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our Lord, in the pit of his humiliation, only hear a noife from heaven and earth, but likeways from hell. He had immediate perfonal rancounter with the wicked one; particularly, in the wilderness of Judea, where Satan tempted him with the most guileful and impious words; and befides his hearing that grand adversary speak out of wicked men ; he heard him, on a certain occafion, fpeaking out of his own disciple and fervant; obliging the meek Emmanuel to fpurn that apostle from him, with a "Get thee "behind me Satan."

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The mire in the bottom of fuch a pit, ciftern or bafon, yielding and giving way to the perfon's feet placed in it; fo as he does, and muft, inevitably, however gradually, fink downward, exhibites the plaineft intimation of our Lord's circumftances in the pit of his humiliation. No fooner was he born at Bethlehem, than he found the finking, suffering, nature of the ftate upon which he had entered. His harmelefs feet at once dipt into the mire of fuffering; as his holy head was dafhed with torrents of wrath in the fame proportion as the engines of his Father's vengeance blazed upon him, did his. fuffering, or finking in this mire, grow and encrease. This fatal, but to finners joyful, truth will appear to demonftration, could we trace him from Bethlehem's manger to mount Calvary, and follow him, from the first to the laft breath he drew in our world.

The Man Chrift was no fooner feparate from his mother's womb, than the mire, in which he stood, began to give way. He was not fo much as furnifhed with a proper and decent lodging, could not be allowed the common privilege of a bed, couch,

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or cradle, whereupon to ftretch his infant limbs. A ftable was the only house, and a manger the only apartment, our world had to beftow upon this heavenly ftranger, when an infant of days. "Mary (fays the evangelift) brought forth her first born "fon, and wrapped him in fwaddling clothes, and “ laid him in a manger, because there was no room " for them in the inn," Luke ii. 7. Well was the circumftance of an inn fuited to the character of the Man Chrift, who on earth was a stranger, and from first to last treated as fuch. But was there no room for him? did the inn open its gates to receive others, of mixed, indifferent, or even ignoble characters; and fhut them upon the innocent, the spotlefs, and the blameless Saviour? were others, under whofe iniquities the earth groaned, accomoda ted with every thing neceffary, perhaps, with many things fuperfluous; and could he, of whom the world was not worthy, find no better accommodation, than that of a stable and manger? O what finking in the mire was this! that he, who, from everlasting ages, dwelt under the immediate canopy of uncreated glory, was now obliged to retire for fhelter, from scorching heats and nipping colds, under the fame roof with oxen and affes: that he to whom the palaces, the ivory palaces, in Emmanuel's land belonged, fhould be thus reduced, to dwell in a low, grovelling and uncomely hut. While our Lord was a tender fuckling, the mire in which he flood continued to give way. As there was no room for him in the inn, it foon appeared there was no fafety for him in his native land: ere ever he had well breathed our air, plots were laid against his precious life; ere ever he had acquired any friends among men, unknown enemies way-laid him, in order to his destruction; which rendered a speedy flight from Bethlehem neceffary; nay, obliged his fuppofed

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fuppofed father, to translate him from the land of Judea entirely, and to enter, for a time, into voluntary exile and banishment. "Behold (fays the evangelift) the angel of the Lord appeared to Jofeph in a dream, faying, Arife, and take the the young child, and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee "word; for Herod will feek the young child to

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deftroy him. When he arofe, he took the young "child and his mother, by night, and departed in"to Egypt: and was there until the death of He"rod," Matth. ii. 13, 14, 15. What could ail thee, O Bethlehem! what ailed thee O Judea! what meant thy madness, O Herod! thus to perfecute the bleffed franger, and fo quickly to diflodge the heavenly gueft. Not only did the Jews at Bethlehem refufe him accefs, and the land of Judea fpue him out; but, as if the earth itself had been wholly in league against its rightful Sovereign, a fixed habitation was abfolutely denied him. You have already feen him hurried from one nation to another; and if you will follow him in his weary pilgrimage below, it will appear how he was hunted, chafed, purfued, and fometimes obliged, of his own accord, to retire from place to place, from one city and village, or it may be from one mountain and defart place, to another. When he was informed of the Baptift's death," he departed thence by ship, into "a defart place apart," Matth. xiv. 13. When the Pharifees were offended at his miniftry, they faid unto him, "Get thee out and depart hence," Luke. xiii. 31. and when the Gergefenes underflood that he had permitted the devils to enter into their fwine, "they befought him that he would depart out of their coafts," Matth. viii. 34. But our Lord's own account of the matter is vaftly more expreffive and emphatical than all fuch

