worthy to be laid up in the tabernacle, they were to be " beaten very small :" and in the same manner was Jesus to be bruised, before the incense of his merits could be accepted, or his own person be received into the tabernacle of the Most High. This was by far the most distressing part of our Saviour's sufferings ; nor could we account for his behaviour under them, unless we believed, that they were inflicted by his heavenly Father : for many martyrs have endured all that men could inflict, not only with resignation, but with joy and triumph : but here we see no less a per- son than the Son of God exceeding sorrowful, even unto death, at the very apprehension of his sufferings : we hear him crying for the removal of the bitter cup, and bewailing in the most pathetic manner the in- tenseness of his agony.
Nor did the Father bruise him only, but, as the text intimates, took pleasure in bruising him : " It pleased the Lord to bruise him." The word which is here translated, "it pleased," includes in it an idea of complacency, and is strongly expressive of pleasure : the import of it is much the same with that which the Apostle uses, when he says, " With such sacrifices God is well pleased: in conformity with which idea, Jehovah is said to smell a sweet savour from those sacrifices which prefigured the crucified Jesus. In- deed, the same idea, though not so expressly asserted, is supported and confirmed by many other passages of Scripture. In the very verse following the text, we are informed, that the Father gave him promises on the express condition that he should endure his wrath for man ; that " when he should make his soul an offering for sin; he should see a seed, and should pro- long his days;" that is, that, on condition of his bearing the wrath due to sinners, many should be everlastingly saved through him, and with him. In another place we are told that " God sent his Son into the world for this very end, that he might be the propitiation for our sins ; " that is, that he might bear the punishment due to them : St. Paul also says, that " Christ was made sin, that is, a sin-offering, for us :"