reputation for learning and piety, fcandalized under the name of an impofter, a winebibber, a friend to publicans and finners, a worker by the devil, mad, and poffeffed with a devil. These and the like were his entertainments in the world, and, which is more, often put to fhift for his life; and in fum, what the prophet predicted concerning him fulfilled to the utmoft Defpifed and rejected of men, a man of "forrows and acquainted with grief1;' and all this to befal the eternal Son of God under the veil of our flesh. And all this voluntarily undertaken, and chearfully undergone, even for the fake of his enemies, and thofe very people from whom he received indignities.

III. But all thefe were but like fmall velitations 2 and conflicts preparatory to the main battle. We therefore come to the third confideration-Christ Jefus, and him crucified; there is the account of the text: as Chrift Jefus is the moft worthy fubject of all knowledge, fo Chrift Jefus, under this confideration, as crucified, is that which is the fulleft of wonder, admiration, love and therefore let us now take a furvey of Chrift Jefus crucified: as that is the highest manifeftation of his love, fo it is the eye, the life of the text: Christ above all other knowledge, and Christ crucified above all other knowledge of Christ.

And now a man upon the firft view would think this kind of knowledge, fo much here valued, were a ftrange kind of knowledge, and the prelation of this knowledge a strange miftake in the apoftle. 1. Crucified: Death is the corruption of nature and fuch a kind of death by crucifixion, the worst, the vileft of deaths, carrying in it the punishment of the lowest condition of men, and for the worst of offences; and yet, that death, and fuch a death, fhould be the ambition of an apoftle's knowledge, is wonderful. 2. Chrift crucified, carries in it a feeming excefs of incongruity; that he, that was the eternal Son of God, fhould take Isaiah, liii. 3. 2 slight skirmishes.

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upon him our nature, and in that nature anointed and confecrated by the Father, full of innocence, purity, goodness, fhould die, and that by fuch a death, and. fo unjustly! Could this be fubject or matter of knowledge fo defirable, as to be preferred before all other knowledge? which fhould rather feem to be a matter of fo much horror, fo much indignation, that a man might think it rather fit to be forgotten, than to be affected to be known. 3. Jefus crucified. A Saviour,

and yet to be crucified; it seems to blaft the expectation of falvation, when the captain of it must die, be flain, be crucified; it carries in it a kind of victory of death and hell, over our falvation, when the inftrument thereof must fuffer death, and fuch a death. When the birth of Chrift was proclaimed, indeed it was a matter of joy, and worth the proclamation of angels. To you is born this day a Saviour, which is Chrift the Lord ',' and can the death of that Saviour be a thing defirable to be known? The birth of Christ seemed to be the rifing fun, that scattered light, hope and comfort to all nations; but can the fetting of this fun, in fo dark a cloud as the crofs, be the choiceft piece of knowledge of him? which feems as it were to ftrangle and ftifle our hopes; and puts us as it were upon the expoftulation of the difmayed difciples; But we trufted it had been he which should have redeemed Ifrael "."

But for all this, this knowledge of Christ Jefus crucified will appear to be the moft excellent, comfortable, ufeful knowledge in the world, if we fhall confider thefe particulars: 1. Who it was that fuffered. 2. What he fuffered. 3. From whom. 4. How he fuffered. 5. For whom he fuffered. 6. Why, and upon what motive. 7. For what end he suffered. 8. What are the fruits and benefits that accrue by that fuffering. All these confiderations are wrapt up in this one fubject-Chrift Jefus and him crucified.

Luke ii. 12. 2 Luke xxiv. 21.

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1. Who

1. Who it was that thus fuffered. It was Chrift Jefus the eternal Son of God, cloathed in our flesh ; God and Man united in one perfon; his manhood giving him a capacity of fuffering; and his Godhead giving a value to that fuffering; and each nature united in one person to make a compleat redeemer; the heir of all things 1. The prince of life 2. The light that lighteneth every man that comes into the world 3. As touching his divine nature, God over all, bleffed for ever; and as touching his human nature, full of grace and truth 5. And in both the beloved Son of the eternal God, in whom he proclaimed himfelf well pleafed 6. But could no other perfon be found, that might fuffer for the fins of man, but the Son of God? Or if the bufinefs of our falvation must be transacted by him alone, could it not be without fuffering, and fuch fuffering as this? No. As there was no other name given under heaven, by which we might be faved, nor was there any found befides in the compass of the whole world, that could expiate for one fin of man; but it must be the arm of the Almighty that must bring falvation 7; fo if the bleffed Son of God will undertake the bufinefs, and become captain of our falvation, he must be made perfect by fuffering 8. And if he will stand instead of man, he must bear the wrath of his Father: if he will become fin for man, though he knew no fin, he must become a curfe for And doubtless this great mystery of the perfon that fuffered, cannot choose but be a very high and excellent fubject of knowledge; fo full of wonder and astonishment, that the angels gaze into it 9. And as it is a strange and wonderful thing in itself, fo doubtlefs it was ordained to high and wonderful ends, bearing a fuitableness unto the greatness of the inftrument. This therefore is the first confideration that advanceth the excellency of this knowledge; the person that was crucified.

