of his death might have a farther accession of scorn and reproach he is placed between two Thieves that were crucified with him with an Inscription of derision upon his Cross in all the most universal Languages of the World Hebrew Greek and Latin and the people and Priests standing by with gestures and words of derision Matth. 27.39 43. and even to a letter assuming those very gestures and words which were so many hundreds of years predicted in the Passion-Psalm 22.78 He trusted in God let him deliver him if he will have him and one of those very Thieves that was even dying as a malefactor yet was filled with such a devilish spirit that he upbraids and derides him And now our Saviour is under the torments and shame of this cursed execution but though these his sufferings of his body and outward man were very grievous in so much that it could not but extremely afflict him yet it is strange to see how little he was transported under them in all his contumelies reproaches and accusations scarce a word answered He answered them nothing in all his abusings strokes ridiculous garments crown of thorns tearing of his body with scourging yet not a word but As a sheep before the shearers is dumb so he opened not his mouth Isa 53.7 in all his rackings upon the Cross and nailing of his limbs to it and all the anguish that for the space of six hours from the third hour wherein he was crucified Mar. 15.25 until the ninth hour wherein he gave up the ghost Matth. 27.46 not a word of complaint but he refused those very supplies which were usually given to suppress the violence of the pain vinegar and gall Matth. 27.34 But when we come to the Afflictions of his Soul they were of a higher dimension in the Garden when no other storm was upon him but what was within him He falls down upon his face and prayes and again and a third time and is amazed and sorrowful to death and sweats drops of blood and doubtless whiles he was under the reproaches and buffetings and whippings and thorns he was not without a terrible and confused sadness and heaviness within which though they did not mitigate the torments of his body yet they did infinitely exceed them The spirit and the soul is most exquisitely sensible and it is that which feels the pains inflicted upon the body Certainly therefore the wound of the spirit it self the fountain of sense must needs be exceedingly grievous And hence it was that though all the injuries and torments of our Saviour could scarce wring a complaint from him yet the weight of that wrath that lay upon his soul now made an offering for sin did wring from him those bitter and terrible cryes that one would wonder should proceed from him that was One with the Father Matth. 27.46 My God my God why hast thou forsaken me From the sixth hour to the ninth darkness was over all the land Matth. 27.45 such a darkness as bred an astonishment even in strangers and other Counties The darkness of the World though a suitable dress for such a time wherein the Son of God must dye and the Sun of Righteousness be eclipsed yet it was nothing in comparison of that dismal shadow that covered our Saviour's soul all this time About the ninth hour our Saviour cryed that bitter cry My God my God why hast thou forsaken me manifesting the depth of his sorrow and the perfect sense he had of it why hast thou forsaken me more could not have been suffered or been said every word carries in it an accent of horror Thou that art the great God from whom and in whom every thing hath its being and comfort surely if in thy presence is fulness of joy in thy withdrawings must be fulness of horror and confusion and yet it is thou that hast forsaken me Forsaken Hadst thou never been with me as I had not known the blessedness of thy fruition so I could not have measured the extremity of my loss the excess of the happiness that I had in thy presence adds to the excess of my misery in the suffering of thy absence Forsaken me not withdrawn thy self to a distance but forsaken me and forsaken me at such a time as this when I stand more in need of thy presence than ever when I am forsaken of my countrey-men of my kindred of my Disciples then to be forsaken of thee when I am under the shame and pains of a cruel and a cursed death under the scorns and derisions of those that hate me under the weight and pressure of all the sins of the world under the struglings with terrors in my soul sent from thy mighty hand under the visible approach of death the king of terrors under a vail of darkness without and the seeming triumph of the power of darkness within then to be forsaken and forsaken of thee whom I had only left to be my support Forsaken Me It is not a stranger that thou forsakest it is thy Son thy only Son in whom thou didst heretofore proclaim thy self well pleased that Son whom though thou now forsakest yet forgets not his duty unto thee nor dependance upon thee but still layes hold on thee and though thou shakest me off yet I must still call upon thee with the humble confidence of My God My God still why hast thou forsaken me To be forsaken and to be forsaken of God of my God of him that is not only my God but my Father and that at such a time and yet not to know why Oh blessed Saviour the Prophets that spake by thy own Spirit did tell thee why and that very Psalm out of which thou takest this bitter cry doth tell thee why and thou thy self within some few days or hours before didst tell us why and dost thou now ask why Didst thou not choose even that which thou now groanest under and wert willing to put thy soul in our souls stead and bear the sin of those which are now thy burden Certainly we may with all humility and reverence conceive that at the time of this bitter cry our Saviour's soul was for the present over-shadowed with so much astonishment and sorrow that it did for the present over-power and cover the actual and distinct sense of the reason of it at least in that measure and degree in which he suffered This cry of our Saviour was about the ninth hour a little before his death and having fulfilled one Prophecy in this terrible cry contained in the very words of Psal 22. he fulfills another he saith I thirst Joh. 19.28 and presently they give him vinegar to drink And between this and his death there intervene these passages 1. His proclaiming to the world that the work of our Redemption was finished Joh. 19.30 When he received the vinegar he said It is finished 2. A second cry with a loud voice Matth. 27.50 the words are not expressed of his second cry
