Otes:
But to leave this, note that Christ here is called our Lord; which he is two ways:
Iure creationis.
Iure redemptionis.
First, By right of creation [Heb. 1:2.]: for by him God made the world, that he gave his only begotten Son to save the world [John 3:16.]: Hereupon says Fail, “Ye are bought with a price.” Now redeeming is either by price and paying, or by power and force. Christ has done both; he gave a price to God, “And gave himself a ransom for all men,” [Titus 2:6.] “He came by water and blood,” [ 1 John 5.] not by water only, but by water and blood. In water, is signified washing; by blood, redemption.
Secondly, by his Power he redeems, and has taken us from the Devil. So faith the Author to the Hebrews, “He has delivered us from death, and him that has the Lordship of death,” [Heb. 2.] And says John says, that “he saw a great battle in Heaven, Michael and his Angels fought against the Dragon, and the Dragon fought and his Angels, but prevailed not, neither was their place any more found in Heaven,” [Apoc. 12:7.]. It was a greater matter to Christ to redeem the World, than to make the World. He made it in six days, but he was thirty and three years in redeeming it; he made all with a word, and the host of them by the breath of his mouth. “By the word of the Lord were the Heavens made, and the host of them by the breath of his mouth,” [Psal. 33:6.]. For the letter (He) in Hebrew is but a breath: But he redeemed it with a great price, not with silver and gold, but with blood, not with blood of Bulls and Goates, but with his own precious Blood [1 Pet. 1:18.]: Gold and silver are but red earth, and white earth, which the error of man has made to be esteemed; but the blood of Christ was so precious, that as a Father, Tanti quid vales? what is of equal value price with it? The least drop of Christ’s blood was of such value, in regards of the person, that it was able to redeem ten thousand world; but less than Christ’s blood could not redeem one Soul.
And there were divers and sundry effusions of his blood. The first blood he shed was at his Circumcision, when he was but eight days old; which S. Bernard calls Maturum martyium, a timely martyrdom [De passione Dom. cap. 36.]: to which he further adds, Vix natus est Coeli glorlia, Coeli divitae, deliciae dulcis Jesus, & ecce recenti ortui crucis dolor copulatur; Scarce was sweet Jesus come into the world; who was the Glory, the Riches, the Delight of Heaven, but he underwent the painfulness of the Cross.
The second effusion of blood was in his Agony, whereof Saint Bernard speaks thus, Ecce quam rubicundus, & quam totus rubicundus, Behold, how red, and how wholly red he is? For Saint Luke affirms, that his sweat was like “Drops of blood” trickling down to the ground.