Archive for November 2nd, 2010
1) What signifies this name Christ? Anointed; whereupon ‘it may be gathered, that our Savior Christ is a King, a Priest, and a Prophet, which three were accustomed by the ceremonial law to be anointed. A King, because he, being the Son of God, alight to be Lord and Ruler of all things by inheritance: and because he hath conquered and subdued unto himself, by death, by bearing our sins, by redeeming us his inheritance out of the power of the devil, all the whole kingdom, power, and authority over death, sin, and the devil. A Priest, because he, once for all, hath entered into the most holy and innermost tabernacle of God, and hath offered, once for all, a perpetual sufficient sacrifice to satisfy for all men’s sins, and to purchase all men’s redemption; not ceasing now still to be a perpetual Mediator and Intercessor to God his Father for man, he himself being both God and man; making an end of and abolishing all sacrifices and ceremonies. which were but shadows and significations, to put the Jews in remembrance of his coming, before he came. A Prophet; for the true and only sufficient doctrine which he preached when here upon earth, and left behind him written by his apostles for our learning, binding our conscience to be subject to none other doctrine but to his alone. Heb. ii. vii. ix. x. Thomas Becon, Writings of the Re. Thomas Becon (Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication), 429.
2)
THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST.
The Gospel for the Sunday next before Easter, commonly called Palm Sunday.
And it came to pass, when Jesus had finished all these sayings, lie said unto his disciples, &c.–Matthew xxvi.
This day is read in the church, as you have heard, the story of the painful passion and dreadful death of our most loving Lord and sweet Savior Jesus Christ. And although the passion of Christ ought at all times, and every day, diligently to be remembered by us and every Christian, seeing it is that only and alone precious treasure, whereby we are delivered and set at liberty from all the power of hell, from Satan, sin, death, damnation, &c; yet the ancient fathers of Christ’s church, in times past, have well provided that we should have every year a certain peculiar time appointed for this purpose, in the which we might do and exercise this, either privately or publicly. For by this means the passion of Christ shall be more diligently inculcated and beaten into the youth, and also be the more surely en-grafted in the memory of the elder sort of people. Now forasmuch as the passion of Christ has in times past been marvelously abused by vain meditations and cogitations of superstitious and ignorant hypocrites, we will at this present leave all such vanity, and declare how the passion and death of Christ ought truly and profitably to be considered, weighed, and pondered, unto our singular consolation and comfort, and also unto the amendment of our life and conversation. This will be brought to pass if we diligently weigh, ponder, and consider these principal points following.
I. What the passion of Christ is.
II. What excited and moved him to suffer this passion.
III. How Christ both outwardly and inwardly suffered.
IV. What fruit and profit he has procured and gotten for us by his passion.
I. The passion of Christ is none other than an immeasurable dolor, sorrow, torment, and pain, which he, from a singular and unspeakable love towards us, sustained and suffered for our sins, that he might purge them and utterly put them away through his satisfaction, outwardly in his body, and inwardly in his soul, till at the last he died on the cross; which shall be opened and declared more plainly hereafter.
II. There are five causes that moved Christ to suffer his most dolorous and painful passion. The first is our sin, which could no otherwise be cleansed, and put away, but only by the passion and death of Christ. The second cause is, the great and unspeakable charity, love, and favor that Christ and his heavenly Father bore toward us men, which charity could not abide that we should perish and be damned in our sins. The third cause is, the everlasting counsel and providence of God, whereby he determined by this means to show his love and to deliver mankind from sin. The fourth cause is, the true and faithful promise which he made in times past. Out of which, afterwards follows the blindness and indignation of the Jews, which is the fifth cause.