[2.] If we consider the creature's comfort, it was the best way to establish that.
(1.) Here is excellent provision made against the infiniteness that is in sin by the infiniteness of Christ's sufferings ; for though sin be but a temporary act, yet it is infinite because of the object, being committed
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against an infinite majesty ; so Christ's sufferings were but a temporary act, yet they were infinite, he being a person that was both God and man. Therefore as sins receive a vakie from the person against whom they are committed, so Christ's sufferings receive a value from the person by whom they are performed. The apostle puts a ' how much more ' upon the blood of Christ : Heb. ix. 14, ' How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your consciences from dead works to serve the living God ? ' His Godhead did put a value and merit upon his blood to expiate the guilt of sin, and therefore the blood of Christ is called the blood of God : Acts xx. 28, ' Feed the church of God, which he hath pm-chased with his own blood.' So that if sin did abound, grace had superabounded ; if sin be put into one scale, put the blood of Christ into the other. The great purpose and design of God was to give us triumph over the clamours of our own conscience. Sin is expiated and done away by the blood of the Son of God.
(2.) There is an excellent provision made for all that the creature stands in need of There are three things which ti'onble the creature, and they are only accomplished and made good in this great contri- vance of God — the bringing of God and man together, the bringing of justice and mercy together, and the bringing of comfort and duty together. How God and man are brought togetlier, who were separate by sin : 1 Peter iii. 18, ' Christ also hath once suffered for sin, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.'" To unite man fallen to God, there is mortal and immortal, greatness and baseness, finiteness and infiniteness brought together. There is God and man in one person, that there might be a commerce between us and God ; our nature, as it were, grafted and planted into the person of Christ, that our persons might have social commimion with God. Then justice and mercy are brought together. The great inquiry of nature is, how to have a satisfaction for justice, that mercy might have a free course ? "What shall we do to recompense justice ? Creatures would sacrifice themselves, and all they have : Micah vi. 6, 7, ' Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God ? Shall I come before his face with burnt-offerings, with calves of a year old ? Will the Lord be pleased with thousand of rams, or with ten thousand of rivers of oil ? Shall I give my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul ? ' But it is not our first-born, but God's first-born. So also comfort and duty are sweetly united together, the Lord having provided a merit against our defects, and a spu'it against our weaknesses ; the Lord is at peace with us, and we are enabled comfortably to serve God.
[3.] If we consider the profit of the creature.
(1.) This way serves to represent sin. You have nowhere such a sight of sin as upon Mount Calvary, when you see the Son of God stretched out upon the cross, and crying out, ' My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ? ' When the punishment of our sins was laid upon Christ, God showeth how displeasing sin was to him.
(2.) To wean us from vanity. We make great matters of trifles, and are apt to idolise every petty and vain thing in the world ; there- fore in Christ the Lord would show us the highest self-denial when he
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took the human nature on him, and endured the wrath of the Father. The whole world wondered after the beast, and the disciples wondered at the goodly stones of the temple, Mat. xxiv. 1 . Oh ! what will you do at the Son of God, in whom the fulness of the Godhead dwelt bodily ? This should beget a special veneration and reverence towards God.
(3.) To overcome us by love. Tbere is a great engagement laid upon a sinner hereby. When the king of Moab was pressed hard by Israel, ' he took his eldest son, that should have reigned in his stead, and offered him for a burnt-sacrifice upon the wall,' 2 Kings iii. 27, according to their superstition, who were wont in extreme dangers and desperate cases to sacrifice their children, whereupon they raised the siege, and went home. God hath taken his own Son, and sacrificed him, that we might leave off fighting against heaven. God would overcome sin by the highest act of goodness and kindness imaginable, hereby he would shame and overcome the heart of a poor sinner.