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when a crown of thorns, for pain and derision, was plaited for him, and put on his allsacred head by the wicked Jews and Roman soldiers, which, after they had mocked him and spit in his face, (that infinitely sacred and glorious face, before which the earth and heavens fly away, Rev. xx. 11. as unworthy to be looked on by him ;) they smote with a reed, no doubt into his sacred temples; meantime the blood sprang from a thousand pores while they struck him on the head, Matt. xxvii. 31.

Fie upon you, thorns! you fruit of the cursed ground, Gen. iii. 17, 18. that gave our Lord such excruciating pain! rather, fie upon the Jews and soldiers who contrived and executed this barbarous torture! But, above all, fie upon my sins, and the sins of an elect world, that were the procuring cause of all that shame and pain which our ever-blessed Lord and Saviour suffered; these conceived the barbarous torture, mocked him, spit in his face, and smote the thorns into his temples.

Revenge, revenge, O my soul, all this indignity, cruelty, and pain, which thy sins oc

casioned to thy dear Saviour, on thy sins, by destroying their life in thee: Yes, O my soul, crucify them which crucified thy Lord, the Lord of glory.

Away with them from thy heart which cried, " away with this man!" Luke xxiii. 18." away with him, away with him, cru

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cify him!" John xix. 15. Rather do it, O Almighty God, by thy infinite power and grace, for it is a task too hard for me; yet I am resolved, that through thy grace, which is sufficient, and strength which is made per fect in weakness, 2 Cor. xii. 9. I shall mortify sin daily, crucifying the flesh with the affections and lusts, Gal. v. 24. And should not I and every one do so, seeing that they crucified the Lord of glory? May I so revenge the death of Christ on the life of sin soul!

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And are we not bound to do so in baptism, and many of us since by our own voluntary vows and should we harbour as dear friends in our bosoms the stern enemies. of Christ? Should we allow those to live in our hearts, that slew our dear Saviour? No, whatever others do, may I resolve, Jo

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shua-like, to serve the Lord, Joshua xxiv. 15. and to crucify them which cried out, Crucify him, crucify him!" Luke xxiii. 21. for till this be done fully, they will be pricks in my eyes and thorns in my side, Numbers, xxxiii. 55. and vex me while I dwell in the church below,

As fire devours thorns, so let the flame of divine love to my dear Lord and Saviour, who hath done and suffered so unspeakably much for me, burn vehemently in my heart, and consume all my sins and lusts; and may God, to kindle up this fire, shed his love abroad in my soul by the power of the Holy Ghost! Rom. v. 5.

To be sensible of their evil nature and their dreadful consequences, let me often take a view of them in the glass of my Lord and Saviour's sufferings; and so through divine grace, though these Canaanites be not all expelled out of my heart at once, yet they shall be driven out by little and little, Exod. xxiii. 30. till at length they be quite destroyed: for sin, like the plague of leprosy, has got into the walls of the house of our human frame, and hath spread over and corrupted our whole

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nature, and though we may and must, through divine grace, be continually scraping and cleansing the house, yet sin will never be finally destroyed, till at last the walls of the house, even of our mortal tabernacle, be thrown down by death, Levit. xiv. 37.---45.

As the man whom the priest saw fully covered over with leprosy was to be pronounced clean, Leviticus xiii. 12, 13. so we can have little or no hope of ever being pronounced clean by the great High Priest of our profession, Heb. iii. 1. till we have seen ourselves, not in part, but altogether, soul and body, defiled and covered with the dreadful leprosy of sin, and have fled to him for cleansing; if this be done, we may rest assured God the Father will pronounce us clean, in and through the justifying righteousness of Christ Jesus the great High Priest, who hath atoned fully for all such lepers.

Let every one of us, then, like the leper of old, come to him and say, Lord, if thou

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wilt, thou canst make me clean;" that he may say unto each of us as he said unto him, "I will, be thou clean," Matt. viii. 2. for he is as willing to cleanse us at this

day from our sins, as he was at that time to cleanse the leper, if we believe in him who is able to save to the uttermost all those that come to God through him, Hebrews vii. 25.; nay, if we may use the expression, it is in a manner contrary to his will that any should perish; for, eternally blessed be his name! he willeth not the death of a sinner :

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Say unto them, as I live, saith the Lord "God, I have no pleasure in the death of the "wicked, but that the wicked turn from his 66 way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your "evil ways; for why will ye die, O house " of Israel!" Ezek. xxxiii. 11.

In my wanderings through this pleasant wood, I find through different windings I am got back again to that place where I beheld the spreading bay; but where is it now? not a trace of it is to be seen: it was but a little ago when its spreading verdure seemed to promise lasting prosperity; but the woodman has been here, and for some cause or other has not only blasted its beauty, but removed it root and branch, so that I can scarcely tell where it grew. Just so the wicked are removed according to that striking description of the Psalmist, which I no

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