" His sacrifice might be sufficient for unbelinivers it not iffidacions, because they have no union an

et

SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST.

49

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 per
sons eternal death? Who sees not how unac-
countable this is? Besides that, it nulls the vir-

to

tue of Christ's satisfaction; for if this was suf
ficient, 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.'

wo him, &
they will

They
des erandly
suffer.

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 John beinfinite wisdom and goodness of God-on his caus Jool wisdom, in providing a mean of salvation which, h

Lit

of the be

in numberless instances, the perverseness of man d has rendered completely nugatory-on his good-ovation ness in wounding his beloved Son for transgres to become

E

affectical sepon the terms of ac ceritame his winter. B good nes must be impeclined; & the sinner cast the blame of his destruction upon

may

You

more

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 that can is nothing to which we are so naturally disposed, in the as to form contracted notions of the turpitude of magnitud, of moral evil. Sin is the abominable thing which The evil of in God hateth. Let us therefore abandon every clearly idea that has the remotest tendency to extenuate then the fat man suffered less than our iniquities deserved, or faits guilt, to induce a belief that the Redeemer of hausthat may lessen the thankfulness of him who is sought its conscious of its being for Christ's sake graciously victim in forgiven. Doubtless, says one, the more sufferheavening was undergone by the Mediator, the more that noth love appears therein to the elect. It holds forth lip than the the sovereignty and justice of God, and the hor

man

ribleness of sin; and it is useful, as by this

venly means God's people may be thoroughly clear in

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

1

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

delinquent seasonable and effectual relief. I be-love is a lieve, says the excellent Hervey, that Jesus nother: And Christ, the incarnate God, is my Saviour-that ther

he has done all that I was bound to perform,

and suffered all that I was condemned to sustain; the other.
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

pers mally transferred to Jesus X

our sins

was not a sinner;

is at the lal referesuntation; he suffered for
if he had bun guilty, but he w
he died the just for the unjust.