Calamities, either my Eyes are dry, or my Tears too few to bewail so many provocations. O merciful Saviour, break this heart, for thou only canst do it with thy compassionate Look, and melt it into Tears of true Contrition: That since I cannot be Innocent yet I may be Penitent, and what is wanting in my Repentance may be supplyed by thy Mercy, and I may owe my Salvation to thy boundless Liberality
SECT. XIX. Of the Barbarity of the Multitude towards Christ.
JEsus had pity upon his offending Servant; but his own Innocence found none among his Enemies, who begin now to treat him with all the Circumstances of Scorn, Cruelty, and Diabolical Malice. O God! What Frenzies, and what Furies are there in a Brutish Multitude, when it is once let loose! The Lamb of God himself is not secure from their Insults. What barbarous Passions, what blind Will, what enchanted Desires after inhumane Cruelty towards their own Image! They Mat. 26.67. spit in his Face, in whose presence the Angels, ravisht with wonder, do cover their Faces with their Wings, and have no sweeter Extasies than the Admiration of his Beauties. They Luk. 22.64. blindfold his Eyes, the Light of whose Countenance the Fathers have so much desir'd to see. They Mat. 26.67. strike and buffet him with the Palms of their hands, who descended from Glory to heal them by his Stripes. They [Page 114]sport themselves in Railery with the Eternal Word, who In the beginning John 1.3, 4.made all things, and in whom was Life, and that Life the Light of Men, saying Mat. 26.68. Prophesie unto us, thou Christ, who is he that smote thee? And many Luk. 22.65. other things, which neither the Prophets did foretell, nor the Evangelists have related, did they blasphemously speak against him.
Thus did our Lord Isai. 50.6. give his Back to the Smiters, and his Cheeks to them that pull'd off the hair, and hid not his Face from Shame and Spitting. Thus did his Psal. 118.12. Enemies come about him like Bees, regardless whether they lost their Fruitfulness for ever, so they might infix in him the Sting of their Malice. Thus did he pass the sorrowful Night among the Psal. 57.5. Children of Men that were set on fire, whose Teeth were Spears and Arrows, and their Tongue a sharp Sword; made the extream Scorn, Contempt, and Sport of the most insolent and insulting Enemy.
Go now, ingrateful and Perfidious Sinner, seek and Covet the Pleasures of this Life, while Christ suffers these Indignities for thy sake. Behold what miserable Comforts he has in this Passover, which to his People was a Festival of the greatest Joy. See here what [Page 115]Returns of Gratitude they make for all the inestimable Benefits they have received. This night was the Blood of the Typical Lamb sprinkled upon their doors, and sav'd 'em from Destruction; and now they tarnish with the Filth of their Infernal Mouths the Mirrour of Angels, the true Lamb, and condemn him to Destruction, who came to save them from Damnation: And has he been less kind to thee, or hast thou been more grateful to him?
O the unaccountable Perversness of Man! O the Ineffable Long-Suffering of Christ. For what wonder had it been, had he again destroyed the World for so great an Affront and Wickedness as this? But thus the Scriptures were to be fulfilled, and thus it Luk. 24.46. behoved Christ to suffer.
Prayer.
O my Soul! what wilt thou say? Thy Redeemer is mockt; thy Master is spit upon; thy Lord is smitten; thy Christ is vilified more than ever was any Man; and of all these Indignities thy Sins are the Cause. For if thou hadst not sinned, nor thy Forefathers, the innocent Jesus had never thus suffer'd: His manifold Miseries are the several Indications how wicked, how Guilty, how full of [Page 116]Sin thou art, and always hast been. For as abject as thy Saviour did appear before his Adversaries, so vile wert thou truly before God, and must for ever have appear'd before thy Tormentors in Hell, if he had not transferr'd these Sufferings upon himself, and his Righteousness upon thee.
I will prostrate my self in Dust and Ashes: I will humble my Spirit with Abstinence and Sorrow: My Tears shall be my Meat Day and Night; and I will ever call upon God, till of his Mercy he speak Peace unto me. I will follow my Jesus sorrowing, and embrace his Cross, and confess him dying for me, till he assist me with his Grace, and receive me with his Mercy, and turn my temporal Sorrows into everlasting Joys.
SECT. XX. Of the Prosecution of Christ before Pilate, and the miserable Despair of Judas thereupon.
WHile our Saviour was passing the sorrowful Night, vilified, spit upon, buffeted, and mockt, as the very Scorn of Men, and the Out-cast of the People; Fame, which is more speedy [Page 117]than a thousand Posts, and has abundance of Voices to make it self heard, had dispers'd the News through the whole City; and the People, Luke 22.66. rais'd early in the Morning by various Reports, and restless Expectations, flockt together; and the Council re-assembled, so much the more incens'd, by how much their Witnesses had failed, and Christ had answer'd prudently, and suffer'd patiently; hoping by the semblance of a judicial Process they might persuade Pilate, whose Authority they were to use, to accept their Examination and Conviction, without Enquiry. And Christ is Luke 22.66. brought again bound before 'em, that at least they might satisfie their Cruelty in seeing him, if they could not their Malice in falsly accusing him. For as the Force of Love has this Effect, that it sufficeth not to have once seen its beloved; so Envy and Hatred desire more and more to reiterate their Cruelty upon what they hate.
And because Christ had as yet only confest himself the Son of God, and Judge of the World, which would bear but little stress before Pilate, who was a Pagan, and Idolatrous, and whose Religion maintain'd the frequent Descent of the Gods they worshipt; they [Page 118]urge him again with the former Question, Whether he were the Messiah or Christ, saying, Luke 22.67. Art thou the Christ? tell us. For the promis'd Messiah in Scripture, being there also called the John 1.49. King of Israel, if he confest himself to be the Messiah, they would by consequence imply, he maintain'd himself to be the King of Israel; from whence they would accuse him of Rebellion against Caesar.
Which Question, as it did not much differ from the former, so neither did our Saviour's Answer to it, excepting that he added 'Luk. 22.67, 68. If I tell you, you will not believe me. And if I also ask you, you you will not answer me, nor let me go. He expected no Answer, but Irrision and Blasphemy, whatsoever he should have spoken about his Divinity, and more Madness and Sin in the People, whose only Satisfaction was to have him crucified. They were not now likely to believe his Words, who had resisted his mighty Works, to which he had John 10.25. appealed as the best Evidences of his Commission; nor to answer any point about his Person, who had so often been Mat. 21.27. Mark 12.37. Luk. 14.3. posed, that they Matt. 22.46. durst not ask him any more. Therefore he only forewarns 'em again of his future Power, which [Page 119]he should receive from God to judge their Iniquities: Luk. 22.69. Hereafter shall ye see the Son of Man sit on the Right hand of the Power of God; appealing to their Consciences, whether they did not think him the true Messiah by the Miracles they had seen and heard; which now they would have him say, not for their Conviction, but for a Cause of his Condemnation: For they were so far from giving Ear to any Apology, that all was interrupted with the clamorous noise of Luk. 22.71. What need have we of any further Witnesses, for we our selves have heard him of his own Mouth? Upon this they Mat. 27.2. bind him a third time, (for many were the Chains from which we were to be loosed) and lead him with a S. Basil. in Mystagog. Eccles. Author. Com. in Marc. apud S. Hieron. Cord about his Neck from the Spiritual to the Civil Power.
Which Judas perceiving, who had been the Author of all this Mischief, and having heard nothing from others laid to his Charge worthy of Death, to which he saw he was condemn'd, but from his own Mouth many Revelations of Power, and especially of Judgment, which he could not stifle; he Mat. 27. [...] repented himself of being the Instrument of so damnable a Machination and prodigious Impiety, and brought again the thirty Pieces of [Page 120]Silver to some of the Chief Priests and Elders, who remain'd in the Temple upon account of the Feast, Matt. 27.4. saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the Innocent Blood, (an undeniable Testimony against all the Blasphemy of the Jews) and cast down the Pieces of Silver in the Temple. Which Money, in the use to which it was presently dispos'd, (for they would not suffer the Price of Blood to come into the Treasury) fulfill'd a most eminent Prediction of Zech. 11.13. Matt. 27.9. Zechariah concerning the Price of our Saviour's Blood; for with this they bought the Potter's Field, to bury Strangers in, which is Mat. 27.8. call'd the Field of Blood to this day.
There is an active Principle in Man's Breast, that seldom suffers daring Sinners to pass in quiet to their Graves, which Satan makes use of, when it is too late to repent, to drive those to Desperation whom he caused to sin. When the Iniquity is come to so great a proportion, as to produce Despair, and an intolerable Condition, then he suffers the Conscience to thaw and grow tender, that filling the Soul with a raging Sorrow, he may secure it against all Retreat by some Act which may render the Pardon impossible. The Conscience of [Page 121]the Betrayer now awakned with the Horrour of the Fact, which was continually before his Eyes, began to rouse and follow close, and the Man was unable to bear up under the furious Revenges of his own Mind, as it happens in all willful and deliberate Sins, especially that of Blood, which is wont more sensibly to allarm the natural Notions of the Mind, and to excite in us the Fears of present Judgment.
Did ever any harden himself against God, and prosper? And indeed how should he, when he carries about with him such a powerful Executioner in his own Bosom? In the Moment he affronts the Dictates of his Conscience, he bids Adieu to all true Quiet, and exposes himself to the severe Resentments of a self-torturing Mind; a Torment infinitely beyond what the most ingenious Tyrants ever could contrive. For nothing so effectually invades our Ease, as the Reproaches of our own Mind, from which it is impossible we shou'd lye hid. The Wrath of Man may be endur'd; but the Irruptions of Conscience are irresistible, and oft reduce a Man to such Distresses, as make him chuse Death rather than Life.
But his Masters, incurious of those Hellish Torments which Judas felt within (because their own were not yet begun) and unable to contradict him, as to the quality of the Purchase, which they could not really deny to be Guiltless; dismist him scornfully, Matt. 27.4. saying, What is that to us? See thou to that. If his Blood be innocent, the greater is thy Sin. We employ'd thee ignorantly, and have been punctual in our Agreement, and are out of the Reach of the Law.
We see by this the miserable Estate of all those, who commit Wickedness for the Favour of others. They are presently derided, hated, and forsaken, by those very Persons, in whose Cause they committed it: And like to 'em are all they, who frame their Fortune upon Vice; they build on Abysses or Foundations of Sand; they sow Wind, and reap Tempests; their Hopes are but Clouds swell'd with Vapours, which burst, consume, and come to nothing. Never had any Man good Fortune in Impiety, whatever Advantage he might at first propose. It is the Spiders Web, and an Act of Violence: He shall not cover himself with his Work, nor shall it save him from Destruction. He has [Page 123]lost his Conscience, and has nothing to gain; for nothing remaineth for him but Unhappiness: Or rather, did he gain the whole World, yet would he be the greatest Loser, because he has lost his own Soul.
And now the Apostate, reduced to these Streights, terrified in his mind, instigated by the Devil, and finding no Consolation, but amazing Reproofs, from those very Persons he had serv'd against his Conscience; all he could hope for, was, to find some shelter, where he might hide his guilty Head.
But ah! miserable Man, what Darkness can cover him, who has a thousand Torches in his own Breast to lay open the Guilt of his Crime: Who flies out of the Presence of his God, since every place is Hell, where God is not? The most Peopled Cities are solitary Desarts, if the God of Comfort be not there; and the most dreadful Solitudes and least inhabited Grots become Courts and Palaces by the Residence of his Spirit. All Reposes are Disquiet; all Peace is but War; all Honours are Contempt, Parents are traiterous, Brothers envious, Friends Deceivers, Beds of Down no better than Sepulchres; and Life is but a Death, or at best but a long and [Page 124]dolorous Sickness, unless God be the Loadstone of our Hearts, the Center of our Affections, and the Height of our Glory.
It is a horrible thing to see a Soul left to it self, after it has forsaken the Inspirations of God. It becomes a desolate Vineyard without Enclosure: The wild Boar enters it, and all unclean and ravenous Beasts do there sport and leap without Controll. God hangs Clouds over it, but lets no Dew fall upon it: The Sun never looks upon it with a loving Eye; but all there is Barren, Venomous, and near to Hell; Blackness of Darkness, and eternal Night; Melancholy, rack'd by Despair; Guilt scourg'd by Shame; Rage tortur'd with Envy; and Vexation stabb'd by Regret and a tempestuous Repentance.
And if this be the Unhappiness of the present time, O! how great will be the Solitude of such a Soul in her Separation? When in an Instant she shall see nothing but all the Evils she has done, and all the Wickednesses of her Life, spread before her Eyes, as so many Firey Serpents; for which she must answer before the dreadful Tribunal, [Page 125]which even now appears before her Eyes.
Prayer.
O! just God, will there need any Chains to sink it lower than its own Weight has done? Will there need any other Darkness to cover the Soul, which such a Cloud of Sorrows has already benighted, and cast into the bottom of the Abyss of Miseries? One Deep calls upon another; the Depth of Misery upon the Depth of thy Compassion: In the midst of thy Wrath, remember Mercy. Afford us here such Grace as may prevent Despair, (for our Sins cannot be greater than thy Mercy) and in the Day of Judgment grant us such Mercy as may pardon our greatest Sins.
SECT. XXI. Of the Deplorable end of Judas.
POor Judas under these apprehensions of Shame, Guilt, Fear, Despair, Grief, Rage, Anguish and Torment, the reproof of Devils and Wicked Men, departed, and went and Matt. 27.5. hanged himself. Which judgment was made more notorious by an unusual accident (as the Greek Scholiast, and some Euthym. in 26. Matt. Oecumen. in c. 1. Acts. Juvencus Hist. Evang. Beda de Locis Sanct. cap. 4. others report out of Papias St. John's Scholar) that he fell from the Fig-tree on which he hanged before he was quite dead, and surviv'd his attempt some while, being so sad a spectacle of Deformity, Pain, and a prodigious tumour, that his plague was deplorable and highly miserable: till at last he burst in the very substance of his Trunk as being extended beyond the possibilities and capacities of Nature. Which reconciles the relation of St. Matthew to St. Luke's, of whom the former says, he [...]. Mat. 27, 5.hanged or strangled himself; the latter, he [...]. Act. 1.18.fell headlong and burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out.
Such is the real unfruitfulness of Sin, and perplexed estate of unjust gain. We are afterwards more indigent then we were before, and know not what to do with the cursed thing when we have it. Such is the purchase of Treason, and reward of Covetousness, momentary in its Possession, unsatisfying in the fruition, uncertain in the stay, sudden in its departure, horrid in the remembrance, a certain and astonishing ruin in the end. And such is the confusion of all those, who are terrified with the remembrance of their Sin, but cannot apprehend the greatness of Gods Mercy, or build their repentance upon the Divine Compassion; Whose sin is reveal'd to 'em but but not the Gospel, who are sorry for their loss or what they suffer, but cannot Confess, Believe, and heartily sue for Pardon.
Prayer.
O thou most Gracious, yet dreadful Majesty; Gracious in the dispensations of those means which lead us to believe in thy dear Son, as in thy manifold offers to Judas; Dreadful in the emanations of thy Justice sealing up his incorrigible and impenitent [Page 128]Heart; Suffer me not, I beseech thee, ever to despair either of thy Mercy for what is past, or of thy Grace for the future. I am cast down when I consider the misery of the Betrayer, but I lift up my Soul to the Mercy of the Betrayed. I tremble when I consider the fruits of Sin, but am encouraged by those of the Sufferings of my Jesus. For whose infinite Merits, I implore thine infinite Compassion, to deliver me now from a reprobate Mind, and in the day of Judgment from Eternal Condemnation.
SECT. XXII. Of the Wonderful Providence of God in the manner of Christ's Death.
NOthing comes by chance in respect of God, but all things are disposed by his wise Providence to bring his determinate Council to pass. After Judas by his desolation had Acts 1 20. Psal. 109.7. fulfilled the Scripture, it was further necessary that Christ, whom he had deliver'd, should suffer in a manner prefigur'd therein, thô not prescrib'd by the Law of Moses. For as a Exod. [...].46. bone of the Typical Lamb was not to be broken [Page 129]so neither was any to be broken in the true Lamb, the Great passover of the Christians. Whereby it was intimated the Saviour of the World should suffer that Death, to which the breaking of Bones was usual (which according to custom, was that of Crucifixion, to put an end to the Miserable life of the Sufferer) but only in that Death should by the Providence of God be so particularly preserv'd, as that not one Bone of his should be touch'd. The Psalmist likewise predicting of him, they Psal. 22.17. pierc'd my hands and my feet plainly represented he should die the Death of the Cross, to which the Hands and Feet of the Person Crucified were affixed.
In order to this Death, which was after the Roman manner, great had been the Revolutions and Changes in the World between the Type and Prophesie, and the time of the event. And Judea, that was once L [...]m. 1.1. great among the Nations and Princess among the Provinces, had now been made tributary by Pompey the Great about threescore years before Christ, and a part of a Province of Syria under the care of the President of that Province, appointed by Tiberias the Emperor. According to which Institution, a particular Procurator [Page 130]was assigned to it for the disposing of the Publick revenue; and because the President who had the power of the Sword was forc'd to attend the other parts of his Province, therefore Tacit. Annal. l. 15. Tertull. Apologet. cap. 21 Cyprian adv Demet. Josephus de bel. jud. Philo de legat ad Cajum. Justin Mart. Apolog. Eusebius Hist. l. 1. c. 10. Pilate the Resident, Procutator of Judea was furnish'd with power of Life and Death, and administred the Supreme Power as to the Jews. This gave opportunity that Christ might be deliver'd to a foreign Jurisdiction, and suffer Death after the custom of that Nation to whose power he was delivered. The obstinate Jews had Malice enough to prosecute, but wanted power Judicially to destroy him. It is said, they Mark 14.64.condemned him, that is, found him guilty; yet could not pronounce sentence of Death upon him, but Mark 15.1. Matt. 27.2.deliver'd him to Pontius Pilate the Governor.
Thus wonderful are the Mysteries of God's Secrets, and great his goodness to cause us to believe 'em. He reveals before so much as is necessary for the foundation of our Faith, and afterwards in his Wisdom through numberless Contingencies and cross Accidents, brings his Truth to its proper event: That being told John 13.19.before hand, we should believe it when come to pass, and so believing have everlasting life.
But it is the method of the Devil and wicked Men, in opposition the Divine Verity, to conceal the true intent of all their thoughts; and which aggravates their guilt to the depth of horror, to make use of Religion and a seeming Piety to bring their wicked designes to pass; hopeing to steal a good Name, and the opinion of the Multitude, by that which renders 'em infamous to all good Men, and abominable in the sight of God.
They had hir'd a Betrayer who had declar'd him innocent; they had sought false Witnesses who could prove nothing; they had smitten him extrajudicially in open Court, and before Sentence; they had Bound, Vilified and Abus'd him, with the greatest inhumanity their Rage could invent; they had deliver'd him up to the secular Power with knowledge of his Innocence, but full purpose of destroying him; and now would draw Pilate to accept their Accusations under the colour of an extraordinary Piety, and specious observation of a vain Tradition, That they were not to come into the house of the Uncircumcised. They sent in the Prisoner to the Judgment Hall, but they themselves went not in, John 8.28.least they should [Page 132]be defil'd, and that they might eat the Passover.
Prayer.
But Grant, O God, that we who are sensible of the horrible Prophanation the Jews made of their Religion by their insincerity; and how justly thou removedst 'em out of thy sight, when under the pretence of it they persecuted thy Son; may never after the like Treachery and Perversness Crucifie him afresh, and bring upon our selves the desolation of thy holy Gospel by making it a Cloak to our Maliciousness and Vice: But that we may speak and profess truly, and practise conscientiously whatsoever ought to be done, in imitation of thy Purity, and of the Holy Jesus who has reveal'd himself unto us to be the John 14.6. Way, and the Truth, and the Life.
SECT. XVIII. Of the Obstinacy of the Jews to put Christ to Death, and of the true Nature of his Kingdom.
PIlate might have forc'd 'em out of their obstinate Humour to have enter'd the Pretorium, and given their Testimony in Court. But having much more Humility, as well as respect to Justice, condescends to come forth and take their Allegations, Saying, John 18.29.What Accusation bring you against this Man? a very just question to a most Insolent answer, John 18.30. If he were not a Malefactor we would not have deliver'd him up unto Thee: As if it were necessary he should rely on their Judgments, who were the Subjects of his Tribunal, and becoming Justice to pass Sentence of Death without proof of Witnesses, or hearing the Prisoner.
