The Fountain of Life Opened Up

They ring it from Pilate by mere clamor, importunity, and suggestions of danger. In courts of jurisdiction, such arguments should signify but little. Not importunity, but proof should prevail. But timorous Pilate bends like a willow at the breath of the people. He had neither such a sense of justice, nor courage as to withstand it. Number five. It was a hypocritical sentence, masking horrid murder under the pretense and formality of law. Low he was to condemn him, lest innocent blood should clamor in his conscience. But since he must do it, he will transfer the guilt upon them, and they take it. His blood be upon us, and our children forever, say they. Pilate calls for water, washes his hands before them, and declares, I am free from the blood of this just person. But stay, free from his blood, and yet condemn a known innocent person? Free from his blood, because he washed his hands in water? O the hypocrisy of Pilate! Such juggling as this will not serve his turn when he shall stand as a prisoner before him who now stood arraigned at his bar. Roman numeral four. In what manner did Christ receive this cruel and unrighteous sentence? He received it like himself, with admirable meekness and patience. He doth, as it were, wrap himself up in his own innocency and obedience to his father's will, and stands at the bar with invincible patience and meek submission. He doth not once desire the judge to defer the sentence, much less fall down and beg for his life, as other prisoners used to do at such times. No, but as a sheep he goes to the slaughter, not opening his mouth. From the time that Pilate gave sentence till he was nailed to the cross, we do not read that he said anything, save only to the women that followed him out of the city to Golgotha. And what he said there rather manifested his pity to them than any discontent at what was now come upon him. Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. Luke 23, 28, etc. O the perfect patience and meekness of Christ! Inference No. 1 Do you see what was here done against Christ under pretense of law? What cause have we to pray for good laws and righteous rulers? O it is a singular mercy to live under good laws, which protect the innocent from injury. Laws are hedges about our lives, liberties, and estates, and all the comforts we enjoy in this world. Times will be evil enough when iniquity is not discontented and punished by law. But how evil are those times like to prove when iniquity is established by law, as the psalmist complains. Psalm 94, verse 20 How much therefore is it our concern to pray that judgment may run down as a mighty stream. Amos 5, verse 24 That our officers may be peace, and our exectors righteousness. Isaiah 60, verse 17 It was not therefore without great reason that the apostle exhorted that supplications, prayers, intercessions, 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 godliness and honesty. 1 Timothy 2, verses 1 and 2 Great is the interest of the church of God in them. They are instruments of much good, or much evil. Number 2 Was Christ condemned in a court of authority? How evident then it is that there is a judgment to come. Surely things will not be always carried as they are in this world. When you see Jesus condemned and Barabbas released, conclude that a time will come when innocency shall be vindicated and wickedness shamed. On this ground Solomon concludes, and very rationally, that God will bring things hereafter to a more righteous tribunal. And moreover, I saw under the sun the place of judgment, that wickedness was there, and the place of righteousness, that iniquity was there. I said in my heart, God shall judge the righteous and the wicked. Ecclesiastes 3, verses 16 and 17 Some indeed, on this ground, have denied the divine providence. But Solomon draws a quite contrary conclusion. God shall 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 noonday. It is a mercy, if we be wronged in one court, that we can appeal to another, where we shall be sure to be relieved by a just impartial judge. Be patient therefore, my brethren, until the coming of the Lord. James 5, verse 7 Number 3 Again, here you see how conscience may be overborne by a fleshly interest. Pilate's conscience bid him beware and forbear. His interest bid him act. His fear of Caesar was greater than his fear of God. But, oh, what a dreadful thing is it for conscience to be ensnared by the fear of man. Proverbs 29, verse 25 To guard thy soul, reader, against this mischief, let such considerations as these be ever with thee. Consider how dear those profits or pleasures cost, which are purchased with the loss of inward peace. There is nothing in this world good enough to recompense such a loss, or balance the misery of a tormenting conscience. If you violate it for the sake of a fleshly lust, it will remember the injury many years after. Genesis 42, verse 21 Job 13, verse 26 It will not only retain the memory of what you did, but it will accuse you for it. Matthew 27, verse 4 It will not fear to tell you that plainly, which others dare not whisper. It will not only accuse, but it will also condemn you for what you have done. This condemning voice of conscience is a terrible voice. You may see the horror of it in Cain, the vigor of it in Judas, the