this grace is the very life and vital and conforming principle of the soul And hence this formative principle is called the life of the soul the quickning spirit and the conformation of the soul unto the will of God thereby is called the forming of Christ in them the life of Christ the indwelling of Christ in the heart by faith And this new principle exerciseth in the soul all the acts analogical to that natural vital principle in the body giving to it as it were the image lineaments proportion increase conformable to the image of God in Christ as true Wisdom Righteousness Justice Holiness Integrity Love of God Submission to his will Dependance upon him and translates them into all the communicable relations that Christ himself had and invests them in his communicable priviledges If he be a Son of God by nature so are they by interpretation is he an heir of heaven so are they coheirs with him is he accepted of God so are they is he an heir of glory so are they And as this conformation of the body by this vital principle is performed by a seminal principle at least as the instrument of its activity derived from the parent so the analogy holds here we find a double seminal principle in this conformation and both derived from Christ our head viz. one External another Internal 1. The External seminal principle is the word and message of the Divine doctrine exemplary and holy life singular love of Christ and of God through him to mankind whereby we understand what he would have us do the danger if we do otherwise the blessed reward of obedience the great engagements of the love of God in sending his Son to dye for us the plain familiar easie way of attaining of happiness and because we often learn better by example than by precept the same word exhibits to us a lively picture of his holy conversation his humility meekness obedience love patience goodness And this external means is in it self a great moral means to conform our wills and lives thereunto and therefore it is called the incorruptible seed of the word of God whereby we are born again 1 Pet. 1.23.2 The Internal seed is that Spirit of grace sent out from Christ which doth derive a quickning lively power to the word and to the soul whereby it makes it effectual to its end and therefore called a Spirit of Life and Power a Quickning Spirit and this not by transfusing a new substance or substantial nature which before it had not but by its lively yet secret operations changing and moulding it suitable to the image of him whose Spirit it is and adding energy and efficacy to that other seed of the word as the Sun doth to the seminal principles of vegetables and animals III. Touching the Thing upon which this victory is obtained and conquest made it is the world which comprehends in its latitude a double world the world within us and the world without us The world within us which may therefore be so called principally in this respect that a great part of its relation and tendency is toward the world which is for the most part the object upon which it fixeth the subject after which it reacheth and the business upon which it fasteneth and exerciseth and hence it is that the Apostle S t John divides the world without us with relation to the world within us viz. The lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life 1 Joh. 2.16 The world that is within us taketh in the two great faculties or powers viz. 1. the Passions of the soul and 2. the Sensual Appetite both these are in their own nature good placed in us by the wise God of Nature for most excellent ends and uses Our business is therefore to keep in order and subjection not to extirpate and root them out for they are radicated in our nature by the God of Nature But of this more particularly 1. Our Passions such as are Love Hatred Anger Hope Fear Joy Sorrow these and the like passions of the humane Soul are not simply in themselves evil nay being rightly placed and duly ordered and regulated they become serviceable to excellent ends and uses and therefore simply in themselves they are not the subject of a Christian's victory But then they become such when they become the world in the Text and that is principally in these Cases 1. When they are misplaced as when we love the things we should hate hope for the things we should fear rejoyce in that we should grieve c. or è converso 2. When they are immoderate or excessive about their proper objects which comes to pass when in those things about which we may exercise our passions lawfully we exceed that measure or proportion that is due to them For instance I may lawfully love a competency of worldly subsistence but I exceed in this that I love it too much and beyond the worth that is truly in it I may lawfully be angry with him that injures me but I exceed in the measure or degree or time or duration and become implacable 3. When my affections or passions are not acted to that height they ought to be All finite objects of our passions require a proportionate degree of our passions but where the object is infinite my affections may erre in being too remiss but not in the excess I cannot love God too much for I am to love him with all my might but I may love him too little and then my affection errs I cannot hate sin too much because I cannot love God too much but I may hate it too little 4. When my affections or passions are acted unseasonably either in respect of the time or in respect of the competition between objects of several values I may nay I must love my Father but if I love my Father more than my Saviour my Saviour hath pronounced me unworthy of him 5. When my passions degenerate into vices and corruptions and so become not so much powers or faculties as diseases and sicknesses of the soul as when anger degenerates into malice revenge when self-love degenerate into envy when desire of or delight in the profits or honours of the world degenerates into covetousness or ambition and the like 6. When my passions are not under the management guidance or conduct of my superior faculties my reason and judgment but either go before they are sent or go beyond what they are sent or return not and subside when recalled and then they breed infinite perturbation in the soul invert the order of nature and become furies and tempests and imprison and captivate the mind and understanding and become a worse part of the world than that which is without us Under these conditions our passions and affections are part of that world which is the object of a Christian's warfare and victory 2. The other part of this world within us are the
