thy relation to us thereby, Good Lord deliver III. By bis Circumcifton: This followed immediately upon his Birth, and being a Sacrament of Gods own inftitution (though Jefus needed nothing to puritie him) yet to fhew his obedience and to free us from being obliged to it, He was circumcifed; giving Teftimony thereby, that he would not refuse the most painful and dolorous part of Duty fo he might deliver us from evil and inconvenience, and therefore we may intreat him by the Merit and obedience of that antient Sacrament, by the smart and anguish of that bloody Rite, that he will deliver us. He hath freed us from the expensive and uneafie yoke of Sacrifices, from the troublesom and grievous Obligation to Circumcifion, and we may hope that the fame love, which he fhewed therein, will move him to deliver us now alfo. IV. By his Baptifm, as our Lord Jefus in his own perfon had no need of Circamcifion, fo neither had he of Baptifm,but yet he submitted to both to demonftrate himself the Saviour of Jews and Gentiles, and was baptized by his Servant, that he might fanctific the holy Laver, and make it effectual to regenerate us,and Deliver us from everlasting Damnation; fo that this was a new demonftration of his dear Love, and lays a new foundation for our Faith and Devotion to build upon; He that went down into the fame water with us, will deliver us, and take us out of many waters, he that was washed in the fame fountain with us, will doubtless be mindful of us, and will not fuffer us to be overwhelmed with temporal calamities without relief: Then it was that the Spirit defcended on him, and the Father proclaimed him to be his beloved Son,and therefore by his care of our Regeneration, and by all the G 2 glorious glorious Declarations of his Majefty and mercy at that time, we will befeech him to deliver us. V. By his Fafting. The next evidence of his love was that most miraculous Faft of forty days and forty nights, which he observed not for neceffity(because the world was his and the fulness thereof) but to expiate the Guilt that our Father Adam had contracted by eating the forbidden fruit, and to deliver us from the punithment, which our gluttony and excesses had deferved: So that now his own experience hath taught him, what it is to be folitary, poor, and needy, to be hungry and thirsty, faint and languishing: So that we be may not only beg, that the merit of his Fafting may a means of our eternal deliverance, but may plead with him by all the admirable goodness he fhewed to us therein, by the fad Experiments he hath made of the pinching of Hunger, and all the other miferies which we fear or labour under: As one that is no stranger to our Calamities, we will befeech him to deliver นส. VI. Ep his Temptation, The Fast was but the preparation to this his Conflict with Sathan, which he was willing to submit unto also for our fakes, that his Company and his Example, his Management and his Victory, might comfort and encourage us in our Temptations; and St.Paul himself tells us, he therefore was tempted and tryed, that he might be apprehensive of our forrows, and ready to deliver us, when we cry to him in our diftrefs, Heb.ii.18.and iv.15. and fo he doth feem to put this Supplication into our mouths,viz.to befeech our glorious Head (now above all Sufferings and emptations) to remember his poor members here on Earth, who are conflicting with all the miseries of life,the fear of Death, and the oppositions of Sin: These he was was once pleased to endure, out of his dear love to us, who now groan under the like burdens, let us therefore *go unto him and petition him by his Sympathy and experience, by his fuffering and his conquering, to regard our mifery and to deliver us. S.X. thine Ageny and bloody Sweat, by thy Cross and Pallion,by thy precious death and burial, by thy glorious Kelurrcoion and Altension, and by the coming of the Holy Ghoft, Good Lord deliver us.] We have before asked deliverance from very many and great Evils, and no wonder our Petitions are fo large, fince our Arguments to plead for them are so numerous, and fo confiderable: If we confider what Jefus hath done for us in his life (as before) and now what he did at, and after,his Death, we fhall foon perceive,that our deliverance hath been purchased at a ftupendious rate, and if by Faith we lay hold of him, it may