this which afflicted his Body was the least part of the Sufferings He felt He suffer'd more abundantly more than all this in the Sufferings of his Soul For I must consider further that this Death of His was an Accursed one in the account of the Jewish Law that is in the account of God Himself for it was He that had order'd and taught them to account it so on purpose that it might fore-tell and signifie before-hand That the Redeemer of the World should bear in his Death the Curse and Punishment which the Divine Law had justly threatned against the Sins of Men. This then must call to thy Mind the mighty Sufferings of His Soul He was made a Curse for us and God laid on Him the Iniquities of us all By Men was He treated as a Malefactour and by God too The Light of his Father's Countenance and the pleasing Aspects of his Love which had been always the Joy of his Soul and the Reward of all his Labours in his Service and till now had been constantly enjoy'd was now when He wanted it most withdrawn when He was under His sharp outward Sufferings and when He was at the point of Death And in making his Soul an Offering for Sin He was afficted and terrified with God's Almighty Wrath and Displeasure This made Him cry out who was silent before My God my God why hast thou forsaken me He felt the Wrath which our Sins had deserved Oh terrible thing Who can conceive what He endur'd We may believe no Torments can exceed those He felt in his Soul except it be those of Hell if they do Oh wounding Thought This stabs and pierces my Soul This tells me It was not so much the Cruel Jew or Barbarous Roman Souldier that tormented and kill'd the loving Jesus as the vile Sinner It was I among the rest of Sinners that gave Him his cruellest Wounds his sharpest Sorrows It was I that wounded that kill'd my Saviour and Friend I shed his Life's most precious Blood Was there ever such a thing known besides this O Jesu there was never any Love like thine and there is nothing so vile so base as a Sinner Greater Love than this hath no Man that one lay down his Life for his Friend But thou hast laid down thine for Enemies for those that hated thee yea for those that kill'd thee Thou art there on the Cross despised that I might be honour'd Thou art there in pain that I might be at ease Thou art there hungry and thirsty that I might be supplied with all good things Thou art there accursed that I might be blest Thou art there deserted by the Father's Favour and Love that I might enjoy the Everlasting delights of it Thou art there dying that I might live an Everlasting life in Joy and Glory unspeakable and Eternal Oh Jesu Was I more dear to thee than thine own Life Was I to be rather indulg'd than thine own Ease and more to be respected than thine own Honour What am I Lord Oh what is Man that thou art thus mindfull of him There was never Love like thine None but a God could love thus Oh Adorable Mystery Oh Wonder of Wonders Thy Greatness is unsearchable thy Love is incomprehensible and thy Ways are past finding out With profoundest Reverence I Adore thy Incomprehensible Love I leave off to fathom what I can never reach and will give up my self to Praise and Admire for ever SECT XIV An Exercise of Repentance HAve I indeed given my kind and compassionate Saviour so much Grief by my Sins and shall they give me none Oh that my Head were Waters and my Eyes a Fountain of Tears to drench my filthy polluted Soul But alas it is not all the Tears that I am able to shed which could ever make me clean or wash out the stain of any the least of my Sins Oh I am become it seems so exceeding foul and have contracted stains of such a nature that nothing but this precious stream my Saviour's life's Blood can cleanse me How am I fallen from the Dignity and Honour of my Creation I was made little lower than the Angels by my Bounteous Creatour but I have made my self more vile than the Beasts that perish I was made subject to no Creature not bound to pay any Homage or Service towards the Glorious Angels though made lower than them but alas I have made my self a slave to the abject Devil I have refused to serve God my Maker and Friend and have drudg'd for my mortal Enemy Oh wretched Man that I am I have sought his Service while I have declin'd thine and run after his Temptations while I have endeavour'd to evade thy Commands Oh I have been forward to do Evil and backward to all that is Good I have combin'd with my Soul 's great Enemy to hasten and encrease my Damnation Infinite Goodness How unjustly how basely art thou requited for all thy bounteous Love to Mankind Who can conceive or express the Vileness the Enormity of Sin Which is a Contempt of thy infinite Majesty a Rebellion against thy unquestionable Authority an Abuse of thy free Goodness a Defiance of thy Almighty Power a Denial of thy incomparable Wisdom and an Affront to all thy glorious Attributes Which is