(3.) His afflictions were of the fevereft kind. This I might show you, at large, from the hiftory, by particularizing them all I only mention four, poverty, reproach, temptation, and fympathy with others. He was fo poor, as to depend upon the charity of others for his fubftance; and could fay, Luke ix. 58. "Foxes have holes, and birds "of the air have nefts, but the Son of man hath not where "to lay his head."-Reproach was thrown upon him without measure, and of the worst kind. He was called a glutton and a wine-bibber, a deceiver, a blafphemer, a Samaritan, and one that had a devil. Now, my brethren, all that know any thing of human nature, know that reproach and contempt are perhaps the hardest to bear of any fufferings to which we are expofed; and the authors of these calumnies were fuch whofe circumftances rendered them most sharp and severe; for they were the Scribes and Pharifees, or the ministers of those times, who served in the temple, as the whole hiftory fhows, and his own natural relations, as appears from Mark iii. 21. John vii. 3, 4, 5.-Another remarkable affliction our Lord endured, was temptation, and that of the groffeft kind, as is plain from Matth. iv. 3,-11. We are told, "he was in all "points tempted like as we are, yet without fin." What was the precife nature and influence of fuch temptations on him, we cannot know; only it deferves notice on this particular, that whereas fome of the other afflictions he endured, were fuch as his perfect purity could not but render more tolerable than otherwife they would have been, this on the other hand, was fuch, that by how much the more pure and holy he was, fo much the more distress would he feel on being affaulted with the vile temptations of the devil, and having his horrid and abominable fuggeftions prefented to the fancy.I only further mention his fufferings, from fympathy with others. The most excellent and worthy of the human kind are fuch as have the tendereft feelings of the fufferings of others. Now, fince he was a perfect man, fince tenderness seems to have been his ruling character, and his errand into the world a meffage of love flowing from infinite compaffion as its caufe, we muft fuppofe him liable to the fevereft fuf

ferings of this kind. I know the hard-hearted, felfifh world, will find it difficult to conceive this as a fource of fevere fuffering, especially fuch as have no regard to any thing beyond this world. But this is not the cafe with all; for I am certain there are fome whofe fharpest pangs have been occafioned by the fufferings of others, especially when of a fpiritual kind. To form fome conception of this, let us imagine, what must be the anguish of a pious and affectionate parent, on the death of a wicked child, who apparently trod in the path of the deftroyer, and of whom he hath the greatest reafon to fear, that he no fooner closed his eyes on the light of this world, than he lifted them up in the torments of hell. Now, as compaffion was stronger in none than in the man Christ Jefus, so none could have fo clear a view of the mifery of thofe who were the objects of it; and therefore, no doubt, this was a fource of the deepest affliction to his foul.

(4.) In the last place, the afflictions of our Lord not only continued but increased, through his life, till they, at last, iffued in an extraordinary conflict with the powers of darkness, and an immediate fubjection to the wrath of a fin avenging God. Let it be obferved, that though I here mention particularly his enduring the wrath of God, as the laft and finishing part of his fufferings, I do not mean to confine his fufferings from the hand of God to this feason. Without all question, every part of his humiliation was fatisfactory to the divine juftice, and contributed to appease the wrath of God. This cup was put to his mouth fo foon as he affumed our nature; he continued to drink of it daily, and was therefore juftly ftiled a man of forrows; but, in the clofe of life, he came to drink off the very bittereft dregs of it. The waves of divine wrath went over him; and he waded ftill deeper and deeper in this troubled ocean, till he was well nigh overwhelmed. That Chrift fuffered under the wrath of God in an eminent degree, is manifeft both from the prophecies of the Old Teftament, and the relation given of the event in the New. Ifa. liii. 5-10. "But he was wounded "for our tranfgreffions, he was bruifed for our iniquities: "the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with

"his ftripes we are healed. All we, like fheep, have gone aftray; we have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. "He was oppreffed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened "not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the flaughter "and as a sheep before her fhearers is dumb, fo he open"eth not his mouth. He was taken from prifon and from judgment: and who fhall declare his generation? for "he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the "tranfgreffion of my people was he ftricken. And he "made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in "his death, because he had done no violence, neither was

