to follow him ; as the patient, who at first, may be, shrinks and draws back, when the physician talks of cutting or bleeding, but when he hath heard the reasons given by him why that coui'se must be taken, and is convinced it is the best way for his health, then he very freely puts forth his arm to the knife, and thanks the physician for his pains.
Section IV. — Secondly, Christ deserves this frame of spirit at our hands. Of many, take but two particulars, Avherein this will appear. First, If we con- sider his readiness to endure trouble and sorrow for us. Secondly, His tender care over vis, while we endure either for or from him. First, His readiness to endure soitow and trouble for us. When God called him to the work of Mediatorship, he found the way laid with sharper stones, I hope, than we do in the road that is appointed us to walk in. He was to tread upon swords and pikes, all manner of sorrows, and those edgec^with the wrath of God. This was the sharpest stone of all, which he hath taken out of the way ; and yet how light did he go upon the gi-ound ! O had not his feet been well shod with love to our souls he would soon have turned back, and said the way was unpassable ; but on he goes, and blunts not : never did we sin more willingly than he went to suffer for our sin. ' Lo ! I come,' saith he to his Father, ' I delight to do thy will, O my God; thy law is within my heart,' Psa. xl. 7. O what a full con- sent did the heart of Christ rebound to his Father's call, like some echo that answers what is spoken twice or thrice over. Thus, when his Father speaks to him to undertake the work of saving poor lost man, he doth not give a bare assent to the call, but trebles it ; ' I come, I delight to do thy will, yea, thy law is in my heart.' He was so ready, that before his enemies laid hands on him, he, as it were, laid hands on himself, in the instituting of the Lord's supper, and there did sacramentally rend the flesh of his own body, and broach his own heart, to fill that cup with his precious blood, which with his own hand he gave them, that they might not look upon his death now at hand as a mere butchery from tlie hand of man's violence, but rather as a sacrifice, wherein he did freely offer up himself to God for them and all believers. And when the time was come that the sad tragedy should be acted, he, knowing the very place where the traitor with his black guard would come, goes out, and marches into the very mouth of them. O what a shame were it that we should be unwilling to go a mile or two of rugged way to bear so sweet a Saviour company in his s\iffer- ings ! ' Could ye not watch with me one hour?' saith Christ to Peter, Matt. xxvi. 40. Not with me, who am now going to meet with death itself, and ready to bid the bitterest pangs of it welcome for your sakes? Not with me? Secondly, Christ deserves this readiness to meet any suffering he lays out in his providence for us, if we consider his tender care over his saints, when he calls them into a suffering condition. Kind masters may well expect cheerful servants. The more tender the captain is over his soldiei's, the more prodigal they are of their own lives at his command. And it were strange if Christ's care, which deserves most, should meet with less ingenuity in a saint. Now Christ's care appears. First, in proj)ortioning the burden to the back he lays it on. That which ovei'loads one ship, and would hazard to sink her, is but just balance for another of greater burden. Those sufi'erings which one Christian cannot bear, another sails trim and even under. The weaker shoulder is sure to have the lighter carriage. As Paul burthened some churches (which he knew move able) to spare others, so Christ, to ease the weaker Christian, lays more v/eight on the stronger. ' Paul laboured more abundantly than they all,' he tells us, 1 Cor. xv. 10. But why did Christ so unequally divide the work? Observe the place, and you shall find that it was but necessary to employ that abundant grace he had given him. ' His grace,' saith he, ' which was bestowed on me was not in vain ; but I laboured more,' &c. There was so nuich grace poured into him, that some of it would have been in vain, if (Jod had not foimd him more to do and sufi'er than the rest. Christ hath a perfect rate by him of every saint's spiritual estate, and according to this all are assessed, and so none are oppressed. The rich in grace can as easily pay his poimd as the poor his penny. Paul laid down liis head on the block for the cause of Christ, as freely as some (and those true but weak Christians) would has'c done a few ])ounds out of their purse. He endured death with less trouble than some could have done reproach for Christ. All have not a martyr's faith, nor all the martyr's
406 ^^^ YOUR FEET SHOD WITH