contrary to that Honour and Homage which I owe thee as thy Creature Wo is me that I should ever offend my Maker so liberal and so gracious a Father Wo is me that I should slight and affront the Love of Jesus my Redeemer as I have done it in cherishing those vile Sins that He came to destroy O Jesu at what a costly rate hast thou lov'd me and merited my Love And how loth how slow am I to entertain the Love of thee Thou hast Loved where thy Hatred has been deserv'd and I vile wretch have hated Him that has infinitely deserv'd my Love Thy Love to me has been a vast Condescension and has caused thy Humility and Abasement yet wouldest thou love the Unworthy But my Love to thee would have been my Honour and Glory my Everlasting Advancement yet have I been unwilling to love thee Wo is me I have been obstinate in Wickedness Oh how have I griev'd the Holy Spirit in neglecting resisting and opposing his good and kind Motions in my Soul turning a deaf Ear to his gentle Admonitions and refusing to be converted and healed Oh my God in our Sins we despise thy Will and do our own We disown thee and make Gods of our selves In our Sins we believe the great Deceiver before the God of Truth and follow his delusive Temptations rather than thy rich and faithfull Promises In our Sins we preferr Earth before Heaven the Creature before the Creatour and reckon there is more Happiness in the Enjoying some of them than in the Enjoyment of Thee the Infinite Fountain of Good Oh how vile how enormous a thing is Sin Who can sufficiently hate it I see O Lord in the terrible
of his Maker and a perfect Happiness both of Body and Soul upon the Condition that He would continue in the due Reverence and Love of his Maker and Obey his Commands And it was made known to him that He should fall from the best of his Excellency from that wherein He was so pleasing to His Maker and from all his Happiness if he did not continue steadfast in his Duty and perfectly perform it as God had inabled him to do And this is that which is commonly call'd the First Covenant SECT IV. The Sacraments of That MOreover God having made Man to consist of a Body and a Soul and knowing that it is natural to Him for the Objects of his Senses to make great Impressions and to have a mighty Influence upon his Mind His Wisdom and Goodness order'd Matters so as that his Senses might help to admonish him of his Duty and to assure him of his Happiness in the performance of it And this we may suppose was the Reason and Ground of God's separating two Trees in the Garden where he had placed our First Parents for a peculiar and uncommon Use The One call'd the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil the Other call'd the Tree of Life These we may reckon to have been the Sacraments of the First Covenant For in these were Spiritual things by God's appointment represented by outward and visible Signs and Actions Man was assisted to remember his Duty and Obligations to his Maker by that Tree call'd the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. For we may suppose that the Fruit of this Tree was set a-part by God wholly for the following purpose Man was to take care to cultivate this Tree as well as others but he was to offer the Fruit of it at set-times solemnly and religiously to God as a visible Acknowledgment that he owned Him the Maker of all things and the Supreme Lord and the Proprietour of all This was reserved as we may say by God to be a devoted Thing and Man's Thank-offering to Him for all the rest of his Gifts And for this reason Man was forbid to eat of it himself For we find in later Times It was always held a very heinous and guilty Thing for Men to eat of or use what God had separated and reserved to Himself Now such a sensible outward Performance as the solemn offering of this Fruit to God and the looking upon it and using it onely as a Devoted Thing was an excellent and fit Means to admonish Mankind for ever to acknowledge their Maker and Preserver as the Supreme Lord and Proprietour of all things As it was a sensible Declaration that they did make this Acknowledgment so it was a sensible Obligation of themselves that they would continue to do so and the more a help to them to continue it and to answer all the Obligations which naturally result from it in the Course of their Lives And then the other Tree was appointed to assure Man upon his perfect Obedience of his Immortality and Everlasting Happiness So that whilst he continued stedfast in his Duty he had right to take and eat the Fruit of this Tree And he might take it as God's visible and sensible Pledge and as an Instrument of Conveyance of Eternal Life and Happiness to Him In like manner as now we have leave from God to look upon the Rain-bow not only as the natural Effect of the Sun shining upon a falling shower but as God's visible pledge and assurance to Mankind that He will never again destroy