If Christ cried out thus, ' My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ? ' as being our surety for our sins, we may see what to conceive of sin, and of God the better.
But above all things I desire you to see often in this glass, in this book of Christ crucified (it is an excellent book to study), the mercy of God and the love of Chiist, the height, and depth, and breadth of God's love in Jesus Christ, which hath no dimensions. What set God on work to plot this ex- cellent work of our salvation and redemption by such a sm-ety,- — was it not mercy ? Did not that awaken wisdom to reconcile justice and mercy to* Christ ? But what stirred up this wisdom of God ? Oh, bowels of com- passion to man ! He would not have man perish, when the angels did, without remedy.
Therefore let us desire to be inflamed with the love of God, that hath loved us so much. All the favours of God in Christ tend, next after satisfaction to justice, to inflame our hearts to love him again. Wherefore else are the favours of creation and providence ? How sweet is God in providing for our bodies, giving us not only for necessity, but abundance, withholding no comfort that is good for us, &;c.
But chiefly in his masterpiece, God would have us apprehend the gi'eatest love of all other, because there he hath set himself to glorify his mercy more than anything else ! Therefore we may well cry with the apostle, ' Oh the height of his love,' Sec, Ephes. iii. 18. I beseech you fix yom* thoughts on this, think not now and then slightly of it, but dwell on the meditation of the infinite love of God in Christ, till your hearts be enlarged and warmed and inflamed with the consideration thereof ; and then love will set you forward
* Qu. 'by?'— Ed.
360 CHEIST S SUFFERINGS FOR MAN's SIN.
to all good works. What need we bid you be liberal to the poor, to be good subjects, just in your dealings, &c. ? All this may be spared when there is a loving heart. And when shall we have loving hearts ? When they are kindled and fired at God's fire ; when they are persuaded of God's love, then the apprehension of his love will breed love in our hearts again ; and that is the reason why the apostles are not so punctual as heathen authors in particu- larities of duties. They force upon men especially the love of God, and the ground-points of religion, as knowing when the heart is seasoned vsdth that once, it is ready prepared to every good duty. Think seriously of this, ' The love of Christ constraineth me,' 2 Cor. v. 14. There is a holy violence in love ; there is a spiritual kind of tyranny and prevailing in this grace.
One thing farther we may learn from this forsaking of Christ, viz., that,
It is no strange thing for God's dear children to he forsaken.
To have the apprehension of their sins, and the wrath of God, to be forsaken, in regard of sense of all comfort, do we not see it done in the natural Son ? and shall we wonder that it is done in the adopted sons ? We see this forsaking was in the natural branch, and shall we wonder that it is done in the grafted branches ? It was done to the green tree, and shall we wonder if it be done in the dry ? No, certainly.
The whole church complains, Ps. Ixis. 21 ; of drinking gall and worm- wood, Ezek. xxxvi. 3 ; that God was hid in a cloud. Lam. iii. 15, &c. Both the head complains, and the body too, as we see in David, Job, and other saints ; so that there is a kind of desertion and forsaking that the child of God must undergo.
Quest. What is the ground and end of it ?
Ans. 1. First, God's prerogative is such, that sometimes when there is no great sin to provoke him to withdraw comfort, yet will he leave holy men to themselves, to shew that he will do as pleaseth him,
2. Another ground is, our own estate and condition. We are here absent fi-om the Lord, strangers on earth. Now we would take our pilgrim- age for our country, if we had always comfort and new supplies of joy.
3. Again, our disposition is to live by sense more than by faith. We are as children in this. We would have God ever smile upon us, that we might walk in abundance of comfort ; and I cannot blame Christians for desiring it, if they desire the work of grace in the first place ; if they desire the work of God in them, rather than the shining of comfort by the Spirit, for that is the best work. Now because Christians desire rather to live by sight than by faith, wherein they might honour God more, he leaves them ofttimes. Sight is reserved for another world, for the church triumphant. There we shall have sight enough ; we shall see God face to face.
4. Sometimes God's children are negligent, and keep not a holy watch over their souls ; they cleave to the creature too much, and then no wonder though God forsake them, since they will have stolen waters of their own, and fetch comfort elsewhere.