Contemplations and Devotions, Part 18
XVIII. The Place,Ma…. 27.33. Golgotha.
INto what poverty as wel as passion did his love, and our sinnes sinke him? what lower degree of poverty, then to take his beginning in a Stable, to make his end on a dunghill? hee is borne among beasts, hee lives among Publicans, hee dyes among Theeves, and he is buried too in a shrowd and grave of almes, his birth is without a Cradle, his life is without a house, nay, without a hole to lay his head in, Math. 8.20.his death without a bed, his buriall without a ragge or grave of his own; nay, as well the glory, as basenes of this circumstāce, the Place of his death shall both contribute to his shame? where did he thus ignominiously suffer?Act. 26.26. 'twas not in a corner (as Paul speaks to Agrippa in another case) but in Ierusalem, the eye, and, …t this time of the Passover, the Theater of the world; obscurity is the maske of …hame, emi…ence the Herauld that blazons and displayes it, so God tells David, when hee meant fully …o shame him before all Israel and before this Sunne. But where abouts in this vniversall confluence of all nations was it, that he suffers all this? not in a glorious Palace, or fragrant Garden, but on a nastie, putrid dung hill Golgotha, among the grave lesse bones of infamous malefactors; before the greatnesse, now, the guiltinesse of the place shames him. Iobs case was lamentable, when hee sate on the dunghill scratching his sores with a potsheard, Iob 2.8.and the wormes gnawed his flesh, but here 'tis worse, this dunghill of our Saviours affords him not so much ease as (with Iob) to sit, he hangs on ten…er…, and his very strength it selfe 'tis no better, dried vp (as the Psalmist speakes) like a Potsheard, Psa. 22 15.and alas how much more worse vermine then those Iob felt doe here teare, and mangle him? nay, the worst of wormes, our sinnes doe gnawe and eate into his very soule the irons entred into his soule; and yet,Psa. 105.18. that he may be compleate in suffering, he will dye no where but in Golgotha a dunghill; Adam had sinn'd in all his sences, and therefore this our second Adam, …hat all our sinnes might dye, will have all his senses suffer, his eyes had before suff…red darkning, his eares blasphemies, his tast gall, his feeling whippes, and buffets, thornes, and nayles, nor shall his sense of smelling scape nei…her, that shall suffer too, if not from the persons, yet from the place, a noysome, loathsome dunghill. Nor shall this circumstance among the rest bee without either significance, or type, hee will rather dye in stinking Golgotha, then pleasant towred Ierusalem, to signifie, that sinful pleasures though n'ere so glorious, are more loathsome to him, then the noysom'st dunghill of dead mens bones, those living painted Sepulchers, Mat 13.27.the Pharises were more vnsavourie to him, then the dead Sepulcher-lesse carcasses of Golgotha. Wee vsually cast out vnserviceable trash to dunghills, wee were all no better, vnprofitable, vselesse trash cast out of Gods house, Paradise, into the dunghill of the world, thither therefore comes he into the dunghill to seeke vsus, and there finding vsus dead, Ephe. 2.1.and withered, rotten in trespasses and sinnes, 1 Tim. 5.hee inspires vsus with his owne breath, revives vsus with his owne bloud, nourishes vsus with his owne flesh, redeemes vsus with his owne death, lodges vsus in his own wounds. Hee will not be crucified in walled Ierusalem, but in open Golgotha, not on the ground but aloft in the ayre. The common'st element of all the rest, to shew the vnlimited vniversality of his deaths merit, in him there is neither bond nor free, rich nor poore, Iew nor Gentile. And for type the sinne offering (wee know) was to be,Lev. 10.3. Heb. 13.11.a bullock without blemish offered vp without the campe, Deut. 16.5.nor was the Passover to bee offered within any of their gates. Here is our Saviour without spot, or blemish, offered vp (as the Apostle speakes in relation to that sacrifice) without the gate; Deut. 16.12hee that would have a share in this sinne offering, must goe out of the Campe, Ver. 13.out of the world (at least) in affection, vsing it, 1 Ioh 2.as if he vs'd it not; as an enemie at distance, the love of the world it is enmitie with God, Iam. 4.4.with him then, …nd to him, let vsus goe forth (as the Apostle speakes) without the Campe bearing hi… reproach, Heb. 13 13.offering vp with him our selues as quicke and lively sacrifices to him,Rom. 12.1. which let vsus (with him) not think to doe in the pleasurous Ierusalem of the world, but in the crucifying Golgotha of a spirituall death to sinne, for although hee here offered vp himselfe once for all, so that,Heb. 7 27. there remaines no more sacrifice for sinne; yet still remaines there due from vsus selfe-sacrifices of thankes, of praise, and gratulation, …hough not of merit and expi…tion, and these too must be like those other slaine, and mortified; or else theyle be as farre from being acceptable, as they are from being expiable, as far from pleasing, as deserving: but
