that live much together, especially if they do much affect one another, will insensibly contract one another's habits and cus

toms.

The other thing obliging us is, 2dly, Our interest in Him and His sufferings; He suffered for us. And to this the Apostle returns, ver. 24. Observe only from the tie of these two, that if we neglect His example set before us, we cannot enjoy any right assurance of His suffering for us; but if we do seriously endeavour to follow Him, then we may expect to obtain life through His death, and those steps of His wherein we walk, will bring us ere long to be where He is.

Ver. 24. Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sin, should live unto righteousness; by whose stripes ye were healed.

THAT which is deepest in the heart, is generally most in the mouth; that which abounds within, runs over most by the tongue or pen. When men light upon the speaking of that subject which possesses their affection, they can hardly be taken off, or drawn from it again. Thus the Apostles in their writings, when they make mention any way of Christ suffering for us, love to dwell on it, as that which they take most delight to speak of; such delicacy, such sweetness is in it to a spiritual taste, that they like to keep it in their mouth, and are never out of their theme, when they insist on Jesus Christ, though they have but named Him by occasion of some other doctrine; for He is the great subject of all they have to say.

Thus here, the Apostle had spoken of Christ in the foregoing words very fitly to his present subject, setting Him before Christian servants, and all suffering Christians, as their complete example, both in point of much suffering, and of perfect innocence and patience in suffering; and he had expressed their obligation to study and follow that Example; yet he cannot leave it so, but having said that all those His sufferings, wherein He was so exemplary, were for us, as a chief consideration for

which we should study to be like Him, he returns to that again, and enlarges upon it in words partly the same, partly very near those of that Evangelist among the Prophets, Isaiah, (ch. liii, verse 4.

And it suits very well with his main scope, to press this point, as giving both very much strength and sweetness to the exhortation; for surely it is most reasonable that we willingly conform to Him in suffering, who had never been an example of suffering, nor subject at all to sufferings, nor in any degree capable of them, but for us; and it is most comfortable in these light sufferings of this present moment, to consider that He hath freed us from the sufferings of eternity, by suffering Himself in our stead in the fulness of time.

That Jesus Christ is, in doing and in suffering, our supreme and matchless example, and that He came to do so, is a truth; but that He is nothing further, and came for no other end, is, you see, a high point of falsehood. For how should man be enabled to learn and follow that example of obedience, unless there were more than an example in Christ? and what would become of that great reckoning of disobedience that man stands guilty of? No, these are notions far too narrow. He came to bear our sins in his own body on the tree, and, for this purpose, had a body fitted for him and given him to bear this burden, to do this as the will of his Father, to stand for us instead of all offerings and sacrifices; and by that will, says the Apostle, we are sanctified, through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all. (Heb. x. 9.)

This was His business, not only to rectify sinful man by His example, but to redeem him by His blood. He was a Teacher come from God: as a Prophet, He teaches us the way of life, and as the best and greatest of prophets, is perfectly like His doctrine; and His actions (which in all teachers is the liveliest part of doctrine), His carriage in life and death, is our great pattern and instruction. But what is said of his Forerunner, is more eminently true of Christ: He is a Prophet, and more than a Prophet,—a Priest satisfying justice for us, and a King

conquering sin and death for us; an example indeed, but more than an example, our sacrifice, and our life, our all in all. It is our duty to walk as He walked, to make Him the pattern of our steps (1 John ii. 6); but our comfort and salvation lie in this, that He is the propitiation for our sins (v. 2). So in the first chapter of that Epistle, (v. 7,) We are to walk in. the light, as He is in the light; but, for all our walking, we have need of that which follows, that bears the great weight,The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin. And so still, that glory which He possesseth in His own person, is the pledge of ours: He is there for us, He lives to make intercession for us, says the Apostle (Heb. vii. 25); and, I go to prepare a place for you, says our Lord himself. (John xiv. 2.)

We have in the words these two great points, and in the same order as the words lie: I. The Nature and Quality of the sufferings of Jesus Christ; and, II. The End of them.

I. In this expression of the Nature and Quality of the sufferings of Christ, we are to consider, 1. The Commutation of the persons, He himself—for us. 2. The Work undertaken and performed, He bare our sins in His own body on the tree.