weight of Glory If therefore thou wouldst be soundly armed against afflictions and prepared with ease and comfort to bear them this one thing necessary is sufficient to render thee such and to fit thee also with all those advantageous helps before mentioned which will necessarily follow upon this attainment 2. Secondly I come to the second general namely How Afflictions incumbent upon us are to be received entertained and improved and this will be in a great measure supplied by what hath been before said touching our preparation of heart before they come for a mind so prepared and habituated will be sufficiently qualified to receive and entertain them as becomes a good man and a good Christian Nevertheless some things I shall subjoyn in order to the bearing and improving of afflictions while they are incumbent upon us and they are these 1. It becomes a man under afflictions in the first place to have a very diligent frequent attentive and right consideration concerning Almighty God that he is a God of infinite wisdom power justice mercy and goodness That he hates not any thing that he hath made but hath a great love and benificence to all his Creatures that he designs their good and benefit even in those dispensations that seem most sharp and severe that if he had not a good will to his Creatures he would never have done so much for them as he hath done that whiles he exerciseth discipline to the children of men it is evident they are under his care that oftentimes there is a greater severity of the Divine displeasure in his leaving mankind to themselves than in exercising them with afflictions and that he equally discovers the love and care of a Father in his corrections as well as in his more pleasing administrations 2. And farther that afflictions rise not out of the dust but are sent and managed by the wise disposition and regiment of Almighty God it is his Providence that sends them that measures out their kind weight continuance and that they are always as commissionated by him so under the conduct of his power wisdom and goodness and never exceed the line and limits of his power wisdom and goodness if he bids them go they go if he bids them return they return if he commands the most tumultuous and tempestuous storms of afflictions peace be still there will be a calm as mankind is never out of the reach of his power to afflict and correct so it is never out of the reach of his power to relieve and recover 3. That as no man hath an exemption from afflictions so it is most evident that even the best of men are visited with them and it is but need they should for where one man is the worse by afflictions a thousand are the worse for want of them and as many the better by them and the wise and gracious God that knows our frame better than we our selves doth for the most part in very faithfulness afflict us The egresses of the Divine Counsels have ever in them a complication of excellent ends even in afflictions themselves they are acts of Justice oftentimes to punish and of Mercy to prevent distempers and to heal them and this is that lot which our Blessed Lord bequeathed unto his own People In the world ye shall have tribulation Joh. 16.33 so that a good man may have as great cause to suspect his own integrity in the absence of them as in the suffering under them 4. That all the Divine dispensations of comforts or crosses are so far beneficial or hurtful as they are received and used comforts if they make us thankful sober faithful they become blessings if they make us proud insolent secure forgetful they become judgments afflictions if they are received with humility patience repentance and returning to God they are blessings if they are received with murmuring impatience imcorrigibleness they become judgments and a forerunner of greater severity 5. The consequences of all these Considerations do evidently lead us unto these Dutics when-ever we are under the pressure of Affliction 1. To receive it with all Humility as reached out unto us from the hand or permission at least of Almighty God There were a sort of Philosophers that thought it a virtue to put on a resolved contempt of all crosses and afflictions not to be moved at all with them but to bear them with a stout apathy this is not that temper that becomes a Christian it is all one as if a Child should resolve to receive the correction of his Father with a stubborn resolution not to care for them or to be affected with them such a stubbornness under affliction renders it unuseful to its end and commonly provokes the great Lord and Father of Spirits totally to reject such a mind or to master it with sharper and severer and multiplied afflictions till it yield and till that uncircumcised Heart be humbled and accept of the punishment of its iniquity Levit. 26.41 2. To receive it with Patience and subjection of mind and without either contesting with Almighty God charging his Providence with errour or injustice or swelling and storming against the affliction or the Divine dispensation that sends it This hath two singular benesits first it renders the affliction it self more easie and tollerable secondly it is one of the readiest ways to shorten or abate it For as yielding and humble submission to the hand of God so patience and submission of will to the Divine dispensation are two of the great ends and business of affliction which when attained by it it hath performed a great part of its errand for which it was sent 3. To return unto God that afflicteth or permitteth it Affliction misseth its end and use when it drives a man from his God either to evil or unlawful means or to shift and hide himself or keep at a distance from him and as it loseth its end so it is contrary to its natural effect at least where it meets with a nature of any understanding or ingenuity In their affliction they will seek me early God Almighty sends afflictions like messengers to call home wandring Souls and if a man will shist away get farther off and estrange himself more from him that strikes him he will either send more importunate messengers afflictions of a greater magnitude to call and fetch him as want and famine did the young Prodigal in the Gospel or which is far worse let him go without farther seeking him Whereas the man that by affliction as it were at the first call comes home to God or gets nearer to him for the most part prevents severer monitors and renders his suffering more short or at least more easie by drawing near to God the fountain of peace and deliverance And if the affliction befalls such a man that hath not estranged himself from Almighty God nor departed from him in any greater offences or backslidings yet affliction is not without its end
