III. The reasons of the divine conduct.

If we expect to account for every thing, we shall soon reject the whole of revelation: God never intended that we should; nor indeed is it possible. We know that an ignorant peasant is not able to search out the reasons upon which a profound statesman acts; nor could he even comprehend them, if they were laid before him: and shall we wonder if there be some mysteries in the revelation and in the providence of God which we cannot explore, and which perhaps, if unfolded ever so clearly, would be far above our comprehension? Is not God far more exalted above us, than we can be above our fellow-creatures? We must therefore proceed with great humility and reverence, when we presume to investigate the reasons by which the allwise God is actuated, especially in subjects so deeply mysterious as this which we are now contemplating. However, we will attempt to assign some reasons for his conduct.

He was pleased when he bruised his Son, first, because the bruising of him was pleasing to his Son. As the Father did not take pleasure in inflicting punishment, so neither did the Son in enduring it, for itself; the punishment considered separately from its consequences was equally grievous to him who inflicted, and to him who bore it. But Jesus thirsted for the salvation of men; he knew that it could not be accomplished consistently with the rights of justice and truth, unless he should become their surety: he was well aware of all that he must undergo, if he should stand in the place of sinners; yet he cheerfully undertook it; and "for the joy that was set before him" of redeeming so many millions from destruction, "he endured the cross, and despised the shame." When the time drew nigh, he so longed for it, that "he was quite straitened till it could be accomplished." And therefore, as the Father knew how pleasing it would be to his Son to have the iniquities of mankind laid upon him, he himself found pleasure in laying them upon him: it gave him pleasure to put the finishing hand to that which had been agreed upon between them, and thus to make him "the author of eternal salvation" to all his people.

Another reason may be this: God was pleased with bruising his own Son, because it would prove so beneficial to man. We are not to imagine that the Son loved us more than the Father; for the Father expressed as much love in giving his Son, as the Son did in giving himself; the Father testified his compassion as much in laying our iniquities on his Son, as the Son did in bearing them in his own body on the tree. The whole work of salvation is the fruit of the Father's love: he pitied us when we fell; he in his own eternal counsels provided a Saviour for us before we did fall, yea, before we were brought into existence. He saw how inconceivably miserable we must have been to all eternity if left to ourselves: he therefore covenanted with his Son, and agreed to pardon us, to give us peace, to adopt us for his children, to restore us to our forfeited inheritance, and to exalt us to glory, if he would, by substituting himself in our place, remove the obstacles which prevented the exercise of his mercy towards us. When therefore these counsels were nearly executed, the Father was pleased with putting the bitter cup into the hands of his Son, because it would henceforth be taken out of the hands of all those who should believe in Christ; none should perish but through their obstinate rejection of this Saviour; and all, who would embrace him, would be exalted to far higher glory than they would ever have obtained, if they had never fallen.

A third reason we may assign is this; the Father was pleased with bruising his own Son, because it would put great honour upon the divine law. We cannot but suppose that God must be concerned for the honour of his own law, because it is a perfect transcript of his own mind and will. Now this law had been violated and dishonoured by the transgression of man: if the sanctions of the law were not enforced, the law itself would be set aside: or, if the sanctions were enforced, still the punishment of the offender would never repair the dishonour done to the law, and the contempt he had poured upon it. But by the sufferings of Jesus "the law was magnified and made honourable." The majesty of the law was manifested in having the Son of God himself subject to it: the authority of the law was established, in

that its penalties were inflicted even on the Son of God, when he stood in the place of sinners; and therefore no sinner could hope thenceforth to transgress it with impunity: the purity of the law was declared, in that nothing less than the blood of the Son of God could expiate any transgression against it: the justice of the law was held forth, in that it did not relax one jot or tittle of its demands even in favour of the Son of God. Now when the divine law was to be so magnified by the voluntary sufferings of the Son of God, we cannot wonder that the lawgiver should be pleased; especially as the majesty of the law was more fully manifested, its authority more firmly established, its purity more conspicuously declared, and its justice more awfully display. ed by means of the sufferings of the Son of God, than it could have been by the everlasting obedience of angels, or the everlasting misery of the whole human race.

