Page images
PDF
EPUB

ten, Curfed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the law. Since God had annexed the threatning of death to his firft covenant, saying, In the day thou eateft thereof, thou fbalt furely die: the truth of God fecured the curfe its taking place, as foon as fin fhould enter. Now, they were not able to bear it, without being ruined thereby. But that it might be born, and they withal faved, "it was provided, that he fhould be laid under it, in their room and ftead; that as he was made fin for them, fo he should also, in confequence thereof, be made a curfe, for them, Gal. iii. 13.

The curfe is the fentence of the broken law paffed upon a perfon, binding him over to the revenging wrath of God, to the full fatisfaction of juftice. So that awful and tremenduous myftery lies here, Chrift must stand before the tribunal of the holy law, as a finner; answerable for all the fins of all the elect, by virtue of his bond of furetifhip registrate in the records of heaven: and fentence muft pafs upon him, adjudging and binding him over to fuffer all that revenging wrath which thefe fins deferved. The Lamb of God faith, Lo, I come: fo it was done, he was made a curfe for us. In token hereof, being conveened before the Jewish Sanhedrim, he was judged a blafphemer, and worthy of death: and compearing before Pilate the Roman governor, he was by him fentenced to die, and that upon the cross.

Behold the ftupenduous refult of this awful tranfaction, the transferring of the curfe on Chrift the fecond Adam: 1. Hereby he was made the feparated one of the elect fociety, feparated unto evil, as the immediate effect of the curfe is defcribed, Deut. xxix. 21. He was made the devoted head, devoted to pay for all the reft. He was fet up as the mark againft which all the arrows of avenging wrath fhould be aimed. He was appointed to be the common re. ceptacle of all the floods of vengeance, iffuing from

incenfed

incenfed juftice towards the whole body of the elect, to swallow them up: here the current of all these was turned, that they fhould together flow in upon. him. Hence he, cries, Pfalm lxix. 2. I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me. 2. Hereby he became the refting place of revenging justice where it was to prey, till it fhould be fatisfied to the full: Ifa. liii. 10. Thou shalt make his foul an offer ing for fin. In token hereof, when the officers came to apprehend him, he faith, If ye feek me, let thefe their way. Juftice leaves the chace of the rebelmultitude, feeks him and him only; fince he was made a curfe for them. Thus was he designed to be the facrifice for all his feed, which the fire of revenging wrath fhould burn up, till it fent forth a sweetfmelling favour, a favour of reft to the incenfed juftice of an offended God.

go

2. Another grand point established here, was "That the curfe transferred on him, fhould be "infinitely execute upon him as the fecond Adam, "our reprefentative; whereby he should die really "for his feed, to the full compenfation of all the "injuries done to the honour of an infinite God, "by all their fins." Vain is that curfe which takes not effect: but as the curfe of the holy law was not caufelefs, fo it could not mifs of coming on, in its infinite weight, for the fatisfaction of juftice. Now, had it come fo on them, they would have been eternally fatisfying, but could never have ended their fatisfaction. But, coming on him, the church of God was purchafed with his own blood, Acts xx. 28. and the blood of Jefus Chrift his fon cleanfeth us from all fin, 1 John i. 7. the infinite dignity of the perfon dying, making the execution of the curfe on him unto death to be infinite in value, fully compenfating the infinite wrong, according to the estimate made of it by law and justice.

And here it was fettled and agreed, "That the

"curfe

curfe should be execute on the whole man," that being their due: and therefore that he fhould become poor, and not have where to lay his head: that he fhould fuffer hunger, for want of meat; thirst, for want of drink: that his name and reputation fhould be funk, loaded with vile reproaches and flan. ders; his very friends going about to lay hands on him as a mad man: that he fhould be accounted a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and defpifed of the people: his whole lot in the world afflicted, perfecuted, and exceeding low: and that in end, being stripped of his garments, he should be hung up naked before the fun, between two malefactors, as if the worst of the three.

