When the even was come, there came a rich man of Arimathaea, named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus' disciple:
Ver. 57. A rich man of Arimathea] Not many such; ‘tis well there are any. Joseph was a counsellor, a senator, one of the Sanhedrim or Seventy Seniors. Christ finds friends in the most tempestuous times and unlikely places; as in Ahab's and Nero's court. Some good Obadiah, or Onesiphorus, to seek out Paul the prisoner, and refresh his heart. Serena the Empress, wife to Dioclesian, that bloody persecutor, was a Christian, and a great friend to the true religion. So was the Lady Anne (wife to our King Richard II), a disciple of Wycliffe; whose books also she conveyed over into Bohemia her country, whereby a good foundation was laid for the ensuing Reformation. John of Gaunt showed himself a great favourer of Wycliffe. The like did the Elector of Saxony for Luther. George Marquis of Brandenburg, in a meeting of the Emperor and States at Augsburg, zealously professed that he would rather kneel down presently in the presence of them all, and yield his head to be struck off by the executioner, than deny Christ and his gospel. Scultet. Annul.