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particular inftances, gathered from his hiftory. "The foxes have holes, (faid he) and the birds of "the air have nefts, but the Son of man hath not "where to lay his head," Matth. viii. 20. no house, no home, no dwelling, or fettled abode. Inftead of a fine and splendid palace, the fpangled heavens were often his only canopy; instead of a downy bed, the wilderness was his frequent couch, and the faftned, but rugged ftones his then pillows. Was it strange to fee a man of Jacob's worth, as well as wealth, lying in this posture, between Beer-fheba and Haran? But how much more furprifing to fee Jacob's Lord reduced to equal, if not greater ftraits. O earth! why fo fhy and unfriendly, when the Lord of heaven, as well as earth, needed and defired a comfortable dwelling place? why, fo liberal to the wicked and prophane, and yet fo unaccountably refer ved toward the holy One of God? wherefore thus furnish the worthlefs with your choiceft apartments, and deny him who is thrice worthy, an agreeable where to lay his weary head? As the world refufed him lodging, fo at times, it denied him fubfiftance; for "having fafted forty days and forty

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nights he was afterwards an hungred," Matth. iv. 2. and when stretched upon the accurfed tree, he faid, "I thirft," John. xix. 28. Strange! does the world and the fulness thereof belong to the Lord? are the cattle on a thousand hills his own? is it under his influence that corns grow, and waters break out? is the whole creation fuftained by the continued exertion of his bounty? and could no crumb of his own bread, no drop of his own water, be produced, when, in this finking mire, he groaned and panted for want! why fo exuberant the breafts of the creatures to others, and yet yielding no fupply to him? Befides, in the world, his cha racter was undermined, and, how fai in the power

of his enemies, quite overturned. They not only, twitted him with the fuppofed meannefs of his birth, faying, "Is not this the carpenter's fon?" Matth. xiii. 55. but reprefented him as a moft dangerous perfon to fociety, both in a civil and religious view; as an enemy to Cefar, an enemy to the temple, and, of confequence, an enemy to that God by whom Cefar reigned, and by whofe glory the temple was filled. "We found this fellow (faid they) per

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verting the nation, and forbidding to give tribute "to Cefar," Luke xxiii. 2. and reviling him upon the cross, they faid, "Thou that destroyeft the "temple, and buildest it in three days, fave thy"felf," Matth. xxvii. 40. In fine, our Lord in this mire funk deeper and deeper, as, under his fufferings, both his body and fpirit gave gradually way. As to the former, Ifaiah fpoke as if he had feen him in perfon, when finking in the mire of the horrible pit: "His visage was fo marred (faid he) more than any man, and his form, than the fons of men," If. lii. 14. accordingly the Pharifees feem to have confidered him as near twenty years older, than he really was, when they faid, "Thou art not yet "fifty years old, and haft thou feen Abraham ?" John viii. 57. And with refpect to his fpirit, it is abundantly plain from his whole ftory, that it proportionally yielded under the oppreffive, unbearable load of his fuffering. What elfe could be the meaning of his fighs, groans, cries, forrows, and griefs, alternately interfperfed with every period of his continuance in the horrible pit and miry clay?

The mire in the bottom of fuch pit, ciftern or bafon, not only yields, but holds. There is not only no standing in it, but no escape from it, being a miry, fticking, entangling clay. Which ferves to inform us, that though, in his humiliation, our Lord was not compelled, but intirely chearful, yet he

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