A Faithless, Wicked, and Stubborn Generation had stopt their Ears to all that was Divine, and now were grown Envious least the Heathens should hear those Luke 4.22. gracious Words which [Page 134]were wont to proceed out of his mouth, and at which themselves had so often wondered; least Pilate should be Charmed, as the rest of the John 7.45. Officers they had sent to take him, and leave him at Liberty with the same Answer, John 7.46. Never man spake like this man. Had they askt the Luke 17.14. Lepers whom he had cleansed, or the John 5.9. Lame whose Limbs he had restored, or the Mark 7.35. Deaf whom he had made to hear, or the Luke 7.21. Blind who had receiv'd their sight, or the Mark 5.15. possest who were in their [...]ight mind, all had confest, It was Matt. 9.33. never so seen in Israel, and that he had done all things Mark 7.37.Well.
But Pilate seeing their Pride, and that they intended not to make him Judge of the cause, but Executioner of their Cruelty, and being by Nature of a [...]. rough and high temper, says, John 18.31. Take him and Judge him according to your Law. If he be a Malefactor as you alledge, and I may not examine him, nor hear proof against him, take him, and judge him according to your customs which admit of Condemnation without Tryal. For the Acts 25.16. Roman Law prohibits me to deliver any man to die, before he have his accusers face to face, and have license to answer for himself concerning the crime laid against him. And indeed so [Page 135]did the Law of Moses too (that it seem not to come behind the Roman) according to that of Nicodemus a Ruler of the Jews, John 7.31does our Law judge any Man before it hear him, and know what he does? but as they had bely'd the nature of their Judicature, so do they upon this their power of Execution, when they saw he would not be guided by an implicit Faith, saying, John 18.31. It is not lawful for us to put any man to Death.
Why who afterwards put to Death the Protomarty Acts 7.58. Stephen, and having ston'd Acts 14.19. Paul, drew him out of the City supposing he had been dead, and once took up stones to stone John 10.31Christ; if to these it was not lawful to put any man to death? But because Crucisixion was the more Painful and Shameful, and the vid. Sect. 22. Scriptures had signified it, and Christ Matt. 26.2. John 8.28. foretold it, which was not in their power as stoning was, and they were desirous to have him suffer under their Enemies, hoping to clear themselves by his disgrace and torture, they conceal their Power, to have him Crucified, and are permitted to bring the designs of Providence to pass.
Seeing therefore that Pilate would have nothing to do in the matter, without the Allegation of some Crime; [Page 136] They begin to accuse him Luke 23.2.for perverting the nation, forbidding to give Tribute to Cesar, and for saying that he himself was Christ a King. As if he had broken the Divine Law by seducing the People from the Service of God, who came to Matt. 5.17. fulfil it, and to do the John 6.38. Will of his Father: As if he had transgressed all humane Constitutions in conspiring against the Emperor, who hid himself from them, when they would have taken him by force, and made him a John 6.15. King to head their Rebellions: as if he had trampled under the Law of Nature, in denying to pay Tribute to his Imperial Majesty, who had taught 'em to Matt. 22.21. render to Cesar the things that are Cesar's, as well as unto God the things that are God's.
Nevertheless since about the time of our Saviour's Incarnation, the Jews had (according to the Prophet Daniel's Dan. 9.24, 25, 26. Chronology) expected the revelation of the Messiah in the World, to restore their Nation to its pristine Liberty, and thence took occasion to raise several seditions against the Roman Government, under Acts 5.36. Theudas, Acts 5.37.Judas the Galilean, and a certain a Egyptian Prophet; Pilate suppos'd by their accusation that he might be of that [Page 137]stamp, and understanding nothing as yet of his Spiritual Kingdom, returned into the Hall, and call'd Jesus, and said unto him, John 1 Art thou the King of the Jews?
To which the Prince of Sufferings most prudently answer'd, as neither denying nor affirming it, (for had he confest, he had immediately been condemned as an offender against the Cosarean power) John 18.34. Sayest thou this thing of thy self, or did others tell it thee of me? Which words may be understood either by way of Admiration, as, how great a thing is this that thou hast spoken, thô thou art ignorant of the true meaning? And whence hast thou this, that thou callest me a King? For none can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Power of the 1 Cor. 12.3.Holy Ghost: Or as a Reprehension to the Conscience of Pilate, who if he accus'd him out of his own suspition, did not act the part of a Righteous Judge; and if others had inform'd him, they ought to have been call'd to prove it. But chiefly this was spoken to give occasion to Pilate to clear him as to his own knowledge, and to bear testimono to his Innocence, saying, John 18.35. Am I a Jew? Thine own nation, and the Chief Priests have delivered thee unto me: What [Page 138]hast thou done? It is the Jews that persecute thee, and rail on thee as an Egregious Malefactor. I am a stranger to your superstitions, have neither seized thee nor accused thee. What hast thou done? Speak thy self. Say for what reason thy own Prelates, and thy whole Nation are thus inveterately provok'd against thee?
Jesus would not answer to these last words since he had done 1 Pet. 2.22.no sin, neither had guile been found in his mouth, and the people had often Mark 7.37. confest he had done all things well: But as to the former question of his being a King, he distinguishes his Kingdom from that of the World, to show that he had never offended Cesar, which was the odious crime they would fix upon him. John 18.36. My Kingdom is not of this World. If my Kingdom were of this World, then would my Servants fight that I should not be deliver'd to the Jews; but now is my Kingdom not from hence. As if he had said, I confess I am a King, but understand then aright in what sense I am such. I never ambitioned gaudy Pomps, nor have I design'd Glorious Ills. I never attempted any thing against the Government, nor have I diminished Tiberius's or thy Power. I govern only the mind not [Page 139]the Body, and my Commands are Spiritual and not Temporal, my Kingdom of God and not of Man. The World is too much the shadow of a Trifle in the sight of an Enlightned Understanding to raise in a good Man any esteem or Love, when he considers himself to be Dust, and the Son of Corruption, Born to Day and may Die to Morrow; and 1 John 2.17.all that is in it, the Lust of the Flesh, and the Lust of the Eyes, and the Pride of Life, are not of the Father whose will I reveal. My Command to my Followers is to fight against it, by despising and trampling it under their feet. I teach Meekness and Subjection towards Men, and an intire resignation to God; and as the way to temporal Tranquility and the Eternal Beatitude of the Soul, to believe what God reveals, to obey what he Commands, to trust in his promises, and attend his decrees and the leisure of Heaven. Nor are any of these things administred after the same manner as Worldly Kingdoms are encreased by the force of material arms, but by the Eph. 6.17.sword of the the Spirit, which is the word of God; and all the Revenues here aim'd at, are not the inestimable spoil of Provinces, but Rom. 14.17. Righteousness, and Peace, and Joy in the Holy Ghost.
As a proof of all this, I my self am lowly, my Disciples Poor, my Equipage Despicable, according to that of the Prophet, Zec. 9.9. Rejoyce greatly O Daughter of Zion; shout, O Daughter of Jerusalem; behold thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having Salvation, Lowly, and riding upon an Ass, and upon a colt the foal of an Ass. Had it bin otherwise my Servants would have fought for me, and I should have gather'd Councellors instead of Disciples, and Souldiers and Armys to have endeavour'd my rescue, and implor'd the Angels to preserve me from violence, yea mine own Arm and my right Hand should have gotten me the Victory over all my Enemies. But whoever saw me at the head of an outrage, who, instead of strong holds and Castles to secure me, never had as yet where to Mart. 8.20. lay my head? Or when did any of mine take up arms against the Government, whom I Mark 6.8.sent forth without Gold, or Silver, or Brass in their purses, without Scrip for their journey, in a single coat, without shoes or staves? And when the Jews sent to take me, and the Officers stood affrighted and ready to surrender themselves, I John 18.5. offer'd my self, I made my self their Prisoner, and by such willing resignation am brought here.
I have no Treasures to oppose an Empire, which has an hundred and fifty Millions of Revenue; nor is there any wealth that I pretend to, but Poverty of Spirit, the true Riches of the Soul. You have Five hundred Thousand Men in pay for ten years, to maintain one Army upon the Nile, another in Euphrates, another on the Rhine, another on the Ocean, and one in the Bowels of the Empire: All that I have levied for the execution of my design, are but Twelve poor Seafaring Men, without Discipline, without Arms. You have a Thousand renowned Orators, Men of great Learning and Eminent Eloquence, who by the Charms of their flowing Tongues can attract the People, and dispose them to their wills: I have none but simple Ignorant Followers, that are ready to offer the Matt. 5.39. left cheek to him that smiteth them on the right, and to give their verse 40. cloak to him that taketh away their Coat, to verse 44. love their Enemies, to bless them that curse them, to do good to those that hate them, to pray for those who despitefully use, and persecute them. And can you believe these probable grounds, on which may be raised the Superstructure of an Empire; or that I aspire to Soveraignty by Sufferings, [Page 142]to Riches by Poverty, to Greatness by Humility, and to Dethrone Cesar by preaching the Cross:
Pilate tho' convinc'd, and almost freed from all suspition by the unlikeliness of Christ's Temporal Dominion, nevertheless sticks at the name of a King. A King he confest himself, and of what nature soever, the Title clash'd with the Imperial Dignity. He therefore urges him a second time, saying, John 18.37. 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 should bear witness unto the Truth. Every one that is of the Truth heareth my voice. I repent not, nor am ashamed of my Celestial and Spiritual Kingdom, and would have all Men know it, and even Cesar himself. For the good of Mankind depends wholy upon it, since I govern over the Heart, to infuse Grace and Truth, and the Word which is the Power of God to Salvation: That I may give Righteousness for Sin, Life for Death, Joy for Sufferings, Heaven for Hell. These are the chief feudal Rights of my Crown. This is the Scepter of my Kingdom, and this no ways undermines Cesar's. Cesar can never be unwilling that his Subjects should become [Page 143]Virtuous, nor will it be any detriment to his Arms to have his Soldiers live Soberly and justly, and his people Conscientiously and Obediently. The very name of Truth is Amiable, and the most Barbarous Nations have a reverence for it.
Prayer.
O God Eternal and Heavenly Father, who wouldst draw us from Temporal and Earthly things, which pass away or shall be consumed with Fire, to the Love of Celestial and Spiritual Joys to be possest by an everlasting & undefiled Inheritance; and teachest us it ist he highest piece of Wisdom, by despising the the World to arrive at Heaven; Grant me a true sense of the Vanity of the Creature, which whosoever cleaveth to, shall also become vain himself; and of all Worldly pleasures which whosoever seeketh will become mutable as they; That I may only admire the excellency of thy Spiritual power raising my Affections above the Earth, and that seeking for true Riches in thee alone, when I shall go out of this World Naked and Poor, I may find a Treasury in the Repositories of thy Bounty, which thou hast laid up for them that serve thee.
SECT. XXIV Of Pilate's first Declaration of Christ's Innocence.
AS Acts 24.25. Felix trembled when he heard the Apostle reasoning of Righteousness, Temperance, and Judgment to come; So Pilate taken with the Excellent notion of Truth, either out of Admiration or Contempt of Jesus, saith unto him, John 18.38. What is Truth? as desirous to know what he had further to say, or rebuking him for pretending to be more knowing then the Chief Priests, and the expositors of the Jewish Law, who had deliver'd him for an Impostor and Traitor. But being unworthy to be further instructed, who had heard enough already if he would have believed, and because our Saviour would not hinder his passion which was now begun and to be compleated, he receives no answer, and being unable to condemn him for any thing he had already said or done, he goes out again to the impatient Jews, and says unto 'em, John 18.38. I find in him no fault at all.
Pilate, it seems, had more fear of God out of a Natural Notion and common sense of Justice, then the Jewish people had out of the Law and the Prophets. And notwithstanding they were very Rich and Powerful, and he might expect reward or damage from 'em; while Christ on the other side was alone, poor, forsaken of all, and from whom he could neither expect profit nor detriment; ye the stands up for him according to the office of a just Judge who should be free from Avarice and Partiality, and proclaims him faultless as the Matt. 27.3. Betrayer had done.
But the Jews were a people of whom Ezekiel complains, they were Ezek. 3.7. impudent and hard hearted. And when their Reason, Conscience, Witnesses, and and all other endeavours had failed; as a furious multitude without any regard of Shame or Compassion, they grew stronger in clamour and more fierce, Luke 23.5. saying, he stirreth up the People, teaching throughout all Jewry beginning from Galilee, to this place. Can this man be innocent who comes from Galilce, the Joseph. de bello jud. l. 3. c. 4. Nursery of Fierceness and Animosity, where the Rebel Acts 5.37. Judas began his faction so lately, who taught it to be unlawful to pay tribute to strangers, [Page 114]and to Joseph. de bello Jud. l. 2. c. 12. acknowledge Mortal Rulers after God had been their King, and whose Disciples Luke 13.1. Blood thou thy self (when they refused to communicate with us, and would offer part) didst mingle with their Sacrifices? Art thou not yet satisfied what Seditious Fellows these Preaching Galileans are? Is he not sprung from that Man's Principles? Does he not tend to the same end? And is he not more dangerous, by how much his pernicious doctrines have spread themselves throughout all Jewry.
O how deaf is Malice and Envy? How Eternally Insatiable a misguided Zeal? How restless and unwearied in its designs of cruelty, from which the Judge himself is not able to deliver? But how much more detestable in the Chief Priests, the Scribes, and Elders of the People, who ought to be the Examples of the Virtues they teach? Who can but tremble at the gross Stupidity to which they were given over for their Sins, that Matt. 13.3. Isai. 6.9.hearing they should hear and not understand, and seeing they should see and not perceive? Of so little advantage are all other gifts without grace, they are nothing worth; they end in Licentiousness, Pride, and Injustice; and lay us open to the indignation of God, [Page 115]whose great work is to put down the Mighty from their Seats, and to scatter the Proud in the Imagination of their Hearts.
Prayer.
O Gracious Father of Eternal Charity; never let me have that affection of the Desperate and Damned, that it should be ill with me when it is well with others; that I should envy the Prosperity, or traduce the Virtues, or detract from the Merits, or rejoyce at the Affliction, or spitefully upbraid the Infelicities of my Neighbour: But following the beautiful president of Candour shining in all the actions of the Bountiful Jesus, I may joyn in the Holy Communion of Saints, in the measures of Grace and Glory for ever.
SECT. XXV. Of Christ's being brought before Herod, and the Unhappiness of Atheistical Greatness.
NOW Pilate was glad to hear of Luke 23.6. Galilee, for he was desirous to clear himself of this dangerous business, where he saw he must either condemn the Innocent, or displease the whole Nation of the Jews. And forasmuch as Herod was his Luke 23.12. Enemy, and Matt. 14.1. Tetrarch of Galilee where Christ was Matt. 21 11. born in Nazareth, and opportunely at Luke 23.7. Jerusalem, by reason of the Feast, he endeavours to turn him over to him.
And Herod at first as Luke 23.8. Joyfully received him, for he was desirous to see him of a long season, because he had heard many things of him, and hoped to have seen some Miracle done by him. (it was that Herod who had Matt. 14. beheaded John Baptist, the forerunner of Christ, for testifying against his incest) and now out of a vain Curiosity to see Christ and some of his Miracles so much famed abroad, and not for any intention to learn the [Page 149]truth of his Doctrine, he Luke 2 [...]. [...]. questioned with him in many words, to which our Saviour would answer nothing. He judg'd him unworthy so great a satisfaction, who had shed the blood of his Innocent Servant, and knew his crime and yet persever'd in it, and now sought after Vanity and not the Truth. Simplicity in Intention, and Purity in Affection, are the two wings which lift us up from Earth. One intends God, the other apprehends him. But instead of these, there is a Vain levity in the hearts of some great Men, who think their Power, Riches, and Honor so many warrants for Lightness and Infidelity; and that because they are above the Vulgar, they may mock at what is Sacred; rendring their Religion an empty Speculation, and their hearts destitute of saving Practice. They may seek for Miracles, but none shall be given them, but what amazes the rest of the World, their Execation in common Duties, as a punishment of their Insolency and Pride, against so many opportunities as their Riches [...] forded them to minister to the [...] of the Giver. Hereby it come [...] [...] that the greatest [...] have oftimes the [...] [Page 118]Grace of God; and Blood, Spirit, Extraction, and Wealth, are for the most part but a fair Object where misfortune appears with the greatest Deformity. The Sun is wont to make his rarest productions in the most unknown places in the World; and the Spirit of God never works more Miracles, then in the Souls of those Persons, whom the World knows not, or despises.
Unhappy Herod, where are the Priviledges of thy Nobility, and what is the Advantage of thy Birth, so long as thou leadest a wicked Life? In vain it is for thee to hope for any thing from Christ, while thy heart is full of Vanity, Adulteries, and Murthers. Christ will not speak, but where the Conscience hears, and where he finds an Inclination to Truth; nor can he work his Miracles in those Regions, where infidelity Matt. 13.58. binds his hands. He would answer to Pilate who had respect for Truth, and in whom he found some inclinations to Justice; but not to thee, whose Levity, Profaneness, and continually repeated Crimes, have rendred unworhty of the Favours of Heaven.
Prayer
O! thou high and lofty one, that inhabitest Eternity, who dwellest in the High and Holy Place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble Spirit; Suppress in thy Servant all proud Thoughts, vain Desires, and wanton Curiosities; and keep my Soul in an humble frame; that I may be ready to learn, not to dispute the Mysteries which thou, a God of Truth and Goodness, hast revealed. Enlighten my Blindness; quicken my Dullness; support my Frailties; disperse my Passions; free me from Prejudices, which hinder my sinful Nature from ascending to thee, and thy Holy Spirit from descending on my Soul.
SECT. XXVI. Of the Indignity done to Christ by Herod and his Officers.
BUT while the Lamb of God is silent, his malicious Prosecutors grow louder and louder. The Luk. 23.10.Chief Priests and the Scribes stood and vehemently accused him. They could bring no [Page 118] [...] [Page 119] [...] [Page 152]other Pretence of Crimes, than what they had done before Pilate; but hoping to prevail with Herod by Importunity, they repeat and aggravate them with incessant Noise. And Herod, according to his natural Levity, (the Type of such as jest at sacred things) a ridiculous Soul, feeble and languishing in the Relishes of God, asks nothing Seriously, but only derides and makes sport with him, chiefly because of his Title of a King, which he thought did only properly belong to Act. 12.1. himself.
And An evil Prince (saith Solomon) has Evil Ministers. As did Herod, so did his Men Luk. 23.11. of War. They lookt upon Christ as impotent and despicable, because he would work no Miracle before them; and as a Fool, that he would not answer nor defend himself against their railing Accusations: And therefore put upon him a [...]. Luk. 23.11. white Garment, to signifie that he had arrogated Greatness among the People, (for such the Jam. 2.2. [...]. Nobility of the Jews wore) that all who saw him might take notice of him, Luk. 23.10. and ask, What Fool that was, and whither they were carrying him, and what were the Reasons of his Disgrace, and thereby draw upon him an universal Contempt. In this opprobrious [Page 153]manner (as they thought) but indeed the Symbol of his Purity and Innocence, they sent him * back again to Pilate.
We read he was once weary in his Journey, being subject to the Infirmities of our Nature he had Heb. 2.16. assumed, and was forced to John 4.6. rest himself upon Jacob's Well: And how much more now must he needs be tired, being thus harass'd and afflicted, without Intermission of Travel and Shame? He had been forc'd out of the Garden to Annas's House, thence to Caiaphas, and there tormented all night; early in the morning hurried again to the Council, from thence to Pilate, from him to Herod, there mockt and set at nought, and now dragg'd back again in a ludibrious Vesture.
But had we not sinn'd, he had not thus suffer'd; or had he been Guilty, they had been less enraged. But because he was unlike them, they hated to see him, and fearing his escape, were more vehemently enflam'd.
Nevertheless all this was designed by Providence, that Christ being tried before so many Judges, might clearly manifest his Innocence to the World; and that passing through all sorts of Affronts [Page 122]and Scorns, he might Sanctifie our Tribulations, and teach us to endure and suffer our selves to be despised in a Religious Cause; and when it happens otherwise, to remember our dearest Lord for a President of bearing it with admirable Simplicity and Equanimity of Deportment.
Prayer.
O suffering Jesu! thou Doctor of Patience, with humble Sighs I implore thy Grace, to furnish me with the same Meekness of Spirit; that I may renounce my Will, and bear with Evil, which cannot be avoided in this miserable World. Let not the Scoffs of Atheistical and Vain Persons move me any otherwise than to pity and pray for them; nor any Disgrace or Persecution cast me down while I suffer with a clear Conscience. For why should I refuse to endure with Patience Injuries so small in respect of those which thou hast willingly undergone for me; or be loth to be conformable to thy sorrowful Image, who hope to be assimulated to thy Glorious Likeness? The Sufferings of this Life are not worthy to be compared with the Consolation thou sendest here, much less with the eternal Happiness thou promisest hereafter: Only do thou draw me, and make me able to [Page 123]follow thee, (for the Flesh is weak) and I will submit my head to be crowned with Thorns, being fully persuaded thou wilt at last adorn me with a Caelestial Diadem of Glory.
