6. Sixthly, Hath Jesus Christ suflfered such great and grievous things for you? Oh then, m all your fears, doubts, and conflicts with enemies, within or without, Jiy to the sufferings of Christ as your city of refuge. Did Christ endure a most ignominious death for thee ? Did he take on him thy sinful person, and bear thy sin and death and cross, and was made a sacrifice and curse for thee ? Oh then, in all thy inward and outward distresses, shelter thyself under the wings of a suffering Christ, Ps. xc. 1, and xci. 1, 4, 9. I have read of Nero, that he had a shirt made of a salamander s skin, so that if he went through the fire in it, it would keep him from burning. 0 sirs, a suffering Christ is this salamander's skin, that will keep the saints from burning in the midst of burning, from suffering in the midst of sufferings, from drowning in the midst of drowning, Dan. iii. 24, 29, and Isa. xliii. 2. In all the storms that beat upon your in- ward or your outward man, eye the sufferings of Christ, lean upon the sufferings of Christ, plead the sufferings of Christ, and triumph in the sufferings of Clirist, Zech. xii. 10 ; Cant. viii. 5 ; 2 Cor. ii. 14 ; Eph. vi. 14. It is storied of a martyr,i that, writing to his wife, where she might find him when he was fled from home, * Oh, my dear,' said he, ' if thou desirest to see me, seek me in the side of Christ, in the cleft of the rock, in the hollow of his wounds ; for there I have made my nest, there will I dwell, there shalt thou find me, and nowhere else but there.' In every temptation let us look up to a crucified Christ, who is fitted and qualified to succour tempted souls, Heb. ii. 17, 18, and iv. 15, 16. Oh my soul, whenever thou art assaulted, let the wounds of Christ be thy city of refuge whither thou mayest fly and live ! Let us learn in every tentation which presseth us, whether it be sin, or death, or curse, or any other evil, to translate it from our- selves to Christ ; and all the good in Christ, let us learn to translate it from Christ to ourselves. Look, as the burgess of a town or corpo- ration, sitting in the Parliament-house, beareth the persons of that whole town or place, and what he saith the whole town saith, and what is done to him is done to the whole town ; even so Christ upon the cross stood in our place, and bare our sins, Isa. liii. 4-6 ; and whatsoever he suffered we suffered ; and when he died all the faithful died with him and in him. I have read of a gracious woman who, being by Satan strongly tempted, replied, Satan, if thou hast anything to say to me, say it to my Christ, say it to my surety, who has under- ^ Suriup, in vita sancti Elzearii.
OF THE GKEAT SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 215
taken all for me, who hatli paid all my debts, and satisfied divine justice, and set all reckonings even between God and my soul.i Do your sins terrify you ? Oh then, look up to a crucified Saviour, who bare your sins in his own body on the tree, 1 Pet. ii. 24. When sin stares you in the face, oh then turn your face to a dying Jesus, and behold him with a spear in his side, with thorns in his head, with nails in his feet, and a pardon in his hands.^ Hast thou wounded thy conscience by any great fall or falls ? Oh then, remember that there is nothing in heaven or earth more efficacious to cure the wounds of conscience than a frequent and serious meditation on the wounds of Christ.3 Doth death, that rides upon the pale horse, Eev. vi. 8, look gashly^ and deadly upon thee ? Oh then, remember that Christ died for you, Kom. v. 6, 8, and that by his death he hath swallowed up death in victory, 1 Cor. xv. 55-57. Oh, remember that a crucified Christ hath stripped death of his sting, and disarmed it of all its destroying power. Death may buzz about our ears, but it can never sting our souls. Look, as a crucified Christ hath taken away the guilt of sin, though he hath not taken away sin itself, so he hath taken away the sting of death, though he hath not taken away death itself. He spake excellently that said, ' That is not death, but life, which joins the dying man to Christ ; and that is not life, but death, which separates the living man from Christ,' ^ Austin longed to die, that he might see that head that was crowned with thorns. ' Did Christ die for me,' saith one, ' that I might live with him ? I will not, therefore, desire to live long from him.' All men go willingly to see him whom they love, and shall I be unwilling to die that I may see him whom my soul loves ? Bernard would have us never to let go out of our minds the thoughts of a crucified Christ. Let these, says he, be meat and drink unto you, let them be your sweetness and consolation, your honey and your desire, your reading and your meditation, your con- templation, your life, death, and resurrection. Certainly he that shall live up to this counsel wUl look upon the king of terrors as the king of desires. Are you apt to tremble when you eye the curse threatened in the law ? Oh then, look up to a crucified Christ, and remember that ' he hath redeemed you from the curse of the law, being made a curse for you,' Gal. iii. 1 3. Doth the wrath of God amaze you ? Oh then, look up to a crucified Christ, and remember that Christ hath trod the winepress of his Father's wrath alone, Isa. Ixiii. 3, that he might deliver you from wrath to come, 1 Thes. i. 10. Is the face of God clouded ? — doth he that should comfort you stand afar off" ? oh then, look up to a crucified Christ, and remember that he was forsaken for a time, that you might not be forsaken for ever. Are you sometimes afraid of condemnation ? Oh then, look upon a crucified Christ, who was condemned that you might be justified. Lam. i. 16. ' Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect ? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth ? It is Christ that died. ' Kom. viii. 33, 34. Ah, Christians, that you would at last, under all your temptations,
' The strongest antidote against sin is to look upon sin in the red glass of Christ's
blood. — Amtin. * Bern. Ser. 61, in Cant. * 'Ghastly.' — G.
* Ambrose, in 1 Tim. v. 6. Death will blow the bud of grace into the flower of glory.
216 SEVEN INFERENCES FROM THE CONSIDERATION