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of sins is

the decree

or in the

his bearing them, began at his crucifixion, and CHAP. ended in his resurrection from the dead. To which question I answer thus: the translation translation of our sins to Christ, may be considered two considered ways; either as in the decree, and then it im- either in ports nothing else but the certainty of that event which should take place at the appoint- execution. ed time; or as in the execution, which began, when the Son of God having assumed the nature of man, and the form of a servant, was in such a state, that he could actually satisfy Divine justice for the elect.

tion of hu

in death.

II. This II. The very assumption of human nature began with was an acknowledging the debt of our sins, the assumpwhich the Son of God had taken upon him: man nature, and the hand-writing was sealed with the blood and ended of his circumcision. All that form of a servant, and the likeness of sinful flesh, which continuing from the beginning of Christ's life even unto death, is an evidence of sin translated to him. For all that time which he passed in a mean and an abject state, he was never seen without sin, as Paul speaks. Heb. ix. 28. And in that meanness and misery, there was not only a confession of debt, but also a part of satisfaction. For as the death, which God threatened to man, who was soon to sin, comprehends those miseries, to which the sinner is obnoxious through the whole of life, and which are some part at least of the curse lying upon him; so it was just, that Christ in order to the payment of the debt which he had taken upon him, should pass a

III.

CHAP. life obnoxious to many miseries; such as that of the sinner is. Now, as God exerciseth much long-suffering towards sinners, until the day of wrath and of just retribution come, when all the weight of his curse shall lie upon the damned: in like manner, neither was Christ in his servile state always so pressed with the weight of sins lying on him, but that now and then he was refreshed with a remarkable sense of the Divine favour, till the hour and the power of darkness came, when being called to judgment, he underwent the most terrible things. Then chiefly was our iniquity exacted, then most of all was Christ afflicted; then the satisfaction was perfect to the uttermost farthing. To say it in a word, as all miseries taken together are the debt of sin, so also Christ, to whom all the debt of the elect was translated, while he spent a life liable to miseries, which were most grievous at death; by all those miseries taken together, and by a cursed death itself, he satisfied Divine justice. So that all these taken in cumulo make up the payment, which was due for our sins.

III. It is unjustly

on the cross,

III. Therefore they begin too late, and thought to lengthen the time too much in which our sins have begun lay upon Christ, who make it to commence and ended with the cross, and to terminate in the resurin the re-rection. For elsewhere I have largely proved that those pains which he suffered in his body and soul prior to his crucifixion, belonged to the punishment of our sins, and that in

surrection.

III.

them there was a demonstration of Divine CHAP. wrath. But that after death he remained still loaded and deformed with our sins, does not agree with the celebrated saying, It is finished; nor with Paul's doctrine, who asserts that the hand-writing, which was against us, was nailed to the cross, and so taken away, and that Christ having spoiled hostile principalities and powers, and made a shew of them, openly, triumphed over them by his cross, Col. ii. 14. Nor in fine, with other arguments of learned men, to be examined by and bye. For it cannot be conceived, how Christ was forsaken of God, cast off, and abominable to him, when the Father kindly embraced his spirit, and received it into heaven, and considered his body lying in the grave as the body of his holy One, loving him, and beloved by him: hence his flesh did rest in hope, Psal, xvi. 9, 10. [4.]

IV. For I see that it is also disputed in the,

IV. Whe

ther Christ

was sepa

God.

fourth place, whether Christ, during all that when beartime, in which he chiefly bore our sins, was ing our sins, separated from God, and God from him: wheth-rated from er on account of the polution of sins which were translated to him, he was odious and abominable to God; whether God at that time did abdicate him, and again acknowledge him for a Son, when he raised him from the dead.

V. That

V. To speak candidly, the matter appears may be acto me in the following light, viz. that what knowledg

Note [4.]
D

CHAP. is unusual and hard in these words, which

sense.

11.

their author, by a singular turn of mind, pured in a sound sues, and in which he delights, strikes such horror into the hearers, that they are astonished at the unexpected speech, that they cannot weigh the thing itself in an even balance. But without being unhinged by passion, I shall attempt it. And as to the first, since they agree in this, that at no time the personal union was dissolved; both confessing with the Council of Chalcedon, that it was indissoluble and perpetual: and mean while, since it appears that the Son was forsaken of the Father, then far from his salvation, and from the words of his roaring, Psal. xxii. 1. namely as to the present influences of exhilarating and comforting grace, yet so, that God did not cease by his almighty power to support the suffering humanity, otherwise unequal to bear the weight of the dreadful curse; truly, I do not see what ground of controversy can remain.

VI. Yet

VI. Unless this perhaps, whether during during the all the time of his extreme sufferings, Christ's extremity

of his suf- soul was refreshed with no sense of comfort

ferings, he ing grace, which indeed I dare not say. He

was re

freshed truly bore our sins, when in the garden he with some began to be troubled, and to be sore amaz

comforta

ble sense of ed, and to be sorrowful even unto death, and favour. yet at that very time, he had an angel sent from heaven to strengthen him. While he exposed his body to the smiters, and his cheeks to them that plucked off the hair;

IM.

while he hid not his face from shame and spit- CHAP ting, he found that the Lord was his helper: therefore he set his face like a flint, because he knew that he should not be ashamed: he being near who would justify him, Isa. 1. 6, 7, 8. Neither does it seem probable, that even on the cross, the mind of Christ was always so intensely fixed on the Divine wrath against our sins, that faith did not now and then represent to him, what an acceptable sacrifice he would offer to his Father, and what a glori ous reward he would obtain to himself and to his elect, after the greatest torments indeed, but of a very short duration. Truly that thought could not but greatly comfort his soul, so deeply plunged in sorrow. And I judge that Paul intended this, when, exhorting the Hebrews to run with patience the race set before them, and with that faith which believes that God is the rewarder of them who diligently seek him, he sets the example of the Lord before their eyes: Looking, says he, unto Jesus, the author and finisher of faith, who for the joy set before him, endured the cross, Heb. xii. 2.; that is, by the view and the expectation of the joy promised to him, he was remarkably encouraged to endure the cross, yea, and in enduring it. And which is more, in that very moment wherein Jesus complained that he was forsaken, he recalled to memory that God was his , his strong God, his 8, his God in covenant: certain, that by the strength of his God, he should

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