412 Sect. 166. Mat. xxv. 31. Ver. 32. Ver. 33. Ver. 41. Reflections on the Sentence CHRIST will pass on the Wicked, Ver. 42, 43. Ver. 34. L IMPROVEMENT. ET us now behold, with an attentive Eye, and a folicitous Heart, the End of all the Living; that awful Scene, in which the various Difpenfations of GOD to Mankind fhall terminate in the folemn Day, when the Son of Man fhall come in his Glory, and fit on his magnificent Throne. All Nations and People must be assembled before him; and we must make up a Part of the Affembly. The Sheep, and the Goats, must then be feparated; and oh my Soul, amongst which wilt thou then be numbered? Is there an Enquiry, is there a Care, of greater, of equal, of comparable Importance! Let us view the Sentence we muft fhortly hear, as He who will himself pronounce it, has been pleased to give us a Copy of it. Can we conceive any Thing more dreadful, than that which fhall be addreffed to thofe on the Left Hand? To be driven from the Prefence of Chrift as accurfed, and to be configned over to a devouring Fire! and this not only to the Tortures of a Moment, or an Hour, (as in fome painful Executions, that have been known here,) but to everlasting Fire, yea, to Fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels, where they will be perpetual Companions, and perpetual Tormentors! Should not the Thought, that he is in Danger, in hourly Danger, of being fealed up under this Sentence, awaken the most stupid Sinner, and engage him eagerly to cry out, What shall I do to be faved? And on whom is this Sentence paffed? Let us attentively obferve it! Not merely on the most grofs and abandoned Sinners; but on thofe, who have lived in an habitual Neglect of their Duty: Not merely on thofe, who have ravaged and perfecuted the Saints, (tho' furely their Furnace will be heated feven Times hotter than that of others,) but even on those, that have neglected to relieve them. On the other hand, let us seriously reflect what it will be, to be owned by Chrift before the affembled World; and to hear him faying, with a fweet Smile, and with a Voice of Harmony and Love, Come ye Blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the Foundation of the World. How infinite is the Love, that prepared that Kingdom for us before we had a Being; how rich the Blood, that purchased it; how overflowing the Grace, that bestows it on fuch mean, fuch undeferving Creatures? Bless the Lord, ob our Souls, in the Profpect of it! Let Men curfe, oh Lord, if thou wilt thus bless: (Pfal. cix. 28.) Let them load our Names with Infamy, if thou wilt adorn them with fuch Glory: Let all the Kingdoms of the Earth, and all the Pomp of them, be defpifed and trampled under Foot, when offered as an Equivalent for this infinitely more glorious Kingdom. Let and on his Favour to the Righteous, in the Day of Judgment. 413 Let us attentively obferve the Character of those, who are to receive it. Sect. 166, They are the useful, and the benevolent Souls: Such as have loved the Lord Jefus Chrift, not only in his Name, and Ordinances, and Promises, Ver. 35, 36. but have loved him in his Laws, and in his People too; and have known him in those humble Forms, in which he has been pleafed, as it were by Proxy, to appear among us. I was hungry, and ye fed me; thirsty, and ye gave me Drink; &c. and, in as much as ye did it to one of the leaft of Ver. 40. thefe my Brethren, ye did it unto me. Amazing Words! that the meanest Saint fhould be owned by the King of Glory, as one of his Brethren. Irresistible Argument to thofe, that do indeed believe thefe Words, to ftir us up to abound in every good Word and Work! Under this Impreffion methinks, inftead of hiding ourselves from thofe, who fhould be to us as our own Flesh by Virtue of our common Union to him, we should not \ only hearken to their Intreaties, but even Jearch them out in thofe Corners to which modest Want may fometimes retire, and cast about in our Thoughts, how we may fecure fome happy Opportunity of relieving any poor Saint, for their Sakes, and for their Master's, and even for our own. What if Chrift came to us in Perfon, as a poor helpless Stranger? What if we faw him deftitute of Food and Raiment, or any other Neceffaries of Life? Should we not contend for it as an Honour, which