But now this description can relate only to total Apostates;
for whatsoever Sins professed Christians are guilty of, though thereby they reproach
their Lord and Saviour, yet they do not declare him to be an Impostor, who
justly suffered on the Cross, and whom they would condemn to the same ignominious
death again if they could; nay, those who are conquered by some powerful
and surprising Fears to Deny Christ, as Peter did, or to offer Sacrifice
to Idols, as many Christians did under the Heathen Persecution, and recover
themselves again by Repentance, are not included in this severe Sentence: For
such Men do really believe in Christ still, do not heartily renounce their
baptismal Faith, and therefore do not lose their Baptism, though in Word and
Deed at present they deny Christ. (William Sherlock, A
Practical Discourse Concerning Death [27th ed.; London: R. Ware, 1751,
261)
When we consider the wickedness of our past lives, and
the danger of having been summoned to the final judgment without preparation,
we shall, I hope, gradually rise so much above the gross conceptions of human
nature, as to return thanks to God for what once seemed the most dreadful of
all evils—our detection and conviction! We shrink back by immediate and instinctive
terror from the public eye, turned as it is upon us with indignation and contempt.
Imprisonment is afflictive, and ignominious death is fearful! (William
Dodd, Speech to fellow Prisoners, 1777, repr. William Dodd, Reflections
on Death [London: Chiswick Press, 1818], 122)
Not many days are now to pass before the fate of one of
the most miserable human beings will be finally determined. The efficacy of our
Lordship’s voice is well known; and whether I shall immediately suffer an ignominious
death, or wander the rest of my days in ignominious exile. Do not refuse,
my Lord, to hear the plea, whatever it may be, which I humbly oppose to the
extremity of justice. (William Dodd, Letter to Earl Mansfield, June 11, 1777,
repr. William Dodd, Reflections
on Death [London: Chiswick Press, 1818], 143)
Who would have ever thought, or how little could it enter
into his own imagination to conceive, that he whom crowds followed from pulpit
to pulpit to hear the word of God, and learn the rules of righteousness, should
be followed by the same crowds to see him suffer an ignominious death
for a most flagitious crime! . . . He observed the lowest orders, which formed
the multitude of mankind, were already too much disposed to ridicule the
Clergy; and he doubted not but the scoffers would triumph in the public spectacles
of a Divine of rank and eminence suffering an ignominious death. (“A
Citizen of London,” An
Account of the Life, Death, and Writings of the Rev. Dr. Dodd, Who was Executed
at Tyburn, on Friday the 27th of June, 1777 [1777], 62, 67-68)
This ought Men to ponder and consider, what an
unspeakably great Anguish, Torture, and Pain, even unto the most ignominious
Death, CHRIST hath, during that Season, suffered; and why he however
suffered all this . . . (Francis Oakley, Memoirs
of the Life, Death, Burial, and Wonderful Writings of Jacob Behman [Northampton:
Theo. Dicey, 1780], 96)
All the humiliations, sufferings, and death of our
blessed Lord were fore-ordained and determined by God, and not merely
permitted. This the author denies, and ascribes to God their simple permission
only, p. 320, ‘God hath permitted his Son to undergo a painful and ignominious
death.’ And p. 404, ‘God permits, yea, appoints, the dearest object of his
love to endure mortal paints and agonies.’ (James Moir, Redemption
by the Death of our Lord Jesus Christ Stated and Defended; Being an Answer to a
Practical Essay on the Death of Jesus Christ, by William M’Gill, D. D. one of
the Ministers of Air [Glasgow: Robert Chapman and Alexander Duncan,
1787], 106)
Having, with this view, given orders that all things
should be made ready, and knowing that he himself, having now performed all
things that were ordained for him by God, was on the ensuing day to complete
his obedience, by suffering a public and ignominious death;--“when the
even was come,” says the Evangelist,--it being in the evening or at the time of
supper—that the Paschal ceremony was performed,--“he sat down with the twelve.”
. . . of all the condescension with which he had honoured them by his familiar
converse,--and of the divine pity which induced him at last to avoid not even
the horrors of an ignominious death, that he might accomplish “the work which
the Father had given him to do?” . . . for nothing can be more natural, than
those who meet together to repeat a ceremony which formed the last act of
intercourse between the Saviour and his disciples, should have their minds
carried back to the event by which that ceremony was immediately succeeded,--the
awful sorrows and ignominious death of him who had been the familiar
friend of his companions during his life, . . . The beauty of his conduct,
then, as represented by the Evangelists and Apostles, lies in this,--that
having fulfilled, humbly and patiently, the work given him to do, as a preacher
of righteousness and a worker of good deeds, and perceiving that the plan of
Providence pointed to a public, a shameful, and an ignominious death, as
the termination of his endurances, . . . (Thomas Wright, The
Last Supper, or Christ’s Death Kept in Remembrance [London: George B.
Whittaker, 1828], 53, 60, 64-65, 390)
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