Exposition of the Apostles Creed, Part 2 · Sermon 17
Of the Passion of Christ.
LUKE 24.46.
Thus it behoved Christ to suffer.
ALL our Saviours life was a continual Passion. For who knows not that Christ and his Cross were never parted? and therefore we no sooner confess that he was borne of the Virgin Mary, but we almost with the same breath acknowledge that he suffered under Pontius Pilate; we may well begin with Christ in the Cratch, because we must end with him on the Cross.
Phil. 2.6, 7.He suffer'd when he became man, his very making being indeed his marring; For whereas before he was in the forme of God, now he became in the forme of a Servant; emptyed, or rather emptying himself of his glory, and fill'd with shame and disgrace. Go to Bethlehem, and there you may see him laid in the Manger, wrapt in clouts, bleeding by the edge of a sharp knife, borne in a stable,Mat. 2. Luke 2. Mat. 8.20. not so happy as his own creatures the foules and the beasts; for whereas the least of those have nests, and the craftiest have holes, he had not whereon to rest his head. And was not this to suffer, think ye? He beginning and his end suit too well. Sic opor…uit Christum nasci, sic mori. So to be borne, so to die: In both Thus to suffer. Nay, the very innocency of his infancy could not secure him from a Tyrants sword. His life was even then sought for,Mat. 2.16. as the poore infants round about Bethlehem too well felt. The point and edge of that sharp weapon, was even dull'd and blunted with the blood, or rather milky gore of those pretty innocents:Verse 21. Which Rachel mourned for, and he himself also condol'd, as suffering in his members. And he had suffered this cruel stroke of death in his own body, had he not suffered another way, viz. a long and tedious journey into Egypt; and what wants he suffered by the way, or there, God knows. The 22. Psalme, which is a prophesie of his sufferings and death,Moller. Luke 2.51. Mat. 13.55. Justin Martyr. Mark 6.3. carries the Title of Cerva Matutina, a Hart rowzed early to be hunted in the morning. I pass by those thirty yeares he liv'd with his Parents, and was obedient unto them, in all which time his condition could not be very plentiful, since his father was but a poor Carpenter, and he with him, as Justine Martyr was bold to say, busied foreign, in making Beds and Ploughs; as if he would undergo that penalty laid upon man,Gen. 3.19. In the sweat of thy brows thou shalt eat thy bread.
The time is now come, that he must manifest himself to Israel, Luke 1.80.and now his sufferings became most manifest. He is hardly used by the devils,Mat. 4. and by men. The devil meets him in the Wildernesse; and, as it is the nature of base spirits to trample and insult over those that are down, takes occasion from his wants and extremities, to assault and grieve him. He tempts him to unbelief, to presumption, to Idolatry. One repulse would not check this engineer of mischief.
Out of the Wildernesse he comes to seek the lost sheep; but Lord,Mat. 10.6. Heb. 12.3. Psal. 140.3. how many indignities doth he suffer from his own Nation! his life being nothing else out a gain-saying of sinners. Their tongues runne upon him, and the poyson of Asps couch'd in their lips, is maliciously disgorg'd in his face. First they endeavour to take away his good Name, after his life. The very vilest aspersions they could invent, they cast upon him. By ones censure he was a Samaritane, and had a Devil; By anothers a mad man,John 8.48. Mark 3.21. Joh. 7.12. Luke 7.34. John 15 24. Mat. 12.24. John 9 16. Mat. 13.55. John 7.52. who so mad as to heare him? One while he was a Seducer, another a Wine-bibber, a gluttonous person. Though he did works among them, that no man ever did or could do, yet these must be traduc'd, and the Devils power be rather brought to help, than his Name have the glory; He cast out devils? Ay, by Beelzebub the Prince of Devils. This man is not from God; the farthest he can fetch his Pedegree, is from the Carpenters Shop, and his country from G…lilee, and we know that no good thing can come from thence. Thus, thus they did descant upon him with their tongues.
And their practices were correspondent.John 9.34, His followers they excommunicated. There was a Decree already enrolled, That if any man confessed him to be the Christ, he should be thrust out of the Synagogue. John 11.53.And against him they call'd a Council, in which it was enacted, That he must die. And from that day forward they gave an expresse Command,Ver. ult. That if any knew where he was, he should shew it, that they might take him.
Such were the General Sufferings of our Saviour; but the Particulars far more ignominious, farre more grievous. These in the Scripture are properly call'd the Cross of Christ, being all those calamities which he suffer'd from his last Supper until his Death, in his apprehension, accusation, condemnation, execution.
One of his own family, to put him to the greater grief, must be hired to betray him: He knew where to find him, he knew when to take him alone, apart from the multitude, of whom they had some suspition of rescuing him. Judas is the man,Mat. 27.5. Joh. 12.6. one that he trusted and honoured with the Pursers place, made the receiver and dispenser of all his treasure, as if he purposely would keep him from this treason. This Judas is hired for a little money to sell him and deliver him into his enemies hands:Luc. 22.4, 5, 6. Zech. 11.4. Thirty pieces of silver, a goodly price whereat the Son of God was valued. But yet this is too too common; none sell Christ sooner then those that need not:Gen. 27.28. Thoseupon whom God hath bestowed Jacobs blessing, the fat of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine, make the quickest merchandize of their God.Josh. 7.21. 1 King. 21. If they as Achan, spye a wedge, though it be of consecrated gold: or with Ahab a piece of land that lies neer and convenient for them; Religion, Conscience, Honesty shall be set to sail, rather then they will fail in their purpose. Gain with these men is godliness; and where they are inconsistent, godliness shall give way to gain.1 Tim. 6.5. Acts 19.25, 26, 27. Sirs, see you not, that by this way we get our living? why then should this Paul, or any of his fellows, that speak against our silver shrines, be suffered to preach any longer?
But I proceed; See what a goodly company this perfidious Traitour had got about him.Mat. 26.47. As is the man, such are his associates: A multitude with swords and staves,Luke. 22.47. a band with clubs and armes to attach his Master; before whom he as some great Commander marched, gives them the word least they should mistake; Whom I kiss, that's the man; and a caution, least he should escape: Take him and lead him away foreign,Mar. 14.43, 44 safely; belike he was affraid least he should lose his money, if he escaped.
ver. 35.By this time suppose this goodly train with Traitour Judas were come to the Garden, the place where Christ pray'd, where he waited for them. Another man would have retired,Joh. 18.4. he goes forth to meet them; the Lamb confronts the Wolf; asks what they would, and whom with their stave they sought? particularly Judas in a friendly manner,ver. 6. wherefore he was come? they upon the question step back and fall to the earth; what Conquerour ever did the like? they have beaten their enemies with their arms; Christ a band of armed men with one word;Leo de pass. ver. 1. his voice hath power in it; Quid faciet judicaturus, qui hoc fecit judicandus? And if his voice were so powerful when he was to be judged, how powerful will in be when he shall come to judge? He could as easily have thrown them into hell, as cast them to the earth; but in a just occasion of anger he remembers mercy,Luc. 9.56. sav'd their lives that sought his, because he came to save the life, and not to destroy. But Judas, nothing daunted at the overthrow of his lewd rabble, steps forward and seals his kiss upon his Masters lips; this indeed he did with a bended knee,Mat. 26.49. and a dissembling tongue: Haile Master, was the language with which he kil'd him. Judas is dead, but his posterity are yet above ground; never such a generation that kiss and kill as now: Many an enemy to Christ speaks him fair,Mat. 7.22. salutes him with Lord, Lord, tell us all they do it to advance his Kingdom, and set up his Throne, when yet they are Tra… tors to him in their hearts, and pull both down: But tutum silentij praemium, and therefore I forbear.
Judas had no sooner acted his Treason, but the Officers immediately execute their Warrant,Mat. 26.50. Joh. 18.12. Mat. 26.55. for they lay hands on him, and hold him fast; and as if he had been some notorious malefactor, they bind him, and carry him away: We read of no complaint till now, but now we do; What, are you come out as against a thief with swords and staves? No courtesie or fair usage can reclaim a disloyal malicious nature: He spared the…r lives, when they fell before him to the ground: He healed Malchus ear smitten off by Peter; they had seen his wonderful power in word and deed,Luk. 22.51. that had tasted of his bowels of love and mercy extended to them that sought his life, and yet they proceed in their malice. They unmercifully manicle those hands that cured them; they disgracefully pinnion those arms that raised them.
Ecce, manus Jesum inte…ea post terga revinctum
Tota cohors magno ad Caipham clamore vocabant.Virgil.
Undi{que} visendi studio Judea juventus
Circumfusa ruit, certant{que} illudere capto.
But these were his sworn enemies; he could expect no better from them. To break his heart the more, his lovers and his friends stood afar off. Psal. 38.11. Zech. 13.7. Mar. 14.31. vers. 50.Now was fulfilled that of the Prophet, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered. The eleven Disciples that he chose to be with him, and who had promised to dye with him, rather than deny him; even these, all these forsook him and fled. Take notice what friends the best men are, and then the worst, of no good condition; both like leaves that fall off in the winter, when the trees have most need that they should hang on.
Two of these indeed somewhat bolder than the rest, follow to the high Priests hall, but not there with any intent to confess or vouch him,Joh. 18.15. but out of a loving curiosity to know what would become of him; both secretly for fear of the Jews. John by favour gets somewhat nearer, but Peter follows afar off;Luk. 22.54. That Peter, that would dye with him; that he would; that Peter, who, though all the world should forsake him, yet he would not; that Peter, Luke 22.50.who like a valiant Champion manfully draws his sword and cuts off an ear in his Masters quarrel, now comes lagging after in the Rear, follows indeed, but along like a coward. Let him that stands take heed lest he fall; Rom. 11.20.since such as he had chosen, such as had believ'd in him, such as had confess'd him, preach'd, and cast out Divels in his Name, flie, and fall thus fearfully.Luc. 10.17.
Hitherto I have presented you with the first and second Act of this lamentable Tragedy. In every Scene whereof you may behold the Indignities, the Disgraces, the Discomforts suffered by the Son of God, from his Birth to his Apprehension: And now these Actors go off the Stage, and new appear. The high Priest Caiaphas, the Elders and Scribes, with the whole Assembly begin to Act their parts, but with so much malice and injustice, as was never save once parallel'd.
2. The examination of our Saviour before Caiaphas and the Council, and thereupon the Indictment drawn.
Their proceeding was judicial by a Legal form; a form I say, for there was much packing in it, as there is too often in tryals of this nature; where the person to be araign'd is condem'd before he is heard. But you'l say, what suspition could there be of any unjust practice, where the High Priest, and the Lord chief Justice had the hearing of the matter? For he was examined and tryed in both Courts, Ecclesiastical and Temporal,Joh. 18.13, 28. before Caiaphas the high Priest in the great Consistory at Hierusalem, and before Pilate the civil Judge in Praetorio or the Hall of judgement. But both Courts condemn him too too often; Pilate the President with the Assembly of the Elders, joyn together to condemn the Innocent King of the Jews.