the World with a Deluge of Water SECT V. The Sin and Fall of Man THIS account shows the exceeding great Guilt and Wickedness of the Sin of our First Parents Their Sin was that they did Eat of that Forbidden Fruit and so they used and took to themselves what was reserv'd and devoted to God It was the bringing to a Common use that which was separated by his appointment to a Religious one and was the profaning of a Hallow'd or Holy Thing But let it be consider'd a little how monstrous and vile this Sin of our First Parents was How soon had they forgotten the mighty Obligations which the Creatour had so lately laid upon them How bountifull had he been to them How much had he freely given them And He with-held and reserv'd but one Fruit to Himself and this we may say they grudg'd and envied Him They would not be content with so vast a provision as he had made for them but would needs have this afforded too The poor depending Creature that deriv'd his Being and all he had would needs be sole Proprietour and absolute Lord of all things on the Earth and would acknowledge no Superiour They had no need of this Fruit were perfectly happy without it and might have continued so happy if they would have abstained from this But they most unreasonably despised their Happiness and hazarded the losing it for the sake of the Satisfaction and Advantage which they expected from this single Fruit. The Creatour indeed had been so good to them they would not believe he would so severely punish their Eating this Fruit as he had threatned to do and so that which should have oblig'd them to be stedfast in their Duty was most perversely turn'd into an Encouragement of Sin Oh vile and shamefull Wickedness Let us consider from what a vile Original we all spring and be all humbled and asham'd In yielding to this foul Act they lost that Holiness and Righteousness which they had been endow'd with and by which especially they had been pleasing to their Maker In this also they broke the Condition of the First Covenant which requir'd that they should constantly Reverence and Love their Creatour and obey Him in all things And the sad Consequence of this was That they hereby lost the Favour of God and forfeited all their own Happiness They lost all Right to the good things of this World to the Obedience and Serviceableness of the Creatures which God had made for them They became liable to the Penalty which God had threatned to inflict and immediately upon the Transgression did deserve to have been put to Death and to be thrown into the place of Everlasting Punishment prepar'd for the Devil and his Angels SECT VI. The New Covenant AND the utmost severity of the Threatning had been immediately executed in that manner upon them we may believe according as it was said In the day thou attest thereof thou shalt surely die If the Son of God had not become a Mediatour on their behalf And He freely undertook to do what ever might be necessary to render it consistent with the Honour of God to receive his Rebellious Creatures into Favour again to release their Obligation to Everlasting Punishment and restore them to perfect Happiness What He then undertook to do to this purpose we may learn and conclude from what He did in the Fulness of Time And that was
which as God he could not do and therefore He became Man that He might be capable of Dying And in Humbling He humbled Himself and became obedient unto Death even the Death of the Cross And here if ever my Soul thou wilt be lost in Astonishment In considering thy Saviour's Love to Mankind Thou wilt surely despise all things beside Thou wilt like his Great Apostle and Lover be forced to value no Knowledge but that of Christ and Him Crucified and to account all things but dross and dung that thou mayest gain an Interest in this Love That it may thus engage thee consider now the Death which Jesus underwent for thee Was it the Death of the Cross Was my Saviour crucified And what a kind of Death was this His Enemies the Unbelieving Jews chose it for Him and the Heathenish Roman Souldiers executed it And this Death was the vilest and the most ignominious one in the account of the Romans such as they put none to but the most contemptible Abjects and the bafest Malefactours And this Death was in the account of the Jewish Law an Accursed one He was reckon'd accursed of God that was hanged on a Tree But let me consider the Indignities the Contemptuous usage which attended my Saviour's Death and how painfull and afflicting it must needs have been to Him As soon as the Blessed Jesus was condemn'd to die He was committed to rude Souldiers who made it their sport to injure and abuse Him They stript Him of his Cloaths tied Him to a Pillar and cruelly scourged Him on his naked Back Oh Jesu I love and adore Thee whom these Wretches thus vilely abused I grieve for thy Injuries and am afflicted with thy Pain After this