SERM. and represent; plain predictions alfo did express the same XXVII. death and fuffering of our Lord: Those things, faith St. Acts iii. 18. Peter, which God before had fhewed by the mouth of all Igoxarny his prophets, that Chrift fhould fuffer, he hath fo fulfilled;

γειλε.

not one prophet only, not fome few; but all, faith he, (that is, either plainly or covertly, either directly or by confequence,) have forefhewed (or foretold) it: it is our negligence, or stupidity, if we do not discern it in them; as our Lord intimated, when he thus fpake to his disciLuke xxiv. ples: O fools, and flow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! ought not Chrift (ought he not, according to their prefignifications and predictions) to have Suffered these things, and so to enter into his glory? That David, an illustrious representative of the Meffias, doth often defcribe as belonging to himself, mortal agonies and Pfal. xxii. fufferings, not well applicable xarà xéğı, or in direct histo

25, 26.

xviii. 31.

Acts xiii.

27. xxvi.

22.

109, &c.

rical meaning, to his own person, and therefore in reason, according to a more high and perfect fenfe, to be underftood of the Meffias himself; that Daniel plainly foretelleth, that in a certain time the Meffias should be cut off; that Isaiah doth in feveral places infinuate, and in the famous 53d chapter of his prophecy doth clearly describe, the manner and kind of our Saviour's paffion, is fo evident, that even those of the Jewish doctors, who have been most earnest opposers of our Lord, have been forced to acknowledge, that there is to be as well one Meffias to fuffer, as another to profper, and reign in glory; being fo grofs as not to apprehend, or so perverse as not to acknowledge, the confiftency between antecedent fuffering Luke xxii. and confequent glory; between a night of darkness and forrow, and a day of light and joy breaking out from it; not being able or willing to distinguish between an external pomp in this world, and an external majefty in the future ftate. But unto us God's fo forward care, by the Spirit of Chrift in his prophets, @poμaptúpeσdai, to fore-wit1 Pet. i. 11. nefs (as St. Peter speaketh, or to testify before hand) the Sufferings of our Saviour, and the glories fucceeding, doth imply, with what diligence of attention we should regard, with what firmness of faith we should embrace, with what

53.

fatisfaction of heart we fhould entertain this great and SERM. admirable difpenfation. XXVII.

4.

4. We may confider, that this death was compaffed by God's especial providence directing and difpofing it, although not without the active concurrence of men: the treacherous difpofition and covetous appetite of Judas; the envious humour and blind zeal of the fcribes and priefts; the wanton ficklenefs and wild rudeness of the people; the fearful and selfish temper of the governor, were but inftruments, whereby God's own hand did inflict Acts iv. 28. this fore chastisement upon his Son for us: it was the Ifa. liii. 6, Lord that laid upon him the iniquities of us all; by God1• he was ftricken, fmitten, and afflicted; Pilate, it is faid, had no power to do what he did, but what was given him John xix. from above; the Jews with their rulers proceeded rafhly 1 Cor. ii. 8. and ignorantly; otherwise, as St. Paul affirmeth, they Acts iii. 17. would not have crucified the Lord of glory; but God advisedly, as St. Peter told them, did accomplish it; He did 32. not fpare his own Son, but delivered him up for us: he, as it were, fufpended his bowels of pity toward him, he withdrew his face of kindness from him, out of compaffion and benignity toward us; he used him feverely, that he might deal favourably with us.

11.

xiii. 27.

Rom. viii.

Yet did man actively concur therein; all mankind in a fort, by its reprefentatives, was involved, as principally in the guilt for which, so in the guilt by which he suffered; there was a general conspiracy of Jew and Gentile practifed against the life of their common Saviour. Of a truth, A&ts iv. 27. faith St. Peter, against thy holy child Jefus, whom thou haft anointed, were gathered together both Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and with the people of Ifrael: in the Jews the horrid ingratitude of men, in the Gentiles their wretched infirmity did appear; the which, by their active efficacy toward our Lord's death, did fignify the meritorious influence they also had upon it; that it was our iniquity and corruption which did cause it: fo as a work of divine Providence, (the most admirable work ever accomplished by Providence,) as an act of human pravity, (the

SERM. moft heinous act ever committed by men,) is the death of XXVII. our Lord confiderable.

15. lxxii.

14.

2 Cor. v. 21.

Ifa. liii. 9.

26, 27.

5. But more immediately the quality and condition of our Saviour's perfon do most commend to us, and advance Pfal. cxvi. the worth of his death: if, as the Pfalmift faith, precious in the fight of the Lord is the death of his faints; if the 1 Pet. i. 19. fpotlefs candour and unblemished integrity of a lamb do 1 Pet. ii. 22. make its blood precious, and qualify it for an acceptable 1 John iii. 5. facrifice; how valuable to God fhall be the death of a Heb. vii. perfon fo perfectly holy and innocent; who did not so much as know fin; in whofe mouth no guile was ever found; who was holy, harmless, undefiled, removed (at infinite distance removed) from finners; who needed not to offer facrifices for his own fins; whofe death therefore for others was apt to be more available and acceptable! Again, if the life of a king be (as king David's people 2 Sam.xviii. told him) worth ten thousand lives; if it be a moft enor3. xxi. 17. mous crime and highest treafon to imagine his death; how valuable must be the death of a perfon fo incompaActs iii. 15. rably transcendent in dignity, of the Lord of glory, of the Prince of life! Ye denied the holy and the juft One; ye flew 1 Cor. ii. 8. the Prince of life: They crucified the Lord of glory: fo the Apostles do aggravate the bufinefs. But a farther height, a perfect immensity indeed, of worth and efficacy, must needs accrue to the death of our Saviour, from his being the Son of God; from his being God, (one and the same in nature with his almighty and all-glorious 1 John i. 7. Father:) for it is the blood of Chrift, the Son of God, which Rev. i. 5, 6. purgeth us from all fin; yea, God himself did, as St. Tit. ii. 14. Paul faith in the Acts, purchase the Church with his own blood; it is the great God, and our Saviour Jefus Chrift, who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all 1 John iii. iniquity: and, Hereby, faith St. John, perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us. That the immortal God fhould die, that the Moft High should be debased to so low a condition, as it cannot be heard without wonder, so it could not be undertaken without huge reason, nor accomplished without mighty effect: well in

