The XLIID ENTERTAINMENT.

Christ the Pattern of suffering Chriftians.

I have a Baptifm to be baptized with, and how am I freighten'd, till it be accomplish'd. Luke xii. 50.

Hrift calls his Paffion a Baptism, or Washing; to reprefent the large Effufion of Blood, which the Work of our Redemption was to coft him : Which however was fo far from cafting any Damp or Terror upon him, that he complain❜d his Heart was freighten'd; that is, violently prefs'd with the vehement Defire he had to have it accomplish'd. Here we see the Virtue of Patience and Love of Suffering, carried to its highest Degree of Perfection, in the Person of Jefus Chrift, whom all Christians are bound to make their Pattern. The Subject then of this Entertainment fhall be, to fhew the earnest Defire our Saviour had to fuffer for us, and how we ought to imitate him in it.

It is an undoubted Maxim in Divinity, that every Action of Chrift was of infinite Value, and confequently fufficient to atone P 2

for

for all the Sins of the World. Hence therefore we may justly conclude, that whatever Torments he was pleafed to endure in the Time of his Paffion, must be attributed to the Defire he had to fuffer for us, as being over and above the full Price of our Ranfom. His whole Life indeed was a continual Series of Sufferings, and not one of all these happen'd to him, but by his own. free Choice. His Infancy was fpent in Banishment, and the reft of his Years pass'd either in Obfcurity, or the Hardships of a poor Tradefman's Life, or in the more laborious Functions of his Miffion, and Perfecutions of his Enemies; fo that whatever Part of his Life we confider, the Prophet's Character, that he was a Man of Sorrow, was fully made out.

However, tho' every Part of his Life had its full Portion of Sufferings, the largest Share was referved for the last Part of it; to which the other were but as light Skirmishes, if compared with the Bloody Combat on Mount Calvary; which, as it was the End for which he came into the World, fo the moft confiderable Events of his Life feem'd all to have a Tendency to it; as the Poverty of his Parents, the Lowness of his Condition, his Retirement in Egypt, and the Obfcurity of his Education at Nazareth; all which feem'd as intended

tended to extinguish the Memory of the Wonders that had happen'd at his Birth, which might otherwife have drawn the Eyes of Men upon him, and frustrated the main Design of confummating the work of Man's Redemption by the Ignominy of the Crofs.

'Tis true, the Luftre of his Preaching and Miracles after his manifefting himself to the World, feem'd fufficient to keep him out of the Reach of fo cruel and fhameful a Death: But they had their Allay appointed to obfcure them. His Doctrine was wonderful indeed, and his Miracles furprising; but his Condition was poor, his Converfation plain and fimple, and his Perfon without any worldly Character or Ornament to distinguish it; and all these ferved as a Counterpoife to the Power of his Words and Works: His Followers also, tho' numerous, being moftly of the meaner Sort, contributed rather to leffen him, than gain him Credit or Authority: Nay, his very Preaching and Miracles, which in all likelihood fhould have got him most Friends, and greatest Reputation, were by the Malice of the Scribes and Pharifees, turn'd against him, and permitted by God to be the principal Occafion of his Death.

Now, who can after all this, doubt but that Suffering and Dying for us on the Cross, was what he earnestly thirsted after; fince it was the End, to which he directed the moft confiderable Events and Circumtances of his Life; difpofing Things fo by his infinite Wisdom, that not only the most remote and unconnected Accidents in Appearance, fhould have a Tendency to it, but that even thofe Things which of themselves feem'd moft proper to hinder it, fhould most immediately contribute to it.

For

However, there are fome particular Paffages of our Saviour's Life fet down by the Evangelifts, which fo clearly discover the earnest Defire he had to drink the bitter Cup of his Paffion, that I cannot omit a fhort Recital of them. The firft that offers itself, is the preffing Hafte he always thew'd in Relation to his Death: when the Time of it was now drawing near, he acquainted his Apoftles with his Refolution of going up to Jerufalem, knowing that was the Theatre, on which this bloody Tragedy was to be acted; and that they might be affured he went to meet his Death, and that nothing fhould happen to him without his Forefight and Permiffion, he gave them a large Account of all the moft confiderable Circumstances of the Death

Death he was to fuffer; and 'tis expressly obferved by two of the Evangelifts, that our Saviour having ended his Difcourfe, began to walk before his Apoftles.

Now, humanly fpeaking, one would have thought this Circumftance too trivial to deferve the particular Notice of two of the four Evangelifts. For what should it import us to know whether Chrift walk'd before or behind, or in the Midst of the Apostles? And yet their infifting so nicely upon a Circumstance, which in itself appears to be of no Confequence, fhews plainly, that fome important Inftruction is couch'd under it; and I find that spiritual Authors in their Reflections upon this Paffage, generally obferve, that the Hafte and Eagerness our Saviour fhew'd in this Occafion was altogether an Effect of the preffing Defire he had to accomplish the work of Man's Redemption: Nay, 'tis observable, that the nearer he approach'd to the Time of his Paffion, the more this preffing Hafte, and Eagernefs feem'd to increase upon him.

For being now at his laft Supper, fome few Hours before his entering into the Garden of Gethfemini, he feem'd to be under a certain holy Impatience to have the Hour of his Paffion come on; as appears plainly in these his Words to Judas; what thou defigneft

P 4