very sorrows of hell in his soul while he lived. Certainly the whole punishment of body and soul which was due unto us, Christ our Kedeemer was in general to suffer and satisfy for in his own person ; but the torments and terrors of hell, and the vehement sense of God's wrath, are that punishment which did belong to the soul ; ergo, Christ did suffer the torments and terrors of hell. By the whole punishment you are to understand the whole kind or substance of the punishment, not all the circumstances, and the very same manner. The whole punishment then is the whole kind of punishment — that is, in body and soul — which Christ ought to have suffered, though not in the same manner and circumstance. 1. Neither for the place of hell locally ; nor 2. For the time eternally; nor 3. For the manner sinfully. "When we say Christ was to suffer our whole punishment, all such punishments as cannot be suffered without sin, as desperation [and] final reprobation, are manifestly excepted. Christ did bear all our punishment, though not as we should have borne it ; that is, 1. Sin- fully ; 2. Eternally ; 3. Hellishly. But he did so bear all our punish- ment as to finish all upon the cross ; and in such sort as God's justice was satisfied, his person not disgraced, nor his holiness defiled, and yet man's salvation fully perfected. Col. ii. 14, 15 ; Heb. ix. 14, and x. 15. We constantly affirm that Christ did suffer the pains of hell in his soul, with these three restrictions: — 1. That there be neither in- iignity offered to his royal person ; 2. Nor injury to his holy nature ; 3. Nor impossibility to his glorious work. All such pains of hell then as Christ might have suffered : — 1. His person not dishonoured ; 2. His nature with sin not defiled ; 3. His work of our redemption not hindered, we do steadfastly believe were sustained by our blessed Saviour. Consider a few things.
First, Consider the adjuncts of hell, which are these four : 1. The place, which is infernal ; 2. The time, which is perpetual ; 3. The darkness, which is unspeakable ; 4. The ministers and tormentors — the spirits and devils, which are irreconcilable. Now these adjuncts of hell Christ is freed from. For the dignity of his person, it was not fit that the Son of God, the heir of heaven, should be shut up in hell, or that he should for ever be tormented, who is never from God's presence sequestered, or that the light of the world should be closed up in dark- ness, or that he who bindeth the evil spirits should be bound by them, &c.
Secondly, Consider the effects, or rather the defects, of hell, which are chiefiy these two : First, The deprivation of all virtue, grace, holi- ness ; Secondly, The real possession of all vice, impiety, blasphemy, . &c. Now the necessity of the work of Christ doth exempt him from these effects ; for if he had been either void of grace, or possessed with vice, he could not have been the Eedeemer of poor lost souls ; for the want of virtue he could not have redeemed others ; for the presence of sin he should have been redeemed himself ; and from fretting indigna- tion and fearful desperation, the piety and sanctity of his nature doth preserve him, who, being without sin, could neither by indignation displease his Father, nor by desperation destroy himself. So that, if you consider either the adjuncts of hell or the effects, then I say we do remove all them as far off from the holy soul of Christ as heaven is from hell, or the east from the west, or darkness from light, &c
THOUGH NOT AFTER A HELLISH MANNER. 105
Thirdly, Consider the punishment itself. Now, concerning this, we Bay that our blessed Saviour, as in himself he bare all the sins of the elect: so he also suffered the whole punishment of body and soul in general that was due unto us, for the same which we should have endured if he had not satisfied for it ; and so consequently we affirm that he felt the anguish of soul and horror of God's wrath, and so in soul entered into the torments of hell for us, sustained them and vanquished them. One speaking in honour of Christ's passion, saith. Cum iram Dei sihi propositum, videret, When he saw the wrath of God set before him, presenting himself before God's tribunal loaden with the sins of the whole world, it was necessary for him to fear the deep bottomless pit of death. i Again saith the same author, 2 Cum species Christo ohjecta est, &c., Such an object being ofi'ered to Christ's view, as though God being, set against him, he were appointed to destruction ; he was with horror afirighted, which was able a hun- dred times to have swallowed up all mortal creatures, but he, by the wonderful power of his Spirit, escaped with victory. ' What dishonour was it to our Saviour Christ,' saith aiiother,3 ' to suffer that which was necessary for our redemption,' — namely, that torment of hell which we had deserved, and which the justice of God required that he should endure for our redemption ; or rather, what is more to the honour of Christ, than that he vouchsafed to descend into hell for us, and to abide that bitter pain which we had deserved to suffer eternally; and what may rather be called hell than the anguish of soul which he suffered, when, he being yet God, complained that he was forsaken of God ? 0 sirs, this we need not fear to confess, that Christ, bearing our sins in himself upon the cross, did feel himself during that combat as rejected and forsaken of God and accursed for us, and the flames of his Father's wrath burning within him ; so that to the honour of Christ's passion we confess that our blessed Kedeemer refused no part of our punishment, but endured the very pains of hell, so far as they tended not neither to the derogation of his person, deprivation of his nature, destruction of his office, &c.
Here it may be queried whether the Lord Jesus Christ underwent the idem, the very self-same punishment that we should have undergone, or only the tantundem, that which did amount and was equivalent thereunto ? To which I answer, that in different respects both may be affirmed. The punishment which Christ endured, if it be considered in its substance, kind, or nature, so it was the same with that the sinner himself should have undergone ; but if it be considered with respect to certain circumstances, adjuncts, or accidents which attend that punishment, as inflicted upon the sinner, so it was but equiva- lent, and not the same. The punishment due to the sinner was death, the curse of the law, upon the breach of the first covenant. Now this Christ underwent, for ' he was made a curse for us,' Gal. iii. 13. The adjuncts attending this death were the eternity of it, desperation going along with it, &c. These Christ was freed from, the dignity of his person supplying the former, the sanctity of his person securing him against the latter; therefore in reference unto these, and to some
1 Calvin, in Mat. iivi. 39. * Calvin, in Mat. iivii. 46.