ffective, that
Christ thy Lord and Judge should be tormented for nothing, that thou
wouldst not accept felicity and pardon when he purchased them at so
dear a price, must needs be an infinite condemnation to such persons.
How shalt thou look upon Him that fainted and died for love of thee,
and thou didst scorn His miraculous mercies? How shall we dare to
behold that holy face that brought salvation to us, and we turned away
and fell in love with death, and kissed deformity and sins? And yet in
the beholding that face consists much of the glories of eternity. All
the pains and passions, the sorrows and the groans, the humility and
poverty, the labors and watchings, the prayers and the sermons, the
miracles and the prophecies, the whip and the nails, the death and the
burial, the shame and the smart, the cross and the grave of Jesus,
shall be laid upon thy score, if thou hast refused the mercies and
design of all their holy ends and purposes. And if we remember what a
calamity that was which broke the Jewish nation in pieces, when Christ
came to judge them for their murdering Him who was their King and the
Prince of Life, and consider that this was but a dark image of the
terrors of the day of judgment, we may then apprehend that there is
some strange unspeakable evil that attends them that are guilty of
this death, and of so much evil to their Lord. Now it is certain if
thou wilt not be saved by His death, you are guilty of His death; if
thou wilt not suffer Him to have thee, thou art guilty of destroying
Him; and then let it be considered what is to be expected from that
Judge before whom you stand as His murderer and betrayer. But this is
but half of this consideration.

Christ may be crucified again, and upon a new account, put to an open
shame. For after that Christ has done all this by the direct actions
of His priestly office, of sacrificing himself for us, He hath also
done very many things for us which are also the fruits of His first
love and prosecutions of our redemption. I will not instance the
strange arts of mercy that our Lord uses to bring us to live holy
lives; but I consider, that things are so ordered, and so great
a value set upon our souls since they are the images of God, and
redeemed by the blood of the Holy Lamb, that the salvation of our
souls is reckoned as a part of Christ's reward, a part of the
glorification of His humanity. Every sinner that repents causes joy to
Christ, and the joy is so g