3. That Christ himself was willing to undergo this burden and undertake this work. And this, as it is consistent with his death being a punishment, so it is of necessity to make good the other con- siderations of it, namely, that it should be a price and a sacrifice ; for no man gives a price, and therein parts with that which is pre- cious to him, unwillingly, nor is a sacrifice acceptable that comes not from a free and willing mind. That he was thus willing himself professeth, both in the undertaking and carrying of it on. In the un- dertaking : Heb. x, 7, " Lo, I come to do thy will, O God," It is the expression of one breaking out with a ready joy to do the thing pro- posed to him. So the church of old looked on him as one that came freely and cheerfully : Cant. ii. 8, 9, " The voice of my beloved ! be- hold, he Cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills. My beloved is like a roe or a young hart: he standeth behind our wall, he looketh forth at the windows, showing himself through the lattice." The church looked on Christ as yet at a distance from the actual performance of the work he had undertaken, and so herself kept off from that clear and close communion which she longed after ; and hence she says of him that he " stood behind the wall," that he " looked forth at the windows," and " showed himself through the lattice." There was a wall yet hindering the actual exhibition of Christ; the *' fulness of time" was not come; the purpose of God was not yet to bring forth : but yet, in the meantime, Christ looked on the church through the window of the promise and the lattice of the Levitical ceremonies.
And what discovery do they make of him in the view they take in the broad light of the promises and the many glimpses of the cere- monial types? They see him " coming leaping upon the mountains and skipping upon the hills," — coming speedily, with a great deal of joy and willingness.
So of himself he declares what his mind was from old, from ever- lasting: Prov. viii. 30, 31, " Rejoicing always before him," — that is,
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before God his Father. But in what did he rejoice? " In the habi- table part of his earth ; and his dehghts were with the sons of men." When this joy of his was he tells you, verses 22-30. He rejoiced before God his Father in the sons of men before they were created ; that is, in the work he had to do for them.
His will was also in the carrying of it on unto accomplishment; he must be doing his Father's business, his will who sent him : Luke xii. 50, Uuig 6\jnyj)ijjai\ He was pained as a woman in travail to be delivered, to come to be baptized in his own blood. And when he was giving himself up to the utmost of it, he professes his readi- ness to it, John xviii. 1 1 ; when Peter, who once before would have advised him to spare himself, now, seeing his counsel was not followed, would have rescued him with his sword. As for his advice he was called Satan, so for his proffered assistance he is now rebuked ; and the reason of it is given, " Shall I not drink of the cup?" It is true, that it might appear that his death was not a price and a sacrifice only, but a punishment also, wherein there was an immission of every thing that was evil to the suffering nature and a subtraction of that which was good, he discovered that averseness to the drink- ing of the cup which the truth of the human nature absolutely re- quired (and which the amazing bitterness of the cup overpowered him withal) ; yet still his will conquered and prevailed in all, Matt. xxvi. 53, 54.
4. Christ's love was also in it; "his delights were with the sons of men," his love towards them carried him out to the work. And Paul proves it by the instance of himself, Gal. ii, 20, " Who loved me;" and John applies the same to all believers, Rev. i. 5, 6, " Unto him that loved us," etc. And thus was this great work undertaken.
These things being premised, let us look again to the words under consideration: —
1. For the word he hare our griefs, verse 4, it is ^'^}, a word of as large and as many various acceptations as any, if not absolutely the most extensive in the whole Hebrew tongue. It hath usually as- signed unto it by the lexicographer eight or nine several significa- tions; and to make it evident that it is of various acceptations, it is used (in the collections of Calasius) eight hundred and eighteen times in the Old Testament, whereof not a third part is answered in any language by one and the same word. With those senses of it that are metaphorical we have not any thing to do. That which is the first or most proper sense of it, and what is most frequently used, is to " carry" or " bear," and by which it is here translated, as in very many other places.