1. The act or sentence of the Law against the breach of it standing in force, and Divine justice expecting satisfaction, Death was the necessary and inseparable consequent of Sin. If you say, the supreme Majesty of God, being accountable to none, might have forgiven all without satisfaction, we are not to contest that, nor foolishly to offer to sound the bottomless depth of His absolute prerogative. Christ implies in his prayer, (Matt. xxvi. 39,) that it was impossible that he could escape that cup; but the impossibility is resolved into his Father's will, as the cause of it. But this we may clearly see, following the track of the holy Scriptures, (our only safe way,) that this way wherein our salvation is contrived is most excellent, and suitable to the greatness and goodness of God; so full of wonders of wisdom and love, that the Angels, as our Apostle tells us before, cannot forbear looking on it, and admiring it; for all their exact knowledge, yet they still find it infinitely.

beyond their knowledge, still in astonishment and admiration of what they see, and still in search, looking in to see more; those cherubim still having their eyes fixed on this MercySeat.

Justice might indeed have seized on rebellious Man, and laid the pronounced punishment on him. Mercy might have freely acquitted him, and pardoned all. But can we name any place where Mercy and Justice, as relating to condemned man, could have met and shined jointly in full aspect, save only in Jesus Christ?-in whom, indeed, Mercy and Truth met, and Righte ousness and Peace kissed each other (Psal. lxxxv. 10); yea, in whose person the Parties concerned, that were at so great a distance, met so near, as nearer cannot be imagined.

And not only was this the sole way for the consistency of these two, Justice and Mercy, but take each of them severally, and they could not have been manifested in so full lustre in any other way. God's just hatred of sin did, out of doubt, appear more in punishing His only begotten Son for it, than if the whole race of mankind had suffered for it eternally. Again, it raises the notion of mercy to the highest, that sin is not only forgiven us, but for this end God's own co-eternal Son is given to us, and for us. Consider what He is, and what we are; He the Son of His love, and we, enemies. Therefore it is emphatically expressed in the words, God so loved the world (John iii. 16) : that Love amounts to this much, that is, was so great as to give His Son; but how great that love is cannot be uttered. In this, says the Apostle, (Rom. v. 8,) God commendeth His love to us, sets it off to the highest, gives us the richest and strongest evidence of it.

The foundation of this plan, this appearing of Christ for us, and undergoing and answering all in our stead, lies in the decree of God, where it was plotted and contrived, in the whole way of it, from eternity; and the Father and the Son being one, and their Thoughts and will one, They were perfectly agreed on it; and those likewise for whom it should hold, were agreed upon, and their names written down, according to which they

are said to be given unto Christ to redeem. And just according to that model, did all the work proceed, and was accomplished in all points, perfectly answering to the pattern of it in the mind of God. As it was preconcluded there, that the Son should undertake the business, this matchless piece of service for His Father, and that, by His interposing, men should be reconciled and saved; so, that He might be altogether a fit person for the work, it was resolved, that as He was already fit for it by the almightiness of His Deity and Godhead, and the acceptableness of His person to the Father, as the Son of God, so he should be further fitted by wonderfully uniting weakness to Almightiness, the frailty of man to the power of God. Because suffering for man was a main point of the work, therefore, as His being the Son of God made Him acceptable to God, so His being the Son of man made Him suitable to man, in whose business He had engaged himself, and suitable to the business itself to be performed. And not only was there in Him, by his human nature, a conformity to man, (for that might have been accomplished by a new created body,) but a consanguinity with man, by a body framed of the same piece, this Redeemer, a Kinsman, (as the Hebrew word goel is,)-only purified for His use, as was needful, and framed, after a peculiar manner, in the womb of a virgin, as it is expressed, Heb. x. 5, Thou hast fitted a body for me,—having no sin itself, because ordained to have so much of our sins: as it is here, He bare our sins in His own body.

And this looks back to the primitive transaction and purpose. Lo! I come to do thy will, says the Son. (Psal. xl. 7.) Behold my servant whom I have chosen, says the Father, (Isa. xliii. 10,) this master-piece of My works; no one in heaven or earth is fit to serve me, but my own Son. And as He came into the world according to that decree and will, so He goes out of it again in that way. The Son of Man goeth as is determined, (Luke xxii. 22:) it was wickedly and maliciously done by men against Him, but it was determined (which is what he there speaks of) wisely and graciously by His Father, with His own

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