He is first brought to the house of Annas, that forsooth they might honour the Father in law of the high Priest,vers. 13. vers. 30. with the first sight of so notorious (as they thought and call'd him) a Malefactor; but from him he is amanded to the man of Authority, the Superintendent Caiphas, who was High Priest that year:vers. 24. vers. 19. There he is examin'd of his Disciples of his Doctrine: Of his Disciples he answered nothing. He could truely and passionately exclaim, that one of them sold, betray'd him, and the rest fled and left him. But he accuses not so much as the Traitor Judas; patiently he went to his death, without any invective against friend or foe.vers. 20. For his Doctrine he refers the High Priest to his Auditors; He taught in the Synag…gues, and in the Temple, nothing in secret: And therefore he might call witnesses enough, if he preach'd any Seditious and Erroneous Doctrine.vers. 22. Upon which modest and reasonable answer, one of the pickthank Officers more forward than the rest, as if Christ had forgot good manners, strikes him on the face, saying, What, answerest thou the High Priest so? vers. 23.This was the first blow our Saviour received, and he puts it up without either shew of dislike, or ill word, replying calmly, that if he had spoken evil, he might bear witness of the evil; if not, it was an injury to be so light finger'd. O admirable pattern of patience! he meant to teach us in Gods cause being strucken,Luk. 6.22. to turn the other cheek.
By this time the Court was full; for the chief Priests, and Elders, and Scribes were all assembled;Mar. 14.53. not to see as men in place and authority ought, that there should be a fair and a just proceeding against the Prisoner; but with a malicious thirst for his blood.vers. 55. Be his cause never so just, himself never so innocent, concluded it was that dye he must. They were able to return Caiaphas words (for to him now he was brought) upon himself,Joh. 11.49. that he knew or understood nothing at all; To go secundum allegata & probata, by indictment and proof, would be a long and an uncertain way; they knew a quicker and surer course:Mat. 26.60. Mar. 14.57. Two perjur'd villains would do the deed, and an oath by them made an end to a…l the strife. A course too well known, and too wickedly practised in the world at this day, when many an innocent is outed of his life, honor, land, possession, by suborn'd and forsworn witnesses. But it was in the night when this deed of darkness was done, and none follow it but the servant of the Prince of darkness.
Their own consciences could not choose but tell them, that to plot thus for the blood of a man, had he been a malefactor, was an unjust course. However this way is approved: where the wood is sere and dry, what a small spark kindles it? False witnesses were sought for; were these Judges or Wolves think you, who did not deliver as they ought, but thirsted, as they ought not, after the blood of an innocent Lamb? what needed all this ado? dye he must, that was decreed: A sentence from the High Priests mouth would have done the deed without any more trouble. Ay but a legal tryal would have a fairer colour of a just proceeding, the packing discern'd by few; or if that, who durst open his mouth against this high Court of Justice? Hypocrites so they can avoid the sword of man, little regard the all-seeing eye of heaven.
Long it was ere they could find these, for they sought, but found none to their mind, for their witness agreed not together. I fear me, had they liv'd in our times, they might have met with them sooner, and Jurists more cunning.Mat. 26.60. At last appear two grave Knights of the Post, and they depose, that they heard him say, I will destroy this Temple made with hands, and raise it up in three dayes; Joh. 2.21.and was not this true? were they not his own words? No such thing, either for matter or manner. Nor for manner, for he said not, I will destoy, but bade them do it: Do you destroy; not for matter, for he said, this Temple, meaning his Body; they added, made with hands, which his was not, being fram'd by the Holy Ghost. Thus they chang'd both words and meaning, an usual property of false witnesses.
To this scandalous accusation Christ answers nothing. A foole is not alwayes to answer according to his folly.Prov. 26.4. Besides, at this time he was to suffer, not to contest, and to contend; Like as a Lamb brought to the slaughter, to dye,Isa. 53.7. not to cry, and therefore he opened not his mouth. Such also hath been the patience of the Saints, who being reviled, reviled not again; suffering,2 Pet. 2.23, 21. they threatned not, but committed their cause to him who judgeth righteously, following his steps who left the example.
His silence and patience the Chief Priest admires, and therefore the better to pick out matter of accusation, adjures him by the living God,Mat. 26.63, 64. that he tell them whether he were the Christ, the Son of God: Jesus though silent before, yet in reverence to Gods Majesty, returns a plain answer, Thou say'st it, or thou hast said the truth, for I am he. O thou hard-hearted Jew, look no more for another, never stand gaping for a Messias longer; for another thou shalt never see,Ver. 64. till thou see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven. Behold, he hath told thee.
Truth to some ears is the most unwelcome errand: So it was to these Jews;Ver. 65. to them a true assertion was blasphemy, and upon the hearing of it, they fall to tearing of their clothes, whereas they should have torn and rent their obdurate and malicious hearts in which there was so much envy, hatred, and injustice concieved against the person of our Saviour. Now saith Caiaphas, What further need have we of more witnesses? the blasphemy was apparent to them,Ver. 66. so that the whole Assembly, as if they had but one tongue, joyn in his condemnation. He is guilty of death; so went the general vote, and therefore let justice be done upon him: Guilty of death? how was that possible? could that innocent, who never did any thing amisse deserve to dye?Luk. 23.41. could the Lord and giver of life become worthy of dearh? could the breath of our nostrils, deserve himself not to breath? He was worthy ten thousand of us, nay all of us,Lam. 4.20. and was he now not held worthy to live? He was the Repairer of the breaches, the Redeemer of the guilty, the Enlarger of the Prisoners;2 Sam. 18.3. and must he be now broken and found guilty, and come into bonds himself? Yes, yes, so it must be; thus it behoved Christ to suffer. Guilty of death he is, and worthy to dye; but not for himself, not for any evil he hath done.Joh. 11.50. One man must dye for the people; better one than all the Nation perish, saith Caiaphas, ignorantly indeed, though maliciously. Our person he sustained, and our person brought the guilt upon him: 'Twas not his own, but the sin of the Nation that brought him to his end. The guilt of death was our portion, our desert: His, because he would be made sin for us: The Lord hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all.Isa. 53.6.
But suppose he were worthy to dye, was it not fit he should dye quietly? what Malefactor being to be condemned is taunted, and scoffed, and mocked, and abused at his Arrainment and Trial? This Anointed was;Mat. 26.67, 68. for no sooner the vote was passed; but they began to spit in his face, to buffet him, to smite him, to jeere him, and to say unto him in a scorn, Prophesie; nay the abjects did smite him with the palms of their hands, Certant illudere capto. Not these undeserved blows could light upon his cheeks without a Prophesie; nor those filthy excrements upon his face without a Prophesie:Isa. 50.6. I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off my haire; I hid not my face from shame and spitting, saith the Prophet in his person. The beauty of that face which glads the Angels, is deform'd with their filthy spittle; those eyes which see all things, they Hypocrites as they are, hope to cover and put out with a poore vaile: He that knows all things past, present, and to come, and revealed them to his Prophets, is here derided as if he were some blind Wizard, or ignorant Fortuneteller: Thou the Christ, thou the Messiah!Joh. 4.25. when he comes he shall tell us all things; if then thou be he, riddle who it is that smote thee. In this sort did these scorning mates insult over the Lords Anointed in his misery: He had from them bitter words, and harder blows, and yet both these were but the beginning of sorrows.Matth. 24.8.
Matth. 26.69, &c. Luke 22.55. Joh. 18.25.Here I may not forget, that in the midd'st of these indignities he receiv'd one blow that went nearer his heart, than any he received from their hands: It was a blow from Peters tongue: One blow did I say? nay three, one after another, and every one greater than other. The first at the fire, when he simply denyed him; the second in the porch, when he denyed him with an oath: Neither of these blows could be easily borne; but the last was untolerable, when he began to curse and swear that he knew not the man. At this blow, as I may so say, our Saviour did startle, he looked back, and he looked upon Peter, pittying the weakness of man in his fearful servant; upon which he went out, and wept bitterly; he bath'd the greenness of his wound with a river of brinish tears, and that no question gave his Lord and Master some ease: more bitter this blow had been, had it not been for his speedy repentance. If it be our infirmity to smite with Peter, let us be sure to repent with Peter: If any of us wilfully or weakly have denyed and forsworn our Lord and Master, let us with Peter weep bitterly, bitterly I say, for such salt-water may alleviate the sin.
All this was done in the night, a fit hour for such deeds of darknesse. Well,Luk. 22.66. Matth. 27.1. the morning was no sooner come but the house fills. The former examination was in the High Priests house, but this latter in the Council-Chamber: Caiaphas and the chief Priests were assembled before, but now the Elders of the people were added to them: A goodly Council no question, where the Divel was the President, Wolves in sheeps clothing in the Commission, cruelty, ambition, covetousnesse the Counsellours, and malice the Prosequutour.
This grave foreign, for so it is in the Original, this Presbytery of Jews or eldership being set down, the first question that is asked him was, whether he were foreign,Luke 22.67. the Christ, that is, the Anointed. He had said it before, and they no doubt had heard so much, but now they would hear it themselves from his own mouth, that they also might be witnesses against him before Pilate. This King of the Jews answers, that he had told them so much over and over,ver. 67, 68, 69. which if he should tell them again, 'twere to no purpose, they would not believe, or if he shall ask, they would not answer, nor let him go. But whether they believed or believed it not, he assur'd them, as he had done before, that they should see him, the Son of man, whom they now contemned and derided, sit on the right hand of the power of God.
At this without any regard of modesty, law, equity, or justice, in a tumultuous and insulting manner they all vociferate, Art thou the Son of God? Thou? as if they had said,ver. 70. Matth. 13.55. Luk. 7.34. Joh. 8.48. Mar. 3.21. Mat. 12.24. Mar. 14.62. Mar. 15.1. Luk. 23.1. what, Thou the Carpenters Son? Thou the friend of Publicans and sinners? Thou the Samaritan, art mad, and hast a Divel? What art thou now become the Son of God? shalt thou sit at the right hand of his power? shalt thou come in the clouds of heaven? the Crosse is a fitter place, and Thieves on each hand fitter companions for thee: And with that in all haste the whole Council brake up, bound him again, led him away, and delivered him to Pontius Pilate.
3. The Accusation, Examination of our Saviour before Pilate, and his abuse by Herod, &c.
Thus have we presented you with the third Act of this Tragedy, in which Annas, Caiaphas, the chief Priests, Elders and Scribes were the main Actors. I come now to the fourth, where I shall present you with new faces,Ver. 3. an unjust and timerous President, a mocking King, and profane souldiers, but all conspiring the death of the King of the Jews. For that was the first question that Pilate proposed to him.
For the better understanding of this whole Act, consider you must what the state of the Jews was at this day. A little before the birth of Christ, the Jews were subdued by the Romans, who taking the government into their own hands, appointed them Governors of their own. At this time Herod held the jurisdiction of the Northern part, the hilly country toward Galilee; and Pilate was the Deputy in the rest of Jewry. And thus much the Jews confess,Joh. 18.31. Godw. Jew. antiq. lib. 5. c. 7. when they say, It is not lawful for us to put any man to death, that is, in such a case as this, which is plain sedition and treason, especially at this time being the preparation of the Sabbath; and therefore they brought our Saviour to Pilate, that he being the President, might judicially proceed against him, examine, arraign, and give sentence upon him, for that he said he was a King;Joh. 19.12, 15. for you shall find that when all failed, this was the point they pressed home to Pilate.