More particularly, here it was ftipulated and agreed to.

ift. "That the curfe should be execute on his blef"fed body;" forafmuch as their bodies were liable to it, as being inftruments of fin and difhonour to God; that it should be hanged on a tree, that all the world might therein read the anger of God against the breaking of the first covenant, by eating of the forbidden tree; and his being made a curfe for us, fince it is written, Curfed is every one that hangeth on a tree; that the curfe fhould go over, and death pafs thro' every part of that bleffed body: that his head should be difgracefully wounded with a crown of thorns put upon it; his visage marred more than any man; his back given to the fmitters; his cheeks to them that plucked off the hair; his face not hid from Shame and Spitting; his tongue made to cleave to his jaws; his hands and feet pierced; nailed to a cross; all his bones drawn out of joint; his heart like wax melted in the midst of his bowels; his blood fhed; his ftrength dried up and that in end it should expire and die, be feparate from his foul, pierced with a fpear, and laid in the duft of death.

2dly, "That it should be execute on his holy foul,

" in a special manner;" forafinuch as their fouls were the principal actors in fin: that he should undergo the wrath of God in it, being all along his life a man of forrows, and acquainted with grief: and that towards the latter end, there fhould be an hour and power of darkness, wherein the malice of men, the. power and rage of devils, fhould be jointly engaged against him, making their utmost efforts on him; and then the full floods of Heaven's revenging wrath fhould come rolling in upon his foul: that they should so overflow it, as to ftrike him with fore a mazement, fill him with trouble, load him with heavinefs, and overwhelm him with exceeding forrow: that there should be fuch a preffure of divine wrath on his holy foul, as fhould put him into an agony even to his fweating great drops of blood: and fhould bring over it a total eclipfe of comfort, and as it were melt it within him; that fo, while he was dying a bodily death on the crofs, he might die alfo a fpiritual death, fuch as a most pure and holy foul was capable of.

;

Here was the death determined in the covenant, for the fecond Adam our reprefentative; a death in virtue of the curfe transferred on him, long lasting and exquifite, for the full fatisfaction of revenging juftice. (1.) It was long lafting death. He was adying, in the style of the covenant of works, not only upon the cross, but all along the time of his life the death that was the penalty of that covenant, working in him from the womb, till it laid him in the grave. Wherefore he behoved to be conceived of a woman of low eftate; and born in the stable of an inn, no room for him in the inn itself; laid in a manger, no cradle to receive him; his infant blood shed in his circumcifion, as if he had been a finner; yea, his infant-life fought by a cruel perfecutor, and his mother obliged to run her country with him, and go to Egypt. Returning, he behoved to live an obscure

life, in an obfcure place, from which nothing great nor good was expected, John i. 46.; and, coming out of his obfcurity, to be fet up as the object of the world's ill-will and fpite, obloquy and mal-treatment, till by the hands of Jew and Gentile he was put to death on the cross. (2.) It was an exquifite death. No pity, no fparing in it: but the curfe carried to the highest pitch. No fparing from an angry God, Rom. viii. 32. No fparing from wicked men let loofe on him, pushing him like bulls, roaring on him and devouring him like lions, and renting him like dogs, when once their hour and power of darknefs was come, Pfalm xii. 12, 13, 16. Not a good word fpoken to him in the midst of his torments, by those that stood by; but he cruelly mocked and infulted in them; Much less a good deed done him. Not a drink of water allowed him, but vinegar offered him, in his thirft caufed through the fire of divine. wrath drinking up his fpirits and moisture. Nay, the very face of the heavens was louring on him; the fun muft not give him its light, but wrap up itself from him in darkness; because light is fweet, and it is a pleasant thing to behold the fun.

Lastly, In this article it was established, "That "he fhould fuffer all this voluntarily, fubmiffively, "and refignedly, out of regard to the wronged ho"nour of God." Accordingly, fpeaking of his life, he faith, No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself, John x. 18. compare Pfalm xl. 6, 7, 8. This the law demanded of them whom he suffered for, condemning all murmuring and impatience, and binding them to obedience and fuffering conjunctly. But how could they have fo born the load of revenging wrath, who cannot bear a sharp fit of the goat or gravel, without fome degree of impatience in the eye of the holy law? Wherefore it was provided, That Christ as their reprefentative, should bear their punishment voluntarily, and with perfect pati

ence

« PreviousContinue »