O that I had the true marks of those who are divorced from the law. and married to Chrift as their hufband; that I could fay, I look upon all my doings in point of acceptance with God as old rags; I live wholly and freely upon my husband, and take all I want from him for nothing; I clothe myfelf with his righteousness, and effay the performance of every duty in his ftrength; I defire to live entirely upon his coft,I have a heart-love to my husband, and every thing that belongs to him, and a heart-hatred to fin, and averfion to every thing that is injurious to him: I am defirous to please him in all things; and out of regard to his dying command, I go to his table to remember his dying love, and renew my marriage vows: I delight in my husband's company, and prefs for communion with him in all ordinances. His honour is always dear to me, and I am eafy about my own honour and intereft in respect of. his; let me decrease, but let him increase. And in regard the devil reigns here, fin abounds, error and corruption prevail; I am well pleased with the thoughts of Chrift's fecond coming to pull down Satan's kingdom, and to confummate the marriage with me, and all that are espoused to him, and fay, Why tarry the wheels of his chariot? Make hafte my beloved; even fo come Lord Jefus. O that all the world would love him, exalt him, and fubmit to him. Many in different places admire him, and fee matchless charms in him; his name to them is as ointment poured forth, his graments fmell of aloes, myrrh, and caffia, they have beheld his stately goings in the fanctuary: O that all the world might fo admire him, and submit to him alfo. OUR MEDITATION XXIV. From Ifa. liii. 8. -For the tranfgreffions of my people was he fricken. UR fins and tranfgreffions are great and various, and therefore our furety's fufferings for them were heavy and manifold; he endured many wounds, bruises, chaftifements, and stripes, which should ftill endear him the more to us; for he was wounded for our tranfegessions, he was bruifed for our iniquities; the chaiftifement of our peace was upon him, and with his ftripes we are healed, ver. 5. O who can think on that verse without forrow, or speak of it without tears! He was wounded and bruifed to death, to fave us from deadly wounds and bruifes: and when dying he left us his portraiture with the marks of his wounds, that we might look upon it at his table, and mourn for our fins which gave him these wounds. Oh, can I fee my dear Saviour all wounded and mangled by my fins, and not be deeply affected for the tranfgreffions for which my dear Jefus was ftricken! Stricken he was many ways by many hands, by many rods, by many ftripes: He was ftricken by the hand of God, by the hand of men, by the hand of devils: Stricken by the rod of Mofes, the rod of justice, the rod of the Jews, &c. O how early was he fticken by the ill ufage he met with from men, being thrust out, to be born in a foul stable, and laid in a manger; and soon after was he ftricken by the rod of perfecution and banithment, being made to flee his native country for safety from Herod. All this he fuffered for us, because we deferved to be deprived of all earthly accommodations and comforts, and to be banished from God and heaven for ever. He was ftricken by the rod of poverty, and pinching ftraits. Though he was the King of the universe, and poffeffed all the riches in it, yet for our fakes he became poor, that we through his poverty might become rich, 2 Cor. viii. 5. He was not born of a rich emprefs, but of a poor virgin; not in his own houfe, but in another man's: He had no house nor foot of ground of his own to live or lodge in: Though the foxes had holes, and the birds nefis, yet he that created them had not where to lay his head. His diet was oft a-feeking, and commonly very mean, barley bread and fmall fishes. He had no money to pay his tax, but muft borrow it from a fish of the sea. He travelled ftill on foot, except once he rode to Jerufalem to fulfil a prophecy; and then he had neither horfe nor afs of his own, but must borrow another man's afs. He had no fine mounting, but the clothes of them that followed him: He had no burial-place of his own, but was laid in another man's; and all this he submitted to for our fakes.-He was alfo ftricken by the red of fore labour and toil, by working at a mechanic trade, until he was thirty years of age; therefore they faid, Mark vi. 3. Is not this the carpenter? Man having eaten the forbidden fruit was doomed to fore labour, that he should eat his bread with the sweat of his brow, Gen. iii. 19. and to this doom our furety fubmitted for us. Man broke God's covenant by eating of the tree, therefore his furety muft die on a tree. Man idolized a tree, and preferred its fruit to Gods favour, therefore his furety muft labour in cutting and hewing trees most. of his time.