Behold here the brethren of Joseph rising against their own natural brother,Gen. 37.18, 28 and putting him into the hands of the Ishmaelites; the Jews of whose seed our Saviour came according to the flesh,Mar. 15.10. put the seed of Abraham into the power of the Gentiles; the cause was the very same, envy and malice. This is a raging and heady passion, that most commonly feeds upon blood, oftentimes in act, alwayes in desire. If there be envy in the heart, there will be an evil eye, an evil and bloody hand if possible, and an evil tongue.
This caused them to frame an enditement of several Articles. 1. Of Sedition, 2. Gaulonitism. 3. Treason.Luk. 23.5, 2. A seditious person they charge him to be, stirring up the people, beginning from Galilee to this place; disobedient, forbidding Tribute to be paid to Caesar; and a Traitor, saying, that he was Christ a King; when indeed he was nor this, not that. But this is an old devise of Machevillians, that bring such in danger of the State,1 Reg. 21.10. Act. 24.5. they labor to ruine. Naboth blasphemed God and the King; Tertullus flaunts it out in his Rhetorique, We have found this man a pestilent fellow.
If to stand in the gap, if to maintain the Truth, if to defend the Law, if to preach the Gospel to the poor,, if to heal the broken-hearted, if to preach deliverance to the captives, if to set at liberty those who were bruised,Isa. 61.1. Luc. 4.18. if to preach the acceptable year of the Lord, and to proclaim all these, be to be a seditious person, then the allegation cannot be denyed; for such a seducer he was, and other end in seducing he had not. But if they intend, as they did,Leo. de pass. Ser. 10. one who drew a multitude after him to disturbe the peace and quiet of the Nation, there was nothing more untrue. The first part then of the charge was a manifest aspersion; and the second a flat lye, no better then a starke lye; for how did he forbid the payment of Tribute, who commanded it? confessed it a debt and paid it, foreign; Return, saith he,Mat. 22.21. & 17.27. to Caesar the things which are Caesars. A debt then it is, not a gift, and debts must be paid, Ow nothing to any man. Now that his practice might be conformable to his doctrine, he sent Peter to the sea to fetch so much money out of the mouth of a fish,Rom. 13.8. as should pay for them both. He was then no Gaulonite in the disswasion of Tribute:Joh. 6.15. Neither ever had he any thought of an earthly crown or scepter; when the people sought for him to make him a King,Luc. 12.14. he conveyed himself away and hid himself; nay he would not be so much as a subordinate judge, to divide the land betwixt the two dissenting brerhren; but there is nothing so false, nothing so untrue which a scandalous tongue will not fasten on the Innocent, or the Wolf lay to the charge of the Lamb; he must be devoured, and to that's enough, Pater, mater, omne tuum invisum genus sedulo mihi adversatur; Tu ergo dabis hodie poenas.
Howsoever this last charge because it reflected on the person of Caesar, Pilate takes special notice of it; for the bed and the crown are tender things, they may be no more toucht then the eye. Upon this point therefore he examines him, Art th…u the King of the Jews? To which our Saviour returns a good confession,Joh. 18.33. Mat. 27.11. Thou saist it; as if he should have said, O Pilate, although thou see me sold as a slave, apprehended as a thief, bound like a fool, humbled like a servant, accused like a malefactor, and defamed for raising tumults; yet know, that I am a King; a King I am, but not in your sense; and a kingdom I am over, but not such as Tiberius your master governs; it is not of this world; You rule over the bodies of men, I over their hearts and consciences; you govern by your laws, I by my truth and Gospel; your subjects obey for fear, mine for love; they hear your Edicts, these my voice; yours is an outward and temporal, mine a spiritual and everlasting kingdom. With which answer Pilate rested so fully satisfied,Joh. 18.38. that he went out, and said to the Jews, That he could find no fault in him at all.
Joh. 18.28.But by the way I pray observe, that Pilate went out to them; what needed that? youl say; were not his accusers in the same place face to face? No, they were not: Saint John plainly saith, They themselves went not into the judgement hall, least that they should be defiled; but that they might eat the Passover. What name to call this sin by I cannot well tell, whether superstition or hypocrisie; both indeed it was, and of both in them we have a notable example. They never stick to seek the life of a just innocent man, and yet are very strict and curious about a ceremony. To hire false witnesses to condemn Christ, a trivial matter; marry to enter into Pilates hall would defile them. And doth not Rome afford such superstitious hypocrites at this day? to eat an egge in Lent, a bit of flesh on Friday, is a mortal sin; but to excommunicate and interdict, to embrue their hands in the blood of the Lords Anointed, is a meritorious Act. Thus Hypocrites too often Tithe mint and cummin, and omit the great and weighty matters of the Law. But I must return to Pilate:
Mat. 23.23.Who, when upon the evidence of his conscience he found him Innocent (for he professed I find no fault in him) begins to think of some way to save his life; and three evasions he thinks of; if any of rhem took, he gained his purpose.Luc. 23.7. Vers. 16. Joh. 18.39. Luc. 23.22. First he sends him to Herod; then he caused him to be scourged▪ Lastly he puts it to their choise whether they would acquit him or Barabbas. He that wants an example of a wicked Judge may remember Pilate. For if Christ were by the testimony of his own conscience blameless, why doth he post him over to another Judge? why whip him, why scourge him, why bring him into the scale with Barabbas? Vers. 24.Here he should have interposed his power, and not have delivered him to the will of them he knew to be his enemies. For a Magistrate is a Protector,Is. 1.17. and bears a sword to keep off a blow from the Innocent, as well as a sword to fasten a blow upon the neck of a notable malefactor. Had Christ appealed to Herod, Pilate might well have replyed, Ʋnto Herod shalt thou go. But when he stood to his judgement, he was bound, being an Innocent, or one who had done nothing amiss, to acquit him.
The Jews no doubt were very well pleased with Pilates order. For they little doubted that at Herods hands he should fare no better then John the Baptist, Mat. 14.10.who was Vox clamantis, The voice of one crying; and he that had cut out Christs tongue, was not in their opinion like to spare the head. Thither then they carry him, and present him to the cruel bloody King; in whose dealing observe,
1. That he was wonderfully glad of his comming, for he was desirous of a long season to see him.Joh. 18.8. Desirous to see Jesus? why, who would not? Abraham, the Angels, the whole world desired to see him. Not a house into which he enters, if they bid him welcome, but he brings salvation with him. But this was not it that made Herod glad; he regarded neither his name nor his help. It was meerly to satisfie his curiosity.
2. For he hoped to have seen some miracle to have been done by him. He thought no better of him, then of some Magician or Mountebanke, that being brought into the presence of a King begins straitway to shew his impostures. The very account that Christ finds with great ones at this day, when a buffone with his sophismes and delusions is of great account, but a true servant of his is made a spectacle to men and Angels. O strange folly, to expect a wonder,1 Cor. 4.9. and not to regard his words! God grant many Christians be not guilty of it, who are perfect in the story of the Bible; but for any sound sentence, or forcible argument to direct or reform their lives, they regard not. And this in all likelihood was the reason, that though be asked many things, yet our Saviour gave him no answer, made no Sermon, wrought no miracle before him,Joh. 18.9. as knowing his intention to be vain if not malicious, no way to be bettered or to profit by him.
3. For all this the chief Priests and Scribes desisted not,Vers. 10. Luc. 23.10. they prest the accusation, foreign, they amplified, exaggerated, stretched every circumstance to the height; in all likelihood the very self same matter, which they urged before Pilate, viz. how he moved and stirred up the people, beginning at Galilee, a circumstance which they knew would most nettle Herod, because Galilee belonged to his jurisdiction; malice knows not where to end,Luc. 23.7. being quick to invent, much less forgetful to omit an opportunity that may help on her intended mischief.
4. Now Herod seeing our Saviour stand before him, as he was indeed, a Lambe, a Sheep, took him for a simple man, a man that had tongue enough before an unlettered multitude, but no audacity to speak before him, and therefore foreign, he set him at naught, he plaid upon him,Vers. 11. as if he had been some worthless fellow; and as followers usually follow the example of their King, his men of war did the like. They with him scorned, scoffed, derided him, made a may-game of him, and when they had jeered their fill, they claded him in a gorgeous coat, such as Kings wear, because he said he was a King; and thus clad in scorn sent him back again to the President Pilate. Vers. 12.The conclusion was that Herod and Pilate were friends that day; both though before enemies, yet agree well enough to put the Lords anointed to death. Men of dissenting judgements yet soder and unite,Psa. 105.15. 1 Chron. 16.22. when any mischief is to be done to Christ, or to such whom they are commanded not to harm, no not to touch.
There is, there is such a thing as conscience, that awakes in the heart of the drowsiest sinner. As this carries a whip to punish after the fact, so also it hath a bridle to curbe and restrain before the deed be done. Judas he felt the lash, and complained of it after his treason,Mat. 27.4, 5. I have sinned in betraying the innocent blood; and it lashed him so, that it lashed him to the gallows; a just reward for a Traitor. They bite upon the bridle, that say before the fact, What do I?Luc. 23. Vers. 14, 15, 16 where about go I? how can I do this great wickedness? Pilate at this time champed upon the bit; his very conscience reined him in, and told him, 'twas no good matter he was about; not lawful that a just man should be condemned, and therefore he puts on foot another project to save his life.
A custome the Jews had, that at Easter tbe Deputy should release unto them one prisoner whom they would;Vers. 17. Mat. 27.15. a custom pteserved perchance in memory that they themselves had been prisoners in Egypt, and that at this time they were delivered from thence. Well, Pilate takes from hence an occasion to present unto them Jesus and Barabbas; gold and dirt, a diamond and glass, the Sun and darkness,Joh. 18.39. heaven and hell are not more unlike then Jesus and Barabbas. For Jesus was a just person, one that had done nothing amiss, and of this then witnesses enough, and all his enemies; but this Barabbas a notable theif, one who for murder and insurrection was cast into prison; Pilate therefore imagined that the Jews could not be so notoriously wicked, as to prefer a murtherer before Christ, a malefactor that was not worthy to live upon the face of the earth, before a just man; that then he might this way acquit him, he presented them both together; but behold here the disposition of a multitude animated by those in power; for the people are as water, the breath of a great man the winde that insensibly moves it. This people moved by their superiors streightway clamor, Not this man, but Barabbas; Vivat Barabbas, pereat Christus; Luc. 23.18, 21.let Barabbas live and let Christ dye; away with him, the cross is fit for him, Crucifie him, crucifie him. Could there be a rejection in a fouler degree? Non hunc, not He, Away with such a fellow from the earth, 'tis not fit he should live, had been a soul indignity; but to bring him into the scale with Barabbas, and to make Barabbas outweigh him; to prefer a murderer, a disturber of the peace before him, was an intolerable injury. If it were our case, heaven and earth should ring of it. What compate me to such a Varlet? what prefer him before me? Yet thus it went now, Barabbas is loosed, and Jesus refused.
