THE PASSION SERMON AT PAULS-CROSSE, upon GOOD-FRIDAY last, April 7. 1626.  
By Thomas Ailesbury.  Sanguis Christi est Clavis Paradisi, Tertullian. 
LONDON Printed by G. M. for Richard Moor, and are to be sold at his shop in Saint Dunstan's Churchyard, 1626.   

THE PASSION SERMON at Pauls-Crosse, upon Good-Friday last, April 7. 1626.  1 Cor. 2.8. Had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 
SAint Paul, the Trump and solemn Proclaimer of the Gospel, who on earth sat at Gamaliels feet, and in a divine rapture was assumed into a higher School in Heaven, where he gained the audience of unspeakable mysteries. The deputed, deligated Doctor and Apostle of the Gentiles, 
1 Cor. 1.  made Christ crucified his preaching, his learning, and his glory. The subject of his preaching, We preach Christ crucified; 
Gal. 6, 14.  the object of his glory, God forbidden I should glory save in the Cross of our Lord jesus Christ. The Sap of his learning, I determined not to know any thing, save jesus Christ, and him crucified. Very well may the death of life, the end of eternity, and the Obsequies of him that could not dye make work for this great Apostle. 'tis learning enough to sit at the Cross by the feet of Christ; no School to Caluary, no Chair to the Cross, no Doctor unto Christ, no Lesson to him crucified. This is jacobs' Ladder, Moses Chair, David's Key, and Solomon's Throne, wherein I know not if the love of God the Father was more ardent to exhibit, or the Will of God the Son more prompt to this propitiatory expedition. Oblatus est quia voluit. And Christ would never have been so willing, but he knew it to be of sovereign use for mankind: misit redemptionem; He sent redemption to his people, profitable for us, but it cost him dear, redemit sanguine, it was the price of blood. Were every Star a world, here is plenteous redemption for them all; of great extent, which reacheth unto all, Omnia trahit ad seipsum, In this good all our felicity doth consent; the effusion of his Blood not without pain, that pain without parallel, Was there ever sorrow like to my sorrow? Pain concomitated with shame, Cum iniquis reputatus est, he makes up the number of the wicked, as unjust as could be, Sicut ovis ad occisionem, as unkind as might be, massacred by his own Nation. A people whom God had sequestered to himself, yet when we view the record of their lives, they make it good that their Election was not of works but of grace. They had Abraham to their Father: could God to that Patriarch, upon the exercise of his omnipotency, forge or raise a more flinty Ceneration? The Messiah, the perfume of their Offerings, the blood of their Sacrifices, the fire of their Holocausts, shadowed in their Ceremonies, fore-spoken by their Prophets, all this could not dispel that mist of darkness which settled upon their hearts; Si enim cognovissent: for, had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory.  
The parts and persons of this Text are two fold: First, the persons nocent, the jews. Secondly, the party Innocent, The Lord of glory. Of them the Apostle speaketh; first, by way of supposition; Si cogno●issent, Had they known. Secondly, by way of position, the sequel inferreth, non cognoverunt, they have not known him. In the second part there are two branches. 1. The Indignity of the Passion, the worst that might be; They crucified. 2. The dignity of the Patient, the best that could be; the Lord of glory. These pillars must carry my meditations, and your attentions. I begin with the jews ignorance, and shall end with their malice to the Lord of glory.  
THE jews proceed against their Messiah out of error. Ignorance was that cloud, 
The first part of their ignorance.  in which all the storms that fell upon our Saviour's head were engendered; so the due punishments which hung over their heads, and by the tradition of just revenge upon their children, to them were vailed; jerusalem si cognovisses & haec, a City in this miserable, in that she did not understand her approaching misery.  
COuld the jews be ignorant of their Messiah? 
The jews could not see Christ by the light of Nature.  They were men, and upon the first Man God stamped his Image; as the Sun is guilded with light, so the Soul was engraven with knowledge: but Adam and his wife, ambitious to enlarge their Science, would steal it forth of the sides of an Apple, that all was canceled, and obliterated by their fall, and a penance due to their pride to know as Gods, was to be as ignorant as beasts. Thus man, an Egregious creature was yoked with beasts, who may say truly, what God Ironically, 
Gen. 3.  Ecce Adam factus est quasi unus e nobis, see, man is become as one of us; here's little light left for the jews to see their Messiah.  
Man naturally endeavours to repair these losses, to set down some thing in the naked tables of his soul, the corporal organs no sooner give leave to the soul to unfold itself, but it readily makes love to knowledge. Dame nature's best scholar makes us no less desirous than happy in the enjoying.  
Yet without supernal revelation Philosophy begetteth not Theologie. 
Hierom.  Hoc doctus Plato nescivit, hoc eloquens Demostenes ignoravit. Plato's learning could never tower so high, nor Demosthenes' eloquence express it. Were every jew as Moses well read in Egyptian learning, and Egypt was then the world's Academy; Greece and Palestine had not yet spoiled her of that jewel: such Herbalists as Solomon, whose skill reacheth from the Cedar to the Thistle: such Secretaries to Nature, that the earth should not quake, nor the Sea pass her bounds, except their Art should impale the one, confirm the other; or that the voice of thunder could not be heard in our Land, but they so well acquainted with it, as if they had made that Canon, and charged it with that Bullet; or the Clouds not set on fire by lightning without the sparks of their invention, to kindle them; or those Crystal bottles of the air thin as the liquor they contain, could not empty their moist burdens upon the earth without their prognostication, or the power of some domineering planet to unstop them; could they number the Stars, read their meaning in their faces, I load your patience: what of all this? This is a wise madness, saith justin Martyr; a busy vanity, saith Basil, and a curious fancy. 
joh 38 4.  These men darken counsel by words without knowledge. Where wast thou when I laid the foundation of the earth? declare, 
job 38.25.26.  If thou hast understanding, who laid the corner stone; who shut up the Sea within doors when I made a cloud the garment thereof, and the thick darkness a swadling-band, and said, hitherto shalt thou come, here shall thy proud waves be stayed. The Lord weigheth the winds and waters by measure, maketh a decree for rain, and a way for lightning and thunder. Thus their own Art is their own labyrinth, much more will the transcendent truth of the Gospel amaze them. Paul's Lecture at Athens was a new Doctrine never heard of there, the Inscription upon their altar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was a record of their ignorance. 
