152 The remembrance of Christ's love, &c. Not worthy to ftand among thy fervants, and yet thou wouldst have me fit with my Redeemer! Not worthy to lye at thy footstool, and yet thou would make my heart thy throne! Not worthy to eat the bread of men, and yet thou calleft me to eat the bread of angels? O love worthy to be remembred to all generations! Lord, enlighten my eyes, and give me a clearer view of thy love, than ever I got; and while I am amufing on it, let the fire burn; O make heart burn within me with love to him that loved us. my O my foul, confider the greatnefs of Christ's love in the cup he drank for thee! How legible is it in his tefts and prayers, his groans and cries, his agony and fweat, his wounds and blood, and all for us? Olet this matchlefs love beget in me the warmest love and affection to him that loved us?-0 let the fire of Chrift's love burn up my lufts and worldly love like ftubble; and remove the coldness of my heart to him! Oh, that I could weep bitterly, that I cannot bring this vile heart of mine to love the Lord Jefus more! Oh, fhall I throw away my affec tions upon every worthlefs object, and yet have none for the lovelieft object of the whole creation of God; and yet one that would needs die for me, to become my random, facrifice, and atonement! Is it the character of those who are Chrift's spouse? Is it the character of the whole army of martyrs, and of every believer. to love Chrift, and fhall not I love himn too? Oh, the virgins love thee, the upright love thee; and every one of them cry, O thou whom my squl loveth; And fhall I not join those chafte lovers? Or fhall I be expofed to the terrible fate of those who want Yove to Chrift? Cor. xvi. 22. If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anaema, Marandiba.- that I could express my love to him in adorations and praises, in defiring his pre fence, loving his members, promoting his kingdom on earth, and longing to be with him forever. MEDITATION XXXI. He was wounded for our tranfgreffions. HOW OW amazing is the love of God to fallen me in taking a body to be pierced and wounded for him! man did caft off the image of his maker, and became a rebel and run-awy from God: And, behold, his maker takes on him man's image to reftore him again to favour: Yea, he affumes our nature, when at the lowell, that fo he might figh, groan, grieve, weep, forrow, fweat, bleed and die for undone men; and he did this, to raise him from his miferable state, to a happier condition than he was in before his fall.. Had not God became man, we could not have enjoyed him fo nearly, fo familiary as we may do now. The enjoyment of God as a redeemer, a husband, a brother, is another manner of enjoyment of him that of God as a creator. Tho' we ruin ourselves, and fell under wrath, yet God, by the incarnation, has recovered us, and made us up far above all we had to loofe. But, ere this be done, he must not only be man, but he must be wounded for and by man's fins; yea, wounded to death, and crucified, before men could be raised up to live with God. Many, yea innumerable, were the wounds my God redeemer received for me; as, by the thorns that pricked his head, by the pincers that plucked his hair, by the fcourge that tore and furrowed his back; befides the five big wounds made in his hands and feet by the four nails, and in his fide by the fpear; and the many wounds given his foul by the curfes of the law. Now, all thofe wounds are opened as fo many mouths to call us to flee unto them for fafety from the fword of juftice.- Now thefe wounds were unfpeakably painful, being envenomed by our fins. Crucifying, in itfelf, was an exceeding painful death; the four big nails whereon the body hung, pierced the most finewy and nervous parts of the body, and confequently moft fenfible of pain:: And hence the Romans expreffed torment by a word borrowed from the crofs; and make Cruciate fignify to Torment. Thus was our innocent Saviour wound. ed on the cross, cruciate or tormented 'and all tó fave us from eternal torments. Aftonishing fight! The eternal Son of God, whom all the angels worship, wounded to death, hung by nails on a cross, tortured and racked for feveral hours; and, in the mean time laden with reproach and scorn from those he died for! Never fuch a fight as this! It ftruck terror in the whole creation. The fun hid his face, and could not behold it, the vail of the temple rent in twain, the earth quaked, the rocks rent, the dead were moved, and their graves opened: And even his enemies were ftruck with amazement, and made to flirink, and fay, Truly this was a righ teous perfon; this was the Son of God. O my foul, employ all thy faculties, all thy thoughts, to study, pore, and penetrate into this awful fubject, it deferves the profoundest regard and clofeft attention: Hence the great apoftle determined to study and know no. thing but it. This amazing tragedy ought to create in me the greatest abhorrence of fin, the cause of it. Never can fin appear more exceeding finful, and hateful, than in the wounding and crucifying of the Son of God. Our tranfgreffions were the nails and fpear that wounded his facred body, and the fword that pierced his foul. These were the Judas' that betray. ed him, the foldiers that bound him, blindfolded and mocked him, the Pilate that condemned him, the excutioners that nailed him to the curfed tree: It was bur fins that put the fword in his enemies hands, he became a curse for us. All the derifion, mockery, ind contempt; all the pain, fuffering and forrow he endured, did proceed from our fins; these brought hinr o the crofs, and to the grave. -Let us then turn ur hatred, and discharge our fierceft indignation arainft our fins, let them be our averfion and dread for ever; let me always look on fin that crucified Chrift, with horror and trembling. Never fuch an inftance of the ftrictness and severity of God's juflice, and his abhorrence of fin as here! He would not pare his dear Son, when he flood in the room of inners, not fpare him one ftripe or wound, when he cried; but let him bleed, and die, till fin was fully atoned for! can I fee this and not cry, O curfed fin! murderer of the Son of God; away with it; away with it; crucify it, crucify it. Oh my foul, fee the evil of fin in the glafs of Chrift's wounds, and fufferings in his body and foul! Say, O fin, what haft thou done! Thou haft provoked the God of heaven to fiery indignation! Thou hast killed the prince of life, turned angels into devils, filled the earth with troubles, and hell with precious fouls! If any body had killed my father, would I embrace the murderer, or love the dagger that was befmeared with his blood? But what re all my relations to my Lord, my love that was crucified! O that my eyes were fountains of tears, that I might weep day and night for my fins that New my Saviour! Oh, ftony heart, for fhame, be 156 Christ's wounds show the evil of Sin. come now like wax, and be melted in the midst of my bowels! Wee's me, that I can grieve no more for my fins. Let me at least revenge my Saviour's death upon my fins, and fuffer them no longer to live in me. How dreadful muft the guilt of those be who wil lingly harbour fin, and delight in the murder of our Lord! It is no lefs than to kifs the nails, or to hug the fpear that pierced him. They make that ther joy which made Chrift a man of forrow! They make light of that which made his foul heavy unto death Oh, have I feen my Saviour bleeding to death by fi and Iball I live any longer in fin that wounded him? When a temptation to fin is prefented, fhall I ever difpute any more, whether Chrift or Barabbas, fhall be preferred? My lufts denied, or my Lord crucified? Whether thefe fins fhall be forfaken by me, that made Chrift to be forfaken of God? Whether that fhall be fweet to me, that was fo bitter and deadly to him? Oh, was my lovely Jefus a man of forrows all his life, and fometimes made to fay, My foul is exeeed. ing forrowful; and fhall not 1 be forry for, and abhor thofe fins that caused all his forrows.. O may the believing view of Chrift's wounds and fufferings, which he endured for my fins, and to fave me from that wrath which they deserved; kindle the fire of love in my foul to Chrift.--Lord thou art the God that wont answer thy people by fire? 0 pity me, and anfwer my meditations and prayers, by kindling only fire of love in my heart, and let that fire put out the impure fire of my lufts and corruptions, and inspire me with holy zeal and activity in thy fervice. O did Chrift freely give himself to be a fin offering for me; and fhall not I give myself a thank-offering to him? Surely it is highly reasonable 1 |