doleful effects of it in Spira. It will produce shame, fear, and despair if God gives not repentance to life. The shame at works will so confound you that you will not be able to look up. Job 31, verse 14 Psalm 1, verse 5 The fear at works will make you wish for a hole in the rock to hide you. Isaiah 2, verses 9, 10, 15, and 19 And its despair is a death pain. O who can bear such a load as this? Proverbs 18, verse 14 Consider the nature of your present actions. They are seed sown for eternity and will spring up again in suitable effects, rewards, and punishments when you that did them are turned to dust. What a man sows, that shall he reap. Galatians 6, 7 And as sure as the harvest follows the seed time, so sure shall shame, fear, and horror follow sin. Daniel 12, verse 2 What Zacchaeus, the famous painter, said of his work, may much more truly be said of ours. I paint for eternity. Ah, how bitter will those things be in that day of reckoning which were pleasant in the acting! It is true, our actions, physically considered, are transient. How soon is a word or action spoken or done, and there is an end of it. But morally considered they are permanent, being put upon God's book of account. O therefore, take heed what you do. So speak, and so act, as they that must give an account. Consider 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 increase it. What is the forcing and wounding of conscience now, but putting thorns in your deathbed, against you come to lie down on it? This makes death bitter indeed. How many have wished in the dying hour that they had rather lived poor and low all their days than to have strained their consciences for the world. Ah, how is the aspect of things altered in that hour. 4. Did Christ stand arraigned and condemned at Pilate's bar? Then the believer shall never be arraigned and condemned at God's bar. This sentence that Pilate pronounced on Christ gives evidence that God will never pronounce sentence against such. For had he intended to have arraigned them, he would never have suffered Christ, their surety, to be arraigned and condemned for them. Christ stood at this time before a higher judge than Pilate. He stood 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 same time did. Though God did it justly and holily, dealing with Christ as a creditor with a surety. Pilate, most wickedly and basely, dealing with Christ 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 justification, and had not sentence been given against him, it must have been given against us. Oh, what a melting consideration is this that out of his agony comes our victory. Out of his condemnation, our justification. Out of his pain, our ease. Out of his stripes, our healing. Out of his curse, our blessing. 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 sentence against him, it was that the great God might never give sentence against you. Thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift. Chapter 25, page 301. Christ's address to the daughters of Jerusalem. And there followed him a great company of people and of women, which also bewailed and lamented him. But Jesus, turning unto them, said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. Luke 23, verses 27 and 28, etc. The sentence of death being given against Christ, the execution quickly follows. The evangelist here observes a memorable occurrence in their way to the place of execution. The lamentations and wailing of some that followed him out of the city, who expressed their pity and sorrow for him most tenderly and compassionately. All hearts were not hard, all eyes were not dry. There followed him a great company of people and of women, which also bewailed and lamented him. The text calls them daughters, that is, inhabitants of Jerusalem, like the expression daughters of Zion, daughters of Israel. There were many of them, a troop of mourners, that followed Christ out of the city towards the place of his execution, with lamentations and wailings. What the principle or ground of these lamentations was, is not agreed by those that have pondered the story. Some suppose their tears and lamentations were but the effects of their more tender and straightforward natures, which were moved and melted with so tragical and sad a spectacle as was now before them. But Calvin and others attribute it to their faith, regarding them as a remnant reserved by the Lord in that lamentable dispersion of Christ's followers. Christ's reply to them is, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me. Strange that Christ should forbid them to weep for him under such unparalleled sufferings and miseries. If ever there was a heart-melting sight, it was here. O who could refrain from weeping? Those that look upon their sorrow as merely natural, take Christ's reply in a negative sense, prohibiting such tears as those. They that expound their sorrow as the fruit of faith, tell us, though the form of Christ's expression be negative, yet the sense is comparative. Weep rather upon your own account than mine. Reserve your sorrows for the calamities coming upon yourselves and your children. You are greatly affected, I see, with the misery that is upon me, but mine will be quickly over, yours will lie long. In which he shows his merciful and compassionate disposition, who was still