of us should receive him into our Houses, which of us should entertain him at our Table, which of us should even strip ourselves of our Clothing to give it him? And yet he tells us, that he is in effect with us in his poor Members; and we invent a thousand cold Excufes for neglecting to affift him, and fend our compaffionate Saviour away empty. Is this the Temper of a Chriftian? Is this the Temper in which we should wish to be found at the Judgment Day? But we know not Chrift in this Difguife. Neither did these unhappy Ver. 44, 45Creatures on the Left Hand know him: They are furprized to be told of fuch a Thing; and yet are reprefented, as perifhing for it. Away therefore with all thofe religious Hopes, (vainly fo called,) which leave the Heart hardened, and the Hand contracted from good Works! If we Shut up the Bowels of Compaffion from our Brethren, how dwelleth the Love of GOD in us? (1 John iii. 17.) Or to what doth the Love of Chrift conftrain us, if it be not to the Exercise of Gratitude to him, and the Offices of chearful and active Friendship to those, whom he now owns as his Brethren, and whom he will not be afhamed to call fo in the Midft of his higheft Triumph? Blessed Jefus, how munificent art thou! and what a Fund of Charity didft thou lay up in the very Words which are now before us! In all Ages fince they were spoken, how many Hungry haft thou fed, how many Naked haft thou clothed, how many calamitous Creatures haft thou relieved by them! May they be written deep on our Hearts, that the Joy with which we shall finally meet thee, may be increased by the happy Effect of this Day's Meditation! SECT 414 Sect. 167. 37. The Paffover was now within Two Days: SE C T. CLXVII. The Jewish Rulers contrive how they might take CHRIST, and Judas agrees with them to deliver him privately into their Hands. Mat. XXVI. 1,---5. 14,--16. Mark XIV. 1, 2. 10, 11. Luke XXI. 37, to the End. XXII. 1,---6. T LUKE XXI. 37. LUKE XXI. 37. ND in the Day-time he was teaching in the Temple, and at Night he went out, and abode in the Mount that is called the HUS our Lord ended his Difcourfes on A this Subject, on the Third Day of the Luke XXI. Week in which he fuffered; and thus he was generally employed from the Time of his publick Entry into Jerufalem to his last Paffover: He was teaching by Day in the Temple, and at Night he went out of the City, and lodged at the Mount called [the Mount] of Olives; in the Neighbourhood of which Bethany lay; and in the Retirements of which, particularly in the Garden of Gethsemane, he often fpent a confiderable Part of the Night; being defirous to fecure that only Seafon of Solitude, that he might prepare himfelf for his approaching Sufferings by a proper 38 Series of extraordinary Devotion. Luke XXII. Mat. XXVI. 1. And as foon as it was Light he returned to the City; and Now it may not be improper here to obferve, 38 And all the People came early in the Morning to him in the Temple, for to hear him. LUKE XXII. 1. Now the Feaft of unleavened called the Paffover, [and Bread drew nigh, which is was after two Days.] [MARK XIV. I.—] MAT. XXVI. 1. And And it came to pass, that when Jefus had finished all thefe Difcourfes, and the appointed it came to pass, when Jefus Hour had (a) Two Days after.] I apprehend that the preceding Difcourfes (from Sect. 151.) were delivered on the Tuesday of the Week in which he fuffered; and he probably uttered the following Words that Evening, which was juft Two Days before the Pafchal Lamb was eaten. -I do not find, that any of the Tranfactions of the Wednesday are recorded, befides the general Account given above. (b) One had finished all thefe Sayings, he faid unto his Difciples, Two Days is the Feast of the Paffover, and the Son of Man is betrayed to be cruci 2 Ye know that after fied. Mat. XXVI. 2. And the Jewish Rulers confult how they might take him. 415 Hour for his Sufferings was now at hand, be faid Sect. 167. to his Difciples, Ye know that after Two Days the Pallover cometh, and the Son of Man is then to be betrayed, that according to what I have often told you, (Mat. xvi. 21. and xx. 18, 19.) he may be crucified by finful Men: Prepare yourfelves therefore for that trying Seafon, that you may not be hurried into any Thing which you may afterwards