Contemplations and Devotions, Part 26
XXVI. His fide is pierc…d with the Speare,Ioh. 19.34 whereat there flowes out water and bloud.
THeir Sabath now drawes on, Ioh 19.31.wherein 'twas not lawfull to beare a burthen, that their crosses therefore might keepe their Sabaoth too (so full more of ceremony, then mercy is superstition) they, even the crosses shall not beare their burthens neither on the Sabath, but the legges of the crucified are to be broken, the sooner to dispatch them out of the way; but our Saviours willingnesse to dye for vsus, prevents this their superstitious cruelty, they find him dead to their hands;Ioh. 19.33. yet see how easily desire spreads, and itches into opinion, their owne eyes shall not make them beleeve him already dead, not quite past suffering, vntill they have with a speare search'd for life at the Well head it selfe, the heart: how truely might the Prophet say,Ier. 17. that the sinne of Iudah was written with a pensill of iron; how well might hee himselfe complaine, after all suffering they hauehave added wounds, sence, or life either, are not bounds wide enough for their malice, his life may, but that has no finitum est, no, not with his s…ffering; and yet cannot all their malice breake the least bone of him, how plainely doth he herein prove himselfe the true Passeover, of which not a bone must be broken, Exod. 12.and so of him to the Psalmist. He shall keepe all my bones, Psal. 34.16.so that not one of them shall be broken. It is the generally receiv'd opinion, that the Souldier who gave this wound with the speare, was one Longinus who before this was blind, but by vertue of that precious bloud that (here) sprang out on his eyes, from our Saviours side, hee had his sight restor'd, and was herevpon converted, and after became Bishop of Capadocia, and in the end dyed a Martyr; how-ever, Physitians (as Austine speakes) are vsually liberal of others bloud, but as sparing of their own; here 'tis not so, insteed of the Patients arme, 'tis the Physitians owne side that bleedes, insteed of a Lancet a Speare, and that in the hands of a blinde Chirurgion, and yet as blinde as hee was, how right did …ee hit the veyne, that veyne which was the fountaine of all our happinesse, of both his Sacraments forthwith there came out water and bloud. Ioh. 19.34.Here was that fountaine opened to the house of David for sinne and for vncleanenesse, here's bloud to expiate sinne, Zach. 13.1.water to wash away vncleanenesse, what other is it but that river of Paradise parted into foure streames, flowing into the foure parts of the world? what but the dore of the Ark, of the true Arke of the covenant, the onelyonly Arke of safety from the deluge of sinne and death, a dore of vtterance, Col. 4.and of entrance too, whence flowes to vsus the water of life, where opens to vsus a Sanctuary from all the pursuits of persecution; the Evangelist might happily have allusion to this vse of it, as of a dore, in vsing that word to expresse it, he sayes not penetravit, but aperuit latus: nor is this wound given but after death, to shew that 'tis by his death onelyonly,Heb. 5. the way is made into the heavenly Sanctuary: thus God brings light out of darknesse, and makes the worst of their malice to serve his mercy and our advantage, what they make a wound, he makes a dore, an everlasting opened gate of grace, of glory, what they vse as a speare of cruelty, hee makes a key of comfort,Re…. … a key which onelyonly opens that way into Paradise, which the Cherubims sword had so long kept shut; this day shalt thou be with mee in Paradise: what other is this speare to vsus, but the rod of Moses that fetches the true water of life, Psa 28.4out of this the onelyonly rocke of our salvation, to make way for vsus into the flowing Canaan of his side; Eve was built out of Adams side a sleeping, ….and here our Saviours spouse too his Church, is built out of his side a bleeding; Adam was first cast into a sleepe, and so is he here first cast into the sleepe of death, his death was no other then a sleepe; I lay mee downe and slept: Here Ioab againe strikes Absolom thorow the side with a speare, hanging on the tree by the hayres of his head; when he had taken our sinnes and rebellions on him, our Saviour was a very Absolom, an Absolom the sonne of a King, fayr… then the sonnes of men, whose death pacifies the Kingdome, 'tis by the hayres of the head too that he hangs thus on the tree, our sinnes he had made his, and they were more in number then the hayres of our heads; by those hayres is it that ou… Saviour here hangs faster then by all their nayles, thus the fiercenesse of man shall turne to Gods praise, Psa. 76.10.thus God can turne the bitterest waters of Marah, of malice, into the wholsome streames of his mercies, of his mysteries. But,
(O Lord) thou that breakest the bowe, and knappest the speare in sunder; what meanest thou here (Lord) to be thus both tortured living and wounded dead? Wilt thou keepe nothing whole, nor without nor within thee: thy Apostles they are scattered in the Garden, thy garments at the Crosse, thy bloud how many wheres? thy skinne they have rent with their whips, thy eares with their blasphemies, thy back they have cloven with their furrowes, Psal. 229.3.thy hands and feete with their nayles, and wilt thou yet have thy heart cloven too by their speare? would they with the sp…are kill thy soule too with thy body? what can the speare here search for in thy heart, who onelyonly art the searcher of all hearts? doth it (as David speakes) make inquisition after bloud? Psal. 9.12.alas, how should it hope for any more after all these showers, these flouds already spilt; doth it here seeke for thy Disciples? they are fled; is it thy spirit? that is gone to thy Father: thou tellst mee (Lord) of many mansions in thy Fathers house already, and art thou still making more for mee in thine owne heart? thy beloved Disciple leaned on thy breast, but wilt thou make a dore for me into it, that I may lye yet neerer in thy heart? O let me not or ely (with Thomas) put in my hand, but my heart too into this thy wounded side; as Ioseph did by thee, so doe thou by me (Lord I beseech thee) ever in my greatest distresses take mee from the Crosse, and in this thy Sepulcher, thy side, give my restlesse heart a reposefull Sanctuary, put me (as thou didst thy servant Moses whē thou passedst by) into a cleft of the rocke, this cleft of thee the true rocke of my refuge, Psal. 11.so shalt thou passe by my sinnes, and I shall see thy glory. One of this side of thine there flowed not bloud alone, but bloud and water, as they flowed together out of thy pierced side, so let them ever (Lord) flowe together into my wounded soule, both the bloud of iustification by faith and the water of sanctification by grace; those which thou hast ioyn'd, let me not thinke to sunder, water and bloud, 'tis thine owne rule, except thou wash me, I can have no share in thee: Io. 13.8.thou art made to vsus (sayes the Apostle) sanctification and redemption, 1 Co. 2.not the one without the other, 'tis a safe rule, what thou hast wrought for me, that in some measure thou work'st in me; thou hast not suffered for me, vnlesse I suffer too vnderunder the burthen of my sinnes, thou wert not crucified for mee, except I be crucified too to the world, Gal. 6.and it to me, thou dyedst not for me, vnlesse sin dye dayly in mee, thou hast not risen for mee,1 Co. 15. except I rise too out of the insatiate grave of customary sinning,Pro. 30. and that to newnesse of life, that life of grace here,Psa. 84.12. or never hereafter to that life of glory.
The servant must be as his Master, shall I thinke to be a servant and not a follower, be thou then (Lord) as my price, so my patterne too, as my Mediator so my mirrour, give me not only of the bloud of thy side to expiate my sinnes past, but of the water too that I thirst not after them againe. Ioh. 4.Curiosity (Lord) it is the morall speare, that not content with what flowes from thee, presumes to search into thy heart for secrets, in some things let mee affect rather a contented ignorance, then a curious knowledge, rather modestly doubting with safety, then wittily determining with danger, rather leaving it doubtfull whether or no thou went'st locally into hell, then to goe thither to see, in some things admiration is safer piety, then apprehension.