III. SER M. people were but properties acting our parts. Our fins were they that cried out, Crucifige, (Crucify him, crucify him,) with clamours more loud and more importunate than did all the Jewish rabble: it was they, which by the borrowed throats of that base Ifa. liii. 5. people did fo outrageoufly perfecute him. He was wounded for our tranfgreffions, and bruifed for our iniquities: it was they, which by the hands of the fierce foldiers, and of the rude populace, as by fenfelefs engines, did buffet and fcourge him; they by the nails and thorns did pierce his flesh, and rend his facred body. Upon them therefore it is molt just and fit that we fhould turn our hatred, that we fhould difcharge our indignation. 120. 7. And what in reafon can be more powerful toward working penitential forrow and remorfe, than reflection upon fuch horrible effects, proceeding from our fins? How can we forbear earneftly to grieve, confidering ourselves by them to have been the perfidious betrayers, the unjuft flanderers, the cruel perfecutors and barbarous murderers of a perfon fo innocent and lovely, fo good and benign, fo great and glorious; of God's own dear Son, of our best friend, of our moft gracious Redeemer ? 8. If ingenuity will not operate fo far, and hereby melt us into contrition; yet furely this confiderPfal. cxix. ation muft needs affect us with a religious fear. For can we otherwife than tremble to think upon the heinous guilt of our fins, upon the dreadful fiercenefs of God's wrath against them, upon the impartial feverity of divine judgment for them, all fo manifeftly difcovered, all fo lively fet forth in this difinal fpectacle? If the view of an ordinary execution is apt to beget in us fome terror, fome dread of the law, fome reverence toward authority; what awful impreffions fhould this fingular example of divine justice work upon us? How greatly we fhould be moved thereby, what affections it fhould raife in us, we may even learn from from the most inanimate creatures: for the whole s ER M. world did feem affected thereat with horror and 111. confufion; the frame of things was difcompofed and disturbed; all nature did feel a kind of compaffion and compunction for it. The fun (as from aversion and shame) did hide his face, leaving the world covered for three hours with mournful blacknefs; the bowels of the earth did yearn and quake; the rocks did split; the veil of the temple was rent; the graves did open themselves, and the dead bodies were roufed up. And, can we then (who are most concerned in the event) be more ftupid than the earth, more obdurate than rocks, more drowly than interred carcases, the most infenfible and immoveable things in nature? But farther, 1 Pet. i. 18, 19. 9. 9. How can the meditation on this event do otherwise than hugely deter us from all wilful difobedience and commiffion of fin? For how thereby can we violate fuch engagements, and thwart fuch an example of obedience? How thereby can we abuse fo wonderful goodness, and difoblige fo tranfcendent charity? How thereby can we reject that gentle dominion over us, which our Redeemer did fo dearly purchase, or renounce the Lord that bought Tit. ii. 14. us at fo high a rate? With what heart can we bring upon the stage, and act over that direful tragedy, Rom. xiv. renewing all that pain and all that difgrace to our 2 Cor. v. Saviour; as the Apostle teacheth that we do by 15. apoftafy, crucifying to ourselves the Son of God afresh, 1 Cor. vi. and putting him to an open fhame? Can we without 20. horror tread under foot the Son of God, and count the avaus. blood of the covenant dn unholy thing; (as the fame Heb, x. 29. divine Apostle faith all wilful tranfgreffors do ;) apagaio vilifying that moft facred and precious blood, fo, v. 26. freely fhed for the demonftration of God's mercy, M. and ratification of his gracious intentions towards us, as a thing of no fpecial worth or confideration; defpifing all his fo kind and painful endeavours for our falvation; defeating his moft charitable purposes, 2 Pet. ii. 1. Heb. vi. 6. ἀνας πυρίλλες. ἐχυσίως III. SER M. and earnest defires for our welfare; rendering all his fo bitter and loathfome fufferings in regard to us utterly vain and fruitless, yea indeed very hurtful and pernicious? For if the crofs do not fave us from our fins, it will much aggravate their guilt, and augment their punishment; bringing a feverer condemnation and a fadder ruin on us. Again, 10. This confideration affordeth very ftrong engagements to the practice of charity towards our neighbour. For what heart can be fo hard, that the blood of the crofs cannot mollify into a charitable and compaffionate sense? Can we forbear to love thofe, toward whom our Saviour did bear fo tender affection, for whom he was pleased to sustain fo woeful tortures and indignities? Shall we not, in obedience to his moft urgent commands, in conformity to his moft notable example, in grateful return to him for his benefits, who thus did gladly fuffer for us, discharge-this most sweet and easy duty towards his beloved friends? Shall