[3.] Partly because he knew how to value tlie comfort of the union, having a pure understanding and heavenly affections. God's children count one day in his presence better than a thousand, Ps. Ixxxiv. 10; one glimi)se of his love more than all the world, Ps. iv. 7. If they have anything of the love of God shed abroad in their hearts, they would not part with it for all the sensual enjoyments which others {•rize and value so much, and if they lose it tliev are touched to the
Mat. XXVII. 46.] the ninth sermon. 271
quick; they lose that which is the life of their lives, which they account their chief happiness. Now Christ was best able to apprehend the worth and value of communion with <jod, having such a clear under- standing and tender affections, and therefore it must needs be grievous to him to have his wonted consolations suspended.
[4.] Partly because he had so near an interest and relation to God : Prov. viii. 30, ' One bred up with him, and daily his delight ; ' Col. i. 13 — Tio^ uyd7rr}<;. Look, among the children of God if they have any interest in him, how mournfully do they brook his absence. Mary Magdalen, ' Woman, why weepest thou ? They have taken away ray Lord, and I know not where they have laid him,' John xx. 13. She sought a Christ, and found a grave. Christ's words, mi/ God, do not only express his confidence but affection, when his God and Father hideth his face from him.
[5.] Partly from the nature of Christ's desertion. It was penal. All desertions may be reduced to these three sorts — for trial, for cor- rection, or punishment. For trial ; so God left Hezekiah, ' to prove what was in his heart,' 2 Chron. xxxii. 31. For fatherly correction'; so God leaveth his people for a while, to teach them repentance, humility, hatred of sin, more entire dependence on himself, Isa. liv. 7, ' I have left thee for a small moment, but with everlasting mercies will I love thee.' For punishment ; so he left Saul : 1 Sam. xxviii. 6, when he answered him 'neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by pro- phets.' So he leaveth the wicked to a reprobate mind. Now Christ's desertion was not for a trial. Fallible creatures may be put upon trial, but the Son of God needs it not. It would not agree with the goodness and wisdom of God to put his beloved Son on such a trial. He was neither unknown to his Father, nor did he vainly presume of his own strength as to need to be confuted by trial. Nor can it properly be called fatherly correction, for there was no sin in Christ that needed to be corrected. Indeed, ' the chastisement of our peace was upon his shoulders,' Isa. liii. 5. Therefore it remains that this desertion was penal and satisfactory, such as came from the vindictive and revenging hand of God. Our sins met in him, and he was forsaken in our stead. There was no cause in Christ himself, wherefore he deserved to be forsaken of God, but we had done the wrong, and he maketh the amends. There was nothing in Christ's pei'son to occasion a desertion, but much in his office ; so he was to give body for body and soul for soul ; and this was a part of the satisfaction. He was beloved as a Son, forsaken as our mediator and surety.
II. Why was Christ forsaken ?
Ans. With respect to the office which he had taken upon him, to expiate our sins, and to recover us from the deserved wrath and punishment into the love and favour of God. This desertion of Christ carrieth a suitableness and respect to our sin, our punishment, and our blessedness.
1. Our sin. Christ is forsaken to satisfy and make amends for our wilful desertion of God. When Adam sinned, we all turned the back upon God who made us. Yea, all actual sins are nothing but a for- saking of God for very trifles, an aversion from God, and a conversion to the creature: Jer. ii. 13, ' They have forsaken me, the fountain of
272 THE NINTH 8ERM0N. [MaT. XXVII. 46-
livinr;: waters, and have hewn ont unto themselves broken cisterns that will iiolil no water.' Now we that forsook God deserved to be forsaken by God ; therefore what we had merited by our sin, Christ endured as our meiliator. He himself submitted to desertion. It is strange to consider wliat small things draw us off from God: 'For handfuls of barley and pieces of bread will that man transgress,' Ezek. xiii. 19 ; ' for a pair of shoes,' Amos ii. G ; ' for one morsel of meat,' Heb. xii. IG ; Isa. Hi. 3. This is the great degeneracy and disease of mankind, that a trifle will prompt us to forsake God, as a little thing will make a stone run down hill ; it is its natural motion. There is nothing that is so easily exposed and ])ut to hazard as the favour of God. Now this being the great sin of man, and the cause of other sins, it was needful that the odiousness of this sin should be set forth by the bitterness of Christ's sorrow under the want of the love of God. Christ's complaints show how God's favour is to be valued, and that it is a dangerous thing to part with it for carnal satisfactions. The consolations of God are cheap, and small things in the eyes of most men in the world. What is more slighted than God and Christ and our own salvation, and neglected for very trifles ? And then what more perfect cure, and better way to instruct the world, than that these sins could not be expiated but by the desertion of the Son of God, and his bitter com- plaints for the suspension of the effects of the love of God to him ?