A century of sermons upon several remarkable subjects preached by the Right Reverend Father in God, John Hacket, late Lord Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry ; published by Thomas Plume ...

THE FIFTH SERMON UPON THE PASSION. (Book 5)

ACTS ii. 23.

Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and fore∣knowledg of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.

CHrist was crucified between two Thieves, the one a Blasphemer, the other a Penitent; an unfit place for Jesus the righteous, very incongruous to sort him among Thieves, though both had been penitent. But lo St. Peter exhibits him in my Text in another posture; on the one hand he sets before the Jews the demonstra∣tion of all his holy ways while He lived in humility, on the other hand his victorious resurrection, when he began to step into glory. The verse before my Text is the sum of his admirable, innocent, and best deserving conversation before he was betrayed into the hands of men, Jesus of Nazareth a man approved of God among you by Miracles, Wonders and Signs, which God did by him in the midst of you: the verse behind my Text is the blazoning of his eternal life after He had destroyed death, whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should be holden of it. In the first He lets them see their malice that they kill'd an Innocent, in the second He lets them know the impotency and weakness of their malice, that He was revived again, and exalted into Glory: the goodness and miracles which were conspicuous in him should have bred him reverence from his friends, and that the hand of violence should not touch him: but his loosening the pains of death, and breaking the bars of Hell asunder, must obtein him ho∣mage and worship from those that were his enemies. By the former description, that He was so approved, so well known for doing signs and wonders, their con∣science would confess that He was a man sent from God: by the latter descripti∣on, that he shook off the sleep of death, as Samson shook off his fetters after he awoke, their faith ought to confess, that He was God that came down to man. Thus stands my Text supported between the double honour of our Saviour, on the one side his Noble Acts, how He lived in righteousness among men, on the other side, or on the reverse, his Resurrection, how He lives again in Power and great Majesty above the Angels.

This is the right way to consider his Death and Passion, and then you shall have no scandal at his Cross: have you not seen him pictur'd hanging on the Tree, with his Mother on the right hand, and the Disciple whom he loved on the left? if you have that figure in mind, you cannot forget the order which St. Peter ob∣serves in these three verses (the Breviary of the whole Gospel) whereof my Text is the Center; behold the sufferance of Christ, that's the middle, the love knot,

the band of all; then the same of him that went before his death, like Mary that bore him in her womb, and the fame that went after his death, like John the Evangelist, who was the faithful Witness of his Resurrection. And so I have told you how the Text stands among its neighbour verses, but in it self, and in its own contents, it is the most proper work of that Meditation which is due to this time of Lent; it is a calling of sins to remembrance, a provocation to repen∣tance, and both these through the consideration of the bloody Passion of our Lord and Saviour. Now that shedding of the bloud of Christ, which both accuseth us of sin, and cleanseth us from all our sins, is referred here to two causes that brought it to pass, two most several causes, and out of most divers ends; to God and to man. First, He was delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledg of God; it did not hap∣pen, as a mischief that could not be avoided, by the sudden exclamation of the people, or by the inconstancy of Pilate, no the Council of the Holy Trinity had sat upon it, and concluded it before all time. Secondly, as the ordination of his death was to a good end, and from God; so the execution came from the Devil and his Instruments out of most malignant respects: that is, ye Jews that brought him to the Judgment-hall and urged against him, and did not leave till ye had murder'd him, your hands were wicked that took him, and crucified him, and slew the Lord of Life.

