First, His corporeal and more external sufferings were exceeding great, acute, and extreme sufferings ; for they were sharp, univer- sal, continual, and unrelieved by any inward comfort.
First, They were sharp sufferings ; for his body was racked or digged in those parts where sense more eminently dwells : in the hands and feet the veins and sinews meet, and their pain and an- guish meet with them ; Psal. xxii. 16. " They digged my hands " and my feet *.11 Now Christ by reason of his exact and excel- lent temper of body, had doubtless more quick, tender and deli- cate senses than other men : his body was so formed, that it might be a capacious vessel, to take in more sufferings than any other body could. Sense is, in some, more delicate and tender, and in others dull and blunt, according to the temperament and vivacity of the body and spirits; but in none as it was in Christ, whose body was miraculously formed on purpose to suffer unparalleled miseries and sorrows in : "A body hast thou fitted me,11 Heb. x. 5. Neither sin nor sickness had any way enfeebled or dulled it.
Secondly, As his pains were sharp, so they were universal, not affecting one, but every part ; they seized every member ; from head to foot, no member was free from torture : for, as his head was wounded with thorns, his back with bloody lashes, his hands and feet with nails, so every other part was stretched and distended beyond its natural length, by hanging
pro me mortuus est sernel ; nihil esset ad dolorem quem habuit in se. Edmund de speculo. Eccles. c. 23.
* His body was of a most excellent contexture when it was miraculously formed Aqnin. pars lertio. Art. G.
422 THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE. SERM. XXXIV.
upon that cruel engine of torment, the cross. And as every mem- ber, so every particular sense, was afflicted; his sight with vile wretches, cruel murderers that stood about him ; his hearing with horrid blasphemies, belched out against him ; his taste with vine- gar and gall, which they gave to aggravate his misery ; his smell with that filthy Golgotha where he was crucified, and his feeling with exquisite pains in every part ; so that he was not only sharply, but universally tormented.
Thirdly, These universal pains were continual, not by fits, but without any intermission. He had not a moment's ease by the cessa- tion of pains ; wave came upon wave, one grief driving on another, till all God's waves and billows had gone over him. To be in ex- tremity of pain, and that without a moment's intermission, will quickly pull down the stoutest nature in the world.
Fourthly, and lastly, As his pains were sharp, universal and con- tinual, so they were altogether unrelieved by his understanding part. If a man have sweet comforts flowing into his soul from God, they will sweetly demulce and allay the pains of the body : this made the martyrs shout amidst the flames. Yes, even infe- rior comforts and delights of the mind, will greatly relieve the oppressed body.
It is said of * Possidonius, that, in a great fit of the stone, he solaced himself with discourses of moral virtue, and when the pain twinged him, he would say, " O pain thou doest nothing, though " thou art a little troublesome, I will never confess thee to be evil." And Epicurus, in the fits of the cholic, refreshed himself, ob me- moriam inventorum, i. e. by his inventions in philosophy.
But now Christ had no relief this way in the least ; not a drop of comfort came from heaven into his soul to relieve it, and the body by it : but, on the contrary, his soul was filled up with grief, and had an heavier burden of its own to bear than that of the body ; so that instead of relieving, it increased unspeakably the burden of its outward man. For,
Secondly, Let us consider these inward sufferings of his soul how great they wefe, and how quickly they spent his natural strength, and turned his moisture into the drought of summer. And,
First, His soul felt the Wrath of an angry God, which was terri- bly impressed upon it. The wrath of a king is as the roaring of a lion ; but what is that to the wrath of a Deity ? See what a descrip- tion is given of it in Xahum i. 6. " Who can stand before his in- " dignation : and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger ? " His fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down " by him." Had not the strength that supported Christ been
* Nihil agis dolor, quamvis sis moleslus, nunquam corifitelor te esse malum.
SEEM. XXXIV. THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE. 428
greater than that of rocks, this wrath had certainly overwhelmed and ground him to powder.
Secondly, As it was the wrath of God that lay upon his soul, so it was the pure wrath or' God, without any allay or mixture : not one drop of comfort came from heaven or earth ; all the ingredi- ents in his cup were hitter ones: There was wrath without mercy; yea, wrath without the least degree of sparing mercy ; " for God " spared not his own Son," Rom. viii. 3^. Had Christ been abated or spared, we had not. If our mercies must be pure mer- cies, and our glory in heaven pure and unmixed glory, then the wrath which he suffered must be pure and unmixed wrath. Yea,
Thirdly, As the wrath, the pure unmixed wrath of God, lay upon his soul, so all the wrath of God was poured out upon him, even to the last drop ; so that there is not one drop reserved for the elect to feel. Christ's cup was deep and large, it contained all the fury and wrath of an infinite God in it ! and yet he drank it up : he bare it all, so that to believing souls, who come to make peace with God through Christ, he saith, Isa. xxvii. 4. " Fury is not in me." In all the chastisements God inflicts upon his people, there is no vindictive wrath ; Christ bore it all in his own soul and body on the tree.
Fourthly, As it was all the wrath of God that lay upon Christ, so it was wrath aggravated, in divers respects beyond that which the damned themselves do suffer. That is strange you will say ; can there be any sufferings worse than those the damned suffer, upon whom the wrath of an infinite God is immediately transacted, who holds them up with the arm of his power, while the arm of his jus- tice lies on eternally ? Can any sorrows be greater than these ? Yes ; Christ's sufferings were beyond theirs in divers particulars.
First, None of the damned were ever so near and dear to God as Christ was : they were estranged from the womb, but Christ lay in his bosom. When he smote Christ, he smote " the man that " was his fellow,'1 Zech. xiii. 7. But in smiting them, he smites his enemies. When he had to do, in a way of satisfaction, with Christ, he is said not to spare his own son, Rom. viii. 32. Never was the fury of God poured out upon such a person before.