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 foli

citations and allurements of the flesh, over the frowns and flatteries of the world, over the malice and fury of hell? How then could he have fo demonftrated his immense 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 impofe, of ignominious disgrace and grievous pain; but to feel difinal agonies of spirit, and those unknown fufferings h, which God alone could inflict, God only could fuftain: 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 hottest 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 brimstone on his face his grief was to fupply the defects of our remorse, 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 eclipfe of that favourable aspect, in which all blifs doth refide; a case which he that so perfectly understood, could not but infinitely resent: these things with the clearest apprehenfion

c. Δι' ἀγνώτων σε παθημάτων ἐλέησον ἡμᾶς Κύριε. Lit. Gr

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 pass from me; words implying his most real participation of our infirmity; words denoting the height of those sad evils which encompassed 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 fcornful 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 quash 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 unsettle that, which was by his own free undertaking and irreversible decree: he that so often with fatisfaction did foretel this event, who with so earnest defire i 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 serious 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 averseness from drinking that cup, which was the fovereign medicine adminiftered by divine wisdom for the recovery of God's Matt. xxvi. creation? No; had he fpake with fuch intent, legions of angels had flown to his rescue; that word, which framed the worlds, which stilled the tempests, which ejected devils, would immediately have scattered his enemies, and

11.

53.

Η Επιθυμίᾳ ἐπεθύμησα. Luke xxii. 15.

dafhed all their projects against him: wherefore those 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 exprefs 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 most steady 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 should accept whatever God offereth, we vigorously should perform whatever God enjoineth, we patiently fhould undergo whatever God imposeth or inflicteth, how cross foever any duty, any dispensation may prove to our carnal sense or

humour.

To do thus, the contemplation of this example may ftrongly engage us; for if our Lord had not his will, can we in reafon expect, can we in modefty 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 service, 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

3.

SERM. to which, 2. Who the willer is to whom we must fubXXXVI. mit.

8

1. What is the will of God? Is it any thing unjuft, unworthy, or dishonourable, any thing incommodious or hurtful, any thing extremely difficult or intolerably grievous, that God requireth of us, to do or bear? No: he willeth nothing from us or to us, which doth not beft become us and moft behove us; which is not attended with fafety, with ease, with the folideft profit, the fairest reputation, and the sweetest pleasure.

Two things he willeth; that we should be good, and that we should be happy; the first in order to the second, for that virtue is the certain way, and a neceffary qualification to felicity.

1 Theff. iv. The will of God, faith St. Paul, is our fanctification: What is that? what, but that the decays of our frame, and the defacements of God's image within us, should be repaired; that the faculties of our foul fhould be restored to their original integrity and vigour; that from most wretched flaveries we fhould be tranflated into a happy freedom, yea, into a glorious kingdom; that from defpicable beggary and baseness we should be advanced to substantial wealth and fublime dignity; that we should be cleansed from the fouleft defilements, and decked with the goodlieft ornaments; that we fhould be cured of most loathsome diseases, and fettled in a firm health of foul; that we should be delivered from those brutish lufts, and those devilish paffions, which create in us a hell of darknefs, of confufion, of vexation, which difhonour our nature, deform our foul, ruffle our mind, and rack our confcience; that we should be endowed with those worthy difpofitions and affections, which do conftitute in our hearts a heaven of light, of order, of joy, and peace, dignify our nature, beautify our foul, clarify and cheer our mind; that we should efchew thofe practices, which never go without a retinue of woful mischiefs and forrows, embracing those which always yield abundant fruits of convenience and comfort; that, in fhort, we should be

come friends of God, fit to converfe with angels, and SERM. capable of paradise.

XXXVI.

God, faith St. Paul again, willeth all men to be faved: 1 Tim. ii. 4. he willeth not, faith St. Peter, that any man should perish. 2 Pet. iii. 9. He faith it himself, yea, he sweareth it, that he hath no plea- Ezek. fure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked should xxxiii. 11. turn from his way and live. And what is this will? what, but that we should obtain all the good whereof we are capable; that we should be filled with joy, and crowned with glory; that we fhould be fixed in an immovable state of happiness, in the perpetual enjoyment of God's favour, and in the light of his blifsful prefence; that we fhould be rid of all the evils to which we are liable; that we should be released from inextricable chains of guilt, from incurable stings of remorse, from being irrecoverably engaged to pass a disconsolate eternity in utter darkness and extreme woe? Such is God's will; to fuch purposes every command, every dispensation of God (how grim, how rough foever it may seem) doth tend. And do we refuse to comply with that good will; do we fet against it a will of our own, affecting things unworthy of us, things unprofitable to us, things prejudicial to our best interests, things utterly baneful to our fouls? Do we reject the will that would fave us, and adhere to a will that would ruin us; a foolish and a fenfeless will, which, flighting the immenfe treasures of heaven, the unfading glories of God's kingdom, the ineffable joys of eternity, doth catch at fpecious nothings, doth pursue mischievous trifles; a fhadow of base profit, a smoke of vain honour, a flash of fordid pleasure; which paffeth away like the Ecclef. vii. mirth of fools, or the crackling of thorns, leaving only foot, black and bitter, behind it?

But at least ere we do thus, let us confider, whofe will it is that requireth our compliance.

6.

5.

It is the will of him, whose will did found the earth, and rear the heaven; whofe will fuftaineth all things in Pf. cxlviii. their existence and operation; whofe will is the great law 5 of the world, which univerfal nature in all its motions doth obferve; which reigneth in heaven, the bleffed fpirits

Apoc.iv.11.