of those things, which was once done, that it might be thought of for ever. Every day therefore must be the Good Friday of a Christian; who, with that great Doctor of the Gentiles, must desire to know nothing but Jesus Christ, and him crucified. I. There is no branch or circumstance in this wonderful business, which yields not infinite matter of discourse. According to the solemnity of this time and place, I have chosen to commend unto your Christian attention, our Saviour's Farewell to Nature (for his reviving was above it) in his Last Word, in his Last Act. His LAST WORD, It is finished; his Last Act, He gave up the Ghost. That, which he said, he did. If there be any theme, that may challenge and command our ears and hearts, this is it: for, behold, the sweetest word that ever Christ spake, and the most meritorious act that ever he did, are met together, in this his last breath. In the one, ye shall see him triumphing: yielding, in the other; yet so as he overcomes. Imagine, therefore, that you saw Christ Jesus, in this day of his passion, who is every day here crucified before your eyes, advanced upon the Chariot of his Cross; and now, after a weary conflict, cheerfully overlooking the despight and shame of men, the wrath of his Father, the law, sin, death, hell; which all lie gasping at his foot: and then you shall conceive, with what spirit he saith, Consummatum est, It is finished. What is finished? shortly; all the Prophecies, that were of him; all Legal Observations, that prefigured him; his own Sufferings; our Salvation: THE PROPHECIES ARE ACCOMPLISHED, THE CEREMONIES ABOLISHED, HIS SUFFERINGS ENDED, OUR SALVATION WROUGHT: these four heads shall limit this first part of my speech; only let them find and leave you attentive. 1. Even this very word is prophesied of; All things that are written of me, have an end, saith Christ. What end? This, It is finished. This very end hath his end here. What therefore is finished? Not this prediction only of his last draught, as Augustin: that were too particular. Let our Saviour himself say, All things that are written of me by the prophets. sure and convertible rule, " Nothing was done by Christ, which was not foretold: nothing was ever foretold by the prophets of Christ, which was not done." It is a It would take up a life to compare the Prophets and Evangelists, the predictions and the history, and largely to discourse how the one foretells and the other answers: let it suffice to look at them running. Of all the Evangelists, Saint Matthew hath been most studious, in making these references and correspondences; with whom, the burden or under song of every event, is still, ut impleretur, that it might be fulfilled. Thus hath he noted, if I have reckoned them aright, two and thirty several prophecies concerning Christ, fulfilled in his birth, life, death. To which St. John adds many more. Isaiah vii. 14, Matth. i. 23. Hosca xi. 1. Matth. ii. 15. Our speech must be directed to his Passion: omitting the rest, let us insist in those. He must be apprehended: it was fore-prophesied; The Anointed of the Lord was taken in their nets, saith Jeremiah: but how? he must be sold: for what? for thirty silver pieces; and what must those do? buy a field: all foretold; And they took thirty silver pieces, the price of him that was valued, and gave them for the potters field, saith Zechariah (miswritten Jeremiah, by one letter mistaken in the abbreviation.) By whom? That child of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. Which was he? It is foretold; He that eateth bread with me, saith the Psalmist. And what shall his Disciples do? Run away so saith the prophecy; I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered, saith Zechariah. What shall be done to him? He must be scourged and spit upon: behold, not those filthy excrements could have lighted upon his sacred face, without a prophecy; I hid not my face from shame and spitting, saith Isaiah. What shall be the issue? In short, he shall be led to death: it is the prophecy; The Messiah shall be slain, saith Daniel: what death? he must be lift up; Like as Moses lift up the serpent in the wilderness, so shall the Son of Man be lift up. Chrysostom saith well, that some actions are parables; so may I say, some actions are prophecies: such are all types of Christ, and this with the foremost. Lift up, whither? to the Cross: it is the prophecy; hanging upon a tree, saith Moses: How lift up? nailed to it: so is the prophecy; Foderunt manus, They have pierced my hands and my feet, saith the Psalmist: With what company? two thieves: With the wicked was he numbered, saith Isaiah: Where? Without the gates, saith the prophecy. What became of his garments? They cannot so much as cast the dice for his coat, but it is prophesied; They divided my garments, and on my vestures cast lots, saith the Psalmist. He must die then on the Cross: but how? voluntarily. Not a bone of him shall be broken: what hinders it? lo, there he hangs, as it were neglected and at mercy; yet all the raging Jews, no, all the Devils in hell cannot stir one bone in his blessed body: it was it was prophesied in the Easter-Lamb, and it must be fulfilled in him that is the True Passover, in spite of I have corrected these references in several places, as they were given very inaccurately. More might be added to them, by a careful comparison of St. Matthew with the Old Testament.