Twenty Sermons, Sermons · Sermon 10
PHIL. 2.8.
And being found in fashion as a man, be humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross.
IN these words and those that went before, you see there is delivered unto us the point of the humiliation of the Son of God. It stands in this.
1. That he took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of man. God the Son, the second person in the blessed Trinity did assume our dust and ashes, unto the Unity of his own sacred person.
2. This humane nature being thus assumed, he was content to deprive himself a long time of that estate of glory, which he might have in our humane nature alwayes (after it's assumption) enjoyed, and in that time was as obedient, as the meanest and poorest servant of his Father. Nor was he only actively, but passively obedient; He was obedient unto the death: He was content to lay down his life for our Redemption. And it was not every death that would serve the turn, but it must be the death of the Cross, the most accursed shameful and painful death, that death which was most suitable, and best able to answer the wrath of God.
First, He humbled himself by taking our nature upon him: He that thought it no robbery to be equal with God, took upon him the form of a man. If it were an abasement for God to look upon heaven the most glorious of his works, how much more to take upon him a clod, or piece of this earth, and unite it to his own sacred person for ever. This was a descending indeed, he descended first that he might ascend. Eph. 4.9. Now that he ascended, what is it, but tha… he descended first into the lower parts of the earth? That is, he descended into the womb of the Virgin; and it was a great abasement indeed for him thus to descend: Wherefore the Psalmist speaking of the wonderful framing of the Babe in the womb, saith, Psalm, 139.15. My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lower parts of the earth. So that we see God descended into the lowermost parts of the earth, and there was he fashioned. A great humiliation it was for him to be thus inclosed. Thus did he humble himself in taking our nature. Had he taken the form of a King upon him, it had been a great humiliation; how much more, when he took on him the form of a servant? He came not in state to be ministered unto, but to minister. Mat. 20.28. As we shewed the last day. Nor was he only his Fathers servant, but a servant of servants, and therein underwent Canaans curse: A servant of servants shalt thou be. Gen, 9.25. Our Saviour became such a servant. He which was the Author of freedom. John 8.26. If the Son make you free then are you free ind…ed. He, I say, who was the Kings son and so the most free, the Author of it to all that enjoy any spiritual freedom, became a servant, that we whi…h were servants might be made free.
But besides this, its added here, that he humbled himself. Having taken on him the form of a servant, he humbled himself. Where we may observe what made the suffering of our Saviour so meritorious: It was because it was active, free, and voluntary. Our Passions are contrary to our Will: We are drawn to it, as it is said of Peter, When thou art old, they shall lead thee whither thou wouldst not, Joh. 21.18. Peter dyed the same death our Saviour did, according to the external passion; but they led him, whither he would not. Our Saviour was an Actor in it; Humbled himself. A bare suffering God regards not so much; but when it is done willingly, and in obedience to God. And as he was obedient in his death, so also in his other passions. In the Gospel according to St. John, Joh. 11.33. whereas the Text reads, he was troubled; the marginal note hath it, according to the original Greek, foreign, he troubled himself: he was the Author of his own sufferings, Joh. 10.17. He was not humbled as a mere patient; but he humbled himself: and so it is said in Scripture oft, He gave himself for us, and in all his passive obedience he had an eye to do the Will of God. The merit of his passive obedience ariseth from a mixture with his active. This was a great part of his Priesthood, his humbling. And how doth he take his Priest-hood upon him? it was by his Father's call. He was called unto it as was Aaron. Heb. 5.4. No man, saith the Apostle, taketh this honour upon him, but he that is called. Now Christ being called to it, he did it to follow his call. And thus he did it actively: it was not a bare suffering as those in hell suffer, but according to his Father's call. Observe, Heb. 10.9. That place taken out of the Psalm, I am come to do thy Will, O God, &c. What, was it only in its active obedience? No, it was thy Will that he should suffer; as the words following in the tenth verse import, By the which Will we are sanctified, and by the body of Jesus Christ once offered: So that Christ offered up himself to do his Father's Will; so that his passive obedience was in his active. So Joh. 10.17. Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I may take it up again; no man taketh it from me, but I lay it down. Our Saviour, when he laid down his life, put it off, as a man that puts off his cloak, and lays it from him. They wondred that he was dead so soon, it 'was because himself laid down his life. His soul then was not drag'd or forced out of his body. It was not only passive, but active obedience. No man taketh it from me; I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up. This had I from my Father. They are grosly deceived then, that say Christ's active obedience was not free and voluntary, because he was commanded: for as well may they say, his passive was not voluntary, and so not meritorious, because it likewise was commanded, which none can deny. Thus Christ's offering was a free-will-offering, though it was a most bitter one; yet, this being a part of his Father's Will, he went as voluntarily to the pains of the Cross, as thou dost to thy dinner, when thou art throughl… hungry. For his meat and his drink was to do his Father's Will, Joh. 4.34. And this makes it of such worth and efficacy, that he did it willingly: See it in the type that went before him, in Isaac; Isaac was grown up, he was no Babe, he was able to carry wood enough to burn himself when he went to be sacrificed; and therefore, sure he had strength: If Isaac had pleased, he might have ran away from the old man his Father; yet he suffers himself to be bound, and to be laid upon the wood. A true type of our Saviour: His also was a free-will offering, and so a sweet-smelling sacri…ce unto God. It being the highest active obedience, it presently pacifieth the w…th of his Father. He humbled himself, and became obedient. This obedience of our Saviour is the matter and ground of our Justification. Rom. 5.18. As by the offence of one, Judgment came on all unto condemnation; so by the righteousness of one, the free gift came on all to Justification of life. By the obedience of this blessed Saviour many are made righteous; so that now our Saviour's obedience followeth next.
Now this Obedience is twofold, 1. Active, 2. Passive.Now this obedience is double. Active or Passive.
1. Active, And this was that whereby he did all the Will of his Father. The reason why he came into the world, if we look the place b…fore alledged, will appear, Heb. 10.5. Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and burnt-offering thou wouldst not have, but a body hast thou prepared me. In burnt offerings and Sacrifice for sin thou hast no pleasure; then said I, Behold I come, in the volume of thy book it is written of me, that I should do thy Will, O God. When he cometh into the world, saith he, Lo, I come: For what? to do thy Will, O God. The reason why he came into the world, was, that he might be obedient unto his Father: Thus it behoveth us (saith he to John) to fulfil all Righteousness. John wondred that he that was pure and spotless, should come to him to be baptized. He knew Baptism presupposed some sin or blot, some stain or corruption to be washed off; and therefore it's said, Mark 1.5. That there came unto him all the Land of Judaea to be baptized, confessing their sins. And sure if one who had been but a bare man should have come to John, and say, he had no sin, and yet desired to have been baptized by him, he had had no right to Baptism: yet our Saviour saith, Let alone, let it be so, that we may fulfil all Righteousness. I have no need indeed in regard of my self: but I have taken upon me the form of a servant; and therefore, what the lowest of them must do, that must I do: therefore was I circumcised, and therefore am I baptized. I came not to destroy the Law, but to fulfil it. And he fulfilled it to the utmost, both in his active and passive obedience.
Now for his active Obedience, it had a double foreign, or consummatum est. 1. For his active obedience in the whole course of his Life.First, For his active Obedience in the whole course of his life.
I h…ve glorified thy name, and finished the work which thou gavest me to do. Would you know what it is to glorifie God in this world? It is to finish the work which he giveth us to do. Art thou a Minister? if thou wouldst glorifie God, finish the work he gave thee to do; then mayest thou say, Glorifie thou me with thy Glory, 2. For his active obedience after his Death.&c. But now Christ's work was not all ended, when he said, he had finished it; the greatest part was behind, to wit, his Passive obedience: All the works of his life were done; of which actions, there Christ is to be understood: but then cometh his Passion, and that being finished, there is something to do yet after that; for he was to rise again to our Justification: but for the oblation of the sacrifice, it was fully finished. If we look upon our blessed Saviour in the whole course of his life. For,
1. Though he lived in a whole world of sin, yet he was free from all manner of sin.
2. He was enriched with all manner of good works, graces and vertue. Christ had both of these. He was free from any spot of sin, though in the midst of a wicked world; and there was nothing …n him which could expose him to any temptations. He was continually assaulted, and yet he was spotless. The Prince of the world came, and yet he found nothing in him. Satan could find nothing in him, whereon to fasten any temptation. Such a Priest it became us to have, who was holy and harmless. Heb. 7.16. Vndefiled, separate from Sinners.