man.

II. What he fuffered. Chrift Jefus, and him crucified; though all the course of his life was a continual fuffering, and the preamble or walk unto his death, which was the end of his life; yet this was the compleating of all the reft, and the tide and waves of his fuffering did ftill rife higher and higher, till it arrived in this; and the feveral fteps and afcents unto the cross, though they began from his birth, yet those that were more immediate began with the preparation to the paffover. The council held by the chief priefts and fcribes, for the crucifying of our Saviour, was fat upon two days before the paffover 1. And this was the firft ftep to Mount Calvary : and doubtless it was no fmall addition to our Saviour's paffion, that it was hatched in the council of the chief priests and fcribes, the then external vifible church, the husbandmen of the vineyard 2. But this is not all; as the vifible church of the Jews is the conclave where this council is formed; fo Judas, a member of the vifible church of Chrift, one of the twelve, is the inftrument to effect it 3. He contracts with them for thirty pieces of filver, to betray his mafter unto them. And furely this could not choose but be a great grief to our Saviour, that one of his felect apostles fhould turn apoftate, and thereby bring a blemish upon the reft.

Upon the day of eating the paffover, called the first day of the feast of unleavened bread, our Saviour and his difciples keep the paffover together in Jerufalem; and there the two memorials of our Saviour's paffion meet; that of the paffover inftituted by God, and the Ifraelites going out of Egypt; and the bread and wine after fupper, inflituted by our Saviour, to fucceed in the place of the former, and each did questionless make a deep impreffion upon our Saviour, in which he anticipated his paffion, and lively 4 reprefented to him that breaking and pouring out of his blood and foul, which he was fuddenly to fuffer: and doubtless

'Matth. xxvi. 2. Mark, xiv. 1. 2 Matth. xxi. 33. 9 Matth. xxvi. 14.

here began a great measure of our Saviour's paffion, in the apprehenfion which he had of that eminent ftorm, that he must speedily undergo. From the fupper they go together to the Mount of Olives, and there he acquaints his difciples of a speedy and forrowful parting they must have; the fhepherd is to be fmitten that night, and the sheep to be scattered; and as he forefaw Judas's treachery, fo he forefees Peter's infirmity; the storm fhould be fo violent, that Peter himself, the refoluteft apostle, shall deny his master that night, and deny him thrice: and furely the forefight of the distraction that fhould befall his poor difciples, could not choose but add much to their tender mafter's affliction: All ye fhall be offended because ' of me this night '.'

And now let us follow our bleffed Lord from the Mount of Olives in the garden, called by the apoftles Gethsemane, with the affections of love and wonder in fome measure becoming fuch an entertainment of our thoughts. The time that he chofe for his retirement, was the dead time of the night; a feafon that might the more contribute to the firength of that fadnefs, which the pre-apprehenfion of his imminent paffion must needs occafion. The place that he chofe, a folitary retired garden, where nothing might or could interrupt, or divert the intensiveness of his forrow and fear and, to make both the time and place the more opportune for his agony, he leaves the reft of his difciples, and takes with him only Peter, and the two fons of Zebedee 2. And to thefe he imparts the beginning of his forrow, that they might be witneffes of it, My foul is exceeding forrowful, even unto death; but yet commands their diftance, Tarry ye here and watch with me, and he went little further.' Watch with me.' The confufion of his foul was fo great, that the only Son of God diftrufts his own [human] ability to bear it; and yet his fubmiffion to this terrible conflict [was] fo willing, that he leaves them that he had appointed to watch

Matth. xxvi. 31. 2 Matth. xxvi. 37. Matth. xxvi. 28, 39.

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