be begged by moft powerful motives, and fuch as can hardly be denyed: The particulars are fome of them in the Western Litanies, but yet not all (in those which I have seen): But the fame manner of address is used. by the antient Fathers, as might be proved by many Examples (g): Nothing more ufual in their Devotionals than to urge the Lord by the Cross and Paffion,&c. of Jefus his Son And in the Greek Church they make a Memorial of Christs Salutary Paffion, of his life-giving Crofs, of his burial till the third day,of his Refurrection from the dead, his going up into Heaven, &c. and by all these they befeech and fupplicate God. Lit.S. Ba G 3 (g) Per Fujus faerauiffimam obedientiam, per hujus beatiffimam mortem ΤΟ Ambrof. prec. præp. Exo Feg te per illa fa lutifera vulnera, que affus es in cruce pro falute noftrd. Aug. Meditat. 1 fil; but let us look upon them in (b) won Spoμ- Order: I. By his agony and bloody Sweat, This was the firft Scene of his dolorous Paffion, and is a great De-→ monftration of the dreadfulness of his Sufferings, fince the apprehenfion of them at a distance was fo amazing, as to drive him into this prodigious, bloody fweat, which fome interpret by a Metaphor, fuppofing it to be a grievous fweat pouring down his holy face, like unto drops of blood (b): But others affirm it to have been a fweat of real blood, and Epiphanius doth thereby excellently prove, that Jefus was very man (i), fince he had a mind lyable to human Paffions and a body fubject to human infirmities: Ariftotle affirms (k), that a fweat of blood may proceed from an evil habit of body; and Plutarch gives an inftance of the Veins breaking, through a violent passion of the Mind (1); fo that it is very probable it was a fweat of blood, which this Agong did produce: And it is very proper to commemorate this in our Litany, for it was a companion of that Litany, which Jefus made before his Paffion, his fear made him not despair, but moved him to pray more carneftly, and we must learn of him, to make the terror of the fore-mentioned miferies a means to heighten our Devotion; and when we beg deliverance upon our knees, let us look upon the Holy Jefus once in fear and terrors greater than we feel, even till his fair and holy Skin was dyed and drenched in his own fweat and blood; and let us engage him by his acquaintance with our present Condition, by all the love he fhewed in embracing fodifmal a death for us, by the horror which his foul did Syllæ. feel, feel, and the violent effects it had upon his immaculate body, to deliver us from the dangers and calamities which now are coming on us. II. By his Crols and Pallton. It is ufual in Scrip-. ture to put the Crols, for the Torments which Jefus fuffered thereon, Heb.xii.2. fo that we are faid to be reconciled by the Crofs, Ephef.ii.16. Col.i.20. but neither there, nor in this our Litany can'that be meant of the wood, but of that cruel death which our Lord cndured on the Cross, and therefore the next word explains what we mean by his Crofs,viz. his Paffion: However these two words are intended to comprehend all that Jefus endured in body and foul, the Crucifixion of his flesh, and the Paffions of his mind: So that we do entreat him by all the Parts of his grievous death, and all that torment that accompanied it to deliver us: By the smart of the whips, the wounding of the Thorns, by the renting of the Nails, and the piercing of the fpear, by the pain, the fickness and the languishings of three long hours, we befeech him to think upon us in our extremities, and also by the anguish of his mind, viz. the fear and horror, the grief and all other Paffions, wherewith his Soul was racked, while he looked upon the fury of his Perfecutors, the unkindness of his Difciples, the wrath of his Father, and the mifery of those who reject this Salvation; by all and each of these we moft efficaciously intercede with him for Deliverance. And how could the tender mother deny relief to the child of her bowels, if it begged it from her by the Agonyes and Throws, the anguish and tormenting Pain, which the endured in bringing this Child into the world? The fame force it muft needs have upon the bleffed Jefus, when we importune him by all that he fuffered for our fakes: Lord hast thou loved us fo well as to endure all this for us, and wilt thou now negle&t us? G 4 Hat |