-EDITOR. fiends and men. How then? he must be thrust in the side: behold, not the very spear could touch his precious side being dead, but it must be guided by a prophecy; They shall see him whom they have thrust thorough, saith Zechariah. What shall be say the while? not his very words but are forespoken: his Complaint, Eli, Eli, lama sabacthani, as the Chaldee, or nay, as the Hebrew, Psalm. xxii. 2: his Resignation, In manus tuas, Into thy hands I commend my spirit; Psalm xxxi. 5: his Request, Father, forgive them: He prayed for the transgressors, saith Isaiah. And now, when he saw all these prophecies were fulfilled, knowing that one remained, he said, I thirst. "Domine, quid sitis?" saith one; "O Lord, what thirstest thou for?" A strange hearing, that a man, yea that God and man dying, should complain of thirst. Could he endure the scorching flames of the wrath of his Father, the curse of our sins, those tortures of body, those horrors of soul, and doth he shrink at his thirst? No, no: he could have borne his drought, he could not bear the Scripture not fulfilled. It was not necessity of nature, but the necessity of his Father's decree, that drew forth this word, I thirst. They offered it before, he refused it. Whether it were an ordinary potion for the condemned to hasten death, as in the story of M. Antony, which is the most received construction; or whether it were that Jewish potion, whereof the Rabbins speak, whose tradition was, that the malefactor to be executed, should, after some good counsel from two of their teachers, be taught to say, "Let my death be to the remission of all my sins*,' and then that he should have given him a bowl of mixed wine, with a grain of frankincense, to bereave him both of reason and paint: I durst be confident in this latter; the rather, for that St. Mark calls this draught, ovov éσμuρvioμévov, Myrrh-wine, mingled, as is like, with other ingredients; and Montanus agrees with me in the end, Ad stuporem et mentis alienationem: a fashion, which Galatine observes out of the Sanhedrim, to be grounded upon Prov. xxxi. 6. Give strong drink to him that is ready to perish: I leave it modestly in the midst let the learneder judge. Whatsoever it were, he would not die, till he had complained of thirst, and in his thirst tasted it. Neither would he have thirsted for or tasted any, but this bitter draught; that the Scripture might be fulfilled; They gave me vinegar to drink. And lo, now Consummatum est; All is finished. If there be any Jew amongst you, that, like one of John's unseasonable disciples, shall ask, Art thou he, or shall we look for another? he hath his answer. Ye men of Israel, why stand you gazing and gaping for another Messiah? In this alone, all the prophecies are finished; and of him alone, all was prophesied and was finished. Paul's old rule holds still, To the Jews a stumbling block; and that more ancient curse of David, Let their table be made a snare: And Stephen's two brands stick still in the flesh of these wretched men! one in their neck, stiff necked, ouλnporęźxyλo; * Sit mors mea in remissionem omnium iniquitatum mearum, † Ut usus rationis tollatur. the other in their heart, uncircumcised, deginto; the one, Obstinacy; the other, Unbelief. Stiff necks indeed! that will not stoop and releut with the yoke of sixteen hundred years' judg ment and servility. Uncircumcised hearts! the film of whose unbelief would not be cut off with so infinite convictions. O mad and miserable Nation! let them shew us one prophecy, that is not fulfilled; let them shew us one other, in whom all the prophecies can be fulfilled; and we will mix pity with our hate: if they cannot, and yet resist, their doom is past; Those mine enemics, that would not have me to reign over them, bring them hither, and slay them before me. So let thine enemies perish, O Lord! But what go I so far? Even amongst us, to our shame, this riotous age hath bred a monstrous generation, (I pray God I be not now in some of your bosoms, that hear me this day,) compounded, much like to the Turkish religion, of one part, Christian; another, Jew; a third, Worldling; a fourth, Atheist, a Christian's face; a Jew's heart; a Worldling's life; and, therefore, Atheous in the whole: that acknowledge a God, and know him not; that profess a Christ, but doubt of him, yea, believe him not: the fool hath said in his heart, "There is no Christ.” What shall I say of these men? They are worse than devils: that yielding spirit could say, Jesus I know: and these