The great

spirit under the provocations he met. ness of provocation lies in two things: the degree of opposition by which the provocation is given; and the degree of the unreasonableness of that opposition, or its being causeless, and without reason, and the great degree of obligation to the contrary. Now, if we consider both these things, no man ever, met with such provocations as Christ when he was upon earth. How much he was hated, what abuses he suffered from the vilest of men; how great his sufferings, and how spiteful and contemptuous they were in offering him those abuses! How causeless and unreasonable were these abuses, how undeserving he was of them, yea, how much deserving of the contrary, of love, and honor, and good treatment at their hands. If we consider these things, no man ever met with a thousandth part of the provocation that Christ met with from men; and yet how meek was he under all! how composed and quiet his spirit! how far from being ruffled and in a tumult! When he was reviled, he reviled not again and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. No appearance was there of a revengeful spirit; on the contrary, what a spirit of forgiveness did he exhibit! so that he fervently and effectually prayed for their forgiveness, when they were, in their highest act of act of provocation, nailing him to the cross. Luke, 23 : 34. “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do."

And never did there appear such an instance of love to men. Christ's love to men, especially in going through his last sufferings, and offering up his life and soul under those sufferings, which was his greatest act of love, was far beyond all parallel.

There have been very remarkable manifestations of love in some of the saints, as in the apostle Paul, the apostle John, and others; but the love to men that Christ showed when on earth, as much exceeded the love of all other men, as the ocean exceeds a small stream.

And it is to be observed, that all the virtues which appeared in Christ shone brightest in the close of his life, under the trials he then met. Eminent virtue always shows brightest in the fire. Pure gold shows its purity chiefly in the furnace. It was chiefly under those trials which Christ endured in the close of his life, that his love to God, his honor of God's majesty, his regard to the honor of his law, his spirit of obedience, his humility, contempt of the world, his patience, meekness, and spirit of forgiveness towards men, appeared. Indeed, every thing that Christ did to work out redemption for us appears mainly in the close of his life. Here mainly is his satisfaction for sin, and here chiefly is his merit of eternal life for sinners, and here chiefly appears the brightness of his example, which he has set us for imitation. Thus we have taken a brief view of the things whereby the purchase of redemption was made with respect to his righteousness that appeared in them.

IV. Christ's Sufferings and Humiliation.

Among those things in particular by which the purchase was made, we must reckon the sufferings and humiliation to which Christ was subject, whence arose the satisfaction he made for sin.

I. He was subject to uncommon humiliation and

suffering in his infancy. He was born to the end that he might die; and therefore, as it were, began to die as soon as he was born. His mother not, only suffered in bearing him, but when her travail came upon her, it is said, "there was no room in the inn." Luke, 27. She was forced to betake herself to a stable, where Christ was born. Thus he suffered in his birth, as though he had been meaner and viler than a man. And we may conclude that his mother's circumstances in other respects were proportionably strait and difficult, and that she was destitute of the conveniences necessary for so young an infant which others were wont to have. Besides, he was persecuted in his infancy. They began to seek his life as soon as he was born. Herod, the chief man of the land, was so engaged to kill him, that, in order to it, he killed all the children in Beth lehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under. And Christ suffered banishment in his infancy, was driven out of his native country into Egypt, and without doubt suffered much by being carried so long a journey, when he was so young, into a strange country.

II. Christ was subject to great humiliation in his private life at Nazareth. He there led a servile, obscure life, in a mean, laborious occupation: for he is called not only the carpenter's son, but the carpenter. Mark, 6: 3. "Is not this the carpenter, the brother of James and Joses, and Juda, and Simon ?" By hard labor he earned his bread, and so suffered that curse which God pronounced on Adam. Gen. 3:19. "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread." Let us consider how great a degree of hu miliation the glorious Son of God, the Creator of

heaven and earth, was subject to in this, that for about thirty years he should live a private obscure life among laboring men, and all this while be overlooked and not more regarded than other common laborers. Christ's humiliation, in some respects, was greater in private life than in the time of his public ministry. There were many manifestations of his glory in the word he preached, and the miracles he wrought: but the first thirty years of his life he spent among ordinary men, as it were in silence. There was nothing to distinguish him but the spotless purity and eminent holiness of his life e; and that was in a great measure hid in obscurity, so that he was little noticed till after his baptism.

III. Christ was the subject of great humiliation and suffering during his public life, from his baptism till the night wherein he was betrayed.

1. He suffered great poverty, so that he had not where to lay his head. Matt. 8: 20. John, 18: 1, 2. Luke, 21:37; 22: 39. So that what was spoken of Christ in Cant. 5: 2, "My head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night," was literally fulfilled. And through his poverty he doubtless was often tried with hunger, thirst, and cold. 'Matt. 4:2; 21: 18. His mother and natural relations were poor, not able to help him; and he was maintained by the charity of some of his disciples while he lived. So we read, Luke, 8: 2, 3, of certain women that followed him, and ministered unto him of their substance. He was so poor that he was not able to pay the demanded tribute without a miracle. Matt. 17: 27. When he ate his last passover, it was not at his own charge, but that of another. Luke, 22: 7. And from his poverty he

It was

had no grave of his own to be buried in. the manner of the Jews, unless they were poor, to prepare themselves a sepulchre while they lived. But Christ had no land of his own, though he was Possessor of heaven and earth; and therefore was buried by Joseph of Arimathea's charity, in his tomb, which he had prepared for himself.

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2. He suffered great hatred and reproach. He was despised and rejected of men;" one of little account, slighted for his low parentage, and his mean city Nazareth. He was reproached as a glutton and drunkard, a friend of publicans and sinners; was called a deceiver of the people; sometimes a madman, and a Samaritan, and one possessed with a devil. John, 7:20; 8:48; 10: 20. He was called a blasphemer, and accounted by many a wizard, or one that wrought miracles by communication with Beelzebub. They excommunicated him, and agreed to excommunicate any man that should own him. John, 9:22. They wished him dead, and were continually seeking to murder him-sometimes by force and sometimes by craft. They often took up stones to stone him, and once led him to the brow of a hill, intending to throw him down the precipice, to dash him in pieces against the rocks.

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He was thus hated and reproached by his own visible people. John, 1: 11. He came to his own, and his own received him not." And he was principally despised and hated by those who were in chief repute, and were their greatest men. Indeed the hatred was general. Into whatever part of the land he went, he met with hatred and contempt; in Capernaum, and Jericho; in Jerusalem, which was the holy city, even when be went to the temple to worship;

Redemption.

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