Still Pilates conscience fretted and chaffed, and murmured within him; it told him, that this was no good dealing thus to condemne an innocent; and to quicken it the more,Mat. 27.19. his wife sends to him, that he should have nothing to do with the blood of that just man; Therefore he casts about, and at last betakes him to a more desperate shift then all the rest.Vulg. Transl. Mat. 27.26. Emendatum dimitteret, he would mend him forsooth (a likely project to mend him, who in his own judgement wanted no mending) and so let him go. No question he thought, that if they had any bowels of men in them, when they should behold him so mended, as he thought to mend him with a whip, they would take some compassion on him, and call no more for a Crucifige.
Prudent. Hierom. Beda. 1 Reg. 12.14. Mat. 27.26. Eustath. Athenaeus Dipnosop. lib. 4.View a little the particulars of this Politique, I cannot say just Judge; he firsts whips him; the ancient Fathers report that it was ad columnam, tyed to a pillar; sure I am it was with a scourge, called in Scripture a Scorpion. For Saint Matthew hath it foreign, He scourged Jesus, in all likelihood foreign, flagro taxillato, in which they tyed certain huckle bones, or plummets of lead with sharp thornes to the end of the thongs, to augment the pains. O foul disgrace and scandal, besides the pain to offer him the shame of this servil and base punishment, not to be inflicted on any but slaves and bondmen,Plautus. Loris? liber sum, saith he in the Comedy in a great disdain, as if being free-born, he held it a foul indignity to have the whip once named to him.Act. 16.17. What scourge a Romane and uncondemned? saith Saint Paul. But this Pilates hall is made the Theater for the whole world; here is such a spectacle as was never seen before. The God of heaven assuming flesh is tyed and bound to a pillar, the Lord of all scourged and whipt like the basest servant. Oh how glorious was the King of Israel to day, who was uncovered in the eyes of the hand-maids of his servants,2 Sam. 6.20. as one of the vain fellows shamelesly uncovereth himself! saith Michal of David in the way of scorn. But here was no jesting, it was thus with the son of David in good earnest; for the true King of Israel hath his garments torn off him, and as if he were unus de scurris, one of the vain fellows, hath his very flesh torn off with Scorpions. And was not this think you a glorious sight?
If you be not moved to compassion with this, go on, and you shall behold the King of Israel in his royalty and glory indeed; in a crown, with a Scepter, in a purple robe,Mat. 27.29. men enough about him, bowing the knee and crying, Hail thou King of the Jews; of the Jews indeed, for none but Jews would ever so have used their King.
A crown, and a scepter, and a purple robe! who can do less then take him for a King? Mark their knees and tongues, and you have less cause to doubt. But go on to the end of the verse, and you shall see to what purpose all this was done; not to his honour, but his dishonour; not to please, but to grieve him. For that tongue which cryed, Ave Rex Judaeorum, Verse 30.spet and spued in his face; and that hand which put on his Crown, knockt it with a Cane fast to his head.
Besides, his Crown was of Thornes. Thornes in their Crowns, that is, sharp-pointed miseries and afflictions Kings too often beare; you know who grasp'd it as sharp as it was. But no King ever wore a Crown made of Thorns besides this one, When they cloath'd him with purple, that went no farther than a jest, but in this Coronation there was paine and torment; for look how many Thornes did enter through his skinne, so many sluces there were for his blood to issue. The blood gusht out, where the Thornes went in; and now stream'd as fast down his face in the Palace, as it did down his back and shoulders at the Pillar.
I should have acquainted you, how before they Crown'd him with this prickly Coronet; they put off his Coat, that garish Coat,Verse 28. in which Herod array'd him, and put him on a purple Robe. O the wonderful patience of the Sonne of God to be thus cloathed and uncloathed; uncloathed and cloath'd by these miscreants! Surely their hatred was so great to him, that by their good wills they would have chang'd him to another: And thereupon it was that they chang'd his skinne, when they scourg'd him; they chang'd his estate, when they arraigned him; they chang'd his dignity, when they scoff'd him; they chang'd his family, when the Officers waited upon him; they chang'd his Name, when they mis-call'd him Seducer, &c. They chang'd his Apparel, when in Herods Livery, and in Pilates purple they abused him. And was not the King of Israel very glorious, this day? this day, when he was thus derided?
Thus derided: But there is a third scoffe no less grievous than the other two; yea, as some think, beyond them; Those touch'd his body, this more directly wounded his honour, which every noble spirit prizeth beyond his life. Kill me, saith Saul, lest the uncircumcised come upon me, and mock me. Now in his Honour, by the reed put into his hand, he suffers:1 Sam. 31.4. For the reed is an empty, hollow thing, naturally without pith in it, by which they would intimate, that the braine and head of Christ was as empty of wit, having no more worth or substance in it, than that hollow Cane; that He was a great mocker, and his Kingdome no other than a great mockery.
And to testifie so much, they bow'd their knees, and whet their tongues. The tongue and the knee are the two chief instruments in our outward worship. God calls for them, he will be adored by them. He swears it in Isaiah, Every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess the Lord. As if he had said,Isa. 45.23. I have sworne, That none shall be so bold to open his mouth, but only to praise me; none shall be so irreligious as to bow his knee, if it be not to worship me. But see here the quite contrary; These miscreants bend their knees, but it is to scoff him; they make use of their tongues, but it is to revile him. On their knees they would prove him to be a fool, and with their tongues they would prophane that very Word by which they should honor. Av…, foreign, Haile, King of the Jews.
And with that they spit in his face, beat the Thorny Crown close to his head. An injury yet offer'd to Christ by notorious sinners. Give over thy lend life, O thou careless wretch! O thou prophane Christian, and they will give over to beat thy Saviour! For know, that so many blasphemies, so much spettle thou casts in his face, so many reigning sins, so many reeds thou break'st on his head.
By this time, out of question, Pilate had well mended him, that is, scourg'd him. Evident it is, that no base Abject was ever worse scourg'd, so Crown'd, more scorn'd, more fouled with filthy excrements, And in this lamentable condition Pilate brings him forth to the people; and to move some pity,John 19.5, 14. he cryes aloud, Ecce homo, See good people, behold the man. A man he is; and can men do less than pity so rueful a Spectacle? A stranger he is to me, not so to you: One he is of your own flesh and blood, an Israelite, and will you not then have some compassion on your kinsman? Do not your bowels melt to see him thus torne! thus mangled! Have you no regard?Lam. 1.12. no remorse? are you not men? Behold the man. The man you have presented to me, scourg'd like a slave, drench't in his own gore, crowned with Thornes, scorn'd, spet on. Never feare he will affect any more Crowns, that hath felt this of Thornes; The purple and reed will sufficiently teach him, that his person was not made to weare a Diadem; nor his hands bound with Thongs, ordained to weild a Scepter. Had he before any ambitious thoughts, by this time they are taken down from affecting Kingdoms.
All this is in Ecce homo. But nor this piteous sight, nor Pilates Ecce, could any whit allay their malice.Mat. 27.22, 23. Luke 23.21. Joh. 19.12, 13. Dye he must, and nothing could satisfie them, till they saw him breath his last. Therefore in a tumultuous manner they cry againe, Crucifie him, Crucifie him; whether he had done evil or not, was not the matter. A seditious person he was; and he that went about to save him,Mat. 27.24. was no friend to Caesar. With this last speech Pilate was conquer'd; though he laboured before for him, yet now he y…elds; at the name of Caesar he shrinks; rather condemn and crucifie a thousand Christs, than be none of Caesars friend. The course of the world right; do any mischief, rather than displease a man in power. Oh such a mans frown or check is a material point; no wise man wi…l hazard it.
Maximus de accus. Domini. Hom. 1. Luk. 23.24.This consideration work't upon Pilate so deeply, that it made him do the foulest Act that ever Judge did. Not the water in the Bason, nor all the water in the Sea, can ever wash cleane his hypocritical hands. It made him condemn the Sonne of God; one, whom himself, and Herod, as he said, and his own wife adjudg'd to be innocent, and in a shameful manner to deliver him to their will. O unheard of sentence from the mouth of a Judge! that a mans enemies should have power in their hands to revenge themselves on a Prisoner, according to their own will and pleasure.
Of the Passion of Christ.
LUKE 24.46.
Thus it behoved Christ to suffer.
5. Of our Saviours Passion.
Mat. 20.17. Luk. 18.31.OUR Saviour going up to Hierusalem, acquaints his Disciples that he should be betray'd to the chief Priests and Scribes, that he should be condemned by them, and deliver'd to the Gentiles, be mocked, spitefully entreated, and spet on, that they should scourge him, and put him to death. And to that I am now come, which is the last Act of this Tragedy, the saddest that ever was presented. The Sunne became pitch, the earth quaked, the Temple split, the graves gaped, the dead awak'd upon the sense of it;Mat. 7.45.1.52, 53. and therefore I hope you will not heare it with a cold heart, with dry eyes. I confess I could willingly wrap up my face in a Mantle, as confessing that I am not able to represent a grief of this depth.
But having presented you with the foure other Acts, I must not like a sluggish Poet, deficere in extremo. My task tyes me to it, and I must present this also, and not faint in the last, and set before your eyes Christ crucified, Gal. 3.1.Christ going to, and suffering upon the Cross. A sad and heavy spectacle in it self, but to us matter of joy. So great joy, that the Apostle in comparison of it, rejects all other, God forbid, that I should rejoyce in any thing, Gal. 6.14. 1 Cor. 1.22, 23.but in the Cross of Christ: and God forbid, say I, that we should rejoyce in any thing, but in the Cross of Christ. For howsoever the Jew looking for wonders, and the Graecian looking after wisdome, do and did both condemn the Cross; the one of weakness, the other of folly; Of folly, that the Sonne of God should leave his Throne for a Cross of paine and shame; that he should there hang, bleed, expire, and die: Yet we, who by this Cross are become heires of the promise, must make it the object of our joy,Heb. 6.17. 1 Cor. 1.18. Isa. 53.5. the only object of our joy. For Christ crucified, is the power and wisdome of God to save all them that believe; and this Cross is the foundation of our Faith, Hope, and Joy. For from his paines it is that we are eased, by his stripes that we are healed; his weakness is our strength, his shame our glory, his death our life. Oh how truly the Prophet said,Lam 3.58. Domini fecisti causam meam! My cause, O Lord, thou hast pleaded, and made good. Mine, not thy own, considering that he had no business to sollicite for himself, no cause to go up to that accursed Tree,Gal. 3.13. Isa. 53.5. except it were to dye for our sinnes, and to pay for our transgressions, for the chastisement of our peace was upon him. Since then the cause was ours, and his the payment and pain, great reason we have to sit down, and sadly to cast up an accompt of what he paid and suffer'd for us.
