Suppose a man should come to a table, and there should be a knife laid at his trencher, and it should be told him, This is the very knife that cut the throat of your child or father ; if this person should use this knife as any other knife, would not every one say. Surely this man had but very Httle love to his father or his child, who can use this bloody knife as any other knife. So when you meet with any tempta- tion to sin, oh, then say, This is the very knife that cut the throat of Jesus Christ, and pierced his sides, that was the cause of his sufferings, and that made Christ to be a curse ; and accordingly let your hearts rise against it. Ah, how well doth it become Christians to look upon sin as that accursed thing that made Christ a curse, and accordingly to abhor it ! Oh, with what detestation should a man fling away such a knife ! and with the like detestation should every Christian fling away .his sins, as Ephraim did his idols : ' Get you hence ; what have I any more to do with you ?' Hosea xiv. 8. Sin, thou hast slain my Lord ; thou hast been the only cause of the death of my Saviour, Isa, ii, 20, and XXX. 22. Let us say as David, ' Is not this the blood of the men that went in jeopardy of their lives ?' 2 Sam. xxiii. 17. So is not this the sin that poured out Christ's blood ? Oh, how should this enrage our hearts against sin, because it cost the Captain of our salvation, Heb. ii. 10, not the hazard, but the very loss of his life ! God shewed Moses a tree wherewith he might make the bitter waters sweet, Exod. XV. 25 ; but, lo ! here is a tree wherewith ye may make the sweet waters of sin to become bitter. Look upon the tree on which Christ was crucified, remember his cross, and the pains he suffered thereon, and the seeming sweetness that is in sin will quickly vanish. When you are solicited to sin, cast your eye upon Christ's cross, remember his astonishing sufferings for sin, and it will soon grow distasteful to your souls ; for how can that choose but be hateful to us, if we seriously con- sider how hurtful it was to Jesus Christ ? Who can look upon the cross of Christ and excuse his sin, as Adam did, saying, ' The woman which thou gavest me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat' ? Gen. iii, 12. Who can look upon the cross of Christ and colour his sin, as Judas did, saying, ' Hail, Master' ? Mat. xxvi. 49. Who can look upon the cross of Christ and deny his sin, as Gehazi did, saying, ' Thy servant went no whither' ? 2 Kings v. 25. Who can look upon the cross of Christ and defend his sin, as Jonah did, saying, * I do well to be angry' ? Jonah iv. 9. 0 sirs ! where is that hatred of sin that used to be in the saints of old ? David could say, ' I hate vain thoughts and
208 SEVEN INFERENCES FROM THE CONSIDERATION
I hate every false way,' Ps. cxix, 104, 113, 128. And Paul could say, ' What I hate that do I,' Rom. vii. 15. It is better, saith one, to be in hell with Christ, than to be in heaven with sin. Oh, how odious was sin in the saints' eye ! The primitive Ckristians chose rather to be cast to lions without than to be left to lusts within, so great was their hatred of sin.i ' I had rather,' saith Anselm, ' go to hell pure from sin, than to heaven polluted with that guilt.' ' I will rather,' saith another, ' leap into a bonfire, than wilfully to sin against God.' Under the law, if an ox gored a man that he died, the ox was to be killed, Exod. xxi. 28 ; sin hath gored and pierced our dear Lord Jesus, oh, let it die for it ! oh, avenge yourselves upon it, as Samson did avenge himself upon the Philistines for his two eyes ! Judg. xvi. 28. Plutarch reports of Marcus Cato, that he never declared his opinion in any matter in the senate, but he would close it with this passage, ' Methinks still Carthage should be destroyed ;' so a Christian should never cast bis eye upon the cross of Christ, the sufferings of Christ, nor upon his sins, but his heart should say, Methinks pride should be destroyed, and unbelief should be destroyed, and hypocrisy should be destroyed, and earthly-mindedness should be destroyed, and self-love should be de- stroyed, and vain-glory should be destroyed, &c. The Jews would not have the pieces of silver which Judas cast down in the temple put in the treasury, because they were the price of blood. Mat. xxvii. 5, 6. Oh, lodge not any one sin in the treasury of your hearts, for they are aU the price of blood. But,
4. Fourthly, Let the sufferings of our Lord Jesus raise in all our hearts a high estimation of Christ. Oh, let us prize a suffering Christ above all our duties, and above all our graces, and above all our privi- leges, and above all our outward contentments, and above all our spiritual enjoyments ! Mat. x. 37 ; Luke xiv. 26. A suffering Christ is a commodity of greater value than all the riches of the Indies, yea, than all the wealth of the whole world. ' He is better than rubies,' saith Solomon, ' and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared to him,' Prov. viii, 11. He is that pearl of price which the wise merchant purchased with all that ever he had. Mat xiii. 46 ; no man can buy such gold too dear. Joseph, — a type of the Lord Jesus, — then a precious jewel of the world, was far more precious, had the Ishmaelitish merchants known so much, than all the balms and myrrhs that they transported. Gen. xxvii. 37 ; and so is a suffering Christ, as all will grant that really know him, and that have experienced the sweet of union and communion with him. Christ went through heaven and hell, life and death, sorrow and suffering, misery and cruelty, and all to bring us to glory, and shall we not prize him? When in a storm the nobles of Xerxes were to lighten the ship to pre- serve their king's life, they did their obeisance, and leaped into the sea ; but our Lord Jesus Christ, to preserve our lives, our souls, he leaps into a sea of wrath. Col, i. 18. Oh, how should this work us to set up Christ above all ! What a deal ado has there been in the world about Alexander the Great, and Constantino the Great, and Pompey the Great, because of their civil power and authority ; but what was all their greatness and grandeur to that greatness and grandeur that God * Ad leonem magis qudm lenonem, saith TertuUian.
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