The last reason we shall assign, is this; the Father was pleased with bruising his own Son, because he himself was thereby transcendently glorified. God cannot but delight in the manifestation of his own glory: nor did he ever manifest it in such bright colours, as while he was bruising his own Son. When Judas went out to betray his Master, "Now, said Jesus, the Son of man is glori fied, and God is glorified in him." In that awful hour. the divine perfections, which seemed, as it were, to be at variance, were made to harmonize, and to shine with united splendor. We are at a loss what to admire most; the inflexibility of his justice, which required such a sacrifice, or the heights of his love, which gave it; his inviolable truth in punishing sin, or the extent of his mercy in pardoning the sinner; the holiness of his nature in manifesting such indignation against iniquity, or his wisdom and goodness in providing such a way of deliverance from it. Every attribute of the Deity is incomparably more glorified than it could have been in any other way: mercy shines in the way of satisfying the demands of justice, and justice in the way of exercising mercy. This view of the Deity was not more new to man, than it was to the angels in heaven: and when a ray of this glory shone forth at the incarnation of our Lord, the angels burst forth in joyful acclamations, and sang, "Glory to

God in the highest." Since then the bruising of our Lord tended so much to the manifestation of the divine glory, no doubt the Father was well pleased with it.

We assign might more reasons, if it were necessary; but we trust that these are sufficient for the justifying of the Father's conduct towards his Son. If, as has been shewn, the Father saw, that the bruising of his Son would be-pleasing to his Son-beneficial to man-honourable to his law-and glorious to himself, it can surely be no imputation on the Father's character to say, "It pleased him to bruise his Son."

Amidst the many reflections which naturally arise from this subject, such as the greatness of the Father's love (in that "he spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all") and the danger of unbelief (in that, if we yield to it, the Father's wrath will infallibly fall on us. Mark xvi. 16.) and others too numerous to mention, we shall confine our attention to one; namely, How great must be the evil of sin!

We have seen the immaculate Jesus, bruised under the weight of his Father's wrath, and his Father pleased with bruising him and from whence did this arise? from the evil, the dreadful evil of sin. Sin had introduced confusion into the divine government: sin had set the divine perfections at variance: sin had dishonoured the divine law: sin brought the Son of God from heaven: sin put him to death: and, had not he died, sin would have sunk us all into the lowest abyss of misery for ever. Sin reduced God himself to the necessity of delighting either to punish us, or to bruise his own Son. What must sin be, when such are the effects arising from it! And yet how lightly do we think of it! how unconcerned are we about it! But did our surety think lightly of it, when he cried, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Did the Father think lightly of it, when he was bruising his own Son? and do they think lightly of it, who are now receiving the wages of it in hell? If nothing less than the blood of Christ could expiate it, is it a small evil? If it crushed even him with its weight, though he had none of his own to answer for, shall we find it easy to bear, who are so laden with iniquities? Let us but look at sin one moment as it appears in the death of Jesus; let us

recollect that he was God équal with the Father; and that yet he almost sunk under the load; let us recollect this, I say, and we shall surely begin to tremble, lest we should lie under the weight of it for ever. We never shall see sin aright, till we view it in the tears and groans, the blood and agonies of the Son of God: for there at once we behold both the evil, and the remedy of sin: there at once we learn to fear and hope, to weep and rejoice. If we look at sin in any other view, we may dread its consequences, but we shall never hate its malignity. But if we view it in the dying Jesus, we shall be delivered from the fear of consequences, because the guilt of it was expiated by him; and we shall begin to loath it as an hateful and accursed evil. This is the only source of ingenuous, evangelical repentance; nor till we "look on him whom we have pierced, shall we ever mourn aright for sin, or be in bitterness for it, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born." Let us then look at sin in this light, and we shall soon be like-minded with the Father; we shall be pleased with the sufferings of Jesus; they will be our hope, our plea, our joy, our boast; and we shall exultingly say with the apostle, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

CXCII. CHRIST'S DEATH A CONDITION OF OUR

SALVATION.

Isai. liii. 10. When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

THERE. are in the holy scriptures many apparent contradictions, which, when properly understood, are perfectly consistent with each other. The redemption of our souls is continually represented as the freest gift of God: yet the very term redemption implies that a price is paid. But here is no real inconsistency; because that, which to us is as free as the light we behold, or the air we breathe, was dearly purchased by our blessed Lord: and the apostle himself combines these ideas, saying, "we are justified freely by God's grace through the redemp tion that is in Christ Jesus." The truth is, that eternal VOL. II 3 C