SECT. XXVII. Of Pilate's second Declaration of Christ's Innocence.
PIlate seeing nothing found in him worthy of Death by Herod, who was best skill'd in the Jewish Mysteries, had a clearer sense of Christ's Innocence, and of the Malice of his Accusers, than before, and grew more desirous to free him, being sent back. Insomuch that having call'd together the Chief Priests and Rulers, he said unto them, Luk. 23.14, 15, 16. Ye have brought this Man unto me, as one that perverteth the People: and behold, I having examined him before you, have found no fault in him, touching the things whereof you 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.
A great deal of stir here has been about this Man, and ye have been instant with me to condemn him, but have brought no Accusation that amounts to it: and the Roman Tables have given me no Permission to put to Death an uncondemned Person, or to condemn an innocent Man. Herod has look'd upon him as more ridiculous than dangerous; and I can find no fault in him. Nevertheless that ye may not seem thus to have used him, and to have made all this Noise about nothing, this I will do, I will order him to be chastised after our manner to Malefactors, and so release him, and clear our selves of him.
This is again the second Testimony Pilate bears to the Innocence of the Holy Jesus: And if his Innocence, without his Passion had been sufficient to have satisfied his Father's Anger, incensed against the Sins of Mankind, the Jews had acquiesced, as well as the Gentiles, in the Judgments of Herod and Pontius Pilate, and Christ had been no further persecuted to Death. But God would be pacified in the Nature which had offended; and the Jews were permitted to encrease in their Wickedness, to bring to pass the Redemption of the World. They accuse him Mat. 27.13. afresh, laying many [Page 157]things to his Charge; and are so much more vehement, by how much he appears less Guilty, and they are afraid he may be releas'd.
The Governour in the mean time is surpriz'd with wonder at the unaccountable Malice of his Prosecutors, and his admirable Patience against their Railing Accusations, and Contempt of Death, proportionable to his Innocence ( Mat. 27.14. for he answered to never a word of all their Blasphemies) having never before met with any Prisoner who would not use all means to defend himself, or desire Pardon and Deliverance.
But thus he has taught us to lay our hands upon our Mouths, when we suffer for Righteousness sake, and to yield an absolute Submission to God's Will, which thinks fit to humble us by Injuries and Defamation; That, believing in him as the Trier and Judge of hearts, we may know he will in due time suppress our Persecutors, and exalt us in this or a better Life.
Prayer.
And blessed be God the Father of all Comfort, in whom while we trust, we have sufficient Confidence to bear up against the Malice [Page 126]of our worst Enemies, and to lift up our Heads to the Recompence of Reward, which those enjoyRev. 7.14.who came out of great Tribulation, and have made their Robes white in the Blood of the Lamb.
SECT. XXVIII. Of Pilate's third Declaration of Christ's Innocence, and of the Scourging of his Body.
NOW there was a Mat. 27.15. Custom at the Feast of the Passover, in memory of their Deliverance out of Egypt, for the Governour to release a Prisoner to the People, whomsoever they desir'd: And when the Multitude crying aloud began to desire him to do as he had ever done unto them, Pilate was in hopes to prevail by this occasion to set him free, by making it a Favour from them to Jesus, and an Indulgence from him to their Nation. And the more to induce 'em to it by a fair Opportunity, he proposes the Choice only between the innocent Jesus, whom he had twice declared such, and a most notorious Villain call'd Barabbas, who, [Page 127] Luk. 23.19. for a certain Sedition made in the City, and for Murder, was cast into Prison; Mat. 27.17. saying. Whom will ye that I release unto you, Barabbas, or Jesus, which is called Christ?
But insatiable was the Malice of the Chief Priests and Elders, who Mat. 27.29. persuaded the Multitude that they should ask Barabbas; and so great the Execution of the whole Nation, that they all Luk. 23.17. cried out at once, Away with this Man, and release unto us Barabbas.
What was this, but to say, Destroy the Innocent, and give unto us a Traitor and a Thief; Away with the Prince of Peace and universal Charity, and leave unto us the Author of Sedition: Put him to Death who has rais'd up the Dead before us, and give unto us a known Murderer. And indeed, as they desir'd, it has been justly granted 'em. They chose a Robber, and were given up to Plunder: They preferr'd a Murderer, and were devour'd of the Sword: They begg'd the Seditious, and were massacred by one another: (their Misery, during the Siege under Titus, being greater from themselves within the Walls, than from their Enemies without.) They rejected their Saviour, and found none to deliver 'em, [Page 160]but were broken to pieces with the Severities of God's Wrath.
Pilate seeing their Obstinacy and Injustice in the Choice, and Luk. 17.20. endeavouring all he can to release Jesus, says unto 'em again, Mat. 27.22. What shall I do then with Jesus, which is called Christ? If you will have me give you Barabbas the Murderer, what will you have me do with the innocent Jesus? With what Justice can I condemn the Guiltless, when I shall have freed an egregious Malefactor? In desiring Barabbas to be releast, you desire, or rather force me to release Jesus. What is it therefore that you would have me do with him?
But these were the wicked Husbandmen, of whom our Saviour had Mat. 31.38. foretold, they should combine to destroy the Heir of the Isal. 5.7. Vineyard of God; and of whom the Prophets said, Psal. 140.3. They had placed the Poyson of Serpents upon their Lips. Isai. 5.7.I expected Justice, and behold a cry Jer. 12.8.My Heritage is unto me as a Lion in the forest, it crieth out against me, and therefore have I hated it. For thus in the height of their wicked Imprecations they furiously persecute Christ to his Cross, crying out the more, Mat. 27.22, 23. Let him be crucified, let him be crucified.
Why, Mat. 27.23. saith the Governour, what evil hath he done? and a Exod. 13.21. third time declares, I have found no cause of Death in him: I will therefore chastise him, and let him go. When he saw the implacable Rage of the Jews, neither to be restrained by force nor persuasion, he hop'd a lesser Draught of his Blood might stop the Fury and Rapidness of their Passion; and that by exposing his Body to Scourges (the Roman Usage to Malefactors) he might avoid the greater Evil of condemning him to Death; and that when the Jews should see him so tormented, they would relent in Pity, and their Cruelty abate.
Thus he who cloaths all, was despoiled of his Garments, and confounded before the People, who covers our Confusion; and bound to a Pillar, who went before them by day in a Exod. 13.21. Pillar of a Cloud, to lead [...]em the way, and by night in a Pillar of Fire to give them light, to go by day and night that they might escape their Enemies; and his Body, which was the most sacred Temple of the Deity, torn with vehement Stripes from unrelenting Hands, till the Pavement was purpled with a Shower of holy Blood; and his Person, more beautiful than the Sons of Men, wholly [Page 162]deform'd, and hardly to be known; according to what himself had Mark 10.34. Luke 18.33. foretold of his being deliver'd to the Gentiles to be scourg'd; and the Isai. 53.5. Prophesie of Isaiah, long before his Incarnation, He was wounded for our Transgressions, he was bruised for our Iniquities, the Chastisement of our Peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. For if Christ had not sustain'd for us this Denudation and Confusion, we could never have been cloathed with the Garment of his Righteousness, or been able to have appear'd unblameable before God's Justice Seat in Heaven.
Behold therefore, O! my Soul, with devout Meditation, this Portion of the Sufferings of thy wounded Jesus, which was the Wonder and Astonishment of Heaven and Earth. Behold with what profound Humility and Silence the great Lord of the World condescends to undergo the Punishment of Slaves. Behold with what a sweet Patience this innocent Lamb yields to have his Body plow'd and furrow'd by merciless Infidels. Behold him naked, helpless and unpitied, whilst the furious Executioner tears his Skin and tender Flesh with forked Scourges, to satisfie the Cruelty of a barbarous Multitude.
Prayer.
Grant me, O my God, who hast laid such Severities upon thy only and beloved Son, that I may never think any Austerity, Mortification, or Pennance, too much to be undergone for that great Guilt which I have contracted by my Sins; and for which it was necessary my Redeemer should thus be punished. And whatsoever shall be wanting in my Sufferings for the Iniquities I have committed, heal with the Stripes of this bruised Love, who came to shed his Blood a Ransom for the World: That owing the Cure and Salvation of my Soul to such an inestimable Remedy as that, I may for ever Praise thee for thy incomparable Mercy.
SECT. XXIX. Of the Injuries done to Christ by the Roman Soldiers.
AFter this, the Soldiers, who, because of the frequent Seditions and Tumults of that Nation, were quartered at Jerusalem, and now especially call'd together to curb the prodigious Concourse at the Feast; hoping, by an extraordinary and cruel Officiousness, to receive a liberal Reward from the Jews, whom they saw so inveterately set against him; take him, and use him in that inhumane manner, we should hardly believe, were it not faithfully Recorded. They strip him, and put on him a Mat. 27.28. Scarlet or John 19.2. Purple Robe, such as their Commanders used to wear, jeering him by this, as Herod had done by the white; and when they had platted a Mat. 27.29, 30. Crown of Thorns, in stead of a Royal Diadem, they put it on his Head; and a Reed in his Right Hand, for a Scepter: All to signifie he had made himself a King; but that his Kingdom was as weak and vain, [Page 165]as those Ridiculous Emblems of his Royalty. And they bow the Knee before him, with a contumelious Address, and mock him with a reproachful Salutation, saying, Hail, King of the Jews. And then they spit upon him, and strike him with Mat. 27.30. Reeds, and their Joh. 19.3. Hands upon his Head, pressing his Temples with a thousand Punctures; and forcing the Blood under the Crown of Thorns to descend upon his Cheeks, and mix with his Tears and the loathsome Spittle of the People, till he became truly what the Prophet had describ'd him Isai. 53.2. Without form or comeliness, and to those that saw him, there was no Beauty, that they should desire him.
Prayer.
Whither, O whither, Thou great Martyr of Love, shall thy Humility descend, thy Piety proceed, thy Compassion extend? I have been proud, and thou art humbled; I have been wicked, and thou art punished: I that am a lost Man have been the Cause of all thy Weaknesses and Afflictions. It is thy Love and my Iniquity which has brought thee thus low. Teach me, I beseech-thee, to apprehend the Baseness of my [Page 166]Sin in proportion to the Calamities thou hast suffered for me; that I may hate the Cause of thy Sufferings, adore thy Mercy, and imitate thy Graces. For, Lord, what is thy Servant, that thou should'st suffer one Stripe, or the least Irrision, for so poor a Creature? And how great a Misery must it be, to provoke by Sin so great a Mercy as thou hast reveal'd? But thy Love is infinite, and I am Dust and Ashes. Let thy Holy Spirit support and sanctifie me, and suffer thy self to become the Object of my present Dolours, that thou mayst hereafter be the Fountain of my everlasting Joy.
SECT. XXX. Of Pilate's fourth Declaration of Christ's Innocence.
OUR Saviour thus Isal. 53.3. despised and rejected of Men, bearing our Griefs, and carrying our Sorrows, Pilate thought it impossible to behold him without Pity, and once more brings him forth to shew him to the People; hoping so sad and miserable a Spectacle would not only draw Tears from the Eyes of the Beholders, but even [Page 167]Showers of Blood from their Hearts; and a fourth time publickly declares him innocent, and that he ought no further to proceed against him, Joh. 19.4, 5. saying, Behold I bring him forth unto you, that ye may know 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.
Let it suffice, O ye Jews, for this Man's Punishment, that he is thus miserably and opprobriously afflicted: All which has been done to him, more out of Necessity, than for any Offence made out against him; since after all our dealings with him, I must confess him innocent, and that I have found no fault in him.
Behold the Man, whether he be now like a Man, and much less a King, for which you have so violently accus'd him. Behold his Robe, is it not of Mockery? Behold his Scepter, is it not a Reed? Behold his Face, is there any thing there which may induce the People to run after him and admire him. Behold the Man in every part, and you will find him so much less than a Man, by how much he has suffer'd all these Indignities and an irreparable [Page 168]Disgrace among Men; That truly he is now the Object of our Pity, and Humanity requires us to sympathize with his Miseries, which are but so many Instances of our own Mutability, and silent Appeals to Mercy. Let it suffice therefore, and let us dismiss him. If you have envy'd him the Title of a King, you see it has sufficiently dejected him, and brought him to shame, to a ludibrious Vesture, a Crown of Thorns, painful Stripes, odious Spittle, and the Contempt of the whole Nation.
But, alas! there are some implacable Spirits in the World, which seem to partake of the Nature of Devils, and cannot be overcome either by Mildness or Force, but grow more obstinate, when excited to Pity. When the Chief Priests and Officers saw Jesus in this Condition, those very Motives which melted Pilate, serv'd only as Incentives to their farther Rage. Invidious Malice is a poysoned Gall, the Root of Vices, the Father of Murders, and the Mother of Death. It is the Rage of the Devil, and the very Soul and Spirit of Apostate Nature, neither to be pacified with Kindness, nor satisfied with Cruelty. Little Portions of Revenge do but inflame [Page 169]it, and serve to flesh it up to a fiercer Violence. Vexed that they had not yet done their Work, they fall afresh upon the poor Remainders of his Life. And they cried out, saying, John 19.6. Crucifie him, Crucifie him. It is not enough to us to see the Blood of his Face, but we must have that of his Heart too. We are not satisfied to behold him miserable, but we must see him dying on the Cross. Thou hast well done in Scourging him, now Crucifie him: Thou hast shewn him to us wounded, but we must see him dead.
Prayer.
Ah! my dear Maker, thou Father of Mercies, whence come these Thoughts into the Heart of Man, whom at first thou madest after thine own Image? And why are we given up to the Instigations of Satan, the Father of Lyes and Original of Murder; but because we have wickedly departed from thee, and done Despite to thy Spirit of Grace? O, give us Mildness and Bowels of Compassion one towards another, especially towards the Afflicted, considering our selves Fellow Subjects in the same Misfortunes: That in the last day, when we must answer for what we have done, and our own Mercy shall be [Page 170]theMat. 25.35.Measure of our Judgment, thy Mercy may rejoyce over thy Justice, and we may be received into the Joy of our Gracious Lord.
SECT. XXXI. Of Pilate's fifth Declaration of Christ's Innocence.
PIlate astonish'd at their Inhumanity and Obstinacy, and no longer able to restrain his Indignation, says, John 19.6. Take ye him, and Crucifie him your selves; for I find no fault in him, and desire to have nothing more to do in the matter. And this was the Fifth time he proclaim'd him innocent.
As if he had said, If ye will have him Crucified, Crucifie him your selves, ye blood-thirsty and insatiable Murderers: Shall I, because of your Malice, contrary to all Laws, (by which I am bound to protect) destroy the Innocent? Shall I be accessory to your Murder, terrified thereto by your Clamours? Am I to be an Administrator of Hatred and Envy, and to suppress the Just by my Authority? I will not have my Judgment Seat, nor the Roman Empire, stain'd with the Blood of a guiltless Man. I [Page 171]have too far condescended to pleasure you already, by scourging this poor innocent Person; and if after all he must dye, take ye him and murder him, since your Religion permits it, and with you it is a Capital Crime to be innocent. I have no Law for it, and will be clear of this Injustice.
A Spectacle worthy of the Presence of The Almighty; to see a Magistrate ardent in Zeal for the Defence of the Innocent and Just, and to bend all his Endeavours and Force of Courage to strengthen his Arm against the Torrent of Iniquity, to put off peculiar Interests, and to defend the Truth. It is this which makes Government easie, and the People to rejoyce under it, while wicked Justicers make sad the World.
Surely they had blusht at this Righteousness of the Heathen, if they had had the least sense left of Goodness or Religion; but resolv'd he should never escape out of their hands, they begin to start a new Accusation. The Jews John 19.7. answered, We have a Law, and by our Law he ought to dye, because he made himself the Son of God. Before, they had said, it was not lawful for 'em to put any Man to Death, but now they have a Law rather than he shall escape, and [Page 172]whatever the Law be, they will make him Guilty of it; which, according to their Accusation, we may suppose was that of Lev. 24.16. Blasphemy, or against Deut. 18.20. false Prophets, for seducing the People by a pretended Revelation.
Now though the numerous Controversies of the Jews did not concern the Roman Governours; nor were they moved with the frequent Quarrels arising from the Disputes of different Sects; nevertheless, when Pilate, who believ'd the Descent of the Gods, heard that Saying, whereby they accused him for making himself the Son of God, he was the more John 19.8. afraid, and knew not what to determine. He had heard of his Miracles, and was sensible of his Innocency, and wonderfully taken with his admirable Constancy and Patience shining throughout his Sufferings; and rationally concluded, if he were some venerable God, (which all his Actions seemed to declare) it were unpardonable in him, to give Sentence against him; and therefore he goes again into the Judgment Hall, and saith unto Jesus, John 19.9. Whence art thou?
But Jesus gave him no Answer in so great a Mystery, who against the perfect knowledge of his Innocence, had [Page 173]ordered him to be scourged, contrary to Justice: And this is that Silence, of which the Prophet speaks, Isai. 53.7. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he was brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. Nor needed he any Defence in respect of himself; for a good Conscience needs no Apologie, and fears neither the Rage of Men nor Devils. The Gladness of the Just is of God, and in God, and their Joy is of the Truth alone. He that seeketh no Witness for himself without, does show he has wholly committed himself to God, is of great Purity and inward Confidence: And they who can so divest themselves from all outward Affection, are blessed in their Imitation of the Son of God.
But this was a Virtue unusual to Pilate, at whose Tribunal every Prisoner had ever been ready to make his best Defence, and to elude the Accusations of his Adversaries; which caus'd him to admire it more than all the Eloquence of the World: And therefore he said to Jesus, Speakest thou not unto me? knowest thou not that I have power to crucifie thee, and have power to release thee? Where behold the Errour of [Page 174]Power and violent Fortune, being advanc'd into the Seat of Authority. The wicked Magistrate is puft up with his Commission, and makes it the Security of his Injustice; and begins to think his Power unlimited as his Will; and resolves to do any thing, because he may do something.
Hear therefore the Answer of the Holy Jesus, you who hold the Ballance of Justice in your hands, and with whom God has intrusted the most dreadful of all his Attributes: For in teaching you whence you have it, he teaches you how to administer it. It is God's Power, and must be justly executed. Jesus John 19.11.answered, Thou couldst have no Power against me, except it were given thee from above. Mistaken Man, from Dust thou art, and to Dust shalt thou return. I have said, Ye all are Gods, but ye shall Psal. 82.6, 7.dye like Men. Sin and Infirmity are of Man, but Righteousness and Power are of the Almighty. Pilate, thy Sufficiency is from Heaven; and Heaven never intended to oppress the Innocent; that must be the Product of thy great Imperfection: And thy Sentencing me to Death, whom thou hast so often declar'd Faultless, will shew thy Weakness and Pusilanimity. For [Page 175]if thou regardest the Power given thee of God, to be executed among Men, thou shouldst necessarily set me at Liberty; because the Power from above is just. Thou questionest me for being the Son of God: And neither all this Band, nor all these Jews, could be able to take one hair of my head, unless the Will of my Father had decreed me to suffer. Thy Power over me is neither from Caesar, nor from these, who by their Clamour seem to strengthen thee; but from the eternal Majesty, who is over all. It is he who has said, I will Zech. 13.7. Mat. 26.31.smite the Shepherd: And unless he witheld my Right Hand, and led me with his Counsel to this purpose; with mine own Arm I should get my self the Victory, and neither suffer for, nor by the Creatures. Since therefore I am deliver'd to thee, (for my Father has deliver'd me) 'tis by Divine Permission, and not of thy Power. Nor is it indeed true Power which thou wouldst exercise over the Innocent; but Tyranny, Oppression, and Murder. If therefore thou art permitted to abuse thy Power, yet hast thou not whereof to boast, but much to answer for before the Judge of all Men, Nevertheless, he that deliver'd me to thee has the [Page 176] John 19.11. greater Sin. Judas and the Jews have sinned more than thee: For they have maliciously and falsly accused me, but thou hast often declared me innocent. What they have done, they have done out of Envy to God's Glo [...]y; thou only actest out of Fear of them. They have despised the Law they have received, and all the Prophecies which have testified of my coming; but thou art ignorant of the Law and the Prophets. Thou art misled by their Clamour and Importunity; but they have hardned themselves in Sin. A false Witness is of the Father of Lyes, who is the Accuser of the Brethren, and watches continually to betray and calumniate the Servants of God. And by how much the more a Vice partakes of his Nature, by so much the more it becomes a Vice: In which sense the Sin of this People equals that, from whence, by singularity of Derivation, the Devil has his Denomination of an Rev. 12.10. Accuser. A Judge may proceed wrongfully by Misinformation, and his Ignorance become a Plea for his Injustice: But a false Witness shall not be Prov. 19.5.unpunished, and he that speaketh Lyes shall not escape.
