Now, there are sundry things that we are to call to remembrance. I have done my endeavour to help you to call the love of Christ to remembrance. The Lord, I trust, hath guided my thoughts now to direct you to call the sufferings of Christ unto remembrance. I know it may be a suitable meditation to take up your minds and mine in and under this ordinance. It is our duty, in this holy ordinance, solemnly to call to remembrance the sufferings of Christ.
It is said of the preaching of the gospel, that Jesus Christ is there- in " evidently set forth crucified before our eyes," Gal. iii. 1. And if Christ be evidently crucified before our eyes in the preaching of the gospel, Christ is much more evidently crucified before our eyes in the administration of this ordinance, which is instituted for that very end. 1 Delivered November 2, 1673.
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And certainly, when Christ is crucified before our eyes, we ought deeply to consider his sufferings. It would be a great sign of a hard and senseless heart in us, if we were not willing, in some measure, to consider his sufferings upon such an occasion. We are, therefore, solemnly to remember them.
Well, shall I a little mind myself and you how we may and how we ought to call to remembrance the sufferings of Christ ?
Let us remember that we ourselves were obnoxious unto these suf- ferings. The curse lay doubly upon us. The original curse, " In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die," lay upon us all. The consequent curse, " Cursed be every one who continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them," that also lay upon us all: we were under both the original and the con- sequent curse. We know what is in the curse, even all the anger and wrath that a displeased holy God can and will inflict upon sinful creatures to all eternity. In this state and condition, then, all lay upon us, and all must lie upon us : unless we come to have an interest in the sufferings of Christ, there is no relief for us. I will not insist upon calling to your mind that heaven and earth, and all God's creation combining together, could not have procured relief for one of our souls. Christ, the Son of God, offered himself, and said, " Lo, I come." Indeed, it was a good saying of David, it was nobly said, when he saw the angel of the Lord destroying the people with a pestilence; " Lord," saith he, " it is I and my father's house that have sinned; but as for these sheep," these poor people, " what have they done?" It was otherwise with Christ; he came in the place of sin- ners, and said, " Let not these poor sheep die." If God would, by faith, give your souls and mine a view of the voluntary substitution of Jesus Christ in his person in our room and on our behalf, it would comfort and refresh us. When the curse of God was ready to break forth upon us, God accepted of this tender, of this offer of Christ, " Lo, I come to do thy will," to be a sacrifice. And what did he do \ Why this God did. Saith he, " Then if he will come, if he will do it, let him plainly know how the case stands: the curse is upon them, wrath is upon them, — punishment must be undergone ; my holi- ness, faithfulness, righteousness, and truth, are all engaged." Yet saith Christ, " Lo, I come." Well, what doth God do? He tells you, Isa. liii. 6, "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way ; and the Lord hath made the iniquity of us all to meet on him." God so far relaxed his own law that the sen- tence shall not fall upon their persons, but upon their substitute, one that hath put himself in their place and stead. " Be it so ; all their iniquities be upon thee." " All the iniquities of this congregation," saith God, " be upon my Son Jesus Christ."
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Well, what then did he suffer? He suffered that which, answered the justice of God; he suffered that which answered the law of God ; he suffered that which fully repaired the glory of God. Breth- ren, let us encourage ourselves in the Lord. If there be any de- mands to be made of you or me, it must be upon the account of the righteousness and justice of God, or upon the account of the law of God, or upon the account of the loss that God suffered in his glory by us. If the Lord Jesus hath come in and answered all these, we have a good plea to make in the presence of the holy God : —
1. He suffered all that the justice of God did require. Hence it is said that " God set him forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the forgiveness of sins," Rom. iii. 25. And you may observe, that the apostle uses the very- same words in respect of Christ's sufferings that he uses in respect of the sufferings of the damned angels, Rom. viii. 32, " God spared him not." And when he would speak of the righteousness of God in inflicting punishment upon the sinning angels, he doth it by that very word, " God spared them not." So that whatever the righteous- ness of God did require against sinners, Christ therein was not spared at all. What God required against your sins and mine, and all his elect, God spared him nothing, but he paid the utmost farthing.