Begin we with that Cause which was a Cause before all time, and then with that Cause which was a Cause in time: Him being delivered by the determinate coun∣sel and foreknowledg of God. What is this determinate counsel? what is this fore∣knowledg? how was Christ delivered through those means? these are the first Doctrins to be opened.* 1.1 Counsel or 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 says Aristotle is to canvass and to consider doubts discreetly and providently before some action is to be effected, and to con∣clude out of those doubts well weighed what is best to be done, that is it which is called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 or understanding: 'tis very true, this is the way and progress of mans wit, to run through uncertain objections, and at last to come to clear determina∣tions: and counsel among us is a rational remedy against rash and precipitate pro∣ceedings: beware to think that these rules do conclude Almighty God: there is counsel in God, not by way of deliberation and discourse, but because his infinite wisdom hath decreed all things, both which way they shall tend, and the bounds which they shall not pass, and that's the event of counsel:* 1.2 Concilium dicitur non prop∣ter inquisitionem, sed propter certitudinem cognitionis, says Aquinas, that is, counsel is at∣tributed to God, not because He doth advise and demur, much less because He doth require the suffrages and opinions of others: but forasmuch as He hath established all things, how they should be effected in the fulness of time, therefore that Or∣der and Decree, which is the upshot of counsel, among men is called to help the infirmness of our capacity, counsel in the Most High. Damascen was so scrupu∣lous in this, that he chose words on purpose to destinguish between God and Man: In Deo est 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, non 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, a resolution, as you would say, not a consultation; for all things are manifest to him at once, both of things that are, and things that shall be, nay of things that are only possible in themselves, and never shall be. But St. Paul prevented Damascen, and avoids that distinction, by putting those words together to make up one sense, Ephes. 1.11. Being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, Will and Counsel, are united in the operations of God; when you hear of his counsel, conceive the wonderful and mysterious wisdom of God; when you hear his will is joyned unto it, observe his free power and authority: it was of old the description of a Tyrant, that his will was law, sic volo, sic jubeo, he managed all things according to the decree of his will; but if you lookt for counsel, you should find nothing but rashness, and for the most part injustice; but in all the Statutes and Ordinances of God there is counsel in his will, summa ratio, verity and judgment in all things that he hath appointed: yet summa libertas nothing im∣pels God to any Decree but his own free will and election, tempering all things with wisdom and justice; God doth decree both the means and the end of all things, and hath set them a Law, as David says, that they shall not pass.

In the next place some light must be given to this other term in the Text, the Foreknowledg of God: to foresee a thing before it be actually effected comes to pass in a threefold manner, either by the insight of natural causes: So Artists can foretel at what day and hour Eclipses of the Sun and Moon will happen; or by rational sagacity, as a prudent man can espy how affairs will succeed when a good founda∣tion

is laid; or by Divine inspiration, when the Lord from above doth give a spirit to his Prophets to behold things to come, as if they were present before their eyes. These three are thus laid down after the measure of our own understanding, but when we speak of Gods foreknowledg it is of another fadom: for first all things that were, that are, that shall be, are present to him at one instant, those succes∣sions of time, past, present, and to come, which are differences to us, are none at all to God, his knowledg, which is eternal, reacheth with one simple act even to the producing of effects in time without all variation, and therefore is called Pre∣science very improperly, and with much dissimilitude from humane ways of pre∣science. 2. Our foresight is bare foreknowledg, not able to put forward a good event, and as unable to prevent a calamity. Abraham could truly presage that Israel should come out of Egyptian bondage, but he could not hasten the time of their re∣turn: Isaiah could foretel that Judah should be led away into captivity, but he could not mitigate their bondage: but Gods foreknowledg hath his hand and pow∣er always annexed unto it: for whereas my Text says Christ was delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledg of God; St. Peter says Acts iv. 28. that Herod and Pilate and the Gentils were gathered together against Christ, to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done. He doth not only foresee good how like it is unto himself, and evil per dissimilitudinem sui, how unlike it is unto himself, but his providence intervenes, and manageth that evil which he foresees will arise out of the corrupt and depraved will of the creature to his own glory. It were an Epicu∣raean dream to imagin there is such a dull barren knowledg of things to come in God, as should not interpose, but leave all things to their own course and swing: therefore Stapleton had no such just cause to declaim against Beza, for rendring 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 in this place not Praescience, but Providence. God did not provide, that is, de∣cree it antecedently, that Judas should sin and betray Christ, but since the Crea∣ture will decline from good, consequently the Lord decrees the evil man shall not be restrained, but shall be suffered to heap vengeance upon his own head. Let Stapleton chafe at Estius, a great Doctor of their own, that says Prescience in this place stands for Predestination, him being delivered by the determinate counsel and praedestination of God. Now Providence is the ordaining of all things to a good end, but Predestination is the ordaining of Gods chosen Portion to a blessed end. I am sure Tremelius for Foreknowledg doth translate it Providence out of the Syrian Paraphrast: and do but mark the scope of this place, and you will find that Pre∣science here is annext with Providence. For whereas the Jews thought that Christ had faln into their hands through unability of defending himself from his Ene∣mies, St. Peter beats down that error, that Gods determinate Counsel and Provi∣dence was in the fact; but that had been a very weak Apology to say, that God foresaw it long before. And so much concerning these simple terms, to wit the determinate counsel and foreknowledg of God.