Acts 17.  We speak the wisdom of God hidden in a Mystery. Where is the wise? 
1 Cor. 1.  Where is the Scribe? Where is the Disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and bring to nothing the understanding of the Prudent. The ladder of humane wisdom is too short to scale the Cross of Christ; We preach Christ crucified, unto the jews a stumbling block, unto the Greeks' foolishness: the mystery whereof was wisdom beyond their understanding, knowledge beyond their learning, and a work beyond their time; were the jews as wise as the wisest Philosophers, yet non cognoverunt, that knowledge will not lend them Spectacles to see the Lord of Glory.  
But the jews were the Secretaries of Heaven, they have Moses and the Prophets; to them were these divine Oracles committed, The Lord was known in jury, and his Name great in Israel, this Sun was in that Ecliptic, this light in that Goshen. If all other lights be an Ignis fatuus, falie and dimnie, here's a Star from Heaven that will never fail them: man to the attainment of a supernatural end needs a supernatural means, the natural understanding, Non sufficit viatori, will never shine bright enough to be our safe conduct to these celestial truths. 
In Prologue. sent.  Percipit per naturalem potentiam, non per naturalem agentem, saith Scotus. It may be the Cask to reserve, never the light without a greater light to descry them. He keeps his Chair in Heaven that dictates these lessons. Illiterate Apostles, in whom the Creator to qualify them with gifts wrought a new creation, that suddenly from all simple they became all wise, the jews therefore having the Key of Scriptures, what mysteries will not that unlock?  
Come then, let's see what light the Scripture gives to Christ, here are contained a cloud of Prophecies, the day would fail me to survey them. 
Gen. 3.  Semen mulicris, etc. 'twas but young days when God first engaged himself to mercy, that a Child should repair those breaches the mother occasioned. The promise is renewed to Abraham: upon his seed the blessed one is entailed, but the blessedness is enlarged unto all nations, in the miraculous birth and unbloody sacrifice of Isaak was a vision of the birth and death of the world's redeemer, Abraham saw my day and rejoiced. What will the jews say to jacobs' Shilo. The Sceptre shall not departed from Israel, etc. 
Ge●. 49.  When in Christ's time the Sceptre was wrested out of the jews hands: Their King a beneficiary, and precarious King: With all their hearts they wished for the Messiah, though their conceits could no otherwise employ him then to quit them of the Roman yoke. David was the root out of which this branch did flourish; What Ditties did Israel's chief Chanter warble upon his Son, his Lord. The manner of his death, the cry upon the Cross, his Passion, and his scorn are the contents of that Evangelicall 22. Psalm, I am poured out like water: a worm and no man: I may tell all my bones: they part my Garments in sunder, etc. So plain, that the wicked jews had no way to put out the eyes of that Prophecy, then by offering violence to the sacred Text. And had rather posterity should find nonsense, than their cruelty recorded. Esay, the flower of speech and Prophecy, who seems to contex a History, not write a Prophecy, Surely, 
Esay 53.  he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; he was wounded for our transgressions, he opened not his mouth, he is brought like a Lamb to the slaughter, the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. And to give the Scribes and Priests their due, they could by this light blazen the Tribe, Family, 
Mat. 2.  and place of his birth. For when the Star dispeared, the Prophecies by them applied to the Sages of the East, were Stars, to conduce their feet to worship there, as swift as Herod's to go shed blood there. How then could the jews be ignorant?  
Very well, for Prophecies are but empty sounds, Volant & avolant, the fly and dye; beat the ear, not the heart, if the Holy Ghost be not present to pierce it. No breaking open these Seals, no unlocking of these mysteries without David's Key. The right honourable Eunuch, Treasurer to the Queen of Aethiopia, sought for a better treasure at that time to be found at Jerusalem, nec Sanctior sum hoc Eunucho, nec studiosior. Can our diligence compare with his, who underwent a tedious journey, and in that devout Pilgrimage made the Scripture his companion? 
Hieron ad Paulin.  Et cum verba Domini lingua volueret, labijs personaret; ignorabat cum, quem in libro nesciens venerabatur, saith Heirom. He read the Prophet without divine Spectacles, and with an implicit devotion adored whom he knew not. Philip layeth open jesus, that lay hid in the letter, for the common place of his Meditations was the very Passion of jesus. But the jews had no sacred Spirit, no Philip to expound these Mysteries, their proud conceits cheating their understanding, as some foolish Mountebanks were ignorant of what they professed; and which (I cannot speak without stomach) were ignorant of their ignorance: for all this to them Moses is vailed; I know who hath said it, 
1 Cor. 3.14, 15.  When Moses is read, the veil is upon their hearts.  
What of this, 
3 They know not the Messiah in our Saviour's person.  will the jew reply, we are versed in the Scripture, the Prophecies fly not out of our sight, the Messiah we expect, and hope he is not long a coming, than a rush for this Roman dominion; but is it possible jesus should be the man? borne of mean parentage, his education obscure, himself followed by the meanest; we must be convinced by better evidence, our Rulers upon such slender proofs are too wise to trust him. But no reason to distrust him, a threefold cord of witnesses is not easily broken: Christ, besides the written, had the living Word of his mouth, supported by his famous Acts to speak for him. Scrutamini Scripturas (saith our Saviour) Search these Volumes, and if I am not recorded there, never credit me more: his astonishing words and convincing works, what mettle were the jews composed off, that these would not soften?  