they platted a Crown of Thorns and forced it to make it sit fast upon his Head wounding and tearing thereby his Sacred Temples And then my Soul had I been there I might have seen his own Blood running down and disguising his Blessed Face Oh what a disguise of that Majesty and Meekness of that venerable sweetness that awfull Goodness which had always dwelt there They then found out some contemptible purple Garment and put it on Him and put a Reed in his Hand to imitate a Scepter and then mockt Him with bowing the Knee before Him and crying Hail King of the Jews And to show how little Honour or Reverence they intended Him in this they most disdainfully spit in his Face and buffeted Him about among them from one to another And without doubt he thought himself the wittiest of the Company who could devise the greatest Affront Thus was He injur'd and abus'd who came into this World on the kind design of saving lost Sinners Thus was the King of Glory the King not of the Jews only but of Heaven and Earth mockt and despised by the vilest of Men. When they had tired themselves with this Barbarous sport and how much rather Him They put his own Cloaths on Him again and led Him away to Crucifie Him And on Him they laid the heavy and ignominious Burden of his Cross and he must carry a long way the Instrument of his Shame and Death to the place of Execution But they had used him too ill before to leave him still able to carry so heavy a Load and after He had hardly carried it a little way He fell under it I see O Son of God in this thy fainting under the Cross a manifest proof that thou didst really take our Nature upon Thee with the innocent Infirmities of it And I cannot chuse but admire and praise so wondrous a Condescension of the Almighty for our sakes They who used Him so cruelly before I must needs imagine did not exercise any Compassion to Him upon this occasion I abhorr to think how inhumanely 't is probable they used Him now But they laid at last the burden upon other Shoulders for now their Malice was in haste to be rid of Him When He was come to the place of Crucifixion they stript Him of all his Cloaths and exposed the fresh Wounds which the rude Scourge had given Him to the cold Air. They laid Him upon his Cross and violently stretched out his Arms and then drove a great Nail through each Hand Thus fastening to the Transverse Beam of the Cross those blessed Hands which had been used in the working many a kind Miracle but had never done any harm and certainly deserv'd a better Usage Then they drove one or two great Nails through his Feet and fastened them to the Upright Beam of the Cross Those Feet which had carried Him diligently about upon his kind business in the World which was to seek and to save lost Sinners This being done they set the Cross upright that He might hang upon those Nails drove through those very sensible parts of his Body in exquisite Pain and Torture and exposed to the view and scorn of the Spectatours And many of these revil'd insulted over him and derided him here It would even wound a Heart that has any tenderness to think that any one should be used so cruelly And one could scarce forbear to feel some pity and trouble at seeing even the most odious Malefactour in such a condition But this was not a Malefactour my Soul but as thy Sins had made Him one This was the Innocent Jesus who had done no Iniquity neither was guile found in his Mouth This was thy Lover thy Saviour thy Friend that hung here and all this he endur'd for thee My Soul if thou hadst seen the Loving Jesus thus hanging upon these Nails and bleeding from his Head and from his Hands and from his Feet and heard his Enemies reviling Him there what Resentments would'st thou have felt Would not so sad an Object have made thy Tears keep pace at least with the drops of his most precious Blood Would it not have made thee also smite thy Breast as some of the Spectatours did Could'st thou see this and not feel those Wounds and sympathize with those Pains he endur'd When every Wound might be understood to say Sinner behold how I love thee All this I endure for thee How then should this Sacrament affect thee which is a lively Memorial of his Death What a deep sence of thy Saviour's Love and Sufferings should this create in thee When he is here as it were evidently set forth Crucified before thee I see here his pale wounded bloodless broken Body I see his Blood poured out and separated from it Canst thou see this and say my Love is Crucified and think thou seest Him crown'd with Thorns all over daub'd with Dirt and his Enemies filthy Spittle and his own Blood and not be fadly griev'd to think He was put to endure all this by His Love of thee Oh Crucified Jesus there was never Grief there was never Love like thine All this endur'd for me This commands and deserves Oh let it cause my great Grief for and my ardent Love to thee But all