Now that the righteous God, in whom such counsel, and such foreknowledg do reside, should deliver up his most innocent Son and our dear Saviour unto death, that's a mystery to be weighed with modesty; the Text says positively God did deliver him, yet we know there is no injustice in the Most High, therefore this scruple is worth the scanning: First of all it is an harsh and offensive speech that some use, who perhaps mean well, that God did appoint and preordain Judas to betray his Lord, and the Jews to crucifie him; and the reasons which they use to excuse the Phrase, as if God thereby were not made the Author of sin, seem to me to want sufficiency. Zuinglius says, justo non est lex posita, you can set God no Law, therefore whatsoever you attribute unto him is no sin, because sin is the violati∣on of a Law. Beloved, there are some things which cannot consist with Gods glory, and that's an eternal Law as we may call it, observed by God to do nothing against his glory: He cannot ly, He cannot deny himself: thus the scripture speak∣eth. And Abraham talking face to face with God, says he, God forbid that the Judg of all the world should do unjustly: Would thou punish the righteous with the wicked? as who should say, that were to thwart the eternal Law which must not be infrin∣ged. This lays the opinion of Zwinglius flat. There is another pretence from ve∣ry venerable Authors, that God purposeth and ordaineth the same act which man executeth; but man hath an evil end in it, so it becomes iniquity to him, where∣as God intends a pious end, and therefore concurs not to mans iniquity; and they give a fair instance of their meaning out of my Text. Christ was delivered of his Father to save the World, that was the merciful and gracious work which was

God's destination; but he was delivered of the Devil to make the Jews guilty of his death, of Judas for lucre sake, of the Priests and Pharisees for envy, of Pilate for fear: the scope of Pilate, of the Jews, of Judas was extremely distorted, so they became guilty of a mighty sin in the same work wherein God was righteous. This will not down with me I confess for safe Divinity; for first it favours that opi∣nion of some Libertines too much, that it is no crime, but praise-worthy to do evil that good may come of it. Secondly, it cannot be shifted according to this opinion me-thinks, but that God ordains man to fall into that act, wherein he cannot choose but have a bad intention, and most diverse from the good purpose of God. And it is but a lame leg to hold up an halting cause to interpose, that God can work good out of evil, and bring light out of darkness; therefore though He preordains evil, He will wind it up well to his own glory: for surely they do not think of God as they ought, that He is all pure and holy, that think sin must be referred to God either as an efficient cause of it, or predestinately as a de∣ficient cause, to declare his honor. Why, God stands not in need of our good works to set forth his praise, O my God my goods are nothing unto thee, says the Psalmist, much less doth he want our sins and our transgressions to make him glo∣rious.

