of his enemies, quite overturned. They not only, twitted him with the fuppofed meanness of his birth, faying, "Is not this the carpenter's fon?" Matth, xiii. 55. but reprefented him as a most dangerous perfon to fociety, both in a civil and religious view; as an enemy to Cefar, an enemy to the temple, and, of confequence, an enemy to that God by whom Cefar reigned, and by whofe glory the temple was filled. We found this fellow (faid they) per

verting the nation, and forbidding to give tribute. "to Cefar," Luke xxii. 2. and reviling him upon the cross, they faid, "Thou that deftroyeft the "temple, and buildest it in three days, fave thy"felf," Matth. xxvii. 40. In fine, our Lord in this mire funk deeper and deeper, as, under his fufferings, both his body and fpirit gave gradually way. As to the former, Ifaiah fpoke as if he had seen him in perfon, when finking in the mire of the horrible pit: "His vifage was fo marred (faid he) more than

any man, and his form, than the fons of men," If. lii. 14. accordingly the Pharifees feem to have confidered him as near twenty years older, than he really was, when they said, "Thou art not yet fifty years old, and haft thou feen Abraham?" John viii. 57. And with refpect to his fpirit, it is abundantly plain from his whole ftory, that it proportionally yielded under the oppreffive, unbearable load of his fuffering. What elfe could be the meaning of his fighs, groans, cries, forrows, and griefs, alternately interfperfed with every period of his continuance in the horrible pit and miry clay ?

The mire in the bottom of fuch pit, ciftern or bafon, not only yields, but holds. There is not only no ftanding in it, but no efcape from it, being a miry, flicking, entangling clay. Which ferves to inform us, that though, in his humiliation, our Lord was not compelled, but intirely chearful, yet he

was

was held in the mire of the pit, until the time fpecified by the covenant, for his deliverance from it. The Father's will had a very holding influence upon him; as a motive full of power; a motive, the force whereof no circumstance could break. Having faid, "Lo, I come in the volume of the "book it is written of me: I delight to do thy "will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my "heart," Pfal. xl. 7, 8. having faid fo, he not only could not, in point of obligation, but would not in point of choice, refile or go back. "The

cup (faid he) that the Father hath given me, "fhall I not drink it," John xviii. 11. and again, "Father, if this cup may not pafs from me, ex66 cept I drink it, thy will be done," Matth. xxvi. 42. The honour of his Father's law held him in this miry clay the requifition of suffering and obedience, made by it, was fo fupported by divine juftice, that it was impoffible, in any confiftency, with regard to these, for him to do otherways than abide in that mire, finking and dangerous as it was, until both fhould fay, It is enough. For "he

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came, not to deftroy the law, but to fulfil it," Matth. v. 17. not only to fulfil the demands of the law, in way of obedience; but to fecure the honour and majefty of it, by fuffering what ranfomed finners, through difobedience, would have otherways been fubjected unto. The falvation of his people was another circumftance, by which the feet of Chrift were held in the mire of the pit. His errand was to feek and fave them, as loft finners, Matth. xviii. 11. Nothing less than doing and fuffering, to the whole extent of what the will, law and juftice of the Father required, was fufficient to reach that noble, neceffary and generous end and therefore, as he loved them; as he commiferated their fituation; as he willed their reco

