they suffer in hell? If Christ took upon him their persons when he suffered, what reason is there that they should suffer in their own persons eternal death? Who sees not how unaccountable this is? Besides that, it nulls the virtue of Christ's satisfaction; for if this was sufficient, what need is there for a satisfaction in hell, which yet will be of no use and benefit to those that undergo it? These things shew how absurd a doctrine some men maintain, and that it is nothing but inveterate prejudice that could have thus blinded them.'

It will avail nothing to urge in reply to what I have said respecting Christ's dying in vain, That sinners perish in virtue of their own fault, for, whatever be the cause of their destruction, his sufferings as to them have been in vain. It is however not enough to say that this sentiment is unscriptural-it is a tacit reflection on the infinite wisdom and goodness of God-on his wisdom, in providing a mean of salvation which, in numberless instances, the perverseness of man has rendered completely nugatory-on his goodness in wounding his beloved Son for transgres

sions that are not to be forgiven, and afterwards inflicting the punishment of these transgressions on the sinners themselves.

There is perhaps nothing against which we ought more constantly to watch, because there is nothing to which we are so naturally disposed, as to form contracted notions of the turpitude of moral evil. Sin is the abominable thing which God hateth. Let us therefore abandon every idea that has the remotest tendency to extenuate its guilt, to induce a belief that the Redeemer of man suffered less than our iniquities deserved, or that may lessen the thankfulness of him who is conscious of its being for Christ's sake graciously forgiven. Doubtless, says one, the more suffering was undergone by the Mediator, the more love appears therein to the elect. It holds forth the sovereignty and justice of God, and the horribleness of sin; and it is useful, as by this means God's people may be thoroughly clear in the reality and worth of Christ's satisfaction.

After all the affecting representations which the scripture gives us of Christ's sufferings, it is

strange, says Mr. Rawlin, That any should be found, who industriously set themselves to lessen and depreciate them. This, indeed, has not been always done upon the same principles; but whatever their pleas have been, I cannot but think they are in some degree guilty of this, who will by no means allow that Christ bore the idem, the same death, the same curse that was threatened in the law as due to sin, and to us for it. But surely they who urge this, never took such a view as they might, and as they ought, of the agonies and sufferings of a dying Saviour; for what was that part of the sentence of the law, that was gone out against sin, which he did not submit to? Only here we must distinguish between what is essential to punishment and what relates to the circumstances of it; and carrying this easy distinction along with us, I say, what was that part of the sentence of the law, that was gone out against sin, which he did not submit to? Was it the primitive threatening, In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die? And was not that part of the sentence executed upon him? He tasted death and became obedient to it; body and soul were separated; and he bowed his head,

and gave up the ghost. Was there a curse lodged and wrapped up in the threatening? In what way did he redeem from the curse of the law, but by being himself made a curse for us? Has the law any thing more dreadful in all its stores than the wrath of God? And whoever bore this, if the blessed Jesus did not? what infinite Almighty wrath did he encounter, when the Father, the righteous eternal Judge, awakened his sword against him, and did not spare his own Son: made him no abatement, deducted nothing from the full and just punishment due to sin? Well might he complain, as he does in the Person of his Type, The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me.' Though he were a son, yet he learned obedience by the things which he suffered. Finally, does the death which is threatened in the law, lie in a separation from the comfortable presence of God, and is this the death of death to be separated from the enjoyment of him who is the fountain of life? we have heard his doleful com

plaint, and agonizing cry, Eli, Eli, Lama, Sabacthani, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?'

That the Lord Jesus Christ bore our sins and suffered in our stead, is a delightful truth, and one of the most prominent features of the gospel. To the conscience that is burthened with guilt and anxious for pardon, these are tidings of great joy-tidings adapted to the wretchedness of man-that dissipate the gloom of doubt -that open prospects of forgiveness compatible with justice, and administer to the trembling delinquent seasonable and effectual relief. I believe, says the excellent Hervey, that Jesus Christ, the incarnate God, is my Saviour-that he has done all that I was bound to perform,and suffered all that I was condemned to sustain; and so has procured a full, final, and everlasting salvation for a poor damnable sinner.'

But if the fact be otherwise-if our sin and its guilt were not transferred to this adorable substitute; if he were not made sin and a curse for us, and did not suffer in our stead; the scriptures lead us to believe and to rejoice in what is not literally true. For how can I look to him whom my sins have pierced, and mourn; if he to whom I look were not wounded for my

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