to himself lying on his shoulders he should feel it heavy or seem to crouch and groan under it that in the mystical Psalm applied by the Apostle to him he should cry out Innumerable evils have compassed me about mine iniquities have taken hold upon me so that I am not able to look up they are more than the hairs of my head and my heart faileth me The sight of Gods indignation so dreadfully flaming out against sin might well astonish and terrifie him To stand as it were before the mouth of hell belching fire and brimstone in his face to lye down in the hottest furnace of divine vengeance to quench with his own heart-blood the wrath of heaven and the infernal fire as he did in regard to those who will not re-kindle them to themselves might well in the heart of a man beget unconceivable and unexpressible pressures of affliction When such a Father so infinitely good and kind to him whom he so dearly and perfectly loved did hide his face from him did frown on him how could he otherwise than be mightily troubled Is it strange that so hearty a love so tender a pity contemplating our sinfulness and experimenting our wretchedness should be deeply touched To see I say so plainly to feel so thoroughly the horrible blindness the folly the infidelity the imbecillity the ingratitude the incorrigibility the strange perverseness perfidiousness malice and cruelty of mankind in so many instances in the treason of Judas in the denial of Peter in the desertion of all the Apostles in the spite and rage of the persecutors in the falshood of the witnesses in the abuses of the people in the compliance of Pilate in a general conspiracy of friends and foes to sin all these surrounding him all invading him all discharging themselves upon him would it not astone a mind so pure would it not wound a heart so tender and full of charity Surely any of those persons who fondly do pretend unto or vainly do glory in a sullen apathy or a stubborn contempt of the evils incident to our nature and state would in such a case have been utterly dejected The most resolved Philosopher would have been dashed into confusion at the sight would have been crushed into desperation under the sense of those evils which did assault Him With the greatness of the causes the goodness of his constitution did conspire to encrease his sufferings for surely as his complexion was most pure and delicate his spirit most vivid and apprehensive his affections most pliant and tractable so accordingly would the impressions upon him be most sensible and consequently the pains which he felt in body or soul most afflictive That we in like cases are not alike moved that we do not tremble at the apprehensions of Gods displeasure that we are not affrighted with the sense of our sins that we do not with sad horrour resent our danger and our misery doth arise from that we have very glimmering and faint conceptions of those matters or that they do not in so clear and lively a manner strike our fancy not appearing in their true nature and proper shape so heinous and so hideous as they really are in themselves and in their consequences or because we have but weak perswasions about them or because we do but slightly consider them or from that our hearts are very hard and callous our affections very cold and dull so that nothing of this nature nothing beside gross material affairs can mollifie or melt them Or for that we have in us small love to God and a slender regard to our own welfare in fine for that in spiritual matters we are neither so wise so sober so serious nor so good or ingenuous in any reasonable measure as we should be But our Saviour in all those respects was otherwise disposed He most evidently discerned the wrath of God the grievousness of sin the wretchedness of man most truly most fully most strongly represented to his mind He most firmly believed yea most certainly knew whatever Gods law had declared about them He did exactly consider and weigh them His heart was most soft and sensible his affections were most quick and excitable by their due objects He was full of dutiful love to God and most ardently desirous of our good bearing a more than fraternal good will towards us whence 't is not so marvellous that as a man as a transcendently wise and good man he was so vehemently affected by those occurrences that his imagination was so troubled and his passions so stirred by them so that he thence did suffer in a manner and to a degree unconceivable according to that ejaculation in the Greek Liturgies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By thy unknown sufferings O Christ have mercy on us But farther IV. We may consider that this way of suffering had in it some particular advantages conducing to the accomplishment of our Lords principal designs It s being very notorious and lasting a competent time were good advantages for if he had been privately made away or suddenly dispatched no such great notice would have been taken of it nor would the matter of fact have been so fully proved to the confirmation of our faith and conviction of infidelity Nor had that his excellent deportment under such bitter affliction his most divine patience meekness and charity so illustriously shone forth Wherefore to prevent all exceptions and excuses of unbelief together with other collateral good purposes divine providence did so manage the business that as the course of his life so also the manner of his death should be most conspicuously remarkable I spake freely to the world and in secret have I done nothing said he of himself and These things said S. Paul to King Agrippa were not done in a corner such were the proceedings of his life not close or clancular but frank and open not presently hushed up but leisurely carried on in the face of the world that men might have the advantage to observe and examine them And as he lived so he dyed most publickly and visibly the world being witness of his death and so prepared to believe his resurrection and thence disposed to embrace his doctrine according to what he did foretell I being lifted up from the earth shall draw all men to me for he drew all men by so obvious a death to take notice of it he drew all well-disposed persons from the wondrous consequences of it to believe on him And as said he again Moses did exalt the serpent in the wilderness so must the son of man be exalted As the elevation of that mysterious serpent did render it visible and did attract the eyes of people toward it whereby Gods power invisibly accompanying that Sacramental performance they were cured of those mortiferous stings which they had received so our Lord being mounted on the Cross allured the eyes of men to behold him and their hearts to