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any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleafed the Lord to "bruise him he hath put him to grief: when thou fhalt “make his foul an offering for fin, he shall see his feed, he "fhall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord fhall "profper in his hand." See the relation of his fufferings in the garden, Matth. xxvi. 38, 39. "Then faith he un"to them, my foul is exceeding forrowful, even 'unto "death: tarry ye here, and watch with me. And he "went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, faying, O, my Father! if it be poffible, let this cup pass "from me! nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt!" Mark xiv. 33, 34, 35, 36. “And he taketh with him Peter, and James, and John, and began to be fore ama"zed, and to be very heavy, and faith unto them, my foul "is exceeding forrowful unto death! tarry ye here, and "watch: and he went forward a little, and fell on the "ground, and prayed, that if it were poffible the hour "might pafs from him! And he faid, Abba, Father, all "things are poffible unto thee: take away this cup from "me! nevertheless, not what I will, but what thou wilt!" Luke xxii. 43, 44. "And there appeared an angel unto "him from heaven, ftrengthening him; and, being in "an agony, he prayed more earnestly! and his sweat was, as it were, great drops of blood falling down to the ground!"

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That the fame deep diftrefs of foul continued upon the cross, is plain from this lamentable exclamation, Matth. xxvii. 46. "And, about the ninth hour, Jefus cried with

"a loud voice, faying, Eli, Eli, lamafabachthani! that "is to fay, my God, my God, why haft thou forfaken me!" In what manner, precifely, Chrift fuffered the wrath of God on this occafion, it would be too bold for us to determine; whether it was only God's withdrawing from his human foul the comforts of his fenfible prefence-his being affaulted and diftreffed with the infernal fuggestions of the devil-his having a lively picture prefented to his imagination of the miferies of mankind here, and hereaf ter, on account of fin, and fuffering with them by compaffion and sympathy-or, finally, God's pofitively inficting upon him, for a feafon, the fame punishment in kind, at leaft, if not in degree, that fhould have befallen thofe for whom he fuffered, and which the impenitent fill fhall for ever endure: This laft is by fome fuppofed impoffible and contradictory, as much of their mifery arifes from an evil confcience, from which he was abfolutely free; and from defpair of mercy, which none will affirm that even God's defertion of him at that awful feafon did imply. It is probable, there was a mixture of all these particulars in his mingled cup. And, as to the laft, I fhall only fay, that the pain and anguish that follows any reflection of a rational foul is only connected with it by the determination of God the Creator of our fpirits: therefore it was certainly in the power of the Almighty to inflict a fenfe of pain in any kind, or in any degree, on the holy created foul of the man, Chrift Jefus. And I fee no other contrariety to the divine perfections, in inflicting that very anguish on the holy and innocent Saviour, than in fubftituting him in our room at all, and bruifing him for our iniquities. One thing is certain, that, in his life, and at his death, he fuffered what was a full reparation of the difhonor done to God; a fufficient vindication of the purity of his nature and the authority of his broken law, and what purchased pardon and peace, fan&tification, and eternal glory, to a whole world of elect finners.

And now, my brethren, from this view, did not our Redeemer travel in the greatnefs of his ftrength? Was it a fmall ftrength that could go through all this track of fuffering, without finking in the way? Yet this did he with VOL. II. E

unfhaken conftancy; and, as his giving up his life was the last part of it, fo he expired not, before he could say, IT IS FINISHED! Well, then, might the answer be given to the queftion in my text, Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? this that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength? in the words that follow, "I that fpeak in righte"oufnefs, mighty to fave."

We proceed to obferve in the third place, that the glory of our Redeemer in his fufferings, appears from the purity of his carriage, and the perfection of his patience under them. The former confideration fhows his natural ftrength, (fo to fpeak) and this his moral excellence. Af fliction is the touchstone of virtue, tries its fincerity, and illuftrates its beauty. Therefore we are told, Heb. ii. 10. "That it became him, for whom are all things, and by "whoin are all things, in bringing many fons unto glory, "to make the captain of their falvation perfect through "fufferings." Nothing could give a greater value to the facrifice he offered up, than the meeknefs and patience with which he refigned that life which was not forfeited, but voluntarily furrendered. Ifa. liii. 7. "He was op"preffed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his "mouth he is brought as a lamb to the flaughter, and as

a fheep before her fhearers is dumb, fo he opened not "his mouth." It is worth while to reflect, on that continued and invincible patience with which he went through the feveral steps of his fufferings: that reproach and calumny, that contempt and abufe, which he met with from thofe in whose interest he was fo deeply engaged, did not excite his indignation, but his compaflion. Luke xix. 41. "And when he was come near, he beheld the city and "wept over it, faying, if thou hadst known, even thou, at "leaft in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes." When his ignorant difciples would have defended him from the affaults of his enemies, he fays, John xviii. 11.-" The

cup which my Father hath given me, fhall I not drink "it?" When he entered upon the laft and heaviest part of his fufferings, and began to feel their anguifh, he fays,