that we may read our duty in the pages of revelation, not in the labels of accidental effects; that Thy judgments may confirm Thy word, and Thy word teach us our duty, and we by such excellent instruments may enter in, and grow up in the ways of godliness, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 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 Judea, 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 staid two days, He called His disciples to go with Him into Judea, 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. But when Martha and Mary met Him, weeping their pious tears for their dead brother, Jesus suffered the passions of piety 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. 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 night-clothes 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 high-priest 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 staid 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 Hin, 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 Zaccheus, the chief of the publicans, upon a tree, that he being low of 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 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 sweet-smelling 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 miracle, 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 village 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 palmtrees and went out to meet Him, strewing branches and garments in the way, crying out, Hosanna 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 to 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 9 Pisticam, id est, spicatam, corrupte, uti ex Latinis fere solent Græci.-Erasm. in xiv. Marci. [tom. vi. col. 203 F.] Epiphan. cont. Manich. [Adv. hær. lxvi. § 3. lib. ii. tom. ii. vol. i. p. 652.] • Υψηλᾶν ἀρετᾶν καὶ Pindarus vocat palmarum ramos, altissi Drusius de Vocib. Heb. N. T. c. 19. marum virtutum et coronarum florem [p. 83.] Canin. de locis N. T. [cap, iv. suavem. p. 33.] 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 circumstances it was verified; for in the Mount of olives where Jesus shed tears over perishing Jerusalem, the Romans first pitched their tents when they came to its final overthrow". From thence descending to the city He went into the temple, and still the acclamations followed Him, till the pharisees were ready to burst with the noises abroad, and the tumults of envy and scorn within, and by observing that all their endeavours to suppress His glories were but like clapping their hands to veil the sun, and that in despite of all their stratagems the whole nation was become disciple to the glorious Nazarene. And there He cured certain persons that were "blind and lame." 8. But whilst He abode at Jerusalem, "certain Greeks who came to the feast to worship" made their address to Philip that they might be brought to Jesus. Philip tells Andrew, and they both tell Jesus; who, having admitted them, discoursed many things concerning His passion, and then prayed a petition, which is the end of His own sufferings, and of all human actions, and the purpose of the whole creation, "Father, glorify Thy name;" to which He was answered by a voice from heaven, "I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again." But this, nor the whole series of miracles that He did, the mercies, the cures, nor the divine discourses, could gain the faith of all the Jews, who were determined by their human interest; for "many of the rulers who believed on Him durst not confess Him, because they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God." Then Jesus again exhorted all men to believe on Him, that so they might in the same act believe on God; that they might approach unto the light, and not abide in darkness; that they might obey the commandments of the Father, whose express charge it was that Jesus should preach this gospel; and that they might not be judged at the last day by the word which they have rejected, which word to all its observers is everlasting life. After which sermon retiring to Bethany He abode there all night. 9. On the morrow returning to Jerusalem, on the way being hungry He passed by a fig-tree; where expecting fruit, He found none, and cursed the fig-tree, which by the next day was dried up and withered; upon occasion of which preternatural event Jesus discoursed of the power of faith, and its power to produce miracles. But upon this occasion others, the disciples of Jesus in after ages, have pleased themselves with fancies and imperfect descants, as that He cursed this tree in mystery and secret intendment; it having been the tree in the eating whose fruit Adam, prevaricating the divine law, made an inlet to sin, which brought in death, and the sadnesses of Jesus' passion. But Jesus having entered the city Joseph. de Bell. Jud. [lib. v. cap. 2. § 3. p. 1216.] Isidor. [Pelus.] ad Theopomp., lib. i. ep. 51. [p. 15.] came into the temple and preached the gospel and the chief priests and scribes questioned His commission, and by what authority He did those things; but Jesus, promising to answer them if they would declare their opinions concerning John's baptism, which they durst not for fear of "displeasing the people" or throwing dirt in their own faces, was acquitted of His obligation by their declining the proposition. 10. But there He reproved the pharisees and rulers, by the parable of two sons; the first whereof said to his father he would not obey, but repented and did his command; the second gave good words, but did nothing; meaning that persons of the greatest improbability were more heartily converted than they whose outside seemed to have appropriated religion to the labels of their frontlets. He added a parable of the vineyard let out to husbandmen, who killed the servants sent to demand the fruits, and at last the son himself, that they might invade the inheritance; but made a sad commination to all such who should either stumble at this stone, or on whom this stone should fall. After which and some other reprehensions, (which He so veiled in parable, that it might not be expounded to be calumny or declamation, although such sharp sermons had been spoken in the people's hearing, but yet so transparently that themselves might see their own iniquity in those modest and just representments,) the pharisees would fain have seized. Him, but they durst not for the people, but resolved if they could to entangle Him in His talk; and therefore sent out spies, who should pretend sanctity and veneration of His person, who, with a goodly insinuating preface, that "Jesus regarded no man's person, but spake the word of God" with much simplicity and justice, desired to know if it were "lawful to pay tribute to Cæsar, or not." A question which was of great dispute, because of the numerous sect of the Galileans, who denied it, and of the affections of the people, who loved their money, and their liberty, and the privileges of their nation. And now in all probability He should fall under the displeasure of the people or of Cæsar, but Jesus called to "see a penny," and finding it to be superscribed with Caesar's image, with incomparable wisdom He brake their snare, and established an evangelical proposition for ever, saying, "Give to Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's, and to God the things that are God's." 11. Having so excellently, and so much to their wonder, answered the pharisees, the sadducees bring their great objection to Him against the resurrection, by putting case of a woman married to seven husbands, and "whose wife should she be in the resurrection?" thinking that to be an impossible state which engages upon such seeming incongruities that a woman should at once be wife to seven men. But Jesus first answered their objection, telling them that all those relations, whose foundation is in the imperfections and passions of flesh and blood, and duties here below, shall cease in that state |