What was Christ's life but a Commentary, and reflection of the forerunning Prophecies. The Law was but a shadow; Christ the substance, the good thing to come. In the volume of thy Law it is written of me, etc. not a line therein but tends unto Christ the Centre, his birth of a Virgin-mother, cradle banishment, when he fled that could not go, the efficacy of his preaching, his miraculous cures, vindicating of his Father's Temple from pollution, etc. all are filled which were in him fulfilled. Let us arrest ourselves awhile upon his foretold Passions, when Christ road in triumph towards his Cross, he did not bestride an Asses back without a Prophecy to help him up; Behold, 
Z●ch 5.  thy King cometh riding upon an Ass' foal. Indas' makes his merchandise of him, the price of blood is pitched by one Prophet, and the man of blood described by another; 
Lach 11.13.  a goodly price that I was prized of them, even thirty pieces: see the difference, GOD values man at his own Blood, man his God at thirty pence. The Betrayer is betrayed by description, My familiar and friend, etc. 
Ps●. 41.  hath conspired against me. All his Disciples shall turn Cowards, a Prophecy had sounded that retreat, I will strike the Shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered; die he must, for the Messiah must be slain, and that in a grievous manner, to make good the Type, he must be lifted up; then fastened with nails; They have pierced my hands and my feet, upon a Cross, Dominus triumphavit eligno, which reading justin Martyr and Tertullian embrace. If they plough upon his back with whips, those Furrows are recorded. No marvel the Soldier's riflle for his garments, that veiled covetousness of Lots an event in itself contingent, 
Psal. 22.  in the Prophecy certain, for my vestments they did cast lots. What will the jew say now? Prophecies not accomplished, ambiguitates sunt & anigmata, (saith Irenaeus) are dark Clouds, but in the accomplishment those Clouds are dispersed, they become Histories. Obdurate jews! show us but a man in whom all the Prophecies were fulfilled, and any Prophecy left unfulfilled in our Saviour's person, and we will suppose some probability to march on your side: why then? (knowing what the jews did know) upon so foul a fact will our Apostle find and return Ignoramus. Yet one prophecy had not been accomplished, if the jews had known it, that they must be the men to imbrue their hands in the blood of their Messiah.  
But They glory in the act, are so confident, that were it to do again, their Conscience would make no scruple to reiterate it; as deeming the same a master piece of obedience. In killing of his Disciples they thought to merit at the hands of God, but in killing of his son to supererrogate, and in a desperate affectation of Ignorance, solicit for that blood upon their heads, which Pilate washed from his hands; and are so fare from sorrow, that holding one life too little to take from him, only they lament he hath no more: their Malice is so hereditary, that if Christ should revive himself daily, to save the Priests of Rome a labour, daily would they Sacrifice him.  
A Gross mistake there was then in the person of Christ, 
4 The Miracles of jesus did not remove their ignorance.  who in their own verdict was not tainted with sin; but that they could not collect what he was by his miracles, they are to me a miracle of sottish infidelity; judaei signa petunt, their curiosity was set upon miracles; now they might take their fill. Tell me, what was he? 
Arnob.  Cuius jussu ipsi Daemones in hominum visceribus merst, & cooperti possessione ●●debant: The very Dinels inviscerated in men, at the sound of his Imperial word, yield up possession, leaving their habitations, as if their houses had been on fire over their heads: Confession is their penance, with an yielding voice they yellow out, Thou art the Son of God: Intelligunt diaboli quod non intelligunt judaei, as Cyrill spoke of the Arians; that power the devils ascribe to God which the jews to the Devils; surely Satan is a greater politician then to undermine himself with civil discord. Was he an ordinary Man, who with the trident of his word becalms the Seas, paves them with solidity to a confirmed path for himself and Peter to walk on; the Spectators amazed cry out, what manner of man was this to whom the dumb creatures speak such obedience. Surely he another Neptune was then whom Poets fain: 
Arnob. cra. Gentes lib 1.  Post liminto vitam restituens animas efflatas iussit in diem lucidam remeare: Christ's call awakes Lazarus in the grave, unites what death for four days had divorced, the spirit returneth to its old moald, and by a new Metempsychosis, or rather 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, (such which Pythagoras never dreamt of) the same soul reenters into the same body. This Miracle reconciles envy, envy a conspiracy, and for a further conclusion, They will see if God can dye or Noah. When the Conspirators came armed to apprehend him, who expected not declined them, the breath of his mouth as a mighty tempest, levels them with the earth. A Roman Cohort driven back at a word? Nec vox hominem sonat: could not his speech betray him? without flattery they might have applauded, not the voice of man, but God. Quid poterit Matest as eius iudicatura, cuius hoc poterat humilitas judicanda, saith Leo. When Peter with a blow had lopped off Malchus ear, the divorced piece is glued to its former place, Christ reforming what himself had form, and that flesh knowing whose potsherd it was, is no sooner touched with God's finger, then again restored, yet this Physicians pay was cruelty.  
