2. That we might seriously consider how great a work it was to expiate sin, As it was not to be done without suffering, so a mere and bare suffering would not effect it. Not only death, and that a bloody death, was required thereunto, but such as was to be accom- panied with “prayers and supplications,” that it might be effectual unto the end designed, and that he who suffered it might not be overborne in his undertaking. The “redemption of souls was pre- cious,’ and must have ceased for ever, had not every thing been set on work which is acceptable and prevalent with God. And,-—
8. To show that the Lord Christ had now made this business his own. He had taken the whole work and the whole debt of sin upon himself. He was now, therefore, to manage it, as if he alone were the person concerned. And this rendered his prayers and supplica- tions necessary in and unto his sacrifice. And,—
4. That we might be instructed how to make use of and plead his sacrifice in our stead. If it was not, if it could not be, offered by
502 AN EXPOSITION OF THE [CHAP. V.
him but with prayers and supplications, and those for the averting of divine wrath, and making peace with God, we may not think to be interested therein whilst under the power of lazy and slothful unbelief. Let him that would go to Christ, consider well how Christ went to God for him; which is yet further declared,—
Thirdly, In the manner of his offering these prayers and suppli-
Fhe au ass cations unto God, whereby he offered up himself also vis ious untohim. He did it werd xpavyis ionxvpiis nal danplov, xa) duxpiov. “with strong crying” (or “a strong cry”) “and tears.” Chrysostom on the place observes, that the story makes no mention of these things. And, indeed, of his tears in particular it doth not; which from this place alone we know to have accompanied his sacerdotal prayers. But his “strong crying” is expressly related. To acquaint ourselves fully with what is intended herein, we may con- sider,—1. How it was expressed in prophecy; 2. How it is related in the story; 3. How reported here by our apostle:—
1. In prophecy the supplications here intended are called his “roaring :” Ps, xxii. 1-3, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from ‘Nv 24,” “the words of my roaring?” “ Rugitus,” the proper ery of a lion, is npavy? ioxupd, “ clamor validus,” “a strong and vehement outcry.” And it is used to express such a vehemency in supplications as can- not be compressed or confined, but will ordinarily break out into a loud expression of itself; at least such an intension of mind and affection as cannot be outwardly expressed without fervent outcries. Ps, xxxii. 8, “ When I kept silence,’—that is, whilst he was under his perplexities from the guilt of sin, before he came off to a full and clear acknowledgment of it, as verse 5,—“my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long.” The vehemency of his com- plainings consumed his natural strength. So Job ili, 24, “My sigh- ing cometh before I eat, ‘DaNy O93 ran , —‘“and my roarings are poured out like waters,” namely, that break out of any place with great noise and abundance. So isa sense of extreme pressures and distresses signified: “I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart,” Ps. xxxviii. 8. This is xpavy) joyupdé, “a strong cry.” And if we well consider his prayer, as recorded Ps. xxii., especially from verse 9 to verse 21, we shall find that every word almost, and sentence, hath in it the spirit of roaring and a strong cry, however it were uttered. For it is not merely the outward noise, but the inward earnest intension and engagement of heart and soul, with the greatness and depth of the occasion of them, that is principally i in- tended.
2. We may consider the same matter as related in story by the evangelists. The prayers intended are those which he offered to God during his passion, both in the garden and on the cross, The
VER. 7.] EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 503
first are declared Luke xxii, 44, “ And being in an agony, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was as drops of blood falling on the earth.” The inward frame is here declared, which our apostle shadows out by the external expressions and signs of it, in “ strong cries and tears.” "Ev dyavig yevéuevos,—* constitutus in agonia.” He was in, under the power of, wholly pressed by “an agony;” that is, a strong and vehement conflict of mind, in and about things dread- ful and terrible. *Aywvia is @éCos diaardcsws, saith Nemes. de Natur. Hom. ;—“ a dread of utter ruin.” “Timor extrinsecus advenientis mali,” Aquin. ;—“ a dread of evil to come upon us from without.” It signifies, “ita vehementi discriminis objecti metu angi ut quodam- modo exanimis et attonitus sis,” saith Maldonat. on Matt, xxvi. 37. He prayed éxrsvéorepov, “ with more vehement intension of mind, spirit, and body.” For the word denotes not a degree of the acting of grace in Christ, as some have imagined, but the highest degree of earnestness in the actings of his mind, soul, and body ;—another token of that wonderful conflict wherein he was engaged, which no heart can conceive nor tongue express. This produced that preter- natural sweat wherein Spéutor aiwaros, “ thick drops of blood” ran from him to the ground. Concerning this he says, ‘728%/2 D'93, Ps, xxii. 15,—“I am poured out like water;” that is, ‘my blood is so, by an emanation from all parts of my body, descending to the ground.’ And they consult not the honour of Jesus Christ, but the maintenance of their own false suppositions, who assign any ordi- nary cause of this agony, with these consequents of it, or such as other men may have experience of. And this way go many of the expositors of the Roman church. So & Lapid. in loc: “Nota se- eundo hune Christi angorem lacrymas et sudorem sanguineum, testem infirmitatis a Christo assumpte, provenisse ex vivaci imaginatione, flagellationis, coronationis, mortis dolorumque omnium quos mox subiturus erat; inde enim naturaliter manabat eorundem horror et angor.” He would place the whole cause of this agony in those previous fancies, imaginations, or apprehensions, which he had of those corporeal sufferings which were to come upon him. Where, then, is the glory of his spiritual strength and fortitude? where the beauty of the example which herein he set before us? His outward sufferings were indeed grievous; but yet, considered merely as such, they were, as to mere sense of pain, beneath what sundry of his martyrs have been called to undergo for his name’s sake. And yet we know that many, yea, through the power of his grace in them, the most of them who have so suffered for him in all ages, have cheerfully, joyfully, and without the least consternation of spirit, undergone the exquisite tortures whereby they have given up them- selves unto death for him. And shall we imagine that the Son of God, who had advantages for his supportment and consolation in-