Attendants; but in the Hour of his Enemies, and approach of Danger, was Betrayed by One, Denied by Another, and Forfaken by All, his Difciples. If Pain, or Sickness, tempt us to repine; what Gout, what Stone, what Melancholy, can be more Afflicting, than the Tortures He went through, the acute Pangs of his dolorous Crucifixion, and the cutting Sorrows, which wounded his Soul even unto death? So far are our moft fenfible Afflictions fhort of that weight of Sorrow, with which it pleased the Lord to bruife this Son of his Love, in the Day of his fierce Anger. But, could we fuppofe them equal, yet, doth not This make a mighty difference, and ought it not to compofe our Spirits to Submiffion, that His Obedience was an act perfectly free, His Sufferings chofen, for Ours, and not his own Benefit? But We, alas! as Creatures, are entirely at the Mercy of our common Mafter, and Maker: As Sinners, bound to acknowledge the Righteoufne's of God, in all that is come upon us: To lay our Mouths in the Duft, and recollect with the penitent Thief, that We indeed are justly under the fame condemnation. For this Man did nothing amiss, but all that We receive, and a great deal more, God knows, than we can receive in this World, is but the due Reward of our evil Deeds. And doth a Man complain for the punishment of his Sin? Can Impatience, and Difcontent, and hard Accufations of that Providence, which difpofes all Events, become One, who in the courfe of Juftice, hath brought Mifery upon himself, by his own Fault? Can He murmur at this, which he suffers as a Principal, when fo much more was laid upon a Proxy? An innocent and infinitely better Proxy? Efpecially too, when the Wifdom and Goodness, no less than the Juftice, of God have their part in every fuch Difpenfation? For, as our Bleffed Master was in the bearing; fo is he likewife a Pattern in the Reward, of our Afflictions. And, in that regard,

Ee 4

Luke xx.i.

upon

regard, the Epiftle for the Day does likewife call us, to contemplate him in his Exaltation. And therefore I proceed now to explain very briefly, in the

II. Second place, What our Lord received, in recompence of his Humility and Patience, and How this affures Us, of being rewarded like him.

1. Of Our Lord's Recompence we have an account in the 9th, 10th, and 11th Verfes: Which acquaint us, that it confifted in an exceeding high Exaltation of him, far above any the most excellent Creatures; in making him the Sovereign Ruler of the whole World; in giving him a Title to the humbleft Adoration; and in the Publication of his Gofpel, and his Glories, over the Face of the whole Earth.

But, in what refpect and capacity thefe Honours were conferred on Christ, is the main Point to be attended to, in the Cafe now under Confideration. As God, they could not be conferred: For his Glory, in this regard, was perfect before. He could not thus receive any Reward, any Increase of Honour. That fupreme and abfolute Dominion was inherent and effential to him, That universal Adoration was his ftrict due, from all Eternity. Whatever Addition he was capable of, he must be capable of, as Man: The Elevation of his Human Nature is therefore the thing intended by the Apoftle. In this Nature it was, that He Obeyed, and Merited, and Suffered; In This, confequently it is, that he was Rewarded and Exalted. And a marvellous Exaltation it is, to place Human Nature upon the Throne of God; to fubject to This Angels, and Principalities, and Powers, Men and Devils, all things in Heaven, and in Earth, and under the Earth. A fuitable Reward to that Nature, which suffered fuch Indignities and Pains, for all the barbarous Treatment, and bitter Torments it endured here below; to fhine fo Bright, and partake in all the Majefty of the Son of God, He, by uniting it infeparably to his own Perfon, and thus vouchfafing to take part in its Infir

mities

mities and Sufferings; entituled this Human, now his Own likeness, to a fhare in all the Bliss and Glories of that Divine Nature, which was originally, and always, his own. So that he is not any more, as formerly he was, the Governor of the World, and the Object of Mens Worship, as God only, but as God and Man both. Than which nothing could more effectually conduce to the Glory of his Father; Because nothing could more illuftrate his Juftice, and Wisdom, and Goodness; nothing more undeniably demonstrate the Acceptance and Efficacy of that Redemption, fo admirably contrived, for abolishing the Guilt and Punishment of Sin, and retrieving the Immortality and Happiness of Mankind.