thee it is thy Son that Son in whom thou didst proclaim thy self well pleased that Son whom thou hearest always it is he that begs of thee and begs of thee a dispensation from that which he most declines because he most loves thee the terrible unsupportable hiding thy face from me And this was not one single request but thrice repeated reiterated and that with more earnestness Mark 14.39 And again he went away and prayed and spake the same words Luke 22.44 And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly Certainly that impression upon his soul that caused him to deprecate that for which he was born to deprecate it so often so earnestly must needs be a sorrow and apprehension of a very terrible and exceeding extremity 4. Such was the weight of his sotrow and confusion of soul that it even exceeding the strength of his humane nature to bear it it was ready to dissolve the Union between his Body and Soul insomuch that to add farther strength unto him and capacity to undergo the measure of it an Angel from Heaven is sent not meerly to comfort but to strengthen him to add a farther degree of strength to his humane nature to bear the weight of that wrath which had in good earnest made his Soul sorrowful unto death had it not been strengthned by the ministration of an Angel Luk. 22.43 and this assistance of the Angel as it did not allay the sorrow of his Soul so neither did it intermit his importunity to be delivered from the thing he felt and feared but did only support and strengthen him to bear a greater burden of it And as the measure of his strength was increased so was the burden which he must undergo increased for aster this he prayed again more earnestly the third time Luk. 22.43 the supply of his strength was succeeded with an addition of sorrow and the increase of his sorrow was followed with the greater importunity He prayed more carnestly Heb. 5.7 With strong crying and tears Luk. 22. 44. And being in an agony be prayed more earnestly and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground This was his third address to his Father Matth. 26.44 and here was the highest pitch of our Saviour's passion in the Garden His Soul was in an agony in the greatest concussion consusion and extremity of sorrow fear anguish and astonishment that was possible to be inslicted by the mighty hand of God on the soul of Christ that could be consistent with the purity of the nature of our Saviour and the inseparable union that it had with the Divine nature Insomuch that the confusion and distraction of his soul under it and the strugling and grapling of his soul with it did make such an impression upon his body that the like was never before or since The season of the year was cold for so it appears Joh. 18.18 the Servants and Officers had made a fire of coals for it was cold and the season of the time was cold it was as near as we may guess about midnight when the Sun was at his greatest distance and obstructed in his influence by the interposition of the Earth for it appears they came with Lanthorns and Torches when they apprehended him Joh. 18.3 and he was brought to the high Priest's Hall a little before Cock-crowing after some time had been spent in his Examination Math. 26.69 And yet for all this such is the agony and perturbation of our Saviour's soul that in this cold season it puts his body in a sweat a sweat of blood great drops of blood drops of blood falling down to the ground and certainly it was no light conflict within that caused such a strange and un-heard of symptom without Certainly the storm in the soul of Christ must needs be very terrible that his blood the seat of his vital spirits could no longer abide the sense of it but started out in a sweat of blood and such a sweat that was more than consistent with the ordinary constitution of humane nature And during this time even from the eating of the Passover until this third address to his Father was over the suffering of our Saviour lay principally if not only in his soul Almighty God was wounding of his spirit and making his soul an offering for sin And though the distinct and clear manner of this bruising of our Saviour's soul cannot be apprehended by us yet surely thus much we may conclude concerning it 1. He was made sin for us that knew no sin 2 Cor. 5.21 he stood under the imputation of all our sins and though he were personally innocent yet judicially and by way of interpretation he was the greatest offender that ever was for the Lord laid upon him the iniquity of us all Isa 53.6.2 And consequently he was under the imputation of all the guilt of all those sins and stands in relation unto God the righteous Judge under the very same obligation to whatsoever punishment the very persons of the offenders were unto the uttermost of that consistency that it had with the unseparable union unto the Father and this obligation unto the punishment could not choose but work the same effects in our Saviour as it must do in the sinner desperation and sin excepted to wit a sad apprehension of the wrath of God against him The purity and justice of God which hath nothing that it hates but sin must pursue sin wherever it find it and as when it finds sin personally in a man the wrath of God will abide there so long as sin abides there so when it finds the same sin assumed by our Lord and bound as it were to him as the wood was to Isaac when he was laid upon the Altar the wrath of God could not chuse but be apprehended as incumbent upon him till that sin that by imputation lay upon him were discharged For as our Lord was pleased to be our Representative in bearing our sins and to stand in our stead so all these affections and motions of his soul did bear the same conformity as if acted by us As he put on the person of the sinner so he puts on the same sorrow the same shame the same fear the same trembling under the apprehension of the wrath of his Father that we must have done And so as an imputed sin drew with it the obligation unto punishment so it did by necessary consequence raise all those confusions and storms in the soul of Christ as it would have done in the person of the sinner sin only excepted 3. In this Garden as he stands under the sin and guilt of our nature so he stands under the curse of our nature to wit a necessity of death and of undergoing the wrath of God for that sin whose punishment he hath undertaken for us the former the dissolution of his body and soul by a most accursed death and the latter the suffering of his soul and