The last day you beheld our Saviour betray'd by Judas, abjur'd by Peter, forsaken by his followers, apprehended like a Thief, pinioned like a Malefactor, falsely accused, unjustly condemn'd, buffeted, spet on, revil'd, whipt. Now I, nay his enemies bring him to the Cross, where you shall behold his eyes dejected for shame, his eares glowing with taunts, his mouth sowred with Vinacre, his hands and feeet wounded with Iron Spikes, his bones unjoynted, his sinews pricked and strained, his whole body hanging by the strength of his hands and feet, and his heart pierc'd through with a Spear and sorrow.
But before he comes to Calvary, let it be consider'd what he suffer'd by the way. First they disrobe him.Mat. 27.31, 32. The purple Garment put upon him in scorne, was thought too good for him; that then they took off, and put upon him his own. Next they load him with a Cross, as was the custome of Malefactors. Malefici cum ad supplicium educuntur, quis{que} suam effert Crucem. In this Isaac was a type of Christ;Plutarch. de sera. Num. vind. Gen. 22.6. Tertul… cont. Jud. cap. 10. Leo de pass. Serm. 8. August. Tertul. Isaac carries the wood on which he was to be Sacrificed; and Christ a wooden Cross on which he was to suffer. Grande spectaculum, a strange sight; si spectet impietas, grande ludibrium; si spectet pietas, grande Mysterium. Let a wicked man behold it, he will scoffe the King that should carry such a piece of wood for his Scepter: Let a pious soule look upon it, and he will honour that piece of Wood he carried, which he was to fasten in the foreheads of Kings, and the hearts of Saints.
This Cross was so great (for it is supposed, whereas other Malefactors carried but a part, they laid upon him the whole) that he fainted under it. He had lost so much blood before by the Whips and Thornes, that he might well faint now. Not to ease him then, but forc'd by necessity, when Christ had carried it more than half of this Dolorus way, they met with one Simon a Cyrenian, Mat. 27.32. Leo. de pass. Serm. 8.a stranger, and him they compell'd to carry his Cross. Behold for your comfort, the Gentile bears that which the Jew rejected. The Cross of Christ laid upon our shoulders, to protect, to save us, which was cast off, and scorn'd by the hard-hearted Jews.Luke 9.23. Mat. 16.24. You then who are Christians, take it up, beare it patiently, beare it willingly, if God so will lay it upon your shoulders; and joy in this, that your Master hath borne it half the way before you.
In this long and sorrowful procession, I finde not any compassion that any one man had on him. Hard hearts, whom such a rueful spectacle could not move. I hope ours are of a softer temper, that they melt, that they telent upon the rehearsal of this heavy story. Some good Women yet there were, who met him on the way,Luk. 23.27. and with blubber'd eyes, and with bedewed cheeks pityed his case. Christ takes notice of their sadness, and thus bespeaks them, O ye daughters of Hierusalem, Ver. 28.weep not for me, but weep for your selves, &c. Their teares he dislikes not, but he would not have them wasted; not so much out of a sudden passion, as out of compassion, and that of their own souls: For if this were done in the green tree, what should be done in the dry? Ver. 31. Leo de pass. Serm. 10.Is there any word in Scripture that comes warmer to the heart, or any sentence that may sooner startle a secure sinner than this? Si hoc in lign… viridi? If this be the lot of a green Tree? if that be brought to the fire, scorcht, burnt, how quickly will the dry be in a light flame? Lie down with this meditation, sleep with it, wake with it, rise with it, walk with it in your mouths.1 Pet. 4.17, 18. Saint Peter hath thus paraphrased on it, The time is come that judgement must begin at the house of God; and if it first begin there, what shall be the end of them that obey not the Gospel? If the righteous shall be scarcely sav'd, where shall the ungodly and sinner appeare? If the Son of God be thus handled, what stripes shall be given to a bold Servant and a stubborne slave? If the green Tree unapt for the fire was thus hack'd and hew'd, and at last cut down; what shall become of those who are but Sere and dry Trees,Luk. 13.7. Mat. 3.10. that beare no fruit, except it be that which is stark naught, that serve for no use, except it be to trouble the ground? The Baptist hath made the Conclusion for me, Cut it up, and cast it into the fire; Cut up, is no great matter; what should be done with a dry Tree else? but cast into the fire, is part of that judgement which may bring tears from our eyes, and astonishment and amazement from our hearts. Thither the dry Tree, the unfruitful, the impenitent sinner must; and therefore while you have Time, weep for your selves, and with Buckets of penitent water labour to extinguish those flames.
The interval of this meditation hath brought me to Golgotha, an unpleasant,Luk. 23.33. an unsavoury place; unpleasant to the eye; for skulls and bones of dead men, though an useful, yet are but an ungrateful object; and unsavoury to the nostrils, for that heads and putrified limbs of Malefactors rotting in that place, sent forth a most noysome savour.
Here the common Executioner unloads Simon, rears up the Cross, and prepares our Saviour for his death. And now you shall behold the saddest spectacle that ever the Sun before or since beheld, The Son of God hanging upon the Cross, Verse 33.and crucified betwixt two Thieves. That you take the better view of what Christ there suffer'd, I will reduce all to foure Heads answerable to the foure ends or quarters of the Cross. Sanguis Crucis, the blood of the Cross shall be the Latitude.Col. 1.20. Acts 2.24. 1 Cor. 1.23. Gal. 3.13. Dolores Crucis, the sorrows of this death shall be the Longitude. Scandalum Cru…is, the Scandal of the Cross shall be the Depth. Maledictum Crucis, the Curse of the Cross shall be the Height of what he suffer'd. For the death of the Cross is a bloody, painful, scandalous, accursed death.Bish. Andrews of the Pass. Serm. 3. And I am not asham'd to tell you from whom I have borrowed my Method, holding it an honour to me to sit at the feet of so great a Gamaliel, that Learned, Pious, Reverend Bishop of Winchester, who hath so fully gather'd the Harvest of every field he entred, that those that come after him, can pick up only here and there a few scatter'd eares.
1. Sanguis Crucis.
The first thing that men desire, since they know they must dye, is, that they may die Sicca morte, part with the world as men lie down to sleep,Isa. 9.5. 1 Kings 2.9. not by a violent, and untimely death, in garments rolled in blood. When David would lay a burden upon Joab, his charge to Solomon was, His hoare head bring thou down to the grave with blood. A punishment then it is to die weltring in a mans own gore; and where there is the greater effusion of blood, the punishment is the greater. In Christ there was no spare made; poured out it was at every part that could bleed. Well I might say, that the blood of the Cross admitted a longitude, for it carried a length according to the proportion of his whole body, and whole life.
Bernard likens him to a Rose,Bern. de pass. cap. 35. blood red in the morning of his life when he began to disclose, but more red in the evening of it, when he was cropt off. The blood which he shed at his Circumcision, was Sanguis Crucis, The blood of his Cross, because his whole life was Crux & Martyrium, a kinde of Cross and Martyrdome. The Church may well take up Zipporahs words, Truly thou art a husband of blood to me, because of the Circumcision; Exod. 4.25.a drop or two then shed as an engagement for the rest.
And the rest he began to shed in Gethsemani, Mat. 26.36. Luk. 22.44.where he shed drops of blood trickling down to the ground. Enquire and consider whether ever you heard or read the like. The weather was cold, the place open; nor time nor place could occasion sweat. No man by to hurt him, no weapon to wound him; whence then should flow this streame of blood? It should seem by this sweat of his, he was neare some furnace,Jer. 1.13. some fire was sent into his bones. And so it was, the wrath of God for our sinne which he took, was upon him, and this cast him into an Agony, and the Agony caus'd him to bleed through flesh and skinne; not some faint dew, but clots of blood, so many, so thickned, that they string'd down to the earth.Joh. 19.13, 17. Certainly this blood of Gethsemani was another manner of blood than that of Gabbatha or Golgotha either. In the two last no blood issued, but where passages were made for it to runne; This streines out through such small pores, as never blood went. That in some places, this in all.Heb. 5.7. Luk. 22.42. Psal. 75.8. That never caused him to shrink and complaine: But this to send forth foreign, a strong cry; and the matter of the cry was, Father, let this Cup pass from me. In the hand of the Lord there was a Cup; the Wine was red, and full mixt; all the ungodly of the earth must drink of it. About it went, and at last it came to Christ. Why, you'le say, was he one of the company? No, but he was so reputed. He would have had it pass, Praetereat dalix. But it might not be. He knew if we drunk it, it would be our bane. Therefore he took it, and off it went even dregs and all. Now this was it which cast him into this unnatural sweat. He prayes, and sweats, and bleeds in a Garden, for that sin (and wh…t followed) first committed in a Garden.
But this was not all the blood he shed, though the most painful and strange of all the rest. Go along with him from Gethsemani to Gabbatha, and you shall see him bleed afresh. Bleed, and bleed againe. Bleed,John 19.13. Mat. 27. when Pilate scourg'd him at the Pillar: bleed when the Souldiers put the platted Crown of thorns on his head, bleed when his back was straked and whal'd with lashes, bleed when his face was disfigur'd with blood.Isa. 63.2, 3. In his whole body no other colour then that of the red grape, when it is strained and trode in the press. By this time a man would imagine, that our Saviour had lost so much blood, that he had no more to lose; but more there is yet, and more he must lose; for all this would do us no good; it must be the blood of the Cross that must pacifie all things;Col. 1.20. Phil. 2.8. blood joynd with death that must be the price and ransome of the world.
You may then track him all the way by the blood which he shed, bleeding all along to Golgotha, where he bled his last. Here they find instruments to phlebotomize him, nails to dig into his hands, spikes to nail down his feet, and a souldiers spear to pierce his side,Joh. 19.34. if not his heart. The total is Sanguis Crucis, shed in four several places; in the stable at Bethlehem, again in the Garden, twice in Gabbatha, twice in and about Golgotha; six several times he shed his blood for us; he made no spare, that we might have plentifull Redemption.Psal. 130.7.
And when I named that word Redemption, I also named the cause why he would shed his blood,Heb. 9.22. it was meerly that we might be Redeemed. In the old Law, No Redemption without shedding of blood; either the sinner must dye, or else the beast for him;Levit. 3.4. and this was the reason that under Moses no sacrifice could be propitiatory, except it were bloody. The blood of the beast must be shed before the sinner, who was to dye, could be set free, and restored to the favour of God. Christ was the substance of all these sacrifices; their blood the Type of his, and his the power and virtue of theirs; we were the offendors that must have dyed; be or we, that's certain; our blood or his must satisfie; ours could not, because but finite, the blood onelyonly of a creature; his could because of an infinite worth, being by the Mystical union the blood of God, and this he would shed rather then we should dye.
Virgil.Ʋnum pro multis datum est caput.
And so you have at once a full accompt of the blood our Saviour shed for us, and the true cause of this effusion.
