pains which are thus inflicted; as blasphemy, despair, and the worm of conscience. In one word, some evils of punishment are vicious, either formally in themselves, or fundamentally and by way of connotation in regard of the originals thereof, in the person suffering them. Others are only dolorous and miserable, which press nature, but do no way defile it; nor refer to any either pollution or impotency, in the person suffering them; and of this sort only were the punishments of Christ. Now these punishments which Christ thus suffered, are either inchoate or consummate : inchoate, as all those defects of our nature, which neither were sins, nor grounded upon the inherence of sins (for he took not our personal, but only our natural defects), so far as they have pain and anguish in them. And these were either corporeal, as hunger, thirst, weariness, and the like; or spiritual, as fear, grief, sorrow, temptations, &c. Consummate were those, which he suffered at last. And these likewise were either corporeal, as shame, mockings, buffets, trials, scourgings, condemnation, an ignominious and a cursed death. Or spiritual; and those were principally two. First, A punishment of dereliction : "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me'?" There was some kind of separation between God and Christ, during the time of his sufferings for sin in that cursed manner. For understanding whereof we must note, That he had a fourfold union unto God. First, In his human nature, which was so fast united in his person to the divine, that death itself did not separate it, either from the person, or from the deity. It was the Lord that lay in the grave.-Secondly, In love, and so there was never any separation neither; but when he hung on the cross, he was still the beloved Son of his Father, in whom he was well pleased.-Thirdly, In the communion of his Spirit and holiness; and in that regard likewise there was no disunion, for he was offered up as a Lamb without spot or blemish.-Lastly, In the fruition of the light of his countenance, and of his glory and favour; and, in this respect, there was, for the time of his sufferings, a dereliction, 'subtractione visionis, non dissolutione unionis,' by the withdrawing of his countenance, not by the dissolving of his s Infirmitates quædam vitiosæ, quædam miseræ. Aug. Matth. xxvii. 46. union. He looked upon Christ, as a God armed against the sins of the world, which were then upon him. Secondly, There was a punishment of malediction. He did undergo the curse of the law; he did grapple with the wrath of God, and with the powers of darkness; he felt the scourges due unto our sins in his human nature, which squeezed and wrung from him those strong cries, those deep and woful complaints, that bloody and bitter sweat, which drew compassion from the very rocks. And surely it is no derogation to the dignity of Christ's person, but, on the other side, a great magnifying of the justice of God against sin, of the power of Christ against the law, and of the mercy of them both towards sinners,-to affirm, that the sufferings of Christ, whatever they were in 'specie,' in the kind of them, were yet in pondere,' in their weight and pressure, equally griev-. ous with those which we should have suffered for being in all things, save sin, like unto us, and most of all in his liableness to the curse of the law (so far as it did not necessarily denotate either sin inherent, or weakness to break through in the person suffering), why he should not be obnoxious to as great extremities of pain, I see no reason; for no degree of mere anguish and dolor can be unbefitting the person of him who was to be known by that title, "A man, of sorrows." And surely, far more indignity it was to him to suffer a violent death of body from the hands of base men, than to suffer with patience, obedience, and victory, far sorer stripes from the hand of God his Father, who was pleased upon him to lay the iniquity of us all. For the second thing proposed, Why Christ suffered these things; the Scripture giveth principally these five reasons: First, To execute the decree of his Father". Secondly, Tofulfil the prophecies, prefigurations, and predictions of holy Scriptures. Thirdly, To magnify his mercy and free love to sinners, and most impotent enemies. Fourthly, To declare the righteousness and truth of God against sin, who would not be reconciled with sinners, but upon a legal expiation. For although we may not limit the unsearchable wisdom and ways of God, as if he could no other way have u Acts iv. 27, 28. * Luke xxiv. 46. y Rom. v. 8. lib. 13. cap. 10. et de Agone Christiano, Tom. 3. cap. 11. Aug. de Trin. a Rom. iii. 25. saved man; yet we are bound to adore this means, as being by him selected out of that infinite treasure of his own counsel, as most convenient to set forth his wonderful hate of sin, his inexorable justice and severity against it, his unsearchable riches of love and mercy towards sinners, and, in all things, to make way to the manifestation of his glory.Lastly, To show forth his own power, which had strength to stand under all this punishment of sin, and at last to shake it off, and to declare himself to be the Son of God, by the resurrection from the dead". For though Christ did exceedingly fear, and for that seems to decline and pray against these his passions; yet none of that was out of jealousy, or suspicion that he should not break through them. But he feared them, as being pains unavoidable, which he was most certain to suffer; and as pains very heavy and grievous, which he should not overcome without much bitterness, and very woful conflict. Now for a word of the last clause. "Therefore shall he lift up the head."