Thus I have premised that they have not my consent that say, that God or∣dained or decreed that Judas should betray our Lord, and that the Jews should blaspheme him, and despitefully entreat him: thus rather I would propound it to you in a far safer way, as I conceive, God did not decree those criminous acti∣ons of Judas, Herod, Pilate, &c. but He did decree the Passion of Christ, and did settle it in his sixt and eternal counsel, that he should shed his bloud as a Propi∣tiation for the World: actio displicuit, passio grata suit. I am led along with the judgment of Leo the Great in this point. Thus he.* 1.3 Did the iniquity of them that persecuted Christ arise out of Gods Counsel and Decree, and that heinous trea∣son worse than all villainy? Did the hand of Divine preparation arm them to it? this must not once be imagined of that supreme justice that governs all things: Multum diversum, multumque contrarium est id quod in Judaeorum malignitate est praecogni∣tum, & quod in Christi passione est dispositum; that is, there is great dissimilitude be∣tween these two, how God foresaw the malignancy of the Jews, but it was his own disposing and ordination that Christ should suffer: therefore it comes to this sense, He was delivered to death simply, without addition of a death procured by sin, through the determinate counsel of his Father: but the conspiracy, and envy, and bloudy outcries that concurr'd in his death, the foreknowledg of God did appre∣hend it would be carried with that violence, and decreed to suffer it: Non inde processit voluntas interficiendi unde moriendi, says the same Father, God did not will after the same manner to have his Son die, and to have him barbarously crucified. To allot him unto death was very just, because that Lamb of God did take upon him the iniquity of us all; and Leo adds that God could have commanded some holy Prophet to have sacrificed Christ before him, even as He commanded Abra∣ham to offer up his only Son Isaac, and the Lord of life and death might have per∣mitted Abraham to strike the stroke without impiety, but to allot him to such a death, wherein factious Enemies delighted themselves in his pains, that cannot consist with such a God as hates the least impurity.

But my Text you will say declines it not, but that both his death, and his de∣liverance into the hands of the Jews, that is the manner of his death, both of them were ordained of God: and so they were, but with this correction of the proposition, omnia vel ordinata sunt à Deo ut fiunt, vel ordinatum non impedire, quò mi∣nus fiant, all that is good is ordained of God that it shall be, and all beside that is evil is ordained of God that it shall be suffered to be, and in those things which are to be referred to permission, I mean all the works of the Devil, I do not exclude the determinate counsel of God, nay it must necessarily be present at it: Quicquid permittit Deus consultò & volens permittit; there is Justice, and Wisdom, and Counsel from above imployed about those things, wherein God is highly displeased: For first, no sinner in the world can say he was so permitted to enter into sin, that no impediments were cast in his way to avert him, some illumination he had, some instruction to draw him back, some remorse of conscience, though not in such measure as did infallibly prevail upon his crooked will. Even Judas himself was deterred from his Satanical proceedings, by the prediction of his Masters mouth, one of you shall betray me; by the warning of the sop; by rebuke and confusion,

Judas betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss? though the treachery was per∣mitted, yet these were impediments, though not such as would take place with a Reprobate. Secondly, God is no idle Spectator upon the actions of men whether good or bad; where he permits the Devil to draw us into temptation, his hand is not quite taken off from our sins, but that he moderates our offences, and that many ways, as stopping our sins at such a quantity and excess, that they shall go no further; they that had power given them to kill Christ, had not power to break his legs, a bone of him could not be broken: and the Lord sets other moments of time than the sinner casts about for himself: as no man could lay hands on Christ (yet the Pharisees fingers itcht at him) because his hour was not yet come. Therefore thirdly it must hang together with that which goes before, that God disappoints a wicked man of that which he intends in his naughtiness, and brings it about to his own glorious ends. As Joseph said to his Brethren, Ye thought evil against me, but God meant it unto good, Gen. l. 20. Deus cogitavit id ipsum in bonum convertere, Junius adds that unto it. God did provide to convert it unto good. Neither is our faith endangered hereupon to suspect God as the cause of sin, because he draws his own ends out of evil; that He may do, and yet be no Author of sin, but abhor it, because He is Lord of those Creatures that sin and rebel against him; and the Creature can no more exempt it self from his dominion, because it is sinful, then because it is sinful it will escape his Law, or dissolve it self to nothing.