Prayer.
O Judge Eternal! who art the very Truth, and from whose Presence there is nothing hid; Grant me, I beseech thee, both in Judgment and Testimony, an awful Reverence of thy impartial Justice; That if I judge, it may be according to Right; if I bear Witness, I may do it sincerely, in the Uprightness of my Heart: For none but theu Pure in Heart shall behold thy Face in Glory, which * consummates the Beatitude of thine Elect.
SECT. XXXII. Of Pilate's sixth Declaration of Christ's Innocence, his giving Sentence against him at the Importunity of the Jews, and the Miseries which ensued thereupon to their Nation.
PIlate thô a Heathen had learn'd from the Creatures the Eternal Power and Godhead of the Deity, and had a lively sense of Sin, and would not willingly offend his Maker, from whose Goodness he could not but own his Greatness, and thenceforth John 19.12. sought to release Jesus. And therefore we may not wonder if our Saviour hath taught us, that such a probity shall rise up in Judgment against the sinning Israelites, and all prophane Christians; for the clearer the means of Knowledge, the the greater the guilt of Obstinacy; and the more unavoidable, and just the Condemnation.
But when the Jews saw that he feared God, and that he would not pass Sentence of Death upon him, for making himself his Son, they immediately [Page 179]flew back to their former calumny, crying out, and John 19.12. saying, If thou let this man go, thou art not Cesar's friend: Whosoever maketh himself a King, speaketh against Cesar. So that if it concern thee not, that he has Blasphemed our God, the Infinite and Eternal Majesty of Heaven; yet surely it will concern thee, that he is a Rebel to thy Lord. Thou canst not preserve the Imperial Dignity, under which thou presidest, if thou releasest the affector of it; and in favouring the Enemy, thou wilt partak ein his crime.
What will not Jealousie of State do? What will not Tyranny, when Seconded by evil Ministers, who blow the Coals to devour an Innocent? What a horrible Monster is a pusillanimous Judge, over-born with Interest, Fear, or Guilt? Pilate was unable to sustain this charge, foreseeing they would as Maliciously represent him to the Emperor, as they had accused Christ to him; and knowing himself guilty of many insolencies and Rapines (for he had Philo. de legat. ad Cajum. seized on the Corban or Sacred Treasury, and spent it upon an Aqueduct in the City; nor could all their Petitions divert his Intentions, but his Resolutions went through theira Blood, [Page 180]to bring in the Water,) he thought by this act to Mark 15.15. content the people, if he consented at last that it should be as they required.
Nevertheless having again John 19.13. brought forth Jesus and himself being seated in the Judgment Hall, upon a high place or Tribunal made of fair [...]. lapidarium. stone curiously wrought, and for the eminence of it call'd in the Chaldean Tongue John 19.13. Gabbatha, he tries once more before Sentence, if by any means he might disswade them from their intended Murther, Saying unto the Jews, John 19.14.behold your King.
As if he had said, behold the man you have brought unto me, and accused under the Title of a King: And what can you farther desire against him? Behold he has been Buffeted, Spit upon, Revil'd, Ridicul'd Scourg'd, and Crowned with Thorns, and thus stands Dejected and Derided before you. Behold this Mock-King: What harm can he do you? What danger do you fear from such a King, who is not able to help himself? if he have call'd himself by that Title, is he not humbled for it, almost to Death? If he desir'd to be, or be thought such a one, is he any other then what the Boys would set up; and [Page 181]so much the worse, by how much he has suffer'd? What do ye decree? Are ye satisfied with his punishment? Will ye release him, and avoid the Evil, his Innocent Blood will bring upon you.
But Malice never wants an evil Tongue. They interrupt him, and without any reason, cry out, John 19.15. Away with him, away with him, crucifie him. Why says Pilate, Ibid.Shall I crucifie your King? This will redound to your perpetual Disgrace, if owning him for your King, you shall desire him to be Crucified. To which The Chief Priests answered, Ibid.we will have no King but Cesar. Why speakest thou so much of a King, as if we desir'd any other then the Emperor; our wishes are to be free from that suspicion, nor will we have this Man, but Tiberius for our Lord.
Alas! Poor humane Nature! How great is the Misfortune, to which thou art subjected in this Life! We never sufficiently know our own good, till we have lost it, and it be too late. We fly from that we should seek, and we seek that we should avoid; and never begin to bewail our losses till they are past recovery. The Jews might have possest an inestimable Treasure by the [Page 182]Presence and Conversation of the Son of God: but choose rather to submit themselves to an intire Slavery under the Romans, who had subdued their Nation, whom they hated; which at last they lamented among unspeakable griefs, being cast into the gulf of unavoidable mischiefs, by the Fury of Joseph de bello jud. Vespasian and Titus.
While these things were acting at the Judgment Seat, Lucius Dexter Chro. 10. Ann. Chr. 34. Claudia Procula the Wife of Pilate (whether she were in part converted to Christianity; or that it were by the permission of God, for the farther confirmation of Christ's Innocence, against all the Malicious accusations of the Jews; or whether it were from the Devil, to hinder, if it were possible, the passion of Christ, whereby he should be subdued) having been troubled much in her thoughts because of this Tryal (for she could not repose, but Jesus was in her sleep; she could not speak, but Jesus was on her Tongue; she could not write but Jesus was under her Pen;) sent to her Husband a speedy Messenger, saying, Matt. 27.19. Have thou nothing to do with that just Man: for I have suffered many things this day in a Dream, because of him.
But neither did this prevail, and the [Page 183] Matt. 27.24. tumult rather increased, by how much more the Innocence of Christ appeared; and Pilate was constrained to an involuntary Sentence, to do as they would have it, tho' against his Conscience; insomuch that having call'd for Water and Matt. 27.24. washt his hands, to signifie in their own Ceremonies he disowned the Act, and transferred the guilt from himself, being the Minister only of the Law, upon them as the Jury, who would find against his Judgment; he a sixth time proclaim'd the Innocence of the Holy Jesus, to the confusion of the Jews and all future unbelievers, saying, Matt. 27.24. I am innocent of the blood of this just person: See ye to it.
Then answered all the People, Matt. 27.25.his blood be upon us, and upon our Children.
A most dreadful imprecation! To wish our selves accursed, that we may fulfil our Malice upon another. And yet how many are there who being embark'd with their Enemies, care not to perish, so that in dying they may glut their Eyes with the Death of those they hate? An Infernal Malignity, meerly Diabolical, and which Aug. l. 2. de Doctr. Christiana. defiles the Devils themselves.
How just was it in God to involve that People and their Posterity in irreparable [Page 184]ruine, according to their own impenitent Desires of Guilt? And yet how sad is it to consider the Mercies they forfeited, and the evils they incurred thereby? For Joseph de belio jud. Hegesippus. Titus Cesar Son of Flavius the Emperor, about eight and thirty years after the Death of our Lord, utterly overthrew Jerusalem to the ground, with the slaughter of Ten Hundred Thousand by Fire and Sword, besides innumerable Numbers that perish'd by Famine and Pestilence. And about Sixty four years after that Destruction by Titus, in the time of Adrianus Aelianus the Emperor, when the Jews rebell'd under Benchocah the Pseudomessiah, there were slain again by the Army of Julius Severus Five hundred thousand of the People, besides what perish'd by Pestilence and Famine. And that there might be a final Extirpation of the ancient City, and the Words of our Saviour be fulfil'd, Matt. 24.2. That there should not be left one stone upon another which shall not be thrown down, he caus'd the ruins and Foundations thereof to be digg'd up, and the Stones to be broken in pieces, and the ground to be left desolate.
Alas, for Israel the chosen of God! Alas, for Jerusalem the Holy City, and the [Page 185]most Beautiful Structure in the World! Alas, for the Temple and Sanctuary of the Lord! How are the people of God become Reprobate, and his own Inheritance Deserted of him, and broken with such tribulation as was Matt. 24.21.not from the begining of the world, to that time, no nor ever shall be?
He drove Back the Waves of the Exod. 14.22. Red Sea, and suffer'd 'em to walk between two Waters, as between two crystal Walls; and why has he drowned 'em in Rivers of Blood, with so horrible a Slaughter, that in the Siege of their City, the Living sufficed not to bury the Dead? He Numb. 20.11. opened the sides of the hard Rocks, to quench their thirst in the barren Wilderness: And why has he dried up the paths of their Women, who saw their little ones die in their arms, themselves unable to moisten their lips, unless it were with the Tears of their Eyes? He showr'd down Exod. 16.13, 14. Manna and Quails about their Camp, and by a Exod. 16.19. daily Providence supplied their wants: And why has he afflicted 'em with such enraged famine, that the hands of the Mothers slew their Infants, and roasted 'em on Coals to satisfie their Hunger; and the People greedily devour'd the Bodys, Dead [Page 186]partly by Famine, partly by Pestilence? He Deut. 32.10, 11.led 'em through the Desert and the waste howling Wilderness, as the Eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, and beareth them on her wings. And why did he abandon 'em to Eagles and Vultures, which so often made Carrion of the Flesh of his Children, who were cast over the walls into the ditch of the City, till it was fill'd with their putrefaction? He gave them strength as a consuming Fire, before which all the Nations were but as Straw, their Hearts Deut. 2.25. trembling, and being in Anguish because of them: And why did they become the prey of the Arms of Infidels? He gave them liberty for an Inheritance, and John 8.33. freedom from Bondage, as being the Seed of Abraham: And why obtain'd they not so much as an honourable Servitude, that there being not Crosses enough to Crucifie 'em, their Enemies reserv'd 'em for Beasts to devour rather than they would derive any Service from 'em, and that those who were sixteen years of age, and under, were sold by Cesar for thirty a penny? He gave them knowledge above all Nations, and made 'em a Deut. 4.6. wise and understanding People, the Admiration of the World, for the Statutes [Page 187]he had given them: And why are they become Blockish, Idle, and Stupid, with a perpetual 2 Cor. [...] vail over their hearts? He ordain'd for 'em the Protection and Assistance of Angels, and sent 'em Exod. 23.20. before them to keep them in the way, and to bring them into the place which he had prepared: And why did those holy Presidents forsake the Temple, crying aloud, Joseph. de bello. jud. Let us depart hence? He had destin'd 'em for Royalty and Deut. 9.3. Empire over their Neighbours, and had brought'em into the possesion of a Blessed Countrey, a land Deut. 26.9. flowing with milk and Honey: And why have they not one Inch of ground now, especially of that where Jerusalem was formerly built, unless they purchase it with their Money, only to enjoy it one hour or two in a Year, and to bedew it with the Water of their Eyes, after they have so often moistened it with their blood? He established 'em with a Priesthood, an Altar, and Services, such as distinguisht 'em from the rest of the World, and showed 'em to be the peculiar care of Heaven: and where is the Temple, that Seat of his Holiness? Where is the Propitiatory, the Table of the Shew Bread, the Rationale, the Majesty of [Page 188]the High Priests, the Comeliness of the Prelates, the perpetuity of Sacrifices? From whence comes it that 'tis sixteen hundred years ago since this miserable Nation goes wandring through the Regions of the Earth, as abandoned into an Eternal Exile, without Temple, without Priests, without Offerings, without King or Government?
O God Eternal, how hast thou thrown down thy Footstool? O God of Justice, how hast thou made desolate thy Royal Priesthood? O God of Vengeance, how hast thou suffer'd thine Admirable Sanctuary to be prophan'd? To what Sin may we attribute this, but to the neglect of the Essence of the Word Incarnate, and to that dreadful Imprecation of guilt on the whole Nation, His Blood be upon us and upon our children? For after the Son of God had shut his Eyes, steep'd in Tears and Blood over the miserable Jerusalem, he never yet has open'd 'em to afford it Mercy.
Prayer.
Great Eye of God, which art ever open upon the Sins of all the Earth, who can steal from thy piercing rages? Great Hand of [Page 189]God who Thund rest and Lightnest perpetually over Rebellious Heads, who is able to resist thy Judgments? O injur'd Goodness who for the satisfaction of thy Justice, rewardest the obstinate according to their desires, and returnest the Wickedness of Sinners upon their Heads, when they have rejected the tenders of thy Grace; since thou hast given up thine own Inheritance to be punish'd in this World according to their choice; what will become of those profligate Souls, who have impiously devoted themselves so frequently to the Devil, and importun'd thee to confound, and damn 'em? If such hideous Punishments to all Posterity have pursued Israel for having neglected thy Son, in Bonds, Afflictions, Ignominy and Death; What will become of those, who have dishonour'd the Lord Jesus in the Chariot of his Triumph, with all the Glory, Power, Wisdom, and Sanctity of the Universe under his Feet? Set a watch, O Lord, before my Mouth, and keep the door of thy Servant's Lips; let nothing proceed thence, but what being in Subjection to thy Will, and Holy and Harmless in its self, may tend to the Glory of the Kingdom of Christ, and the Advantage of my Soul. Let me kiss the Son lest he be Angry, and I perish in mine infidelity. Let me Embrace him in his Abasement and Exinanition, [Page 190]that he may Crown me in his Exaltation.
SECT. XXXIII. Of the Procession of Christ to Golgotha.
IT was now the Mark 15.25.third hour, and about theJohn 19.14.sixth, or near Noon (For the Jews divided the day into four equal parts, which they call'd hours, the first, from Six in the Morning till Nine; the third, from about Nine to Highnoon; the sixth, from thence to Three in the Afternoon; the ninth, from Three to about Six in the Evening; and whatsoever was done in any part of these four spaces, was said to be done in that Hour, and so of the Night:) when Pilate having wash'd away (as he thought) the guilt from himself (thô he did not afterwards go unpunish'd, for he was Euseh. in Eccles. Hist. l. 7. c. 8. Joseph. l. 18. c. 7. banish'd to Vienna, where he lived ingloriously, till in despair he Slew himself,) gave sentence that it should be as they required, und Luke 23.25.released unto 'em him that for Sedition and Murder was cast into Prison, whom they desired, but deliver'd Jesus to their will to be Matt. 27.26. Crucified.
Then did the Jews, having obtain'd what they so much desir'd, and the Roman Soldiers, who could have no Tenderness for a Person Condemned under the Notion of a Traitor, pour the full Torrent of their Insolencies upon him, Matt. 27.36, 31. repeating all their former Affronts and Torments, Reviling, Smiting, Buffeting, and Spitting upon him; till weary of these sad preludiums of Misery, and to be more seriously cruel, they pull'd off from him the Ludibrious Purple, and put his Matt. 27.31.own Raiment on him, for his greater confusion before the all people, that he might more readily be known by 'em, his Face being so Spit upon, Swell'd and Bloody, that he was no longer to be known by that. Only they leave him the Crown of Thorns, as they thought for the greater aggravation of his Sorrows, but design'd by Providence as an Emblem of his Sovereignty, that Christ being once Crowned should be a King for ever, nor should evermore any Enemies prevail against his Kingdom.
Thus was the Matt. 21.38, 39. Heir led forth of his own Vineyard by these wicked Husbandmen to be put to Death, the true Sin-offering whose Figure under the Law was to be burnt Lev. 9.11. without the [Page 190]Camp, as a Thief, a Seducer, a Blasphemer, and a Rebel, Revil'd, Abus'd, and Cursed of all, according to that of the Prophet, Psalm. 109.22, 24. I go hence, like the shadow that departeth, and am driven away, as the Locust; I was made also a reproach unto 'em, and when they lookt upon me, they shaked their Heads. He who had delivered 'em from so great Captivities, and from the Idolatries of Exod. 16.6. Egypt and Esra. 7.6. Babylon, and admitted 'em into the Borders of his Sanctuary, is now forc'd by 'em out of his own Inheritance, and in the company of Thieves drag'd to Slaughter.
O how unlike was this leading forth to that whereby he brought their Fathers out of Bondage, when he suffer'd no Man to do 'em Psalm. 105.14, 36wrong and reproved even Kings for their sakes? He brought them forth also with Silver and Gold, there was not one feeble person among their Tribes. There has past but five days, since he was received into the City, more desirable then the Passover it self; and now he must become a Sacrifice to their detestable inconstancy. Then he came riding in Triumphant manner, as the Prophet had Zec. 9.9. John 12.15. foretold of the true King of Sion; now scarcely stands under the weight [Page 193]of miseries. Then was he accompanied, and adorn'd by his Disciples; now they are all fled and absconded. Then were the ways John 12.13. Luke 19.36. Strowed with Flowers, Palmbranches, and Garments of the People; but now are his Feet dasht against the Stones. Then did the whole multitude, that went before and followed, give praise unto God with a loud voice, and to him the Acclamations due to a Mighty Prince and the Son of the Eternal King, saying, Mark 11.9.10. Hosanna, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord: Blessed be the Kingdom of our Father David, that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest: but now they cry, away with him, away with him, Crucifie him, and we will have no King but Cesar. And that his passage might be the more dolorous, they lay upon his Shoulders a ponderous Cross, to add to his pains, and make the people believe, he was the greatest malefactor that was to suffer that day.
And he John 19.17.bearing his Cross went forth.
A great sight. And if beheld with Piety, a great Mystery, in which was fulfil'd that of Isaiah, where he says, the Isai. 96.Government shall be upon his Shoulders; for the Principality of Christ is his Cross, whereby he has Col. 2.15. overcome [Page 194]Hell and Death, and for which God has highly Phil. 2.9.10, 11.exalted him, and given him a Name which is above every Name; that at the Name of Jesus every Knee should bow, of things in Heaven, in Earth, and under the Earth; and that every Tongue should confess, that Jesus Christ is Lord to the Glory of God the Father.
Nevertheless how sorrowful must it be to Christ, thus to depart out of that City which he had always highly favour'd, and equal'd to the Heavens for Power and Riches, and over which he had so lately Luke 19.41. shed a flood of Tears, in compassion of the desolation which should come upon her? How grievous must it be to support with his bruised Flesh a cross of that length that it could only be drag'd by him (for none would touch the Deut. 21.23. accursed tree to assist) and every shock must necessarily create to his wounded Shoulders, and Head afflicted with Thorns, intolerable pains?
Yet this was the least part of the Cross of Christ, or rather he bore at the same time a greater, a more grievous, a Spiritual Cross, his Psal. 22.14. heart being in the midst of his body like melting wax moulten in the fiery furnace of Gods [Page 195]wrath: For the Lord Isai. 53.6. laid on him the iniquities of us all, and he became a Gal. 3.13. curse for us, (every one being accursed that Deut. 21.23. hangeth on a tree) that we might be deliver'd from the curse of the Law, and be made the 2 Cor. 5.21. Righteousness of God in him.
Prayer.
O wounded Love, and Prince of the Afflicted, thou barest our Cross with an invincible Patience, and we Perfidiously shun thine; tho' thine be temporal and light to us, and that which thou barest for us, would have crush'd us to Eternity. Thou hast taught us, that he that will Matt. 10.39. save his life shall lose it; and he that will lose it for thy sake shall find it; grant us therefore, we beseech thee, a suitable resolution, that we may take up our Cross, and follow thee; and suffer us not to sink under it, nor to shrink from it. That so we may carefully undergo all the Sacred Acts and Offices of true Repentance, which is the Cross of Sinners, in imitation of thee our dear Master, who hast suffer'd for us the utmost malice of Men, and left us an Example that we should fol-low thy steps.
SECT. XXXIV. Of Christ's Prediction of the Miseries of the Jews.
NOW all this while there Luke 23.27.went with him a great company of people, and of Women which also bewail'd and lamented him. Not but that many good Men likewise were concern'd on the sad occasion, whose inward sighs accompanied the Womens Tears; but the Female as the more contemptible Sex, dared more freely to express their grief before the Magistrates, which by the Edict of Tiberius was forbidden towards suffering Malefactors. And the saying of our Saviour was fulfil'd which he had spoken, John 16.20. Verily, verily I say unto you, ye shall weep and lament, but the World shall rejoyce. The Chief Priests and their Ministers went joyfully to see him die, and to fill their Eyes with the Tragick Spectacle; but his Disciples follow'd him mournfully afar off: And the pious Women who had believ'd, and abhor'd his Death, would bewail him Suffering, Dying, and Dead.
Our Gracious Lord regardless of the furious Multitude, and 2 Tim. 2.19.knowing who are his, turns to these, saying, Luke 23.28. Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but for your selves, and for your Children. For behold the days are coming in which they shall say, Blessed are the Barren, and the Wombs that never bare, and the Paps that never gave suck; and so great shall be the Terror, they shall begin to say to the Mountains, fall on us, and to the Hills, cover us, as if the dreadful Day of Judgment were then appearing.