-We may hence observe, that Christ hath conquered all his sufferings by his own power. As in his passion, when he suffered, he bowed down his head beforehand, and gave up the ghost with a loud voice, to note, that his sufferings were voluntary ; so, in his resurrection, he is said to lift up his head himself, to note, that he had life in himself; that he was the prince of life; that it was impossible for him to be held under by death (as we were by the law ); and that his exaltation was voluntary likewise, and from his own power, for he was not to have any assistant in the work of our redemption, but to do all alone *. If it be objected, That Christ was raised from the dead "by the glory of his Father," and that he raised him upf;to this I answer, That this was not by way of supplement and succour, to make up any defect of power in Christ; but only by way of consent to Christ's own power and action, that so men might jointly honour the Son and the Father . Or, by "the glory of the Father," we may understand that glorious power which the Father gave unto his Son in the flesh, to have life in himself", annexing thereunto a com x. 17. b Rom. i. 4. Acts iii. 15. h John v. 26. c John xix. 30. d Rom. vii. 6. e John ii. 19. v. 26. g John v. 19.26. mand to exercise the same power. Or he is said to be raised by himself and his Father both, because that Holy Spirit which immediately quickened him *, was both his and his Father's. It was not any personal thing wherein the Son differed from the Father, which raised Jesus from the dead, but that Spirit which was common to them both. To conclude, then, with the consideration of those great benefits, and that excellent use which this resurrection of Christ doth serve for unto us. First, It assureth us of the accomplishment of his works of mediation on earth, and that he is now in the execution of those other offices, which remain to be fulfilled by him in Heaven for the application of his sacrifice unto us: for having in the resurrection justified himself, he thereby rose for our justification likewise'. For if the debt had not been taken quite off by the surety, it would have lain upon the principal still. And therefore the apostle proveth the resurrection by this, That God's mercies are sure "." Whereas, if Christ were not risen from the dead, we should be yet in our sins; and so, by consequence, the mercies of David should have failed us ". And for this reason it is (as I conceive) that the Lord sent an angel to remove the stone from the mouth of the sepulchre; not to supply any want of power in him, who could himself have rolled away the stone with one of his fingers; but as a judge, when the law is satisfied, sendeth an officer to open the prison-doors to him, who hath made that satisfaction; so the Father, to testify that his justice was fully satisfied with the price which his Son had paid, sent an officer of Heaven to open the doors of the grave, and, as it were, to hold away the hanging, while his Lord came forth of his bedchamber. Secondly, It assureth us of our resurrection; for as the head must rise before the members, so the members are sure to follow the head. The wicked shall rise by his judiciary power, but not by the virtue and fellowship of his resurrection, as the faithful, who are therefore called "children of the resurrection"." Thirdly, It doth, by a secret and spiritual virtue, renew and " sanctify our nature P;" for the acts i John x. 18. m Acts xiii. 34. P Rom. vi. 4. VOL. II. Rom. i. 4. 1 Tim. iii. 16. 1 Pet. iii. 18. 2 H Rom. iv. 25. • Luke xx. 36. 1 Cor. xv. 20, 23. of Christ's mediation in his sufferings and victories, are spiritually appliable and effectual in us unto answerable effects: his death, to the mortification of sin; and his resurrection, to the quickening of us in holiness'. Fourthly, It comforteth us in all other calamities of life which may befall us; be that raised up himself from the dead, hath compassion and power to deliver us from all evil, and to keep us from falling. This is the sum of Job's argument,-" God will raise me up at the last day; therefore undoubtedly he is able (if it stand with my good and his own glory) to lift me up from this dunghill again." And this is God's argument to comfort his people in patient waiting upon him in their afflictions;because their dead bodies shall live, and they that dwell in the dust, shall awake and sing. Lastly, It serveth to draw our thoughts and affections from earth unto Heaven; because things of a nature should move unto one another. Now saith the apostle, "Our conversation is in Heaven, from whence we look for a Saviour, even the Lord Jesus Christ; who shall change our vile body, and make it like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself." To him with the Father and the Holy Ghost, three persons and one God, be all honour, glory, majesty, and thanksgiving, for ever. Amen. PRINTED BY S. AND R. BENTLEY, DORSET STREET. |