Oh, consider it is borne by Jesus Christ. As Aaron was to bear the iniquity of the holy things of the children of Israel, Exod. xxviii. 38, so Christ will bear the sins of your duties. His soul was heavy unto death, Mat. xxvi. 38. A little before the showers there is a gloomi- ness and sad blackness ; so there was upon Christ's spirit a little before the showers of wrath were poured out upon him. To lighten you, Christ's own soul is heavy and exceeding sorrowful ; he bare ycrur sins. Thus, in the burden of guilt, it is a lightening of the eyes and a relieving of your bondage.
[2.] When you are oppressed with the burden of punishment, fears of death and hell. We are naturally subject to these things : Heb. ii. 15, ' Who all their lifetime were subject to bondage through fear of death.' Conscience, that convinceth of sin, assureth of judgment : Kom. i. 32, ' Who knowing the judgment of God, that they who commit such things are worthy of death.' Our hearts and our own despairing thoughts are upon us ; then we smell the brimstone and the stench of the pit that cometh up into our nostrils. Oh, what shall we do, for these everlasting burnings will consume us ? Consider, the satisfaction will not be required of you : ' He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows.' Christ, that took your sin, bare your punishment; ' even Jesus who hath delivered us from wrath to come ' 1 Thes. i. 10.
[3.] In the case of afflictions. Providence is against us ; and then afflictions without raise troubles and discontents within. We think God is against us, and all is ordered by way of satisfaction to divine vengeance ; all is wormwood and gall, and the teiTors of the Lord possess our spirits. Oh, but hold up the head, and consider nothino- is done to a Ijeliever by way of punishment and satisfaction of divine vengeance : all that was required of Jesus Christ ; he bore that in his body upon the tree. We are not to bear our own sins. Natural men do think that all their misery is formally penal, and ordered by way of punishment, the sting of death, and all afflictions. But yours are not punishments ; that is the wormwood and gall of afflictions. The
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482 A PRACTICAL EXPOSITION UPON [ISA. LIII. 12.
idol priests were to bear their own iniquities, Ez 'k. xliv. 10. But Christ hath taken the sins of his people upon himself. You may have the same afHictions with wicked men, or that you had before conver- sion ; but their habit and use is changed to you. Either they are chastisements or corrections, whose use is to instruct or humble.
To instruct them in their duty : Their ' ears are opened to disci- ])line,' Job xxxvi. 10 ; and Christ ' learned obedience by the things he suffered,' Heb. v. 8.
To show us the vanity of the creature : Ps. xxxix. 11, ' When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth. Surely every man is vanity.' Then they see it to humble them. Job xxxvi. 8 ; and if they be bound in fetters, and holden in cords of affliction, it is to show them they have been proud. Now, it is a great mercy when we can look upon afflictions under this notion. It is a great mei'cy to have our afflictions sanctified : Ps. xciv. 12, ' Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, 0 Lord, and teachest out of thy law.' Want maketh the prodigal child think of returning, Luke xv. And for prevention, they are an antidote to keep off poison. It would have been worse with me if it had not been so: Ps. cxix. 71, ' It is good for me that I have been afflicted.' It is a corrosive, like Paul's messenger of Satan, to cure his pride, 2 Cor. xii. 7 ; and to mind them of duty : Hosea v. 15, ' I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offences and seek my face ; in their afflictions they will seek me early.' And for the exercise of graces, and to conform them to their head, as patience, obedience, and faith ; bruised spices are the more fragrant. So that in all these respects, and many other such like, we may take comfort in the sad- dest things that befall us : Ps. xxiii. 4, ' Thy rod and thy staff doth comfort me.' We do not fear our iniquities when we bear these things.
It followeth in the text, ' He bare the sins of many ;' that is, of the elect, not of all without exception. The same was in the former verse, ' For he shall bear their iniquities.' And so in other places : Kom. v. 19, ' As by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.' So in the 15th verse, ' The gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded to many.'
Observe, that the merit of Christ's death was not extended to all. He bare the sins of many.