Not that it was indecent to bewail his Passion (for humanity commands a Sympathy, and some pity towards the Sufferings of a real offender, much more towards the misfortunes of an Innocent Person) But because it was not fit to bewail him as others, who died not as others die, (for we come to Death by Sin, but Christ came to Death by Righteousness,) therefore he says, Daughters of Jerusalem, there is no necessity you should weep for me who have long since been prepar'd to go this sad procession. I suffer not this for my own Sins: And, what you are Ignorant of, this my end will bring Joy to the whole World. Such Grief becomes not [Page 198]those who Triumph, nor is Lamentation suitable to Victory. But if your tenderness must vent in Tears, you have reason to shed abundance for your selves and your Posterity, to avert (if possible) those Dreadful Judgments which hang over this City and Nation. For behold those adverse times are coming, when Men as well as Women, Young and Old, Rich and Poor, shall be reduc'd to such streights, that they shall wish they had never been Born, nor ever had Sons or Daughters. Yea so great shall be the afrightment, that ye shall wish your selves under the Earth rather than upon it, in the Bowels of the Mountains, and the Caverns of the Hills, least any one should see, or find you out. For if they do these things in a Luke 23.31.green tree, in me and my Disciples: What shall be done in the dry? If I who have done Heb. 4.15.no Sin, who am the John 15.1.living Vine, and the John 6.35.bread of Life, pass not out of the World without this fiery tryal: What shall become of those who are void of all fruit, who are near to Heb. 6.8.cursing, and whose end is to be burned? If Judgment begin at the House of God, and all that will live Godly shall suffer persecution: What shall be the end of them that obey not the Gospel?
Ah, my dear Reader, how Quick and Powerful, how Sharp and Piercing is this word of God, even to the dividing asunder the Soul and Spirit, and of the Joynts and Marrow: What a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the Heart? How shall God punish us for our own Sins, who is so wrathfully displeas'd with our Redeemer, for the Sins which are none of his? If Christ his Obedient Son were thus grievously Afflicted, how shall his Rebellious Servants hope to escape unpunish'd? And what must the Reprobate undergo in the day of Judgment, if such be the sufferings of the best beloved? Oh the infinite anger of God! Oh the inestimable rigour of his Justice, who is thus enraged against his only Son, his beloved Son, his Son the partaker of his Essence: And that not for his own Sin, but because he interceded for Sinners! What will become of the polluted Soul, which continues still to go on securely in Sin; when the Immaculate Jesus is thus tormented? Let the Creature fear, which has Crucified the Creator. Let the Servant tremble who has slain his Lord.
Prayer
O thou Great God of Power and Mercy, whose Lightning Flashes preceed the Thunder, to give warning of thy Wrath, and Terror to the Universe; and who never punishest Sinners without premonition; let thy sore judgments threatned against others, and at last inflicted on 'em because of their Obstinacy, waken our Souls out of their Sinful security, to a due consideration of those means which may avoid them: that we turning from our Sins, thou mayest turn from thy fierce anger, and leave a blessing, and we Perish not. For if the present punishments of the Impenitent, are the fore-runners of the Eternal Torments to be inflicted on 'em in Hell; thy Temporal Mercies towards returning Sinners shall be their assurances of they everlasting Favours.
SECT. XXXV. Of the Bitter Potion given to Christ at Golgotha.
WHile Jesus was thus painfully Travelling in the way (either because they thought he went too slowly under the weight, and their fury was impatient of any delay; or that they fear'd he might Faint and Die and Frustrate the cruel end & shame they had designed; or that they would reserve his Spirits for his greater Torture) having found a man of Cyrene,Matt. 27.32.Simon by name, him they compell'd to bear his Cross, a person by Providence Mark 15.21. passing the road at this juncture, and his name by interpretation signifying Obedient as if God would thereby teach us that none can bear it profitably, but such as are attentive, and submissive to his Will; and that he will not suffer the faithful to be tempteà 1 Cor. 10.13.above their ability, but together with the temptation give a means to escape. There were also two Malefactors led with him to be put to Death, for his greater disgrace and increase of Grief, by dying [Page 202]in their Company, after he had first seen them struggle in the pangs of Death before him.
At last they came to Mark 15.22. Golgotha, which is the same with Luke 23.33. Calvary, a mount on the West side of the City, and by signification the place of a Scull, for being the common place of Execution, there lay the Bones of such as before had Suffered, the Frightful remains of what the ravenous Birds or Beasts had left of their devoured Carcasses; a place among the Jews of the greatest impurity, for none might touch a dead body and be Num. 19.11.clean, much less the Bones of a cursed Malefactor, and such was every one that Deut. 21.23.hanged upon a tree; nor was any thing thought by 'em to give a greater Contagion of Pollution, then the 1 King. 13.2. 2 King 23.16. burning Mens Bones upon what they intended to prophane. Nevertheless our Saviour who had himself also Matt. 23.27. represented the abominations of the Hypocrites by these Emblems of defilement, would descend himself to the extreamest impurities, that the might sanctifie and cleanse whatsoever was impure; and by humbling himself teach us the true way to Glory. So different are the ways of Christ from those of the World, [Page 203]which aims at high things by hasty ascents, and the more it is lifted up, falls with the greater ruin: But Christ would be dignified by the lowest abasement, and by how much more he emptied himself and became poor for our sakes, by so much more he was exalted to Glory by the Father; and has left us an assurance of the Truth of that remarkable sentence, Luke 14.11. Whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.
Here, being wearied and almost spent with a sleepless night past in shame and vexation, a sorrowful morning of continual hurry from one judicature to another, pain of cruel scourging and venomous Thorns, barbarous Insolencies, the weight of the Cross, and his tiresome ascent to the Theatre of his Death, they offer him something to Drink out of a feigned compassion, as if they would now commiserate his Griefs. But alas, the tender Mercies of the Wicked are Prov. 12.10. cruel, it was Matt. 27.34. Vinegar with Gall, or Mark 15.23. Wine mingled with Myrrh, a nauseous Potion, which they had prepar'd to mock his thirst, and to stay and Afflict his decaying Spirits. not thinking they were at the same time giving Testimony to his Truth: [Page 204]For the Psalmist had long before predicted in his Person, that they should give the Messiah Psal. 69.21.Gall to eat, and when he was thirsty, Vinegar to drink. But our Saviour having tasted thereof would not Matt. 27.34.drink.
Go now Intemperate and Luxurious Sinner, who art strong in Wine and Valiant in excesses, cloath thy self in Purple and fine Linnen, and fare sumptuously every day; while the Holy Jesus among dead Mens Bones, and the greatest Impurities, condescends to tast the bitter Antidote of thy debauches. But remember the answer of Abraham, in whose Bosom the once poor Lazarus then lay satisfied, to Dives the Glutton tormented in Hell Flames, and desiring a drop of Water to cool his Tongue, Lake 16.25. Son, thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted and thou art tormented. Temperance is a purgative Virtue of the Soul, and exalts the Spirit by subduing the Body; Is the Mother of good thoughts, and leads us to God, by a due consideration of our latter end, when we must leave all that we have enjoy'd, and render an account of the right use or abuse of 'em, And surely if the Rom. 8.18. Sufferings of this [Page 205]present Season are not worthy to be compar'd with the Glory which shall be reveal'd hereafter; then the Religious forbearance of Temporal contentments can bear no proportion with the injoyment of God, in whose Psal. 16.11. presence is the fulness of Joy, and at whose right hand are pleasures for evermore.
Prayer.
O Gracious Lord, who lived'st Abstemiously, and denyed'st thy self all refreshment in the greatest necessity, and thirsted'st for me that I might thirst after thee; Let all my Appetite be only for thee, who art theJohn 6.35.bread of Life which camest down from Heaven, and the Fountain of livingJohn 4.10.Waters, of which whosoever drinks shall be an everlastingJohn 7.38Spring himself, never drie, but fill'd Eternally with the dew of thy Exuberant Love.
SECT. XXXVI. Of the Crucifixion of Christ.
THE Evangelists having attended our Lord to Mount Calvary, are very short as to the cruel Circumstances wherewith he was nailed to the Cross, and only Matt. 27.35. Mark 15.25. Luke 23.31. John 19.18. say, they crucified him there: For our Tears are most suitable to this part of the Passion, which none can be able fully to express; and our powerfullest Eloquence on this Subject will be the Threnody of a broken Heart. Nevertheless, in expressing so little of the manner of it, they have left us much to be thought on with most passionate Reflexions.
They force the Garments from his wounded Body, and every Scourge now bleeds afresh; while the hasty avulsion of the coagulated Blood causes in his tender Flesh intolerable Pain: Besides, the exposing his naked Body added to it the highest Indignity of Shame in the Interpretation of his barbarous Enemies, who thought it so great an Ignominy to those that died to expose their [Page 207]Bodies to the view of the people, that where the Bodys of the dead were out of the reach of their Adversaries, they thought it most highly opprobrious to their Ghosts, to take but their representation and affix it to a Cross.
His Body thus denudated, but still crown'd with Thorns, to add Terror to his unspeakable Grief, they prepare the Cross before his Eyes, the Altar on which the Lamb of God was to be sacrific'd, but among the Jews the Deut. 21.23. accursed Tree. (Not that Suspension was any of the Capital Punishments prescribed by the Law of Moses, or that by any Tradition or Custom of the Jews they were wont to punish Malefactors by that Death; but such as were punished with Death among them, were, for the Enormity of their Fact, oft-times after Death, expos'd to the Ignominy of a Deut. 21.22. Gibbet, and those being so hanged, were accursed by the Law.) Among the Gentiles it was the worst of Deaths, the Punishment of Slaves, and of the most desperate Persons in the World. For the Death of a crucified Man was the most continual Languishing, and Tearing a Soul from the Body with most exquisite Violence and Agony; in [Page 208]that the Hands and Feet, which of all Parts of the Body are most nervous, and consequently most sensible, were pierced through with Nails; which caused not a sudden Dispatch, but a lingring and tormenting Death: Insomuch that the Romans, who most us'd it, have thence deduc'd their Expressions of Cruciation or Pain: And their Emperors which were naturally of any merciful Disposition, first caused such as were adjudged to Crucifixion, to be slain, and then to be nailed to a Cross.
Now though Christ were not to die by the Sentence of the Jews, who had lost the supream Power in Causes capital, and so not to be condemned to any Death which was contained in their Law; yet the Providence of God did so dispose it, that he should suffer that Death which did contain in it that ignominious Particularity to which the legal Curse belong'd, which was Deut. 21.23. hanging on a Tree: That he might become a Curse for us, and abolish in his Flesh the Eph. 2.15. Enmity, even the Law of Commandments, blotting out the Col. 2.14. Handwriting of Ordinances which was against us, and which was contrary to us, nailing it to his Cross. So truly did he make himself of no Reputation, and [Page 209]took upon him the Phil. 2.7.8. Form of a Servant, and humbled himself, and became obedient unto Death, even the Death of the Cross, a servile Punishment of the greatest Acerbity, enduring the Pain; of the greatest Ignominy, despising the Shame.
Having cast him on the Wood with great Immanity, with the same Violence they snatch his Left hand, and nail it; forcing the Flesh together into the Tree. But the Sinews contracting to one anothers help, and the Right hand not reaching the appointed place, they proceed by cruel Acts, encreasing Torment, to strain it thither with their utmost Force, till after many Trials, with great Difficulty, they nail it also to the transverse Beam.
Afterwards in like manner they pierce his Feet, and draw and expand 'em till all his Joynts are loosed, and the Nerves, Veins, Fibres, and Bones of his whole Body, are easily to be numbred, according to that of the Psalmist, They Psal. 22.77.pierced my hands and my feet, I may tell all my Bones: For the Nails being driven in the most sensible Parts of the Body, where the Nerves and Bones meet in that manner that they cannot be separated without exquisite Torment, they [Page 210]never left their torturing Activity, till by their dolorous Impressions they had forced his Death.
Thus were those powerful hands extended in Misery, which so lately had cur'd the Luk. 7.21. Blind and Mark 7.35. Deaf, cleans'd the Luke 17.14. Lepers, rais'd them that were fall'n, and loos'd them that were bound of Mark 5.15. Satan. Thus were those adorable Feet transfixt with Nails, which had gone about doing continual Good, and to which the Mat. 14.26. Seas had given themselves for a Pavement, and Peace preceeded whithersoever they went. Thus was that Sacred Body hung upon the Wood, naked, and expos'd to all manner of Shame and Torment, in which all the Col. 2.3. Treasures of Wisdom and Power were hid. Thus was that Face, more beautiful than the Sons of Men, which comforted the Afflicted, and the Light of whose Countenance the Fathers and Prophets had so much desired, chang'd into the Paleness and Horrour of Death.
What hast thou done, O Beauty above all Beauties, and how hast thou deserv'd this, most amiable Love, that thou art thus expos'd, vilified, and tormented? What is thy Crime, and the Cause of all thy Grief? What is it that has laid thee on the Altar of the Cross, [Page 211]naked, bleeding, tortured, and dying? Is it not as the Holy Isai. 53. Prophet long since declar'd, That thou should'st be smitten and numbred among the Transgressours, That thou should'st pour out thy Soul to Death, That thou should'st be cut off from the Land of the Living? and all for the Transgressions of the People? The Lord has laid on thee the Iniquities of us all. Thou art wounded for our Transgressions. Thou art bruised for our Sins. The Chastisement of our Peace is upon thee; and by thy Stripes we are healed.
We complain of the Jews Malice, of Judas's Treason, of Pilate's Injustice, and the Romans Cruelty; but we are among thy Crucifiers, and ought to look nearer home. Our Treachery was the Judas which betray'd thee; our Covetousness sold thee to thy Enemies; our malignant Envy accus'd thee; our Perjury was the false Witness against thee; our Injustice the Pilate that condemn'd thee; our Pride scourg'd thee; our Lusts crown'd thee with Thorns, and pierc'd thy Sacred Hands and Feet with Nails.
We, we then are the Cause of all thy Grief, We are the sole Authors of these sad Calamities. We have eaten [Page 212]the sowr Grapes, and thy Teeth are set an edge, And shall we now give up our selves to Mirth, while thou weepest, sufferest, and thirstest? Shall we court Pleasures, and pursue them with greediness, whilst thou art hanging and languishing on the Cross? Shall we anoint our Heads, and spend our precious time in the vain adorning of our Bodies, whilst thou art horrible with Spittle and Blood? Shall we commit Wickedness with both hands, and our feet be swift to shed Blood, while thine in the mean time are fastned to the Wood, and bleed? And shall we crown our Heads with Flowers and Garlands, while thine is surrounded with the sharpest Thorns? Or shall we, by repeating all this, Crucifie thee afresh, and put thee to an open and continual Shame?
Prayer.
O Gracious Lord! who cam'st to cleanse it by thy Blood, put an end by thy Grace to the Contagion of Sin. Heighten our Apprehension of the Guilt of our Transgressions, by making us sensible of the Greatness of thy Sufferings. For certainly they had deserved eternal Confusion, for whom it [Page 213]was necessary thou should'st be exposed to shame, that they might never be confounded: And their Impurities were great indeed, which could not be cleans'd, but by thy immaculate Blood.
SECT. XXXVII. Of the Exaltation of the Cross.
IT cannot be thought but the Ministers of the Jewish Malice would use all the Circumstances of Rigour and Cruelty, towards a person, whose Death they had so earnestly desired: Insomuch that having first most barbarously hung the Thieves, who were to suffer with him, on either side, that the Apprehension of their Miseries might encrease his Torment; they at last, with great Shouts and much Officiousness, erect his Cross also into the Air, in order to put it into its proper Station: Which being a hole cut deep in the Rock, capable to receive the Foot of the Cross, when they let it sink in with a sudden impetuosity, the violent Concussion gave infinite Torture to the torn Body of our Lord, resting now only upon four great Wounds; so that all his Joynts are loos'd, his Inwards tremble, and the Wounds of his Hands and Feet are open'd, according to that of the Prophet, I am Psal. 22.14.poured out like Water, [Page 215]all my bones are out of joynt. My heart also in the midst of my body is even like melting wax.
Here it was that burst forth the River of our Paradise, the Fountain of the Blood of our Blessed Redeemer, from the place of Pleasure, the Body of our Lord, dividing it self into four parts, from the several Wounds of his hands and feet, and thence descending and watering the whole Earth, and washing away the Sins of all true Believers; the Fountain of the Zec. 13.1. Prophet which was to be opened to the House of David and the Inhabitants of Jerusalem, for Purification of their Uncleanness. And may this precious Blood of the Lamb of God, slain intentionally for this purpose before the Rev. 13.18. Beginning of the World, soften the hardness, moisten the driness, and make fertile the barrenness of our Hearts; that they may be capable of those inestimable Benefits he has purchas'd for us by the Effusion of it.
In this also was fulfill'd his own Predictions which he had made concerning the manner of his Death, That as Moses Joh. 13.14. Numb. 21 9.lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness, by looking on which the People that were bitten of fiery Serpents were restored and liv'd; so he the Son of Man should be [Page 216]up, that whosoever believeth in him, though wounded with the Infernal Serpent, should not perish, but have everlasting Life: And again, When I am Joh. 12.32.33.lift up, that is, crucified, it being an Elevation or Lifting up on the Cross, I will draw all Men unto me, Gentiles as well as Jews, to believe on me.
Prayer.
Be it so, my Jesu, O draw me to thy self; and by the Eye of Faith, let me ever behold thee, as suffering for me, that I may ever love thee. But alas, while I now seek thee, I can represent to my Thoughts nothing but the Shadow and Appearance of a Body all crusted over with gore Blood. I look for Limbs, but find nothing but Wounds. I look for the Ensigns of a glorious Redeemer; I discern only a Skin all bloody, fastned to a Cross between two Thieves, and strugling under the Convulsions of Death.
But O, Eternal Father, that which has made thy Son thus vile and wretched in the Eyes of the World, has made him most precious and acceptable in thy sight. Look down, we beseech thee, from thy Sanctuary, and thy Dwelling-place in Heaven, and behold the Sacrifice which our great High-Priest and thy holy Child Jesus offers unto thee for the Sins of his Brethren, and be [Page 217]favourable to the Multitude of our Iniquities. Behold the Voice of our Brother's Blood crying unto thee for Mercy upon us. Behold the Lamb who is without Blemish, now bearing our Sins in his Body upon the Tree; and look not upon us as we are in our selves, but in the face of thine Anointed, who becomes thus obedient unto Death, to deliver us from the Guilt of Disobedience: And let not the Scars of his Wounds ever depart from before thy Presence, that thou may'st ever be mindful, in all our Transgressions, how great a Ransome he has paid for us; and let his Blood be as the Rainbow in thy sight, ever about thy Throne in Heaven, that thou mayst no more destroy every living thing. Behold, O Creator, the Humanity of thy Son, and be ever merciful to the Debilities of our Nature. Behold the torn Members of thy beloved, and remember our Substance, that we are but Dust. Behold the Sufferings of the Redeemer, and forgive the Sins of the Redeemed.
SECT. XXXVIII. Of the Scituation of Christ's Cross between two Thieves, and the Title which Pilate affixed to it.
BUT it was not enough for the cruel Jews to murder the Messiah by the painfullest kind of Death, unless they might stain his very Passion too, by placing him in the John 19.18. midst of two egregious Malefactours, which, for his greater Disgrace, they had brought to suffer with him; that by Strangers he might be thought to be a Partaker in their Crimes, if not the worst of all, by his Station between them; and so it might be reported in the Neighbouring Regions, That three notorious Villains were that day Crucified at Jerusalem, of which the Impostor that went by the Name of Jesus was, as being the chief, placed in the middle; whereby the Scripture was fulfilled, which saith of him, And he was reckoned among the Isai. 53.12.Transgressours.
Nevertheless, there were some Reports went of the Purity of his Doctrine, the Greatness of his Miracles, the Sweetness of his Conversation, and the Beauty of his Person; above all, the present view of his Sufferings, and admirable Patience and Clemency towards his Crucifiers, fill'd the Hearts of many with heavy Sighs, and their Eyes with an Inundation of Tears. And Pilate, among the rest, who best knew his Innocence, and that for Mat. 27.18. Envy he was deliver'd and condemn'd, prick'd in his Conscience, and fearing the Consequence, lest he might be defam'd or accus'd to Caesar for consenting to the Death of such a wonderful Person without declaring the Cause of his Condemnation, (according to the Custom of the Romans towards Malefactors) order'd his Accusation thus to be written, and to be fastned to the top of the Cross, John 19.19. Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews; that a Rumour at least might pass, he was not put to death as a Prophet of the Jewish Nation, or as the Son of some immortal God, but as a Spreader of Sedition among the People, and one who affected a Kingdom in Jewry: For so they had accus'd him; Luk. 23.2. we found this Fellow perverting the Nation, [Page 220]and forbidding to give tribute to Caesar, saying that he himself is Christ a King: And when Pilate sought to release him, they cried out, saying John 19.12. If thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar's friend: Whosoever makes himself a King speaks against Caesar.
