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 equal 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 redemption that is in Christ Jesus." The truth is, that eternal VOL. II

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life is the gift of God through Jesus Christ: but, before it could be thus freely given consistently with the divine perfections, it was necessary that an atonement should be made for sin: and, in order to the liberating of the debtor, the debt must be discharged by his surety. Hence, when our Lord undertook to save us, a condition was imposed upon him, and the promise of success in his undertaking was suspended on his performance of that condition. The words before us lead us to consider.

I. The condition imposed.

To understand the true nature of this condition, it is necessary that we should advert to the offerings that were made under the law. If any person had sinnéd, even through ignorance, he was bound to bring an of fering in order to make atonement for his sin. This offering was to be a bullock, or a male or female kid, or a lamb, according to the quality of the offender. He was to lay his hands upon the head of the offering, in token that he confessed himself to be deserving of death, and that he transferred his guilt to the creature that was to suffer in his stead. The creature was then killed; its blood was poured out at the foot of the altar, some of it having been previously put upon the horns of the altar; and then its fat was burnt upon the altar: and God smelling a sweet savour from it, accepted it on behalf of the offerer.

Now this will shew what Christ was to do. He had undertaken to save man: he must therefore come and put himself in the place of man; and present himself before God to suffer all that was due to our transgressions. But whereas the animals could suffer only in body, he was to suffer both in body and soul, and to present his whole person, a sacrifice for sin. In consideration of this sacrifice every sinner in the universe was to have liberty to transfer his guilt to him, and, on so doing, to find acceptance with God through him. Thus he was to become the sinner's substitute, or as the apostle expresses it, "to be made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him."

But what necessity was there for any such condition? Why must God's only dear Son become a man, and offer

up himself a sacrifice for sin? To answer this important enquiry, we observe, first, that man, having once transgressed the law of God, could never afterwards be justified by obedience to it. The law denounced a curse against transgressors, but made no provision for their restoration to the divine favour. It inade no mention of repentance or amendment; it spake nothing of pardoning mercy; it simply required obedience, and inAlicted the penalty of death on the disobedient. From that time there could not be any law given whereby we might have life; for if there could, God tells us, that verily righteousness should have been by the law. If therefore man ever was to be saved at all, there was a necessity that some other plan should be devised, whereby the law should take its course and yet the transgressor be rescued from condemnation. This could not be done unless a proper substitute for man could be found, who should at once satisfy all the demands of law and justice, and bring in a righteousness that should be transferable to man for his justification before God. Hence, in the next place, arose a further necessity for the death of Christ, namely, that there was none other found in the whole creation, who was capable of undertaking so great a work. As for "the blood of bulls and of goats, it was not possible that that could take away sin:" "nor could any man redeem his brother," or even himself. If an angel, or all the angels of heaven had attempted it, they must have failed: for in the very first instance they musthave suffered eternal death. This was the penalty due to sin; and if it had been inflicted on them, they must have been in the state of the fallen angels to all eternity, seeing that there never would come a time, when it could be said, that the law was fully satisfied. Besides, their obedience to the law, even supposing it to have been meritorious in the sight of God (which it could not be, because, "after having done all that was commanded them, they would be only unprofitable servants,") they could merit only for themselves: the righteousness of a mere creature could never have been so excellent as to deserve eternal happiness and glory for a sinful world. We do not indeed presume to limit God, and to say what he might or might not have done, if he had pleased.

But according to the light given us in the scripture we are warranted to say, that, if any lesser sacrifice would have answered all the purposes of his glory and of man's salvation, he never would have sent "the man that was his fellow." He would, not have given his Son out of his bosom to die for us, if the death of a mére creature would have sufficed. This leads us to notice a further ground of Christ's sacrifice, which was, that in it there was a sufficiency for the salvation of the whole world. Christ being God as well as man, there was an infinite value in his sufferings; his sufferings for a time were equivalent to the sufferings of the whole world to all eternity. There was also an infinite value in his obedience; so that it could merit, not for himself only, but for others, yea, for all the myriads of sinners who should trust in it. The penalty. of the law being inflicted on him, divine justice was satisfied; and scope was opened for the exercise of mercy. The sinners debt being paid, the sinner could be discharged in perfect consistency with God's truth and holiness.

Hence then it was that "help was laid upon One so mighty;" and that such a condition was imposed upon

him.

As to what is said of the Father making his soul an offering, the words may be translated either in the second or the third person: if in the second, they relate to the Father's laying of our iniquities upon his Son; if in the third, (which we rather prefer) they relate to Christ's voluntarily making himself an offering.

The nature and grounds of this condition being thus explained, it remains only, for the further illustration of this point, that we state, in few words, what is implied in the condition itself. It implies, that there is no salvation but by the blood of Christ. It has before been observed that such a condition would never have been imposed, if man could have been saved by any other means: and this is confirmed by that express declaration of the apostle, "There is no other name given under heaven, whereby we can be saved, but by the name of Jesus Christ." It implies further, that every sinner must actually present, as it were, to God the blood of Christ, as his only plea for mercy and acceptance. He must