There is the purity of his nature, he is holy, and in his carriage, harmless; he did no man hurt. Vndefiled, a pure and innocent Lamb, a lamb without blemish, separate from sinners, and could not contract any guilt of sin. Though he conversed with Publicans and sinners at the Table, yet they could not infect him. He knew no sin, neither was there guile found in him, 1 Pet. 1.19. Therefore we see when it comes to the point that the Devil would tempt him, yet he himself must needs say, What have I to do with thee thou holy one of God? He is forced to acknowledge him to be so. And so if we look on the place, where he saith, I do the Will of my Father always, Joh. 8.2…. there likewise he shews himself the holy one of God. In a word, as he was thus obedient unto God, so was he subject to men too; to his Father in the family, and to Caesar in the Commonwealth: As he taught, he did: Subjection towards Governors was his Doctrine, and rather than he would not pay Tribute, he would have it out of the fishes belly: To shew a Recognition of his subjection unto higher powers, the text tells us, He went about doing good. This man, say they, hath done all things well: And at the last cast, when all the quarrels and Accusations were brought against him, they could bring nothing that could hold water; that he could boldly challenge them all, as it were, Which of you can accuse me of sin? You that pick so many holes in my coat, come forth, spare me not, accuse me; yet at the last he is accounted a just man. Judas himself could acknowledge him to be blameless, and that he had sinned in betraying his innocent blood. Pilate's Wife could say to her Husband, Have thou nothing to do with that just man: And Pilate himself washed his hands, and would be free from the blood of that innocent person. The Thief crucified with him, acquits him; his whole life was a perfect obedience to the Law of God. Rom. 10.4. Christ is the end of the Law; Rom. 8.4. That the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us; not by us, we are not able to fulfil the Law; but in us, Christ did it for us: And the Father is better pleased with the thirty three years hearty obedience of his Son, than if Adam, and all his posterity had been obedient throughout the whole course of the world: So acceptable was this obedience to God. And thus much of his active Obedience.
2. Now for his passive obedience, his suffering. If our Saviour will be a sacrifice, he must be used like one; he must be slain, if he will make satisfaction to his Father for us. He must for our eating sower grapes, have his own teeth set on edge. Consider his humiliation both in life and death; if we look on the service of Jacob, under his Uncle Laban, his service was an hard service, twice seven years did he serve: The drought consumed him by day, and the Frost by night, and the sleep departed from his eyes; Twenty Years hard service; Fourteen Years for his two Wives, and six Years for his Cattle, Gen. 31.41. Our Saviour spent thirty three years in his hard service; and oft did the sleep depart from his eyes. When Israel came to appear before Pharoah, My dayes, saith he, have been 130 years: few and evil have the dayes of thy servant been. Gen. 47.9. The true Israelite might say more. Jacobs days were few; but as few as they were, they were 130 years; but if we look upon our Saviours dayes, they were scarce a quarter so many.
And that is our Saviours humiliation, that he was cut off in the midst of his dayes. If we look into the Psalm, we shall find it a curse on the bloody and deceitful man, that he shall not live out half his dayes. The livelie part of a mans age, (from Moses his time to this day, in that Psalm of Moses, Psalm. 90.) is threescore years and ten; Half this is thirty five years; and our Saviour is taken off, before this thirty five is expired. He was to take on him all the curses due to sinners, to the bloody and deceitful man: He is cut off and cropt off in the midst of his vigour: He that is that Melchisedeck, that hath neither beginning, nor end of days, was cut off as a branch, lopt off as a twig from the land of the living, Isa. 53. ver. 8. He's pul'd out, so his dayes were few, far fewer then Jacobs: He was not suffered to live out half his dayes: Yet if we look upon his days they were evil too: evil enough as few as they were: Full of trouble, and full of misery: From his first coming into the World to his last going out.
1. When he did descend into the lowermost part of the earth, He was nine months in the womb of his Mother: And if we take the opinion of th… Schoolmen, he had his full Vnderstanding and Judgment all that time, th… free use of sense and reason, though I do not aver it to be a truth; only▪ say, if it be so, it makes his humiliation insupportable. What an extrea… burthen would it be to us to be so long in the womb, and in ripe understanding; therefore there was somewhat in that: But now:
2. Look at his coming forth into the World: Though his mother were in her own City, yet he was so despicable, that there was nor room for them in the Inn. Luk. 2.7. Our Saviour, that should, one would think, have been brought into a stately Palace, was fain to have his lodging among the beasts, and a Cratch for his Cradle. The wise men when they came to worship him, found him in no better case: and what a disgrace was it, instead of a Palace, the King of the East should find our Saviour in a Cratch.