This was the meaning of Pilate by the Title, whereby he Thought to signifie the Cause of his Condemnation. But as in the Prediction of Caiaphas concerning his Death, the Spirit of God had another Intention, different from the Design of the High-Priest; so likewise in this, besides what Pilate thought, as well as in the Mock-Purple, the counterfeit Scepter, and the bloody Diadem of Thorns, which were mystical Representations of a real Kingdom, there was intended him a Name and a Kingdom without end, and he was signified to be the true Messiah, the King both of Jews and Gentiles, whose Zech. 9.10. Psal. 72.8.11. Dominion should extend from one Sea to the other, and to whose Scepter the Kings of the Earth should submit their Majesty.
That this might be more manifest to the whole World, it was directed by Providence in the Joh. 19.20. three chief Languages; in Hebrew, because of the Jews, who gloried in the Law; in Greek, because [Page 221]of the Wise-men and Philosophers of the Gentiles; in Latine, because of the Romans, who then govern'd the Jews: That it might be known throughout the whole World, that almighty God had anointed this Jesus to be a King over all Nations; and the Dan. 7.14. Prophesie of Daniel might be fulfill'd, which saith, There was given him Dominion and Glory, and a Kingdom, that all People, Nations and Languages, should serve him: his Dominion is an everlasting Dominion, which shall not pass away, and his Kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.
The Jews therefore envy'd him this Title, lest every Tongue should confess afterwards that he was the Lord, to the Glory of God the Father; and desir'd Pilate that it might be John 19.21. alter'd, or abolish'd: For they were now ashamed, because it might be thought by Strangers, this was their King, who was so ignominiously put to Death. But neither did John 19.22. Pilate endeavour to alter it; nor would the Divine Providence suffer it; this Title being given him by the Will of God.
Prayer.
O King eternal, who for the Humiliation of thy Beloved, and his Obedience unto Death, even the Death of the Cross, has highly exalted him, and given him a Name which is above every Name: That at the Name of JESUS every Knee shouldPhil. 2.9, 10, 11.bow, of things in Heaven, in Earth, and under the Earth; and that every Tongue should confess, That Jesus Christ is Lord, to the Glory of God the Father: Grant, we beseech thee, Conversion to Infidels, to all Jews, Turks and Hereticks, that thy way may be known upon Earth, thy Saving Health to all Nations; and that they submitting to the Kingdom of thine Ancinted, and living in Obedience to his Holy Gospel, may be saved with the Remnant of the true Israelites, and all that confess him to intercede for us at the Right Hand of thy Majesty in Heaven.
SECT. XXXIX. Of the Partition of Christ's Garments and the Irrision of the People.
IN the mean time the Souldiers who had nail'd him to the Cross, and done the cruel part which belong'd to their Office, took his John 19.23, 24.garments (and made four parts, to every Souldier a part) and also his coat: Now the Coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout. They said therefore among themselves, let us not rent it, but cast lots for it whose it shall be: that the Scripture might be fulfill'd which saith, Psal. 22.18.They parted my raiment among them, and for my vesture they did cast lots. These things therefore the Souldiers did.
And what could they do more? They handled him most Barbarously, to please the cruelty of his Bloody Persecutors; They had nailed him to the Cross to make sure of Death, which the Chief Priests had so much desired; That they had seized the poor spoil of his dying body, more out of lust then any great Advantage, to show and boast of it afterwards to their Companions. [Page 224]And now they seem to be at a loss how to torment him further.
When behold (least any kind of Ignominy should be wanting to the lamentable acerbity of his Death) the insulting multitude, in a malicious derision, call upon him to save himself. Mark 15.29.30, 31, 32. And they that passed by, railed on him, wagging their heads and saying, Ah thou that destroyest the Temple, and buildest it in three days, save thy self, and come down from the Cross. Likewise also the Chief Priests mocking, said among themselves, with the Scribes, He saved others, himself he cannot save, Let Christ the King of Israel descend now from the Cross, that we may see and believe.Matt. 27.43.He trusted in God; let him deliver him now if he will have him: for he said, I am the Son of God.
It is a Divine thing to Sympathize, and Humanity requires pity towards a real offender, because we are all subject to the same infirmities; but much more towards the Sufferings of an innocent Man: and cruel mockings to an Afflicted person are as so many darts adding torture to the Soul, into whose wounds we should rather pour the Balsom of the most tender and compassionate Speeches. For who knows how soon (if left of God) he may stand in need of the same commiseration?
But his inhumane Murderers were not satisfied to have loaded him with reproaches during his Tryal and after sentence, unless they prosecute him to the very grave, and when his light is set, ecclipse his Fame. The pains of his body they thought too little, unless they might vex his departing Soul: herein exercising a malice purely Diabolical, to pervert him from God in his last conflict. They are no longer able to reach his Body with their Hands, and now they would blast his Soul with their infectious Breath, heaping together in one whatsoever before they had accus'd him of, or now would have the ignorant People believe: to root out the credit of his Miracles and Doctrine, and to imprint in the Multitude a disbelief of his Truth. As if they had said, ye see now, (and nothing can be more plain) what a notorious Seducer and Impostor he was, who pretended to save others and cannot save himself; and how little reason we have to believe his commission from God, who is thus deserted, and disowned by him: For he is the God of Glory and not of Infamy, the God of Life and not of Death. And can he be any other then accursed of his Maker, who dies this accursed [Page 226]Death, for cursed is every one that hangeth on a Tree? Or will God redeem his People by such an accursed wretch? In this therefore were fulfilled those several Prophecies, Psal. 35.15, 16. In mine adversity they rejoyced, and gathered themselves together: yea the very abjects came together against me unwares, making mows at me, and ceased not. With the ffatterers were busic mockers who gnashed upon me with their Teeth. And again, Psalm. 3.2. Many one there be that say of my soul there is no help for him in his God.
But God forbid that to prove himself the Messiah, Christ should have descended from the Cross. He might easily have done it, and the Devil would have been glad of it, for then the great work of Our Redemption had been hindred; whereas now the grand accuser of our Elder Brother, and all his evil Ministers have laboured in vain to suppress the Glory of out Lord. For the more they have endeavoured to diminish it, the more it is encreased, and and spread abroad in the World. They derided him before Cajaphas, Pilate, and H [...]rod; They bound him as a Thief, and represented him as a Traitor; They spit upon him as a Toad, and thirsted for his Death, and to effect it prefer'd a Murderer; They Buffeted, Mockt, [Page 227]and Crown'd him with Thorns; They loaded him with his Cross, Crucified him between two Thieves in the most Ignominious and Publick place; They envyed him the very Title under which he Suffer'd; and now all together, Chief Priests, Rulers, Scribes, Elders and People, and all that had any occasion to pass by or curiosity to come thither, (except some few faithful) exclaim'd upon him, and slander'd him, to obscure him in perpetual Oblivion.
But God has confounded all their Malice, and the more they have contemn'd him, has Glorified him the more, and Acts 5.31. exalted him with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of Sins, and given him a Phil. 2.9.name above every name, to be ador'd by every creature.
Prayer.
O God the Father, Merciful and Gracious, whose pleasure it is we should confess thy Holy Child Jesus to be the Prince and Saviour of the World; I Beseech thee, root out of my wavering heart all Scruple, Irreligion, and Prophaness; and from my Tongue Dispute and Blasphemy: That whatsoever he has taught to be believ'd I may [Page 228]embrace, whatsoever he has commanded to be done I may practise, and in the ways of the Cross, which he has sanctified, I may follow him. Lighten mine Eyes with the beams of that liberty which thou grantest to thy Children of serving thee in full assurance of Faith, that I sleep not in the Death of Sin. Call back my thoughts from their frequent wanderings in those barren Regions where the Truth is doubted, and fix me by thine infinite Grace and Mercy, that I may ever adore and love thee through my Crucified Lord.
SECT. XL. Of Christ's Intercession to the Father for his Crucifiers.
OUR Blessed Saviour was now in the greatest Agonies to which the Actions or Slanders of his Enemies could reduce him, and when they had spent all the poison of their lips that they were now reduc'd to an involuntary silence; He, that he might leave nothing undone which might magnifie his Mercy above all their provocations and to give an undeniable proof [Page 229]of his Ministery that he came to reconcile the World to God, broke into this most admirable intercession for them, Luke 23.34. Father forgive them for they know not what they do.
O God! O Goodness! O Love! What Word, what Speech, what Voice is this? He was not more sensible of the madness of the People, then he was compassionate of their infirmities, nor griev'd with their Malice so much as Merciful to their Sins. Hitherto they had objected against his being the Messiah, and now he will give them an undoubted demonstration opposing himself by Prayer to the Anger of his God.
Heavenly Father, whose Honour I have observ'd, whose Commandments I have fulfill'd, and at whose Will and Pleasure I was sent into the World; and being of thy substance took humane Nature, to be a Pacifier, Intercessor, and High-Priest, to make reconciliation for the Sins of the People; who now hang bleeding and dying upon the Cross, in the midst of so many Reproaches, Torments, and Griefs, offering up my self to thee in Tears and Crys for the Sins of all whoever offend thee; Spare thy people, Good Lord, spare them, and wash away their Sins in my propitiatory Blood.
Adam transgress'd and his posterity became abominable, and the whole World lies in wickedness: Even thine own Inheritance which thou hast chosen out of all People, and lov'd above the rest of the works of thy Hands, have added this weight to the guilt of all their Sins, to deny the Holy one whom thou hast sent, and to spill my innocent Blood upon the Earth: For how great is my Dignity which they have set at nought? How infinite is thy Majesty they have despis'd in me?
Nevertheless tho' hitherto thou hast justly dealt with Man in shutting Heaven against his transgressions, and opening Hell, and sending Death into the World; nor shouldst thou ever justly spare, without satisfaction to thy Eternal Justice, nor could all the Blood of Men make that atonement; yet now behold me who am come to satisfie thee by the dignity of my Divinity joyn'd to the nature of offending Man. Man's Salvation depends on me, on me alone, who came an exile hither from those Essential Joys I had in thy Bosom, to suffer Cold and Heat, Hunger and Thirst, Nakedness and Weariness, Watchings and Temptations, Afflictions, Persecutions, and this cruel Death. [Page 231]What Griefs, what Torments have I not endur'd in this tender body of Flesh? What Sorrow, what Streights, what Agonies have I not experienc'd in this frail constitution of Mortals? Was there ever any grief like mine, wherewith thou hast afflicted me in thy fierce anger? What remains then, O Father of Mercies, who hast Exod. 34.6. proclaim'd thy self Gracious, Long-Suffering, and abundant in Goodness and in Truth, forgiving Iniquity, Transgression, and Sin; but that thou should'st lay aside thine Anger, Remit, Pardon, and Pour forth thn Grace.
My Blood crys not for Vengeance, as Gen. 4.10. Heb. 12.24. Abel's did against his Murderer; nor do I appeal to thee now as a Judge, but as to a Father, I implore thy Mercy (unless there shall be any who shall account it unholy, and trample my Covenant under their Feet.) I have Pardon'd, who Suffer'd, and am Crucified: Pardon thou those, whom that thou mightest Pardon, thou sentest me into the World thus to suffer.
Now all manner of Sinners which shall ever be in the World, they are my Tormentors, they are my Crucifiers, as well as these Jews and Romans about me. I Pray therefore for all, as [Page 232]I Suffer for all, and offer my self a ransom for all: But more particularly for these my Brethren (because no Sin can equal theirs) that thou wouldst be pleased to be favourable to their Blindness, for they know not what they do, The vail of Darkness is over their Hearts, and this covering of Flesh has clouded me, that they cannot discern my Divinity; but hereafter they will look on him whom they have pierced and mourn, and the World shall acknowledge me their Crucified Lord. Is it not by thy permission that Satan has thus blinded them, and hid from their understandings the Mystery of my Incarnation? Destroy not therefore an ignorant Nation, who are to fulfil the designs of thy Wisdom and Mercy: For did they know me they would not Crucifie me, and notknowing me they are subservient thy Providence. After the same goodness likewise do thou ever pardon all that offend against thee ignorantly and out of Infirmity, that they may return to thee, and Repent, and be acceptable through the Merits of this my Sacrifice, which I here offer for their Ransom. Let my Death overcome their Death. Let my Resurrection despoil their Hell. And when I return Triumphantly [Page 233]to thee, let me also make a way for my Ransomed to pass.
Prayer.
O Bleeding Love, my Dear Intercessor, who hadst the Patience thus to Pray for thine Enemies, among so many Torments and Deaths; wherefore didst thou not Pray thy Heavenly Father that he should mitigate thy own Griefs; for thou neglected'st the Beloved of God, and interceededest for his rebellious Servants? Thy Hands and Feet were nailed to the Cross, thy tender Flesh torn with Whips, thy languishing Head pierced with Thorns, and all the parts of thy Body disjoynted and strugling under inexpressible pains: Why would'st thou not pitty thy Sacred Body, who hadst such compassion of thy Tormentors? Why would'st thou not be eas'd from temporal pains, who wast so desirous to have them freed from the Eternal? Art thou not bound to defend the Innocent? And why dost thou not defend thy self, who art most eminently and undoubtedly such, by the Testimonies of thy Betrayer and Judge? But thou becomst an Advocate for the guilty. Thou excusest a Sin which cannot be paralel'd. Without being desir'd thou Prayest for the Actors, and for the love of those who kill thee art content to die.
And why all this, Gracious Lord, but for my instruction that I a Sinner, should have compassion towards Sinners; that I who commit so many Sins my self, should not only forgive such as do offend me, but also excuse, and Pray for them: that so I may become a Son of thy Eternal Father, and a true Disciple of thy Beneficent Love.
O fill my Heart with thy Exuberant Charity, and transform me into thine own likeness. Dissolve into meekness all pittiless Spirits, abolish with thy Grace all Mortal Vengeances, and convert with thy Clemency those Tyrannous Souls who know not what it is to Pardon, when once Offended. That after thy Example we may embrace our Adversaries, quench their passions with Tears of Love, and become acceptable to that infinite Charity wherewith thou redeemest the the Sinning World.
SECT. XLI. Of the Penitent Thief, and Christ's Mercy towards him.
NO sooner had the Benign Jesus interceeded for his Enemies, but the Divine Goodness so ordered, that one of the Malefactors who suffer'd with him should immediatly be converted, and receive the Fruits of it, for the comfort of all those who should afterwards repent, and believe in the meritorious efficacy of his Death: Whilst the other Thief desperate and impatient perisht in his impenitency and unbelief, bearing the Figure of all hardned Sinners, who tho' they have Christ never so near, are ever repining, and murmuring under the Cross, and mistrusting the providence of God, till they are Destroyed of the Destroyer.
For Luke 23.39.one of the two which were hanged by him (his savage nature growing furious under pain, and raging against every thing that was near) railed on him, saying, If thou be the Christ, save thy self and us. But the Luke 23.40, 41, 42. other relenting, and [Page 236]possest with a deep sense of all the guilt of his offences, a piercing dread of future Judgment, and especially with admiration of the Holy Jesus, rebuk'd him, answering, dost thou not fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? and we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this Man has done nothing amiss. And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy Kingdom. And JesusLuke 23.43.said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, to day shalt thou be with me in Paradise.
O the wonderful and unsearchable Judgments of God, who is able to convert the most wicked in a Moment, and would not have us rashly condemn any, or ever despair of his saving Mercy! Behold here a Prodigy which has nothing common in Nature, a convincing Revelation in the heart of a Sinner, whose lightning is like a Thunderbolt, Quick and Piercing, and carries away along with it whatsoever stood before it.
The Poor Thief confesses Christ, when all his Disciples doubted and forsook him. And when he had only his Heart and Tongue free, yet offers both, believing in his Heart and confessing with his Mouth, that he was the [Page 237]Lord of Glory. Which Miraculous Conversion, Jesus entertained with a speedy promise of a very great Felicity, that upon that very Day he should be with him in Paradise.
I know not in this Action, whether I should rather admire the good fortune of the Penitent Thief, or the wonderful Power of the word Incarnate; of the Thief, who is drawn for a Cutthroat to Prison, from Prison to Judgment, from Sentence to the Cross, and thence goes to Paradise without needing any other gate but only the Heart of the Bountiful Jesus: For, on the other side what can be more admirable to our thoughts, then to see a Crucified Man do an Act which belongs to the living God when the World shall end, to save some and reprobate others, and to judge from the Cross, as if he sate upon a Throne.
As if he had said, My only Companion and Patient Partaker in my unspeakable Griefs, thou askest of me with a great Faith but a small thing in appearance, that I should remember thee, when I come into my Kingdom. But I am not ignorant what becomes me to give, or thee to recieve for such a faithful acknowledgement. Nor will [Page 238]I reward so great a Virtue shining through all the Clouds of thy Affliction, but with the Chief and greatest Good.
I am now forgotten, as a dead Man out of Mind, and mine acquaintance are hid out of my sight: My Friends are become my Enemies, and my Disciples fled. Peter afraid of a Womans voice has deny'd me, and forsworn himself; and Judas for a little unprofitable lucre has sold, and betray'd me; the rest as Sheep without a Shepherd are scatter'd, and almost destitute of all Hope and Faith. But thou who art a Robber and fierce by Nature, without any advantage of Religious Education, art come hither to me out of the covert of the Woods, and the hollow Caverns of the Mountains, and meetest me in Love and the participation of my Cross, more Faithful then my Friends, more Constant then my Disciples, and Believest, and Hopest, and Adorest my Abasement, and Contemplatest me, Triumphing over the Powers of Death and Hell in a Servile Ignominious Crucifixion; Confoundest the Ingrateful, Reprehendest the Blasphemous, Bearest Testimony to my Innocency, and Fightest for me, all thou canst with thy [Page 239]Tongue. Thou seest me here as a Malefactor, and yet acknowledgest me to be thy Holy Redeemer. Thou seest no other title or sign of my Kingdom, but only my Body covered over with Blood and opprest with Dolours, and yet thou callest upon me as reigning in Heaven. Thou seest me in Misery as an Abject Person, and confessest the infinite Glory of my Heavenly Dominion. Flesh and Blood has not revealed this unto thee, but my Father which is in Heaven, nor have I found so great Faith, no not in Israel it self.
Gen. 22.15. Abraham believed on me speaking to him from Heaven; and Exod. 3.2. Moses, speaking to him out of the midst of Fire; and Isai. 6.1. Isaiah, as I spake to him sitting on my Throne: But thou Believest on me hanging upon this Cursed Tree, Weak, Fainting, and Breathing my last, as if I were working Miracles, or riding in Triumph. John 3.2. Nicodemus and John 1.49. Nathaniel have also believed, being admonisht by the Scriptures; and the John 15.22. Canaanitish Woman, led by my Miracles; and my Matt. 19.28. Disciples, upon promise of Thrones: But none of these things have been demonstrated to thee, nor hast thou searcht the Scripture, nor seen signs, nor heard [Page 240]promises, and yet thou believest and concludest my Glory out of my infirmity, and my Innocence from my Condemnation.
Thou shalt not long expect thy Reward. For tho' the Ax be laid to thy Root, and thou wert ready to be cast into the Fire; Yet art thou in time, the door of Mercy is still open, yea the Fountain of Grace flows more plentifully then ever. And it shall be more Profitable and Honourable for thee, thus to have hung by my side Crucified and Believing, then to have sate before Cesar on Golden Arras, or Triumpht before the People on an Ivory Throne. And thou shalt reap more pleasure, for having been partaker of these my Torments, then thou couldst have done out of the spoils of Provinces, or by having been Monarch of the Universe. For what would it have profited thee to have gain'd the whole World, and to have lost thy poor Soul; or to have heap'd up all the Treasures of the Earth, if they must have been follow'd with Everlasting Sorrows.
Verily I say unto thee, and be thou secure of it, even this day will I exalt thee before all Israel; and thou shalt be where I am, because thou hast confest [Page 241]and follow'd thy Saviour. Thy petition was but small, as thou imaginest (for what is easier than to remember) but truly the greatest, and such as ought to be the Prayer, and constant desire of every Faithful expectant. For whom I forget they are cut of from my Hand, are cast out of the light of my countenance, and reserv'd for Judgment under chains of Darkness; But whom I remember, to them I am merciful; whom I remember to be Merciful to, in my Kingdom, they are Eternally Blessed in the Presence of my Father.
