486 VINDICI^ EVANGELia*:.
in the Scripture tlie same. His death was by the eflfusion of his blood, and what is done by his death is still said to be done by his blood. And though he williogly gave up himself to God therein as he was a sacrifice, yet he was taken by violence and nailed to the cross as it was a punishment; and the dissolution of his body and soul was by a means no less violent than if he had been most un- willing thereunto,
(2.) It was ignominious and shameful. Such was the death of the cross,^ — the death of slaves, malefactors, robbers, pests of the earth and burdens of human society, like those crucified with him. Hence he is said to be " obedient unto death, the death of the cross,'' Phil. ii. 8, that shameful and ignominious death. And when he "en- dured the cross," he "despised the shame" also, Heb. xii. 2. To be brought forth and scourged as a malefactor amongst malefactors in the eye of the world, made a scorn and a by-word, men wagging the head and making mouths at him in derision, when he was full of torture, bleeding to death, is no small aggravation of it. Hence the most frequent expression of his death is by the cross, or crucifying.
(3.) It was lingering. It was the voice of cruelty itself concern- ing one who was condemned to die, " Sentiat se mori," — " Let him so die that he may feel himself dying ;" and of one who, to escape tor- ture, killed himself, " Evasit," — " He escaped me." Sudden death, though violent, is an escape from torture. Such was this of Christ. From his agony in the garden, Avhen he began to die (all the powers of hell being then let loose upon him), until the giving up of the ghost, it was from the evening of one day to the evening of another; from his scourging by Pilate, after which he was under continual pain and suffering in his soul and in his body, to his death, it was six hours ; and all this while was he under exquisite tortures, as, on very many considerations, might easily be made manifest.
(4.) It was legal, and so an accursed death. There was process against him by witness and judgment. Though they were, indeed, all false and unj ust, yet to the eye of the world his death was legal, and consequently accursed : Gal.iii. 13, "Cursed is every one thathangeth on a tree," — that is, because of the doom of the law, whose sentence is called a curse, Deut. xxi. 23. Such was that of Christ, Isa. liii. 4.
^ " SxiXoxar/a, seu crucifragium ut crux ipsa, servorum quasi peculiare supplicium fuit." — Lipsias. " Sublimes extra ordinem aliqutestatuebantur cruces; si exempla edeuda forent in famosa persona, et ob atrox facinus, aut si hoc supplicio veniret afficiendus ille, cujus odium erat apud omnes flagrantissimum." — Salmas. de Cruce. Which seems to be the case in the cross of Christ, between those of the thieves. " Bene addit crucem, nam servorum non civium crucis erat supplicium." — Nannius, in Tercnt. And. Act. 3, 5, 15.
" Noli minitari scio crucem
Futuram mihi sepulclu-um : ibi enim mei majores sunt siti. Pater, avus, proavus, abavus." — Servus apud Plant. Mil. Glor. ii. 4, 19. Vid. Trach. Histor. lib. ii. 27 ; Vulcat. in Avid. Cassio, cap. iv. ; Capitolin. in Macrin. cap. xii. ; Luc. Florus, lib. iii. cap. xix.
OF THE SATISFACTION OF CHRIST. 487
2. As all these aggravations attended his death as it was death itself, so there was a universality in all the concernments of it as it was a legal punishment. Briefly to give some instances : —
(1.) There was a universality/ of efficient causes, whether princi- pal or instrumental. The first great division of causes efficient is into the Creator and the creatures; and both here concurred : —
[1.] The Creator, God himself, laid it upon him. ' He was not only " delivered by his determinate counsel," Acts ii. 22, 23, iv. 27, 28, not spared by him, but given up to death, Rom. viii. 32 ; but " it pleased him to bruise him, and to put him to grief," Isa. liii. 10, as also to " forsake him," Ps. xxii. 1: so acting in his punishment, by the immission of that which is evil and the subtraction of that which is good, so putting the cup into his hand which he was to drink, and mixing the wine thereof for him, as shall afterward be declared.
[2.] Of creatures, one general division is into intelligent and hi^ute or irrational ; and both these also, in their several ways, concurred to his punishment, as they were to do by the sentence and curse of the law.
Intelligent creatures are distinguished into spiritual and invisible, and visible and corporeal also: —
1st. Of the first sort are angels and devils; which agree in the same nature, differing only in qualities and states or conditions. Of all beings, the angels seem to have had no hand in the death of Christ : for, being not judge, as was God ; nor opposite to God, as is Satan ; nor under the curse of the law, as is mankind and the residue of the creatures, — though they had inestimable benefit by the death of Christ, yet neither by demerit nor efficacy, as is revealed, did they add to his punishment. Only, whereas it was their duty to have preserved him, being innocent, and in his way, from violence and fury, their assistance was withheld.