Ans. Tlie human nature being united to tlie di\'iiie, the human nature did suffer, the divine did satisfy. Christ's Godhead, as it did sujtport the human nature that it did not faint, so it did give virtue to his sufferings. The altar sanctifies the thing oflc'red on it, Mat. xxiii. 19. : so the altar of Christ's di- vine nature sanctified the sacrifice of his death, and made it of infinite value.
Quest. Wherein doth the greatness of Christ's sufferings appear ?
Ans. \sf. In the sufferings of his body. He suffered truly, not in appearance only; the apostle calls it rnors crucis. — tlic death of the cross, Phil. ii. 8. Tully, when he speaks of this kind <tf death, quid decam in crucein tollere ? Though he was a great o- rator he wanted words to express it. The thoughts of this made Christ sweat great drops of blood in the garden, Luke xxii. 44. It was an ignominious, painful, curs- ed death. Christ suffered in all his senses: 1. In his eyes; they belield two sad objects, he saw his enemies insulting, and his mother
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weeping.— 2. In liis ears ; his ears were fill- ed with the revi lings of the people, Mat. xxvii. 42., " He saved others, himself he cannot save." — 3. In his smell ; when their drivel fell upon liis face. — 4. In his taste; when they gave him gall and vinegar to drink, bitterness and sharpness. — 5. In his feeling ; his head suffered with thorns, his hands and feet with the nails. Totum pro vulnere corpus ; now was this white lily dyed of a purple colour. — 2d. In the suflFerings of his soul. He was pressed ia the wine- press of his Father's wrath. This caused that vociferation and outcry on the cross, " My God, My God," cur desendsii ? Christ suffered a double eclipse upon the cross, an eclipse of the sun, and an eclipse of the light of God's countenance. How bitter was this agony ! Tlie evangelists use three words to express it : " He began to be amazed," Mark xiv. 33. ; " He began to be faint ;" " To be exceeding sorrowful," Matth. xxvi. 37. Christ felt the pains of hell in his soul, though not Ijocally, yet equivalently. Quest. Why did Christ suffer ? Ans, Surely not for any desert of his own, Dan. ix. 2fc>., " The Messiah shall be cut off, but not for himself;" it was for us, Isa. liii. 6. Utius peccat, alius pkctltur ; he suffered, that he might satisfy God's justice for us. We, by our sins, had infinitely wronged God; and, could we have shed rivers of tears, offered up millions of holo- causts and burnt-offerings, we could never have pacified an angry Deity ; therefore Christ must die, that God's justice may be satisfied. — It is hotly debated among divines, whether God could not have forgiven sin freely without a sacrifice. Not to dispute what God could have done, yet when we consider God was resolved to have the law satisfied, and to have man saved in a way of justice as well as mercy, then, I say, it was necessary that Christ should lav down his life as a sacrifice.
1. To fulfil the predictions of scripture, Luke xxiv. 46., " Thus it behoved Christ to suffer."
2. To bring us into favour with God. It is one thing for a traitor to be pardoned, and another thing to be made a favourite. Christ's blood is not only called a sacrifice, whereby God is appeased, but a propitiation.
whereby God becomes gracious and friend- ly to us. Christ is our mercy-seat, from which God gives answers of peace to us.
3. Christ died that he might make good his last will and testament with liis blood ; there were many legacies which Christ be- queathed to believers, which had been all null and void, had not he died, and by his death confirmed the will, Heb. ix. 16. A testament is in force after men are dead ; the mission of the Spirit, the promises, those legacies, were not in force till Christ's death ; but Christ by his blood hath sealed them, and believers may lay claim to them.
4. He died that he might purchase for us glorious mansions, therefore heaven is call- ed not only a promised, but a ' purchased possession,' Eph. i. 14. Christ died for our preferment: he suffered that we might reign; he hung upon the cross that we might sit upon the throne. Heaven was shut, &c. crux Christi, clavis Paradisi, — the cross of Christ is the ladder by which we ascend to heaven. His crucifixion is our coronation.
Use \st. In the bloody sacrifice of Christ, see the horrid nature of sin ; sin, it is true, is odious as it banished Adam out of para- dise, and threw the angels into hell ; but that which doth most of all make it appear horrid, is this, that it made Christ veil his glory, and lose his blood. We should look upon sin with indignation, and pursue it with an holy malice, and shed the blood of those sins which shed Christ's blood. The sight of Caesar's bloody robe, incensed the Romans against them that slew him. The sight of Clirist's bleeding body should in- cense us against sin ; let us not parley with it, let not that be our joy, which made Christ a man of sorrow.