3. And now when eight dayes are over, he must have his skin cut off, he must be circumcised, and give the first payment or earnest of his blood. How painful and irksom a thing Circumcision was, appears by that story in Gen. 34, Where the sons of Jacob offering the Shechemites the condition of Circumcision, and they accepting it, it was so troublesome a thing, that by reason of their soreness and weakness by it, two of the Sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, slew a whole City. The pain was so great that they could not manage there weapons, therefore two men slew thousands of them. Our blessed Saviour was thus served, when the eight dayes were over he was thus made sore, and this was the first effusion of his blood.
4. After the eight dayes are over, then come the forty dayes, and then he must be carried a long journey to be offered up to the Lord, and his Mother, as if she had brought an unclean and impure thing into the World, must be cleansed and purified. And then she came to offer a sacrifice according to the Law of the Lord. Luke 2.24. A pair of Turtle Doves or two young Pigeons: But was this the Law? It were good if the Law were looked into. See Levit. 12.8. The Law is this, She shall bring a Lamb, or if she be not able to bring a Lamb, then two Turtles, or two young Pigeons. If she be not able; but the margin hath it, If her hand cannot reach to a Lamb, if she be so poor that she cannot offer a Lamb. As if the Text should have said, Alas poor woman, poor Lady, all she had was not able to reach to a Lamb, so poor was she: Doubtless her heart was as large as anothers but she was not able to offer a Lamb, and is therefore content with two Turtles.
5. Hence we may conceive in what state our Saviour lived, till he came into the Ministry: questionless in a poor house: and he made many a hungry meal, when his Mother was not worth a Lamb. All that they had, must be by hard labor.
9. Now our Saviour, notwithstanding after he had travelled that weary journey to Jerusalem ▪ must return again, and be subject to his Parents: but how? Even as a servant in his Trade. They had not bread to spare, but what was gotten by hard laborious work. At his Fathers Trade, I say, for so its said of him, Is not this the Carpenter? Its put in the nominative case, The Carpenter. M…rk. 6. ver. 3. And whereas this is cast as a curse on our first parents, and their seed. Gen. 3.49. That in the sweat of their brows they should eat their bread. Our Saviour must undergo this curse too: He must work hard for his living: With his own hands he must get a living for himself, and his poor Mother by a laborious Trade No wonder if he went many a morning without his break-fast, and made many a hungry meal, that lived in so poor a house, and by so poor a Trade.
7. If we come now to the time he lived after he came from his Father and Mother, that same three years when he shewed himself more publickly in the World, and you shall find him subject to those dangers, difficulties, and distresses which accompany evil dayes. He was a Pilgrim; and had no abode. The Foxes have holes, and the birds of the air, nests, but the Son of man had not where to lay his head. Luk. 9.58. He was a diligent Preacher of the Gospel, although he had neither Prebend, nor Personage; he had nothing of his own, but was relieved often by the Charity of certain devout and religious Women.
2. Besides all the reproaches that could be cast on a man, were laid on him; This man is a Wine-bibber, and a Glutton; a friend of Publicans and Sinners. Mat. 11.19. And again, Do we not say well, thou art a Samaritan, that is, a Heretick? He was a caster out of Devils; John. 8.48. And therein they denyed not, but he did good, but see the villany of it: he was a good witch, as we call them, and though he did good, yet it was by the help of Belzebub: When he drew near his death; see Mark. 15.3. The Text saith, They accuse him of many things. Few things are expressed, yet a great many comprehended in these words; Those that are expressed, are hainous and notorious crimes. First, Against the first Table, they accuse him of Blasphemy, and therefore condemn him in the Ecclesiastical Court: Do you bear his Blasphemy? Mat. 4.64. say they. Then against the second Table, they post him to the civil Court, and there they lay to his charge high Treason against Caesar: for he, say they, that maketh himself a King, is an enemy unto Caesar: John. 19.12. And yet the innocent Lamb Mat. 27.12. For all this opened not his mouth. vers. 14. Insomuch that Pilate wondred he spake not a word in his own defence; and the reason was, because he came to suffer, and to have all these slanders and reproaches put upon him, not to excuse himself.
