.~ · .... Chap.z.Seel.4 L1oking tmto 1efus. Book IV. Parq. 609 law) lay their hands up(}n him,. and fa!l upon him if ~ot with ftones (which no~ was t~rned tnto whtppmg) ):et Wtth rods whip-coards, and ltttle2chames? I {ball not contend about the number of his ftripes; but this is certaine that the fouldiers with violenn: and unrelenting hands ex~cuted their commiffion; they tore his tender fldh, till the pillar and pavement were purpled with a Owure of blood. and if we may bele~ve Bernard, ' 'They plowed with ' ' thei; whips upon his back, and made long f~,mows, and after "that they turned. his back upon the pillar, and ~hipt his belly ' 'and his breft, ttl! there was no part free fmm hts face unto hts ' 'foot. A fcourging able to kill any man, and would have killed him, but that he was preferved by the God-head to endure, and to fuffer a more fhameful death. . We may reade here a ~ecrure ?f the immenfe ~ove ofGod in V fe Chrift co us poore Gentiles; he ts therefore whtpped that he might marry us to himfelfe and never rejecr. u~, or caft us off: we readc:ofa law in Jt1ofes, that if a man took a wife, .and hated her, and gave occafions offpeech againft her, and brought an evil name upon her undefervedly .; th.at then the Elders of the Deut;~z;xs,r9 City fhould tak§ that man 11nd cbaftife hm1, -andjhe jhould be' his wife, be mjght not put her aw.ty ali br! dayes. There is a great myftery in this ceremony, for that man (fay fome) was Chrift, who by his incarnation betroathed unto himfelfe the Gentile Church, but he feem to hate her, and to give an occafionofa fpeech ag11inft her, and to bring an evil report upon her, as i;;to Mac. ro. ~. the w.ry ofthe qentile.rye fhall not go, and into the City of the Sa- Mat. I f•.16! maritan.rye fha!i not enter; and it u not meet to tak.§ the cbildren.r bread, ,md to cafl it unto dogs. And now he i~ accufed before the Elders, now he is whipt and chaftifed, and commanded by his Father co take her to his wife, and not to put her llway all his dayes. I know there is much unlikeneffe in thii myftery, for Chrift was not whipt for calling the Church adulterous, that indeed was chaft; but he was whipt to prefent the Church as a chaft Virgin to his Father, that indeed was adultrous: oh he Eph.). -:.~.~1! loved the Church and g(1ve him(elfefor it. --that be might prefentit to bimfelfe agloriom Church, not h11ving Jfot, or wrinkJe;or any fucb thing, but that ir fhould be holy and without blemijh; this !':a~ ~hct>mea~ing o!<;h~!fts whipping, the chaftiftment ofour peace Ila!r 3· f; · w.u
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