6 58 Book IV. Part+ Looking Unt(} :jej111, Chap.3.Sed.6 _. ____ . no more to do, but firft to £hew Chrifis love to us, and then·to exercife our love to him againe. ,- I. For his Jove to us; had not God faid it, and the Scriptures recorded it~ who would have bdeeved our reports ? yet Chrift , hath done ic,and it is worth our while co weigh it, and conuder it in an holy meditation.--· Jndeed with what leffe than rav!fhment offpirit can I behold the Lord Jefus, who from everJailing was cloatbed with glory and Majefty, now wrapped in rags, cradled in a manger, expofed to hunger, thirft, wearineffe, danger contempt, poverty, revilings, fcourgings, perfecution? but to let them paffe: intowhat extalies may I be caft to fee the Judge of all the world accufed, judged, condemned ? to fee the Lord of life dying upon the tree of ilia me and curfe ? to fee the eternal Son ofGod firog!ing with his Fathers wrath? to fee him who had faid, land my Father are one, fweating drops of blood in hisagohy, and> crying out on hiscroffe, my God, my God~ why, baH: rhou forfak!n me? Oh whither hath his love to manki~<de .carryed him_? had he only fent his creatures to ferve us, had_he only fent his Prophets to adTife us in the·way to heaverr, had he only fent his Angels from his chamber orprefence to attend upon us and to minifter- to us, it had been a great deale ofmercy; or if it mufi be- fo, had Chrifi come down from heaven himfelfe, but only to vilit us, or had he come only and wept over uf, faying. Oh that yoPS had known, evenyou in this your day the things belonging to Jour peace ! Oh that you h>td mort cmfidered of my goodnef{e ! Oh thaty ou had never finned! this would have been fi1ch a mercy a~ that all the world.would have wondred at it: but that Chrift himfelfe fuould come, and Jay down his blood, and 14fe, and all for his people, and yet I am not at· the loweft, that he fllould not onfy part with life, but part with the fenfe, and fweetneffe 'of Gods love,. which is a thoufand times better than life, thy loving kindnr.f{e u brtter than life; tnat he (~hou!d b~ content ro be accurfed, that we might be l:>lefied; that he fhould be content to be forfaken, that we might not be forfaken; that h~ iliould be content to be condemned that we might be acquitted; Oh what raptures of fpirit can be fufficient for the admiration -of this fo infinite mercy ? be thou fwallowed up 0 my foul in this depth of divine love. and hate to fpend thy thoughts any more upon the bafe objects of this wretched world, --; when
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