So then the antecedent Doctrin is summ'd up into this Thesis. If you ask in these terms, what was the cause of Christs death, the answer is, it was Gods De∣cree, and eternal Statute, for as much as He loved us with an everlasting love, and would not spare his own Son to pull us out of destruction. Again, if you ask who was the cause that Christ was buffeted, spot upon, crowned with thorns, cru∣cified, the answer is, the Devil and his Instruments; but when the Lord foresaw how their cruelty and blasphemy would abound, his Counsel did direct, moderate, confine their sin; and his loving kindness towards us, that He might shew us plen∣teous redemption did permit it. The ancient Fathers of the Church thought this the truest and most inoffensive conclusion, to refer the injurious slaughter of Christ not to Gods ordination, but to his permission. You heard Leo's judgment before, to whom St. Austin agrees. The Jews enacted a sin which the righteous Lord did not compel them to do,* 1.4 for no sin doth please him, sed facturos esse praevidit, quem nihil latuit, but this was foreseen of him to whom nothing is concealed. Yet St. Chrysostom more clearly, that the scope of this part of St. Peters Sermon to the Jews is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, it was not their rage and violence which could have prevailed against Christ, if God had not permitted it; for as He did not command the evil Spirit to seduce Ahab and his flattering Prophets, but the Devil offering himself, and being most desirous to do that mischief, God gave him leave, and would not inhibit him; so the Jews were not authorized, or or∣dained or stirred up from God to shew that prodigious hatred to his Son, but He yielded him up to their fury, and did not deliver him: therefore Christ did not say, Father why hast thou given me up into their hands? but my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

Surely this is the scope of my Text, and I believe they shoot wide from the mark, that collect from hence, that St. Peters meaning was either to excuse their heinous trespass, or else to comfort their wounded conscience, because Christ was delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledg of God: no all the comfort which was administred is vers. 38. Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. There is no comfort under the Sun, no balm in the world for a miserable sinner, but repent, and believe that there is abundant mer∣cy in the satisfaction of Christ Jesus: and for excuse, that little extenuation of their fact which could be made, is chap. iii. ver. 17. Ye desired a Murtherer and killed the Prince of Life, but I wote that through ignorance you did it, as did also your Ru∣lers: these are plain and divine Allegations, and there is no colour to help the greatness of their sin either from the determinate counsel, or from the foreknow∣ledg of God; not from the determinate counsel, for they had not an eye in the crucifying of Christ to comply with Gods counsel, but to satiate their own spleen and hatred; for impious men may execute that which God is content should come to pass, and yet they do nothing less than obey God; for obedience is not grounded upon the thing done, but upon the readiness and duty of the will in doing: be∣side, was there any Law that commanded the High-Priests to crucifie our Saviour?

for God doth ever reveal his will in some Law. No such Law I am sure, therefore no obedience in this bloudy work of the Jews. For no man can be said to obey that doth not know the will of the Lord, neither doth direct his actions by the Rule of any Commandment; And what had they to do with Gods secret counsel? They had not the least glimpse of it; Therefore my Text chargeth them home, Ye have taken him, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain him. It is an error to amaze a man, that reads it in the Popes Canon Law, that because it was the counsel of the holy Trinity, and the obedience of Christ to humble himself unto death, even unto the death of the Cross, therefore the Jews had sinned deadly if they had not cru∣cified him. It was well rejoyn'd by one,* 1.5 that he wondred how the dumb and dead Paper did not stand up, refusing to take that ink wherewith such an abominable blasphemy should be printed, whereby the immaculate Lamb of God, in whom there was no sin, is affirmed to be justly and worthily condemned.

