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siah, on which they were redeemed when God wonderfully brought them out of the land of Egypt.

Now our Saviour made good his word, which he had often passed, that he would give them his very flesh to eat, whereby they might feast with him, as they had done that day on the paschal lambi. He gave them also his very blood to drink, which was the price of their redemption, that which saved them from the destroyer, and overcame those enemies which opposed their entrance into the eternal rest. For his flesh, (as he speaks,) being offered on the cross, was meat indeed, and his blood drink indeed. That is, the most perfect food and excellent nutriment; which hath a power to give (not a temporary, as the paschal lamb did, but) an eternal life to those that partake of it by a lively faith in him. Some of the Jews themselves thought there was some greater mystery in the passover than the commemoration of their deliverance out of Egypt, and say expressly, that then God communicated his divinity to men. They are the words of R. Judah1: "By the sacrifice of the passover God joins men so closely to himself, that they are one with him, as light is with a candle." Which had little truth in it, till Christ our passover was sacrificed for us; when the mystery was explained, and he invited all men to come and eat of his flesh, and drink of his blood, and thereby have such a fellowship with him in his death, that he might communicate to them his life. For τοῦτ ̓ ἔστι τὸ αἷμα τοῦ Ἰησοῦ, τῆς Κυριακῆς μεταλαβεῖν ἀφθαρσίας, as Clemens Alex. speaks m; 'this is to drink the blood of Jesus, to partake of the Lord's immortality.'

And so our Lord explains himself, when he adds, in the next words", As the living Father (who, being the Author of life, can give it again to the dead,) hath sent me, and I live by the Father, (shall rise again, though I give my flesh to be slain;) so he that eateth me (believeth on me, though crucified) shall live by me; that is, be raised again to life by me, as I by the Father: for he gave his flesh (as he says at the beginning of this discourse), that is, delivered it to be made a bloody sacri

i Vid. P. Fagium in Exod. xii. 13. [inter Critic. Sacr. col. 118.]

[inter Critic. Sacr. col. 203.]

* John vi. 55.

1 Apud Masium in John v. 10.

m L. 11. Pædag. cap. 2. [p. 177.]

n John vi. 57.

• Ver. 51.

fice, for the life of the world, i. e. that all mankind might have remission of sins and eternal life which he will as certainly give to those who do not refuse to participate of this sacrifice by believing in him, as the Father of life raised him from the dead to live for evermore. These words seemed hard to some of his disciplesP, who could not understand that there should be such virtue in his flesh as to give life unto the world. But our Lord tells them there was no cause of being offended at this discourse; for, if they would but stay a while, they should be convinced that he did not ascribe too much to it: What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before? That is, "What will you say if you behold me raised up from the dead, and ascend into heaven, where I was before I took this flesh? Will you not then confess that my death (which is meant by his giving his flesh to them) had an exceeding great virtue in it, being so acceptable to God as to be thus highly rewarded? Will it then seem incredible to you that I should obtain thereby a power to raise the dead and to give eternal life? This, sure, will be a convincing argument that I have not said too much of my blood, nor promised greater things than it can do for you. You will then, if you consider it, join yourselves heartily to me, though now you are ready to fly off, and not think my cross such a scandal that it should hinder you from being Christians."

X. And that will be one of our next works, in the following chapter, to show the power of Christ's resurrection to persuade us that, by his death, he will give life to the world. Let us first only briefly consider that there are some other circumstances, besides this now mentioned, which declare there was something exceeding remarkable in the sufferings of Christ on the cross to procure him great glory: for we find that Nicodemus, one of their senators, who durst not publicly own our Saviour while he was in great favour with the people, came, now that he was crucified and exposed to scorn, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight, to honour his corpse withal. Which would be a stronger argument of the thorough conviction already wrought in his mind, if there be any truth in the conjecture of a learned

P John vi. 60.

a Ver. 62.

r xix. 39.

mans, that these spices were intended not to embalm him, but, as the manner was upon great occasions, to burn at his funeral. Thus far he is certainly in the right, that the honour of having sweet spices burnt at their funerals appertained to no other persons but only their kingst, and the head of all the doctors, the Nasi, as they called him, of their academies. And he notes likewise truly out of Joseph ben Gorion, that when the funeral pomp of Herod the Great was carried forth, fifty of his servants are said to have scattered all the way they went those very things which Nicodemus brought, viz. myrrh and aloes, and all other sweet spices. But whether we can hence conclude that Nicodemus now honoured him by these as the King of Israel, and the Prince of all the prophets, I cannot tell, because the evangelist seems to tell us that the use they made of these spices was to embalm his body, which they wound in linen cloths, with the spices, as the manner of the Jews was to bury. Yet this we may safely conclude, that he would never have put himself to so great a charge, and laid out so much upon his dead body, if he had not seen something which convinced him that this was that King of Israel, who would give him a reward for his love and open confession of him in his heavenly kingdom. There was nothing to move him to such an expense, upon such an hated person, but only a persuasion that Jesus was what he pretended; and an assured hope that by this flesh, which now lay dead, the world should be restored to life.

