596 Book.lV.Part-3- Loo~ingunto,e{us. Cbap.z.Sed.4 Gen.J.tl, Job. r ~.1. thmd unto him the whole bandoffouldiers, and they Jfrippe4him. They pulled off his cloaths, and made him fiand naked before them all; He that adornes the heaven with fiars, and the earth with flowers, and made coates of skins to cloath our jirft parmts in, is now himfelfe firipped Ihrke naked ; I cannot but look on this as a great fhame; it appeares fo by our firft Parents Adam and Eve, who no fooner had finned, and knew rhemfelvesnaked, but they Jawed jig-leaves together, and mflde them[elves aprons; if Adam was fo afhamed of his nakednelfe before his own wife (who was naked too, as well as he) what a fhame, and blufh was kin the face ofChrifi, when in the common hall, in view ofthe whole band, or company offouldiers, he fiands all naked l my confufion is continuAlly before me, and the fhame ~f my face hath covered me, faith David in the perfon of Chrifi. It is reported, in the Ecclefiaflical fiory, that when two martyrs, and holy Virgins (they call them Agnes, and 'Barbara) were firipped fiarlte naked for their execution, God pitying their great fhamc and trouble, to have their nakednelfe difcovered, made for them a veile oflight, and fo he fent them to a modefr, and defired death; but our Saviour Chrifi, who chofe all forts of fhame and confufion, that by a fulnelfe of fuffering he might expiate his Fathers wrath, and confecrate to us all kinds of fufferings aRd affronts, he eRdured the fhame of nakednelfe at the time of his fcourging; fee here a Raked Cfirift, and therein fee the mercy of Chrifl to us; he found us like the good Samaritan, when we were firipped, and wounded, and left halfe dead, and that we might be covered, he quietly fuffered himfc:lfe to be <ftvefied of his own robes ; he took on him the fl:ate of firming Adam, and became naked, that we might firft be cloathed with righteoufnelfe , and then with immortality ; oh what a blelfed ufe may we make of the very nakedne{fe of Chri!l:l · 2. Pilate gave him to be fcourged ; this fome think he did \'lpon no otheraccount,hut that the Jews being fatiated and glutted with thefe tortures, they might reft fatisfied, and think themfelves fufficiently avenged, and fo de!ift from taking away his life; that he was fcourged is without contraverfie, for fo the Evangel·ifi relates, then Pilate therefore took_ 'fefm and fceHrgeJ k!'E. :. ~nd that Pi!t~te might give him to be fcourged on chat account
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