love, humility, patience were then in their exaltation. But that glorious and unspeakable joy which in the course of his life, the Deity conveyed to him, was then withdrawn. An impetuous torrent of pure unmixed sorrows broke into his holy soul : he felt no refreshing emanations, so that having lost the sense of present joy, there remained in his soul only the hope of future joy. And in that sad moment, his mind was so intent upon his sufferings, that he seems to have been diverted from the actual consideration of the glory that attended the issue of them.

Briefly, All comforting influences were suspended, but without prejudice to the personal union, or the perfection of his grace, or to the love of his Father toward him. His soul was liable to sorrows, as his body to death. For the Deity is the principle of life as well as of joy; and as the body of Christ was three days in the state of death, and the hypostatical union remained entire; so his soul was left for a time under the fearful impressions of wrath, yet was not separated from the Godhead. And although he endured whatever was necessary for the expiation of sin ; yet all vicious evils, as blasphemy, hatred of God, and any other which are not inflicted by the judge, but in strictness are accidental to the punishment, and proceed from the weakness or wickedness of the patient, he was not in the least guilty of. Besides, when his Father appeared an enemy against him, at that time he was infinitely pleased in his obedience. But with these exceptions our blessed Lord suffered whatever was due

to us.

The sorrows of his forsaken state were inexpressibly great; for according to the degree and sense we have of happiñess, such in proportion is our grief for the loss of it. Now Christ had the fullest enjoyment, and the highest valuation of God's favour. His enjoyment was raised above what the most glorious spirits are capable of: all his faculties were pure and vigorous, never blunted with sin, and intimately united to the Deity. How cutting then was it to his soul, to be suspended from the perfect vision of God? To be divorced as it were from himself, and to lose that paradise he always had within him? If all the angels of light were at once deprived of their glory, the loss were not equal to this dreadful eclipse of the Sun of Righteousness : as if all the stars were extinguished, the darkness would not be so terrible, as if the sun the fountain of light were put out. Whatever his sufferings were in kind, yet in degree they were answerable to the full and just desert of sin, and surpassed the power of the human or angelical nature to endure. In short, his sore rows were only equalled by that love which procured them.

And as the sufferings inflicted by the hand of God, so the evils he endured from men, declare the infiniteness of our Redeemer's love to us.

For the further discovery of it, it is necessary to reflect upon his death, which is set down by the apostle as the lowest degree of his humiliation, in which the succession of all his bodily sufferings is included, it being the complement of all. And if we consider the quality of it, the goodness of our Redeemer, will be more visible in his voluntary submission to it. Two circumstances make the kind of death which is to be suffered, very terrible to us, ignominy and torment; and they eminently concur in the death of the cross.

1. The greatest ignominy attended it, and that in the account of God and men. As honour is in honorante, and depends upon the esteem of others; so infamy consists in the judgment of others. Now in the account of the world, every death inflicted for a crime is attended with disgrace: but that receives its degrees from the manner of it. To be executed privately is a favour, but to be made a spectacle to the multitude, increases the dishonour of one that suffers. When death is speedily inflicted, the sense of shame is presently passed; but to be exposed to public view for many hours, as a malefactor, whilst the beholders detest the crime, and abhor the punishment, is a heavy aggravation of it. Beheading, which is suddenly dispatched by a sword or military instrument, and therefore more honourable, was a privilege: but to hang on the cross, was the most conspicuous mark of the public justice and displeasure : a special infamy was concomitant with it. Among the Jews, hanging on a tree was branded with the curse: therefore God commanded that the 6 bodies of those that were hanged on a tree should be taken down in the evening, that the land might not be defiled with a curse.” Deut. 21. 23. And the judgment of other nations was answerable : * for it was only inflicted on the most infamous offenders, as fugitives, slaves, thieves, and traitors, such whom the lowness of their quality, or the height

a

of their crimes rendered unworthy of any respect. Hence it is, that Cicero * to aggravate the cruelty of Verres in crucifying a Roman citizen, calls it a “nameless wickedness.' No eloquence could express the indignity.

2. The pain of that death was extreme. The hands and feet, those parts wherein the complexion of the nerves meet, and are of an exquisite sense, were nailed. Crucified persons suffered a slow death, but quick torments: they felt themselves die. Therefore in pity the soldiers broke their legs, to put a period to their misery. And to complete their punishment, they were judged unworthy to enjoy the privilege of the grave, repose in the bosom of the earth our common mother, the last consolation of the dead, but were exposed as a prey to birds and beasts.