2. Dolores Crucis.
But if Bloody, must it be painful too? Yes, it must be so, and that for our good, viz. to free us from pain; and painful it was, if ever any. Can it be thought other where there was so much blood shed? Painful it must needs be to as many parts as the blood came through. Of all that is penal the common division is sensus & damni; we suffer pain either for that we feel, or for that we lose and are deprived of. Our Saviour suffered both ways, in that he felt, in that of which he was be reft, and therefore his Cross must needs be the more painful.
1. Which of his senses was not as I may so say, a window ro let in sorrow! His eyes saw the tears of his mother and friends;Joh. 19.25. and that which the eye sees, the heart must needs grieve at; his ears filled with the blasphemy of the multitude,Mar. 15.29. Mat. 27.41. Mar. 15.23. Joh. 19.29. wagging their heads, and crying, Ah thou wretch, ah thou that destroyest the Temple, &c. His tongue relished the Gall or Myrrh; his nose filled with the noisome savour of skulls in this place of a skull. As for his raiment, his skin I mean, it was of Needlework thrust through and through with nails, thornes, with whips, with a spear.
And yet the stripes in his back, and thorns in his crown, are now scarce worth naming; they were light pains to his nailing to the cross. They were indeed painful, but these foreign, properly streining pains, or pains of Torture; they put him upon the rack, and stretched him as a skin on the head of a Drum, or as the string of an instrument; Hith paredu, Psal. 22.14.separaverunt ossa, they pulled him joint from joint, and limbe from limbe; Ʋsraemeu; or if you will, they strained his body, as a Fuller stretcheth his cloth upon the Tenter, for so the word will bear it; and did I not well then to call this Latitudo Crucis, the breadth or Latitude of the Cross?Vers. 16. And when they had wound him up to the highest pin, they then begin to nail down his hands and his feet. I said too little, it was not bare nailing, it was digging; foderunt manus, they made wide holes, as if they had been digging in some ditch. Now sure this was it which made his pains beyond measure painful; for the Center of the hands and the feet must needs be more sensible then other parts of the body, because in them is a general concourse of the sinews, so that the streining and tearing of these must be an extreme torture.
Adde to this, that his pains in every sense must far exceed what another man could suffer, because the very constitution of Christs body did far exceed any mans, was more delicate then any mans.Thom. 3. part. q. 46. Art. 6. In Christi corpore spiritus sancti opere fabricato maxime viguit sensus tactus; The sense of touching in Christs body framed by the work of the Holy Ghost was most exquisite; neither did he interpose his Divinity by which he would lessen or keep off any pain; nor harden or benum any part, that it should be less sensible of greif; for unicuique virium permisit agere, quod est sibi proprium; He would have every sense,Damasc. lib. 3. every part grieved to the full. Three whole hours he hung there in perfect sense;Luc. 23.44. for whereas the torments of others when they are most violent, do either hasten their death, or overwhelm the sense, and so the pain when it is most violent is least perceived: In Christ it was not so; for he dyed not by degrees as we do; no pangs of death seized upon him before he would;Vers. 46, 47. the Centurion wondred that he should cry with a loud voice and give up the Ghost. Quis tam facile, quando vult, moritur? Who dyes so easily when he lists? for in perfect patience he voluntarily resigned up his soul into his fathers hands; Till then foreign, i. e. foreign. He did tarry, stay, abide under it.
2. And yet all this was but the half of his sufferings,Andr. ser. 2 de pass. and the lesser part by half; for indeed the pain of the Body is but the body of pain; the very soul of pain, is the pain of the soul,Prov. 12.25. which doth so far exceed the other, as the soul doth the body; any heaviness to the heaviness of the heart; none like that, and in that he most suffered;Heb. 11.35. it is evident by all four Evangelists. Wise and resolute men do not complain of a little; Holy Martyrs were racked and would not be loosed; they suffered,Mat. 26.38. Marc. 14.33. Luc. 22.44. Joh. 12.21. endured and complained not. To what pitch then this sorrow came (for I must carry you back again to the garden) when the soul of the Son of God was sad to death; when he began foreign, to be troubled and perplexed, foreign, to be astonished, to be in an agony, to be foreign, besieged, beset with sorro…, when foreign, he was troubled in Spirit; sorrow and a siege of sorrow, fear and an astonishing fear; an agony and a bloody agony; trouble, and troubles of the soul are avouched by them, confessed by himself! Four swords at once, sorrow, fear, a conflict, and trouble peirced his soul; that hour what his sorrows were, it it dangerous to define. To very good purpose it was that the ancient fathers of the Greek Church shut up their Litany in this pathetical form, foreign, By thy unknown sorrows and tortures, felt by thee, but unknown to us, have pity on us and save us. Great they were that caused this unheard of sweat. Trouble, sorrow, grief, anguish, perplexity is always suitable to the apprehension; and never any man was able so truely to apprehend the causes of these passions as himself, and therefore never any so much affected with them.
He saw the majesty of God arm'd with fierce wrath against all the sinners of the world, for whom he had undertaken to answer; this made him fear. He saw the heinousness of mans sin, with which God was displeased; this made him grieve: He saw the Judge on the throne ready to take revenge; this made him to pray,Luc. 22.42. Prae…ereat calix iste. He saw Satan accusing his Elect, this perplexed him. In a word, he saw the necessity of mans damnation if he suffered not; of his redemption if he did suffer; and this made him take the cup, and drink it down. And whilst he was in this conflict of fear, and grief, and prayer, and love, declining and choosing, he sweats and bleeds.
'Tis no wonder if the glory of Gods judgements and the power of his wrath; if the number of our sins, and neglect of our own estate; if the malice of Satan, and the danger of our condition caused Christ, who had taken upon him to be our Surety, out of fear of the great Majesty of the Judge; out of sorrow for the crimes and contempts of the prisoners; out of zeal against the impugner of mans deliverance, thus to Agonize himself into a bloody sweat.
3. And now behold this Hour is over, this hour of pain, of heaviness, of anguish, of sweat, of blood; For an Angel appears foreign, to strengthen,Luc. 22.43. to comfort him; his burden was lessened, or rather his strength to bear it encreased; but within a while there succeeds another, when not an Angel dare look from above to relieve him, not a man on earth stands by him to comfort him.
In this distress then, whence can he expect ease? what from his own thoughts? No not thence, for the influence of the superior faculty of the soul was restrained from the aid of the inferior; not one drop of comfort thence.Aquiuas. Will his father do i…? Yea there was his hope, but that hope failes. He, even He, his Father delivers him into the hands of his enemies, then turns his back upon him as a stranger;Isa. 53.10. the Lord would break him.
This was right Poena damni, all losses light to this; we hear him not complain till now; give ear to his cry, the like was never heard, My God, my God, Mat. 27.46.why hast thou forsaken me! What a word was this to fall from the mouth of the Son of God? My disciples are men, weak and fearful; no marveil if they leave me and fly. The Jews are Jews, cruel, and obstinate; I complain not of, I pray for them; but that thou, O my Father, thou that hast witnessed by a voice from heaven, This is my beloved Son; Thou of whom I have testified,Mat. 3.17. Joh. 8.54. It is my Father that glorifies me, that thou shouldst now forsake me! bring me to this shame and pain, and here leave me! afford me no comfort, no assistance at all! This is a pain beyond all pain; the torments of the body are nothing to this; for to be forsaken of God, is a misery, that the body cannot feel, or tell what it means. This a complaint proper to the soul, and how great the pain is, Jonah in the belly of the Whale, and Job from the dunghill,Jon. 2.4. Job 6.4. Psal. 130.1. and David when he cryed de profundis out of the deep, were best able to inform you; should you fall ever into it, which God forbid, you would confess there were no sorrow like to this sorrow.
Yet to this pass Christ came, he was forsaken, as the Godly complain sometime when they be void of comfort, or destitute of help, left wholly to the will of the oppressor. Leo first said it, and all antiquity hath subscribed to it, Non solvit unionem, sed subtraxit visionem. The union of the two Natures was not dissolved, but the beams and comfortable influence of the Diety was restrained; there was a traverse, as it were, drawn betwixt heaven and him, so that his soul was left as a dry-scorched heath ground,2 Sam. 1.21. upon which there fell nor dew nor rain.
3. Scandalum Crucis.
I have I fear been too long upon this Point, the pains of the Cross, which he suffered in body and soul, and under which he was left. But not too long, if I could raise in you a correspondent sorrow for your sins that caused these paines. For it was for your iniquities that Christ underwent these paines. Now if all these might have been endured Salv… honore, with his honour, it had been so much the less. But to fill up those sorrows, and to embitter these paines, there is yet Scandalum Crucis, a scandal necessarily consequent to this death to be thought on, which caus'd a wise man to say, Plus est etiam quam mors, est etiam mors ignominiosa, Senec. ad Helv. c. 15.It is more than death, for it is an ignommious death.
Dyed Abner as a foole? saith David, 2 Sam. 3.33, 34in great regret for a valiant man. Evident it is that our Saviour died so; as a fool, and as a Malefactor to boot; whence the wise being put in minde of Christ crucified, were wont to stile it The foolishnesse of the Cross. His hands were bound,1 Cor. 1.23. and his feet put into fetters; and as a man falls before wicked men, so fell he. Nay, he fell in the midst of wicked men, as if he had been the most wicked. For they were not content to put him to the death of Malefactors, but to place a Thief on each side; one on the left hand, and another on the right,Luk. 23.23. Lips. lib. 3. Antiq. Lect. and Jesus in the midst, as if he had been the Prince of Thieves. The middle place with the Ancients was most Honourable; and therefore the middle place among Thieves must needs be most dishonourable. And yet thus our Abner died.
Disgraceful that, but more disgraceful this; for shameful it is for any man to end his life upon a Tree; which if it so fall out, yet let him end his dayes quietly, not be scorn'd, and scoffed, and disgraced then; this will add a cross to the Cross. We often prosecute even wicked men to such places with tears, with pity. Our Saviour found none at that houre, not one to say, Ah Lord, or Ah his glory, but even then insultation, irrision, taunts,Jer. 22.18. Psal. 22.16, 17. Mat. 27.39. Ver. 40. Ver. 42. Luk. 23.39. Mat. 27.46. Ver. 49. and scorns to break his heart. They stood gaping and staring upon him, wagging their heads, writhing their mouths, rayling on him, reviling him. Hay, thou that destroyest the Temple, saith one, Come down, and we will believe; Ho, thou that savest others, saith another, now save thy self, and us, quoth the Thief. Yea, in the very instant of his prayer, when he cryed with a loud voice and a bitter, Eli, Eli, they interrupted him with a scornful Sarcasme and a bitter, Stay, let him alone, let us see if Eliah will come and take him down. And thus our Abner dyed even like a fool. And this I call the depth of Christs Cross, because there is no misery will pierce a heart more deeply than reproach and shame; and alwayes the more noble the heart is, the deeper the wound. For two things are most precious; our life, and our reputation; they go both arme in arme. The Cross took away both life and honour; and for both, brought forth another couple, Death and Disgrace upon Him.
4. Maledictum Crucis.
Is there any worse yet behinde? There is. For all this was but a scandal; and a scandal may be cast upon him that deserves it not. Maledictum Crucis, The curse of the Cross is a death of another pitch,Gal. 3.13. and yet this also he underwent for us. So that the Death he dyed, was not only a bloody, a painful, a scandalous, reproachful, but it was an execrable and an accursed death also.