3. He led a life subject to dangers, when he went amongst his own people, to preach the acceptable Year of the Lord, Luk. 4.19.29. They bring him upon an high hill, to the brow thereof, with a purpose to cast him down, and break his neck. Others threaten to kill him too. The Devil here follows him with temptations: Even to Idolatry it self. Mat. 4.6. The Devil himself tempts him forty dayes, and then left him: Not as if he would not return and tempt him no more, but as St. Luke renders it, The Devil left him for a season, Luke 4. ver. 13. Not as if he intended to leave him quite, but to come and try him again. The Scribes and Pharisees they tempt him too, and prove him with hard questions, which if he could not answer, they would proclaim him an insufficient man, and all the people would have laugh'd him to scorn. Nor was this all only in the exercise of his Ministery. All his life was as it were paved with temptations, every step was as it were a gin and trap to ensnare him.
4. Add to all this, that he was not like us, He knew when, and by what death he should die: He knew in all the time of his suffering what he should suffer, and what should come upon him at his death. If any of us should know that he must die a cursed, shameful, and painful death, and knew when it should be, it would marr all our mirth, and put us to our dumps in the midst of our jollity. Our Saviour in the midst of all his joy on earth, saith, I have a Baptism to be baptized with: Luk. 12.50. He knew the cruel death, which he should suffer on the Cross. And how is he pained, till it be accomplished. The pains of it run through all his life, and might well make his whole life uncomfortable unto him. In the twelfth of John 23. A little before the Passover, saith he, The hour is come that the Son of man shall be glorified: and then verse 27. Now is, my soul troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour. When the time was drawing nigh, some five or six dayes before, the consideration of it troubled him, though he knew he should be glorified, yet the fright of it enwrapt him with fear. Now is my soul troubled; what shall I say, Father, save me from this hour. Such a kind of life did our Saviour lead: Few, but evil were his dayes. As evil, as few, he had no comfort in them.
Come we now to the point of his death, the last thing; and those things that did touch him therein, are the Curse, Shame, and pain of it. If there were any death more accursed, he must die that death: If any death more shameful, or more painful then other, he must die that. All these do concur in the death of our Saviour, which he suffered, in that death of the Cross. It was the most accursed, most shameful, and most painful death as could be devised.
First, For the Accursedness of it, there was no death that had a more peculiar curse on it then this. Howsoever all deaths are accursed, when they light on one that is without Christ; but his death had a legal Curse: and this was the curse annexed to the Cross; a type of that real Curse. Now the type of a real Curse, Was hanging on the tree: Thou shalt bury him that day, for he that is hanged on a tree is accursed by God, Deut. 21.23. So the Son of God was made a Curse for us, alluding unto this, Galat. 3.12. And here we see the blessed Son of God, he in whom all the Nations of the earth are blessed: The Fountain of all blessedness: We see him stand in so cursed a condition, to be made as it were as an Anathema, the highest degree of cursing that may be.
Secondly, Consider the shame of it. There is a place in the best of Orators that expresses the detestableness and shame of this death of the Cross. Facinus, &c. Cicero Lib. 5. in Verrem. See what a gradation there is, it is hardly to be expressed in English. Its a great fault to bind a Citizen of Rome and a Gentleman, what is it to beat him? What to crucifie him? His Eloquence failed him there, as being not able to express the detestableness of it, and therefore the chief Captain was afraid because he had bound Paul, after he had heard he was a free-man of Rome, Act. 22.29. but then it's worse to beat him; but what was it to crucifie him? Our blessed Saviour went through all these indignities. First they come against him with swords and with staves, as against a Thief. They sold him for a base price. They beat him with rods, pricked him, and after all they crucified him. Consider then the shame of it: he that was to be crucified, was stripped naked, as naked as ever he came out of his mothers Womb: However the Painters may lye in it. And was not this a shame thus to be stripped before thousands? Wherefore it was a custome among the Romans, that the greatest King, if he were baptized, was to be stripped naked, which they did as a memorial of the shame of our Saviour. So shameful a thing it was, that they thought him unworthy to suffer within the walls. Christ that he might sanctifie the people, suffered without the walls. Hebr. 13.13. Let us go with him out of the Camp bearing his reproach. He was a man unfit to suffer within the walls. Pilat… thought he would meet with them, when they were so violent to have him crucified, and therefore he joyns Barabbas with him, the vilest Thief in the Countrey, and a Murtherer: So that Peter cast this in their teeth, That they preferred a Murtherer before him. He was reckoned with the Transgressors, as it was prophesied of him before. Isa. 53.12. They crucifie him between two Thieves, as if he had been the Captain of them. Pilate thought by naming of Barabbas, to have saved Christ; but so enraged was their blind malice, that they preferred the release of Barabbas, before the exemption of Christ. Wherefore (as St. Luke saith) Pilate released unto them him, that for sedition and murder was cast into prison, whom they had desired; but he delivered Jesus to their will. Luk. 23.25.