more mindful of the troubles and burdens of others than of his own. And indeed the days of calamity coming upon them and their children were doleful days. What direful and unprecedented miseries befell them at the breaking up and devastation of the city. Who hath not read or heard? Who can refrain from tears that hears or reads it? Now if we take the words in the first sense as a prohibition of their merely natural grief, expressed in tears and lamentations for him, just as they would have been upon any other like tragical event, then the observation from it will be, 1. That melting affections and sorrows, even from the sense and consideration of the sufferings of Christ, are no infallible signs of grace. If you take it in the latter sense as the fruit of their faith, as tears flowing from a gracious principle, then the observation will be, 2. That the believing meditation of what Christ suffered for us, is of great force and efficacy to melt and break the heart. I rather choose to prosecute both these branches, than to decide which is the true interpretation, especially as each of them may be useful to us. I begin with the first. Melting affections and sorrows, even from the sense of Christ's sufferings, are not infallible marks of grace. The truth of this proposition will appear from the following reasons. 1. Because we find all sorts of affections manifested by those, who have been but temporary believers. The stony-browned hearers, Matthew 13, 20, received the word with joy. And so did John's hearers, who for a season rejoiced in his light. John 5, 35. Now if the affections of joy under the word may be exercised, why not of sorrow also? 2. If the comfortable things revealed in the gospel may excite the one, by a parity of reasoning, the sad things it reveals may awaken the other. Even those Israelites, whom Moses told they should fall by the sword, and not prosper, for the Lord would not be with them, because they were turned away from him. When Moses rehearsed the message of the Lord in their ears, mourned greatly. Numbers 14, 39. I know the Lord pardoned many of them for their iniquities, though he took vengeance on their inventions. And yet it is as true, that with many of them God was not well pleased. 1 Corinthians 10, 5. Many instances of their weeping and mourning before the Lord, we find in the sacred history. And yet their hearts were not steadfast with God. 2. Because though the object about which our affections and passions are moved, may be spiritual, yet the motives and principles brought into exercise, may be but carnal and natural. When I see a person affected in the hearing of the word, or a prayer, even unto tears, I cannot at once conclude that this is the effect of grace. For it is possible the pathetical nature of the subject, the eloquence of the speaker, the affecting tone and modulation of the voice, may draw tears as well as faith. While Augustine was a Miniche, he sometimes heard Ambrose, and sayeth he, I was greatly affected in hearing him, even unto tears many times. Howbeit it was not the heavenly nature of the subject, but the abilities of the speaker, that so affected him. And this was the case of Ezekiel's hearers. Ezekiel 32, 33. 3. These motions of the affections may rather be a fit and mood, than the very frame and temper of the soul. There are seasons when the roughest and most obdurate heart may be pensive and tender, but that is not its temper and frame, but rather a fit, a pain, a transient passion. So the Lord complains of them, O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee? For your goodness is as the morning cloud, and as the early dew, it goeth away. Hosea 6, verse 4. And so he complains, When he flew them, then they saw him, and they returned and inquired early after God. And they remembered that God was their Rock, and the Most High God their Redeemer. Nevertheless, they did flatter him with their lips, and lied unto him with their tongues. Psalm 78, verses 34-36. Had this remembrance of God been the gracious temper of their souls, it would have continued with them. They would not have been thus wavering and lukewarm. Inference number 1. If such as sometimes feel their hearts melted with the consideration of the sufferings of Christ may yet be deceived, what cause have they to fear and tremble, whose hearts are unrelenting as the rocks, yielding to nothing that is proposed or urged upon them? How many such are there, of whom we may say, as Christ said of the Jews, We have piped unto you, but ye have not danced. We have mourned unto you, and ye have not lamented. Matthew 11, verse 17. If those perish that have rejoiced under the promises and mourned under the threats of the world, what shall become of them that are totally unconcerned and unmoved by what they hear, who are given up to such hardness of heart that nothing can affect them? One would think the consideration of the sixth chapter of the epistle to the Hebrews should startle such individuals and make them cry out, Lord, what will become of such a senseless, stupid, dead creature as I am? If they that have been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come, may, notwithstanding, so fall away that it shall be impossible to renew them again by repentance. What shall we say then, or think, of the state of those