was set before him, Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, endured the cross, despising the shame, and now hath attained that glorious object of his hope, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God m

And as for the former, he could not but earnestly hope to have that good pleasure of the Lord to prosper in his hand, which he endured so much to bring to pass; and to see some fruit of that hard travail of his soul, which cost him such agonies, such strong crying and tears, and even a sweat of blood, and would so much advance his own and his Father's glory, and rescue a wretched, sinful world from misery eternal.

And therefore, though it was a bloody baptism which he was to be baptized with before all this could be effected, yet, to use his own words, how was he straitened till it was accomplished"! Pressed between hope and fear; hope of the blessed end, but fear of the dreadful means whereby it must be attained but his hope prevailed over his fear, and excited such a noble resolution in him, as carried him through all to victory and triumph.

For as for our Saviour's fears as to any thing relating to this world, and what he might meet with in it, they were only such as proceeded from that desire of self-preservation which is natural to every man; and were excited by those cruelties and torments which he knew his enemies' malice would exercise and inflict upon him, and which human nature could not but recoil and shrink from, (as we observed before,) and were always overruled with an incomparable bravery and greatness of mind, " Luke xii. 50.

m Heb. xii. 2.

which would not suffer them to remain long upon him, nor sink him into cowardice and unmanly dejections, but surmounted all the reluctances and terrifying apprehensions of nature, and made them give place to the encouraging expectation of that exceeding and eternal weight of glory, which he knew would crown all at last.

And therefore, though he avoided as long as was fitting, the implacable fury of the Jewish rulers, and shifted from place to place, and dreaded the approach of that sad hour when his sufferings were to commence, and begged of God to save him from them, if it were his gracious will, though with entire resignation of himself to his good pleasure: though his fears proceeded thus far, as it was natural for them to do, and will justify ours when they do so in like circumstances; yet he stopped them there, and permitted them to go no further, and set us an admirable example of patience and constancy, meekness and charity, and full trust in God to the end, under whatever sufferings and afflictions he is pleased we should undergo.

Thus innocent and regular and exemplary were our Saviour's fears as to the greatest temporal and worldly evils; whereby he let us see how and when we are to govern and control them. And as for his fear of God, it was, and could be no other, than what we call ingenuous fear, that is, a filial reverence and awe, such as proceeded from interest, and a great desire of pleasing him in all things. He was perfectly obedient, and therefore could not fear the expresses of his wrath and displeasure to himself; and what he was to suffer in the stead of others,

o 2 Cor. iv. 17.

being an act of the highest obedience to the will of his heavenly Father, could not but excite in him the greatest assurance of his favour, and an expectation of the most glorious reward.

So that he neither had, nor could have, any guilty fears of God, proceeding from a sense of his being obnoxious to the effects of his anger upon his own demerit; they were only filial and reverential towards him, as became his eternally beloved Son. And as to himself, his fears were purely natural, and never suffered to exceed due bounds, and not excited by any worldly evil but pain, which flesh and blood cannot but in some measure be afraid of, and may of all natural evils be justly looked upon as the greatest, even greater than death itself, as we observed before P, and can see no reason but to think so still. So perfectly rational and manly and governable were our Saviour's hope and fear, as were likewise his joy and his sorrow, as we shall see in the following section.

'SECT. IV.

Of our Saviour's regulation of joy and sorrow. As for his joy, it was altogether spiritual and divine; he knew too well the emptiness of every thing here below, to make it the object of this heavenly passion; and was too well acquainted with the joys above, to relish any thing in this earth so far, as to receive any great delight from its enjoy

ment.

There is mention once made in the gospel, and I think but once, of his rejoicing, but it was in spirit; and the occasion of it was the seventy disciples re

P Chap. VIII. sect. 2. p. 151.

turning with joy and telling him, that even the devils were subject to them, through his name ¶. Upon which most acceptable news he broke out into a holy triumph, and said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning falling from heaven; as if he had said, This puts me in mind of my first conquest over that apostate spirit, when he rebelled against my Father above, and which I foresee will now again be repeated upon earth; and then he confirms and enlarges the miraculous powers he had given them : Behold, says he, I give you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. But then, because all this was in order to some greater end, he gives them this caution, Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you, (for these gifts were at first conferred upon some for the good of the common cause which Christ came to promote upon earth, who were never the better for them themselves, as we read, Matt. vii. 22.) Rejoice not in this, but rather rejoice that your names are written in heaven, and that you are such as I shall own when I come to judgment. And then he breaks out into this excellent act of thanksgiving and praise to God, which expressed the high satisfaction that he took in their success: I thank thee, says he, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to babes: even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sights! which shewed, that as all his desires were bent this way, to advance the honour of his Father in the salvation of mankind, so all his joy was in seeing his endea

9 Luke x. 17. 21.

r Ver. 18, &c.

s Ver. 21.

vours in it successful, in recovering his lost sheep, and the return of his lost prodigals ', whose repentance and conversion would cause an increase of joy even in heaven itself; where he that sowed, and they that reaped, should for ever rejoice together ".

And as his joys, so his sorrows, were upon others' account more than his own, and were turned into pity and commiseration for the sad condition of mankind.

Thus we find the most compassionate Jesus grieving and sighing deeply in spirit, for the strange and incorrigible obstinacy and blindness of heart of the Jewish rulers, notwithstanding all his wondrous works and admirable discourses to win them to embrace his saving doctrine, and for the terrible judgments that were coming down upon that wretched nation destined to destruction; particularly when he with tears foretold what he foresaw, the dreadful ruin of that once holy city and magnificent temple, for their crying sins, and their filling up the measure of them by their obstinately rejecting and barbarously murdering him, who came to be their Saviour. This most deplorable condition of that miserable church and nation made so deep an impression upon the tender spirit of our blessed Lord, that he seemed to overlook his own personal sorrows and afflictions, through the greatness of his concern for the approaching miseries of those he came to redeem. O that thou hadst known, says he to Jerusalem, with a mighty sorrow and affection, the things that do belong unto thy peace; but now they are hid from thine eyes: at which his own let × Mark iii. 5; viii. 12.

t Luke xv. u John iv. 36. y Luke xix. 41, &c.