But will the fore-knowledge of God, and that permission which followed it, plead any part of their pardon? Nothing less; his fore-knowledge compels no man in∣to the way of perdition. God fore-sees iniquity in us because we will be evil, but we are not made evil because he foresees it. There have been always some in the world whom the Devil hath blinded with pernicious error, making them dream of inevitable Fate and Destiny, chiefly knitting this fallacy to fool themselves, that Gods fore-sight cannot be deceived, therefore such sins as he foresaw they would fall into are not to be declined.* 1.6 St. Austin reprehended one of his Colledge or religious house for this saying, Qualiscunque nunc sim, talis ero qualem me Deus praesci∣vit; Whatsoever I am now, at last I shall be no other than just as God foresaw I should be: Whereas, says the holy Father, his saying had been better on this wise, God foresaw I should be such a one, either as I would make my self by sin, or by his grace and piety. If I can I will clear that which makes the Objection seem to be difficult. No man can be condemned for actual sins unless he do commit them through his own wilfulness. But nothing is wilfully done which is inevitably and necessarily done; and freedom is quite taken away unless you take away all kind of necessity. But Gods prevision from all eternity infers a necessity through the supposition of it that nothig can alter from the way, wherein before all time he saw all things lie naked and open before him. This is the Objection, and the An∣swer is most solid and punctual, though not so clear and easie to common under∣standings as the Objection. But thus: That which God foresees shall be but presup∣posing that God saw the effect in its causes that it would be: Therefore it is all one to say, that God sees it that it is, and it is impossible but whatsoever is, when it ••s must be even so as it is. Yet a little nearer to perspicuity, you may consider an action either in the putting forth and the doing, or when it is past and done. In the doing God foresaw man had power either to do, or not to do, and therein foresaw he was left to his freedom, and the liberty of his own counsel; thus God saw from all eternity that man was not put upon evil or destruction necessarily; then consider that action as foreseen of God to be done and committed, so it is necessary: But no otherwise, than as we know it was necessary that Lot was drunken, because that which is past and gone cannot be recalled. You see an Archer drawing his Bow, you see he may choose whether he will let the Arrow fly from him or not, but when it is gone out of the Bow, it is not in his will and power to resume it. So God did foresee the thoughts of the Jews, and when they were shooting out their Arrows, even bitter words, yet after the liberty of their own will they might have stop∣ped and refrained; then he saw that they took to the worst, and chose death rather than life, so he let them walk in their own inventions, which made them stumble and fall. Perhaps you will yet plead against God, and say, the Lord knew the ways of wicked men, and he is Almighty, and could have stinted their iniquity, that such hellish effects should never have been wrought. I sweep away this cavil with a word. God was not wanting to put impediments, and very great ones, in the ways of Christs enemies, that they might have desisted and been wise; but if these were made unsufficient, know that he is not bound to use Omnipotent means to repress impiety. It is his great pleasure to put his Creature to the trial of obedience, there∣fore it had not stood with his wisdom either to have made such a Law as man could not break, or to endue him with such abilities as he could not transgress. He will hedge in the way of sin to some, on whom he casts his best good liking, he will re∣move the objects and occasions of lewdness far from them, they shall not come with∣in the grasp of fearful tentations. He would not let Paul kick against the pricks, nor

hale men and women, that acknowledge Christ, before unrighteous Judges; but all men are not Pauls in God's dearest love and purpose. Some are given over, as these Jews were, to a reprobate sense, but according to their own wish, their bloud be upon their own heads, for God was innocent.

