^ Christ's soul was beleaguered, or compassed round, round with sorrow, as that word TtptXiTos sounds. ' ' Terrified.' — G. » ' Coagulated.' — Q.
OF THE SUFFERINGS CF CHRIST IN HIS SOUL. 93
the word implies, when he drank that bitter cup, that cup of bitter- ness, that cup mingled with curses, which made him sweat drops of blood ! which, if men or angels had but sipped of, it would have made them reel, stagger, and tumble into hell. The soul of Christ was overcast with a cloud of God's displeasure. The Greek Church, speaking of the sufferings of Christ, calls them cuyvo3(na iradrjiiara, ' unknown sufferings.' Ah Christians ! who can speak out this sorrow ? ' The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity, but a wounded spirit who can bear ?' Prov. xviii. 14. Christ's soul is sorrowful ; but give me that word again, his soul is exceeding sorrowful ; but if that word be yet too low, then I must tell you that ' his soul was exceeding sorrowful, even unto death : ' not only extensively, such as must con- tinue for the space of seventeen or eighteen hours, even until death itself should finish it, but also intensively such, and so great as that which is used to be at the very point of death, and such as were able to bring death itself, had not Christ been reserved to a greater and heavier punishment. Of this sorrow is that especially spoken, ' Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow which is done unto me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger,' Lam. i. 12. Many a ^ad and sorrowful soul hath, no question, been in the world ; but the like sorrow to this was never since the creation. The very terms or phrases used by the evangelists speak no less. He was ' sorrowful and heavy,' saith one ; ' amazed, and very heavy,' saith another ; ' in an agony,' saith a third ; 'in a soul- trouble,' saith a fourth. Certainly, the bodily torments of the cross were much inferior to the agony of his soul. The pain of the body is the body of pain. Oh, but the very soul of sorrow is the soul's sorrow, and the very soul of pain is the soul's pain.
(2.) Secondly, That lohich Christ assumed or took of our nature, he Ojssumed to this end, to suffer in it; and hy suffering, to save and redeem it. But he took the whole nature of man, both body and soul ; ergo, he suffered in both. First, the assumption is evident, and needs no proof ; that Christ took upon him both our soul and body, the apostle assures us, where he saith, ' That in all things it became him to be like unto us,' Heb. ii. 17 ; therefore he had both body and soul as we have. Secondly, concerning the proposition, viz., That what Christ took of our nature, he took it by suffering in it properly and immediately to redeem us. Now this is evident by that blessed word, where the apostle saith, ' Christ took part with them that he might destroy, through death, him that had the power of death, that is, the devil,' ver. 14, 15 ; ' and deliver them, who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.' Hence I reason thus, that wherein Christ delivered us, he took part with us in ; but he delivered us from fear of death ; ergo, he did therein communicate with us. Now mark, this fear was the proper and inmiediate passion of the soul, namely, the fear of death and God's anger. And the text giveth this sense. Because the fear of this death kept them in bondage, but the fear only of the bodily death doth not bring us into such bondage ; witness that Song of Zacharias ; * That we, being delivered from the hands of our enemies, should serve him without fear,' Luke i. 74. This then is a spiritual fear, from the which Christ did deliver us ;
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ergo. He did communicate wdth us in this fear ; for the apostle saith, ' In 'that wherein he suffered, and was tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted,' Heb. ii. 18. Certainly that fear which fell on Christ was a real fear, and it was in his soul, and did not arise from the mere contemplation of bodily torments only, for the very martyrs in the encountering with them have feared little. Assuredly there was some great matter that lay upon the very soul oi Christ, which made him so heavy, and sorrowful, and so afraid, and in such an agony.
But if you please, take this second argument in another form of words, thus : ivhat Christ lock of ours, that he in suffering offered up for us, for his assuming of our nature, was for this end, to suffer for us in our nature ; but he took our nature in body and in soul, and he delivered our souls as well as our bodies ; and the sins of our souls did need his sacrifice as well as the sins of our bodies; and our souls were crucified with Christ as well as our bodies. Mens mea in Christo crucifixa est, saith Ambrose. Surely if our whole man was lost, then our whole man did need the benefit and help of a whole Saviour ; and if Christ had assumed only our flesh, our body, then our souls adjudged, adjudged to punishment, had remained under transgression without hope of pardon. Several sayings of the ancients doth further strengthen this argument. Take a taste of some. Si iotus homo periit, iotus heneficio salvatoris indiguit, &c. If the whole man perished, the whole man needed a Saviour.^ Christ therefore took the whole man, body and soul. If he had taken only flesh, the soul should remain addict to punishment of the first transgression, without hope of pardon. By the same reason, Christ must also suffer properly in soul, because not by taking oiu' soul, but by satisfying in his soul, our soul is delivered.
' Suscepit animam meam, suscepit corpus meum,' [saith] Ambrose, * He took all our passions, or affections, to sanctify them all in him- self; but Christ was sanctified and consecrated by his death, and so doth he consecrate us,' [saith] Damascene. ' For by one offering, he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified, Heb. x. 14 ; ergo, by his offering of our soul, and suffering in our soul, hath he consecrated our soul and affections.
Suscepit affectum meum, ut emendaret, He took my affection to amend it, &c. Now he hath amended it, in that he consecrated it by his offering, Heb. x. 14 ; Illud pro nobis suscepit, quod in nobis amplius periclitabatur. He hath taken that for us,, which was most in danger for us, &c., that is, our soul as he expoundeth it: [Damascene] de Incamatio7ie, c. 7. But Christ hath not otherwise delivered us from the danger, but by entering into the danger for us ; this danger of the soul is the fear and feeling of God's wrath.