sures with inimitable patience !—If excuses no more. for the salvation of God. Affect HYMN. 66 My Father!" thus the Saviour cried While horrors pressed on every side, And prostrate on the ground he lay,— "Remove this bitter cup away. "But if these pangs must still be borne, Then though, like Him, in dust we lie, § LXXXV. CHAP. XXVI. 47-56. 47 And while he yet spake, lo, Judas, one of the twelve, came, and with him a great multitude with swords and staves, from the chief my heart with religious fear, and priests and elders of the peo ple. let thy humble passion kill my 48 Now he that betrayed him gave them a sign, saying, Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is he: hold him fast. T 49 And forthwith he came to Jesus, and said, Hail, master; ' and kissed him. 50 And Jesus said unto him, Friend, wherefore art thou come? Then came they, and him. laid hands on Jesus, and took | What shall we think of Judas who betrayed him? of the officers who apprehended him? of the chief priests and elders who accused him? what shall we think of the rabble who preferred a murderer before him, and cried out Crucify him, crucify him! What shall we think of Pilate who pronounced sentence upon him? And of the soldiers who put a crown of thorns upon his head, who stripped him, who mocked him, who spit upon him, who smote him upon the head, who fastened his blessed hands and feet unto the cross with nails driven through them? What shall we think, I say, of these? These certainly are far more odious to all good Christians than we can think them to be. Or rather, with what patience are we able to think of them at all? O generation of vipers! Who could ever have imagined that men, created after the image of God, could have had such venom and poison, such rancour and malice, so much of the spirit of the devil in them, as to sell their Redeemer, accuse their advocate, condemn their judge, destroy their Saviour, kill him that gave them life, and so do all the mischief they could do to him who did all the good that could be done for them? But we must not spend all our wrath and fury upon them, but remember that we ourselves had also a hand in that horrid act. t 51 And, behold, one of them which were with Jesus stretched out his hand, and drew his sword, and struck a servant of the high priest's and smote off his ear. 52 Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place; "for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword. 53 Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me ,more than twelve legions of angels? 54 But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, "that of them at all? thus it must be? 55 In that same hour said Jesus to the multitudes, Are ye come out as against a thief with swords and staves for to take me? I sat daily with you teaching in the temple, and ye laid no hold on me. 56 But all this was done, that the 'scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled. Then all the disciples forsook him, and fled. C Mark xiv. 43. Lake xxii. 47. John xviii. 3. Acts 1. 16- 2 Sam. xx. 9 Ps. xli. 9; & lv. 13.- John xviii. 10- Gen. ix. 6. Rev. xiil. 102 Kings vi. 17. Dan. vil. 10.-y ls. liii. 7, &c. ver. 24. Luke xxiv. 25, 44, 46. They indeed were the instruments; - Lam. iv. 20. ver. 54.-a See John xviii. 15. READER. And while he yet spake, lo, Judas one of the twelve came, &c. but the sins of men, and ours among the rest, were the principal causes of it: the consideration whereof is enough, one would think, to make us out of love with sin as long as we live, and to hate it with a perfect hatred, and ourselves also for the commission of it. Which that we may do, let us search into our hearts, review our lives, and bethink ourselves what sins we have commited against the eternal God; and remember these men, they which put our Saviour to so much grief and pain. These are they for which the Son of God was betrayed, apprehended, derided, accused, arraigned, condemned, and crucified. -BEVERIDGE. Forthwith he came to Jesus, and said, Hail master! and kissed him.And have we never thus betrayed him, even with a false and counterfeit devotion? Have we not too often pretended God's glory, when we have sought our own? And seemed to be zealous for religion, when it was only our own private interest we aimed at? Have we not professed love to the holy Jesus when at the same time we have most basely affronted him? Have we not drawn nigh unto him with our lips, when in conversation we have denied him? Have we not sometimes told him that we repented, when we have been loath to part with our darling bosom sin? Have we not sometimes kneeled under his cross, to express our veneration to him, when, in good truth, we have conspired against him with his cnemies? Have we not maintained a league with sin, while we have pretended, by bowing to the Son of God, that that league was broken and dissolved? What perfidiousness, what treachery, what dissimulation, have we been guilty of? Can we think of it, and not be concerned?-HORNECK. And Jesus said, Friend, wherefore art thou come? Then came they, and laid hands on Jesus, and took him.