Now the Son of God endured no gentler nor nobler death than that of the cross. His pure and gracious hands, which were never stretched out but to do good, were pierced; and those feet which bore the Redeemer of the world, and for which the waters had a reverence, were nailed. His body, the precious workmanship of the Holy Ghost, the temple of the Deity, was destroyed. He that is the glory of heaven, was made the scorn of the earth : the King of kings was crucified between two thieves in Jerusalem, at their sacred feast, in the face of the world. His naked body was exposed on the cross for three hours, only covered with a veil of darkness. This was such a stupendous submission of the Son of God, that his death astonished the universe in another manner, than his birth and life, his resurrection and ascension. Universal nature relented at his last sufferings. The sun was struck with horror, and withdrew its light; it did not appear crowned with beams, when the Creator was with thorns. The earth trembled, and the rocks rent; the most insensible creatures sympathized with him; and it is in this we have the most visible instance of divine love to us.

The scriptures distinctly represent the love of God in giving his Son, and the love of Christ in giving himself to die for man, and both require our deepest consideration.

The Father expressed such an excess of love, that our Saviour

himself speaks of it with admiration : “ God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes on him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3. 16. If Abraham's resolution to offer his Son, was in the judgment of God a convincing evidence of his affection, Gen. 22. 12. how much more is the actual sacrificing of Christ the strongest proof of God's love to us ? For God had a higher title to Isaac than Abraham had : the Father of spirits hath a nearer claim, than

1: the fathers of flesh. Abraham's readiness to offer up his son was obedience to a command, not his own choice; it was rather an act of justice than love, by which he rendered to God what was his own. But God “ spared not his own Son” in whom he had an eternal right: and he was not only free from obligation, but not sued to for our salvation in that wonderful way. For what human or angelical understanding could have conceived such a thought, that the Son of God should die for our redemption? The most charitable spirits in heaven had not a glimmering inclination towards this admirable way of saving us. It had been an impious blasphemy to have desired it; so that Christ is the most absolute gift of God to us. Besides, the love of Abraham is to be measured by the reasons that might excite it; for according to the amiableness of the object, so much greater is the love that gives it. Many endearing circumstances made Isaac the joy of his father : he was an only son, miraculously obtained, after many prayers and long expectation of his parents, when natural vigour was spent, and all hopes dead of having a surviving heir; he was in the spring of his youth, and the root of all the promises, that in him a progeny as numerous as the stars, and that the Messiah infinitely more worthy than all the rest should come; yet at the best he was an imperfect mortal creature, so that but a moderate affection was regularly due to him. Whereas our Redeemer was not a mere man, or an angel, but God's only begotten Son, which title signifies his unity with him in his state and perfections ; and according to the excellency of his nature, such is his Father's love to him. St. John represents to us that “ God is love;" not charitable, and loving, that is too weak an expression, but love itself. The divine nature is infinite essential love, in which other perfections are included. And he produces the strongest and most convincing testimony of it, John 4. 9. “ In this was manifest the love of God to us, ke. cause that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.” The love of God in all temporal blessings, is but faint in the comparison with the love that is expressed in our Redeemer. As much as the Creator exceeds the creature, the gift of Christ is above the gift of the whole world. “ Herein is love," saith the apostle, that is the clearest and highest expression of it that can be, “ God sent his Son to be a propitiation for our sins.". The wisdom and power of God did not act to the utmost of their efficacy in the creation, he could frame a more glorious world ; but the love of God in our strange salvation by Christ, cannot in a higher degree be expressed. As the apostle, to set forth how sacred and inviolable God's promise is, saith, Heb. 6. 17. that “ because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself ;" so when he would give the most excellent testimony of his favour to mankind, he gave his eternal Son, the heir of his love and blessedness. The giving of heaven itself, with all its joys and glory, is not so perfect and full a demonstration of the love of God, as the giving of his Son to die for us.

It is an endearing circumstance of this love, that it warmed the heart of God from eternity, and was never interrupted in that vast duration. Great benefits that come from a sudden flush of affection, are not so highly estimable, as when dispensed with judgment and counsel : because they do not argue in the giver such a true valuation, and fixed love of the person that receives them. The spring-tide may be followed by as low an ebb; the benefactor may repent of his favours as spent in vain : but our salvation by Christ is the product of God's eternal thoughts, the fruit of love that ever remains. “ He was delivered by the determinate counsel, and foreknowledge of God," to suffer for us, Acts 2. 23. Before the world began, we were before the eyes, nay in the heart of God. And yet the continuance of this love through infinite ages passed, is less than the degree of it.

According to the rule of common esteem, a greater love was expressed to wretched man, than to Christ himself: for we expend things less valuable for those that are more precious; so that God in giving him to die for us, declared that our salvation was more dear to him than the life of his only Son. When no meaner ransom than the blood royal of heaven could purchase our redemption, God delighted in the expence of that sacred