O my blessed Lord and Saviour, thou that didst both so much deserve to please, and please to deserve so much for mee, who to become a Saviour to me in thy death, becam'st not only a suiter to me in thy life, but (alas) how vnwearied a seeker of mee both in life, and death? was it not enough (Lord) for thee as a prodigall to have receiv'd me or as a lost sheepe to have sought me in the wildernesse, Luk. 15.Math. 4.as thou didst when thou there didst fast; or as a lost groat, Luk 1….8.to have swept the house for me, as when thou whippedst thence the merchandise, M…th. 21.but being vnsavourie salt, and so good for nothing, but to be throwne out to the dung hill. Mat. 5.13.Didst thou come thither too to seeke, to save, to season mee againe? to Golgotha? O let me not thinke any place too farre, any paines too much, any conditions too lowe to seeke thee, let me seeke thee every where,Math. 17. in the mountaine where thou prayedst, shinedst, by devotion, admiration; in the Garden where thou sweatedst, bleededst, Luk. 22.by fighting, watching, working out my salvation with feare and trembling; Phil. 2.12.in the Parlour where thou communicatedst, Ioh. 13.washedst, by charity, humility; in the Temple where thou apposedst, whippedst, Luk. 2.by attention, discipline; in the wildernesse where thou fastedst, Math 4.conqueredst, by abstinence, resistance; but especially here in Golgotha, where thou sufferedst, dyedst, Math. 27.and that by faith, and patience, there shall I surest find thee, there shall I be surest to be found of thee, there didst thou stretch widest thine armes of mercy, there didst thou pierce deepest thy bowells of compassion; if the first Adam turn'd Paradise into a Golgotha of death, of sin; yet, how graciously h… thou the second Adam (here) turn'd Golgotha into a Paradise of life, of grace, here growes that tree of life, thy crosse, here flowes that river that waters the garden of thy Church, thy bloud; so much hast thou dignified this infamous dunghill, that the Iewes having turn'd the Temple into a dunghill of Merchandise, Mat. 11.13.of trash, thou turnest this dunghill into a Temple of prayer, and sacrifice, here didst thou offer vp that all sufficient sacrifice of thine owne precious bloud, here didst thou accept too that welcome sacrifice that thou wilt not despise the broken contrite heart of the penitent Thiefe,Psa. 51.16. thou whip'st those that buy in the Golgothard temple, but imbracest him that had stolne in this templed Golgotha. O Lord, my heart is a very Golgotha of death, Mat 27.7.an Aceldama of bloud, wash it, as thou didst the one with thy bloud, buy it as thou didst the other with thy price, in this Golgotha let me crucifie my sinnes their malefactors in this Aceldama, Gal 2.19.let me bury thē;Mat. 27.7. they'r strangers to the common-wealth of Israel: Eph 2.12.raise me (O Lord) as sometime thy dead Prophet did the man a burying, 2 Reg 13.21.out of the Golgotha, the grave of sinne, custome in sinning, 'tis a veryer Golgotha of rottennesse, a more darksom grave of forgetfulnesse then that of earth, in this grave (Lord) who will remember thee. Psal. 88.10.11.12.This is that land where all good things are forgotten. And seeing thou powredst out thy bloud, and breathedst out thy soule (here) in Golgotha, among these dead, dry stinking bones, make mee such too (I beseech thee) inflexible, mortified, vnsavourie towards the world, so shall I bee a sacrifice of sweetest savour vntounto thee, so shall I be to thee (as Eve to Adam) not onelyonly flesh of thy flesh, but bone of thy bone; Gen. 2.23.and since for me (O Lord) thou didst embrace so much shame, so much paine, so much poverty, as thus to dye on Golgotha, a loathsom dunghill, let me not in case of suffering with, or for thee, cōsult with either ease, glory, or profit, but account (with thy Apostle) all things no better then a Golgotha, losse and dung, Phil. 3 8.that I may win Christ Iesus.