Thirdly, Consider the Pain of the Cross, whom God raised up, having loosed the sorrows of death: Act. 2.24. Not meaning there were sorrows that Christ endured after his death, but its meant of the sorrows that accompanied his death. It was the most dolorous death that ever could be endured. We scarce know what Crucifying is. The Christian Emperors in honor of our Saviour banished that kind of suffering, that none after him might suffer it: But yet it is fit we should know what it was, since it was so terrible a thing. And here, as the Apostle said to the Galathians, Suppose you see Christ crucified before your face at present. The manner of it was thus.
First there was a long beam, on which the party was to be stretched, and there was a cross-beam on which the hands were to be stretched: they pull'd them up upon the Cross before they fastned them; they pull'd him to his utmost length. And this is that the Psalmist speaks of, Psal. 22.17. You might tell all my bones. His ribs were so stretched, as that they even pierced the flesh: Conceive him now thus stretched with his hands and feet nailed to the wood: the stretching of Christ on the Cross, was such a thing as the working of the rack. Imagine him before your eyes thus represented. Your sins crucicified him: being thus stretched upon the Cross to his full length, the hands and the feet were fastned, and nailed to the wood. It's no small torment to have the hands bored, especially if we behold the place, it was through the lower part of the hand where the veins and sinnews all met together: It's a place that is full of sense, consider withal the bigness of the nails: Psal. 22.16. They have digged my hands, to shew the bigness of the spikes: for the original bears it, They digg'd him. Believe not the painters: Our Saviour had four nails: Not one through both feet, as they describe it, but two through his hands, and two through his feet: And that you may the better comprehend it, you must know that toward the lower part of the cross, there went along a ledge or threshold whereto his feet were nail'd, otherwise the flesh would have rent by reason of the nails, if he had hung by the hands alone.
Then comes the lifting up; as the serpent was lift up, so must Christ be lift. As when a man is stretched to the full length, and should be with a girk put up; it's like a strapado, as it were the unjoynting of a man; and this is that the Psalmist speaks of, All my bones are out of joynt. Consider withal the time how long it was. St. Mark saith, cap. 15.25. It was the third hour, and they crucified him. In St. John it is the sixth hour, but the ancient and best Copies have the third hour, and so hath Nonnus. The ninth hour he gave up the Ghost: so that it was six long hours by the clock that our Saviour did hang upon the Cross. And it was not with him as with other men, in whom extremity of pains disannul sense, and blunt pains, because they have not a perfect apprehension; but Christ was in his perfect sense all the while. All that the Jews could do, could not take away his life from him, till he would himself: and therefore it is said in Mark 15.37. That immediately before he gave up the Ghost, he cryed with a loud voice, whereas others are wont at that time to be so weak, that they can scarce be heard to groan: but never was Christ stronger, nor never cryed louder, than when he gave up the Ghost, Mark. 15.39. this of it self made the Centurion assoon as he heard it, conclude, certainly this man was the Son of God. How doth he gather this from his crying? thus, For a man to be in his full strength, and cry out so strongly, and immediately to give up the Ghost, this is a great Miracle: Truly this man was the Son of God. This adds unto the greatness of his torment, that he had his full and perfect sense: that he was six full hours thus on the Rack, and the extremity of pain took not away his sense. He was as strong at the last, as at the first.
These things seriously weighed, Oh! how do they aggravate the depth of his Humiliation? Seriously weigh them: they are miserable and lamentable matters; yet in these lie our comfort. Through these words is there a passage open for us into the Kingdom of Heaven: When he had overcome the terrors of death, he opened the Kingdom of Heaven to all Believers: these were now but the out-side of his sufferings, which did belong to man for his sins. He suffered not only bodily sufferings, but sufferings in soul, and and that he did in a most unknown, and incomprehensible manner; But now may some say,
Object. Did Christ suffer the pains and torments of Hell?
Sol. No, he suffered those things that such an innocent Lamb might suffer, but he could not suffer the pains of Hell. The reason is, because, one thing which makes Hell to be Hell, is the gnawing worm of an accusing conscience. Now Christ had no such worm. He had so clear a conscience, as that he could not be stung with any such evil.