Verily therefore I say unto thee, that in remembring I will remember thee, and with the Righreous thou shalt be had in Everlasting Remembrance. Mine Eyes shall always be upon thee, and thou shalt abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will defend thee under my Wings, and thou shalt be safe under my Feathers. Thou shalt be with me, to be with whom, the Saints have desir'd to be dissolv'd; and it shall be there, whence neither the Gen. 3.24. flaming Sword nor Cherubims shall drive thee from an absolute enjoyment: For it shall be in the Celestial and Heavenly Paradise, the place of the blessed Angels and Saints, where God with his [Page 242]Divine Majesty fills 'em with the light of Righteousness, and quickens their Spirits with Everlasting Joy.
Yea thou shalt be the Example and Mirrour of my Mercy, wherein every Penitent may see his own condition, and know that my Bounty is greater then his Sin (if he will truly turn to me, that I may receive him) and that while there is Life, still there is hope of acceptance upon a sincere and hearty repentance, and a stedfast Faith. And that to the end of the World, whosoever shall hear thy Sins were pardon'd may never despair, but trust in Mercy, and turn to me, and seek Salvation and find it, and desire it and receive it.
Prayer.
O Sweetest Saviour, when I consider this Penitent, I must needs confess that even Thieves and Barbarians would have serv'd thee better then I, had they receiv'd so many Favours and Graces as it has pleased thee to bestow upon me. Nevertheless, since by the same instance of thy Mercy, thou raisest me to a lively hope of acceptance by true Repentance, and a strong Faith; encrease in me I Beseech thee, the Seeds of both, making way for my Salvation by thy [Page 243]assisting Grace: till my Soul being purified (as another Miracle of thy Goodness) thou Vouchsafe to receive me to those Blessed Enjoyments which thou hast purchased with thy precious Blood.
SECT. XLII. Of the Sorrowful Interview between Christ and the Virgin Mother, his Compassion towards her, and his Love to Saint John.
NOW while Jesus was receiving the Penitent Thief, there John. 19.25.stood by his Cross the Holy Virgin Mother, Sad, and Silent, with a modest Grief, deep as the Waters of the Abyss, but smooth and full of Love and Patience; and by her side his Mothers Sister, Mary the Wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalen, and the Disciple whom Jesus loved.
When Jesus therefore saw his Mother, and the Disciple by whom he loved; then it was we may imagine burst forth those Heb. 5.7. Tears which Saint Paul mentions to have been shed upon the Cross, accompanying that Tender and Heartbreaking sight, when he began first to [Page 244]behold her with his dying Eyes. He would not acknowledge her of whose Sorrows he was most sensible, least he might seem to have respected Persons or Affections: But having before Prayed for his Malicious Crucifiers, and then Comforted the Penitent Thief (as a token that all these bitter Sufferings were to intercede for, and save Sinners) He now turns to his Mother in that manner, the apprehension whereof must needs affect the most insensible Heart.
The presence of Friends is indeed a refreshment to the miserable, while there is any comfort to be expected from them; and two are better than one, because they have advantage from their Society; for if they fall, one will lift up his fellow: But here there was no such conveniency in the meeting, which was most deplorable to the Mother standing by, who could lend no assistance to her tortur'd Son, and to the Crucified Son, who by his incessant pains could only augment the grief of his Mother.
We read when he was a Child and missing but three days, She sought him sorrowing among her kinsfolks and acquaintance: Luke 2.48. her Love, Admiration, and [Page 245]Meditation perpetually attending this mavellous Birth. But now she may no longer find him among his Friends, for they had all forsaken him and fled, and left him environed with whole Troops of Enemies except those few which accompanied her there, incited to it by her magnanimous constancy to be present at the Crucifixion of her dear Son.
For she had said in her heart (where she ever Luke 2.19. treasur'd whatsoever was Prophesied concerning his Person) I will wait, and expect the Death of my Beloved. I will follow him out of Jerusalem, tho' with the saddest thoughts; and I will behold with weeping Eyes, whither they bring him, how they strip him, how they bore his Hands and Feet, how they nail him to the wood, and how they lift him upon the Cross; and when all this is done, and they shall recede from him, and stand afar off, and look upon him as accursed, then will I draw near and stand by the Cross of my Jesus; then will I embrace the wood with my Arms and wash it with my Tears, and kiss it with my Lips; and thô I may not die with him, yet will I fix my Eyes upon him, to engrave his wounds deep in my Heart. I will [Page 246]not now desert him dying, who past by all other creatures and Children of Men, to come to me the lowest of his Servants, and receive from me an humble being; But I will see how he goes out of this World, who alone know how he came into it; and in the miserablest kind of Fellowship will suffer invisibly in my Heart, whatsoever he suffers visibly in his Body. And thus was fulfill'd that Luke 2.35. Prophecy of old Simeon which he spake at her Purification, That a Sword also should pierce her very Soul.
Here then we may imagine the saddest conflict between the Soul of the Blessed Virgin, and the Eyes of the Beloved Jesus, which at the same time they were hastning unto Death, were call'd back to look upon his Mother burning in an unutterable Flame of Love. O how deep must the rays of that Vision penetrate, not only her Heart but her very Soul, wherewith the Lord vouchsaft to behold her, dying? And how opprest with Sighs, and overwhelmed with Grief, and drowned in Tears, did she lift up her Eyes to behold his disfigur'd, torn Body with the Blood distilling from the four great Wounds; [Page 247]to behold him dying, and looking upon her, when she was ready to die her self? There could nothing be represented to him in this view but the Martyrdom of the Soul of his dear Mother: Nor could she do any thing but by most passionate reflections imprint in her heart all the Torments which he suffer'd.
At last after this most passionate and doleful interview, wherein the rays of their afflicted Spirits transfixt and wounded each others Soul, even to the agonies of Death; he (to teach us the tender respect and faithful care due to our temporal Parents) having nothing now left free but his Tongue, directs it to her, to support and comfort her with the most proper Appellation, and Provision, which the time and circumstances of his passion would permit, saying, John 19.26. Woman behold thy Son.
For thô he had usually call'd her by this John 2.4. Name, to show he was truly born of her, and thereby had fulfil'd the Gen. 22.18. Heb. 2.16. promise to Abraham, taking on him his Seed, and being made of a Gal. 4.4. Woman; yet more especially in this juncture he seems to do it in compassion to her Person overwhelm'd with [Page 248]Grief and surrounded with Enemies: Lest by any kinder sort of expression he might add to her excessive sorrows, or by his owning her for his Mother, by calling her so, the Barbarous multitude might be enraged against her. but this general term secured her from that danger, whilst at the same time it raised her attention to what he spake for her consolation with respect to his beloved Disciple who stood near.
As if he had said, I know, O Woman, the inexpressible anxiety of thy tortur'd mind, the tender Love, Compassion, and Sorrow thou must needs have for an only beloved Son, dying the most ignominious and painful Death. I know also thou standest here wishing by thy presence to revive me, to die with me, or to die for me; and all these things I kindly accept. But alas, they do not more ease me then they wound me, unless I might be restor'd whole to thy breast which is so sorrowfully afflicted for me; without that all remedies are vain, all comfort is to no purpose.
Nevertheless seeing in the bitterness of thy Soul, pierced through with so many sorrows, thou expressest to me the tenderness of the most compassionate [Page 249]Mother, thou art not to be left without consolation, and the last kindnesses my circumstances will permit.
Thou seest in what Torments I hang here, with what difficulties I am straitned, in what agonies I decay, at what a price and loss I redeem Sinners, with what Love and Charity I embrace Mankind. It remains only now I should likewise support thee, who hast done to me the best offices of an earthy Parent, and from whose Love none of these Ignominies have separated me. Fear not therefore to be deserted after my Death, or to want a representative of my Filial care: There is John thy Kinsman and otherwise most dear to us, he shall become thy Son in my stead, to observe and honour thee all the days of thy life. To whom I will now speak in thy presence, and deliver him in my place thy Servant and Guardian. Then turning to that Disciple, he said, John 19.27. Behold thy Mother.
John, thou hast hitherto abundantly answer'd thy calling, by Faith, Love, and Constancy to the End: And I will now reward thee in a more excellent manner then ever thy desires could wish or hope. Thou hast Mark 1.20. left thy Calling, thy Parents, thy self, ventured [Page 250]with me into the John 18.15. Judgment Hall, follow'd me to this Golgotha, this place of Death, and here attendest me while all the rest of my Disciples being ashamed and afraid have forsaken me and fled, and I will now recompence thy Faith in me with the greatest pledge and assurance of my Love. Thou hast seen my Glory in my John 17.1, 2. Transfiguration; Thou sawest me yesterday sweating in the M [...]rk 14.33. Garden; Thou seest me now bleeding on the Cross. I have hitherto carried thee John 13.23. leaning on my Breast, nor have I witheld any Mystery from thee, and now having but one thing dear to me in the World (besides the Souls for which I die) I recommend and commit it to thy charge. Behold, the Mother of Christ becomes thy Mother. Thou seest me now near Death; Thou seest mine acquaintance are hid out of my sight; Thou seest there are many Adversaries on every side: I assign, commend, and make her thine. And do thou, as a Son, Obey and Minister to her, Defend and Honour her all thy days, being assur'd as thou acknowledgest her for thy Mother, I shall acknowledge thee in Glory for my Brother.
At the sense of this, the Holy Virgin Mother disolving in Tears, and into the Love of God, answered in thought, wanting Language sufficient to express the Transport of her tender Affection; and the obedient Disciple with a profound and joyful Humility took her from that time into his [...], John 19.27. care, and Administred to her as a Son.
Prayer.
O Love Incarnate, the most sensible of all Loves, who having been begotten by Eternal Generation, knowest the Love of an Eternal Father; and born in time, has experienced the kindness of an earthy Parent to a beloved Son; and hast taught us by thy Example, Obedience to both, in the worst of Afflictions, and Death it self: Implant in our Hearts an intire resignation to the Will of our Heavenly Father, and a true Honour for our Earthy Parents; that so we may be partakers of that happy Condition which isExod. 20.12.promised to the one in this life, and of those everlasting Joys which thy Coheirs through thy intercession, hope for in the other.
SECT. XLIII. Of Christ's complaining of his being forsaken of God.
THere is a secret pleasure in doing Acts of Grace, tho' we our selves are in the greatest straits; for being a Ray of Divine Goodness communicated to us for the Glory of God, it carries along with it a pleasing satisfaction, a reward surpassing all carnal enjoyments. By which there may seem to have been hitherto some allay of Joy scatter'd among the sorrows of this Crucified Love, while he was doing things agreeable to his nature, pitiful towards his Enemies, gracious to the Thief, careful of his Mother, bountiful to his Disciple. But now whatsoever might support him begins to fail, and the wrath of God due to the sins of all mankind pours down upon him in a full storm: insomuch that nature her self becomes confounded at the sufferings of her Heb. 1.1. Creator, and draws over her Face an unusual veil of weeping Clouds and thick Darkness, to express [Page 253]her Grief, conceal the Tragedy, and hide her self from the wrath of the Almighty. For it was now full Moon (at which time the Sun cannot suffer Ecclipse) the Passover being always Exod. 12.18. Lev. 23.5. Numb. 28.16. then celebrated; and yet there was Matt. 27.45. Origen contra Cels. l. 2. Tertul. Apolog. Aug. Ep. 80 ad Hesychium. Suidas in vita Dionysii. Darkness over the whole land from the sixth hour until the ninth, that is from Vid. Sect. 33. twelve to three in the Afternoon. Which as it declar'd the Divinity of our Saviour to whom the Creatures pay'd such an acknowledgment, so did it demonstrate his Purity and Innocence at whose Sufferings the Elements were thus troubled, and was also a sign to that Rebellious People who had so often John 2.8. desir'd one from Heaven, and a sad presage that the light of Truth was shortly to be Luke 19.42. hidden from their Eyes, and that both they and all that deny him should be cast into Matt. 8.12. outer Darkness.
All this while the Divine Nature rested that the Human Nature might suffer; but it upheld the Humane, that that it might overcome. Till at last Jesus wholly opprest with the load of his Fathers wrath, and quite wearied with the pains due to our sins, cryed out or [...], Matt. 27.46. roared in the most lamentable manner, My God, My God, Why hast thou forsaken me?
Which violent Ejaculations gave an evident proof of the truth of his Humanity, and of the greatness of his Sufferings, for the confutation of all future Hereticks who should either deny him to have been Man, or to have truly suffer'd in the Flesh: The voice of so Dismal and Terrible a cry being a sure sign of an inexpressible Grief, and that it proceeded purely from Humane Affections.
Nevertheless he complains not in the least of his ignominious punishment, cruel pains, or any other desertion whatsoever, tho' there were so few of his friends with him, and his very Enemies stood from him at adistance, not only as accursed but an infectious Object: But he complains only of his being forsaken of God. That's the height of all Sorrows. That's the Abyss of the state of Misery: For where God is not, all is Hell.
What, could God forsake his Son? or did not Christ see the Heb. 12.2.Joy that was set before him, and to which he should arrive through that cloud of Affliction. Yes he did? But not to comfort him All things were now tending to compleat his Passion, to add extremity to his Pains, and infinity to his Miseries. [Page 255]For it had been determined by the councel of the Godhead, that his Glory should encrease his Shame; his Knowledge, his Grief; his Majesty, his Misery; his Happiness, his Punishment. O what a Rom. 8.32. delivery, (as speaks the Apostle) what a desertion, and giving up was this! Where Strength was the Tormentor, Knowledge a Vexation, Joy and Glory a Persecution. Are all the Sufferings that ever were in the World comparable to those of the Crucified Jesus? Or did ever any Martyr before cry out, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
As if he had said, O my Eternal Father, the Father of Mercies, and the God of all Consolation, I turn to thee but neither seek nor obtain any Relief, or mitigation of my Torments. For I voluntarily submitted my self to this burthen, and whatsoever thou shalt add to it I will patiently bear. Nevertheless, tho' thou succourest not my complaints, yet will I not cease to declare my Grief; least I should endeavour by my silence to frustrate my Enemies of their Joy, or seem not to suffer for 'em, what I do. Who, tho' they see my body torn on this Gibbet, may yet imagine my mind to be untoucht, [Page 256]and that I suffer but as others have done. I therefore testifie, and with this my speech declare the inward anguishes of my Soul to all these who here afflict me, and thus I imprint it in the hearts of all those who shall hereafter believe on me, (for thy desertion is the height of all my Miseries, a desertion properly due to their Persons) My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
Others invoke thee but once as their God, because tho' they want thy Glory, yet by their Sins they deny thee: But I call upon thee, as my God, and my God, both as partaker of thy Nature, and as a fulfiller of thy Divine Will. And yet thou castest me away from thee, and makest me to suffer, the Just for the Wicked, at the hand of the unjust. Thou deliverest me up to Sinners to be slain by 'em, for their Sins. Thou severely chastisest thy own Son, that thou mayest spare thy Rebellious Servants. Behold I am Psal. 88.3, &c.counted as one of them that go down into the pit, and even as a Man that hath no strength. Free among the dead, like unto them that are wounded, and lie in the grave, who are out of Remembrance, and cut away from thine hand. Thou hast laid me in the [Page 257]lowest Pit, in a place of Darkness, and in the Deep. Thine Indignation lyeth hard upon me, and thou hast vexed me with all thy Storms. I stick fast in the mire, where no ground is. I am come into deepPsal. 69.2.waters, so that the floods run over me.
I am destitute of thy Help, debarr'd of all Comfort, suspended from Refreshment; nor does the Blessedness of my Glory relieve me, or make my Cross less dolorous. Without me are aggravating Circumstances of misery; in my Flesh is Pain; in my Soul is Anguish, intolerable Anguish, even unto Death. My Flesh is most afflicted, because most sensible. My Soul is most straitned, because most understanding. My Flesh grieves, and my Soul Grieves, and what does not grieve, being cast out of the Comfort of thy Sight? Tribulation and Anguish Tyrannize over me, and every moment, by every thing, my Sorrows are enlarged.
I grieve for the Abuse of thy holy Name. I grieve for the Trouble of her that bare me. I grieve for the Pusilanimity of my Disciples. I grieve for the Scandal of all that believe on me. I grieve for the Errour of these that crucifie me. I grieve for all the Sorrows the Saints have suffer'd, or ever shall [Page 258]endure for my sake. I grieve for the ungrateful, who shall crucifie me Heb. 6.6. afresh, and put me hereafter to the like open Shame: But especially for all those, who once believing on me, shall afterwards, apostatize from the Truth (there remaining no more Heb. 10.26, 27. Sacrifice for their Sins but a certain fearful looking for of Judgment and fiery Indignation which shall devour them.) That after so many Sweats and mortal Agonies my precious Blood should be spilt in vain; and that of so many Millions, who might now be brought through the Red-Sea of my Blood, out of the Bondage of Sin, there is none to give Glory to God, but this Stranger, and he a Thief, who enters with me into the promised eternal Rest.
Why hast thou delivered me? Why hast thou forsaken me? Why hast thou subjected me to this Sorrow, this Death? Why am I destitute of Divine Consolation, abandoned to Humanity, and deliver'd as a Prey to all the outragious Sadnesses of Mind? Are all my Sufferings but for one, or hast thou not laid on me the Isai. 53.6. Iniquities of all? O! how great and intolerable is the Guilt of Sin, for which thou wouldst have my Blood to expiate; for which thou hast [Page 259]exposed, delivered, and forsaken thine only begotten and beloved Son? O! my God, who can be able to comprehend the force of thine Anger, but he that feels it; or even feeling it, among so many Perplexities, to recount the Effects of thy just Indignation?
O thy admirable and ineffable Love, which in this method of Wisdom and Mercy thou hast declar'd towards the unworthy Sons of Men! Thou wantest not the Good of all the Creatures, being compleatly happy in thy self; nor is thy Glory encreas'd by their Haleluja's, or diminish'd by their Blasphemies, yet thou exposest me thy Son, thy only Son, the only Son of thy Love, the Darling of thy Bosom, and the Delight of Angels, for sinful Man, for Dust and Ashes, for a thing of nought; and makest me in his stead, a Psal. 22.6.worm and no man, the very outcast and off-scouring of the people.
But so it has pleas'd thee, Eternal Father, Lord of Heaven and Earth, and I thank thee. And if there be any thing more, lay it upon me; I gratefully accept it; I am ready to suffer it. My God, my God, our Will is the same: Mine is, That thine may be done; thine is. That I should save Man.
Great is the Power of the Pains I suffer: But much more violent are the Ardours of my Love. That though thou should'st yet further desert me, and wicked Men become never so ungrateful; yet will I not be separated from the Love of thee, or from the Love of those whom thou hast given me. No, thou hast forsaken me, lest thou should'st forsake me. Thou hast humbled me, that thou mayst exalt me. Thou hast cast me away, to receive me more honourably.
Hear therefore thy chastised Son, who languishes under thy Wrath for the Guilt of others, and cries for Mercy upon their Souls. Hear, O hear, who hast sent me to this end that thou mightst accept my Sufferings for them. My God, my God, I know thou hast forsaken me, for a sure Token thou wilt never forsake them, for whose Pardon, and Salvation, Behold, I dye
Prayer.
Propitious Wonder! forsaken of God, that I should never be forsaken; and dying upon the Cross, with unconceivable Pains, commensurate to thy Love and the Misery of Mankind, that I should live with thee eternally. By what Names shall I adore thee? By what Title shall I magnifie thee? All are too short, too scanty, to express thee. Love, only Love, nothing but Love will reach thee, my Jesu, thou art all Love. No Sufferings, no Love has ever been like thine for me: No Grief, no Love (but thy own) should ever exceed mine for thee. O purest, tenderest, dearest Love; refine, soften, sweeten and love me into all Love like thy self. Let me live, O my Saviour, by the Love of thy Cross; let me glory in it; let me study it above all things. In the Love of thy Cross let me take up my Cross daily, and crucifie my sinful Lusts and Affections, which persecuted, tormented, and crucified thee.
SECT. XLIV. Of Christ's Thirst upon the Cross.
BY this time the external Injuries of Wind and Heat, the internal Violence of incessant Pains, the continual Distillation of his precious Blood, together with the intensive Longings of his Soul after the Salvation of the Nature in which he suffer'd, above all, his Sorrow for the present Desertion, had reduc'd the holy Jesus to a Feaverish Drought, and the last Struglings of an exhausted Life; by declaring of which he might move their Humanity, as well as signifie his infinite Affection towards it. And therefore, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Psal. 69.22. Scripture might be fulfilled, he saith. I John 19.28.thirst.
And surely since they had heard, That whosoever should give a Matt. 10.42. Mark 9.41. Cup of cold Water to drink, in his Name, to the meanest of his Servants, should in no wise lose his Reward; and seen so lately how bountifully he had remunerated the poor Thief for a Verbal Acknowledgment; [Page 263]we might justly expect so small a Kindness would easily be granted in his last Extremity, which was impossible to restore his flying Spirits; but graciously accepted, might be rewarded with everlasting Comforts in his Heavenly Kingdom.
