^ "Whether the work of man's redemption could have been wrought without the suffer- ings and humiliation of Christ is not determinable by men; but that it was the most admirable way which wisdom, justice, and mercy could require, cannot be denied.
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could noways beseem him. And therefore the apostle saith, Heb. ii. 10, • It became him to be consecrated through sufferings/ Christ was only to pass through such sufferings as became him who was ordained to be the prince and captain of our salvation. It became him to be man, and it became him in our human nature to suffer death, and it became him to sustain for us the substance of those punishments that we should have undergone ; and accordingly he did. What our sins did deserve, and what justice might lay upon us for those sins, all that did Christ certainly suffer or bear. Jesus Christ did so suffer for our sins, as that his sufferings were fully answerable to the demerit of our sins. And I think I may safely say that Grod, in justice, could not require any more, or lay on any one more punishment than Jesus Christ did suffer for our sins ; and my reason is this, because Christ bare all our sins, and all our sorrows, and was obedient unto the death, and made a curse for us, Isa. liii., and Gal. iii. 13 ; and more than this the law of God could not require. And if Christ did suffer all that the law of God required, then certainly he suffered so much as did satisfy the justice of God, viz., as much punishment as was commen- Burated with sin. But,
[7.] Seventhly and lastly. The meritorious cause, the main end, and the special occasion of all the sufferings of Christ were the sins of his peopled Christ was our surety, and he could not satisfy for our sins, nor reconcile us to God without suffering : Isa. liii. 5, ' But he was wounded for our transgressions.' The Hebrew word for wounded, bbr\i2i liath a double emphasis : either it may signify that he was pierced through as with a dart, or that he was tormented or pained, as women or other creatures are wont to be that bring forth with pain and torment, at the time of their travail ; for the word in the text last cited comes regularly from a root that signifies properly to be in pain, as women are when they bring forth. It was our transgressions that gave Christ his deadly wounds ; it was our sins that smote him, and bruised him. Look, as Zipporah said to Moses, Exod. iv. 25, ' Surely a bloody husband art thou to me,' so may Christ say to his church. Surely a bloody spouse hast thou been to me. Christ's spouse may look upon him and say. It was I that have been that Judas that have be- trayed-thee ! It was I that was the soldiers that murdered thee ! It was my sins that brought aU sorrows and sufferings, all mischiefs and evils upon thee 1 I have sinned, and thou hast suffered ! I have eaten the sour grapes, and thy teeth were set on edge ! I have sinned, and thou hast died 1 I have wounded thee, and thou hast healed me ! It is the wisdom, and oh that it might be more and more the work of every believer to look upon a humble Christ with a humble heart, a broken Christ with a broken heart, a bleeding Christ with a bleeding heart, a wounded Christ with a wounded heart ; according to that, Zech. xii. 10, Christ was wounded, bruised, and cut off for sinners' sins. When Christ was taken by the soldiers, he said, ' If ye seek me, let these go their way:' Christ was willing that the hurt which sinners
^ Isa. liii. i, 5. There were other subordinate ends of his sufferings ; as, (1.) To sanctify sufferings to ua. (2.) To sweeten sufferings to us. (3.) To succour us experimentally under all our sufferings, Heb. ii. 17, 18. (4.) That he might be prepared to enter into his glory, Luke xiiv. 26. (5.) That he might be a conqueror over sufferings, which was one piece of his greatest glory, &c.
200 SEVEN INFERENCES FROM THE CONSIDERATION
had done to God, and the debt which they owed to him, should be set upon his score, and put upon his account ; and the apostle mentions it as a remarkable thing, ' that Christ died for the ungodly,' Rom. v. 8 ; * the just for the unjust,' 1 Pet. iii. 18. Our sins were the meritorious cause of Christ's sufferings, Heb. iv. 15, and vii. 26. Christ did not suffer for himself, ' for he was without sin, neither was guile found in his mouth.' The grand design, errand, and business about which Christ came into the world, was to save sinners, 1 Tim. i. 15. He had his name Jesus, because he was to save his people from their sins. Mat. i. 21. He died for our sins ; not only for our good, as the final cause, but for our sins, as the procuring cause of his death. ' He was delivered for our offences,' ' Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,' Rom. iv. 25, and 1 Cor. xv. 3 ; that is, according to what was typified, prophesied, and promised in the blessed Scriptures: Gal. i. 4, ' He gave himself for our sins ;' 1 Pet. ii. 24, 'Who his own self bare our sins in his own body|[upon the tree ; . . . by whose stripes ye were healed, ov rw iMOikcoin avTov Iddrjre. The whole Testament hath not the like two relatives at once in the original, as if I should say, by whose stripes of his we are healed. Peter, saith Estius, alludes to the stripes that servants receive from their cruel masters ; therefore he re- turns to the second person, ' ye are healed.' Here you see that the physician's blood became the sick man's salve. We can hardly be- lieve the power of sword salve ! But here is a mystery, that only the gospel can assure us of, that the wounding of one should be the cure of another. Oh, what an odious thing is sin to God, that he will pardon none without blood, yea, without the blood of his dearest Son ! Heb. ix. 22, and 1 Pet. i. 18, 19. Oh, what a hell of wickedness must there be in sin, that nothing can expiate it but the best, the purest, the noblest blood that ever run in veins ! Oh, what a tran- scendent evil must sin be, that nothing can purge it away but death, but the death of the cross, no death but an accursed death ! Oh, what a leprosy is sin, that it must have blood, yea, the blood of God, to take it away !