to whom the most penetrating and awakening truths are no more than a tale that is told? Number two. If such as these may eternally miscarry, then let all look carefully to their foundation. It is manifest from 1 Corinthians 10, verse 12, that many souls stand exceeding dangerously who are yet satisfied of their own safety. And if you consult the following scriptures, you shall find vain confidence to be a ruling passion among men, and one which is the utter overthrow and undoing of multitudes of professors. Galatians 6, verses 3 and 4, John 8, verse 54, Romans 2, verses 18, 19 and 21, Matthew 25, verses 11 and 12, and chapter 7, verse 22. Now there is nothing more apt to beget this vain soul undoing confidence than the stirrings and meltings of our affections about spiritual things while the heart remains unrenewed. For such a man seems to have all that is required of a Christian, and herein to have attained the very end of all knowledge, its influence upon the heart and affections. Indeed, thinks such a poor deluded soul, if I heard, read, or prayed without any inward affections, with a dead, cold, and unconcerned heart, or if I made a show of zeal and affection in duties, and had it not, well might I suspect myself to be a hypocrite. But it is not so with me. I feel my heart really melted many times when I read of the sufferings of Christ. I feel my heart raised and ravished with strange joys and comforts when I hear the glory of heaven in the gospel. Indeed, if it were not so with me, I might fear that the root of the matter is wanting. But if to my knowledge affections be added, a melting heart joined with a knowing head, then I may be confident all is well. I have often heard ministers cautioning and warning their people not to rest satisfied with idle and speculative notions in their understandings, but to labor for impressions upon their hearts. This I have attained. I have often heard it given as a mark of a hypocrite that he has light in his head, but it sheds not down its influence upon the heart. Whereas in those that are sincere, it works on their heart and affections. So I find it with me. Therefore I am in a most safe estate. O soul, of all the false signs of grace, none are more dangerous than those that most resemble true ones. And never does the devil more surely and incurably destroy than when transformed into an angel of light. What if these meltings of thy heart be but a flower of nature? And what if thou art more indebted to a good temper of body than a gracious change of spirit for these things? Yet so it may be. Be not secure, but fear and watch. Possibly if thou wouldst but search thine own heart in this matter, thou mayest find that any other moving story will have life effects upon thee. Possibly, too, thou mayest find that notwithstanding all thy raptures and joys at the hearing of heaven and its glory, thy heart is habitually earthly and thy conversation is not fair. For all thou canst mourn at the relation of Christ's sufferings, thou art not so affected with sin which was the cause of them as to crucify one corruption or deny the next temptation or part with any way of sin that is gainful or pleasurable to thee for his sake. Now, reader, if it be so with thee, what art thou the better for the glow of thy affections? Dost thou think in earnest that Christ hath the better thoughts of thee because thou canst shed tears for him when, notwithstanding, thou every day pierce and wound him? O be not deceived! Nay, for aught I know, thou mayest find upon a narrow search that thou puttest thy tears in the womb of Christ's blood and givest the confidence and dependence of thy soul to them. And if so, they shall never do thee any good. Therefore, search thy heart. Cherish not upon such poor weak grounds as these a soul undoing confidence. Always remember the weeps and terrors resemble each other in their first springing up. That an egg is not more like an egg than hypocrisy in some shapes and forms into which it can cast itself is like a genuine work of grace. There be first that shall be last and last that shall be first. Matthew 19, verse 30 Great is the deceitfulness of our hearts. Jeremiah 17, verse 9 And many are the subtleties and devices of Satan. 2 Corinthians 11, verse 3 Many also are the astonishing examples of self-deceiving souls recorded in the Word. Remember what you have read of Judas. Great also will be the strictness of the last judgment. And how confident soever you be that you shall stand in that day. Still remember that trial is not yet past. Your final sentence is not yet come from the mouth of your judge. This I speak not to affright and trouble but to excite and warn you. The loss of the soul is no small loss. We proceed to the supposition that the sorrow of these women was the fruit of their faith. And hence observe. The believing meditation of what Christ suffered for us is of great force and efficacy to melt and break the heart. It is promised that they shall look upon him whom they have pierced and mourn for him as one mourneth for his only son and shall be in bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness for his first born. Zechariah 12, verse 10 Ponder seriously here this spring and motive. They shall look upon me. It is the eye of faith that melts and breaks the heart. Mark also