Acts xx. 28..

16.

deed might fuch a condefcenfion ferve to advance us from SERM. the basest state to any pitch of honour and happinefs; XXVII. well might one drop of that royal blood of heaven fuffice to purchase many worlds, to ranfom innumerable lives of men, to expiate an infinity of fins, however grievous and foul. But fo much for the peculiar adjuncts and refpects of our Lord's death.

3. Let us now confider the caufes and principles whence it proceeded; which moved God to determine it, and our Lord to undertake it; they were in both acts most voluntary and free: of the Father it is faid, It pleased Ifa. liii. 10. the Lord to bruife him; and, Behold, faith our Lord in Heb. x. 7. the Pfalm, I come to do thy will, O God; that is, as the Apostle to the Hebrews expoundeth it, to offer, not the blood of beafts in facrifice, but my own body, according

Pf. xl. 7, 9.

11.

28.

&c.

to thy will and appointment: and, This commandment, John x. 18. faith he in St. John, I received of my Father, to lay down my life: and, The cup, faith he again, which my Father John xviii. hath given me, fhall I not drink it? fo on the Father's part, and on our Saviour's likewife, it was no lefs voluntary; for, None, faith he, taketh my life from me, (that John x. 18. is, it is not from any neceffity or compulfion that I do part with it,) but I lay it down of myself, (with abfolute choice and freedom;) I have power to lay it down, and I John vi. 51. have power to refume it: and, The bread, faith he, which I Matt. xxi. fhall give, is my flesh, which I shall give for the life of the Gal. ii. 20, world: The Son of man came to give his life a ranfom for Tit. ii. 14. many. The yielding his flesh to death, the paying his life a ransom, were deeds of gift, perfectly free: and that both in regard to God the Father and the Son this performance was voluntary, St. Paul together thus expreffeth; Who gave himself for our fins, that he might deliver Gal. i. 4. us from this prefent evil world, according to the will of God and our Father: fo this death iffued from the joint wills of God and his Son. But as the volitions of every intelligent and wife agent do always proceed from fome principle inclining, or are directed according to fome impulfive cause moving to them, fo divers principles and causes of these voluntary acts are declared in Scripture ;

SERM. the chief of which are reducible to these two; one interXXVII. nally difpofing God's goodness; the other externally in

Ανα

ἐλέους.

Luke i. 78.

viting man's distress. The case stood thus: mankind lying in a fad and forlorn eftate, oppreffed by Satan, enflaved to fin, fubject to a rigorous law, exposed to the severity of justice, tormented by the fenfe of guilt, fearful of divine wrath and due vengeance; in fhort, by the fentence of heaven and by the fuffrage of confcience within, condemned to punishment unavoidable, and to intolerable mifery; man, I fay, lying in fo defperately uncomfortable a condition, God's infinite goodness regarded his poor Aià ray- creature, his bowels of compaffion yearned toward him, a defire of relieving sprang up in his will; thence was he' moved to provide such a remedy, suitable and sufficient for his delivery; for the removing all thofe mifchiefs and curing all thofe diftempers: the main fource of all this wonderful performance, (as of all other providential dispenfations and works, ad extra,) was that most excellent perfection of God, which, in regard to this matter, is Tit. iii. 4. fometime termed xensórns, benignity, or bounty; implying Rom. ii. 4. the great benefit and advantage we do thence receive; Eph. ii. 7. Heb. ii. 9. fometimes grace, or favour, fignifying the pure freeness in difpenfing it, without any defign of profit to himself, or any defert on our part, (By the grace of God he tafted Eph. ii. 8, death for every man;) sometimes mercy, denoting our bad deferts, or obnoxiousness to justice and punishment; fomeLuke i. 78. times pity, fignifying the great need we had thereof, by reason of our extreme distress and mifery. Commonly also it is, by the most obliging and endearing name styled love, and philanthropy, intimating the earnest regard and benevolence God had to us as his creatures, and as ca1 Tim. ii. 6. pable of being benefited and bettered by him; Herein, Tit. iii. 4. faith St. Paul, God commended his love toward us, in that Eph. ii. 4. we being yet finners, Chrift died for us; and, God, faith St. John, loved us, and fent his Son to be a propitiation for John iii. 16, us; and, God, faith our Lord himfelf, fo loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son-that the world might be faved by him.

Rom. iii.

24.

2 Cor. viii.

9.

5. i. 7.

Tit. iii. 5.

Eph. ii. 4.

Heb. ii. 17.

Rom. v. 8.

1 John iv. 9, 10.

17.

By the way it is worth obferving, that there is diftin