2. Here is an object for your love. It is a great testimony of the love of Christ, that he was wounded for our transgressions. Viscera patent per vulnera — you may see his bowels through his wounds. A strange kind of surgery ! The whole body is sick, and the head wounded to cure it. We committed the sins, and Christ suftered the punishment due to them. Usually, we love them more that suffer for us, than those that otherwise do us good. Oh, work it upon your affections !
3. It giveth you help in your endeavours against sin.
[1.] It is a help to humble us for sins past. There is a leanness in the soul many times, and we cannot make sin so odious and grievous to our souls as we would. Take in this circumstance ; all Christ's suf- ferings and wounds were but the effects of our sins. This is a glass which will discover it to us, our knowledge is by the effects. The effects of sin were never so apparent and eminent as in Christ. Oh, look upon him whom you have pierced, and then mourn, Zech. x. 12.
[2.] To caution you against sins to come. Here is a double argu- ment, from experience, and from love.
(1.) From experience. Sin is not so sweet as the sinner imagines. Christ suffered bitter things when he bore it in his body upon the tree. It lieth when it fluttereth you with hopes of some contentment. Sin
ISA. LIII. 5.] THE FIFTY-THIRD CHAPTER OF ISAIAH. 279'
indeed smiletli upon the soul at the first coming. Therefore Solomon saith, Prov. xxiii. 31, ' Look not upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright ;' that is, upon the seeming pleasure of it. Oh, remember, it cost Christ dear ; it is a flattering, deceiving thing.
(2.) From love. Oh, shall I wound Christ again ? Shall I grieve God once more ? We hate that which hath injured our friends. Shall I allow that in my bosom which Christ hates ? Use yourselves to these meditations upon the least solicitations to drunkenness, adultery, and the like : 1 Peter iv. 1, ' Forasmuch as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind.' The apostle meaneth, we should arm ourselves with such contemplations as Christ's- death afFordeth us. He speaketh of it as a great remedy against tempt- ations. By such thoughts the work of the Spirit is perfected. By drunkenness, thou givest him vinegar to drink ; thy oppression is a wounding of his sides ; wresting scripture is a turning o^Eloi into Elias; scoffing at religion is spitting upon him ; jeering of his ministers is like the soldiers jeering at him ; professing him for fashion's sake, and hating him in )^our hearts, is a putting mock habiliments upon him ; by abusing of his servants thou dost again buffet and beat him. Thus you may exemplify in every sin.
I am now to make entrance upon the last point —
That by these sufferings, Christ hath purchased for us peace and healing.
I begin with the first of these benefits.
1. That Christ hath purchased peace for his people, ' The diastise- ment of our peace was upon him.' Peace, among other expositions of the phrase, I take to be that reconciliation and amity that was wrought out between God and a sinner. Christ was chastised to pro- cure it for us, and all other good things that follow upon it.
I shall prove it to you by scripture, that one of the great benefits that we enjoy by Christ's sufferings is peace, or the favour of God. Take a few scriptures : Kom. v. 1, ' Being justified by faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ.' There is peace of con- science, and peace with God, which is nothing else but our atonement and reconciliation with him. Every one that is justified hath not peace of conscience ; but every one that is justified hath peace with God. There is a quarrel between God and the soul because of sin ; your sins have separated between God and you. Sin maketh God not only an utter enemy, but a severe punisher. Now this strife and quarrel is taken up by Christ : through Jesus it is said we have peace. He maketh God our friend ; so Col. i. 20, ' And having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself By the blood of his cross ; that is, by the bloody cruel death he suffered upon the cross, he took away sin and wrath. The scriptures speak of what is most visible : so Eph. ii. 14, ' He is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us.' He is our peace, the abstract for the concrete ; such a speech as is usual in relation to the business of Christ's undertaking ; even as he is wisdom to us, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, so Zech. ix. 10, ' He shall speak peace to the heathen ;' so Isa. ix. 8, Christ is
280 A PRACTICAL EXPOSITION UPON [IsA. LIII. 5.