3. The punishment due to us, that is in the " curse of the law," consists, as was said, of two parts: — (1.) Loss, or separation from God; (2.) Sense, from the infliction of the evil threatened. And both these did our Saviour undergo.
(1.) For the first, it is expressed of him, Ps. xxii. 1 ; and he actually complains of it himself, Matt, xxvii. 46 : and of this cry for a while he says, " O my God, I cry in the day-time, but thou hearest not," Ps. xxii. 2, until he gives out that grievous complaint, verse 15, " My strength is dried up like a potsherd ;" which cry he pressed so long with strong cries and supplications, until he was heard and delivered from what he feared, Heb. v. 7. They who would invent
OF THE SATISFACTION OF CHKIST. 495
evasions for this express complaint of our Saviour that he was de- serted and forsaken, as that he spake it in reference to his church, or of his own being left to the power and malice of the Jews, do indeed little less than blaspheme him, and say he was not forsaken of God, when himself complains that he was; — forsaken, I say, not by the disjunction of his personal union, but as to the communication of effects of love and favour; which is the desertion that the damned lie under in hell. And as for his being forsaken or given up to the hands of men, was that it which he complained of? was that it whereof he was afraid, which he Avas troubled at, which he sweat *blood under the consideration of, and had need of an angel to com- fort and support him? Was he so much in courage and resolution below those many thousands who joyfully suffered the same things for him? If he was only forsaken to the power of the Jews, it must be so. Let men take heed how they give occasion of blaspheming the holy and blessed name of the Son of God.
Vaninus, that great atheist, who was burned for atheism at Tou- louse in France, all the way as he went to the stake did nothing but insult over the friars that attended him, telling them that their Saviour when he was led to death did sweat and tremble, and was in an agony ; but that he, upon the account of reason, whereunto he sacrificed his life, went with boldness and cheerfulness. God visibly confuted his blasphemy, and at the stake he not only trembled and quaked, but roared with horror.^ But let men take heed how they justify the atheistical thoughts of men, in asserting our blessed Redeemer to have been cast into that miserable and deplorable con- dition merely with the consideration of a temporary death, which perhaps the thieves that were crucified with him did not so much tremble at.
(2.) For "poena sensus." From what hath been spoken, it is suffi- ciently manifest what he underwent on this account. To what hath been delivered before, of his being "bruised, afflicted, broken of God," from Isa. liii., — although he was " taken from prison and from judg- ment," verse 8, or everlasting condemnation, — add but this one consi-
' " Vidi ego dum plaustro per ora vulgi traducitur, illudentem theologo e Francis- canis, cujus cura moUirc fcrocitatem aninii obstiiiati. Lucilius fcrocitate contumax, diim in patibulum ti'aditus, monachi solatium aspernatus objectam crucem aversatur, Christoque illudit in ha3c eadeni verba : ' Illi in extremis prae timorc imbellis sudor, ego imperterritus morior.' Falso sane imperterritum se dixit scelestus homo, quern vidimus dejectum animo, philosophia uti pessime, cujus se menticbatur professorcm. Erat illi in extremis aspectus ferox et horridus, inquieta mens, anxium quodcunque loquebatur; et quanquam pbilosophice mori se clamabat identidem, finiisse ut brutum nemo negaverit. Antequam rogosubdcretur ignis; jussus sacrilcgam linguam cultro submittere, ncgat, neque excrit, nisi forcipum \i apprehcnsam camifcx ferro abseindit : non alias vociferatio Lorridior : diceres mugire ictum bovem, etc. Ilic Lucilii A^anini finis, cui quanta coustantia fuerit, probat boUuiuus in mortc clamor. Vidi ego in custodia, vidi in patibulo, videram antequam subiret vincula : flagitiosus in libcrtate, et voluptatnm scctator avidus, in cavcere Catholicus, in extremis omni philosophioe priB- sidio destitutus, amens moritur." — Gramon. Hi.st. Gal. lib. iii. ad anno 1619.
496 VINDICI^ EVANGELIC^.
deration of what is affirmed of liim, that " he tasted death for us," Heb. ii. 9, and this will be cleared. What death was it he tasted ? The death that had the curse attending it: Gal. iii. 13, " He was made a curse." And what death that was himself declares, Matt. xxv. 41, where, calling men accursed, he cries, " Depart into everlasting fire ; " — " Ye that are obnoxious to the law, go to the punishment of hell." Yea, and that curse which he underwent. Gal. iii. 13, is opposed to the blessing of Abraham, verse 14, or the blessing promised him; which was doubtless life eternal.
And to make it yet more clear, it was by death that he delivered us from death, Heb. ii. 14, 15 ; and if he died only a temporal death,*^ he delivered us only from temporal death as a punishment. But he shows us what death he delivered us from, and consequently what death he underwent for us, John viii. 51, " He shall never see death;'' that is, eternal death, for every believer shall see death temporal.