Thus to recapitulate all, 1. not humane science, 2. not revealed prophecies, 3. though accomplished in Christ's person: 4. confirmed with the working of Miracles could open their eyes, but in seeing they did not see, 
Aquia.  etc. God hath sent them the spirit of slumber. These Evidences led them to know the Messiah in Christ, but not the Mystery in the Deity, but with leave to Aquinas the jews held the Deity inseparable from the Messiah: 
Chrisostome in loc.  or they knew not Crucifixionis mysterium. The Messiah to undergo so ignominious a death, to suffer, and be crucified under Pontius Pilate, could never come within the jewish Creed. The vulgar jew conceived well, but not truly, of him; yet somewhat popish loath to leave the tradition of his fathers. The more illuminate Doctors had greater knowledge, but with greater pride and malice, which did extinguish it. Their Theory was vertiginous, swom in the brain, there floating without anchor, and was of no credit with the will. They cauelled at his preaching, traduced his person, slandered his miracles, fathering them upon devils. God only hath the key which unlocks the heart, Faith is in his own custody, and he distributs it to whom he will. Yet their ignorance was a sin; Saint Paul led away with inconsiderate zeal, was made thereby the chief of sinners, though qualified for mercy. In the jews their knowledge shall accuse them not acquit them, they knew enough to condemn them, but not enough to to save them.  
But the Divine decree for slaying of the Lamb was out, which nailed him surer to the Cross then the jewish nails, and thereby sealed to an infallible necessity: how then can the determinate counsel of God be set upon the contingent knowledge of the jews. The jesuites piece all with a Scient●a media, whereby God holds his hands from decreeing, till either in se or in re, he observeth the voluminous foldings, and pleating of the Will of man, and passeth his decree accordingly: So he knew Conditionately what the jews would have done upon better knowledge. The Schoolmen content themselves with Scientta simplicis Intelligentiae, whose object is Ens possibile, but not futurum, goes as fare as possibility can go: and Scientia visionis, whereby God perceiveth all things that are and shall be. Betwixt them crowds in Scientia media, and participates of both: as it precedeth the Divine decree hath relation to the former; but as the effect may come to pass, if the condition were fulfilled, cometh nearer to that of Vision; a spider's web, a curious fancy, and jesuites darling; pretended by Fonseca to be found in Aristotle's Metaphysics, which to establish a freedom of will in man, destroys it in God; for God may not decree till he seethe what man will do; and what man will do, God is bound to determine accordingly.  
But without this groundless subtlety, truth will show itself. Necessary events as they flow from the first cause, in respect of the second causes may admit contingency; both in the effect may concur with no dissonant harmony; for 1. Many effects are immutable in the second causes, which in respect of the first cause are mutable; the Sun is a fixed Planet unto joshuah, stands still to behold his conquests, flies backward at the sight of Ahaz dial, yet ex necessitate naturae, constantly circleth about the heavens in the Orb his Chariot, and is never tired with that diurnal progress. 2. Many Effects mutable in the second causes, but immutable in the first cause: the confirmed Angels by nature subject to change by grace determined in goodness; collapsed Adam in respect of the divine Prescience his fall was necessary, but in himself most contingent, so for Christ, his Father from all eternity marked him to the slaughter by his decree; yet our Saviour offered himself as willingly as the jews did kill him, although non inde volunt as interficien diunde moriendi; the jews had not the same end in killing as Christ in dying. Our Redeemer then did suffer necessarily; necessitate finis, in three respects saith Aquinas: 1. for us, to procure our freedom, 
Aquin. part. 3. q. 40.  Oportet exaltari; The son of man must be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish. Secondly, for himself, to make way for Glory: Opertet Christum pati; ought not Christ to suffer these things, and so to enter into his glory. Thirdly, to answer his Father's Decree: filius hominis sicut definitum est vadit; The Son of man truly goeth as it is written of him. Thus the jews were as free as ignorant, every way guilty; neither Gods all seeing decree, nor their blinded ignorance shall excuse them from that which followeth; They crucified the Lord of glory; which is the second part.  
THE jews for long were, as I may say, 
The first branch the persons, They.  the favourites of heaven; if deliverances, miracles and blessings are pledges of mercy, never was people so endeared, or God more exuberant to any Nation, non taliter secit, etc. yet they were an ill complexioned people, of a rebellious and churlish temper. Pharaoh is hardened and scourged to tame them; never was any Prince so subdued with wonders, yet they ascribe their deliverance to a Calf, and though those Miracles were Emblems of a Diviner power, and did speak a supreme Deity; they prostrate themselves unto an Idol beholding for its Godhead, to the curious Artisan. God sent his Prophets, which sealed their Prophecies with their blood; long had Christ been slain in them, now they kill him in himself. Those to this were tolerable Assassinate's; for fleshed in their blood, they conspire against the Lord of glory.  
It must needs augment his torments, that his own people should degenerate into Traitors, not a Gentile, but a jew, not a jew alone, but judas his Apostle. The Gentiles were Idolaters, the jews like themselves, cruel, judas was a man, and homo Deo lupus, no marvel these do like themselves. God his father, and Christ most dear unto himself, are privy to the carriage of all this; conspiracy, and danger on all hands, Treason, treason, never the like, of jew and Gentile, Soldiers and Apostle, father and son, heaven and earth, Singuli non perdunt, per dunt omnes; all conjure against this lamb to lead him to the slaughter. The Father, I have smitten him: The Son, I lay down my life for my sheep; the jew, crucify him; the Gentile, in Pilate condemning him, the Earth gaping for salvation, the heavens waiting for restitution. Thus a son delivered of his father, yielding himself, a Prince slain of his people, the Nations conjure against the Blessed one of Nations, heavens despoil him of his throne, the earth of his footstool: but in what had Christ offended himself, to lay hands upon his own person, abnegavit seipsum non quod debuit pe●c●tis plenus, sed quod voluit plenus charitatis, saith Cyprian: no need to deny himself for sin, but chose rather to hate himself then desist from loving us.  
