I shall propose these arguments : —
1. Christ died for no more than are elected.
2. The death of Christ is usually restrained in scripture to such a number and such a company that shall be saved.
3. Christ must needs save all that he intended to save.
4. All those to whom Chiist intended the merit of his sufferings, they shall have it ap})lied to them.
5. Because Chri.st's sj)ecial love was only to few.
6. Because Christ doth not pray for all, and therefore he did not die for all.
7. Christ's offices are of equal extent ; those that have Christ have whole Christ.
ISA. LIU. 12,] THE FIFTY-THIRD CHAPTER OF ISAIAH. 483
Use 1. If Christ did not intend the merit of his sufferings to all, and bore only the sins of many, it standeth us upon to see that we be of the number of those for whom Christ died. I shall use a motive or two to you.
1. The misery of those that bear their own sins. In what a sad case are you if you should bear the heavy and insupportable load of your own sins ! Consider and look about you for the Lord's sake, and see if you be some of Christ's royal priesthood, and a chosen genera- tion. You may know it by the effects of Christ in the hearts of the faithful, in your own sense and experiences, in the communications of the word, and how it will be with you hereafter.
[1.] By what Christ felt when he took our sins from us. Job saith. Job vi. 4^ ' The arrows of the Almighty are within me, the poison thereof drinketh up my spirit ; the terrors of God do set themselves in array against me.' Christ lost the comfortable apprehensions of God's favour. Wherever there is sin, there will be a separation. ' My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ?' His soul was exceeding sorrowful, felt strange agonies and passions, which are the more remarkable because of the eminency of the person ; had these , things been found in us, it had not been so notable. Weak spirits are soon dismayed and terrified at anything that hath but a dreadful appearance. Glover, the martyr, was so affected with the sense of some backsliding, that for some years he lost the use and pleasure of his senses. But for Christ to be sad, Christ in agonies, Christ to sweat drops of blood, it maketh it the more noted.
[2.] By what effects it hath upon the saints. When the little finger of God hath been upon them, oh ! how have they roared through their own folly all the day long ! Ps. xl. 12, ' Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, therefore my heart faileth.' All life and spirit is gone when the soul laboureth under the guilt of one sin. All the racks in the world are nothing to the rack of conscience : Luke xxiii. 31, ' For if they do these things in the green tree, what shall be done to the dry?'
[3.] Consider your sense and experience. When conscience hath been a little opened, oh ! what horrors and disquiets have they felt, and how sore a bondage has there been upon men, good or bad ! Sometimes God giveth his own people a taste what it is to bear their own sins, especially under some great judgment or fears of death. A man can divert other griefs : Prov. xviii. 14, ' The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity, but a wounded spirit 'who can bear ? ' Oh, the intolerableness of a conscience wounded with sin ! Do not your joints smite one another for fear when you see the handwriting against you ? A man hath the best apprehension of such things in such a case. And then, oh ! for thousands of rams and ten thousand rivers of oil, Micah vi. 7. Then ten thousand worlds would he give to set his soul free. What would Spira have done when under terrors ? So Mr Democke, under what desertion was he for eating with too much delight and inconsiderate greediness, who, as Mr Bolton witnesseth, Tcrieth out, Oh, the hell of my conscience ! So for ungodly men. Cain crieth out. Gen. iv. 13, ' My punishment is greater than I can bear,' desperately murmuring against justice. And Judas hanged himself,
484 A PRACTICAL EXPOSITION UPON [ISA. LIII. 12.
thinking thereby to be rid of the terrors of his conscience. Even in the experiences of this life, God showeth what it is to bear sin.
[4.] Consider the life to come, and the threatenings of the word concerning those that die in their sins and bear their own trans- gressions. Oh, how sad will it be to be haled by devils, and added to the rest of the spirits now in prison, and reserved in chains of dark- ness unto the judgment of the great day ! When sins, that now are like sleepy lions, shall arise enraged and tear our souls, and there be none to deliver, as Ps. 1. 22. Oh, this is the portion of them that bear their own burden and their own transgression !
2. The happiness of those whose sins are borne by Christ. No guilt can be charged upon them, no punishment can be laid upon them, no sins, no guilt shall be laid upon them ; the scapegoat hath carried them away into a land of darkne.ss : Jer. 1. 20, ' In those days, and in that time, saith the Lord, the iniquities of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none ; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found.' So Ps. ciii. 12, ' As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.' They are quite out of sight ; our iniquities are not where we are. No punishment is to be laid upon us ; God will not exact the debt twice, of us and Christ too. Something corrective may be done to us, but nothing penal ; justice is satisfied, anger appeased, the sting of afilictions is plucked out, and all serveth to make us the more meet for glory. It were but a poor pardon if God should retain the punishment. The rod comforteth.