[4.] Remember the sufferings of Christ; this is a main thing. Now the sufferings of Christ may be considered three ways : — 1st. The sufferings in his soul; 2dly. The sufferings in his body; 3dly. The sufferings of his person in the dissolution of his human nature, soul and body, by death itself.
SACRAMENTAL DISCOURSES. 5S7
1st. Remember the sufferings in his soul; and they were of two sorts: — (1st.) Privative, his sufferings in the desertion and dereliction of God his Father; and, (2dly.) Positive, in the emission of the sense of God's wrath and the curse of the law on his soul.
(1st.) The head of Christ's sufferings was in the divine desertion, whence he cried, out, " My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" It is certain Christ was forsaken of God; he had not else so complained, — forsaken of God in his soul. How? The divine nature in the second person did not forsake the human; nor did the divine nature in the third person forsake the human, as to the whole work of sanctification and holiness, but kept alive in Christ all grace what- soever,— all grace in that fulness whereof he had ever been partaker : but the desertion was as to all influence of comfort and all evidence of love from God the Father (who is the fountain of love and comfort), administered by the Holy Ghost. Hence some of our divines have not spared to say, that Christ did despair in that great cry, " My God, my God," etc. Now, despair signifies two things : — a total want of the evidence of faith as to acceptance with God ; and a resolution in the soid to seek no farther after it, and not to wait for it from that fountain. In the first way Christ did despair, — that is penal only; in the latter he did not, — that is sinful also. There was a total inter- ception of all evidence of love from God, but not a ceasing in him to wait upon God for the manifestation of that love in his appointed time. Remember, Christ was thus forsaken that his people might never be forsaken.
(2dly.) There were sufferings positive in his soul, when he was made sin and a curse for us, and had a sense of the wrath and anger of God on his soul. This brought those expressions concerning him and from him : " He began to be sore amazed, and said, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death." He was " in an agony." I de- sire no more for my soul everlastingly to confute that blasphemy, that Christ died only as a martyr, to confirm the truth he had preached, but the consideration of this one thing: for courage, resolution, and cheerfulness, are the principal virtues and graces in him who dies only as a martyr; but for him who had the weight of the wrath of God and the curse of the law upon his soul, it became him to be in an agony, — to sweat great drops of blood, — to cry out, " My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" which,1 had he been called to for
1 The close of this sentence is obscure, and hardly develops and completes the author's argument. If it were not too great a liberty with the text, the following alteration might have been made, and seems to elicit the meaning designed to be conveyed : — " [whereas] had he been called to [die] for nothing else but barely to confirm the truth he had preached, he would have done [it] without much trouble or shaking of mind." It must be borne in mind that these discourses were not only posthumous, but printed from notes taken by the hearers of Owen. — Ed.
588 SACRAMENTAL DISCOURSES.
nothing else but barely to confirm the truth he had preached, he would have done without much trouble or shaking of mind.
I shall not now speak of the sufferings in his body, which I am afraid we do not consider enough. Some poor souls are apt to con- sider nothing but the sufferings of his body ; and some do not enough consider them. We may call this over some other time, as also the suf- ferings of his person in the dissolution of his human nature, by a sepa- ration of the soul from the body ; which was also comprised in the curse.
" This do in remembrance of me." What are we to remember? These are things of no great research ; they are not hard and difficult, but such as we all may come up to the practice of in the administra- tion of this very ordinance. Remember the unspeakable grace and love of God, in setting forth Christ to be a propitiation. Remember the love of Christ, who gave himself for us notwithstanding he knew all that would befall him on our account. Remember the compact and agreement between the Father and the Son, that what was due to us he should undergo, and the benefit of what he did should redound to us. Remember the greatness of the work he undertook for these ends, in the sufferings of his whole person, when he would redeem his church with his own blood.