All Christ's life a continual passion, banished before he had the use of his legs, in preachings often, in fastings, and temptations often, restless, harbourless, & in vita passivam habuit actionem, 
Bernard.  & in morte passionem activam sustinuit, and though the jews could not lay hold on him till the hour was come, yet beforehand they crucify his reputation: but all these to that which followed were but the beginning of sorrows. Let us trace his footsteps, though with Peter we follow him a fare off, and in the Gospel there is such a living Commentary of his death and passion, that we do not read but see him crucified.  
Many hours of consultation had the jews spent in complotting his death, but all their designs were frustrated, for nondum venit hora, and when that time calculated by heaven's appointment, was come; judas is suborned, an Apostle that was his Treasurer and his Almoner; thou wast deceived judas, Virtue was his treasure, Mercy was his dole; who to augment his pay, resolves at once, to sell his place and Master, and under-values him at so cheap a rate, that he sets no price upon the price of the world, but entertains their own proffer of thirty-peeces to become a mercenary Traitor.  
Whilst they strike hands to betray him, the Lord remembers us, institutes the sacrament of Grace, breathes forth divine admonitions, makes his will, bequeathes to his Disciples his peace for a legacy, patience and pressures for an inheritance, against which he armeth them with heavenly habitations. Quo dulcius esse solet lumen Phoebi iam. iam cadentis; happy men that were Auditors to this Sermon; then concludeth with a Hymn, which continued and ended with his progress to Mount Olivet: Was not heaven now on earth, when Hallelujahs were chanted by this holy Choir?  
Where, to meet the Traitor and his complices, He balks not the place judas knew was consecrated by his customary devotions, attended with three Disciples that had witnessed his glory in the Mount; In a Garden undergoes the penance for Adam's trespass in a garden; that the same place which was the nest where sin was first hatched, might be now the childbed of grace and mercy; and where the premises of our miseries were, might be the conclusion of our misfortunes. There his soul is couched under the burdens of fear and sorrow. The chastisement of our peace is laid upon him; 
Esay 53.  The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. David fetched many penitent groans; Cain belched forth words of despair under this burden; the heavens could not hold sinful Angels, nor the earth Corah and his associates, nor the water preserve Pharach and his host. Marvel not then that Christ prostrate in pangs, sunk unto the earth, blessing the same with his embracements, making his foot stool his couch, where he finds, if not to lay his head, his face; like a worm he crawls upon the ground, and upon that earth he is crucified without a Cross; fear and love are the nails, our sins the thorns, his Father's wrath the spear to cruciate him, which cruse a bleeding shower to reign throughout all his pores, that in a cold night he sweats without heat, and bleeds without a wound, all his body is besprinkled with a crimson dew; the very Veins and Pores expediting our Saviour's will of their own accord, not waiting the Tormentors fury, pour out the blood of mercy. 
August.  Quàm frigidumerat peccatum quod tam calido indiguit lavacro. Fowl sin that could not be cleansed but by such a bath: That Sweat is not wiped off, but He falls into an Agony, in a counterconquest of affection if he shall pity himself or his people.  
Thrice doth he pray and thrice suffers an unwilling willing repulse; Si possibile, If it he possible, let this Cup pass from me, was the voice of flesh and blood: but Fiat voluntas tua, Thy not my Will be done, was the voice of a prompter Spirit. As a bitter Potion Christ declines that Cup, but as beneficial to us, accepteth it. This Cup pass from me? Doth the General, quake and is the Soldier valiant? With undaunted courage have Martyrs embraced the flaming Instruments of death; 
Bernard.  Stat Martyr tripudians & triumphans licet corpore lacero, & rimante latera ferro: those Bonfires to them golden Chariots to ascend with Elias. That incendialis tunica, 
Contra Na●iones, lib. 1.  as Tertullian terms it, a coat context of flames was put on willingly by many. But Christ underwent the sting of death, they encountered death without a sting. Death by Christ was once foiled, Hell by him once appalled, that the Relics of that conquest are subdued with an easy onset. Besides, their punishments are so spiced and lenified with celestial comfort, illis in poent est volunt as, in martyrio Coelum, that to these Christian Stoics their tortures are pleasures, their martyrdom a Paradise. To Stephen the Heavens are opened, nor can that cloud of stones eclipse him from seeing the Sun of Righteousness upon his feet to assist him. To Peter a delivering Angel, that shakes off his chains like dust from his hands and feet; and ask no leave of the jailors, doth enlarge him. 'tis happiness to be a Martyr; but to Christ afflicted what comfort is afforded? His Father never so angry bend against him as now, when he personated universal sinners. An Angel indeed looks upon him from Heaven, with a purpose to comfort him: alas, small is the light that a Star can yield when the Sun is down; and a sorry exchange, that a creature shall comfort his God, his Comforter. 
Bernard.  Therefore agnosco vocem aegroti in medico, agnosc● Gallinam infirmantem cum Pullis, stupeo miserationem, expanesco dignationem; that our Physician is ill, our Comforter desolate, to me this mercy is an amazement, this infirmity a wonder.  