Another great torment in Hell is Desperation, arising from the apprehension of the perpetuity of their torments, which makes them curse and blaspheme God, and carry an inexpressible hatred against him; but Christ could not do so; he could not hate God: God forbid that Christ should be lyable to these Passions.
But it is certain God the Father made an immediate impression of pains upon his soul; his soul did immediately suffer: Look on him in the Garden, he was not yet touched, nor troubled by men, and yet he fell in a sweat: Consider the season of the year; this was then, when they that were within doors were glad to keep close by the fire▪ he thus did sweat in the Garden, when others freez'd within; this was much: but to sweat blood, thick blood, clotted, congealed blood (for so the word will bear it) not like that in his veins: and yet it came through his garments, and fell to the ground: this is a thing not to be comprehended. Our bless…d Saviours encountring with his Father▪ he falls a trembling, and is overwhelmed, as it were, with the wrath, beseeching God intensively, saying, Father, if it be possible let this cup pass from me; Mat. …7.39. thou mayst give free pardon: which affections in Christ are such a thing, as pus…els us all: we must not say Christ did forget for what he came: but he did not remember: these words proceeded from the seat of passion, which while it is disturbed, reason suspends its Acts. Christ had Passions, though no impurity in them. As take a clear Vial full of water from the fountain, and shake it, it may be frothy, yet it will be clean water still. Christ did not forget, only he had the suspension of his faculties for a time. As a man in a sleep, thinks not what he is to do in the morning, and yet he is said properly to forget. He cryed, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Matth. 27.40. He was contented to be forsaken for a time, that thou mighst not be forsaken everlastingly, and this was no faint prayer: if you will read the place in the Psalm. He cryed out unto God: And Heb. 5.7. It's said, Who in the days of his flesh when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong cries and tears. He cryed to the Almighty: he made Gods own heart to pity: He would break, Isa. 53. yet his heart is repenting, and rolled together, so that he sent an Angel to support and comfort him, Psal. 27. those strong cries are expressed with a more forcible word, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me, why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring? Consider how it was with Christ before any earthly hand had touched him, when he beseeched God for his life: this shews the wonderful suffering of Christ; and for that point, Why hast thou forsaken me? Consider it was not with Christ as with the Fathers, they suffered a great deal of punishment and taches, and would not be delivered, yet Christ was more couragious than they all. He had a spirit of fortitude, he was anointed abve his fellows, and yet he quivers. Our Fathers cryed unto thee, they trusted in thee, and were not consumed; they were delivered: but I am a worm, and no man. I can find no shadow of comfort. Lord, Why art thou so angry with me? this speech came not from the upper part of the soul, the seat of reason, but from the lower part, the seat of Passion: My God, my God, these were not words of desperation. He held fast to God; Why hast thou forsaken me? these are words of sense: thus you see the price is paid, and what a bitter thing sin is. God will not suffer his Justice to be swallowed up by Mercy. It must be satisfied; and our Saviour, if he will be a Mediator, must make payment to the uttermost farthing: Consider what a time this was, when our Saviour suffered: The Sun with-draws his beams, the earth shakes and trembles: What aileth thee, O thou Sun to be darkned, and thou earth to tremble? was it not to shew his mourning for the death of its Maker? The soul of Christ was dark within, and it's fit that all the world should be hung in black for the death of the King of Kings. But mark, when he comes to deliver up his life, and to give up the Ghost, the vail of the Temple rent in twain, and that was the ninth hour, which in the Acts is called the hour of prayer; it was at three a Clock in the afternoon. Hence it is said, Let the lifting up of my hands be as the evening sacrifice. The Priest was killing the Lamb at that time, there was a vail that severed the Holy of Holies, it was between the place of oblations, and the Holy of holies, which signifies the Kingdom of Heaven. Assoon as Christ died, the vail rent, and Heaven was open, the Priest saw that which was before hidden. Our Saviour, saith the Apostle, entred through the vail of his flesh unto his Father, and fit it was, that the vail should give place when Christ comes to enter: but what becomes of Christ's soul now? his soul and body were pull'd asunder, and through the vail of his flesh, as it were with blood about his ears he entred the Holy of Holies unto God, saying, Lord, here am I in my blood; and here is blood that speaks better things than the blood of Abel, that cries for vengeance, this for blessing and expiation of our sins.