this latter he is now under God is pleased to inflict upon him all the manifestations of his wrath and to fling into his soul the sharpest and severest representations of his displeasure that might possibly befall him under that bare imputed guilt considering the dignity of his Person And surely this was more terrible to our Saviour than all his corporal sufferings were under all those not one word no perturbation at all but as a Sheep before his shearers is dumb so he opened not his mouth but the sense of the displeasure of his Father and the impressions that he makes upon his soul those he cannot bear without sorrow even unto death without most importunate addresses to be delivered from them and a most strange concussion and agony upon his soul and body under the sense of them And the actual manifestation of the wrath of God upon his Son consisted in these two things principally 1. Filling his soul with strange and violent fears and terrors insomuch that he was in an amazement and consternation of spirit the Passion-Psalm renders it Psal 22.14 My heart is like wax it is melted in the midst of my bowels the God of the spirits of all flesh that knows how to grind and bruise the spirit did bruise and melt his soul within him with terrors fears and sad pre-apprehensions of worse to follow 2. A sensible withdrawing by hasty and swift degrees the light of the presence and favour of God He is sorrowful and troubled and he goes to his Father to desire it may pass from him but no answer he goes again but yet no answer and yet under the pressure and extremity he goes again the third time with more earnestness agony a sweat of blood yet no it cannot be and this was a terrible condition that the light of the countenance of the Father is removed from his Son his only Son in whom he was well pleased his Son whom he heard always And when he comes to the Father under the greatest obligation that can be with the greatest reverence with the greatest importunity once and again and a third time and that filled within with fears and covered without with blood and yet no answer but all light and access and favour intercepted with nothing but blackness and silence Certainly this was a terrible Cup yet thus it was with our Saviour Christ The light of the favour of God like the Sun in an Eclipse from the very institution of the Sacrament began to be covered one degree after another and in the third address to the Father in the Garden it was even quite gone But at that great hour when our Saviour cryed My God my God why hast thou forsaken me then both lights that greater light of the favour of God to his only Son together with the light of the Sun seemed to be under a total recess or Eclipse and this was that which bruised the soul of our Saviour and made it an Offering for Sin and this was that which wrung drops of blood from our Saviour's body before the Thorns or the Whips or the Nails or the Spear had torn his veins And now after this third application for a deliverance from this terrible Cup of the wrath of God and yet no dispensation obtained he returns to his miserable comforters the three Disciples and he finds them the third time asleep These very three Disciples were once the witnesses of a glorious Transfiguration of our Saviour in the Mount and in an extasie of joy and fear they fell on their faces Matth. 17.6 and now they are to be witnesses of a sad Transfiguration of their Lord under an agony and sweat of blood and now under an extasie of sorrow they are not able to watch with their Lord one hour Our Saviour calls them but whiles they were scarce awakened they are rouzed by a louder alarm Matth. 26.47 whiles he yet spake Judas one of the twelve came and with him a great multitude with swords and staves from the high Priests Joh. 18.3 with lanthorns and torches And though this was little in comparison of the storm that was in our Saviour's soul yet such an appearance at such a time of the night and to a person under such a sad condition could not but be terrible to flesh and blood especially if we consider the circumstances that attended it 1. An Apostle one of the twelve he it is that conducts this black Guard Matth. 25.47 Whomsoever I shall kiss that same is he hold him fast one that had been witness of all his Miracles heard all his divine Sermons acquainted with all his retirements he whose feet his Master with love tenderness had washed who within a few hours before had supped with him at that Supper of of solemnity and love the Passover this is he that is in the head of this crew certainly this had in it an aggravation of sorrow to our Blessed Saviour to be betrayed by a Disciple 2. The manner of it he betrays him by a kiss an emblem of homage and love is made use of to be the signal of scorn and contempt as well as treachery and villany 3. Again the carriage of his Disciples full of rashness and yet of cowardize they strike a Servant of the high Priest and cut off his Ear Matth. 26.57 which had not the meekness and mercy of our Saviour prevented by a miraculous cure might have added a blemish to the sweetness and innocence of his suffering He rebukes the Rashness of his Disciple and cures the wound of his Enemy again of Cowardize Matth. 26.56 Then all the disciples forsook him and sled and Peter himself that but now had professed the resolution of his love to his Master follows but a far off Matth. 26.58 in the posture and profession of a stranger and a spectator So soon was the love and honour of a Master deserved by so much love and purity and miracles lost in the Souls of the very Disciples After this he is brought to the high Priests the solemn assembly of the then visible Church of the Jews in the persons of the greatest reverence and esteem among them the high Priests Scribes and Elders and before them accused and convicted of those crimes that might render him odious to the Jews Romans and all good men Blasphemy and by them pronounced worthy of death Matth. 26.66 and after this exposed to the basest usage of the basest of their retinue the Servants spit on him buffet him expose him to scorn saying Prophesie unto us thou Christ who is he that smote thee Matth. 26.67 injuries less tollerable than death to an ingenuous nature and to add to all the rest Peter instead of reproving the insolence of the abjects and bearing a part with his Master in his injuries thrice denying his Master and that with an oath and cursing So far was he from owning his Master in his adversity that he denied he knew him and this in the very presence of
