could not have held thee: But thou waft a willing prifoner for our fakes. Behold him ftruck upon the face, fpit upon, buffet ed, blindfolded, mocked, and cruelly affronted by rude foldiers, a whole night: Though he could have breathed them into hell, yet he meekly holds his peace, and patiently fuffers all for our fakes. Behold his lovely countenance all disfigured by their plucking the hair from his cheeks with pincers, Ifa. 1. 6. The sweetest face that ever the sun saw was all befmeared with " blood and spitting, yet he hid not his face from fhame." Behold him led up and down from place to place, with a ridiculous garb put upon him, and yet never refifts: He is abufed and difgraced; a Barabbas, a murderer, the vileft malefactor in all Jerufalem, is preferred before him; and yet he complaius not. View him as he was used by his own family, his chofen difciples; one of them betrays him, another of them denies him, and all the reft forfake him, and leave him alone among his bloody enemies hands. Behold him, that clothes the likes of the field, stripped naked: Behold him fcourged back and fide; yea fcourged above measure. (Pilate thinking thereby to fave his life) till all the pavement of Pilate's judgment-hall about him is bedewed with his precious blood: Yet he wil lingly gave his back to the fmiters, that we might be freed from the everlasting lathes of God's wrath in hell. Behold him with a platted crown of thorns upon his head, with the fharp points turned inward, and driven into his head, till they pierced his head and skull in an hundred places; and fo he is content to be as the ram caught in the thickets, to be facrificed in our room. Behold a new fhower of blood running down his neck and whole body: Oh! it was my fins that platted the thorns, and they were the reeds that drave them in. Behold him, after all these fufferings, put to bear his heavy cross, upon his fore and bleeding thoulders; with what patience and humility did he bear the law curfed tree that was weighed down with our fins, and the law's curfes faftened to it? Yea, he bears without complaint till till his ftrength is faint, he is breathlefs, and ready to faint under the burden, till another muft help. It was not the cross that made him faint; he had a greater burden to bear than ten thoufand worlds, even the infinite wrath of God due to our fins. Behold him ftretched out naked, and laid upon the ground, that they might take the measure of his body and the holes for the nails: yea, they make them longer than they need, that they might both crucify and rack him at once. Behold the four large nails driven in through the moft finewy and fenfible parts of his body, and the cross lift up with the Lord of glory nailed to it: and, when it fell into the hole digged for the foot of it, how did the fall rend and tear his whole body? His own weight was his torture; and the longer he lived, his wounds grew the wider. His hands and feet are fixed, he cannot turn any way for cafe: The blood ftreamed down for feveral hours, till he expired amidft. thefe tortures. Behold him hanging on a crofs betwixt heaven and: earth, as if he had been unworthy of a place in either of them: Betwixt two thieves, as if he had been the greateft malefactor of the three. His fufferings were uni verfal, and did extend over all the parts and powers of his foul and body; no part free but his tongue, which was at liberty to pray for his enemies. He fuffered in all his fenfes his fight was tormented with the fcornful geftures of thofe that paffed by, wagging their heads; his bearing with taunts and mocks; his finell with the naufeous favour of dead mens fkulls; his tafte with gall and vinegar; his feeling with the nails and thorns that pierced his head, hands, and feet. Behold him on the crofs, fuffering till his ftrength is dried up like a potfherd; his tongue cleaves to his jaws, till he cries out, I thirft. And no wonder he thirsted; for, befides all the lofs of his blood, he was fcourged with the fire of God's wrath. Yea, the arrows of the Almighty were within him, the poijon whereof did drink up his spirit. Behold him at the worst, crying out for relief, My God, my God, why haft thou forsaken me? But yet no re lief appears, there is none to anfwer: Yea, his own fun, his own heaven, his own Father, his own Godhead, hid their faces and confolations from him. He is left alone in midst of devils and enemies infulting over him; He falls a facrifice to incenfed justice, for our heinous guilt and provocations. Behold the Son of righteousness under a fearful eclipfe. For a candle to be put out is no great matter, but for the fun to be darkened is marvellous and ftrange. In the next place, take a view of his willingness to fuffer all these things for us. He quickens Judas to do his work, and he goes out to meet his perfecutors, and boldly tells them, that he was the man they fought: He will not fuffer Peter or the angels to do any thing for his rescue, because of his defire to drink the cup which the Father had given him, John xviii. 