j'Lcolimg unto jjefu.S'. Book IV. 397 SECT. VI. Ofloving JefU< in that refpeFf. 6. LEt us /O'Ue Jef"' as carrying on t~Je great work of our falvation for us during his fufferings and death.. What dtd be fuffer ~nd dye? Greater love than thu hath Rom, s. g; no man, that a man jhould gwe hu life for hu fnends ; --but God commendeth hi< · love towards M, in that while. we were yet finners, Chrift dyed for m. Why here's an argument of love indeed, how n,ould we but lave him, who bath thus loved us? in profecution of this I have no more to do, but firft to !hew Chrifi's love to us, and then to exercife our love to him again. r. For his love to us; had not God faid it, and the Scriptures recorded it, who would have believed our reports? yet Chrifi bath done it, and ir is worth our while to weigh it, and confider it .in an holy meditation.--Indeed with what lefs than ra– vi!hment of fpirit can I behold the Lord Jefus, who from ever!aCting was cloathed'with Glory andMajefly, now wrapped in rags, cradled in a manger, expofed to hunger, rhirft, w~arinefs, danger, contempt, poverty, revilings, fcourgings, perfecution? but to let them pafs: into what extafies maylbe cafttofee theJudgeof all theworld ac~ufed, judged,condemned? to fee the Lord of life dying upon the tree of fuame and cude? tofeetheeternJlSon of Godftruglingwith his Fathers wrath? to fee him who had faid, 1 and my Fathe-t are one, fweating drops of blood in his agony, and crying oat on his crofs, My God, my God, why haft thou forfak.§n me ? Oh whither bath his love to mankind carried him? ·had he only fem his creatures to ferve us, had he only fem his Prophets to advife us in the way to Heaven, had he only fent his Angels frorn his chamber of prefence to attend upon us and to minifier to us, it had been a great deal of mercy ; or if it mull: be fo, had Chri(\ come down from Heaven himfelf, but only to' vifit us, or had he come only and wept over us, faying, Oh that you had l:ztown, even you in thu your day the things belonging to your peace! Oh that you had more conjidered of my goodnefs! Oh that you,had never finned! this would have been fuch a mercy as that all 'the world would have wondred at it : but that Chrift himfelf fuould come, and Jay down qi; blood, and life, and all for his people; and yet I am not at the lowell:, that he fuould not only part with life, but part with the fenfe, -and fweetnefsof God's love, which is a thoufan<i tithes better than life, Thy loving kjndnefs u better than life; that he fuould be content to be accurfed, that we might be Pfal. 63. 3• bleffed ; that he fl10uld be content to be forfaken , that we might not be forfaken. that he fuould be content to be condemned that we might be acquitted; 0 what rap~ tures of fpirit can be fufficient for the admiration -?f this fo infinite mercy ? be thou [wallowed up 0 my foul in this depth of Divine love; and hate to fpend thy thoughts any m9re 4poo the bafe objecrs of this wretched world, when thou haft fuch a Saviour to take them up.~.--Come look.. on thy 1efm, who dyed temporally , that thou mightefl live eternally: who out of his fingular cendernefs would not futfer thee to burn in hell, for ten, twenty, thirty, fonhy, an hundred years, and then (<COver thee, by which notwithfianding he might better and deeper have imprinted in· thee the bleffed memory of a dear Redeemer. no, no this was the Article betwixt himandhisFather, That thou Jhouldftnever c:methere;' fee but, obferve but Chrift's ]ove tn that mutual agreement betwil<:t God and Chrifl, Oh I am prejfed (faith. God) wuh the fins of the world tU a c.trt u preJ!ed that u ftt/1 of {heaves, come my Son, either ,thou muft f•ffer, or I m11ft damn the l>orld: Accordingly I may imagine the Attributes of God to fpeak to God, Mercy cryes, 1am abufed; and Patience cryes, I am defpifed; and Goodnefs cryes, 1 am wronged; and Ho/inefs cryes, 1 am contradified; and all thefe come to the Father for juftice, crying to hirn, that all the world were oppofers of ~u G~.a• andSpirit, and if any be Javed Chrijl muft be p~enijhed. In this cafe we mull: unagtne Chrtfl flepped in, Nay rather than Jo (faith Cbrift) I l>illbear all, and undertak.§ the fatHfying of a//. And now look upon him! he hangs on ,the Crofs all naked, all torn, all bloody; betwixt Heaven and Earth, as if he were earl: out of Heaven.' and alfo rejeered bj< Earth; be bath aCrown indeed, but fuch a one as few men w!H tou~h, none wtll take from him, and if any rafl1 man will have it. he mufi tear hatr, skm, a.nd ail, or it will not come; his hair is all clodded with blood , his face all douded With black and•blew, he is all over fo pitifully rem, outwards, inwards, Rr2 body
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