the effect of such a sight of Christ. They shall look and mourn, be in bitterness and sorrow. True repentance is a drop out of the eye of faith and the measure or degree of sorrow caused by a believing view of Christ is here expressed by two of the fullest instances of grief. That of a tender father mourning over a dear and only son and that of the people of Israel mourning over Josiah that fearless prince in the valley of Megiddo. Now to show how the believing meditation of Christ and his sufferings come kindly and savingly to break and melt down the gracious heart I shall mention four considerations of the heart breaking efficacy of faith eyeing a crucified Jesus. Roman numeral 1 The viewing of Christ and his sufferings by faith is in itself most affecting and melting. Faith is a true glass that represents all his sufferings and agonies to the life. It presents them not as a fiction or idle tale but as a true and faithful narrative. This, says faith, is a true and faithful saying that Christ was not only clothed in our flesh, even he that is over all, God blessed forever the only Lord. The prince of the kings of the earth became a man but in his body of his flesh he bore the infinite wrath of God which filled his soul with horror and amazement. That the Lord of life hung dead upon the cross that he went as a lamb to the slaughter and was as a sheep dumb before the shearer that he endured all this and more than any finite understanding can comprehend in my room instead. For my sake he there groaned and bled for my pride, earthliness lust, unbelief, hardness of heart he endured all this. I think to realize the sufferings of Christ thus is of great power to affect the coldest dullest heart you cannot imagine the difference there is in presenting things as realities with convincing and satisfying evidence or looking on them as a fiction or uncertainty. Roman numeral 2 But faith can apply as well as realize and if it do so it must needs overcome the heart Ah Christian, canst thou look upon Jesus as standing in thy room to bear the wrath of God for thee Canst thou think on it and not knelt? That when thou, like Isaac, was bound to the altar to be offered up to justice Christ, like the ram caught in the thicket, was offered in thy room. That when thy sins had raised a fearful tempest threatening every moment to bury thee in a sea of wrath, Jesus Christ was thrown over to appease that storm. Say reader can thy heart dwell one hour upon such a subject as this? Canst thou with faith present Christ to thyself as he was taken down from the cross, drenched in his own blood and say These were the wounds that he received for me. This is he that loved me and gave himself for me Out of these wounds comes that balm that heals my soul Out of these stripes my peace O you cannot hold up your head long to the piercing thoughts of this, but your soul will be pained and like Joseph you will seek a place to vent your tears. Roman Numeral 3 Faith can also draw such things from the death of Christ as will fill the soul with affection to him and break the heart in his presence When it views Christ as dead it infers, Is Christ dead for me? Then I was dead in law, sentenced and condemned to die eternally. If one died for all, then were all dead 2 Corinthians 5 verse 14 How woeful was my case when the law had passed sentence on me I could not be sure when I lay down, but it might be executed before I rose There was but a breath between my soul and hell Again, Is Christ dead for me? Then I shall never die If he be condemned, I am acquitted. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth, it is Christ that died. Romans 8 34 My soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowler. I was condemned but am now cleared. I was dead, but am now alive O the unsearchable riches of Christ, O love past finding out Again, Did God give up Christ to such miseries and sufferings for me? How shall he withhold anything from me? He that speared not his own son will doubtless with him freely give me all things. Romans 8 32 Now I may rest upon him for pardon, peace, acceptance and glory for my soul Now I may rely upon him for provision, protection and all supplies for the body Christ is the root of these mercies. He is more than all these. He is nearer and dearer to God than any other gift O what a blessed, happy, comfortable state hath he now brought my soul into Once more Did Christ endure all these things for me? Then he will never leave nor forsake me. It cannot be that after all he has endured he will cast off the soul for whom he endured it Romans 4 Faith can also compare the love of Christ in all this both with his dealings with others and with the soul's dealing with Christ who loved it To compare Christ's dealing with others is most affecting. He hath not dealt with everyone as with me Nay, few there are that can speak of such mercies as I have from him. How many are there that have no part nor portion in his blood, who must bear that wrath in their own persons that he bore himself for me? He found me and singled me forth to be the object of his love leaving thousands and millions still unreconciled Not that I was better than they for I was the greatest of sinners far from righteousness as unlikely as any to be the object of such grace and love My companions in