of his law, must be kept inviolate: in a word, a sentence of death was gone forth against sinners ; and it must be inflicted on them, or on a surety in their stead. Hence, if Jesus would ever bring us back to God, "he must suffer, the just in the place of us the unjust \" If he would redeem our souls, he must " give his own life a ransom for us."]
2. His own covenant engagements required it —
[From all eternity did the Son of God engage to repair the evils which it was foreseen would in time be introduced by sin. A council of peace was held between the Father and the Son^: the terms which were then agreed upon, are expressly mentioned by the Prophet Isaiah ; "When thou shalt make thy soul an offering for sin, thou shalt see a seed, who shall prolong their days ; and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in thy hand'^." These terms being acceded to on the Son's part, "a body was prepared him'^," and "he came in due season, made of a woman, and under the law, that he might redeem them that were under the law*^." His incarnation alone would not have fulfilled his engagements : he luust suffer : and hence, when his sufferings came upon him to the utter- most, and he felt, as a man, disposed to deprecate them, he especially called to his remembrance the engagements he had entered into, and submitted to drink the cup which was put into his hands : " Now is my soul troubled : and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour? But for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name*^!"]
3. All the predictions concerning him required it —
[The very first promise clearly pointed it out : he, as " the seed of the woman, was to bruise the serpent's head :" but in the conflict " his own heel was to be bruised^." To what an extent he was to suffer is fully declared : " his visage was to be so marred, more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men: and so was he to sprinkle many nations'^." Standing in the place of us who deserved utter excision, he must suffer it'. AH the sacrifices of the Mosaic law shadowed forth this awful event. He was to be a priest ; but what sacrifice could he offer ? He was not of the tribe to which alone the offering of animal sacrifices belonged. He had no offering but his own body : which therefore he did present ; and " with his own blood he entered within the vail, there to carry on and perfect the work he had begun on earth''." Looking forward
a 1 Pet. iii. 18. " Zech. vi. 13. <= Isai. liii. 10.
1 Heb. X. 5. e Gal. iv. 4, 5. f John xii. 27, 28.
g Gen. iii. 15. ^ Isai. Iii. 13—15. See also liii. 4—12.
» Dan, ix. 20. ^ Hob. viii. 3, 4. and ix. 11, 12.
2276.J THE ENDS OF CHRISX's INCARNATION. 173
to his death, he often referred to it as that which should speedily be accomplished, as the apjjointed means of saving a ruined tvorld^. And, when his disciples were stumbled at his death, and regarded it as an event by which all their hopes and expectations were frustrated, he repx'oved them for their igno- rance and unbelief, and shewed them, that it had been the great subject of prophecy from the beginning of the world ; and that it was necessary to the accomplishment of the work he had undertaken" ]
Such was the more immediate end of Christ's in- carnation !
II. The ultimate end of it was to reign and triumph —
In overlooking the previous humiliation of their Messiah, the Jews greatly err : but in their expecta- tion of a triumphing Messiah, they are right. He was indeed " to drink of the brook in the way ;" but he was then *' to lift up his head." His sufferings were to precede : but the whole Scripture attests, that a glory was to follow" : and by the very suffer- ings which he sustained, his triumphs were secured to him. He was to triumph,