men; adorn'd as a mock King, that he might be the more derided by them; and then finally, to compleat the Tragedy, Executed by a Death not only the moft fcandalous, but the most painful of any in the World.

2. Which therefore brings us to a fecond Confideration of his Paffion, namely, of the Pains and Torments of it. And here I fhall not enter upon any long Account of the Cruelty of that Death, which has been thought fufficient by those whose kind of Punishment it was to give a general Name to the greatest Torments, by derivation from this one, as the highest and chiefest of all. The Wounds of the Hands and Feet, which the Nails made when he was faftned to the Cross; the Agonies and Convulsions of his whole Body, when he hung upon it; the flowness of dying, not to fay any thing of thofe Furrows, which in the Pfalmift's Speech,

they had before made with their Pfal. cxxix. Scourges upon his Back. All these 3.

fufficiently declare to us an extraordinary Suffering, and may warrant us to cry out with the Prophet, in the Reflection on it, Is it nothing to you,

all ye that pass by, behold and fee if there Jer. i. 12. any forrow like unto this forrow where

be

with the Lord afflicted his own Son in that day of his fierce anger.

3. And yet still all this was but the leaft part of his Paffion; and the anguish of his Soul, thofe unknown Sufferings he underwent within, far exceed whatever Torments his Enemies were able to put him to. They were these that made him Sweat great drops of Blood in the Garden, before ever the Officers had T 3

Luk. xxii. 44.

feiz'd

feiz'd him,

upon him.

Mat. xxvi.37. 38.

or begun to inflict the leaft Punishment They were thefe that made him not only declare to his Difciples, That his Soul was exceeding forrowful, even unto death; but carried him farther, in the bitterness of his Grief, to pray three Luk. xxii. 44. feveral times to his Father with the greatest importunity; That if it were poffible this Cup might pass from him. And when at laft it could not be, but that he must drink off the very dregs of it, forced that vehement Expoftulation from him, My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?

Mat. xxvii.

46.

It has been the rafhness of fome, from all these Expreffions of his Grief, but efpecially from the laft, to conclude, That our Saviour in his Paffion underwent all the Punishment that all the Elect of God fhould have fuffered for all their Sins; and in fhort, That he bore in his mind the very Pains and Torments of the Damn'd. But it is not necessary, nor indeed agreeable to a right Belief, to run to any fuch Extremity. His Sufferings were indeed great, but they were not fuch as either excluded him from the Love and Favour of God in the midst of them; nor accompanied with any defpair, which is always one, and that not the leaft part of the Sinner's torment in another World. He died, and went down into the Grave; but his A&s ii. 27. Soul was not left in the Regions of the dead, nor did his flesh see corruption. His Punishment was fhort in the duration, and the intenfenefs of it, though very grievous, yet no more than was agreeable to the Nature of a Man to bear: And we must not fo fpeak of the Sufferings of Chrift, as to forget, that though he was God when he underwent them, yet that he died, and fuffered as he was Man.

Thus

Thus therefore muft we call to mind the Paffion of our Blessed Lord: We must go through all the Stages of it with care and exactnefs; and neither diminish the Horror of what he endured by an imperfect Memorial of it, nor do violence at once both to the Nature and Innocence of Christ, by ftraining it up to a greater heighth than either the Authority of Holy Scripture, or the Honour of our Saviour, or his Humane Nature in which he fuffered, will permit us to do.

This is the Second thing we are to remember when we come to the Holy Table. The

Third and laft thing here required of us, is, Having called to mind the Sufferings of Christ, and the Evils from whence we are delivered by them, to confider finally, what the Benefits are that accrue to us thereby.

It is not to be doubted, but that there must be fomewhat very extraordinary for which the Son of God fhould himself come down from Heaven, and not only humble himself fo far as to take

upon him the form of a Servant, but be- Phil. ii. 7. ing made in the fimilitude of a Man, ex

pofe himself to all thofe vile and cruel Sufferings I but just now recounted. And indeed the Benefits which he purchased for us by his Death, were not at all inferior to the Punishment he underwent for the obtaining of them: And to speak them all in one general Conclufion, he purchafed the Redemption of a loft, miferable, finful World; we were all before dead in Trefpaffes and Sins; we are now raised to the Hopes and Affurance of Everlasting Glory.

But here therefore I will be a little more particular. And,

T 4

First,

First, By thefe Sufferings our Saviour Christ delivered us from the Curfe which defcended to us by our first Parents Tranfgreffion, and from that eternal Punishment which muft otherwise have been the confequence of it.

For not to enter now into any fcrupulous Enquiry concerning the Nature of Original Sin, or the Grounds upon which God is fuppofed to impute it to us: Or how far we fhould have been either condemn'd, or not for the actual Sin of Adam in eating of the forbidden Fruit: This at least cannot be doubted of by any, That our Nature is now much degenerated from that primitive Purity in which Man was at firft created; that we have all, the very beft of us, a ftrange Propenfity to Evil, and are born with an Impotency, if not Averfenefs to that Virtue and Piety, which the Principles of natural Religion, as well as of revealed require of us. So that if we fhould allow the contentious Difputers of our Days, that God will not impute Adam's Tranfgreffion to us for Sin, nor condemn us for a Defect which we are not our felves confenting to, but bring into the World with us; yet would this have ftood us but in very little ftead: Whilft we should every one of us have been Guilty of fo many Actual Sins, as had not Christ purchased a Redemption for us, muft for ever have funk us down into Ruine and Destruction. And certainly we ought then to esteem it no fmall Benefit of our Saviour's Paffion, that he has now delivered us from this Danger; and removed the fatal Neceffity we muft otherwife have lain under, of being for ever miferable, without all poffibility of preventing of it.

But

But this is only one Part, and that the first and leaft of thofe Bleffings which his Death and Paffion has obtained for us. For,

Secondly, Our Saviour Christ has not only delivered us from thofe Dangers to which we were before expofed; but he has put us in a new and better way of attaining to that, nay perhaps to a greater Happiness than what we fhould have had, if Adam had never finned, nor by confequence our Saviour Christ ever given himself an Offering for our Sins.

This is indeed the great Commendation of our Saviour's Love to us, that not content to deliver us from those Dangers that before threatned

us, He faves to the uttermost, those that Heb. vii. 25. come to him. And here to unfold the

Greatness of this Benefit, as I ought to do, I must run through all the excellent Advantages of that New-Covenant God entred into with us by the Blood of his Son. But this would carry me into an Argument, great indeed, and worthy your Attention, but beyond the Bounds of my prefent Difcourfe. In general,

*If to have a Syftem of the nobleft and most admirable Rules of Living that were ever communicated to the World; fuch, as by their own Excellence, no less than by God's Command, recommend themselves not only to our Practice, but to our Love too.

*If to be endued with a fupernatural, Divine Affiftance, to enable us to fulfil them, and overcome all thofe Temptations that may at any time feek to draw us from them.

* If to be affured, That upon our hearty Endeavours and earnest Prayers to God, this Grace of his shall still increase in us, according as we fincerely

apply