The honour of divine justice required, that he should suffer the utmost degree of pun'shment. It was meet that the rights of hea- ven should be vindicated to the full, and that the justice of God should have the last mite it could demand for satisfaction. And this was the special design and aim of God in the sufferings of Christ, as the apostle speaks, Rom. iii. 25, 26. It was ' to declare his righ- teousness ;' and lest we should lose the emphatical word, it is doubled and repeated, ' to declare I say, at this time his righteousness.' And indeed herein God fully obtained his design ; for never was justice so honoured before, to have such a person as the Son of God stand at its bar, and such a sum as his blood paid down at once for our dis- charge : so that justice triumphs as well as mercy, and one attribute is not robbed to pay another.
As it was necessary to God's satisfaction, so it was necessary to ours also. If the Lord Jesus had not made full payment to the utmost mite, we could never have had full satisfaction in our consciences, about that deep and dear concernment of our souls, the remission of sin. Man is a guilty and a suspicious creature, and hard to be brought to an entire confidence in the pardoning mercy of God. Yea, it is impossible to persuade a convinced conscience, of the possibility of re- mission, except you can also prove the fulness of divine satisfaction; for conscience requires as much to satisfy it, as God doth to satisfy him. If God be satisfied, then conscience can be satisfied too, and se- curely rest upon that ground ; but if there be any doubt of that, there is no appeasing of an anxious and jealous conscience: greatly therefore hath God consulted our peace in the severity of his justice to Jesus Christ. ' Now the God of peace, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant,' Heb. xiii. 20. Let the words be weighed ; he is stiled the God of peace, when he brought back Christ from
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the dead : it was incensed justice that put him to death, and appeased justice that brought him back from the dead ; and that which paci- fied God, is the only thing in the world that is able to satisfy the conscience of a sinner.
3. Therefore did God proceed with such rigour and severity with Jesus Christ, that thereby the demerit and evil of sin might be fully discovered to the world, and an everlasting caution left upon all hearts to beware of contracting new guilt. If j ustice had descended in a visi- ble form, and hanged up millions of sinners in chains, it had not been such a warning as this against sin. Nay, let me say, the grievous and eternal torment that the damned suffer in hell, is not such a demon- stration of the evil of sin as this is ; for those torments are much un- known to men till they feel them ; and when they begin to feel them, it is too late to be convinced or cautioned against sin then. But to see such a person as Christ exposed to the utmost severity of God's wrath for our sin, to see such things done in the green tree, may well make us cry out, " Lord, what will be done to the dry tree .?" O the infinite evil of sin ! O the inflexible severity of divine justice ! It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God !
4. In a word ; hereby Jesus Christ is endeared the move to his people, by suffering such great and hard things in their place and for their sakes. The extremity of his sufferings for us, commands the strength of his affection to us.
And thus you see the reasons of all this severity to Jesus Christ. God intended the sweetest mercies for you, and therefore prepared the bitterest sufferings for Christ : from his deep sufferings you may confidently conclude the best of mercies are designed for you ; as you will hear in the prosecuting of the second doctrine, which, for dispatch, I purpose to handle as one use of this point now before me.
O the admirable and astonishing love of God to us poor worms of the earth, to deliver up his own Son into the hands of his enemies, that thirsted for his blood ! Long had they been restrained from satisfying their wickedness, and executing their malice, till now ; and this was the hour which he often spake of, ' My hour is not yet come.' But, oh ! what a dismal hour was it when it did come, when Providence let loose both devils and men upon Christ, delivered him over to the will of his enemies ! And this was not all ; Christ was not only delivered up into the hands of the worst of men, but, which was much more terrible, into the severe hands of divine justice, to grapple with the pure, unmixed, and unallayed wrath of the great and terrible God.
Lastlij^ ^Ve will improve this point by a double use, by way of information and exhortation.
Use 1. Of hrfbrmation.
First, The severity of God's justice to Jesus Christ informs us what a dreadful evil .sin is, which so incenses the wrath of God even
4^4 SACRAMEXTAL MEDITATIONS.
against his own Son, when he bare our sins, and stood before the bar of God as our surety.
Come hither hard hearts (hard indeed if this cannot break them ;) you complain, you cannot see the evil of sin, so as to be deeply hum- bled for it : fix your eyes a while here, and intently consider the point in hand : suppose you saw a tender and pitiful father come inter open court with fury in his face, to charge his own, his only, and his most beloved Son, and to prosecute him to death, and nothing able to satify him but his blood, and be well pleased when he sees it shed ; would you not say. Oh ! what horrid evil hath he done ! It must be some deep wrong, some heiijous crime that he is guilty of, else it could never be that his own father could forget his bowels of pity and mercy. Yet thus did the wrath of God break forth against his dear Son, when he stood before the bar, as our surety, charged with the guilt of our sins.
Secondly^ Learn hence M'hat a fearful thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God. Well might Luther cry out. Nolo Deum ohsolutum^ Let 7ne have nothing to do icith an absolute God. Wo to them that stand before God in their own persons, without Christ, how will justice handle them ! * For if these things w^ere done in the green tree, what shall be done in the dry tree.?' Luke xxiii. 3L Did the Son of God fear, tremble, sweat clots of blood ? Did he stand amazed, and fall into such an agony of soul when he drank that cup,, "which he knew in a few hours he should drink up, and then never taste the bitterness of it more ? How sad is their case that must drink of that cup for ever, a cup that hath eternity to the bottom !