Now it is time to draw this Point into a Conclusion, and in this form and use; Let no calamities or malignities of this world offend us, though the Church of Saints goes by the worst oftentimes, let it not provoke our soul to say in its bitterness, is there any Providence above? Is there any knowledge in the most High? Quis putat esse Deos? He that will cut a man off, when he begins to narrate a matter, and not hear his tale out, will quite misconceive him, and lose the sense of his Narration: So it happens to them that look rashly upon some miserable events in the world, and search no further; the uppermost part of those things which they see is Satan reigning, Sin increasing, Justice declining, Religion mourning: But the bottom and the nethermost part of this tragical spectacle is Profundum justitiae & sapientiae; eternal Justice revenging these injuries, coelestial and inscrutable wisdom drawing peace out of contention, repentance out of sins, content out of poverty, and an innumerous increase of faithful men and women out of bonds, and capti∣vities, and persecutions. They have not the patience to hear God tell out his tale, they will not lend their eyes so long to see him bring his work to consummation, that do not discern into his holy counsels, that at last he will wind up all those things that appear most disproportionable to his honour, to the high advancement of his glory. Was ever the name of God defied in any thing so much as in the shameful death of Christ? Ah thou that buildest the Temple in three days, come down from the Cross and save thy self. And again, He trusted in God, let him deliver him if he will have him. And yet this that seemed such a blur to Gods renown, was converted into such a good use, that all the blessings that ever we received in this world were not so fruitful, so beneficial to us, as the death of Jesus. Look not upon the superficies of his sufferings, as some do, and no more, a Picture in a glass-window will read you that Lesson; but look into the inward sanctuary, into the bosom of this myste∣ry, that he was delivered by the determinate counsel, and foreknowledge of God.

You have hitherto attended to the first part of my Text, that the ordination of Christs death was from God, and to a good end and purpose; the latter part, which I will but snatch at and away, is, that the execution of his death came from the Devil and his Instruments out of most malignant respects, Him ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain. Ye have taken, this is no backbiting, no defi∣ance at a distance, where the Jews did not hear him, but 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, with∣standing them to their face; as St. Paul calls it. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, says St. Chrysostome. O how boldly the man of God speaks being compassed about with those murderers? Some are faln in our days into a most ridiculous way of reproof and exhortation if it be compared with this. They will discourse very earnestly what obedience the people owe in the audience of the King; and again, they will preach how the King is tied to justice and equity far from Court in the au∣dience of the People: Inveigh against ingrossers of Grain in the City, and against false Merchandise in the Country. This is a most preposterous course, and no way intended to edifie their Auditors. So St. Peter might have tax'd the Ido∣latry of the Gentiles in the hearing of the Jews, and the sin of the Jews that they killed Christ in the hearing of the Gentiles; but that partition had been very ill divided. For it were like that Paradox in Chirurgery, called Ʋnguentum armarium, to cure a man without application of the remedy at an hundred miles distance. No, St. Peter had no such Quacksalver tricks in Divinity, but directs his reprehension to them that were before him, Ye have taken, &c.

And all the Jews were rightly thus accused, (except those few of men and wo∣men that were his Disciples and followed him) for if they were not such as accu∣sed him falsely, yet they were such as suborned Catives to betray him. If they were not in the plot of betraying, they were in the sin of delivering up to Pilate; if not among those that delivered him up to judgment, yet among those that cried out Crucifie him in the time of judgment. Nay, though they did not cry out, nor so much as in their hearts consent to his unjust trial, yet they held their peace, they suffered wrong to prevail and did not resist it. They did not put off the Roman Soul∣diers, and stay their fatal hands; in one respect or other they were all as guilty as St. Peter chargeth them, By wicked hands ye have crucified and slain him. Some of the Jewish Rabines slout at these words of St. Peters to this day, saying, the Christians

are quite mistaken to impute unto them the crucifying of Christ, for they had no such kind of death in their Law, and they did all things à punto according to their Law, they crucified no man. They had but four capital punishments for Male∣factors, says Maimonides, after the tradition of Moses, killing with the Sword, stoning to death, hanging on a tree by the neck, and burning. But the infliction of crucifying was unheard of to their Nation. Thus they. And whereas Cardinal Ba∣ronius, Cardinal Sigonius, Justus Lipsius, and some other learned men, contradict the Rabbines in this, I think they did amiss not to believe their great Doctors in their own Laws and Customs, wherein they were most expert.