But hark you Sir, What may you call those torments that Christ did there endure? Our answer is, that he suffered all those punishments for sin, that did reconcile us to his Father. All those, I say, that did neither prejudice the plenitude of sanctity or science in his sacred person; but to say, that hell fire was endured by him, is a Doctrine fit for none, but him that hath made shipwreck of his faith, to land on shore his private fancies. How could it comply with God's Son, to be subjected to that vengeance which was prepared for Devils. Yet Christ underwent what the divine justice could require, neither did the dignity of his person dispense with any torment, but to make the passion of one available for many. For if he might have dispensed with one degree of extremity in punishment, 
4 Sent. ●. 46. q. 4. a. 4.  then with another, and so consequently with all, as Scotus aptly noteth. So far as we are able to clear this doubt, and acquit ourselves of unjust imputation, observe, that sin is either inherent or assumed. To the first, there is ever annexed remorse of conscience, but not unto the latter; Christ therefore assuming sin by imputation, not committing it, felt the punishment thereof, without the gnawings of the worm of Conscience: again, there are punishments due to sinners which ever remain in their stain and guilt, or to those which break off their sins by repentance: to the former, the Analogy of justice hath measured tortures by the length of eternity, it being a well proportionated right, that to those, who if they had lived ever, would have sinned ever, to be punished for ever: but to those which bury their temporary sins in repentance, eternity of punishments belongeth not. Christ therefore suffering efficaciously for these, not for those, satisfied his Father without eternity of punishments or despair of recovery. Further, how Christ was exiled from his Father's presence, as his forlorn words upon the Cross seem to import. Scotus will inform us, that affectione justitiae, 
4 Sent. d. 46. q. 4. Resp. ad princip. Arg.  he was ever united to his Father, because he ever trusted, loved, and glorified him. But affectione commodi, that delight ever emergent from that divine vision, was for a time suspended; his body and soul till the Resurrection, ever within sight of the Deity, were stayed from glorification, so to make his soul and body capable of more ample sorrow, was in the instant of his passion deprived of happiness. Though both these, saith Canus, may go for Miracles, Christ was then forsaken of his Father, by denial of protection and subtraction of joy, not otherwise. His soul hath not ended in these griefs, but new cruelties invade his body. After these conflicts the butcherly jews attach him, and lead him as a Lamb to the slaughter, apprehending him whom mercy before had apprehended; as a Malefactor the true high Priest is brought before the false, & from painted wall Annas dismissed to Caiphas, a Priest as wise as Balaams' Ass, who spoke more than he knew, yet the truth; where they bind his hands, buffet him with theirs, spit upon his face, which the Angels desire to contemplate; the Priests question him, their servants blind him, those, out of the superfluity of contempt, these, of scorn; those, to try if he were a God, these, if a Prophet. Accusers are wanting, which in so wicked a generation cannot be long, who corrupt his words, change his meaning; for Christ said not, Destruam Templum, but Soluite, I will destroy this Temple; but, destroy ye; neither added he, Templum Dei, but simply, This Temple. Thirdly, he meant his Body, not that material Fabric wherein consisted their holy Ostentation. This evening was famous with the revolt and reconcilement of one Disciple, as the next morning with the despair of another: thus that day was ended.  
Their wrath went not down with the Sun, the next morning was to them a continual night when they consult to eclipse the Sun. judas, the first in treason, is the first in the Calendar of revenge; a transcendent sun, a Traitor Paramount: therefore he is his own judge and Executioner, his conscience arraings him, his own hands do hang him. Passage is denied that impious soul through those lips which had touched Christ's: nor shall it ascend so high towards heaven, but rip open a way by the violent rapture of his bowels to hell. Arius that killed his Godhead by denial; judas his manhood by treason, are alike in punishment; yet it was a greater sin to kill himself, than his Master.  
These mental murderers loath to act it with their own hands, convent him before Pilate. Where Christ stands at the Roman tribunal, the judge delegated from God, more than Caesar sits in Commission upon him; by him he is questioned to amazing silence. justly was the Lamb of God dumb, and opened not his mouth before him that had shorn him with whips. Pilat after the expense of some cruelty, labours to take off the jews, to lenify and tame their cruelty, which like fire kept in with water sprinkled, or a watercourse stopped, breaks forth with greater fury. Good jesus, how art thou now abused! New accusations are forged, new Knights of the Post procured, to make thee a traitor to the Roman State. He that with Spittle cured the eyes of the blind, is blinded with their spittle: who can number those stripes wherewith they flay, and tear his body, one wound eating into another, that there is no health in his bones by reason of our sins. Tyranny clotheth him with one purple, died in the purest grain of his blood; disdain with another: a Reed is his Sceptre, and a Crown context with Thornes is beaten to his head; and with all the compliment of scorn, on bended knees they salute him King. O jesus! was that frothy spittle the ointment, those thorns thy Crown, the Reed thy Sceptre, the purple died and embroidered with blood thy royal robes: or because Adam's sin brought forth thorns, must it be thy penance to wear them? Unthankful people, thus watered with his blood, bring forth nothing but Thorns to crown him: conspuunt in leprefu●●, ugaverunt ut latronem, deriserunt ut fatuum, saith Chrisostome.  
Thus Pilate persisting to take off the edge of their malice, exposeth him to be commiserated, with Ecce homo, sufficiently punished; Ecce Rex vester, sufficiently derided; then pleading the benefit of their custom, is desirous that Christ might be pardoned upon course, but these pacifications are but whetstones of a sharper and more incensed hatred. Barrabas that brought many from life to death, is preferred before Christ, that brought more from death to life; and no marvel, like will to like, murderers to a murderer. An outcry is raised, Crucify him, crucify him: twice Cruelfie, as if they thought one Cross too little for him; Inconstant favour of man, their Anthems of Hosanna and Benedictus not long since joyfully spoken, are converted into tragical notes of Crucify him. If Pilate be indulgent, they go near to proclaim him traitor, to avoid which suspicion, he chooseth to be an unjust judge, rather than supposed a disloyal subject: by his doom he allots him to the Cross, appoints the Soldiers his executioners, and the Priests his Ouersters.  
