\st. The worm is from the in-beinfj and everlastino- abidiucf of a man's own sin. That tormenting anguish of conscience which shall perplex the damned to eternity attends their puuishment merely from their own sin inherent. This Christ could not undergo. The worm attends not sin imputed, but sin inherent, especially not sin
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imputed to him who underwent it wilUngly, it being the eruciating vexation of men's own thoughts, kindled by the wrath of God against themselves about their own sin.
2dly. That this worm never dies, that this fire can neverbe quenched, but abides for ever, is also from the relation of punishment to a finite creature that is no more. Eternity is not absolutely in the curse of the law, but as a finite creature is cursed thereby. If a sinner could at once admit upon himself that which is equal in divine justice to his ofience, and so make satisfaction, there might be an end of his punishment in time; but a finite and every way limited creature, having sinned his eternity in this world against an eternal and in- finite God, must abide by it for ever. This was Christ free from. The dignity of his person was such as that he could fully satisfy divine justice in a limited season; after which God injustice loosed the pains of death, for it was impossible he should be detained thereby, Acts ii. 24, and that because he was able to " swallow up death in victory."
(2.) Punishment, as it relates to the persons punished, may be also considered in respect of the effects which it produceth in them which are not in the punishment absolutely considered ; and these are gene- rally two : —
[1.] Repining against God and blaspheming of him, as in that type of hell, Isa. viii. 21, 22. This is evil or sin in itself, which punish- ment is not. It is from the righteous God, who will do no iniquity. This proceeds from men's hatred of God. They hate him in this world, when he doth them good and blesses them with many mercies; how much more will their hatred be increased when they shall be cut off from all favour or mercy whatever, and never enjoy one drop of refreshment from him! They hate him, his justice, yea, his bless- edness, and all his perfections. Hence they murmur, repine, and blaspheme him. Now, this must needs be infinitely remote from him who, in love to his Father, and for his Father's glory, underwent this punishment. He was loved of the Father, and loved him, and willingly drank off this cup, which poisons the souls of sinners with wrath and revenge.
[2.] Despair in themselves. Their hopes being cut off to eternity, there remaining no more sacrifice for sin, they are their own tor- mentors with everlastingly perplexjng despair. But this our Saviour was most remote from, and that because he believed he should have a glorious issue of the trial he underwent, Heb. xii. 2, Isa. 1. 7-9.
But as to the punishment that is threatened in the law, in itself considered, Clirist underwent the same that the law threatened, and which we should have undergone ; for, —
1. The law threatened death, Gen. ii. 17, Ezek. xviii. 4; and he tasted death for us, Heb. ii. 9, Ps. xxii. 15. The punishment of
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the law is the curse, Deut. xxvii.-xxix. ; and he was made a curse, Gal. iii. 13. The law threatened loss of the love and the favour of God, and he lost it, Ps. xxii. 1.
To say that the death threatened by the law was one, and that Christ underwent another, that eternal, this temporal, and so also of the curse and desertion threatened (besides what shall be said after- ward), would render the whole business of our salvation unintelli- gible, as being revealed in terms equivocal, nowhere explained.
2. There is not the least intimation in the whole book of God of any change of the punishment in reference to the Surety from what it was or should have been in respect of the sinner. God " made all our iniquities to meet on him;" that is, as hath been declared, the punishment due to them. Was it the same punishment, or another? Did we deserve one nunishment, and Christ undergo another? Was it the sentence of the law that was executed on him, or was it some other thing that he was obnoxious to? It is said that he was "made under the law," Gal. iv. 4; that "sin was condemned in his flesh," Rom. viii. 3; that " God spared him not," verse 32; that he "tasted death," Heb. ii. 9 ; that he was " made a curse," Gal. iii. 13 ; — all re- lating to the law. That he suffered more or less there is no mention.
It is strange to me that we should deserve one punishment, and he who is punished for us should undergo another, yet both of them be constantly described by the same names and titles. If God laid the punishment of our sins on Christ, certainly it was the punishment that was due to them. Mention is everywhere made of a commuta- tion of persons, the just suffering for the unjust, the sponsor for the offender, his name as a surety being taken into the obligation, and the whole debt required of him; but of a change of punishment there is no mention at all. And there is this desperate consequence, that will be made readily, upon a supposal that any thing less than the curse of the law or death, in the nature of it eternal, was inflicted on Christ, — namely, that God indeed is not such a sore revenger of sin as in the Scripture he is proposed to be, but can pass it by in the way of composition on much easier terms.