Higher we cannot go, and therefore I call'd this the height of Christs Cross;Joh. 3.14. hither he would be, as he call'd it, lifted, that he might be made a curse for us. A curse for us, as the Sacrifice in the old Law is call'd a sinne. That was a sinne, because on it was laid the Sinne of the transgressors; and Christ made a curse, because upon him was laid that kinde of accursed death. Saint Paul makes mention of two kinds of curses; one for doing evil; another in suffering as an evil doer;Gal. 3.13. one to him that was hang'd upon the Tree; another to the transgressor of the Law. All the world was subject to this latter, because transgressors. But Christ exchang'd this curse for another. He hung on the Tree, underwent that death, which was accursed in the Law, that so by the one, he might lose the other; by the accursed death of the Cross, dissolve that curse which was due to mans sin.
And thus it is finished; all things contain'd in the word Crucified or Suffered, have an end; his sorrow, his paines, his shame, his curse. And thus far we have warrant to extend his sufferings,
5. That Christ suffered not hell torments.
But there be that stretch it farther; yea, so farre, that they trench very near upon blasphemy. They who take upon them to be Champions of the Holy Cause, as they call it, have out of their Pulpits, and in their Catechisms, taught their Proselites, that Nihil actum corporeâ morte Christi, that for Christ to dye in body, was not a sufficient price for mans Redemption, except he dye in soul also, and suffer infernales poenas in anima. Suffer he must the very same pains of the damned in Hell, horresco referens, before we could be ransom'd from the wrath of God.
Did the Patriots of this opinion (I name none for the honour I beare them, though now in the dust) meane by infernales poenas in animâ, nothing else but great and extream tortures, I should not gain-say them. But when they heighten these torments to despaire, terror, and anxiety of conscience, cruciatibus damnati & perditi hominis, to the paines of a damned and lost miscreant, to all those punishments which miserable souls are to suffer, excepting only the perpetuity and continuance; I cannot, neither I believe will any Orthodox Christian agree with them; and that for these reasons.
1. Adoro plenitudinem Scripturarum; To go farther than the Scripture leads in the work of mans Redemption,Tertul. is presumption, that I say no worse. And what one syllable is there to be found in Gods book to countenance infernal paines in Christs soul?Phil. 2.8. Isa. 53.12. Col. 1.20. Rev. 5.9. Acts 20.28. 1 Pet. 1.19. 1 Joh. 1.7. Mat. 20.28. 1 Tim. 2.6. To death he was obedient, even to the death of the Crosse, so farre Saint Paul goes; He poured forth his soule to death, so farre the Prophet. He made peace by his blood, he Redeemed us by his blood, he bought us with his blood, purchas…d us with his blood: His blood clenseth us from all sinne, this we read frequently. Nothing beyond it. And therefore no question his blood accompanied with the death of the Cross, was a sufficient ransome for the sinne of the whole world. And what need then these new invented torments? This Hell in his Soul? what this new price of our Redemption? this new way of Reconciliation?
2. Poenae infernales in animâ, Infernal paines in the soul are the second Death; and dare any man say, that Christ suffered this? Two deaths there are; the one is the separation of the soul from the body; the other is the separation of the soul from grace, from glory, from God: And is he think you in his right wits, who dares affirme this of Christs soul? His soul was alwayes quickned by the Spirit,1 Pet. 3.18. Joh. 11.42. Luk. 23.34. actuated by faith, inform'd by love; and was it then possible, that in such abundance of Spirit, evidence of faith, assurance of hope, and perfection of charity, Christs soul should do other than live to God? Life and Death are privatives; they cannot be found in one and the same Subject, in one and the same time. Christs soul then that was always spiritually alive, cannot be spiritually dead; and if not dead, it could not suffer Hell torments.
3. That this truth may yet more appear, see I pray' to what impiety they must needs be brought, that maintain this new and hellish device. Confess they must, that he who once comes within the paines of the damned, must be subject to the sentence of the damned contain'd in these words, Ite Maledicti, &c. Be Rejected, Accursed, Condemned to fire, to everlasting fire. Mat. 25.41.And all these without blasphemy, cannot be ascrib'd to Christ.
First, Can we say, that he was rejected from the favour or good-will of God, who in his greatest anguish pray'd and prevail'd! prevail'd for himself; He was heard, saith the Apostle, foreign, in that he feared; or for his piety; that is, he was deliver'd from that he feared,Heb. 5.7. though with a pious feare: prevail'd for his persecutors; who gave at that instant Paradise to the Thief; yea, and in those very words they alledge for his despaire,Luk. 23.43. yet professed God to be his God, and his Father; My God, my God, why hast, Mat. 27.46. Luk. 23.46. Isa. 53.3.&c. Father, into thy hands I commend my Spirit. Are these the words of one that conceives himself cast aside, think ye? Rejected indeed of men he might be, and was; but rejected of God he could never be, nor conceive himself to be. For this would bring him under Poenam damni, Nazian. foreignunder the punishment of the loss of the Beatifical Vision, which is a punishment beyond all that is feared, or to be suffered in Hell. The truth is, that in the midst of his Agony God was in love with his person, which he witnessed by the measure of his chastisement, and the reward of his humility; and therefore in that very day of the fierceness of Gods wrath, he was not rejected,Lam. 1.12. or in disfavour.
2. Can we say, that he was properly accursed, who procured a blessing for us? Yea, but the Apostle in express words saith so much,Gal. 3.13. He was made a Curse for us. But out of this place they might learn to distinguish of foreign, a Curse. For there is foreign, the curse emphatically express'd by the Article, and foreign, a Curse set without an Article. Betwixt these two there is a vast difference. For the Curse includes in it Detestation, the worm that never dies; Obligation to eternal punishment, with all the Concomitants. A Curse includes no more than hanging on the Tree, to which by the Law Malefactors were adjudg'd; and in that sense accursed, because they shamefully ended their dayes. The first was properly the curse of the Law, which includes Gods detestation of sin, his commination against sin, his indignation in proportioning punishment for sin, and his justice in executing it upon sinners. The second proceeds from the Law, and includes no more than the penalty due by the Letter of the Law, and in this life to be executed upon a Malefactour, according to those words of Moses, Cursed is every one that hangs upon a Tree; should we extend them farther,Deut. 21.23. damn we must the good Thief upon the Cross, and all other who die that ignominious death.
To apply this to our purpose in the Apostles words, Christ redeemed us, foreign, purchased us from the curse of the Law, being made a curse for us. Not the curse, but a Curse. As if he had said, Because Christ could not be subject to that curse to which the people were for transgression, he admitted the other Curse, viz. to hang on the Cross instead of that;Chrysost. in loc. Cyril. Epiphan. Ambrose. that so he might loose the people from the Curse. This caused Cyrill to say, Christ was not made a curse in truth; And Epiphanius, Christ was made a curse to the curse; that is, a dissolver of the curse. But most cleerly Ambrose and Hierom, Christ was made a curse as he was made sinne; that is, a Sacrifice to extinguish the curse of sin; a curse and sin,Hieron. that he might abolish our curse and sin. Christ was made a curse, as he was made sin and foolishness; but sin and foolishness he never was made truly and properly; and therefore he never was a true and proper curse for sin. Away then with this ill-sounding word Accursed; or if it must be kept, let us never stretch it farther than will stand with the Apostles intention, the Fathers Exposition, and our Saviours Honour.
3. And as for the Fire which they cast into Christs soul, who taught them, that in this world any man could in soul suffer the paines of Hell? Hell fire is no Allegory, but a true and real flame; whether material or immaterial, I dispute not; but prepar'd to torment first the Devil and his Angels, after the bodies and souls of men;Mat. 25.41. and the late fiction of Familists, and Quakers, that Hell was only the sting of a guilty conscience, was long since condemn'd in Origen by the Church of Christ. Besides, were this opinion true, how is it possible, that he should be subject to the sting of sinne, which was never subject to sinne? that is the sting of death, saith the Apostle; and he means it of inherent corruption.1 Cor. 15.50. And how was it then conceivable, that the stinging paines of the second death shall fasten upon that person in whom there was nor seed, nor root, nor branch, nor fruit of sin.
4. As for the perpetual paines of this fire, they who cast him into it, free him from it. Flame it did, say they, during the Agony in the Garden, his last cry and complaint on the Cross; but upon his death they put it out.
But I pray, upon what ground? Sure I am, they may not, if they will stick to their own principles. For do they not tell us, that the whole wrath of God, and the full Ʋials of his wrath must be poured upon his Son? that he must suffer in kinde all that we were to suffer? what? are his Vials of wrath now by them shortned that administer them? and his whole wrath not whole? Methinks they who are so kinde to dispence with one degree, might dispence with another, and yet another, and so with all, since if all were necessary, not one might be dispenc'd with.
2. The Truth Cleared.
The truth is, that their position is false, viz. That the paines of Hell in Christs soul, was necessarily required to the full satisfaction of all our sinnes. That extream paines were requisite, will be easily granted, but not infernal. Every sinne doth defile the whole man; Mark 7.15. Jam. 3.6.and therefore the suffering for sinne in the person of the Mediator, must be also common to the whole manhood. As our souls are in sinne the principal Agent, so in suffering for sin, in him the soul must be the principal Patient. God tells us, that his sacrifice for sinne, Psa. 51.17. Mark 14.33.is a troubled spirit; this then might not want in Christs Sacrifice; and this brought him foreign, to that astonishment. Those that approach the Majesty of Heaven, must make their approach with reverence. This put him to pray foreign,Heb. 5.7. with devotion. Such as stand in the place of sinners, have reason to tremble and quake at Gods wrath and justice. This might put him into his Agony.Luk. 22.44. Mat. 26.37. That Gods holiness was so much wrong'd and polluted by wicked men, might put him to so much sorrow. That in his soul he suffered all these, we do allow. And these Sacrifices, fear and sorrow offered with reverence, obedience, and patience, for us and our sins in the Person of the Son of God, were no less acceptable to God, than the suffering of paine. Let then this be first observ'd, that I deny not but Christ suffered in Soul as well as in Body.
2. Next I affirm, that it is not required by the Rules of equity, as they suppose, that satisfaction for wrongs should alway be made in kinde, or in Identity; a man breaks his Neighbours arme, or burns his House, here the Law permits not to proceed Lege Tal…onis, by blows, or fire, to require recompence, but finds out a more equal way to give contentment; such as might satisfie the wronged party, far better than in kinde to do it: Now equity is the life of the Law; whose chief maxime is, Ne quid detrimenti, That the wronged person be at no loss; foreign,Cicero. Aristot. that he have not less than his due; whether in Identity or no, is not so requisite.
God was offended and wronged by all mankinde in Adam, and requisite it was that his justice be satisfied to the highest degree. Man, had he been condemned to pain for ever, could not have done it. His own Son therefore undertook to become our Surety; and all that God could require of his Son,Heb. 7.22. was to make full satisfaction according to the Rule of justice; which, as I have shewed, is not alwayes the self-same, but somewhat that may be equivalent to it. Thus much we know might be accomplished by our Saviour after a more excellent manner, than by suffering Satan to exercise his malice upon him, and to torment his soul.