sin are left and I am taken Now the soul is full, too full to contain itself Yea, faith helps the soul to compare the love of Christ to it with the returns it has made to him And what, my soul, have been thy returns to Christ since this grace appeared to thee? Hast thou returned love for love love suitable to such love? Hast thou prized, valued, and esteemed him according to his own worth in himself, or his kindness to thee? O no I have grieved, pierced, blundered his heart a thousand times by my ingratitude. I have suffered every trifle to take his place in my heart. I have neglected him a thousand times, and made him say, Is this thy kindness to thy friend? Is this the reward I receive for all I have done and suffered for thee? Wretched that I am, how have I requited the Lord? This shames, humble, and breaks the heart And when from such sights of faith and considerations as these the heart is thus affected, it affords a good argument indeed that thou art gone beyond all the attainments of temporary believers Flesh and blood hath not revealed this Inference number one Have the believing meditations of Christ in his suffering such heart-melting influence? Then surely there is but little faith among men. Our dry eyes and hard hearts are evidence against us that we are strangers to the sights of faith And two, then surely the proper way of raising the affections is to begin with the exercise of faith. It grieves me to see how many poor Christians strive with their own dead hearts endeavoring in vain to raise and affect them. They complain and strive, strive and complain, but can discover no love to the Lord, no brokenness of heart. They go to this ordinance and that, to one duty and another, hoping that now the Lord will fill the sails but come back disappointed and ashamed Poor Christian, hear me one word Possibly it may do thee more service than all the methods thou hast yet used. If thou wouldst indeed get a heart melted for sin and broken with the sense of the grace and love of Christ, thy way is not to force thy affections, nor to vex thyself and go about complaining of a hard heart, but to set thyself to believe, realize, apply, infer and compare by faith as you have now been directed, and see what this will do. They shall look on me, whom they have pierced and mourned. This is the way to raise the heart and break it. 3. Is this the way to get a truly broken heart? Then let those that have attained the brokenness of heart this way bless the Lord while they live, for so choice a mercy. A heart so affected and melted is not attainable by any natural or unrenewed person. If they would give all they have in the world, it cannot purchase one such tear or groan over Christ. Mark what characters of special grace it bears in the description of it in Zechariah 12 verse 10. Such a frame as this is not born with us, or to be acquired by us, for it is there said to be poured out by the Lord upon us. Nature is not the principle of it, but faith, for it is there said they shall look on thee, that is, believe and mourn. Self is not the end and center of these sorrows. It is not so much for bringing condemnation upon ourselves as for piercing Christ. They shall look on me whom they have pierced, and shall mourn. So that this is thorough after God, and not an impulse of nature. It is the choicest and most precious gift, ranked among the prime mercies of the new covenant. A new heart will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you, and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. Ezekiel 36 26 And God himself sets no common value on it. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. Psalm 51 verse 17 That is, God is more delighted with such a heart than with all sacrifices. One groan, one tear, flowing from faith in the spirit of adoption, are more to him than the cattle on a thousand hills. Again, thus saith the Lord, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house that ye build me? And where is the place of my rest? But to this man will I look, even to him that is poor, and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word. Isaiah 66 verses 1 and 2 All the magnificent temples and glorious structures in the world give me no pleasure in comparison of such a broken heart as this. O then forever bless the Lord who has done so much for you. Chapter 26 page 313 The nature of Christ's death. Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain. Acts 2 23 Having considered in order the preparative acts for the death of Christ, both by himself and his enemies, we now come to consider the death of Christ itself, which was the principal part of his humiliation, and is the chief pillar of our hope. And here we shall consider first, the kind and nature of the death he died. Secondly, the manner in which he bore it, namely patiently, solitarily, and instructively, dropping divers holy and instructive lessons upon all that were about him in his seven last words upon the cross. Thirdly, the funeral solemnity at his burial. Fourthly, the way he ends and great designs of his death. In all which particulars, as we proceed to discuss them, you will have an account of the deep debasement and humiliation of the Son of God. Number 1 In this text, we have an account of the kind and nature of Christ's death, which is here