576 SACRAMENTAL DISCOURSES.
DISCOUESE XI.
I SHALL now produce some few places of Scripture, one especially, that may administer occasion unto you for the exercise of faith, the great duty required of us at this time. You may do well to think of these words of the prophet concerning Jesus Christ, concerning his sufferings and death, which we are here gathered together in his name to remember. They are, —
"He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied." — Isa. liii. 11.
There are two things that the Holy Ghost minds us of in these words : — Fust. That Jesus Christ was in a great travail of soul to bring forth the redemption and salvation of the church. Secondly He minds us that Jesus Christ was satisfied, and much rejoiced in the consideration of the effects and fruits of the travail of his soul. I shall speak a word to both, and a word to show you how both these things are called over in this ordinance, — both the travail of the soul of Christ and his satisfaction in the fruit of that travail.
First. Christ was in a great travail of soul to bring forth the re- demption and salvation of the church. It was a great work that Christ had to do. It is usually said, "We are not saved as the world was made, — by a word," but there was travail in it: it is the word whereby the bringing forth of children into the world is expressed, — the travail of a woman. And there are three things in that travail : — an agony of mind, outcrying for help, and sense of pain: all these things were in the travail of the soul of Christ. I will name the Scriptures, to call them to your remembrance : —
1. He was " in an agony," Luke xxii. 44. An agony is an inex- pressible conflict of mind about things dreadful and terrible. So it was with Christ. No heart can conceive, much less can tongue ex- press, the conflict that was in the soul of Jesus Christ with the wrath of God, the curse of the law, the pains of hell and death, that stood before him in this work of our redemption. There was an agony.
2. There was an outcrying for help, Heb. v. 7, " Who in the days of his flesh offered up prayers and supplications, with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him." Such is the outcry of a person in travail, crying out unto them that are able to save them. So it was with Jesus Christ when he was in the travail of his soul about our salvation. He made these strong cries unto God, — to him that was able to save him.
3. There was pain in it, which is the last thing in travail; so that
1 Delivered August 9, 1674.
SACRAMENTAL DISCOURSES. 5/7
he complained that " the pains of hell had taken hold upon him." Whatever pain there was in the curse of the law, in the wrath of God, — whatever the justice of God did ever design to inflict upon sinners, was then upon the soul of Jesus Christ; so that he was in travail. That is the first thing I would mind you of, — that in the bringing forth the work of our redemption and salvation, the Lord Jesus was in travail.
Secondly. It was a satisfaction, a rejoicing unto the Lord Jesus Christ, to consider the fruits and effects of this travail of his soul, which God had promised he should see. He was satisfied in the prospect he had of the fruit of the travail of his soul. So the apostle tells us, Heb. xii. 2, that, " for the joy that was set before him," — which was the joy of bringing us unto God, of being the captain of salvation unto them that should obey him, — he " endured the cross, despising the shame." He went through all with a prospect he had of the fruit of his travail. There would joy come out of it; the joy that was set before him, as he speaks, Ps. xvi. 6, where God pre- sents unto him what he shall have by this travail, what he shall get by it. Saith he, " The lines are fallen unto me in a pleasant place ; yea, I have a goodly heritage." It is the satisfaction that Jesus Christ (who is there spoken of only in that psalm) takes in the fruit of the travail of his soul ; he is contented with it. He doth not do as Hiram ; who when Solomon gave him the twenty cities in the land of Galilee, calls them, " Cabul ; " they were dirty, and they displeased him, 1 Kings ix. 11, etc. No; but, "The lines are fallen unto me in a pleasant place ;" he rejoiced in his travail. It is expressed, in my apprehension, to the height in Jer. xxxi. 25, 26, "I have satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished every sorrowful soul." What follows? " Upon this I awaked, and beheld; and my sleep was sweet unto me." They are the words of Jesus Christ ; and he speaks con- cerning his death, wherein he was as asleep in the grave. Now, con- sider what was the effect and fruit of it? It was sweet unto Jesus Christ, after all the travail of his soul, that he had " satiated the weary soul," and " replenished every sorrowful soul."