our Saviour Luk. 22.61 and the Lord turned and looked upon Peter certainly that look of our Saviour as it carried a secret message of a gentle reprehension so also of much sorrow and grief in our Lord as if he should have said Ah Peter canst thou see thy Saviour thus used and wilt thou not own me Or if thou wilt not yet must thou needs deny me deny me thrice deny me with oathes and with execrations The unkindness of a Disciple and such a Disciple that hast been privy to my Glory in my Transfiguration and to my Agony in the Garden cuts me deeper than the scorns and derision of these abjects But that 's not all this apostacy of thine these denials these oathes these execrations will lye heavy upon me anon and add to that unsupportable burden that I am under the Thorns and the Whips and the Nails that I must anon suffer will be the more envenomed by these Sins of thine and thou castest more gall into that bitter Cup that I am drinking than all the malice of mine enemies could do In sum though thou goest out and weepest bitterly yet these Sins of thine would stick unto thy Soul unto eternity if I should not bear them for thee they cost thee some tears but they must cost me my blood The next morning the high Priests and Elders hold a second consultation as soon as it was day Luk. 22.66 their malice was so sollicitous that they prevent the morning Sun and after they had again examined him and in that Council charged him with Blasphemy the Council and the whole multitude lead him bound to Pilate and there they accuse him and to make their accusation the more gracious charge him with Sedition against the Romans and though he had no other advocate but silence and innocence for he answered them nothing yet the Judge acquits him Luk. 23.23 I find no fault in him and yet to shift his hands of the employment and to gratifie an adversary he sends him to Herod and his accusers follow him thither also Luk. 23.10 the chief Priests and Scribes vehemently accuse him Herod when he had satisfied his curiosity in the sight of Jesus to add to the scorn of our Saviour exposeth him to the derision of his rude Souldiers and cloathes him in a gorgeous Robe and remands him to Pilate Thus in triumph and scorn he is sent from place to place first to Annas then to Caiphas then convented before the Council of the Priests then sent into the high Priest's Hall then re-convened before the Council then sent bound to Pilate and from thence to Herod and from him back again to Pilate and in all those translations from place to place exposed unto and entertained with new scorns and derisions and contempts At his return to Pilate he again the second time declares his Innocence that neither he nor Herod found any thing worthy of death Luk. 23.15 and yet to gratifie the Jews he offers to have him scourged whom he pronounceth innocent yet to avoid the gross injustice of a sentence of death offers to release him to observe their custom but this could not not satisfie To preserve their custom and yet to fulfil their malice they choose the reprieve of Barabbas a murderer and importune the crucifying of the innocent Jesus and now the third time Pilate pronounceth him innocent Luk. 23.22 and yet delivers him over to be crucified The Executioners did it to the uttermost and and to add pain and scorn to his scourging put upon him a Crown of thorns and in this disguise of blood and contempt he brings him forth shews him to his prosecutors Joh. 19.5 Behold the man as if he should have said You Jews that that have accused this man must know I find no fault in him yet to satisfie your importunity I have delivered him over to the severest and vilest punishment next unto death Scourging and Scorn here he is see what a spectacle it is let this satisfie your Envy But all this will not serve there is nothing below the vilest of deaths can satisfie all cry out Crucifie him and when yet the Judge professeth he finds nothing worthy of death they impose a Law of their own We have a law and by our law he ought to dye because he made himself the Son of God But when this rather made the Judge the more cautious they engage him upon his fidelity to Casar his Master He that maketh himself a King speaketh against Casar But all this was not enough but at length the importunity of the Priests and people prevailed and Pilate who had been before warned by the monition of his Wife and had these several times pronounced him innocent yet against the conviction of his own Conscience to satisfie and content the Jews adds this farther cruelty and unjustice to what he had before done gave sentence that it should be as they required Luk. 23.24 delivered him over to that cursed and servile death of Crucifixion and yet his persecutors malice and envy not satisfied but after his judgment pursue the execution of it with as great malice scorn and cruelty as they had before used in obtaining it His Crown of thorns upon his head a purple Robe upon his body the Blood of his scourging and thorns all covering his visage a Reed in his right hand and the base and insolent multitude with spittings and strokes and reproaches abusing him till his Cross be ready and then the purple Robe is taken off and he conducted to the place of his Execution and to add torment to his shame our Blessed Lord wearied with an agony and long watching the night before and from the time of his apprehending hurried from place to place and his blood and spirits spent with the scourging and thorns and blows and which is more than all this a soul within laden with a weight of sorrow and the burden of the wrath of God which did drink up and consume his spirits yet in this condition he is fain to bear his burdensom Cross towards the place of his Execution Joh. 19.17 till he was able to carry it no longer but even fainted under it and then Simon of Cyrene is compelled to bear it to the place When he comes to the place of Execution he is stript stark naked and his clothes afterwards divided by lot among the Souldiers Matth. 27.35 and his naked body stretched upon the Cross to the uttermost extension of it Psal 22.17 I may tell all my bones they look and stare upon me and at the uttermost extension which the cruel Executioners could make of our Saviour's body his hands and his feet nailed to that Cross with great Nails through those tender parts full of nerves and arteries and most exquisitely sensible of pain And in this condition the Cross with our Saviour's body is raised up in the view of all and that even in this his execution that the shame and ignominy of the manner