we not be willing, by parting with a little fuperfluous stuff for the relief of our poor brother, to requite and gratify him, who, to fuccour us in our distress, most boun2 Cor. viii. tifully did part with his wealth, with his glory, with his pleasure, with his life itself? Shall we not Col. iii. 13. meekly comport with an infirmity, not bear a petty 9. Eph. iv. 32. Joh. xv. 12. neglect, not forgive a fmall injury to our brother, when as our Lord did for us and from us bear a crofs, to procure remiffion for our innumerable most heinous affronts and offences against Almighty God? Can a heart void of mercy and pity, with any reafon or modefty pretend to the mercies and compaffions of the cross? Can we hope, that God for Christ's fake will pardon us, if we for Chrift's fake will not forgive our neighbour? Can we hear our Lord faying to us, This is my command, that ye love one another, as I have loved you; John xiii. and, Hereby fhall all men know that ye are my difciples, if ye love one another? Can we hear St. Paul ex 35. horting, horting, Walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and S ER M bath given himself for us, an offering and a facrifice to III. God for a fweet smelling favour; and, We that are ftrong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak-For even Chrift Eph. v. 2 pleafed not himself, but, as it is written, The reproaches 1, 3of them that reproached thee, fell on me? Can we attend Rom. XV. to St. John's arguing, Beloved, if God fo loved us, then 1 Joh. iv. ought we alfo to love one another. Hereby we perceive 11. iii. 16. the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: Wherefore we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren? Can we, I fay, confider fuch precepts, and fuch difcourfes, without effectually being difpofed to comply with them for the fake of our crucified Saviour? all whofe life was nothingelfe but one continual recommendation and enforcement of this duty; but his death especially was a pattern moft obliging, most incentive thereto. This ufe of the point is the more to be regarded, because the Apostle doth apply it hereto, our text coming in upon that occafion; for having pathetically exhorted the Philippians to all kinds of charity and humble condefcenfion, he fubjoineth, Let this mind be in you, which was in Chrift Fefus; who Phil. i being in the form of God, &c. 11. But furthermore, what can be more operative than this point toward breeding a difregard of this world with all its deceitful vanities and mischievous delights; toward reconciling our minds to the worst condition into which it can bring us; toward fupporting our hearts under the heaviest preffures of affliction which it can lay upon us? For can we reasonably expect, can we eagerly affect, can we ardently defire great profperity, when as the Son of God, our Lord and Mafter, did only taste such adversity? How can we refuse, in fubmiffion to God's pleasure, contentedly to bear a flight grievance, when as our Saviour gladly did bear a cross, infinitely more distasteful to carnal will and fenfe than any that can befal us? Who now can 5, 6. III. S E R M. can admire thofe fplendid trifles, which our Lord never did regard in his life, and which at his death only did ferve to mock and abuse him? Who can relish those fordid pleasures, of which he living did not vouchfafe to taste, and the contraries whereof he dying chofe to feel in all extremity? Who can difdain or defpife a state of forrow and difgrace, which he, by voluntary Rom. viii. fufception of it, hath fo dignified and graced; by which we fo near refemble and become conformable Apoc. i. 9. to him, by which we concur and partake with him yea, by which in fome cafes we may promote, and after a fort complete his designs, filling up (as St. Paul fpeaketh) that which is behind of the afflictions of Chrift in our fleft? 17. Phil. iii. 10. 1 Pet. iv. 13. Col. i, 24. ; Who now can hugely prefer being efteemed, approved, favoured, commended by men, before infamy, reproach, derifion, and perfecution from them; especially when thefe do follow confcientious adherence to righteousness? Who can be very ambitious of worldly honour and repute, covetous of wealth, or greedy of pleafure, who doth obferve the Son of God choofing rather to hang upon a cross, than to fit upon a throne; inviting the clamours of fcorn and fpite, rather than acclamations of bleffing and praise; divefting himself of all fecular power, pomp, plenty, conveniencies, and folaces; embracing the garb of a flave, and the repute of a malefactor, before the dignity and refpect of a prince, which were his due, which he most easily could have obtained ? Can we imagine it a very happy thing, to be high and profperous in this world, to fwim in affluence and pleafure? Can we take it for a mifery, to be mean and low, to conflict with fome wants and ftraights here; feeing the Fountain of all happinefs did himself purpofely condefcend to fo forlorn a ftate, and was f Cogitemus crucem ejus, et divitias lutum effe putabimus. Hier, ad Nepot. Epift. 2. pleafed |