SERM. cence; he was to feek his food from a fig tree on the way; and fometimes was beholden for it to the courtesy of XXXVI. Publicans; uäs inτúxevσe, he was, faith St. Paul, a 2 Cor. viii. beggar for us. 9. Matt.iv.23. Phil. ii. 7. Nature delighteth in ease, in quiet, in liberty: therefore did he spend his days in continual labour, in restless travel, in endless vagrancy, going about and doing good; John iv. 6. ever haftening thither, whither the needs of men did call, ix. or their benefit invite; therefore did he take on him the Acts x. 35. form of a fervant, and was among his own followers as Luke xxii. one that miniftereth; therefore he pleafed not himself, but 27. fuited his demeanour to the ftate and circumstances of things, complied with the manners and fashions, comported with the humours and infirmities of men. Mark vi. 6. Nature coveteth good fuccefs to its designs and undertakings, hardly brooking to be disappointed and defeated in them therefore was he put to water dry fticks and to wash Negroes, that is, to inftruct a most dull and ftupid, to reform a moft perverfe and ftubborn generation; therefore his ardent defires, his folicitous cares, his painful endeavours for the good of men did obtain fo little fruit, had indeed a contrary effect, rather aggravating their fins than removing them, rather hardening than turning their hearts, rather plunging them deeper into perdition, than refcuing them from it; therefore so much in vain did he, in numberless miraculous works, display his power and goodness, convincing few, converting fewer by them; therefore, although he taught with most power- Luke iv.22, ful authority, with most charming gracefulness, with most 32. convincing evidence, yet, Who, could he fay, hath believed Joh. xii. 58. our report? Though he most earnestly did invite and allure men to him, offering the richest boons that heaven itself could difpenfe, yet, Ye will not, was he forced to Joh. v. 40. fay, come unto me, that ye may be faved: although, with affiduous fervency of affection, he ftrove to reclaim them from courses tending to their ruin, yet how he prospered, fad experience declareth, and we may learn from that doleful complaint, How often would I have gathered thy Luke xiii. children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her 34. xix. 42. SERM. wings, but ye would not! x 35. 31. 23.xviii.12. 17. λoare, your will did not In fine, natural will feeketh pleasure, and fhunneth pain but what pleasure did he tafte? what inclination, what appetite, what fenfe did he gratify? How did he Mark i. 13, feast, or revel? How, but in tedious faftings, in frequent Luke v. 16, hungers, by paffing whole nights in prayer and retireJoh. iv. 6, ment for devotion upon the cold mountains? What Luke vi. 12. fports had he, what recreation did he take, but feeling Matt. xiv. inceffant gripes of compaffion, and wearifome roving in queft of the loft fheep? In what converfation could he divert himself, but among those, whose doltish incapacity and forward humour did wring from his patience those Matt, xvii. words, How long fhall I be with you? how long shall I fuffer you? What mufic did he hear? What but the rattlings of clamorous obloquy, and furious accufations against him? To be desperately maligned, to be infolently mocked; to be styled a king, and treated as a slave; to be fpit on, to be buffetted, to be fcourged, to be drenched with gall, to be crowned with thorns, to be nailed to a crofs; these were the delights which our Lord enjoyed, these the sweet comforts of his life and the notable profperities of his fortune: fuch a portion was allotted to him, the which he did accept from God's hand with all patient fubmiffion, with perfect contentednefs, with exceeding alacrity, never repining at it, never complaining of it, never flinching from it, or fainting under it; but proceeding on in the performance of all his duty and prosecution of his great defigns with undaunted courage, with unwearied industry, with undisturbed tranquillity and fatisfaction of mind. Had indeed his condition and fortune been otherwise framed; had he come into the world qualified with a noble extraction; had he lived in a fplendid equipage; had he enjoyed a plentiful estate and a fair reputation ; had he been favoured and careffed by men; had he found a current of profperous fuccefs; had safety, ease, and pleasure waited on him; where had been the pious refignation of his will, where the precious merit of his obedience, where the glorious luftre of his example? SERM. How then had our frailty in him become victorious over XXXVI. all its enemies; how had he triumphed over the folicitations and allurements of the flesh, over the frowns and flatteries of the world, over the malice and fury of bell? How then could he have fo demonftrated his imI menfe charity toward us, or laid fo mighty obligations upon us? Such in general was the cafe, and fuch the deportment of our Lord: but there was fomewhat peculiar, and beyond all this occurring to him, which drew forth the words of our text: God had tempered for him a potion of all the most bitter and loathfome ingredients that could be; a drop whereof no man ever hath, or could endure to fip; for he was not only to undergo whatever load human rage could impose, of ignominious disgrace and grievous pain; but