the former Rom. 5.1 Being justifica by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ the only cause of breach between God and his creature is sin and this being quite removed the enmity between God and his creature is removed and peace and love restored between them 3. Free Access unto God for we are restored unto peace with him and consequently access unto him and indeed it is a part of that duty which he expects from us our access to him is not only our priviledge as the access of a Subject to his Prince or a child to his father but it is our duty as a thing enjoyned unto us in testimony of our dependence and love unto him 4. Consequently Peace with our selves and our own Conscience and that upon a double ground 1. Because our Conscience is sprinkled by the blood of Christ which defaceth and oblitereth all those black Items that otherwise would be continually calling upon us 2. Because Conscience ever sideth with God whose vicegerent she is in the Soul and hath the very same aspect for the most part that heaven hath and therefore if it be clear above it is ordinarily quiet within and if God speaks peace the Conscience unless distempered doth not speak trouble 5. An Assurance of a continual supply of sufficient Grace to lead us through this vale of trouble without a final apostacy or falling from him Were our Salvation in our own hands or managed by our own strength we should utterly lose it every moment but the Power and Truth and Love of God is engaged in a Covenant of the highest solemnity that ever was sealed in the blood of the Son of God for our preservation and it shall be as impossible for us to fall from that condition as for the Almighty God to be disappointed No his counsel and truth the constant supply of the blessed Spirit of Christ shall keep alive that seed of life that he hath thrown into the soul 1 Joh. 3.9 For his seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God 6. Sufficient Grace to preserve us from or support us in or deliver us out of temptations We stand more in need of Grace than we do of our bread because the consequence of the want of the former is of more danger than the latter by so much as the Soul is more valuable than the Body If our Father is pleased to furnish us with our daily bread how shall he then deny us our daily and hourly supplies of his Grace Especially since our interest therein is founded upon the covenant made in the blood of Christ 2 Cor. 12.9 My grace is sufficient for thee 7. A favourable Acceptation of our duties since they are the performances of children and therefore not measured according to their own worth but according to the relation and affection from whence they proceed 8. A Gentle and Merciful Pardoning of our Failings even as a Father pitieth and pardoneth the infirmities of a Child and though he doth not dispense with Presumptuous Offences yet he either observes not or forgives their many Infirmities And it is a Priviledge of high concernment to us that as in our first conversion the blood of Christ washeth away a whole life of sins at once so after our conversion the same fountain stands open whereunto we may and must resort to cleanse our daily Failings Christ received by faith in the heart is a continual Sacrifice which I may present unto the Father for my sins committed after my conversion 9. A comfortable Restitution of a just Interest in the creatures When man forsook the Allegiance he owed to his Maker the interest he had in the creature did as it were escheat to the Lord and though his goodness after permitted him the use of them yet it was still as it were upon account And as the sons of men have a great Account to give unto God for their sins so they have for his creatures Christ hath restored unto us a better propriety in that which Civil right hath made ours than what we had before 10. A Comfortable and Sanctified Use of all Conditions in Prosperity Moderation in Adversity Contentedness in all Sobriety For as our Lord hath purchased for us Grace to use all things aright so he hath obtained for us an inheritance that renders the best the world can give us unworthy to be valued and the worst it can give us unworthy to be feared in respect of the blessedness which he hath setled upon us 11. Consequently Contempt of the World because higher matters are in my eye such as the best the world can yield cannot equal nor the worst it can inflict cannot take away And all this upon 12. A Lively Hope a hope that maketh not ashamed even of that Glory which my Saviour came down from heaven to purchase by his blood and the assurance whereof he hath sealed with his blood Joh. 14.2 3. I go to prepare a place for you and if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you unto my self that where I am ye may be also A hope of a blessed Resurrection after death a hope of that blessed appearance of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ a hope of that glorious sentence in the presence of Men and Angels Come ye blessed and an hope of an Everlasting estate of Blessedness and Glory in the presence of the great God and the glorified Saints and Angels unto all Eternity And the efficacy of this hope dipt in the blood of Christ brings us Victory 1. Victory over Sin Sin shall not have dominion over you for ye are not under the Law but under Grace Rom. 6.14 He that hath this hope purifieth himself even as he is pure 1 Joh. 3.3 2. Victory over the World in the best it can afford us its flatteries and favours these are too small and inconsiderable when compared with this hope they shine like a Candle in the Sun and are ineffectual to win over a Soul that is fixed upon this hope and victory over the worst the world can inflict Our Lord hath conquered the world in this respect for us Be not afraid I have overcome the world Joh. 16. 33. and conquered it in us This is the victory that overcometh the world even your Faith 1 Joh. 5.4 3. Victory over Death which now by means of this blessed hope is stript as well of her terror as of her power Thus thanks be unto God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 15.57 And now though the nature of this argument hath carried my meditations to a great height yet to avoid mistakes some things I must subjoyn 1. That when I thus aggravate the sufferings of our Lord under the imputed guilt of the sins of mankind yet we must not think that his sufferings were the same with the Damned as not in duration so neither in kind nor in degree