Who could find out the everlasting redemption of innumerable souls or lay down a competent ransom for them all not to say could also purchase for them eternal life and bliss These are Questions which would puzzle all the wit of man yea would gravel all the wisdom of Angels to resolve for plain it is that no creature on earth none in heaven could well undertake or perform this work Where on earth among the degenerate sons of Adam could be found such an High Priest as became us holy harmless undefiled separate from sinners and how could a man however innocent and pure as a Seraphin so perform his duty as to do more than merit or satisfie for himself how many lives could the life of one man serve to ransome seeing that it is asserted of the greatest and richest among men that None of them can by any means redeem his brother or give to God a ransome for him And how could available help in this case be expected from any of the angelical Host seeing beside their being in nature different from us and thence improper to merit or satisfie for us beside their comparative meanness and infinite distance from the Majesty of God they are but out fellow-servants and have obligations to discharge for themselves and cannot be solvent for more than for their own debts of gratitude and service to their infinitely bountiful Creatour they also themselves needing a Saviour to preserve them by his grace in their happy state Indeed no creature might aspire to so august an honour none could atchieve so marvellous a work as to redeem from infinite guilt and misery the noblest part of all the visible Creation none could presume to invade that high prerogative of God or attempt to infringe the truth of that reiterated Proclamation I even I am the Lord and beside me there is no Saviour Wherefore seeing that a supereminent dignity of person was required in our Mediatour and that an immense value was to be presented for our ransome seeing that God saw there was no man and wondred or took special notice that there was no intercessor it must be his arm alone that could bring salvation none beside God himself could intermeddle therein But how could God undertake the business could he become a suitor or intercessor to his offended self could he present a sacrifice or disburse a satisfaction to his own justice Could God alone contract and stipulate with God in our behalf No surely Man also must concur in the transaction some amends must issue from him somewhat must be paid out of our stock humane will and consent must be interposed to ratifie a firm covenant with us inducing obligation on our part It was decent and expedient that as man by wilful transgression and presumptuous self-pleasing had so highly offended injured and dishonoured his Maker so man also by willing obedience and patient submission to Gods pleasure should greatly content right and glorifie him Here then did lye the stress This was the knot which only divine wisdom could loose And so indeed it did in a most effectual and admirable way for in correspondence to all the exigencies of the case that God and man both might act their parts in saving us the Blessed eternal Word the onely Son of God by the good will of his Father did vouchsafe to intercede for us and to undertake our redemption in order thereto voluntarily being sent down from Heaven assuming humane flesh subjecting himself to all the infirmities of our frail nature and to the worst inconveniencies of our low condition therein meriting Gods favour to us by a perfect obedience to the Law and satisfying Gods justice by a most patient endurance of pains in our behalf in completion of all willingly laying down his life for the ransom of our souls and pouring forth his blood in sacrifice for our sins This is that great and wonderful mystery of godliness or of our Holy Religion the which St. Paul here doth express in these words concerning our B. Saviour Who being in the form of God thought it no robbery to be equal with God but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men And being found in fashion as a man he humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the Cross. In which words are contained divers points very observable but seeing the time will not allow me to treat on them in any measure as they deserve I shall waving all the rest insist but upon one particular couched in the last words Even the death of the Cross which by a special emphasis do excite us to consider the manner of that Holy Passion which we now commemorate the contemplation whereof as it is now most seasonable so it is ever very profitable Now then in this kind of Passion we may consider divers notable adjuncts namely these 1. It s being in appearance criminal 2. It s being most bitter and painful 3. It s being most ignominious and shameful 4. It s peculiar advantageousness to the designs of our Lord in suffering 5. It s practical efficacy I. We may consider our Lords suffering as Criminal or as in semblance being an execution of justice upon him He as the Prophet foretold of him was numbred among the transgressors and God saith St. Paul made him sin for us who knew no sin that is God ordered him to be treated as a most sinful or criminous person who in himself was perfectly innocent and void of the least inclination to offend So in effect it was that he was impeached of the highest crimes as a violatour of the Divine Laws in divers instances as a designer to subvert their religion and temple as an impostor deluding and seducing the people as a blasphemer assuming to himself the properties and prerogatives of God as a seditious and rebellious person perverting the nation inhibiting payments of tribute to Caesar usurping Royal Authority and styling himself Christ a King In a word as a malefector or one guilty of enormous offences so his persecutors avowed to Pilate If said they he were not a malefactor we should not have delivered him up unto thee As such he was represented and arraigned as such although by a sentence wrested by malicious importunity against the will and conscience of the Judge he was condemned and accordingly suffered death Now whereas any death or passion of our Lord as being in it self immensely valuable and most precious in the sight of God might have been sufficient toward the accomplishment of his general designs the appeasing Gods wrath the satisfaction of Divine Justice the expiation of our guilt it may be inquired why God should thus expose him or why he should chuse to suffer under this odious and ugly character which inquiry is the more considerable because it is especially
