mighty God was wounding of his Spirit, and making his Soul an Offering for Sin: And though the diftinct and clear manner of this bruifing of our Saviour's Soul cannot be apprehended by us; yet lurely thus much we may conclude concerning it: 1. He was made fin for us, that knew no fin, 2 Cor. 5. 21. He ftood under the Imputation of all our Sins; and though he were perfonally innocent, yet judicially, and by way of Interpretation, he was the greatest Offender that ever was; for the Lord laid upon him the Iniquity of us all, Ifa. 53.6. 2. And confequently he was under the Imputation of all the Guilt of thofe Sins, and ftands, in relation unto God, the righteous Judge, under the fame Obligation to whatsoever Punishment the very Perfons of the Offenders were, unto the uttermoft of that consistency that it had with the unfeparable Union unto the Father: And this Obligation unto the Punishment could not chufe but work the fame Effects in our Saviour, as it must do in the Sinner, (Desperation and Sin excepted) to wit, a fad Apprehenfion of the Wrath of God againft him. The Purity and Justice of God, which hath nothing that it hates but Sin, muft purfue Sin where-ever it finds it. And as when it finds Sin perfonally in a Man, the Wrath of God will abide there fo long as Sin abides there; fo when it finds the same Sin affumed by our Lord, and bound as it were to him, as the Wood was to Ifaac, when he was laid upon the Altar, the Wrath of God could not chufe but be apprehended, as incumbent upon him, till that Sin that by Imputation lay upon him were discharged. For as our Lord was pleased to be our Representative in bearing our Sins, and to ftand in our ftead, fo all thefe Affections and Motions of his Soul did bear the fame Conformity, as if acted by us: As he put on the Perfon of the Sinner, fo he puts on the fame Sorrow, the fame Shame, the fame Fear, the fame Trembling, under the Apprehenfions of the Wrath of his Father, that we must have done: And fo as an imputed Sin drew with it the Obligation unto Punishment. fo it did, by neceffary Confequence, raife all thofe Confufions and Storms in the Soul of Chrift, as it would have done

in the perfon of the finner, fin only excepted. 3. In this Garden as he ftands under the fin, and guilt of our Nature, fo he ftands under the curfe of our Nature, to wit, a neceffity of Death, and of undergoing the Wrath of God, for that fin whofe Punishment he hath undertaken for us: The former, the diffolution of his Body and Soul, by a most accurfed Death; and the latter, the fuffering of his Soul; and this latter he is now under. God is pleased to inflict upon him all the manifeftations of his Wrath and to fling into his Soul the sharpeft and fevereft reprefentation of his displeasure that might poffibly befall him under that bare imputed guilt, confidering the Dignity of his Perfon. And furely this was more terrible to our Saviour than all his corporal fufferings were: Under all those not one word, no perturbation at all, but as a fheep before his fhearers is dumb, fo he opened not his mouth: But the fenfe of the displeasure of his Father, and the impreffions that he makes upon his Soul, thofe he cannot bear without forrow, even unto death, without most importune addreffes to be delivered from them, and moft ftrange concuffion and agony upon his Soul and Body under the fenfe of them. And the actual manifestation of the wrath of God upon his Son confifted in these two things principally.

1. Filling the Soul with ftrange and violent fears and terrors, infomuch that he was in an amazement and confternation of the spirit ; the Paffion-Pfalm renders it, Pfal. 22. 14. My heart is like wax, it is melted in the midst of my Bowels: The God of the Spirits of all flesh, that knows how to grind and bruife the Spirit, did bruise and melt his Soul within him with terrors, fears, and fad pre-apprehenfions of worfe to follow.

2. A fenfible withdrawing, by hafly and fwift degrees, the light of the prefence and favour of God: He is forrowful and troubled, and he goes to his Father to defire it may pals from him, but no anfwer; he goes again, but yet no anfwer; and yet under the preffure and extremity, he goes again the third time with more earneftnefs, agony, in a fweat of blood, yet no, it cannot be; and this was a terrible condition, that the light of the countenance of the

Father

Father is removed from his Son, his only Son, in whom he was well pleased, his Son whom he had heard always: And when he comes to the Father under the greatest obligation that can be, with the greateft revenge, with the greatest importunity; once, and again, and a third time; and that, filled within with fears, and covered without with Blood, and yet no anfwer; but all light, and access with favour intercepted, with nothing but blackness and filence. Certainly this was a terrible Cup, yet thus it was with our Saviour Chrift; the light of the favour of God, like the Sun in an Eclipfe, from the very Inftitution of the Sacrament, began to be covered one degree after another; and in the third Addrefs to the Father in the Garden, it was even quite gone: But at that great hour, when our Saviour cried, My God, my God, why haft thou forsaken me? then both Lights, that greater Light of the Favour of God to his only Son, together, with the Light of the Sun, feemed to be under a total Eclipfe ; and this was that which bruised the Soul of our Saviour, and made it an Offring for Sin; and this was that which wrung drops of Blood from our Saviour's Body; before the Thorns, or Whips, or the Nails, or the Spear had torn his Veins.