Pain, it is confessed, he suffered for our pain, paid for our disobedience by his obedience, for our impatience by his patience, for our want of contrition by his sorrow, for our obstinacy by his feare, for our irreligion by his reverence. There is not a sinne for which he hath not made full satisfaction.
Be it that sin be infinite: So was the satisfaction infinite also; and far more truly infinite than sin. Non quia passus est infinita, sed quia qui passus est erat infinitus; Not because he suffered infinite pains, but because he that suffered them is infinite. And Bellarmine is right in this,Bell. lib. 4, de Christi pass. c. 8. That the true and full satisfaction for our sins must not be deriv'd from the infinity and singularity of Christs sufferings (for the Devils and damned spirits have suffered these infernal paines long, and longer must, yet satisfie not) sed ex dignitate personae, qui passus; & ex charitate, qua passus, but from the Dignity of the Person who suffered, and from the love out of which he suffered. That the Son of God who made us; that he, I say, should humble himself to death, even to the death of the Cross for us;Phil. 2.8. Isa. 53.10. that he should make his soul a sacrifice for sinne, this was it that was so pleasing to God. In him it was an infinite obedience, an infinite submission, an infinite love, an infinite patience, and therefore an infinite satisfaction for the wrong.Heb. 9.11, 12, 13, 14. The Apostles authority, or rather reason will put the point out of question, where he compares the blood of Bulls and Goats with the blood of Christ, and the Priest and Christ who offer'd them, and then thus infers, That if the blood of bulls and goats, &c. could Sanctifie to the purifying of the flesh; how much more the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself, &c. Observe I pray, that the ground of the Apostles inference doth not simply consist in the super-excellency of the High Priest of our souls, or the Sacrifice which he offer'd, but in the admirable union of our High Priest and his Sacrifice. That which gave efficacy to it, was, that he offer'd himself without spot to God, to purge our consciences from dead works, to serve the living God. Vide Thom. Aquin. part 3. Q. 48. Art. 2.
Let men talk then no longer, Christum nihil egisse morte corporali, Christs bodily death was of no value; that except he died in soul, our soul must die; that the paines of his body will make him only Corporum Redemptorem, a Redeemer of the body. For the matter is far otherwise; both because Christ suffered in body and in soul, and because the punishment of this person was of an infinite price. What it wanted in extension of time and identity, is made up by the intension of his sufferings, and dignity of the person. Temporal death so condition'd, must needs be a sufficient price for an eternal death, for so much as Gods holiness is highly pleased with the obedience, Gods glory greatly advanced by the Humility, and Gods justice fully satisfied with the submission and patience of his Sonne upon the Crosse.
Into gross errour men often runne through incogitancy; they compare Christs body without ours, his person with a common man; and therefore equal him in the passion, and in the payment; because the paines of our bodies can make no satisfaction for the soul, they conceive this of his also. But it would be considered, That the measure, nature, and quality of paines must be taken not so much from the force and violence of the Agent, as from the condition and temper of the Patient. Actus agentium sunt in patiente rite disposito, Scalig. exercit. 16. Sect. 2.The Actions of the Agent have their effect according to the disposition of the Patient; for the Patient doth not necessarily suffer, what the Agent intends. The Sun hath not the same effect upon clay and wax; nor the fire the same power upon green wood, as upon dry. Nor the wrath of God, and vengeance due to sin, which would have affrighted any other man into despaire, could have the same power upon Christ: It was not able to conquer his Faith, Hope, Love, Patience; which it must needs do, should he have suffered the Hellish paines in his Soul.Mat. 27.46. He confesseth that he was forsaken, and wanted comfort in his troubles; and asks only, Quare, Why it should be so, and says no more.
Use 1 Ʋse 1. The Use that we may put this discourse to, is, First, That we be not overhasty to believe our new Masters in their new fancies about Christs sufferings, but keep our selves to our Articles, which our fathers have been taught out of the Prophets, Evangelists, Apostles. In them farther we are not taught to extend his Sufferings, than his blood and his death on the Cross, and therefore let us there rest.
Use 2 Ʋse 2. And rest we may well upon it; since the greatest comfort that any mortal man can expect, must issue from this one Fountain of our Saviours Agony and Bloody sweat, from his Cross and Passion. For whatsoever he suffer'd in those two last bitter dayes, he suffer'd, if not for this alone, yet for this especially,Zach. 12.10. that he might be an All-sufficient Comforter to all such as mourn that they ever pierced him. We have not an High Priest, saith the Apostle,Heb. 4 15. which cannot be touch'd with the feeling of our infirmities, but one who was like to us in reproaches, in necessities, in feare, in sorrow, and beyond us in affliction. And it is the greatest comfort to come to him for help,Heb. 5.2. & 2.18. who by experience of what he hath suffer'd, hath learned to be compassionate.
Men that have been wrong'd with vexatious suits in Law, perswade themselves better of a Judge, who hath been wrong'd and vex'd himself in the same kinde, than of one who alwayes hath been at rest. The Physician, 'tis likely, will be most affected toward his Patient Rack'd with the Gout or Stone, if he himself hath languished, and been formerly, tortured with the same disease: And a Sea-faring man who hath suffered a Wrack, is alw…yes most confident of pity, help, relief, when he meets with one that hath been at Sea, and suffered shipwrack by the fury of the waves and windes. It may then raise our spirits, that the Sonne of God hath in his Body borne our infirmities, hath in his Soul suffered our sorrows, been bruised, afflicted, perplexed, grieved, forsaken as we may be, encountred the wrath of God more than we can. For as in these he did suffer for us, so also hath he learn'd by these to be compassionate and suffer with us.
Let then those giddy and blasphemous Novelists, those sons of Ismael scoff at those sad passages of our Liturgy, By thine Agony and bloody sweat, by thy Cross and Passion, &c. good Lord deliver us; as if they had more alliance with Oaths, Spells, Exorcismes, or forms of Conjuration, than with the Spirit of prayer and devotion; and upon a superstitious feare, as Ducklings scar'd with the shadow of a Kite in the water, run with might and maine out of the Temple. For my part, I shall be ready, and I profess it, in such forms to conjure my Lord, as conceiving, that then he is most like to heare the agonies of my soul, who in his agony desired to be heard himself; most like to pity, who complain'd that he felt no pity.Zanch. in expos. praecept. 3. Sect de Invocat. Thes. 2. Two things (saith a great and learned Divine, and one beyond most of the other side of the sea, Judicious and Moderate) have alwayes pleased me in the Romane Church. Unum, quod omnes ad Patrem preces clauduntur Per Jesum Christum Dominum nostrum. Alterum, quod cum invocant Christum, addunt Per Crucem & passionem tuam & aliquid simile, quo Officium Mediatoris exprimitur. The first, that all prayers sent up to the Father are concluded in this form, By Jesus Christ our Lord. The other, that when they call upon Christ, they add, By thy Cross and Passion, or some such thing, by which the Office of the Mediator is expressed. This compendious and useful recapitulation of the brief of the Gospel, that acknowledgement of the chief means of our Salvation, well pleas'd this great Divine, with which our New men are so much offended. If any thing do offend, it should be their own dulness and coldness, when these or the like words are rehearsed, that they are not affected, fired, and heated to devotion with them.
For were it but possible to sweat blood at prayer, possible to tender our Petitions with strong cryes and tears as he did, we should be heard; for his bowels would yearn upon us, when he saw us in his own case. Thither we do not, we cannot come, however fervent and zealous we may be. And in our heat let us put him in minde of his Agony and bloody sweat, of his Cross and Passion; a more powerful ejaculation there cannot be; 'tis but in effect as if we said to him, that be would remember our case, and make it his own; which is a more powerful peice of Rhetorick, than all the Prolix Non-sence, and extemporary frothy stuff of those who distaste it. And I would faine be taught, if it be lawful in prayer to plead the merits of Christ in general, why it is not as lawful to use any of those particular Acts, Ʋiz. Circumcision, Baptisme, Incarnation, &c. from whence those merits do arise.
Use 3. To draw to an end, Behold yet more comfort, you disconsolate Use 3 souls, that make these sad conclusions against your selves, saying with Jonah, Jonah 2.4. Psal. 42.6.I am cast out of the sight of thine eyes; with David, I am cast off: For your comfort, you may belong to God though you feel it not. See what a convulsion the Sonne of God was in, when he cryed with a loud voice,Mat. 27.46. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me! The cry was not so lamentable to him, as comfortable to you; for vocem emisit vestram, non suam, Ambrose.he cried then with your tongue, rather than his own; intimating, that to those gulfs, those plunges, that woe, that misery, the dearest of Gods Servants may come; that in a holy despaire (for such there is) they may cry, My God, my God, &c. Mihi compatitur, mihi tristis est, mihi dolet, Ambrose.He suffers for me, he is sad for me, he grieves for me. In him as a second first fruit of our stock we were strugling; in him those words were of faith,Cyril. not of sense; and so let them be in us, if at any time we come to that pass, that we feel the heavy wrath of God upon us.
You poor sinners with Doves eyes, that eat up your own heart wi…h sorrows, are these doublings felt by you? is this want of comfort lamented? would you not despaire? then wipe away those teares; what you feele, and abhorre, will not hurt. For even then when you finde your sinne a burden, and desire to cast it off on Christ, you have faith; He cannot be cast away by despaire, that affectionately, earnestly, continually desires to cry, My God, my God. That the Head was in this case, is the comfort of the members, because he came into this case for the love and good of His Members.
Damn not then your selves for those sinnes which the Sonne of God hath borne. Shall the blood of that Innocent Lamb be shed to clense you from guilt, and will you in a moody melancholy, poure it upon the ground? shall he open heaven, and will you shut it? shall he naile the writing to the Cross that was against you,Col. 2.14. and will you yet take it down and reade it, and keep it in force against your own life? Is this the thanks, this the fruit you return him for bearing the burden and the heat of the day in your persons? Will you now for the Cup of Salvation which he hath offer'd you, take the Cup of despair and death? blaspheme his Name? evacuate his Cross? tread the blood of his Testament under foot, and die past hope?
God forbid, and the earnest prayers and sobs of your own souls forbid it also. Hope even against hope, above hope. The baseness of thy condition, and weight of thy sinne, cannot exceed the Blood and Merit of thy Saviour, nor Satans malice his love. The rigour of the Law is satisfied, the justice of the most upright Judge fully contented; and who, or what then can condemn any one that is in Christ Jesus?Ram. 8.1. Rely upon his Name, for it is a Tower of defence; Trust to his promises, for they are sweet; Remember his Covenant, for it is sure; and then doubt not but he will remember thee, and bring thee to his Kingdome. His Name, his Promises, his Covenant will be our comfort while we live here, and they will not forsake us, and leave us, till they have conducted our souls to heaven, where with him we shall be happy for ever. Amen.