[2.] In 5'our duties and respects to men. In all offices of love and service, do it willingly ; for such was the love of the Lord Jesus to you : 1 Peter v. 2, ' Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly;' especially if it be to instruct and teach them, and to take pains with them about the good of their souls : Phil. iii. 1, ' To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe.' He often speaks liow little good was done, but it was not grievous to him to try again. Labour to put off the sluggishness of your s})irits with this considera- tion— Jesus Christ died freely for souls to relieve them, and shall not I be at some pains to persuade them to accept of him ? Forced kind- ness loseth its acceptance ; God and man prize the willing mind best. The will honoureth God more than the deed ; for it is not our act any further than it is done willingly : 2 Cor. viii. 12, ' If there be first a willing mind, it is accepted, according to that a man hath, and not according to what he hath not.' The widow's mite was noted ; the unjust judge did his duty by constraint ; and in so doing we do not only relieve others, but ourselves.
Ufie 3. To press us to act proportionably to the act of Christ. He yielded up liis whole self, and did it with his wliole heart ; so let your abounding be in beheving, and your gratitude in yielding up yourselves with your whole heart.
I come now to the second circumstance, the ignominy of Christ's death : ' He was numbered with transgressors.' It is to be understood of God or man. It is true before God, God looking upon him under our guilt ; but it is most properly true in regard of men, who counted liim a sinner and a transgressor, and so delivered him to the Gentiles: John xviii. 30, ' If he were not a malefactor we would not have deli- vered him to thee.' But more especially this prophecy is said to be fulfilled in two places of scripture: as ]\Iark xv. 27, 28, 'And with him they crucified two thieves, one on his right hand, and the other on his left. And the scripture was fulfilled, which saith, And he was
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numbered with the transgressors.' That is then eminently fulfilled ; for it was also at other times, but then especially, being placed in the middle, not only as a companion of thieves, but as their prince and chieftain. So Luke xxii. 37, ' For I say unto you, that this that is written must be accomplished in me, And he was reckoned among the transgressors : for the things concerning me have an end.' There he speaketh as if the intent of this proj)hecy was more general. I told you of all things necessary ; for 1 and you must be accounted wicked persons ; it must be so, for it is foretold. You see the sense ; now for the points.
Observe, that the Lord Jesus Christ was reckoned among trans- gressors, especially in his death and sufferings.
For proof of the point, which is general, let me suggest to you that he was so reputed by men ; by wicked men, godly men, and by God himself,
1. By wicked men he was counted a glutton and a wine-bibber, Mat. xi. 19 ; and John viii. 48, ' Thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil' Nay, they accounted him the prince of devils, but this was chiefly at his death. The high priest charged him with no less than blasphemy : Mat. xxvi. 65, ' He hath spoken blasphemy ; what further need have we of witnesses?' False witnesses were suborned to accuse him of sedition against his country, as if he would destroy the temple, and as if he were a seducer and perverter of the people ; of disloyalty to Cfesar, as if he went about to make himself king. John xviii. 36. They preferred Barabbas, a murderer, before him. See these things in the Evangelists.
2. By godly men : Luke xxiv. 21, ' We trusted that it had been he who should have redeemed Israel.' In their distrustful thoughts the disciples began to doubt of him, and so looked upon him as an imposter.
3. By God himself. Christ having taken our sins upon him, was dealt with as a transgressor : 1 Peter iv. 1, ' For he that hath suffered in the flesh, hath ceased from sin \ and Heb. ix. 28, ' He shall ap- pear the second time without sin unto salvation.' In his first coming he was not without sin by imputation.
AVell, but for the reason why God would suffer Christ thus to be numbered with transgressors. I shall not much trouble you with the allegories of the ancients, recorded by Aquinas, why Christ was cru- cified between two thieves, and so reckoned as one of them, as the chief of them, to typify that distinction that shall be made at the day of judgment, some being put on the right hand of Christ, and some on the left. The thief on the right hand was received into paradise, so Eeo^ and Austin. Christ's cross, made his tribunal in his sufferings, and a type of his second glorious coming, and he as a judge placed between two others, who are of less avail, implied, as Hilary would have it, that though all did not know the cross and sufferings of Christ, yet some should be placed on the right hand and some on the left. So Beza thought that the thief on the left side signified those that should endure strictness and hardshij)s in Christianity for the praise of men ; others for the praise of God, as the thief on the right