to feel difmal agonies of spirit, and those unknown fufferings, which God alone could inflict, God only could sustain: Behold, and fee, he might Lam. i. 12. well fay, if there be any forrow like unto my forrow, which is done unto me; wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger? He was to labour with pangs of charity, and through his heart to be pierced with deepest commiferation of our wretched cafe: he was to crouch under the burthen of all the fins (the numberless moft heinous fins and abominations) ever committed by mankind: he was to pass through the hotteft furnace of divine vengeance, and by his blood to quench the wrath of heaven flaming out against iniquity: he was to stand, as it were, before the mouth of hell, belching fire and brimftone on his face: his grief was to fupply the defects of our remorfe, and his fuffering in those few moments to countervail the eternal torments due to us: he was to bear the hiding of God's face, and an eclipse of that favourable afpect, in which all blifs doth refide; a cafe which he that fo perfectly understood, could not but infinitely refent: these things with the clearest apprehenfion SERM. he faw coming on him; and no wonder that our nature XXXVI. started at fo ghaftly a fight, or that human instinct should dictate that petition, Father, if thou wilt, let this cup pafs from me; words implying his most real participation of our infirmity; words denoting the height of those fad evils which encompaffed him, with his lively and lowly refentment of them; words informing us, how we should entertain God's chastisements, and whence we must seek relief of our preffures, (that we should receive them, not with a scornful neglect or fullen infenfibility, but with a meek contrition of foul; that we should entirely depend on God's pleasure for fupport under them, or a releasement from them;) words which, in conjunction with thofe following, do fhew how inftantly we fhould quafh and overrule any infurrection of natural defire against the command or providence of God. We must not take that prayer to fignify any purpose in our Lord to fhift off his paffion, or any wavering in refolution about it; for he could not anywife mean to undo that, which he knew done with God before the world's foundation; he would not unfettle that, which was by his own free undertaking and irreverfible decree: he that fo often with fatisfaction did foretel this event, who with fo earnest defire longed for its approach; who with that sharpness of indignation did rebuke his friend offering to divert him from it; who did again repress St. Peter's animofity with that ferious Joh. xviii. expoftulation, The cup which my Father hath given me, Shall I not drink it? who had advisedly laid fuch trains for its accomplishment, would he decline it? Could that heart, all burning with zeal for God and charity to men, admit the least thought or motion of averfeness from drinking that cup, which was the fovereign medicine administered by divine wifdom for the recovery of God's Matt. xxvi. creation? No; had he fpake with such intent, legions of angels had flown to his refcue; that word, which framed the worlds, which ftilled the tempefts, which ejected devils, would immediately have fcattered his enemies, and 11. 53. Η Επιθυμίᾳ ἐπιθύμησα. Luke xxii. 15. dafhed all their projects against him: wherefore thofe SERM. words did not proceed from intention, but as from in- XXXVI. ftinct, and for inftruction; importing, that what our human frailty was apt to fuggeft, that his divine virtue was more ready to fmother; neither did he vent the former, but that he might express the latter. He did express it in real effect, immediately with all readiness addreffing himself to receive that unfavoury potion; he reached out his hand for it, yielding fair opportunity and advantages to his perfecutors; he lifted it up to his mouth, innocently provoking their envy and malice; he drank it off with a moft fteady calmness and sweet composure of mind, with the filence, the fimplicity, the meekness of a lamb carried to the flaughter; no fretful thought rifing up, no angry word breaking forth, but a clear patience, enlivened with a warm charity, fhining in all his behaviour, and through every circumstance of his paffion. Such in his life, fuch at his death, was the practice of our Lord; in conformity whereto we also readily should undertake whatever God propofeth, we gladly fhould accept whatever God offereth, we vigorously fhould perform whatever God enjoineth, we patiently should undergo whatever God imposeth or inflicteth, how cross soever any duty, any dispensation may prove to our carnal fense or humour. To do thus, the contemplation of this example may strongly engage us; for if our Lord had not his will, can we in reafon expect, can we in modesty defire to have ours? Muft we be cockered and pleased in every thing, whenas he was treated fo coarfely, and croffed in all things? Can we grutch at any kind of fervice, or fufferance? Can we think much (for our trial, our exercise, our correction) to bear a little want, a little difgrace, a little pain, when the Son of God was put to discharge the hardest tasks, to endure the foreft adverfities? But farther to enforce these duties, be pleased to caft a glance on two confiderations: 1. What the will is |