SECTION XV.

Of the Accidents happening from the Death of Lazarus, until the Death and Burial of Jesus.

1. WHILE Jesus was in Galilee, messengers came to him from Martha and her sister Mary, that he would hasten into Judæa, to Bethany, to relieve the sickness and imminent dangers of their brother Lazarus. But he deferred his going till Lazarus was dead; purposing to give a great probation of his divinity, power, and mission, by a glorious miracle, and to give God glory, and to receive reflections of the glory upon himself: for after he had stayed two days, he called his disciples to go with him into Judæa, telling them that Lazarus was dead, but he would raise him out of that sleep of death. But by that time Jesus was arrived at Bethany, he found that Lazarus had been dead four days, and now near to putrefaction. when Martha and Mary met him, weeping their pious tears for their dead brother, Jesus suffered the passions of pity and humanity, and wept; distilling that precious liquor into the grave of Lazarus, watering the dead plant, that it might spring into a new life, and raise his head above the ground.

But

2. When Jesus had, by his words of comfort and institution, strengthened the faith of the two mourning sisters, and commanded the stone to be removed from the grave, he made an address of adoration and eucharist to his Father, confessing his perpetual propensity to hear him; and then cried out, 'Lazarus, come forth! And he that was dead

came forth from his bed of darkness, with his nightclothes on him, whom when the apostles had unloosed at the command of Jesus, he went to Bethany. And many that were present believed on him; but others, wondering and malicious, went and told the Pharisees the story of the miracle; who, upon that advice, called their great council, whose great and solemn cognizance was of the greater causes of prophets, of kings, and of the holy law. At this great assembly it was that Caiaphas, the highpriest, prophesied that it was expedient one should die for the people: and thence they determined the death of Jesus: but he, knowing they had passed a decretory sentence against him, retired to the city Ephraim, in the tribe of Judah, near the desert, where he stayed a few days, till the approximation of the feast of Easter.

3. Against which feast, when Jesus with his disciples was going to Jerusalem, he told them the event of the journey would be, that the Jews should deliver him to the Gentiles; that they should scourge him, and mock him, and crucify him, and the third day he should rise again. After which discourse, the mother of Zebedee's children begged of Jesus for her two sons, that one of them might sit at his right hand, the other at the left, in his kingdom. For no discourses of his passion, or intimations of the mysteriousness of his kingdom, could yet put them into right understandings of their condition: but Jesus, whose heart and thoughts were full of fancy and apprehensions of the neighbour passion, gave them answer in proportion to his present conceptions and their future condition: for if they desired the honours of his kingdom, such as they were, they should have

them, unless themselves did decline them; they should drink of his cup, and dip in his lavatory, and be washed with his baptism, and sit in his kingdom, if the heavenly Father had prepared it for them but the donation of that immediately : was an issue of divine election and predestination, and was only competent to them who, by holy living and patient suffering, put themselves into a disposition of becoming vessels of election.

4. But as Jesus in this journey came near Jericho, he cures a blind man, who sat begging by the way-side and espying Zacchæus, the chief of the publicans, upon a tree, (that he, being low in stature, might upon that advantage of station see Jesus passing by,) he invited himself to his house; who received him with gladness and repentance of his crimes, purging his conscience, and filling his heart and house with joy and sanctity; for, immediately upon the arrival of the Master at his house, he offered restitution to all persons whom he had injured, and satisfaction, and half of his remanent estate he gave to the poor; and so gave the fairest entertainment to Jesus, who brought along with him salvation to his house. There it was that he spake the parable of the king who concredited divers talents to his servants; and having at his return exacted an account, rewarded them who had improved their bank, and been faithful in their trust, with rewards proportionable to their capacity and improvement; but the negligent servant, who had not meliorated his stock, was punished with ablegation and confinement to outer darkness: and from hence sprang up that dogmatical proposition, which is mysterious and determined in Christianity: To him that hath shall be given; and from him

that hath not shall be taken away even what he hath. After this, going forth of Jericho, he cured two blind men upon the way.

5. Six days before Easter Jesus came to Bethany, where he was feasted by Martha and Mary; and accompanied by Lazarus, who sat at the table with Jesus. But Mary brought a pound of nard pistic,' and, as formerly she had done, again anoints the feet of Jesus, and fills the house with the odour, till God himself smelt thence a savour of a sweetsmelling sacrifice: but Judas Iscariot, the thief and the traitor, repined at the vanity of the expense, as he pretended, because it might have been sold for three hundred pence, and have been given to the poor. But Jesus, in his reply, taught us, that there is an opportunity for actions of religion as well as of charity. Mary did this against the burial of Jesus; and her religion was accepted by him, to whose honours the holocaust of love and the oblations of alms-deeds are in their proper seasons direct actions of worship and duty. But at this meeting there came many Jews to see Lazarus, who was raised from death, as well as to see Jesus: and because by occasion of his resurrection many of them believed on Jesus, therefore the Pharisees deliberated about putting him to death. But God, in his glorious providence, was pleased to preserve him as a trumpet of his glories, and a testimony of the miracles, thirty years after the death of Jesus.

6. The next day, being the fifth day before the passover, Jesus came to the foot of the Mount of Olives; and sent his disciples to Bethphage, a vil

1 Pisticam, id est spicatam, corrupte, uti ex Latinis fere solent Græci. Vide Erasm. in 14 Marci.

Epiphan cont. Manich.

lage in the neighbourhood, commanding them to unloose an ass and a colt, and bring them to him, and to tell the owners it was done for the Master's use: and they did so. And when they brought the ass to Jesus, he rides on him to Jerusalem: and the people, having notice of his approach, took branches of palm-trees, and went out to meet him, strewing branches and garments in the way, crying out, Hosannah to the Son of David!" Which was a form of exclamation used to the honour of God, and in great solemnities; and signifies adoration to the Son of David, by the rite of carrying branches; which when they used in procession about their altars they used to pray, "Lord, save us; Lord, prosper us :" which hath occasioned the reddition of Hoschiannah to be, amongst some, that prayer which they repeated at the carrying of the Hoschiannah, as if itself did signify, "Lord, save us." But this honour was so great and unusual to be done even unto kings, that the Pharisees, knowing this to be an appropriate manner of address to God, said one to another by way of wonder, 'Hear ye what these men say?' for they were troubled to hear the people revere him as a God.

7. When Jesus from the Mount of Olives beheld Jerusalem, he wept over it,' and foretold great sadnesses and infelicities futurely contingent to it: which not only happened in the sequel of the story, according to the main issues and significations of this prophecy, but even to minutes and cir

· Ὑψηλᾶν ἀρετᾶν και τεφάνων ἄωτον γλυκύν. Pindar, Vocat palmarum ramos, Olymp. Altissimarum virtutum et coronarum florem suavem.

2 Drusius de vocib. Heb. N. T. c. 19. Canin. de locis, N. T.