— Let us ponder and weigh the cause of his death, that thereby we may be the more moved to glorify him in our whole life. Which if you will briefly comprehend in one word, it was nothing else on our part but only the transgression and sin of mankind. When the angel came to warn Joseph that he should not fear to take Mary to his wife, did he not therefore will the child's name to be called Jesus, because he should save his people from their sins? When John the Baptist preached Christ and shewed him to the people with his finger, did he not plainly say unto them, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world? When the woman of Canaan besought Christ to help her daughter which was possessed with a devil, did he not openly confess that he was sent to save the lost sheep of the house of Israel, by giving his life for their sins? It was sin, then, O man, even thy sin, that caused Christ, the only Son of God, to be crucified in the flesh, and to suffer the most vile and slanderous death of the cross. If thou hadst kept thyself upright, if thou hadst observed the commandments, if thou hadst not presumed to transgress the will of God in thy first father Adam, then Christ, being in form of God, needed not to have taken upon him the shape of a servant; being immortal in heaven, he needed not to have become mortal on earth; being the true bread of the soul, he needed not to hunger; being the healthful water of life, he needed not to thirst; being life itself, he needed not to have suffered death. and many other such extremities was he driven by thy sin, which was so manifold and great, that God could be only pleased in him and none other.-HOMILY OF THE PAS SION. But to these And behold, one of them that were with Jesus stretched out his hand, &c. What preposterous means and ways do men make use of to effect their deliverance! These poor men hope to do wonders by smiting with the sword; a way neither warranted by any command of God, nor profitable. So the Jews, in the time of Jeremiah, thought that there was no way for them to escape but by fleeing into the land of Egypt.-And have not Christians very often, out of mistrust of God's Providence, made use of wrong means to compass their safety?-But what comfort can we take in deliverance compassed by sin? Or what satisfaction in a rescue effected by the devil's means, or, at least, by doing things acceptable to him?-HORNECK. But how then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled that thus it must be?-Who can consider the grievous debt of sin, which could none otherwise be paid but by the death of an innocent, and will not hate sin in his heart? If God hateth sin so much, that he would allow neither man nor angel for the redemption thereof, but only the death of his only and wellbeloved Son, who will not stand in fear thereof? If we consider this, that for our sins the most innocent lamb was driven to death, we shall have much more cause to bewail ourselves that we were the cause of his death, than to cry out against the malice and cruelty of the Jews, which pursued him to his death. We did the deeds for which he was thus stricken and wounded; they were only the ministers of our wickedness. It is meet then that we should step low down into our hearts, and bewail our own wretchedness and sinful living. Let us know for a certainty, that if the most dearly beloved Son of God was thus punished and stricken for sins which he had not done himself,-how much more ought we to be stricken for our daily and manifold sins which we commit against God, if we earnestly repent us not, and be not sorry for them? No man can love sin, which God hateth so much, and be in his favour. No man can say that he loveth Christ truly, and have his great enemy (sin, I mean, the author of his death) familiar, and in friendship with him. So much do we love God and Christ as we hate sin. We ought therefore to take great heed that we be not. favourers thereof, lest we be found enemies to God, and traitors to Christ. For not only they which nailed Christ upon the cross are his tormentors and crucifiers, but all they, saith St. Paul, crucify again the Son of God, as much as in them, who commit vice and sin, which brought him to his death. If the wages of sin be death, and death everlasting, surely it is no small danger to be in service thereof. If we live after the flesh, and after the sinful lusts thereof, St. Paul threateneth, yea, Almighty God in St. Paul threateneth, that we shall surely die. We can none otherwise live unto God but by dying unto sin. If Christ be in us, then is sin dead in us: and if the Spirit of God be in us, which raised Christ from death to life, so shall the same Spirit raise us to the resurrection of everlasting life. But if sin rule and reign in us, then is God, which is the fountain of all grace and virtue, departed from us; then hath the devil and his ungracious spirit rule and dominion in us. And surely, if in such miserable state we die, we shall not rise to life, but fall down to death and condemnation, and that without end. For Christ hath not so redeemed us from sin, that we may return thereto again; but he hath redeemed us, that we should forsake the motions thereof, and live to righteousness."-HOMILY OF THE PASSION. HYMN. By thy birth and early years, In the lonely wilderness ; By thy vict'ries in the hour By thy woe intensely great, By thy passion, cross, and cries; |
