506 AN EXPOSITION OF THE [CHAP. V.
fear of it is included, on the account of the righteous authority of God, as well as a faith of deliverance from it, on the account of his omnipotent power.
1, The general causes of his state and condition, with his actings therein, were included in that consideration and prospect which he then had of God, death, and himself, or the effects of death upon him.
(1.) He considered God at that instant as the supreme rector and judge of all, the author of the law and the avenger of it, who had power of life and death, as the one was to be destroyed and the other inflicted, according to the curse and sentence of the law. Under this notion he now considered God, and that as actually putting the law in execution, having power and authority to give up unto the sting of it, or to save from it. God represented himself unto him first as armed and attended with infinite holiness, righteousness, and severity,—as one that would not pass by sin nor acquit the guilty; and then as accompanied with supreme or sovereign authority over him, the law, life, and death. And it is of great importance under what notion we consider God when we make our approaches unto him. The whole frame of our souls, as to fear or confidence, will be regu- lated thereby.
(2.) He considered death not naturally, as a separation of soul and body; nor yet merely as a painful separation of them, such as was that death which in particular he was to undergo; but he looked on it as the curse of the law due to sin, inflicted by God as a just and righteous judge. Hence, in and under it, he himself is said to be “made a curse,” Gal. ii. 13. This curse was now coming on him, as the sponsor or surety of the newcovenant. For although he con- sidered himself, and the effects of things upon himself, yet he offered up these prayers as our sponsor, that the work of mediation which he had undertaken might have a good and blessed issue.
From hence may we take a view of that frame of soul which our Lord Jesus Christ was in when he offered up prayers and supplica- tions, with strong cries and tears, considering God as him who had authority over the law, and the sentence of it that was to be inflicted on him. Some have thought, that upon the confidence of the in- dissolubleness of his person, and the actual assurance which they suppose he had always of the love of God, his sufferings could have no effect: of fear, sorrow, trouble, or perplexity on his soul, but only what respected the natural enduring of pain and shame, which he was exposed unto. But the Scripture gives us another account of these things. It informs us, that “he began to be afraid, and sore amazed ;” that “ his soul was heavy, and sorrowful unto death;” that he was “in an agony,” and afterwards cried out, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?’ under a sense of divine dereliction.
VER. 7.] EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 507
There was, indeed, a mighty acting of love in God toward us, in the giving of his Son to death for us, as to his gracious ends and pur- poses thereby to be accomplished; and his so doing is constantly in the Scripture reckoned on the score of love. And there was always in him a great love to the person of his Son, and an ineffable complacency in the obedience of Christ, especially that which he exercised in his suffering; but yet the curse and punishment which he underwent was an effect of vindictive justice, and as such did he look upon it and conflict with it. I shall not enter into the debates of those expressions which have been controverted about the suffer- ings of Christ, as whether he underwent the death of the soul, the second death, the pains of hell. For it would cause a prolix digres- sion to show distinctly what is essential unto these things, or purely penal in them, which alone he was subject unto; and what neces- sarily follows a state and condition of personal sin and guilt in them who undergo them, which he was absolutely free from. But this alone I shall say, which I have proved elsewhere, whatever was due to us from the justice of God and sentence of the law, that he under- went and suffered. This, then, was the cause in general of the state and condition of Christ here described, and of his actings therein, here expressed.
2. In the second place, the effects of his sufferings in himself, or his sufferings themselves, on this account, may be reduced in general unto these two heads :—
(1.) His dereliction. He was under a suspension of the comfort- ing influences of his relation unto God. His relation unto God, as his God and Father, was the fountain of all his comforts and joys, The sense hereof was now suspended. Hence was that part of his ery, “ My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” The sup- porting influences of this relation were continued, but the comfort- ing influences of it were suspended. See Ps. xxii. 1-3, etc. And from hence he was filled with heaviness and sorrow. This the evange- lists fully express. He says of himself, that “his soul was exceeding sorrowful, even unto death,” Matt. xxvi. 38; which expressions are emphatical, and declare a sorrow that is absolutely inexpressible. And this sorrow was the effect of his penal desertion; for sorrow is that which was the life of the curse of the law. So when God declared the nature of that curse unto Adam and Eve, he tells them that he will give them “sorrow,” and “multiply their sorrow,” Gen, iii. 16,17. With this sorrow was Christ now filled, which put him on those strong cries and tears for relief. And this dereliction was possible, and proceeded from hence, in that all communications from the divine nature unto the human, beyond subsistence, were