nor doth Christ appeal to any other judicature, or once defire the least delay; but away he is hurried in hafte to the execution. Blush, O ye heavens! and tremble, O earth! at fuch a fentence as this! Now is Chrift dead in law; now he knows whither he must be carried, and that prefently. His foul and body muft feel that, the very fight of which put him into an agony but the night before.

Fourthly, and lastly, In what manner did Chrift receive this cruel and unrighteous fentence? He received it like himself, with admirable meeknefs and patience. He doth as it were wrap himself up in his own innocency, and obedience to his Father's will, and ftands at the bar with invincible patience, and meek fubmiffion. He doth not at once defire the judge to defer the fentence, much lefs fall down and beg for his life, as other prifoners ufe to do at fuch times. No, but as a fheep he goes to the flaughter, not opening his mouth. Some apply that expreffion to Chrift, Jam. v. 6. "Ye have condemned and "killed the Juft, and he refifteth you not." From the time. that Pilate gave fentence, till he was nailed to the cross, we do not read that ever he said any thing, fave only to the women that followed him out of the city to Golgotha and what he faid there, rather manifefted his pity to them, than any difcontent at what was now come upon him; 66 Daughters of Jerufa"lem, (faith he) weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, "and for your children," Luke xxiii. 28, &c. O the perfect patience and meeknefs of Chrift: The inferences from hence

are:

Inference 1. Do you fee what was here done against Christ, under pretence of law? What caufe have we to pray for good laws, and righteous executioners of them?

O! it is a fingular mercy to live under good laws, which protect the innocent from injury. Laws are hedges about our lives, liberties, eftates, and all the comforts we enjoy in this world. Times will be evil enough, when iniquity is not dif countenanced and punished by law; but how evil are those times like to prove when iniquity is established by law! As the Píal. mift complains, Pfal. xciv. 20. "It was the complaint of Pliny to Trajan, that whereas crimes were wont to be the bur "den of the age, now laws were fo; and that he feared the commonwealth which was established, would be fubverted by "laws *" It is not likely that virtue will much flourish, when

* Olim criminibus, jam legibus laboratur; et metuendum eft, ne refpublica fundata, fit legibus everfa. Plin. ad Trajan.

24.

"judgment fprings up as hemlock in the furrows of the field," Hof. x. 4. How much therefore is it our concernment to pray, that "judgment may run down as a mighty ftream?" Amos v. "That our officers may be peace, and our exactors righ"teoufnefs?" Ifa. lx. 17. It was not therefore without great reafon, that the apoftle exhorted, that "fupplications, prayers, "interceffions, and giving of thanks be made for all men; for "kings, and all that are in authority, that we may lead a quiet "and peaceable life in all godlinefs and honefty," 1 Tim. ii. 1,2. Great is the intereft of the church of God in them; they are inftruments of much good or much evil.

Inference 2. Was Chrift condemned in a court of judicature? How evident then is it, that there is a judgment to come after this life? Surely things will not be always carried as they are in this world. When you fee Jefus condemned, and Barabbas releafed, conclude, that a time will come when innocency shall be vindicated, and wickednefs fhamed. On this very ground, Solomon concludes, and very rationally, that God will call over things hereafter at a more righteous tribunal: "And moreover, "I faw under the fun the place of judgment, that wickedness "was there; and the place of righteousness, that iniquity was "there. I faid in my heart, God fhall judge the righteous, "and the wicked: for there is a time there for every purpose " and for every work," Ecclef. iii. 16, 17. Some indeed, on this ground, have denied the divine providence; but Solomon draws a quite contrary conclufion, God fhall judge: Surely, he will take the matter into his own hand, he will bring forth the righteousness of his people as the light, and their just dealing as the noon-day. It is a mercy, if we be wronged in one court, that we can appeal to another, where we shall be fure to be relieved by a juft impartial judge. "Be patient therefore, my "brethren (faith the apostle) until the coming of the Lord," James v. 6, 7, 8.

confcience may be overPilate's confcience bid bid him act: his fear of

Inference 3. Again, here you fee how born and run down by a fleshly intereft. him beware, and forbear; his intereft Caefar was more than the fear of God. But O! what a dreadful thing is it for confcience to be enfnared by the fear of man? Prov. xxix. 25. To guard thy foul, reader, against this mifchief, let fuch confiderations as these be ever with thee.

1. Confider how dear thofe profits, or pleasures coft, which are purchased with the lofs of inward peace! There is nothing in this world good enough to recompenfe fuch a lofs, or balVOL. I.

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SERM. XXIV. lance the mifery of a tormenting confcience. If you violate it, and prostitute it for a fleshly luft, it will remember the injury you did it many years after; Gen. xlii. 21. Job xiii. 26. It will not only retain the memory of what you did, but it will accufe you for it; Mat. xxvii. 4. It will not fear to tell you that plainly, which others dare not whifper. It will not only accufe, but it will alfo condemn you for what you have done. This condemning voice of confcience is a very terrible voice.