Let us see then what Commiseration this so beloved People have for this excessive Lover of their Salvation, that, for the Love of it, would be deserted of God, and purchase it at the Effusion of his inestimable Blood. Let us see, whether first their Hands will administer Water to cool and moisten his parched Tongue, (according to the Psal. 22.15. Prophet) now cleaving to his Gums, or their Eyes yield Tears to refresh his Soul.
He thirsts for their Redemption through intolerable Anguish, but calls 'em not to partake in his Sufferings for it: Nor does he propose an Oblation for their Iniquities, to be procur'd with Pains or Cost, at the Expence of dissolv'd Pearle or Diamonds; but gives an Opportunity, by shewing his Necessity, for that so remunerable Refreshment of a little Water.
He had pass'd the sorrowful Night without Sleep, in Travels, Reproaches, [Page 264]and bloody Sweats: In the Morning, he had been hurried a second time to the Council; thence to Pilate; from him to Herod; from Herod again to Pilate, and there scourged; and immediately thence to Golgotha with a ponderous Cross: He had now been above three hours nail'd to it, his Blood and Vital Humour continually distilling; till his natural Powers were quite drained, his Strength Psal. 22.15. dried up like a Potsherd, and his Heart in the midst of his Body like melting Wax.
And is there none of those who have applauded his John 7.46. Doctrine, admir'd his Matt. 9.33. Miracles, administred to him of their Luke 8.3. Substance, confess'd and own'd him to be a Matt. 21.11. Prophet in Israel, and the Matt. 14.33. Son of the eternal God; that will relieve him with the common Element which Providence has prepar'd for every Creature, and not deny'd to the Matt. 5.45. Unjust?
The Water is not here to be fetch'd this Son of David with the same Peril it was brought his 1 Chron. 11.18. Father through the Camp of the Philistines from the Gates of Beth-lehem: Nor is there any great Gulf between him and them, as in the Luke 16.26. Parable between Dives and Lazarus; but it is every where ready at hand, and [Page 265]such as we are commanded not to deny an Rom. 12.20. Enemy.
Besides, is not the Cause of this Necessity the Travel and Pains he has endur'd for them, lest any thing should be wanting to their Salvation? Is it not his immense Desire of their Welfare which has reduced him to this sad Extremity? Is it not the last they can give, or he will ask, being now ready to depart out of the World? Is it not that which he will infinitely remunerate in the general day of Retribution, when he shall say to them that gave it, Matt. 25.35 Come ye blessed, receive the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world: For I was thirsty, and ye gave me Drink.
But instead of it, they prepared a Vessel of John 19.29 Vinegar, such as might mock his intolerable Thirst, and by retaining his Spirits, only prolong his Torments; wherewith they filled a Spunge, and put it upon Hysop, and put it to his Mouth. They had before afflicted him in all other Parts, his Head with Thorns, his Face with Buffets, his Back with Scourges, his Hands and Feet with Nails, his Body with shame; and in all other Senses, his Feeling with Pain, his Hearing with [Page 266]phemies, his Sight with Abominations, his Smelling with the Ordure of their Infernal Mouths: And now, as if they intended the last Sense he should suffer in, should be the same in which Gen. 3.6. Eve first offended, and Providence would make use of them to fulfil the Psal. 69.21. Scripture, they gave him Vinegar to drink.
This was all the Kindness the Son of God received at their hands for whom he died. This was all the Refreshment the Beloved of the Father was allowed while he thirsted for the Redemption of Sinners: And he who feeds the Earth with the Dew of Heaven, and fills all things living with Plentifulness, wanted himself, that we might enjoy Rivers of Pleasures in the coelestial and eternal Paradise. Thus he suffer'd for our Ebriety and Intemperance, in all Senses, for all our Sins; and dried up himself, who says in the Gospel, John 7.37. If any man thirst, let him come to me, and drink.
Prayer.
O, my dear Jesu, Life of my Life, and unexhausted Fountain of Mercy, which can never be drawn dry; to what sort of Sufferings has not thy Love Subjected thee for my sake, that thou might'st purifie my Soul, [Page 267]and present me unblamable to thy Heavenly Father? To what sort of Gratitude should this induce me, who know thy Blood to have been drain'd for me, but a thankful Remembrance of thy Death, and, after thy Example, an universal Charity to all that stand in need of it? Yea, I will receive the Cup of Salvation, and I will call upon the Name of the Lord. I will magnifie his Mercy, in shewing forth his Death, and with confident Expectation of his coming again to Crown me with the Purchase of his precious Blood. And though I am unworthy, through my manifold Sins, to offer unto him any Sacrifice at all, yet will I present my Soul and Body to be a reasonable, holy, and lively Oblation; not doubting but in Mercy he will accept my Service, and with the same Affection wherewith he thirsted for me.
SECT. XLV. Of those Words of Christ, It is finished, and the Resignation of his Spirit to the Father.
WHen Jesus therefore had received the Vinegar, (all Prophecies being then fulfill'd as far as belong'd to the Life of the Messiah) he said, John 19.30. It is finished, or now is compleated whatsoever was predicted in the Scriptures of my Person, to the end that Men might believe that I am he who was ordain'd by the eternal Wisdom and Mercy to be the Saviour of the World, and so believing, escape Hell and Death, and be adopted into the Inheritance of the Son.
A dreadful Speech to the Powers of Darkness, and to the Enemy of our Salvation and God's Glory, the Devil; all whose Desires tend to Damnation, and whose Prey are the Souls of Men: As if he had said, Satan, Thou hast hitherto tried all thy Wits to destroy me and my Gospel, and frustrate the Happiness of all that should embrace it. [Page 269]Thou hast sow'd thy Tares and the Seeds of Ingratitude in the Hearts of this People, to whom I was Matt. 15.24. first sent as the chosen of God; exalted their Fury, blinded their Judges, animated their false Witnesses, extorted my Death.
By thy Instinct, one of my Disciples betray'd me, another deny'd me, the rest have forsaken me, and all my Friends stand afar off, or dare not own me in this ignominious place. By thy Stratagems the Jews have rejected me, my Followers despised, and these Infidel Soldiers, to consummate thy Malice, nail'd me to this Tree. But now the Quiver of thy Rage is empty, and all thy Mischiefs shall return upon thee: Nor shalt thou only have nothing in me, but shalt lose many Millions of Souls by me. Thy Force shall be abated; Thy Kingdom wasted; thy Wickedness restrained; thy Acts ridicul'd. For behold by me is finished what the Father hath appointed; by me is finished what the Law required; by me is finished what the Prophets have foretold, as necessary and circumstantial to the Work of Redemption. The Types are compleated: The Shadows are abolished: The Malice and Violence [Page 270]of the Enemy endured: And the Sacrifice offer'd which God has requir'd. Sin has an end: Righteousness begins: The Law is fulfill'd, and the Gospel Succeeds: God is reconciled, and Man redeemed.
Thus did he terrifie the Infernal Powers with the same Word which supports the Faithful with the highest Consolation that Heaven can give, or Earth is capable to receive. For if all be finished, there is no room for Fear. A Shield is given us against all Evils. The Lust of Sin, the Sting of Death, the Power of the Grave, and the Fiery Darts of the Devil, all are vanquished, and we are more than Conquerors through him that has loved us; and not we alone, but his precious Blood is sprinkled backwards to our first Parents, and forwards to the last Man that shall be upon Earth, though not fully in Possession, yet in hope; and there is now no Rom. 8.1. Condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.
After this, there remain'd only the Recommendation of himself, and of all those, whose Reconciliation he had wrought, to the Divine Majesty, to be accepted, protected, govern'd and preserv'd, till they might be glorified in [Page 271]his Heavenly Kingdom: Which made him seal up his dying Lips with a loud Cry, uttering these Words, Luk. 23.46. Father, into thy hands I commend my Spirit.
My God, my God, my eternal Father, behold me on this Pile, Sacrificed to thy Justice, according to thy Will, pre-determin'd of me, and my Desire from the first Moment of my Conception; thy Pleasure having ever been engraven in my Heart with a Chizzel of Fire and an eternal Character, so that I have wisht it, I ever would it, and I will protest it with my last Breath, while my Soul shall be upon my Lips, To have but one only Desire in the World, to accomplish what thou hast pre-ordained to be done by my Obedience for the Salvation of Men. And now, O Father, I have endur'd with Patience all the Storms of thy just Indignation, I come to thee, who art the desirable Haven of all that obey thee, and seek for Rest. I have manifested thy Name. I have glorified thee on Earth. I have finished the Work thou gavest me to do. I now return, offering up my self upon this Altar of the Cross, a full, perfect, and sufficient Sacrifice, Oblation, and Satisfaction, for the Sins of the whole World. [Page 272] Psal. 4.9. I will lay me down in peace, and take my rest in thee: for thou shalt make me dwell in Safety. Psal. 16.11. Act. 2.27.Thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell, nor suffer thy Holy One to see Corruption. But thou wilt gird me about with gladness; and for my obedience unto death, wilt highlyPhil. 2.9.exalt me to be a Prince, and a Saviour, and give me a Name above every Name.
Together with my Spirit, I recommend into thy Hands my dear Purchase, the Souls of Men, saved from Destruction by the Effusion of my Blood: For they are mine by Right of Redemption, and I have adopted them into the Heavenly Family: They are mine by Right of Conquest, as Trophies gain'd from Death and Hell; The erring Sheep Luke 15 6.9. I have travelled seeking, and now come home bearing on my Shoulders; the Pieces I had lost, and now have found; come, and let us rejoyce over them together.
Let them be ever precious in thy Sight, as Members entituled to the Privileges of the Head, the same Rom. 8.11. Spirit remaining in me and them. Neither let any Torment molest them; but wipe away all Tears from their Eyes: Preserve, cherish, and receive them into thine Embraces, as thou receivest [...] [Page 291]doing it (tho' at the Miracle of his recovery) had been actually cast out.
It had been safer to have owned him living, and more honourable to have profest his Truth while he went about Acts 19.38. doing good, and John 7.46. spake as never Man spake, and the People accounted him a Luke 7.16. great Prophet, and said, he had Mark 7.37.done all things well: But to hope for any thing from him when condemn'd as a Malefactor, forsaken of his Disciples, and Crucified, and Dead, this is the great Labour and Work of Faith.
Yet these having obtain'd the Body of Jesus, that Adorable Gift and Heavenly Treasure, were not ashamed to take it from the Cross with great diligence and many Tears; nor did they care what others would say of so contemptible and vile a ministry, tho' they expected a Thousand censures for so doing: To whom the Holy Virgin-Mother resorted, supported by Mary Magdalen and the other Mary who had accompanied her at the Cross during the fiery Tryal, that she also might embrace the body of her Son in the most Passionate and Tender manner that could be exprest by a Person that was Holy and Sad, and a Mother weeping for her Dear Son.
But admirable were the Supports and Comforts of her Faith which she had built upon those Prophesies which concern'd his Resurrection and Glory, and which she had always laid up in store against this great day of expense, or else she had died at so sad a Spectacle. And now that she saw her Holy Ofspring had Suffered all that our great Necessities or the malice of the Enemy could require, (after she had bathed his cold Body with her warm Tears, and made clean the surface of the Wounds with her gentle affrighted Hand) she deliver'd a winding sheet to Joseph of Arimathea, and gave him in charge to Enwrap the Body, and Embalm it, and compose it to the Grave, having first Metaphr. Angust. 15. exhorted him to a publick Profession of what he was John 19.38. privately till now; and he obeying the councel of such an excellent Person, assisted by Nicodemus wound it in fine linnen and a composition of Myrrh and Alloes, and laid it in his Mat. 27.60.own new Sepulchre which he had hewn out in the rock, John 19 42.wherein was never man yet laid, thus making him a Grave with the Rich, and at the same time with the Wicked, the rock in which, it was being part of the Mount Calvary the common place assigned for the Burial as well as the Execution of Malefactors. [Page 293]And having thus by rare Acts of Providence fulfill'd literally what had been predicted of his Sepulchre, they rolled a great Matt. 27.60.stone to the door of it, and departed. And the Luke 23.55, 56. Women also which came with him from Galilee beheld the place and how his Body was laid, and they returned, and prepared spices designing to have embalmed him more diligently afterwards, and rested the Sabbath Day according to the Commandment.
O Happy Persons who had the Grace and Priviledge to be serviceable in so Pious an Act to their Lord, who is now Honoured in all the Churches of the Faithful, not only as a Man, but as God and Man; who lies no longer in the confines of the Grave but sits at the right Hand of God in Heaven, and whose very Sepulcher is so Honourable to this Day, that not only Christians but many Thousand Heathens go in Pilgrimages to Jerusalem to see it!
Behold O ye great ones, and let the Passion of Christ have the same operation in your Hearts. Consider whether in like manner you ought not to abhor whatsoever may seem to please you in dishonour to it. I fear Belief [Page 294]would never be so unfruitful, were it not preceded by the Death of Virtue: And I am sure, but for Atheism or Prophaness, nothing would be more welcome to your thoughts than the remembrance of this Crucified Saviour. Joseph and Nicodemus have interr'd him in the Grave: It remains you should receive him into your Souls, by doing those offices of Piety and Charity which may declare you his true Disciples. You have those Abilities which rightly bestow'd become as sweet Odours to the Body of Christ, and these you should extend to his Mystical Body, to show what you would have done to his Natural, had you been with Joseph and Nicodemus on Calvarie. It only appertains to carnal Spirits, who want Faith in the House of Faith to prefer Riches above Religion, and their Worldly affairs to the Service of God; and it is the part of Sensual Souls, Black and Distrustful, Pusillanimous and Faint, to startle at the Vocation of a Suffering Jesus.
Learn then O ye Nobles hereafter to value your selves not by those frail perishable Blessings which environ you, and are common to the Wicked; the skin which covers you, and daily withers; those false Ornaments which disguise [Page 295]you, and are borrow'd from other Creatures; those supposed beauties which are never nearer ruin then when they most Sparkle with Lustre: But open your Bosoms to those fair hopes wherewith the Faith of Christ replenishes the Heart, and you will find what a Nothing of Time's Eternity all other things in the World possess.
And let all those, who have hitherto Persecuted and Crucified him afresh by their manifold Transgressions, resolve for the future to attend his Service, and conspire in Loyalty what they can to uncrucifie him. Let them ascend the Mount Calvary and salute his Holy Steps: We Kiss his steps when we Love his ways, and humble our selves, and follow his Paths. Let them on their Knees approach him on the Cross, and reverently cover his naked Body: We cover him when our Charity clothes his Servants, and hides the infirmities of his little ones. Let them with diligence unfasten the Nails, and gently draw them out of his Hands and Feet: We draw them out when we freely obey his Will, and loosen our Affections from cleaving to the World. And when they have thus rescued their adorable Lord, let them Nail themselves in his stead to [Page 296]the Cross: And this we do when we put off the old Man, and Crucifie the Flesh with its Affections and Lusts.
Prayer.
O Blessed Jesu, whose Sacred Body was laid in a Sepulchre after thou hadst Suffer'd Death for the life of my Soul; make me so frequently to renew in my mind the memory of thy precious Death and Burial, as may put me upon a serious preparation for my own. And since thou didst not design to stay any longer on Earth then till thou hadst made a way for thy ransomed to pass; let not my heart be set on any condition, how comfortable soever it may appear to my senses, which may make my Soul desire to be absent from thee. But cause me to grow daily less and less affected towards the uncertain pleasures of Life, and more and more in love with thy Eternal Joys. Grant me, My Redeemer, a true Penitent Heart for all my former neglects of Thee. Deliver me from the punishment my Sins deserve, and from the Sins that deserve those Punishments. That when I close mine Eyes in Death, I may rest in thee; and being absent from the Body, may be refresht in the Repositories of thy Mercy. So shall my Time be govern'd with thy Grace, and my Eternity Crown'd with thy Glory.
SECT. XLIX. Of the Sealing and Watching the Sepulchre of Christ.
NOW the Chief Priests and Pharisees upon mature Consideration, revolving all the accidents of the past day, and comparing the circumstances of his Words and Actions with the Predictions of the Prophets concerning the Messiah, and the wonderful ways by which they were compleated, and especially remembring those Mystical words (which before they pretended they could not understand, and Vid. Sect. 16.r.s. wrested to a seditious intent against their worship) of his building again in three days the Temple they should destroy; and that he had given such his restoration from the Dead, as a Luk. 14.29, 30. sign at their request, to convince the World of his Truth; they came to Pilate early on the next day that followed the day of the Preparation being the great Sabbath of the Pascal week wherein all other People were at their devotion and Prayers (so restless [Page 298]and industrious were the Powers of Darkness to have buryed the Gospel in the Grave of Christ) and said, Mat 27.63, 64, 65, 66.Sir we remember that that deceiver said while he was yet alive, after three days I will rise again. Command therefore that the Sepulchre be made sure until the third day, lest his Disciples come by night and steal him away, and say unto the People, he is risen from the dead: So the last error shall be worse then the first. Pilate said unto them, ye have a watch go your way, make it as sure as you can. So they went and made the Sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch.
Thus did that obdurate and impenitent People harden themselves by those wonders which should have wrought their Faith and Conversion, and justly feared the last error would be worse then the first, hereby Prophesying ignorantly against themselves: For their Sin became unpardonable, because seeing they would not see.
But, blessed be God, all their obstinacy has been subservient to the Magistery of his Providence which orders all things prudently by the means of others. They thought to have accomplished their malice against Christ, and at the same time fulfill'd the determinations [Page 299]of his Will. They thought by sealing the mouth of the Grave, and setting a strict Guard over the Corps, to have buried his Memory in perpetual silence, and all the while were giving Testimony to his Resurrection, and setting a sure seal to the Truth of his Divinity: For securing and watching the Sepulchre with such diligence they have placed the Resurrection (the Foundation of our Faith) beyond doubt to future Ages, and much firmer then if they had never watcht.
This is that which gives Glory to the Empire of Christ, and whereby we perceive its Divine Power and the miraculous extent of its Conquests, whose establishments have been so contrary to all humane ways. When we consider how he was exalted by the lowest abasements, glorified by his ignominies, enriched by his Poverty, lives by his Death, and is Eterniz'd by his Sufferings. And that our Religion, ever oppos'd by the Wicked, is nevertheless Victorious and Triumphant over impiety, enricht by its Losses, Glorious by its Persecutions, establish'd by its Totterings, and honour'd by its Wounds. This is that which transports humane understanding into an admiration of the [Page 300]greatest of our Christian Profession.
Prayer
O Crucified Jesu, the Fountain of Love; Let the wonders of thy Mysterious Incarnation and Death, set all the Powers of my Soul on work, that I may desire and pant after thee; that I may Admire, Adore, and Imitate thee; that I may take sweet and Heavenly delight in the Communion of thy Cross; that I may with Praise and Thanksgiving, receive thee into my Soul, attend, and watch thee, till thou arise with thy Graces there. There will I Love, only Love, always love to entertain thee.
SECT. L. A Reflection on the foregoing History, with Thanksgiving for the Death of Christ.
AND now, my Soul, thou hast seen this Great Mystery, God Incarnate dying on the Cross, to make satisfaction to the infinite Justice by the dignity of his Person, Suffering in the Nature which had offended, whereby thou art raised to a lively hope of obtaining Heaven, which otherwise thou hadst lost, and been for ever miserable in Hell: with what words, with what Affections, with what Actions wilt thou glorifie the Author of so inestimable a gift as this?
O depth of Love! Abyss unsearchable of the infinite Mercies of God! That God should delight to make his own Son a Sacrifice, who would not suffer Abraham to offer his! That God should design it from the foundation of the World, foreseeing we should stand in need of it, and without it perish Everlastingly! That God should reveal it when we no ways deserv'd it, nor [Page 302]could on any account hope for it; and command us to seek the Benefits of it, and enable us to obtain them by his preventing and assisting Grace! O God Eternal, who hast redeemed my Soul by the precious Blood of thy dear Son; I am less then the least of all thy Mercies, and of all that Truth which thou hast revealed to thy Servant. I praise thee, I bless thee, I worship thee, I extol thee, I give thee thanks for thine infinite Compassion, O Lord God, Heavenly King, God the Father Almighty.
O Lord the only begotten Son Jesu Christ, Lamb of God, Son of the Father that takest away the Sins of the World, have Mercy upon me, receiv [...] my Prayer, and unite me to thy self in the flames of Love: For thou only art the Saviour, thou only O Christ with the Holy Ghost art most high in the Glory of God the Father.
Glory, and Honour, and continual Thanks be given to Thee, Lord God Almighty, The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, for the Redemption of the World by the Death and Passion of Christ, whereby thou mightst exalt us to Eternal Life. Amen.