Now Christ goeth the dolorous way, bears his Cross till he fainted, that bore him till he died, where malice in them, longing as much as mercy in him for accomplishment; to make haste permit him an Adiutor. A guilty conscience doubteth want of time, therefore dispatcheth hastily. Where the women as as he went, strew the way with tears, whom he wisheth to spend when occasion shallserue, to still their plaint and to stay their weeping, as if some trespass were in their tears, or some sin in their sorrow: when in the rage of slaughter Infant's blood shall be more plentiful than Mother's tears, and a screeching voice shall be heard in Hterusalem, many Rachel's weeping for their children, and would not be comforted because they were not.  
Must no other death stint their malice but the Cross? others they had in practice, as the Towel, stoning, and beheading, more favourable, and suitable to their Nation; will they pollute a jew with a Roman death? He was made obedient to the death of the Cross, a degree beyond death. Magnacrudelitas, non solum occidere, sed & crucifigere quaerunt, ut morte vexaretur producta, saith venerable Bede: 
Tertull.  the Cross crucifigendi corporis machina, the engine of torture, a slow death, spinning out pain into a longer thread, where his own weight becomes his own affliction, upon this rack dinumeraverunt omnia ossa mea; They sum up the number of his bones, anatomize his body, his arms and legs racked with violent pulls, hands and feet boared with nails, his side wounded with a spear, the whole body torn with stripes, and gored with blood; with what words shall I complain of their savageness? 
Lactant.  Tully extended all the nerves of Eloquence, and crucified his inventions to express the quality of these pains, yet was nonplussed at his Gavintan Cross: yet hitherto their malice brought our Saviour.  
And that at the solemn time of the Passeover, when Jerusalem was full of jews and Proselytes; they kill the Lamb of God without a figure, their malice making way for the divine dispensation, for Christ our passover is offered for us, etc. And to fulfil their cruelty with a Prophecy, they crucify him with thiefs, where the one a Doeg obdurate wounds him with his tongue, and hath justice; the other in a holy Catastrophe, doth bless God and dye: Were my soul so happy a fellow as to steal Paradise at the last; I would not fear any temporal arraignment to dye such a sinner, or to be condemned for such a thief.  
The witness of all this, and chief mourner was the Blessed virgin: Nature & Grace are the wellsprings whence flow such rivers of tears for her innocent son; now Simeons Prophesy is made good: A sword of compassion doth pierce her heart; Can such a mother forget such a son? by a reflect act her hands and feet with his are pierced, her side wounded and head bruised with thorns, as if but one soul in two bodies. Oh my Lord! thy grief was the greatest that ever was in man, and mine as great as ever happened to woman. The very dumb Creatures cry out of these pains; the renting of his body rends the veil of the Temple; the digging into his side opens the Monuments; the cry of him dying awakes the dead; the immovable earth doth quake for fear of those fears; the Sun is ashamed to show his brightness, when the Father of lights was darkened with such disgrace; the Heavens discolour their beauties, and suiting themselves to their maker's fortune are in mourning robes when the lamp of heaven is extinguished: Ingrateful Nation, the Sun will not shine upon them, but is immantled with a miraculous eclipse, and Sympathising with the Sun of Righteousness, will not appear in Glory, when the Lord of Glory is thus disgraced: 
Bonau.  Solus homo non compatitur pro quo solo Christus patitur. Only man is bereft of compassion, for whom only Christ underwent this Passion. I except the Centurion, 
Bernard.  qui vitam agnovit in morte, who in the shadow of death espied the substance of the Deity. Surely this man was the Son of God.  
Thus Christ having out-cryed his torments, prayed for relief, and at his death for forgiveness to his enemies; emisit spiritum non amisit, willingly yields to nature, and offers up a broken heart and a troubled spirit to his Father for the world's redemption: O strange Physic where the Physician must bleed! and a stranger Conquest, where the Conqueror must dye, and God would take no other satisfaction. The wit of Heathen Religion pacified their Gods with sacrifices, and of greater price of greater efficacy. Sanguine placastis ventos, etc. The children's passage through the fire to Molech was thought a holy procession; but here is a mystery, God to offer himself, and men to kill him: Nova hostia novo imponitur altari, & crux Christi non templi fit ara sed mundi, saith Leo: this Catholic Sacrifice is offered upon Mount Caluary, the altar of the world; O the Miracle of mercy to quicken us! The Lord is, view his worth in the end of my Text. The Lord of Glory.  
Shall that Deity, 
Lord of glory.  which principally resides in heaven be fastened to a cross on earth? truly, though the Deity be impatible, yet by Hypostatical union, it constituted, and made up that Person which was qualified to passion, and that so well compacted and put together, that death could not divorce that union. The godhead hath not flesh and blood, yet God, he bled for us, Qui redemit nos sanguine suo: our sins were at so high a rate, that nothing but the blood of the Lord of glory could purchase us.  
This union consisteth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 undivided, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inseparable, and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without local distance, saith Damascene: as a branch in the stock, as light in the Sun, as an accident in a subject is the humanity sustained by the Deity. The Catholic Faith goeth upright betwixt Eutiches and Nestorius, bending neither to the right hand of natural confusion, or to the left of personal divorce. Now, Quaecunque in uno supposito uniuntur, illa dese invicem possunt praedicari. Our Saviour's person is invested with the properties of either nature; hence flow the concrete predication of natures, God is man; and the abstract communication of properties to the subject Christ, is infiniteness. In this marriage the humane nature is in the person enstated with all the divine Royalties; and that is so indulgent, as to assume her infirmities, that we may say, Christ-God-Man made the world, Christ-Man-God redeemed it. Here is the root of the infiniteness of his merits; Principium quo, the subject wherein he suffered was the humane nature; but the principium quod, the soul which did enable and inform it was the Deity. 