11. And, God knows, a full and bitter cup it was, being all mingled with guilt, wrath, and curfes, heaped up and running over: A cup, which, if men or angels had tafted, they had all staggered and fallen back headlong into hell: Yet, how cheerfully did he drink it for us? He was not like the legal facrifices, dragged to the altar; no, he went willingly to it, and tyed himself with the cords of love to the horns of it. O, what affections fhould the confideration of these things ftir up in the fouls of communicants! Are ye going up to mount Calvary, to fee Chrift crucified; and, will not ye think on his fufferings, and be affected with them, ere ye go? You may here, as in a looking-glass, behold what you deferved at the hands of a juft God, if Chrift had not interpofed for you. You may fee the wondrous love of Chrift that paffeth knowledge, which ought to kindle a flame of love in your hearts. You may fee the curfed nature and demerit of fin, that expofed Chrift to fo much forrow and fuffering. Can you look on him whom you have thus pierced, and not mourn bitterly for fin that did it, and hate it as the moft ugly thing in the world? Would not your heart rife againft the man, yea, against the knife that killed your father, brother, husband, or friend; and, will not your hearts rife against fin, that VOL. I. 3 Q has has killed him that is instead of all relations, and should be far dearer to us than a thousand fathers or brothers? Can we look on Chrift's fufferings, and not make folemn vows against fin, and part with lying, fwearing, fabbath-breaking, &c. that crucified him? When the king of Moab was preffed hard by Ifrael, he took his eldeft fon that should have reigned in his ftead, and offered him up for a burnt facrifice upon the walls, 2 Kings iii. 27. whereupon they raifed the fiege, and went home. Well, the great God hath taken his only Son, facrificed him to juftice, that we might thereby be perfuaded to leave off fighting againft heaven. O, let this ftrange act, which is both an act of justice and goodness, fo over-awe your hearts with fear, and overcome them with love, that you may leave off to offend God any more. DIRECT. XIV. Be frequent and fervent in Prayer, be fore you Approach to the Lord's Table. THEY that forget God in their closets and families, are not fit to come and remember him at his table; therefore let no prayerlefs foul venture thither. You ought to double your prayers and meffages to heaven that week, and especially that night before you approach to this ordinance; if ever you prayed and wrestled with God, now fhould be the time of it. As the heathen fhip-mafter faid to Jonah, fo fay I to thee, O communicant, Jonah i. 6. " Arife, O fleeper, and call upon thy God, if fo be that God will think upon thee that thou perith not." O fleep not now, when you are in hazard of eating and drinking eternal damnation; but be praying when others are fleeping. This courfe will furely redound to thy advantage, and be the means of procuring fpecial bleffings to thy foul. When was it that God gave commiffion to open Paul's eyes, and fill him with the Holy Ghoft, but then, when he was earneft in prayer to God, Acts ix. 11. 17. "Behold he prayeth. The Lord hath fent me (faid Ananias) that thou mighteft receive thy fight, and be filled with the Holy Holy Ghoft." So, if you were earneft in prayer before the facrament, God would notice you as he did Paul, and give charge to this ordinance to be the means of enlightening thy foul, and filling thee with the Holy Ghoft. It was at the facrament of baptifm that Chrift's prayers opened heaven, and brought down the Holy Ghoft upon him: So at the facrament of the Lord's fupper the fervent prayers of a believing communicant will open heaven, and bring down the gracious influences of the holy Spirit upon him. Your work at this time is very great, and much need have you to look to God in Chrift, and plead with him for his fpecial affiftance: You have very great encouragement to do it; for God never calls any to do his work, but he helps them in it. It is faid, 1 Chron. xv. 26. That "God helped the Levites that bare the ark." One would think that the work of bearing the ark, needed no more help from God than the general concourfe of his providence; and yet God helped them with fpecial affiftance. And if he helped the Levites to bear the ark, because it was his work; will he not help us to receive the facrament, which he hath inftituted for displaying his glory, if we fincerely feek his help? You have many errands at this time to the throne of grace, for you have many things to pray for. i. You ought in general to pray for preparation for this folemn feaft: "For the preparation of the heart in man is from the Lord," Prov. xvi. 1. Lay out the cafe of your heart and foul before the Lord, and fay, "Lord, thou calleft me to a very folemn ordinance; and, who is fufficient for those things? I have neither a meet facrifice to offer, nor a meet temple to receive thee in. I know not how to pray, or to prepare myfelf; how to receive Chrift, or behave myself at his table. Behold the bridegroom cometh, but I am not ready; I want the wedding-garment: Oh, what fhall I do for clothing to my naked foul? My beloved hath fpoke, faying, Rife up, my love, my fair one, and come away. I have heard his voice; but Oh, I am not stirring for it My heart faith, Yet a little fleep, yet a little. Aumber. Lord, awake my heart, ftir up my graces, 3 Q2 and |