And now after this third application for a deliverance from the terrible Cup of the Wrath of God, and yet no difpenfation obtained, he returns to his miferable Comforters, the three Difciples; and he finds them a third time asleep: These very three Difciples were once the Witneffes of a glorious Transfiguration of our Saviour in the Mount, and in an extafie of joy and fear, they fell on their faces, Matth. 17. 6. And now they are to be Witnesses of a fad Transfiguration of their Lord under an agony and fweat of blood; and now under an extafie of forrow they are not able to watch with their Lord one hour. Our Saviour calls them, but whiles they'were fcarce awakened, they are rouzed by a louder alarm, Matth. 26. 47. Whiles be yet fpake, Judas, one of the twelve came, and with him a great multitude, with fwords and ftaves from the High Priests, John 18. 3. with Lanthorns and Torches: And though this was little in comparison of the form that was in our Savi

our's

the Husbandmen of the Vineyard: Matth. 21. 33. But this is not all; as the visible Church of the Jews is the Conclave where this Council is formed; fo Judas, a Member of the visible Church of Chrift, one of the Twelve, is the Inftrument to effect it; Matth. 26. 14. He contracts with them for Thirty Pieces of Silver, to betray his Mafter unto them: And furely this could not choofe but be a great Grief to our Saviour, that one of his select Apoftles fhould turn Apoftate, and thereby bring a Blemish upon the rest.

Upon the day of Eating the Paffover, called the firft day of the Feast of unleavened Bread, our Saviour and his Difciples keep the Paffover together in Jerufalem; and there the two Memorials of our Saviour's Paffion meet; that of the Paffover inftituted by God, and the Ifraelites going out of Egypt; and the Bread and Wine after Supper, inftituted by our Saviour, to fucceed in the place of the former, and each did queftionlefs make a deep impreffion upon our Saviour, in which he anticipated his Paffion, and lively reprefented to him that breaking and pouring out his Blood and Soul, which he was fuddenly to fuffer: And doubtless here began a great measure of our Saviour's Paffion, in the apprehenfion which he had of that eminent Storm, that he muft fpeedily undergo. From the Supper they go together to the Mount of Olives, and there he acquaints his Difciples of a fpeedy and forrowful parting they must have; the Shepherd is to be fmitten that Night, and the Sheep to be fcattered; and as he forefaw Judas's Treachery, fo he forefees Peter's Infirmity; the Storm fhould be fo violent, that Peter himself, the refoluteft Apoftle, fhall deny his Mafter that Night, and deny him thrice: And furely the forefight of the Diftraction that should befal his poor Difciples, could not choofe but add much to their tender Master's Affliction, Matth. 26.31. All ye shall be offended because of me this night.

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And now let us follow our Bleffed Lord from the Mount of Olives in the Garden, called by the Apostles Gethsemane, with the Affections of Love and Wonder, in fome measure becoming fuch an Entertainment of our

Thoughts.

of the basest of their retinue; the Servants fpit on him, buffet him, expofe him to Scorn, faying, Prophefie unto us thon Chrift, who is be that fmote thee? Mat. 26. 67. Injuries lefs tolerable than Death to an Ingenuous Nature: and, to add to all the reft, Peter, instead of reproving the Infolence of the Abjects, and bearing a part with his Master in his Injuries, thrice denying his Mafter, and that with an Oath and Curfing: fo far was he from owning his Mafter in his Adverfity, that he denied he knew him; and this in the very prefence of our Saviour, Luke 22. 61. And the Lord turned and looked upon Peter; certainly that Look of our Saviour, as it carried a fecret Meffage of a gentle Reprehenfion, fo alfo of much forrow, and grief in our Lord As if he should have faid; 'Ah Peter, canft thou fee thy Saviour thus ufed, and wilt thou not own me? Or if 'thou wilt not, yet muft thou needs deny me, deny me 'thrice, deny me with Oaths, and with Execrations? 'The Unkindness of a Difciple, and fuch a difciple, that 'haft been privy to my Glory in my Transfiguration, and to my Agony in the Garden, cuts me deeper than the Scorns and Derifions of thefe Abjects. But that's not all; this Apoftacy of thine, thefe Denials, thefe Oaths, 'thefe Execrations will lie heavy upon me anon, and add to that unfupportable Burthen that I am under; the Thorns, and the Whips, and the Nails that I must anon 'fuffer, will be the more envenomed by these Sins of 'thine; and thou cafteft more Gall into that Bitter Cup, that I am drinking, than all the Malice of mine Enemies could do. In fum, though thou goeft out, and weepest 'bitterly, yet these fins of thine would ftick unto thy Soul unto Eternity, if I fhould not bear them for thee; they coft thee fome Tears, but they muft coft me my Blood. The next morning the High Priefts and Elders hold a fecond confultation, as foon as it was day, Luke 22. 66. Their Malice was fo folicitous, that they prevent the Morning Sun; and after they had again examined him, and in that Council charged him with Blafphemy, the Council and the whole Multitude lead him bound to Pilate; and there they accufe him; and, to make their Ac

C

cufation