Sent. 3. d. 19  Christ did elicere actiones ex supposito, saith Scotus, perform his task in proper person. So by that means, reconciled infiniteness to all his actions. Infinite not in respect of the act, but Person, The Lord of glory. 
Gabriel. 3.5.19. d. q. 19 d. q. unica.   
The Lord of glory, and yet crucified! Never was glory so eclipsed, here is Honour ashamed, Majesty afflicted, Innocence guilty, health sick, the Sun in the night, a veiled Deity. In mount Tabor Christ was apparelled like himself, a man might read Majesty in his countenance, but in Mount Caluary all is obtenebrated. Christ, like his Spouse the Church, is black, but comely. The Cross nigredo est sed forma, & similitudo Domini. Go unto Esay, He hath no form nor comeliness, there is no beauty in him. The sable Curtains by that Prophet are drawn upon him: Have recourse unto David, Thou art fairer than the children of men, grace is poured into thy lips: 
Bernard.  Intuere sane pannis sordidum, plagis lividum, illitum sputis, pallidum morte, & nigrum vel tunc profecto fatebere; to see him thus conspuicated, thy wit will serve thee to confess his blackness; but ask the Apostles whom they saw in the Mount, or the Angels whom they desire to see, thou wilt soon recognize him to be the Lord of glory. Ergo formosus in se, niger propter te; so comely in himself, so black for thee: thus crucified he was without disparagement to his glory. Non est fastidita humilitas, 
Leo.  quia nec imminuta Majesty; nihil nocuit naturae inviolabili quod passibili oportehat inferri. All these passions truly undergone by him, did no whit impeach his Deity. So, Consummatum est, it is finished, and with it my Meditations: there is remaining a short conclusion which desires to find and leave you attentive.  
YOu have heard me relate the greatest crime that ever was committed, wherein I know not if the Art of Tyranny were greater to invent, or Christ's patience to endure. The Heir is slain, but the jews have lost the inheritance. This is the medulla, and blessedness of Christianity, that God set more by us, than his Son, and Christ lost his life in seeking us. Nos tanto redimimur pretio, 
Leo.  nos tanto curamur impendio; so dear did he ransom us. Is it nothing unto you, all ye that pass by, Behold and see, if there be any sorrow like to my sorrow which is done unto me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.  
Yet to consider Christ as a man of sorrow, & not a Saviour of sinners, that his wounds were not our salves, yields but a melancholic contemplation; but when we call to mind that this was our ransom, and how every stripe that razed his Flesh doth cure our souls: How the blood of compassion ran in Christ: nec desunt foramina per quae effluat; Conduit pipes are not wanting for transfusion, not of blood but mercy; with all our hearts we pray, His Blood be upon us and our children. In the Sea of sin let us cast Anchor upon this Rock; be thy sins never so great, 
Bernard.  it is able to support them. Turbatur Conscientia, sed non perturbabitur; the sting of sin is taken out by our Saviour's Passion, so that though the remembrance thereof be bitter, yet the rehearsal of Christ's Passions is fare sweeter, wherein Quot vulnera tot ora, so many wounds, so many speaking and interceding tongues, pleading thy right at the mercy-seat, Lord, whither shall we then go? Hear is a jubilee of grace: let Rome expect an influence of goodness from the Stars, we desire but the Sun of Righteousness to be our light, our heat, our life. Quaeris Alcidae parem, nemo est nisi ipse; 
Seneca in Theb.  Let our souls perish if He cannot save them.  
Beware your sins make you not incapable. jesus washed all his Disciples feet, yet all were not clean: though from the Centre of Caluary lines of mercy are drawn to the utmost parts of the earth, yet all the world is not within the Circle of pardon. The best Physic hath not its efficacy upon some indisposed patients, Quicquid recipitur, etc. proves true in Divinity: I shall go beyond my Commission to tell you, He hath made Salvation as common as the light of the Sun or breath of our Nostrils; God is no Prodigal of his mercy: invert that speech of Piso in Tacitus, Perdere scit, donare nescit; 
Histor. 1.  he is bountiful, not profuse, and his goodness observes a Method. Christ's pains were not extensively infinite, so not available for such sinners, of whose iniquity there is no end. Our sins indeed betrayed him into sinners hands, who crucify unto themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to open shame. Every sin is a nail, a thorn, a Spear; & every sinner, a jew, a judas, and a Pilate. Be not encouraged to sin, and then think to take Sanctuary at a Saviour; injure not Christ so much, as to make him the foundation of thy sinful life, who lost his to extinguish it; presumptuous sinners! that put themselves under the protection of a Redeemer, and so think to escape the arrest: Surely, to tender Christ the compliment of our lips with corrupt hearts, is like the Soldiers, to prostrate ourselves before him in scorn. 
Bera.  Defer not to be good upon hopes, I tu & quaere salutem in medio Gehennae, quae semel operata est in medio terrae; this life is our Harvest to reap the fruit of his merits. Finally, Christ hath left us an example to crucify the world with the lusts thereof; for, Quid est volaticum huius mundi gaudium? This world is a fleeting good, a winged joy.. But spes Resurrectionis fastidium est mortis, saith Tertullian. The Saints contemn death, who have a part in the second Resurrection: where they shall be crowned, not with Thorns but Glory; and sing praises to jesus, the Lord of glory.  
FINIS.