518 AN EXPOSITION OF THE [CHAP. v.
issue, he did obtain, Col. it 13-15; Heb. ii. 14; L John iii, 8. 5. His open conflict, in the “making his soul, an offering for sin,” in his apprehensions, and undergoing. of the wrath of God due unto sin, hath been already spoken, unto, so far as is necessary unto our pre- sent purpose. 6. In and during all these things there wasin his eye continually that. unspeakable glory that. was set before him, of being the repairer of the breaches of the creation, the recoverer, of man- kind, the captain of salyation unto all) that, obey him, the destruc- tion of Satan, with his kingdom of sin and darkness; and in all, the great restorer of divine glory, to the eternal praise of God. Whilst all these things were in the height of their transaction, is it any won- der if the Lord Christ laboured and travailed in soul, according to the description here given. of him?
Obs. VI. The Lord Christ, in the time of his offering and suffer- ing, considering God, with whom he. had to, do, as, the sovereign Lord of life and,death, as the supreme Rector and Judge of. all, casts himself before him, with most. fervent. prayers. for, deliverance from the sentence of death and the curse, of the law.
This gives the true account. of, the deportment of our Sayiour in his trial, “here described; There are two great mistakes about the suf- ferings of Christ and the condition. of his soul therein, Some place him 8 that security, in that sense and enjoyment of divine love, that they leave neither, room nor reason, for the. fears, cries, and wrest- lings here mentioned; indeed, so as that there should be nothing, real in all this transaction, but, rather that all things were done for. ostentation and show. For if the Lord Christ was always in a full: comprehension of divine love, and that in the light of the beatific vision, what can these conflicts and complaints signify? Others grant. that he was in real distress and anguish; but, they. say it was merely. on the account, of those outward sufferings which were coming.on . him; which, as we observed before, is an intolerable impeachment of : his holy fortitude and constancy of mind. For.the like outward: things have been undergone by others without any tokens of such. consternation of spirit, Wherefore, to discern aright the true frame | of the spirit of Christ, with the intension of his cries and supplica- tions (the things before insisted on), are duly to be considered,—
1. How great a matter it was to make peace with God for sin- ners, to make atonement and reconciliation for sin. This is: the life and spirit. of our, religion, the centre wherein all the lines of it do meet, Phil. iii, 8-10; 1 Cor. ii, 2; Gal. vi. 14, And those. by whom a due and constant consideration of it is neglected, are strangers unto the animating spirit of that religion which they out-. wardly profess; and therefore Satan doth employ all his artifices to divert the minds of men from a due meditation hereon, and the exercise of faith about it. Much of the devotion of the Romanists .
VER. 7.] EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 519
is taken up in dumb shows and painted representations of the suffer- ings of Christ. But as many of their scenical fancies are childishly ridiculous, and unworthy of men who have the least apprehension of the greatness and holiness of God, or that he is a spirit, and will be worshipped in spirit and in truth; so they are none of them of any other use but to draw off the mind, not only from a spiritual con- templation of the excellency of the offering of Christ, and the glo- rious effects thereof, but also from the rational comprehension of the truth of the doctrine concerning what he did and suffered. For he that is instructed in and by the taking, shutting up, and setting forth of a crucifix, with painted thorns, and nails, and blood, with J ews, and thieves, and I know not what “other company, about it, is obliged to believe that he hath, if not all, yet the principal part at least, of the obedience of Christ in his sufferin, g represented unto him. And by this means is his mind taken off from inquiring into the great transactions between God and the soul of Christ, about the finishing of sin, and the bringing in of everlasting righteousness; without which those other things, which by carnal means they represent unto the carnal minds and imaginations of men, are of no value or use. On the other hand, the Socinians please themselves, and deceive others, with a vain ima- gination that there was no such work to be done now with God as we have declared. If we may believe them, there was no atonement to be made for sin, no expiatory sacrifice to be offered, no peace there- by to be made with God, no compensation to his justice, by answer- ing the sentence and curse of the law due to sin. But certainly if this sort of men had not an unparalleled mixture of confidence and dexterity, they could not find out evasions unto so many express divine testimonies as lie directly opposite to their fond imagination, unto any tolerable satisfaction in their own minds; or suppose that any men can with patience bear the account they must give of the agony, prayers, cries, tears, fears, wrestlings, and travail, of the soul of Christ, on this supposition. But we may pass them over at present, as express “enemies of the cross of Christ;” that is, of that cross whereby he made peace with God for sinners, as Eph. ii. 14-16. Others there are who by no means approve of any diligent inquiry into these mysteries. The whole business and duty of ministers and others is, in their mind, to be conversant in and about morality. As for this fountain and spring of grace, this basis of eternal glory ; this evidence and demonstration of divine wisdom, holiness, righteousness, _ and love; this great discovery of the purity of the law and vileness of sin; this first, great, principal subject of the gospel, and motive of faith and obedience; this root and cause of all peace with God, all sin- cere and incorrupted love towards him, of all joy and consolation from him,—they think it scarcely deserves a place in the objects of their contemplation, and are ready to guess that what men write and talk