have Reafon to repent. Then that very Evening the Chief Priests of every Clafs, and others employed in diftinguished Services in the Temple, together with the Scribes, and the other Elders of the People, who were Members of the grand Sanhedrim, affembled together, not indeed in the Temple, where they ufually met, but at the Palace of the High-Prieft, who was then called Caiaphas; (as was observed before, John xi. 49. pag. 260.) And there they entered into a fecret Confpiracy, and confulted how they might privately take Jefus by fome Artifice, without giving an Alarm to his Friends, and might put him to Death as foon as poffible, which one Way or other they were determined to do. But they had fuch an Apprehenfion of his Intereft in the People, that some of them were rather for delaying it, and faid, It will be more advisable to wait till after the Paffover, and not to attempt to feize him at the Feast, while there is fuch a Concourfe in the City from all Parts; left the Defign that we have formed against him. fhould be discovered, and confidering how popular he is, there should be a Tumult raised among the People, either to rescue him from our Hands, or to revenge his Death. Such were the cautious Sentiments of fome among them; for they feared the People: But others pushed the Matter on with greater Forwardness and Zeal, and were by no means for deferring it; to which at length. the reft agreed, upon finding a more favourable Opportunity than they expected, offering itself. thro' the Treachery of Judas. 3 4 5. For then, just at that very Juncture of Time, Luke XXII. Satan, by Divine Permiffion, entered into Judas, 3. who was alfo called Icariot, and was (as we ob ferved 416 Luke XXII. 3. Judas comes to them, and agrees to betray him. Sect. 167. ferved before,) one of the Number of the Twelve of the Number of the Apoftles, who were chofen by our Lord from Twelve: [MAT. XXVI. 14. MARK XIV. 10.-] the reft of his Disciples, to the most honourable Truft, as well as the most indearing Intimacy (b): And as this malignant Spirit had before fuggested to him the horrid Defign of betraying his Mafter, he now ftrongly impreffed his Mind, that during his Retirement he might easily find a convenient Time for executing it, and might be well rewarded for it by the Rulers of the 4 Jews. And under this Impreffion be immediately went away from Chrift and his Company to the Houfe of Caiaphas, whom he knew to be a most inveterate Enemy to his Mafter; and having found Means of introducing himself, and communicating his general Defign, he converfed with the Chief Priests and Captains of the Temple, who were not yet gone away, and deliberated how he might with the greatest Convenience and Mat. XXVI. Security betray him unto them. And as the 15. Mark XIV. fordid Wretch propofed it with a covetous View, ; And when they heard his Propofal, they thought [it] very practicable; and they were glad of fo unexpected an Event, to facilitate their Measures and therefore readily promised in general to give him a Sum of Money as a Reward for that Service; and at laft they expressly agreed with him for Thirty Pieces of Silver (c), which was the Price to be paid for a Slave who had been flain: (See Exod. xxi. 32.) And as they proposed it to express their Contempt of Jefus, fo GOD permitted Judas, covetous 4 And he went his Way, and communed with the Chief Priests and Captains, how he might betray him unto them: [MAT. XXVI. -14. MARK XIV. —10.] MAT. XXVI. 15.-And faid unto them, What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you? MARK XIV. 11.-And when they heard it, they were glad, and promised to covenanted with him for give him Money. [And they Thirty Pieces of Silver.] [MAT.XXVI.—15.LUKE XXII. 5.] (b) One of the Number of the Twelve &c.] This was a Circumftance of fuch high Aggravation, that it is obfervable, each of the Evangelifts hath marked it out in this View. Compare with thefe Places John vi. 71. Vol. i. pag. 515. (c) Thirty Pieces of Silver.] Á Slave was rated by the Law at Thirty Shekels of Silver, which, if we reckon them at Half a Crown, (which was fomething more than their real Value,) amounted to no more than Three Pounds Fifteen Shillings of our Money; a goodly Price that he was prized at of them. Zech. xi. 13. |