[1.] First, in the general, I say that this earnest prayer of his doth not denote absolutely his unwillingness, but rather sets out the great- ness of his willingness ; for although Christ as a man was of the same
78 OF THE SUFFEEINGS OF CHRIST.
natural affections with us, and desires, and abhorrences of what was destructive to nature, and therefore did fear and deprecate that bitter cup which he was ready to drink ; yet as our mediator and surety, and knowing it would be a cup of salvation to us, though of exceeding bitterness to himself, he did yield and lay aside his natural reluc- tances as man, and willingly obeyed his Father's will to drink it, as our loving mediator, as if he should say, ' 0 Father, whatsoever be- coraeth of me, of my natural fear or desire, I am content to submit to the drinking of this cup ; thy will be done.' But,
[2.] Secondly, and more particularly, I answer, that in these words of our Lord there is a twofold voice. 1. There is vox naturae, the voice of nature ; ' Let this cup pass from me.' 2. There is vox officii, the voice of his mediatory office ; 'Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt.'
The first voice, ' Let this cup pass,' intimates the velleity of the inferior part of his soul, the sensitive part, proceeding from unnaturaU abhorrency of death as he was a creature. The latter voice, ' Never- theless, not as I will, but as thou wilt,' expresseth the full and free consent of his will, complying with the will of his Father in that grand everlasting design of ' bringing many sons unto glory, by making the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings,' Heb. ii. 10.
It was an argument of the truth of Christ his human nature, that he naturally dreaded a dissolution. He owed it to himself as a crea- ture to desire the conservation of his being, and he could not become unnatural to himself, ' For no man ever yet hated his own flesh/ Eph. V. 29 : Phil, ii. 8, ' But being a son, he learned submission, and be- came obedient to the death, even the death of the cross ;' that shame- ful, cruel, cursed death of the cross, the suffering whereof he owed to that solemn astipulation, which from everlasting passed between his Father and himself, the third person in the blessed Trinity, the Holy Ghost being witness. And therefore, though the cup was the bitterest cup that ever was given man to drink, as wherein there was not death only, but wrath and curse : yet seeing there was no other way left of satisfying the justice of his Father, and of saving sinners, most willingly he took the cup, and having given thanks, as it were, in those words, * The cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?' never did bridegroom go with more cheerfulness to be married to his bride, than our Lord Jesus went to his cross, Luke xii, 20.
Though the cup that God the Father put into Christ's hand was bitter, very bitter, yea, the bitterest that ever was put into any hand, yet he found it sweetened with three ingredients. 1. It was but a cup, it was not a sea ; 2. It was his Father, and not Satan, that mingled it, and that put in all the bitter ingredients that were in it ; 3. It was a gift, not a curse, as to himself : ' The cup which my Father giveth me.' He drank it, I say, and drank it up every drop, leaving nothing behind for his redeemed but large draughts of love and salvation, in the sacramental cup of his own institution, saying, ' This cup is the new testament in my blood, for the remission of sins ; this do ye in remembrance of me,' 1 Cor. xi. 25 ; Mat. xxvi. 28. Thus, my friends, look upon Christ as mediator, in which capacity only he covenanted with his Father for the salvation of mankind ; and there was not so
1 'Qu. ' a natural' ?—Eu.
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much as a shadow ,of any receding from or repenting of what he had imdertaken. But,