2. For, Secondly, This method of dealing with our Lord gives us all imaginable affurance, that They, who conform themselves to His Virtues, fhall be proportionably conformed to Him, in the Reward of Them. The Reafon is, because, in all he did and suffered for the Salvation of Men; And fo again, in all he received, by way of Recompence for thofe Actions and Sufferings; he acted not in any separate and perfonal Capacity, but all along sustained a publick Character. This Character is a Confequence of his Incarnation, the bleffed Effects whereof turn all upon This; That the Son of God tranfacted the whole Affair of our Redemption, in the Form and Nature of thofe He came to redeem. Had he therefore, at his entrance into the World, united himself to any One Man's Perfon, the Influence and Benefit accruing from fuch Union, must have been of extent, equal to that of the Union. That single Person, I mean, to whom he was united, and No other, could have been redeemed by it. But now our Bleffed Saviour, when he became Man, cloathed himself with a Body, formed in the Womb of the Virgin, by the Operation of the Holy Ghoft. His Perfon was ftill Divine, and the fame it ever had been. Only he united to it, and exhibited himself in, our Flesh; after a manner al

together

together extraordinary and miraculous. This was a taking upon him human Nature, and rendred him the common Reprefentative of all Mankind. In this is founded the Title, given him by this A1 Cor. xv. poftle, of the Second Adam. For, as all

Gen. i. 11.

Human Nature was included in Him, who himself defcended from none, and from whom all defcended: So was all Human Nature made anew, as it were, in Him, whose Human Body and Soul were as immediate a Work of God, as that, whereby our first Parents Body was formed out of the Duft of the Ground, and animated with the Breath of Life. As therefore all Mankind did virtually fin and dye in Adam, because the whole Human Nature was then in Him; fo are all Mankind virtually Righteous and reftored to Life in Chrift; because he took Human Nature at large; and what he did, and fuffered, and received in that Nature, are the Acts, and Sufferings, and Rewards, of Human Nature. Confequently All, who partake of this Nature, are not only certain of, but may in fome Senfe be faid already vefted in, the Happinefs, which Human Nature in Him, by already poffeffing it, fecures their common Right to. And thus far All fhall certainly partake of it. Death was the Punifhment of Sin: This is done away as effectually by the Second, as it had been introduced by the First Adam. Their Bodies and Souls both shall be restored to Life, and live for ever. But the Forgiveness of Sins, and the Happiness of Heaven, are promised upon certain Conditions. And therefore, though All fhall be immortal, yet only They, who perform the Conditions of the Gofpel, fhall be happy in that Immortality.

And This fhews us at once the Neceffity, and the Encouragement we all have, to imitate the Virtues, for which our Lord was fo confpicuous. The Neceffity, because nothing less than a Likenefs to his Excellencies, can advance us to a Likeness of that Blifs, which rewarded

warded them. The Encouragement, because he is entred into Heaven, not for himfelf, but Us: The Pledge of our Immortality and Glory, by our Nature being already Immortalized and Glorified. Let us not then think any thing too much, to do, or to endure, for our Duty, and the Good of Souls; fince where the Sufferings of Christ abound, his Confolations will much more abound. Let us read, and hear, and meditate on, the Scriptures commended to our Thoughts this Week, with Minds difpofed to form themselves upon the Model here before us. Let us carefully obferve the Interest we have in them; and reft perfectly fatisfied, That, by Virtue of that Union, which he in great Humility hath been pleafed to make, the Sufferings and the Rewards of Chrift's Human Nature fo far belong to Us, and all Mankind; that all, who follow the Example of his Patience, fhall undoubtedly be Partakers of his Refurrection. Which he of his Infinite Mercy grant, who was dead and is alive again, and liveth for evermore, and hath the Keys of Death and Hell. To whom with the Father, and Holy Spirit, Three Perfons and One God, be all Honour and Glory, Power, Praife and Dominion, World without end. Amen.

Collect.

Rev. i. 18.

"W

The GOSPEL.

Matth. xxvii. 1.

HEN the morning was come, all the chief priests and elders of the people took counsel against Jefus to put him to death.

2. And when when they bad bound him, they led him away, and delivered him to Pontius Pilate the Governor.

3. Then Judas, which had betrayed kim, when he saw that he was condemned, repented bimfelf, and brought again the thirty pieces of filver to the chief priests and elders,

4. Saying, I have finned, in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they faid, What is that to us? fee thou to that.

5. And be caft down the pieces of filver in the Temple, and departed, and went and banged bimfelf.