very; as his whole heart was fet on their whole re demption; and as he was determined, that no foul the Father had given him, fhould be loft; his flicking as well as finking in the miry clay, was quite inevitable. His own honour was a crowing circumftance, by which our Lord's feet were held faft in this clay, while they funk deep into the mire. He had faid it, and therefore would not, could not, go back; he had fworn it, and therefore it was impoffible for him to make enquiry: and as in the faith of his doing as he had faid, the Father had, for fome thousands of years before the fulness of the times, been continually faving finners, and receiving them to his glory; his fenfe of honour, and regard to his covenant engagements, were too delicate and ftrict, to leave the fmalleft poffibility of his failing, in the leaft iotta, of all he had undertaken to do and fuffer. Nay, fo much did he enter into the fpirit of his work, and keep the ends of his humiliation in view, that, until all the prophecies concerning his fufferings were accomplished, he could not, would not, leave the miry clay; for when at the very point of death, ready, just ready, to expire, "That the fcriptures "might be fulfilled, he faid, I thirst," John xix. 28. The fcripture to which our Lord then referred, is written in the lxix pfalm and 21 verse, in thefe words, "They gave me gall for my meat, "and in my thirft they gave me vinegar to drink.” Had it not been out of more regard to the fulfilment of the holy fcriptures, than to the gall and vinegar, it is certain, the bleeding Lamb had not thus expreffed himself; but he knew that this, as well as other propheties, behoved to take place; and therefore was held in the mire of the pit, until the homely punge was prefented, and the dreadful potion received; when, in the language of in{piration,

fpiration, he could, with respect to all that was written in Mofes, the prophets and the pfalms, concerning him, fay "It is finifhed," John xix. 30. To all this it inay not improperly be added, that our Lord's future reward, as Man Mediator, had its own influence on keeping him in this miry clay, until he had finished the work and warfare to which his approaching reward had a refpect; "Who (in the words of the apoftle) for the joy "that was fet before him, endured the cross, defpifing the shame," Heb. xii. 2. But,

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However long a perfon, literally, in fuch a pit and mire might live, in the nature of the thing, he behoved to die there; beautifully and fignificantly pointing out the death and burial of Jefus Chrift. For, however long he weathered out the ftorm, it overcame him at laft. The waters of wrath rufhing down overflowed him; and the miry clay continuing to yield, buried him. The first of thefe, in the facred page, is expreffed by his "giving, or yielding, up the ghoft," John xix. 30. The human foul and human body of the heavenly Man were fairly parted. He that went continually about doing good, lay a pale, breathlefs, and exanimate corpte: his tongue, that fpake as never man did, was filenced: his eyes, that never beheld the needy with indifference, were closed: his hands, fo often employed in offices of kindness, lo! they fall down all lacerate and torn: his feet, that never failed to carry him about his Father's bufinefs; behold them gored with blood, and gafhed with nails! his facred temples, fee how they bleed from countless pores! while ftreams of blood befpattering his other members, and staining all his raiment, flow from his facred fide! and to deepen the awful tragedy, you cannot but obferve, how his murderers turned him out of his

very garments, and made a prey of his clothing. Ah! is this naked, this wounded, this mangled and outcaft piece of clay, the very Jefus of Naza, reth, fo mighty once in word and deed! Yes, my brethren, there and thus he lies, but lies as the covenant reprefentative of loft finners; nor could it be otherways, fince he trode the wine-prefs of the Father's wrath alone. See, fee, the victim falls the facrifice flain! the fcene of life, as to him, in a fuffering capacity, closed! and to crown the whole, the curtain of the grave, by and by falls! For as he died, fo'the evangelifts affure us he was buried; was decently wrapped up in clean linen, conveyed to Jofeph of Arimathea's family tomb; laid in a new niche of the rock, never before ftained with dead bodies; and shut in by a great ftone rolled to the mouth of the fepulchre. But, do ye not fee thefe daughters of Jerufalem following the folemn proceffion, clothed in fable weeds, and drenched in floods of tears? do ye not hear his mother fobbing out a grief, too big for utterance? while her companions in forrow, Mary Magdalene, and other great debtors to free grace, can only express their tender feelings by fighs and groans. But hark! what meant that horrid crash, and what yonder univerfal gloom? The earth fhook, my brethren, the rocks rent, and the fun, for a time, hid his face; all nature appeared in mourning robes, from the fixth to the ninth hour of the day; and no wonder, when he, who in his divine character, was, is, and continues the God of univerfal nature, fuffered, and fuffered unto death.

SECT. III.

From the two preceeding fections, true Chriftians cannot do otherwife than infer the love and

grace