upon tliis kind of punishment ; that he that is hanged is accursed of God. To which I answer, that the reason of this was, because this was esteemed the most shameful, the most dishonourable and infamous of all kinds of death, and was usually therefore the punishment of those that had by some notorious wickedness provoked God to pour out his wrath upon the whole land, and so were hanged up to appease his wrath, as we may see in the hanging of those princes that were guilty of committing whoredom with the daughters of Moab, Num.^ xxv. 4 ; and in the hanging of those sons of Saul in the days of David, when there was a famine in the land, because of Saul's perfidious oppressing of the Gibeonites, 2 Sam. xxi. 6. Nor was it without cause that this kind of death was both by the Israelites and other nations esteemed the most shameful and accursed ; because the very manner of the death did intimate that such men as were thus executed were such execrable and accursed wretches, that they did defile the earth with treading upon it, and would pollute the earth if they should die upon it ; and therefore were so trussed up in the air as not fit to live amongst men ; and that others might look upon them as men made spectacles of God's indignation and curse, because of the wickedness they had committed, which was not done in other kinds of death. And hence it was that the Lord God would have his Son, the Lord Christ, to suffer this kind of death, that even hence it might be the more evident, that in his death he bare the curse due to our sins, according to that of the apostle : ' Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us ; for it is written. Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree/ Gal. iii. 13. The Chaldee translateth, 'For because he sinned before the Lord he is hanged.' The tree whereon a man was hanged, the stone wherewith he was stoned, the sword where- with he was beheaded, and the napkin wherewith he was strangled, they were all buried, that there might be no evil memorial of such a one, to say, This was the tree, sword, stone, napkin, wherewith such a one was executed. This kind of death was so execrable that Constan- tine made a law that no Christian should die upon the cross; he abolished this kind of death out of his empire. When this kind of death was in use among the Jews, it was chiefly inflicted upon slaves, that either falsely accused, or treacherously conspired their master's death. But on whomsoever it was inflicted, this death in all ages among the Jews had been branded with a special kind of ignominy ; and so much the apostle signifies when he saith, ' He abased himself to the death, even to the death of the cross,' Phil. ii. 2. I know Moses' law speaks nothing in particular of crucifying, yet he doth in- clude the same under the general of hanging on a tree ; and some con- ceive that Moses, in speaking of that curse, foresaw what manner of death the Lord Jesus should die. And let thus much suffice concerning Christ's sufferings on the cross, or concerning his corporeal sufferings. II. I shall now, in the second place, speak concerning Christ's spirit- iial sufferings, his sufierings in his soul, which were exceeding high and great. Now here I shall endeavour to do two things : First, To prove that Christ suffered in his soul, and so much the rather because that the papists say and write, that Christ did not truly and properly and immediately suffer in his soul, but only by way of sympathy and
92 or THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST IN HIS SOUL.
compassion with his body to the mystical body ; and that his bare bodily sufferings were sufficient for man's redemption. Second, That the sufferings of Christ in his soul were exceeding high and great. For the first, that Christ suffered in his soul, I shall thus demonstrate. (1.) First, Express Scriptures do evidence this : Isa. liii. 10, ' When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed,' &c. ; John xii. 27, ' Now is my soul troubled ; and what shall I say ? Father, save me from this hour : but for this cause came I unto this hour ;' 'Mat. xxvi. 37, 38, ' He began to be sorrowful and very heavy.' These were but the beginnings of sorrow : he began, &c. Sorrow is a thing that drinks up our spirits, and he was heavy, as feeling a heavy load upon him ; ver. 38, ' My soul is exceedipg sorrowful, even unto death.' Christ was as full of sorrow as his heart could hold. Every word is emphatical, ' My soul ; ' his sorrow pierced his heaven- born soul. As the soul was the first agent in transgression, so it is here the first patient in affliction. The sufferings of his body were but the body of his sufferings ; the soul of his sufferings were the sufferings of his soul, which was now beset with sorrows, and heavy as heart could hold.i Christ was sorrowful, his soul was sorrowful, his soul was exceeding sorrowful, his soul was exceeding sorrowful unto death. Christ's soul was in such extremity of sorrow, that it made him cry out, ' Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass ;' and this was with ' strong cryings and tears,' Heb. v. 7. To cry, and to cry with a loud voice, argues great extremity of sufferings : Mark xiv. 33, Mark saith, 'And he began to be amazed, and to be very heavy;' or we may more fully express it thus, according to the original, km rjp^- aro cKdafji^eiaOaL, Kai aBrjfjiovelv, ' He begun to be gastred 2 with wonderful astonishment, and to be satiated, filled brimful with heaviness : a very sad condition ! All the sins of the elect, like a huge army, meeting upon Christ, made a dreadful onset on his soul : Luke xxii. 43, 44, it is said ' He was in an agony.' That is a conflict in which a poor creature wrestles with deadly pangs, with all his might, mustering up all his faculties and force to grapple with them and withstand them. Thus did Christ struggle with the indignation of the Lord, praying once and again with more intense fervency, ' Oh, that this cup may pass away ; if it be possible, let this cup pass away ! ' Luke xxii. 42, 43 ; while yet an angel strengthened his outward man from utter sinking in the conflict. Now, if this weight that Christ did bear had been laid on the shoulders of all the angels in heaven, it would have sunk them down to the lowest hell ; it would have cracked the axle-tree of heaven and earth. It made his blood startle out of his body in congealed doddered ^ heaps. The heat of God's fiery indignation made his blood to boil up till it ran over ; yea, divine wrath affrighted it out of its wonted channel. The creation of the world cost him but a word ; he spake and the world was made ; but the redemption of souls cost him bloody sweats and soul-distraction. What conflicts, what strugglings with the wrath of God ! the powers of darkness 1 what weights I what burdens ! what wrath did he undergo when his soul was heavy unto death ! * beset with terrors,' as