attends the commendation of such a man's wit and learning indeed he is a pretty man a good Scholar of fine parts good understanding but he knows it too well his proud self-conceitedness vain-glory spoils it all and renders the man under the just repute of a fool and ridiculous notwithstanding all his Clerkship and Learning But yet farther Pride by a kind of physical and natural consequence very oftentimes robs men even of their Wit and Learning wherein they pride themselves by carrying up into the brain those exhaled hot cholerick humors and fumes that break the staple and right temper and texture of the brain More learned men grow mad and brain-sick with the pride of that learning they think they have attained than in the pursuit and acquest of it Therefore beware of Pride of thy Wit Learning or Knowledge if thou intend to keep it or to keep thy just esteem or reputation of it On the other side Humility and Lowliness of mind is the best temper to improve thy faculties to add a grace to thy Learning and to keep thee Master of it it cools and qualifies thy spirits and blood and humors and renders thee fit to retain what thou hast attained and to acquire more 4. In all thy reflexion upon thy self and what thou hast never Compare thy self with those that are below thee in what is worthy or eminent but with those that are above thy self For instance in point of Learning or Knowledge thy partiality and indulgence to thy self will be apt to put thee upon comparing thy self with those that are ignorant or not more learned than thy self as we see ordinarily idiots or fools or men of weak intellectuals delight to converse with those they find or think more foolish than themselves with a thought that they are the wisest in the company but compare thy self with those that are more learned or wise than thy self and thou wilt see matter to keep thee humble If thou thinkest thou art a pretty proficient in Philosophy compare thy self with Aristotle with Plato with Themistius or Alexander Aphrodisaeus or other great Luminaries in Philosophy if thou thinkest thou art a pretty proficient in School-Learning compare thy self with Aquinas Scotus Suarez if thou think thou excellest in the Mathematicks compare thy self with Euclide Archimedes Tycho c. and then thou wilt find thy self to be like a little Candle to a Star The most of the Learning that this Age glories of is but an Extract or Collection of what we find in those men of greater parts only we think we have done great matters if we digest it into some other method and prick in here and there a small pittance of our own or quarrel at something that the Ancients delivered in some odd particulars And yet even in this very essay Self-love playes such a part that unless there be a great excess and admirable advantage of others that are above as in any learning or knowledge we are ready to exalt our selves above our standard and seem in our own eyes to be at least equal to those that exceed us or by envy and detraction to bring down others below our selves especially if we hit upon some little caprichio that we think they said not 5. And lastly consider the great Example of our Lord and Master Christ Jesus who was the only Son of the glorious God full of Wisdom Knowledge Power Holiness Goodness and Truth and notwithstanding all this humbled himself and became of no reputation and took upon him the form of a Servant emptied himself and humbled himself and became obedient to death even the death of the Cross Philipp 2.5 6 7 8. Christ Jesus brought with him from heaven the Doctrine of Holiness and Righteousness ness and in all his Sermons there is not any one Virtue that he commendeth and commandeth more than Humility and Lowliness of Mind nor any one Vice that he sets himself more against than Pride and Haughtiness of Mind In his Beatitudes Matth. 5.35 Poverty of Spirit hath the first promise and Meekness and Humility the third Matth. 23.6 7. He checks and disparageth the Pride of the Pharises commands his Disciples to run quite counter to their method He that will be great among you shall be your servant Again Matth. 18.1 Luk. 9 Mar. 9 34. when the bubble of Ambition arose among the Disciples who should be greatest he checks their Pride with the pattern and commendation of a little Child And what he thus taught he lived One of the great Ends of the mission of Christ into the world was that he should not only be a Preacher of Virtue Goodness and Piety but also an Example of it And if we look through the whole life of Christ there is not one virtue that he did more signally exercise or by his example more expresly commend to the imitation of Christians than Humility I do not remember that he saith in any place Learn of me to do Miracles for I am mighty in power no nor yet Learn of me for I am Holy for I am Obedient to the Law of God for I am Liberal though in all these he was exhibited as an excellent Example of Holiness Obedience and Charity and must be the pattern of our imitation But as if Humility and Lowliness of Mind were the great Master-piece of his Example he calls out even when he was in one of the highest Extasies of spirit that we find until his Passion Matth. 11. 25 29. Learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall find rest unto your souls And in that signal advice given by the Apostle Phil. 5 Let the same mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus 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 man and being found in the fashion of a man he humbled himself and became obedient to death even the death of the cross But Blessed Saviour was there nothing else for us to learn of thee but thy Meekness and Humility was there not something else wherein we were to bear in Mind thy Image and write after thy Excellent Copy was there not thy Holiness Purity Obedience Patience Trust in God and all that Constellation of Virtues that appeared in thy Doctrine and Life Surely yes he was exhibited both as a Prophet to Teach and an Example to be Imitated in all these also but in his Humility if we may say with reverence before all 1. Because the instance and example of his Humility was the most signal and wonderful of all the rest of his admirable virtues that the Eternal Son of the Eternal God should condescend so low as to become a man born of a woman and live upon earth such a despised life and dye such an accursed death is an instance of Humility not only beyond all example but an