The true retortion is, that in the days of Christ the power of life and death was taken out of the hands of the Jews by their Lords the Romans that reigned over them; therefore they implore the Roman Magistrate that he would condemn and exe∣cute their Prisoner after the Roman Laws, and the Romans did deal with him after the rigour of their Laws, which sentenced all those that were convicted of sediti∣on and raising tumults to the bitter death of the Cross. So Christ foretold to his Disciples anon before he entred into Jerusalem, That the Son of man should be betrayed unto the chief Priests and Scribes, and they shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucifie him, Mat. xx. 19. It was not the custom in Israel to strike nails through the feet or hands of any that were hanged up, says Maimonides, Nay, the most accurate Casaubon says, that there is not one word in all the Hebrew tongue for being nailed to the Cross, so little were they acquainted with the punishment. This 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 in my Text, affigentes, which the Vulgar Latine most ignorantly reads affligentes, is heathen Language, and unknown to the Jews. The Rabbines, in con∣tempt of our Saviour, call him in their Tongue sometimes as you would say 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, he that was hanged; but their Tongue could not furnish them with a word to say, he that was fastned to a tree. There may be divers ways of hanging on a tree be∣side crucifying; and the Old Testament useth ever the general phrase, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a Tree. The only place in the Old Law which hath respect parti∣cularly to the death of the Cross, is Psal. xxi. 17. They pierced my hands and my feet. Therefore the Rabbines have endeavoured to corrupt that place more than any other in all the Bible. But the Psalmist alludes to that which the Jews should procure, and the Romans execute.* 1.7 One only place selected out of Sozomen by Casaubon avails much to prove that crucifying was not a Jewish but a Roman fashion: For Constantine thought that no Malefactor was worthy to die on a Cross, because our Lord had so suffered, the just for the unjust, therefore he took away that penalty of crucifying used before by the Romans, says Sozomen.

Therefore the vulgar Latine Translation mistakes the words of my Text, but hits the sense very well, for it hath not Per manus impias, by wicked hands, but Per manus impiorum, by the hands of the wicked; as if it were in Greek 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, with an Article, which would make it personal. But then the meaning is, ye Jews have taken him, and by the hands of the wicked, that is, of the Gentiles, have crucified him and slain him. So Christ foretold, The Son of man shall be delivered into the hands of sinners, that is, into the hands of the Gentiles. We that are by nature Jews, and not sinners of the Gentiles, says St. Paul, Gal. ii. St. Chrysostome understands it two ways, either by the hands of Judas, or by the hands of the Souldiers. It is all one; for consider it well, and it is rather the worse on their side than the bet∣ter: They suborned Judas, they importuned Pilate, they stirred up the Souldiers. St. Peter passeth over these instrumental, accidental coadjutors, and directs his in∣vectives against them that had the chief finger in the murder, that set all the wheels a going; Ye have taken him, and crucified him. If David could discern the hand of Joab in the woman of Tekoahs Parable, then be sure the Lord doth espy the chief Actors and Complotters of all mischief, and rebellion, though others appear in the fact, whom they have exposed to censure and dangers. Statists love to bring about odious projects by the hands of underlings, as the Ape in the Fable would take the Chesnut out of the hot Embers with the Cats foot. But God will send his Angels to gather up the Tares in bundles, all that were Complices in the same sin shall make one bundle both Jew and Gentile. For there is no connivence in Gods justice, no ignorance in his wisdom, no partiality in his sentence, To him therefore be glory for ever. AMEN.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Eth. lib. 6 cap. 9.
• * 1.2

  Thom. 1. p. q. 22. art. 1.
• * 1.3

  Serm. 16. de Pass.
• * 1.4

  Tracti. 53. in Johan. In Act. homil. 5.
• * 1.5

  Cartwr. Rem. Tes••,
• * 1.6

  Lib. de bono perse. c. 15.
• * 1.7

  Sozom. lib. 1. c. 18.