He suffered in his body the most exquisite torments : the cross was a cruel engine of torment, and more so to him than any other, by reason of the excellent cras'is and temperament of his body, and his most acute and delicate sense, for, as the schoolmen truly say, he was optime complexionatus, of the most exact and exquisite complexion ; and his senses remained acute and vigorous, no way blunted, during the whole time of his sufferings, but full of life and sense to the last gasp, as ma^ be gathered from Mark xv. 39. " When the centurion, " which stood over against him, saw that he so cried out, and gave " up the ghost, he said. Truly this man was the Son of God."
He suffered in his soul ; yea, the sufferings of his soul were the very soul of his sufferings ; he felt in his inner man the exquisite torments and inexpressible anguish of the wrath of God. Hence was that preternatural bloody sweat in the garden, and hence that heart- rending outcry upon the cross. My God ! my God I why hast thou forsaken me ?
In all which sufferings from heaven, from earth, from hell, from friends, from enemies, there was no allay or abatement of the least degree of misery. " God spared not his own Son, (saith the text) " but delivered him up." Wherein the severity of divine justice to Jesus Christ, is displayed in these five remarkable considerations followinc^.
Firsts God spared not. If mercy, pity, and forbearance might be expected from any hand, surely it might be God; he is the fountain of mercy ; " That the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy," saith the apostle, James v. 11. The most melting and tender com- passions of a mother to her sucking child, are but cruelty in compa- rison with divine tenderness and mercy ; Isa. xlix. 15. " Can a woman '' forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on " the son of her womb ! Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget " thee."
Can a woman, the more affectionate sex, forget her sucking child, her own child, (and not a nurse child) her only child, whilst it hangs on her breast, and, with the milk from her breast, draws love from her heart ? Can such a thing as this be in nature ! Possibly it may ; some such cruel mothers may be found, but yet I zoill not forget thee, saith God. Though human corrupt nature may be so vitiated, yet from the divine nature, compassion and mercy are inseparable ; it flows as waters flow from their fountain, only here it restrained it- self, and let not out one drop to Jesus Christ, in the day of his suf- ferings : God, the God of mercy, spared not.
Secondly, God spared not, saith the text ; i. e. he abated not any thing which justice could inflict. Christ was not spared one stroke, one tear, one groan, one drop, one sigh, one shame, one circum-
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stance; no, not the least which justice could demand as satisfaction for man's sin.
There be divers kinds of mercy in God ; there is in him prevent- ing mercy, delivering mercy, and sparing mercy. Now sparing mercy, (as Mr. Caryl on Job well observes) is the lowest mercy of all the three ; it is less mercy to be spared or abated some degree or circum- stance of misery, than to have misery prevented by mercy's stepping in betwixt us and it : it is less also than to be wholly delivered out of the hand of misery : Either of these are greater acts of mercy, than to abate a degree, or shorten an hour of our trouble ; the least abatement of any one circumstance of misery had been sparing mercy, though it had been but the least and lowest act of mercy ; and yet even this was denied to Christ ; he was not abated one minute of time, or the least degree of sorrow. God spared not.
Thirdly, He spared not his own Son, rviov idiov. So stiled signanter, his own, or his proper Son, in a special and peculiar manner, nearer and dearer to him than the angels, who are his sons by creation, Job i. 6. or any of the saints, who are his sons by grace, in the way of regeneration and adoption, John i. 12, 13. This was his own Son by nature, a Son of an higher rank and order, Psal. ii. 7. begotten in an ineffable manner, from all eternity, in his own divine essence ; and so is his Son by nature, having the same essence and nature with the Fa- ther, being co-equal, co-essential, and co-eternal with the Father.
No relation in nature is so intimate, strict and dear as this : our children, are not so much our own children, our bodies are not so much our own bodies, as Christ was God's own Son ; and yet, though he were so dear to him, his other self, his express image, his own dear Son, He spared him not : God spared not Ms own Son.
Fourthly, And that which makes a further discovery of divine severity towards Jesus Christ, is this, that God spared not his own Son in the day of his greatest distress, when he cried to his Father in an agony, that if it were possible the cup might pass from him : For of that day, this scripture is mainly to be understood, the day when he fell to the ground and prayed, " That if it were possible the hour *' might pass from him. And he said, Abba, Father, all things *' are possible unto thee, take away this cup from me," Mark xiv. 35, 36. He beheld his own dear Son sweltering under the heaviest pressure of his wrath, sweating great drops of blood, crying, *' If it be possible, let this hour, let this cup pass ;" and yet it could not be granted. O the severity of God ! he heard the cry of Ahab, and spared him ; he heard the Ninevites cry, and spared them ; he heard the cries of Hagar and Ishmael, and spared them ; yea,. he hears the young ravens when they cry, and feeds them ; but, when his Son cried with the most vehement cry, that tlie cup might pass, he can- not be excused, he must drink it up, even the very dregs of the cup of trembling, and that to the last drop. 0 the justice and severity of God!
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F'lfllihj^ and lastly^ Consider what the Father of mercies did in- stead of sparing the Son of his love, and the text will inform you that ' he delivered him up for us all.' So it is noted in Acts ii. 23. ' Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknow- ledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.
There was a concession or permission to those wicked instruments that shed his blood, a loosing of the chain to those bandogs that com- passed him about ; such a concession as never was given them before; for till then they were tied up from perpetrating thrir wickedness ; but now the restraints of Providence are taken away, and he is de- livered unto their will ; his own Father delivers him into the hands of cruelty. And thus you see wherein the severity of divine justice to Christ was manifest.
In the last place, let us see the ground and reason of this rigour and severity to Christ. Now, there are, among others, three special reasons why Christ could not be spared.