-Man lived a life of finning, and therefore Christ must live a life of labour and forrow; he even became a man of forrows, Ifa. liii. 3. that we might ab. tain everlasting joy and confalation. He was ftricken by mens reproachful tongues, fcaffs, and mockeries, being called a glutton, wine-bibber, deceiver, Samaritan, blafphemer, a devil, and one in compact with Beelzebub, the prince of devils. They derided him in all his offices; as a prophet, by bidding him prophefy who fmote him; as a priest, bidding him fave himself, fince he pretended to fave others; as a king, by putting on him a purple robe, a crown of thorns, and giving him a mock fceptre. Yea, he endured the moft cruel mockings, and that in the midst of his fharpeft fufferings and foul agonies, when he cried out. on the bloody crofs, Eli, Eli, &c. O, fay they, this man calls for Elias, playing on the word Eli. It was not out of ignorance or mistake they faid fo, but out of malice, and derifion; for they understood the Hebrew language well enough, and knew he called on God, and that Eli fignified, my God. But, in there fpite, they would reprefent him as an idolater; and, when dying, that he prayed not to God, but to faints for help.-He was ricken by the moft open affronts and indignities from men, by spitting in his face, condemning him to die for bla pehemy against God, and treafon against Cæfar: By preferring Barabbas, a murderer, before him, and pofting him between two thieves. Thus the King of Glory was defpifed and rejected of man for as, If. liii. 3. He was ftricken by the fcourges of plaited cords on his back, and with the thorns they drove into his head: That thorny crown was definged for torture, as well as derifion; for, if it had been only to mock him, a crown of ftraw would have ferved the purpose as well as one of thorns. He was ftricken by the pincers that pluckt the hair off his cheeks; and by the heavy cross-tree laid on his bleeding fhoulders, which he must carry to Calvary. He was ftricken with four big iron nails thro' his hands and feet, on which his whole weight must hang. He was ftricken with a burning heat and thirst, which the wrath of God for our fins created in him and dried him up like a potfherd: This made him cry out, I thirst, yet no wine, no fountain, no creature that he made must relieve him at this time.-He was ftricken by a fpear thruft into his fide to let out his heart-blood, to be fure that no life remained. Well, (faid our dying lamb) let my dearest blood, my heart-blood, go for these loft finners, that their fouls may live and fing for ever. He was ftricken by the ungrateful behaviour of his own difciples to him: By Judas his betraying and felling him for a small fum, the price of a flave: By Peter's denying him, and fwearing he knew him not, at the temptation of a poor damfel: By all of them forfaking him, and leaving him in the midst of his enemies. Befides all this, he was ftricken in his foul, by the terrible glittering fword of justice, by the curfes of the law, by defertion from God, by the vials of his wrath poured out on him, which made fearful bruifes, deep wounds, and wide gafhes in his foul.-Oh, our dear furety was ftricken till he fell to the ground; was overwhelmed with wrath, and covered with blood. With thefe ftrokes our mighty Redeemer was thrown down, and broken with breach upon breach, till all the billows of divine vengeance went over him. Oh, never was there any forrow like my dear Saviour's forrow, which he fufferd when tricken for my fins! Lord, I am afhamed of the hardnets and unconcern edness of heart at this moving fpectacle! Oh, did the dead earth tremble, the hard rocks rend, the graves open, the heavens turn black at the fight of a dying Jefus, ftricken by the sword of justice? And fhall not my rocky heart tremble and quake, rend and melt for my fins, that were the caufe of it? Shall the history of Joseph in the pit move me more than that of Christ upon the cross? Shall the news of the tragical death of a friend, or the fufferings of an acquaintance among the Turks, move me more than the death and fufferings of the innocent fon of God on my account? Alas, my heart of stone will neither break nor melt, till Chrift turn and look on me as he did on backfliding Peter. Lord, one look from thee can turn the rock into flanding water, and the flint into a fountain of water. One blink of the Sun of Righteousness can melt the most frozen and icy heart in the world. O how lovely is my ftricken and bleeding Jefus! Even when bleeding and mangled by my fins, I fee him white and ruddy, and the cheifeft among ten thousand. Every wound and stroke he got doth ftill beautify him the more to me, and make my foul cry, O my loving and lovely Jefus! O how can I fee him fubftituting himself in my room, and making himfelf the butt of the envenomed arrows of juftice, and not be ravished with his love to me, and with the warmest affection to him! And at the fame time filled wih forrow for my fins, which brought on all his ftrokes and wounds! Oh my fins were the thorns that pierced his head, the nails which pierced his hands, and the spear that pierced his heart. My fins preffed him down, and made him fweat blood in the garden. My foul being exceeding finful, made his foul exceeding forrowful. May I always hate fin, and forrow for it. MEDITATION XXV. I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave bimfelf for me. HOW defirable an attainment is the exercise of true faith upon the great Saviour Jefus Chrift, |
