into the Lord's hands, that he may keep it and possess it for. ever, then have we blessed peace. O Lord Jesu Christ, draw thou our hearts unto thee; join them together in unseparable love, that they may fervently burn; that we may abide in thee, and thou in us, and that the everlasting covenant between us may stand sure for ever. O wound our hearts with the fiery darts of thy piercing love. Let them pierce through all our slothful members and inward powers, that we being happily wounded, may so become whole and sound. Let us have no lover but thyself alone; let us seek no joy nor comfort, but only in thee. Thus have we the passion and death of our Lord and Heb. xiii. Redeemer Jesus Christ. Now, as Paul saith, let us go forth of the tents, unto him that for our sake is despitefully crucified without the city of Hierusalem, and let us help him to bear his rebuke, giving him thanks and praise for his great love. In his death standeth our life: for in his death is our death slain; the sting of death and sin is taken away. Here find we true life and eternal salvation; here sin is forgiven, and pardon granted a pœna et culpa; here mercy is denied unto no man; for the virtue and merits of the Lord's holy passion is bottomless. Through his shame cometh eternal honour and glory unto us. His passion is the wholesome plaister for all wounds; his cross the overthrow of all enemies, and victory against all vice. From our whole hearts therefore ought we to rejoice in the great and blessed fruits of thy holy passion. O Lord Jesu, whilst we are in this feeble life, grant us so to live, that we may direct all our works, desires, and intents according to thy godly will and pleasure; that this our temporal course may be found and finished in thy grace; that after the overcoming of all temptations and careful things we may come to the reward of eternal salvation. Teach thou us daily to die, and by the spirit to subdue the flesh; that when the flesh corrupteth, the spirit may be taken to eternal rest. Grant us grace, cheerfully and continually to cleave unto thy holy cross. O give us blessed tears of true repentance, while the door of grace standeth open: grant that we may stedfastly and blessedly finish the thing which commendably is begun. Let our daily exercise be in the consideration of the passion of Christ; let him be our mirror continually let us not shrink from the cross, but endure with Christ in life and death; with him on the cross, with him in the grave and death. So shall we continue in rest, peace and quietness; that when Christ our life shall appear, we may rise up with him in glory. God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, grant this unto us all! Amen. [CHAPTER II.] THE BURIAL OF JESUS CHRIST OUT OF THE HOLY EVANGELISTS. [Matthew xxvii. 57-60. Mark xv. 42-46. Luke xxiii. 50-54. John xix. 38-42.] of Matt. xxvii. of Now when it was late, forasmuch as it was the day preparation afore the sabbath, there came a rich man Arimathia, named Joseph, such a principal and famous senator, as was just and righteous. The same had not consented to their counsel and doings; for he also was one of those that waited for the kingdom of God; a disciple of Jesu, but secretly for fear of the Jews. Boldly went he in unto Pilate, Mark xv. Luke xxiii. John xix. and begged the body of Jesu. But Pilate wondered, if he were now dead already. And when he had learned of the captain, that it was, he granted him the body of Jesu, and commanded it to be given him. Joseph had bought a white John xix. linen cloth, and took down the body of Jesu, and wrapt it in the fair linen cloth. There came also Nicodemus, who was come to the Lord afore by night, and brought myrrh and aloes, upon an hundred pound, mixt together. So taking the body of Jesu, they wound it with clothes, and prepared it with sweet ointments, according as the manner of the Jews was to bury. And by the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new sepulchre. There Joseph laid Jesus in his own new sepulchre, which he had caused to be hewn out of a rock, into the which no man had yet been laid. Forasmuch then as it was the Jews' day of preparing, the sepulchre being at hand, they laid Jesus into it; and Joseph weltered a great stone afore the entrance of the sepulchre, and went his way. I Cor. i. John xii. NOW FOLLOWETH THE DOCTRINE AND In the former little book we have heard of the passion of Christ. Now if our great sin put us in fear, making our conscience unquiet, and press us with the terror of everlasting death and damnation, we ought to remember, that the Lamb of God being slain, and hanged up upon the cross for our sins, hath himself satisfied for them all, and washed them clean away. This holy sacrifice was offered unto God the Father for our welfare, and even the same it is that hath taken away the sin and wickedness of all the world. Whatsoever is read and spoken concerning the passion of Jesus Christ, it is altogether done for our eternal wealth and comfort. Now it is described of the holy evangelists, with what honour and glory his holy body was buried; and that not of mean persons, but of noble and famous just men, Joseph and Nicodemus, who, while Christ yet lived, favoured him, and were secretly his disciples. But now after his death they step forth somewhat more stoutly and boldly, begging of Pilate the body of Jesu, to bury it. In the which act is declared their worthy and valiant belief and love unto the Lord Jesu. For their bodies, their estimation, and goods, they must needs put in jeopardy, and procure unto themselves the hatred and displeasure of all the world, if they honourably bury him, who in his life-time was taken to be an evil doer, a deceiver, a seditious murderer, and so was condemned unto death. But thus it pleaseth God, in weakness to declare his own strength and glory. Thus the dead wheat-corn bringeth forth fruit in the death of Christ; and thus appeareth the power of his death. For though he verily and truly died as touching the body, yet after the spirit, and in mighty power, he liveth; yea, he himself is the life of all things. This is the power and fruit of his passion, when a mighty and strong spirit doth exercise itself in faithful believing hearts. They that were afore ashamed to go openly unto the Lord, step now forth manfully, all fearfulness set apart, jeoparding their bodies and goods. For besides that they put themselves in peril of losing their life and estimation, they bestow also great cost in linen cloth and in costly sweet ointment. For they bury not Jesus as an evil doer, but as an honourable man and friend of God, according to their custom. Lo, what a thing it is to cleave somewhat unto Christ, how feebly soever it be done; it bringeth alway great fruit in his time. No man therefore ought to be rejected, that cleaveth any thing unto Christ, and earnestly seeketh him. Faith is strengthened in affliction and adversity: the death of Christ giveth power unto the fearful. In death beginneth his honour and glory to appear; there are all things fair and beautiful. Centurio giveth testimony, and maketh an honourable confession, and so do they that were under him. Necessary it was we should believe and confess, that Jesus verily died upon the cross: therefore do the evangelists describe it so perfectly, how his body was taken down from the cross by Joseph, and was laid in the sepulchre; to the intent that we also might believe and confess, that he hath broken the bands of death, and is from death mightily risen again. For life might not be holden captive in death, neither might death with the rules thereof always bind him that of all things is the life, in whom "we live, move, and have our being." Here we must learn to know the eternal infallible foresight and providence of God, who for his Anointed appointeth aforehand an honourable sepulchre, and moveth the hearts of his elect to bury the body of Jesu; which else undoubtedly had been vilely cast out, and remained still unburied. Howbeit his burial and rest must needs be honourable, as the prophet saith, Esay xi. For when he by death had finished the course of his life and the work of his Father, this rest appertained to his honour, and the Father heard him, as he prayed afore: "Father, make thy Son honourable, or glorify thy John xvii. Son." This began in the burial: there was the fair white linen cloth, the new sepulchre, the honourable men, and excellent dead-buriers, as witnesses of his death; there were the hundred pounds of precious and costly ointment. All these things were evidences of a glorious, new, and immortal life, which Christ had in his body, as the firstling of his dead, and as we also shall have according to our measure. sepulchre is new, partly to prevent all wrong suspicion; for if any man had lien in that sepulchre afore, it might easily have been suspected or talked, that Christ was not risen again from the dead, but some other; partly to declare the new The |