You may fee the horror of it in Cain, the vigour of it in Judas, the doleful effects of it in Spira. It will, from all these its offices, produce flame, fear, and defpair, if God give Lot repentance to life. The fame it works will to confound you, that you will not be able to lock up; Job xxxi. 14. Pfal. i, 5. The fear it works will make you with for a hole in the rock to hide you; Ifa. ii. 9, 10, 15, 19. And its defpair is a death. pang. The cutting off of hope, is the greatest cut in the world, O! who can ftand under fuch a load as this? Prov.

xvii. 14.

2. Confider the nature of your prefent actions; they are feed fown for eternity, and will spring up again in fuitable ef fects, rewards, and punishments, when you that did them are túrned to duft. Gal. vi. 7. "What a man fows, that fhall he "reap" And as fure as the harveft follows the feed time, fo fure fhall fhame, fear, and horror follow fin, Dan. xii. 2. What Zeuxis, the famous Limner, faid of his work, may much more truly be faid of ours, aeternitati pingo, I paint for eternity, faid he, when one asked him why he was fo curious in his work. Ah! how bitter will thofe things be in the account and reckoning, which were pleafant in the acting and committing? It is true, our actions, phyfically confidered, are tranfient; how foon is a word or action spoken or done, and there is an end of it? But morally confidered, they are permanent, being put upon God's book of account. O! therefore take heed what

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you do: fo fpeak, and fo act, as they that must give an ac

count.

3. Confider, how by these things men do but prepare for their own torment in a dying hour. There is bitterness enough in death, you need not add more gall and wormwood to add to the bitterness of it. What is the violencing and wounding of confcience now, but the fticking fo many pins or needles in your death-bed, against you come to lie down on it? This makes death bitter indeed. How many have wifhed in a dying hour, they had rather lived poor and low all their days, than to have

ftrained their confciences for the world? Ah! how is the face and aspect of things altered in fuch an hour.

No luch confiderations as these had any place in Pilate's heart; for if fo, he would never have been courted, or feared in fuch an act as this.

Inference 4. Did Chrift ftand arraigned and condemned at Pilate's bar? Then the believer shall never be arraigned and condemned at God's bar. This fentence that Pilate pronounced on Chrift, gives evidence that God will never pronounce fentence against fuch for had he intended to have arraigned them, he would never have fuffered Chrift, their furety, to be arraigned and condemned for them. Chrift ftood at this time before a higher judge than Pilate; he ftood at God's bar as well as his. Pilate did but that which God's own hand and counsel had before determined to be done, and what God himself, at the fame time, did; though God did it juftly and holily, dealing with Christ as a creditor with a surety; Pilate moft wickedly and bafely, dealing with Chrift as a corrupt judge, that shed the blood of a known innocent to pacify the people. But certain it is, that out of his condemnation flows our juftification: and had not fentence been given against him, it must have been given against us.

O what a melting confideration is this! that out of his agony comes our victory; out of his condemnation, our juftification; out of his pain, our eafe; out of his ftripes, our healing; our of his gall and vinegar, our honey; out of his curfe, our bleffing; out of his crown of thorns, our crown of glory; out of his death, our life: if he could not be released, it was that you might. If Pilate gave fentence against him, it was that the great God might never give fentence against you. If he yielded that it fhould be with Chrift as they required, it was that it might be with our fouls as well as we can defire. therefore,

Thanks be to God for his unspeakable gifts.

And

Remarks a memorable Paffage of CHRIST, in his Way to the Place of his Execution.

LUKE Xxiii. 27, 28, &c. And there followed him a great company of people, and of women, which also bewailed and lamented him. But Jefus turning unto them, faid, Daughters of Jerufalem weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children.

THE

HE fentence of death once given against Christ, the execution quickly follows. Away they lead him from Gabbatha to Golgotha, longing as much to be nailing him to the crofs, and feeding their eyes with his torments, as the eagle doth to be tearing the flesh, and drinking the blood of that lamb fhe hath feized in her talons, and is carrying away to the top of fome rock to devour.

The Evangelift here obferves a memorable paffage that fell out in their way to the place of execution; and that is, the lamentations and wailing of fome that followed him out of the city, who expreffed their pity and forrow for him most tenderly and compaffionately: all hearts were not hard, all eyes were not dry. "There followed him a great company of people, and "of women, which alfo bewailed and lamented him," &c.

In this paragraph we have two parts, viz. the lamentation of the daughters of Jerufalem for Chrift, and Christ's reply to them.

1. The lamentation of the daughters of Jerufalem for Christ, Concerning them, we briefly enquire who they were, and why they mourned.

(1.) Who they were? The text call them "* daughters, "i. e. Inhabitants of Jerufalem; for it is a Hebraifm; as daugh

ters of Zion, daughters of Ifrael." And it is like the greatest part of them were women; and they were many of them, a troop of mourners, that followed Chrift out of the city towards the place of his execution, with lamentations and wailings.

(2.) What the principle, or ground of these their lamentations was, is not agreed by thofe that have pondered the story.

QuyαTEDES Iεprσαλem, i. e. mulieres Hierofolymitanae: Hebraifmus; fic filiae TSionis. Pifcat, in loc.