malediction accursed by God saith the Hebrew that is seeming to be rejected by God and by his special order exposed to affliction Indeed according to the course of things to be set on high and for continuance of time to be objected to the view of all that pass by in that calamitous posture doth infuse bad suspicion doth provoke censure doth invite contempt and scorn doth naturally draw forth language of derision despight and detestation especially from the inconsiderate hard hearted and rude vulgar which commonly doth think speak and deal according to event and appearance Sequitur fortunam semper odit Damnatos Whence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be made a gazing stock or an object of reproach to the multitude is by the Apostle mentioned as an aggravation of the hardships endured by the Primitive Christians And thus in extremity did it befall our Lord for we read that the people did in that condition mock jeer and revile him drawing up their noses abusing him by scurrilous gestures letting out their virulent and wanton tongues against him so as to verifie that prediction I am a reproach of men and despised of the people all they that see me laugh me to scorn they shoot out the lip they shake the head saying He trusted in the Lord let him deliver him seeing he delighted in him The same persons who formerly had admired his glorious works who had been ravished with his excellent discourses who had followed and favoured him so earnestly who had blessed and magnified him for he saith S. Luke taught in the Synagogues being glorified by all even those very persons did then behold him with pitiless contempt and despight In correspondence to that prophesie they look and stare upon me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the people stood gazing on him in a most scornful manner venting contemptuous and spiteful reproaches as we see reported in the Evangelical Story Thus did our Blessed Saviour endure the cross despising the shame despising the shame that is not simply disregarding it or with a Stoical haughtiness with a Cynical immodesty with a stupid carelesness slighting it as no evil but not eschewing it or not rating it for so great an evil that to decline it he would neglect the prosecution of his great and glorious designs There is innate to man an aversation and abhorrency from disgraceful abuse no less strong then are the like antipathies to pain whence cruel mockings and scourgings are coupled as ingredients of the sore persecutions sustained by Gods faithful Martyrs And generally men with more readiness will embrace with more contentedness will endure the cruelty of the latter than of the former pain not so smartly affecting the lower sense as being insolently contemned doth grate upon the fancy and wound even the mind it self for the wounds of infamy do as the wise man telleth us go down into the innermost parts of the belly reaching the very heart and touching the soul to the quick We therefore need not doubt but that our Saviour as a man endowed with humane passions was sensible of this natural evil and that such indignities did add somewhat of loathsomness to his cup of affliction especially considering that his great charity disposed him to grieve observing men to act so indecently so unworthily so unjustly toward him yet in consideration of the glory that would thence accrue to God of the benefit that would redound to us of the joy that was set before him when he should see of the travel of his soul and be satisfied he most willingly did accept and most gladly did comport with it He became a curse for us exposed to malediction and reviling He endured the contradiction or obloquy of sinful men He was despised rejected and dis-esteemed of men He in common apprehension was deserted by God according to that of the Prophet We did esteem him stricken smitten of God and afflicted himself even seeming to concur in that opinion So was he made a curse for us that we as the Apostle teacheth might be redeemed from the curse of the Law that is that we might be freed from the exemplary punishment due to our transgressions of the Law with the displeasure of God appearing therein and the disgrace before the world attending it He chose thus to make himself of no reputation vouchsafing to be dealt with as a wretched slave and a wicked miscreant that we might be exempted not only from the torment but also from the ignominy which we had merited that together with our life our safety our liberty we might even recover that honour which we had forfeited and imbezled But lest any should be tempted not sufficiently to value these sufferances of our Lord as not so rare but that other men have tasted the like lest any should presume to compare them with afflictions incident to other persons as Celsus did compare them with those of Anaxarchus and Epictetus it is requisite to consider some remarkable particulars about them We may then consider that not only the infinite dignity of his person and the perfect innocency of his life did enhance the price of his sufferings but some endowments peculiar to him and some circumstances adhering to his design did much augment their force He was not only according to the frame and temper of humane nature sensibly touched with the pain the shame the whole combination of disasters apparently waiting on his passion as God when he did insert sense and passion into our nature ordering objects to affect them did intend we should be and as other men in like circumstances would have been but in many respects beyond that ordinary rate so that no man we may suppose could have felt such grief from them as he did no man ever hath been sensible of any thing comparable to what he did endure that passage being truly applicable to him Behold and see if there be any sorrow like to my sorrow which is done unto me wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger as that unparallel'd sweating out great lumps of blood may argue and as the terms expressing his resentments do intimate for in respect of present evils he said of himself My soul is exceedingly sorrowful to death he is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be in great anguish and anxiety to be in an agony or pang of sorrow In regard to mischiefs which he saw coming on he is said to be disturb'd in spirit and to be sore amazed or dismayed at them To such an exceeding height did the sense of incumbent evils and the prospect of impendent calamities the apprehension of his case together with a reflection on our condition skrew up his affections And no wonder that such a burthen even the weight of all the sins the numberless most heinous sins and abominations that ever were committed by mankind by appropriation of them