into the world on purpose that he might suffer ? Did he delight in other sacrifices merely as typical of those sufferings ? Did he declare, that the offering up of his dear Son was an offering of a sweet-smelling savour ? Did he exalt Christ for his sufferings ? and does he continually bestow the richest blessings on his very enemies as a reward of those sufferings ? Did he do all these things, and shall we not acknowledge that the sufferings of Christ were pleasing to him ; or, to use the words of the text, that it pleased the Lord to bruise him ?
However, we must not imagine that the mere act of inflicting punishment on his only dear Son could be pleasing to him : No : " He delighteth in mercy ;" and " judgment is his strange work:" he is averse to punish even his enemies ; and much more his own Son. But there were very sufficient reasons why he should be pleased with bruising his own Son ; to illustrate which we shall consider,
III. The reasons of the Divine conduct —
If we expect to account for every thing, we shall soon reject the whole of revelation : God never in- tended that we should ; nor indeed is it possible. We know that an ignorant peasant is not able to search out the reasons upon which a profound statesman acts ; nor could he even comprehend them, if they were laid before him : and shall we wonder if there be some mysteries in the revelation and in the providence of God which we cannot explore, and which perhaps, if unfolded ever so clearly, would be far above our comprehension ? Is not God far more exalted above us, than we can be above our fellow-creatures ? We must therefore proceed with great humility and reve- rence, when we presume to investigate the reasons by which the all-wise God is actuated, especially in sub- jects so deeply mysterious as this which we are now contemplating. However, we will attempt to assign some reasons for his conduct.
He was pleased when he bruised his Son, first, be- cause the bruising of him was pleasing to his So?/. As
972. J the father's conduct TOWARDS JESUS. 393
the Father did not take pleasure in inflicting punish- ment, so neither did the Son in enduring it, for itself ; the punishment, considered separately from its con- sequences, was equally grievous to him who inflicted, and to him who bore it. But Jesus thirsted for the salvation of men ; he knew that it could not be ac- complished consistently with the rights of justice and truth, unless he should become their surety: he was well aware of all that he must undergo, if he should stand in the place of sinners ; yet he cheerfully under- took it ; " Then said he, Lo, I come ; / delight to do thy will, 0 my God : yea, thy law is within my heart." And when the time for his sufferings was fully arrived, he drew not back, but said, " Thy will be done ;" and " for the joy that was set before him" of redeeming so many millions from destruction, " he willingly endured the cross, and despised the shame." He reproved Peter as an agent of Satan himself, when he at- tempted to dissuade him from his purpose : " Get thee behind me, Satan, thou art an offence unto me." And, when the time drew nigh, he so longed for it, that " he was quite straitened till it could be accomplished." And therefore, as the Father knew how pleasing it would be to his Son to have the iniquities of mankind laid upon him, he himself found pleasure in laying them upon him : it gave him pleasure to put the finishing hand to that which had been agreed upon between them, and thus to make him " the author of eternal salvation" to all his people.
Another reason may be this : God was pleased with bruising his own Son, because it would prove so bene- Jicial to man. We are not to imagine that the Son loved us more than the Father; for the Father ex- pressed as much love in giving his Son, as the Son did in giving himself; the Father testified his compassion as much in laying our iniquities on his Son, as the Son did in bearing them in his own body on the tree. The whole work of salvation is the fruit of the Father's love : he pitied us when we fell ; he in his own eter- nal counsels provided a Saviour for us before we did fall, yea, before we were brought into existence. He