The Fountain of Life Opened

Fifthly, The death of the Cross was a very slow, and lingering death. They died leisurably. Which still increaseth, and aggravateth the misery of it. If a man must die a violent death, it's a favour to be dispatched. As they that are pressed to death, beg for more weight. And it's a favour to those that are hanged, to be smitten on the breast, or plucked by the heels, by their friends. On the contrary to hang long in the midst of tortures, to have death coming upon us with a slow pace, that we may feel every tread of it, as it comes on, is a misery.

Fifthly, The death of the Cross was a very slow, and lingering death. They died leisurably. Which still increaseth, and aggravateth the misery of it. If a man must die a violent death, it's a favour to be dispatcht. As they that are pressed to death, beg for more weight. And it's a favour to those that are hanged, to be smitten on the breast, or plucked by the heels, by their friends. On the contrary to hang long in the midst of tortures, to have death coming upon us with a slow pace, that we may feel every tread of it, as it comes on, is a misery.

The Tyrant that heard the poor Martyr was dead under his first torments, said as one disappointed, Evasit. He hath escaped me. ⟨p. 346⟩For he intended to have kept him much longer under torments. And it was the cruel counsel of another to his executioner; Let him die so, ¹as he may feel himself how he dies. And surely in this respect it was worse for Christ, than any other that was ever nailed to the Tree. For all the while he hanged there, he remained full of life, and acute sense. His life departed not gradually, but was whole in him to the last. Other men die gradually, and towards their end their sense of pain is much blunted. They falter, fumble, and expire by degrees; but Christ stood under •he pains of death in his full strength. His life was whole in him. This was evident by the mighty outcry he made,