miscreants are still in the old tune of that tempting devil; Si tu es filius Dei, If thou be the Christ. O God, that after so clear a Gospel, so many iniraculous confirmations, so many thousand martyrdoms, so many glorious victories of truth, so many open confessions of angels, men, devils, friends, enemies, such conspirations of heaven and earth, such universal contestations of all ages and people, there should be left any spark of this damnable infidelity in the false hearts of men! Behold then, ye despisers, and wonder, and vanish away whom have all the prophets foretold? or what have the prophecies of so many hundreds, yea thousands of years, foresaid, that is, not with this word finished? Who could foretell these things, but the Spirit of God? Who could accomplish them, but the Son of God? He spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, saith Zechariah: he hath spoken, and he hath done. One true God. in both. None other spirit could foresay these things should be done: none other power could do these things, thus foreshewed. This word, therefore, can fit none but the mouth of God our Saviour, It is finished. We know whom we have be lieved; Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Let him, that loves not the Lord Jesus, be accursed to the death. 2. Thus the PROPHECIES are finished: of the LEGAL OBSERVATIONS, with more brevity. Christ is the end of the Law: What law? Ceremonial, Moral. Of the Moral; it was kept perfectly by himself, satisfied fully for us: of the Ceremonial; it was referred to him, observed of him, fulfilled in him, abolished by him. There were nothing more easy, than to shew you how all those * Aug. ad. Hier. Dum volunt et Judæi esse et Christiani, nec Judæi sunt, nec Christiani. Jewish Ceremonies looked at Christ: how Circumcision, Passover, the Tabernacle both outer and inner, the Temple, the Laver, both the Altars*, the Tables of Shew-bread, the Candlesticks, the Veil, the Holy of Holies, the Ark, the Propitiatory, the Pot of Manna, Aaron's Rod, the High Priest, his Order and Line, his Habits, his Inaugurations, his Washings, his Anointings, his Sprinklings, Offerings, the Sacrifices, hazina duxepisine, and whatever Jewish rite, had their virtue from Christ, relation to hini, and their end in him. This was then their last gasp; for, now straight they died with Christ, now the veil of the Temple rent: as Austin well notes out of Matthew's order; "It tore then, when Christ's last breath passedt." That conceit of Theophylact is witty; that, as the Jews were wont to rend their garments when they heard blasphemy, so the Temple, not enduring these execrable blasphemies against the Son of God, tore his veil in pieces. But that is not all: the veil rent, is the obligation of the Ritual Law cancelled; the way into the heavenly sanctuary opened; the shadow giving room to the substance: in a word, it doth that which Christ saith, Consumma tum est. Even now then the Law of Ceremonies died: it had a long and solemn burial, as Augustin saith well; perhaps figured in Moses, who died not lingeringly, but was thirty days mourned for. What means the Church of Rome to dig them up, now rotten in their graves? and that, not as they had been buried, but sown with a plenteous increase; yea, with the inverted usury of too many of you Citizens; ten for one. It is a grave and deep censure of that resolute Jerome §, Ego è contrario loquar, &c. " I say," saith he, "and in spite of all the world dare maintain, that now the Jewish ceremonies are pernicious and deadly; and whosoever shall observe them, whether he be Jew or Gentile," in barathrum diaboli devolutum," shall fry in hell for it." Still altars? still priests? sacrifices still? still washings? still unctions? sprinkling, shaving, purifying? still all, and more than all? Let them hear but Augustin's censure, Quisquis nunc, &c. "Whosoever shall now use them, as it were raking them up out of their dust, he shall not be pius deductor corporis, sed impius sepulturæ violator; an impious and sacrilegious wretch, that ransacks the quiet tombs of the dead." I I say not that all Ceremonies are dead, but the Law of Cere monies, and of Jewish. It is a sound distinction of them, that profound Peter Martyr hath in his epistle to that worthy Martyr, Father, Bishop Hooper: some are typical, fore-signifying Christ to come; some of order and decency; those are abrogated, not * Θυμιατήριον, θυσιατήριον. + Ex quo apparet tunc scissum esse, cùm Christus emisit spiritum. Ceremonia sicut defuncia corpora neccssariorum officiis deducenda erant ad sepulturam, won simulatè, sed religiosè, nec deserenda continuò. Augustin. Ego è contrario loquar, et reclamanto mundo liberá voce pronunciem, ceremonias Judeorum perniciosas esse, et mortiferas, et quicunque eas observaverit, sive ex Judæis sive ex Gentibus, in barathrum diaboli devolutum. Hier. | Quisquis nunc ea celebrare voluerit, tanquam sopilos cineres eruens, non erit pius &c. |