described generally as a violent death. Ye have slain him. And more particularly, as a most ignominious, cursed, dishonorable death. Ye have crucified him. Number 2 The causes of it are here likewise expressed, both principal and instrumental. The principal cause, permitting, ordering, and disposing all things about it was the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. There was not an action or circumstance, but came under his most wise and holy counsel and determination. The instruments affecting it were their wicked hands. This foreknowledge and counsel of God, as it did no way necessitate or constrain them, so neither does it excuse their conduct from the least aggravation of its sinfulness. God's end and manner of acting was one thing, their end and manner of acting another. His most pure and holy, theirs most malicious and daringly wicked. In respect to God, Christ's death was justice and mercy. In respect to man, it was murder and cruelty. In respect to himself, it was obedience and humility. Hence our Lord Jesus Christ was not only put to death, but to the worst of death, even the death of the cross. To this the apostle gives a plain testimony. He became obedient to death, even the death of the cross. Philippians 2.8 Where his humiliation is both specified, he was humbled to death and aggravated by a most emphatical reduplication, even the death of the cross. So Acts 5.30 Jesus whom ye slew and hanged on a tree. It did not suffice you to put him to a violent death, but you also put him to the most base, vile and ignominious death. You hanged him on a tree. And here we will consider the nature, the manner, and the reasons of Christ's death. Roman numeral 1 As to the kind or nature of his death, it was violent, painful, shameful, cursed, slow and unalleviated. Number 1. It was a violent death. Violent in itself, though voluntary. He was cut off out of the land of the living. Isaiah 53.8 And yet he laid down his life of himself. No man took it from him. John 10.17 I call his death violent, because he died not a natural death. He lived not till nature was exhausted with age. He was but in the flower and prime of life. And indeed he must either die a violent death, or not die at all, partly because there was no sin in him to open a door to natural death, as it does in all others, partly because else his death had not been a sacrifice acceptable and satisfactory to God for us. That which died of itself was never offered up to God, but that which was slain in its full strength and health. The temple, which was the type of the body of Christ, John 2.19, did not drop down as an ancient structure decayed by time, but was pulled down by violence when it was standing in its full strength. Therefore he is said to suffer death and to be put to death for us in the flesh. 1 Peter 3.18 2 The death of the cross was a most painful death. Indeed, in this death were many deaths contrived in one. The cross was a rack as well as a gibbet. The pains which Christ suffered upon the cross are by the apostle emphatically styled the pains of death. Acts 2.24 But properly they signify the pains of travail. His soul was in travail, Isaiah 53, his body in bitter pains. And being, as Aquinas says, of the most excellent, exact, and just temperament, his senses were more acute and delicate than ordinary. And so they continued all the time of his suffering, not in the least blunted by what he endured. 3 The death of the cross was a shameful death, not only because the crucified were naked and exposed as spectacles of shame, but mainly because it was a kind of death which was appointed for the basest and vilest of men. This Reformation audio track is a production of Stillwater's Revival Books. SWRB makes thousands of classic Reformation resources available, free and for sale, in audio, video, and printed formats. Our many free resources, as well as our complete mail-order catalog, containing thousands of classic and contemporary Puritan and Reform books, tapes, and videos at great discounts, is on the web at www.swrb.com We can also be reached by email at swrb at swrb.com By phone at 780-450-3730 By fax at 780-468-1096 Or by mail at 4710-37A Edmonton Edmonton Alberta Alberta T6L 3T5 3T5 3T5 3T5 3T5 3T5 I have not commanded them, whatever the Jews devised. There is then no other argument needed to condemn superstitions than that they are not commanded by God. For when men allow themselves to worship God according to their own fancies, and attend not to His commands, they pervert true religion. And if this principle was adopted by the papists, all those fictitious modes of worship in which they absurdly exercise themselves would fall to the ground. It is indeed a horrible thing for the papists to seek to discharge their duties towards God by performing their own superstitions. There is an immense number of them, as it is well known, and as it manifestly appears. Were they to admit this principle, that we cannot rightly worship God except by obeying His word, they would be delivered from their deep abyss of error. The prophet's words, then, are very important. When he says that God had commanded no such thing, and that it never came to his mind, as though he had said that men assume too much wisdom when they devise what he never required, nay, what he never knew.