shrinking from death and sufferings, of which He foreknew evei7 particular, to which all flesh and hlood, even sinless, must needs ne liable.
But it is clear, that we want some further explanation still. It will doubtless strike every well-informed person, that hun- dreds of martyi's have been known to suffer the most painful deaths, without any such demonstrations of mental and bodily agony, as are here recorded in the case of our Lord. How are we to account for this? How are we to explain the remarkable circumstance that our Lord appears to have felt more distressed, than many a martyr has done in the prospect of being burned alive, or even when at the stake ?
I believe that these questions can never be satisfactorily an- swered by any Socinian, or by any upholder of the modern strange opinions about Christ's death. I believe that the favourite new theory, that both in death and life, we are meant to see in Jesus only a great example of self sacrifice and self-denial, utterly breaks down here. It makes our blessed Lord show less calm- ness in his last hours, than many of his poor weak seiTants have shown, when they were martyred.
The only satisfactory explanation of Christ's intense agony is the old doctrine of imputed sin. He had engaged to die for our sins. His death was a vicarious death. As our substitute. He was about to bear our iniquities, to suffer for us, and to pay our debts to God with His own blood. He was about to be counted a sinner, and be punished, that we might be counted righteous, and be delivered from punishment. The sin of the world began to be laid upon Him in a special manner in the garden. He was being " made a curse " for us, by bearing our sins. This was the principal cause of His agony and bloody sweat. The words of Isaiah were being fulfilled : — ** It pleased the Lord to bruise Him ; He hath put Him to grief." — " The Lord made the iniquity of us all to meet on Him." (Isai. liii. 10, 6.)
The following quotations on this most important subject are worth reading.
Baxter says, " This agony was not from the fear of death, but from the deep sense of God's wrath against sin; which He as our sacrifice was to bear ; in greater pain than mere dying, which His servants often bear with peace."
Sir Matthew Hale, quoted by Ford, says, " Christ stood imder the imputation of all our sins ; and though He was personally innocent, yet judicially and by way of imputation, He was the greatest offender that ever was. As our Lord was pleased to be our representative in bearing our sins, and to stand in our stead, so all these affections and motions of His soul did bear the same conformity as if acted by us. As He put on the person of the sinner, so He put on the same sorrow, the same shame, the same