Ans.l. First, By God here we are to understand God the Father, the first person of the blessed Trinity. According to the vulgar and common rule, when God is compared with the Son or Holy Ghost, then the Father is meant by this title God ; not that the Father is more God than the Son — for in dignity all the three persons are equal — but they are distinguished in order only ; and thus the Father is the first person, the Son the second, and the Holy Ghost the third.
Arhs. 2. Secondly, Our Saviour's complaint, that he was forsaken, must be understood in regard of his human nature, and not of his Godhead ; although the Godhead and manhood were never severed from the first time of his incarnation ; but the Godhead'of Christ, and so the Godhead of the Father, did not shew forth his power in his manhood, but did as it were lie asleep for a time, that the manhood might suffer.
Ans. 3. Thirdly, Christ was not indeed utterly forsaken of God in regard of his human nature, but only as it were forsaken — that is, although there were some few minutes and moments in which he re- ceived no sensible consolations from the Deity, yet that he was not utterly forsaken is most clear from this place, where he flees unto the Lord as unto his God, ' My God, my God,' as also from his resun-ec- tion the third day.
_ Ans. 4. Fourthly, Di'tdnes say that there are six kinds of derelic- tion or forsakings :— 1. By disunion of person; and 2. By loss of grace ; and 3. By diminution and weakenings of grace ; and 4. By want of assurance of future deliverance and present support ; and 5. By denial of protection ; and 6. By withdrawing of all solace and * August., lib de essen. divin.
OF THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST IN HIS SOUL. 101
comfort. Now it is foolish and impious to think that Christ was for- saken any of the first four ways, for the unity of his person was never dissolved, his graces were never either taken away or diminished, neither was it possible that he should want assurance of future deliver- ance and present support that was eternal God and Lord of life ; but the two last ways he may rightly be said to have been forsaken, in that his Father denied to protect and keep him out of the hands of his cruel, bloody, and merciless enemies, no ways restraining them, but suffering them to do the uttermost that their wicked hearts could imagine, and left him to endure the extremity of their fury and malice ; and, that nothing might be wanting to make his sorrows beyond mea- sure sorrowful, withdrew from him that solace and comfort that he was wont to find in God, and removed far from him all things for a little time that might any way lessen and assuage the extremity of his pain.
[2.] Secondly, That Jesus Christ did feel and suffer the wrath of God lohich was dice unto us for our sins. The prophet Isaiah, chap, liii. 4, saith, ' That he was plagued and smitten of God ' ; and ver. 5, ' The chastisement of our peace was upon him.' To be plagued and smitten of God is to feel and suffer the stroke of his wrath ; and so to be chastised of God, as to make peace with God or to appease him, is so to suffer the wrath of God as to satisfy God and to remove it. And truly how Christ should possibly escape the feeling of the wrath of God incensed against our sins, he standing as a surety for us with our sins laid upon him, and for them fully to satisfy the justice of God, is not Christianly or rationally imaginable.
And whereas some do object that Christ was always the beloved of his Father, and therefore could never be the object of God's wrath :
I answer. By distinguishing of the person of Christ, whom his Father always loved, and as sustaining our sins, and in our room standing to satisfy the justice of God ; and as so the wrath of God fell upon him and he bore it, and so satisfied the justice of God, that we thereby are now delivered from wrath through him. So the apostle, Eom. V. 9, ' Much more, being justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath by him;' 1 Thes. i. 10, 'And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.'
It is a groundless conceit of some learned heads, wh.o^dd!iy"the cause of Christ's agony to be the drinking of that cup of wrath that was given to him by his Father, John xviii. 11, sajn^ng that the sight of it only, and of the peril he saw we were in, was the cause of hb agony ; for the cup was not only shewed unto him,; and the great Wrath due to our sins set before him, that he should -eee it and tremble at the apprehension of the danger we were in, but it was poured not only on. him, but into him, that he for the sins of his redeemed ont^s should suft'er it sensibly, and drink it, that the bitterness thereof might affect all the powers of his soul and body • for the Scripture does sufficiently testify that not only upon the sight and apprehension of this wrath and curse coming on him the holy human nature did holily abhor it, but also that he submitted to receive it upon the consideration of the divine decree and agreement made upon the price to be paid by him, and
102 THAT JESUS CHRIST DID SUFFER TORMENT,
that upon the feeling of this wrath, this agony in his soul, the bloody- sweat of his body was brought on.i
Quest. But how could the pourings forth of the Father's wrath upon his innocent and dear Son consist with his Fatherly love to him ? &c.
Ans. Even as the innocency and holiness of Christ could well con- sist with his taking upon him the punishment of our sins ; for even the wrath of a just man, inflicting capital punishment on a condemned person, put case it be his own child, can well consist with fatherly affection towards his child suffering punishment. Did you never see a father weep over such a son that he has corrected most severely ? Did you never see a judge shed tears for those very persons that he has condemned? There is no doubt but wrath and love can well consist in God, in whom affections do not war one with another, nor fight with reason, as it often falls among men ; for the affections ascribed unto God are effects rather of his holy will towards us, than properly called afiections in him ; and these effects of God's will about us do always tend to our happiness and blessedness at last, however they are diverse one from another in themselves.