Yea, such power there was in his death to affect men's hearts, that not only the centurion confessed him to be a righteous man, but all the people who were come together to that sight, beholding the things that accompanied his sufferings, were pricked in their consciences, and smote their breasts. They could not, that is, but express their sorrow for this horrid fact of shedding his blood, and dread the dismal consequences of it. Insomuch that, though it was forbidden. by the constitutions of the Sanhedrim to make any lamentations for a malefactor, yet they were not able, on this occasion,

s Jac. Alting. Schilo, 1. iv. [cap. 24. Opp. tom. v. p. 103.]

t 2 Chron. xvi. ult.

u John xix. 40.

▾ Luke xxiii. 47, 48.

w Gem. Sanh. c. vi. [§ 6. apud J. Cocceium, in duos tit. Talmud. Opp. tom. ix. p. 157.]

to forbear it. Their own writers tell us that it was a part of the honour they did to a deserving person, when his funeral was carried out, to accompany him with sighs, and groans, and tears, and beating themselves, and such like tokens of their inward grief for his loss. With which the holy Scripture agrees, when it names this as part of the curse of God upon Jehoiakim, that none should so much as sigh at his burial, nor make the usual lamentation, saying, Ah my brother! Ah lord! or, Ah his glory! From whence it is likely they passed a decree, that when any person suffered by a public sentence for a crime, none should presume to grace him with any ceremony, nor use the least outward sign of heaviness, though in their hearts they might mourn for him. But this decree and custom, settled by the authority of their supreme court, the esteem which our Saviour won to himself, even when he hung upon his cross, forced the people to break. Their affection to him was stronger than all laws; and they could not contain themselves when they saw what testimonies heaven gave of his innocence and virtue; but did him public honour even at the very place of execution. Though he suffered as the highest and vilest offender in the world, yet the honest-hearted spectators were not only inwardly troubled in their breasts at the sight, but beat or knocked them also; and showed thereby that they were not afraid to own him as a most excellent person, whose death they ought to accompany with the bitterest lamentations.

And so much may suffice concerning the testimony of his blood; which no man can hear speak a word, but he must needs think that which got him such honour among the people in the midst of his shame and the reproach of the cross, obtained a far greater glory for him with God in the heavens, who best knew how to value his obedience.

"O wonderful passion, the expiation of the world! O death, the cause of immortality, and the origin of life! O descent into hell, the bridge by which those who were dead passed into heaven! O noon, which hath revoked the afternoon sentence against us in paradise! O cross, the cure of the fatal tree! O nails, which wounded death, and joined the world to the know

* Jer. xxii. 18.

ledge of God." . . "Great was the victory which he that was incarnate for us obtained on the day of his passion. He grappled with death when he was dead. Hell and the grave this day ignorantly swallowed a deadly morsel. To-day death received him dead who always lives. To-day the chains were loosed which the serpent made in paradise. The thief this day made a breach on paradise, which had been guarded by the flaming sword some thousands of years. This day our Lord broke the gates of brass, and cut the bars of iron in sunder y.

"Which of the great men, that ancient times boast of, are comparable to him? All the just fell under the power of death, and none could conquer it. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are all turned to dust and ashes. The memory of Joseph, in whom the Jews glory, lay in his dry bones, which they carried out of Egypt with them. Moses is extolled by them to the skies, but there is not so much as his tomb to be found. Such as these, and so many, death devoured and swallowed them all down. . . . But at last it swallowed one, and against its will vomited up the whole world: who now triumph over it, and cry with a loud voice, O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord.

"His passion is our impassibility: his death is our immortality his tears our joy: his burial our resurrection: his baptism our purification: his stripes our healing: his chastisement our peace his reproach our glory 2." How much are we indebted to him, who from first to last consulted our happiness! "For he descended, that he might make way for our ascent. He was born, that he might make us friends with the unbegotten. He took on him our infirmities, that we might be raised in power, and say with St. Paul, I can do all things, through Christ which strengtheneth me. He took on him a corruptible body, that this corruption might put on incorruption. He put on mortality, that it might be changed into immortal. In fine, he was made man and died, that we who

y Proclus, Homil. xl. [Auct. Nov. Biblioth. patr. Græco-Lat. per Combefim, tom. i. pp. 411,2.]

PATRICK, VOL. III.

z S. Athanasius περὶ ἐνσάρκου éπiþaν. p. 598. [ed. Ben. tom. i. p. 874 A.]

P

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