CHAPTER XI.

On the Death of Christ.

"BEHOLD, and see, if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the Lord afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger."

No, my Jesus, never was sorrow like thine. Thou barest the griefs of millions; griefs which would have sunk those millions into insufferable woe. Omnipotence itself groaned under the tremendous load, which forced from thy pure and perfect body, not common sweat, (the curse inflicted with human labour,) but a dreadful sweat, bursting forth in great drops of agonizing blood. O what a doleful cry didst thou utter, and who but thyself can conceive those (to us unknown) pangs and sufferings, which forced from thy sacred lips, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me!"

The meditation of thy sufferings and death is painful in the sympathy of nature; yet I cannot wish that thou hadst not endured them, nor didst thou fully wish it for thyself. Thou wast contented to be betrayed into the hands of sinful men for this very purpose. It was by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, that all the parts of this solemn event were transacted. And it is for the everlasting interest of me and of thousands, that all the Scriptures concerning thee were thus awfully fulfilled.

Lord, what is sin, that thou thyself couldst not be spared; when, from the souls of thy people, it was taken off and laid upon thee? Can any thing more solemnly describe the hatred of the divine nature to sin, and the severity of the divine justice upon account of it, than the pangs, the horrors, the cries of thee, my Jesus, thou suffering Son of God? And if thou wert sacrificed for sin, who in thyself knewest no sin, what shall become of those who reject thy saving sacrifice, and yet all the while have nothing but sin in themselves?

Who could support such excruciating tortures, unassisted and uncomforted as thou wert, even upon a just account? It was not in the power of a creature to sustain thine inward griefs, thine outward torments, and the entire dereliction or forsaking of God, of men, and of nature, all together and at once, as thou didst sustain them, upon any account or motive in the world. But thou enduredst the whole with dignified complacency and satisfaction, even for thine enemies, to convert them into friends, and to make rebels and apostates heirs of God, and joint-heirs with thyself of an eternal weight of glory. May I not turn thine own words and say, "Behold, and see, was there ever love like thy love, which thou showedst for thy people, when the Lord afflicted thee in the day of his fierce anger?"

Lord, how shall I speak, and what shall I say to these things? Shall my incredulous heart be still backward to believe? If Jesus died for my sins, can I die for them too? If he freely bare the curse for my sake, will the justice of my God still

require the curse at my hands? If my iniquities were taken on himself by my Saviour, and he made a full and perfect atonement for them, can I dare to affront the divine Majesty by supposing, that he is yet so unrighteous as to charge them all again upon me? O forgive my hard and impenitent heart, that I should ever imagine such blasphemy against thy faithfulness and love; that I should even think that thou canst be so unjust and untrue, even in contradiction to thine own word, as to lay that still upon myself, which for my sake was entirely laid upon my dearest and most blessed Redeemer! Lord, I melt into tears of shame at myself, and into tears of comfort, upon the remembrance of all this thy kindness to my soul. Thy blood, O my Jesus, cleanseth from all sin; and if from all, what sin can possibly remain to be now imputed to me? O help, thou Mighty God, thou Prince of Peace, that I may no more be faithless, but believing!

CHAPTER XII.

On the Resurrection of Christ.

NEVER fact was more strongly and undeniably established than this. Divine Providence ordained

that it should be so; because upon this great truth depend all the assurance and efficacy of our redemp"If Christ be not raised," says the Apostle, faith is vain; ye are yet in your

tion.

your

sins."

But is there no proof of Christ's resurrection, but the historical evidence? Yes, blessed Lord, as thou givest thy people to know of the doctrine of salvation, that it is thine, by the demonstration of the Spirit; so thou affordest to them a most convincing testimony, that thou art indeed risen from the dead, by their super-resurrection from the death of trespasses and sins. If thou hadst not been raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, it would have been impossible for any of them to have either received or walked in the newness of life. Their being spiritually quickened with thee, is a proof in itself of thy glorious resurrection, and a confirmation to their souls, that they are thine own unalienable inheritance, and that therefore they shall live with thee for ever.

Thou hast truly and graciously said, “I am the Resurrection and the Life; he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in me, shall never die." Lord, I was long, and too long, dead to God and dead to thee, shut up under the ban of the law through sin, yet, like a dead carcass to all outward impressions, utterly insensible to my alienation and separation from thy life and peace. I was dead also to my own true interest and everlasting concerns, and alive only to sin, and to the service of the lord of sin, without perceiving his bitter tyranny, and horrible designs: "So foolish was I and ignorant, yea, even as a beast before thee." The beasts indeed follow the end of their being, but I did not think upon mine. In tender mercy didst thou open mine eyes,

that I might know myself and my misery, and that I might behold thee as the only refuge and hope of my soul. Thou gavest me the powers of a new and spiritual life and then I ran towards thee with an affection I had never felt before, and desired to know more and more of thee and the power of thy resurrection, so that I might no longer live in or for myself, but in thy faith and for thy glory. All this was thy work, and thine alone. I might as easily have created a world, as thus have new-created myself, in opposition to the millions of hinderances from within and without. No: it was thou, my dearest Redeemer; it was thou that restored my soul, and led me in the paths of righteousness for thy name's sake; and therefore I trust, (and though I am sometimes afraid, yet still do I trust, and would trust again,) that "surely goodness and merey shall follow me all the days of my life, and that I shall dwell in the house of the Lord for ever."

O what an evidence of thy resurrection hast thou thus brought home to my heart! Confirmed as it is, by thy holy written word, it is demonstration itself, and is not to be argued away by all the corrupt reasonings of men. It is a demonstration both of word and of deed, of spirit and of life, of understanding and experience, of thy faithfulness and truth, and of all my blessed and joyful interest therein. "Sing, O ye heavens, for the Lord hath done it shout ye lower parts of the earth: break forth into singing, ye mountains, O forest, and every tree therein; for Jehovah hath redeemed Jacob, and glorified himself in Israel.”