ON THE GLORY OF CI-IRIST. God had ever threatened to sin or sinners: we might look on him in his agony and bloody sweat, in his strong cries and supplications, when he was sorrowful unto the death, and began to be amazed, in apprehen- sions of the things that were coming on him, of that dreadful trial which he was entering into: wemight look upon him conflicting with all the powers of darkness, the rage and madness of men; suffering in his soul, his body, his name, his reputation, his goods, his life; some of these sufferings being immediate from God a- bove, others from devils and wicked men, acting ac- cording to the determinate counsel of God; we might look on him praying, weeping, crying out, bleeding, dying; in all things making his soul an offering for sin. So was he taken from prison and judgment, and who shall declare his generation? for he was cutoff from the land of the living, for the transgression (saith God) of my pesplewas he smitten. Ise. liii. 8. But these things 1 shall not insist on in particular, but leave them under such a veil as may give us a prospect into them, so far as to fill our souls with holy admiration. Lord, what is man that thou art thus mindful of him! and the son of man that thou visitest him? - Who hath known thy mind, or who bath been thy counsellor? O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom ,and know- ledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! What shall we say unto . these things? That God spared not only his Soy but gave himup unto death, and all the evils included there- in, 'for such poor lost sinners as we are; that for our sakes the eternal Son of Godshould submit himself unto the evils that our natures are obnoxious unto, and that our sins had deserved, that we might be delivered. Howglorious is the Lord Christ on this account in the eyes of believers! When Adam had sinned, and there- by eternally, according unto the sanction of the law, ruined himselfand all his posterity, he stood ashamed, afraid, trembling as one ready to perish for ever under the displeasure of God. Death was that which he had deserved, and immediate death was that which he look- ed for. In this state, the Lord Christ in the promise comes unto him, and says, poor creature! Howwoeful is thy condition! How deformed is thy appearance! Whatis become of the 'beauty, of the glory of that image ofGod wherein thou wast created? How hast thou taken on thee the monstrous shape and image of Satan? And yet thy present misery, thy entrance into dust and darkness, is no way to be compared with what is to ensue; eternal distresses lie at the door. But yet look up once more, andbehold me, that thou mayest have some glimpse of what is in the designs of infinite wisdom, love, and grace: come forth from thy vain shelter, thy hiding- place; I will put myselfinto thy con- dition; I will undergo and bear that burden of guilt and punishment, which would sink thee eternally into the bottom of hell. I will pay that which I never took; and be made temporally a curse for thee, that thou mayest attain unto eternal blessedness. To the same purpose he speaks unto convinced sinners, in the invi- tation he gives them to come unto him. ; Thus is the Lord Christ set forth in the gospel, evi- dently crucified before our eyes,. Gal. iii. 1. namely, in the representation that is made of his glory, in the suf- fering he underwent for the discharge of the office he had undertaken. Let us then behold him as poor, des- pised, persecuted, reproached, reviled, hanged on a tree; in all, labouring under a sense of the wrath of God due unto our sins. Unto this end are they record- ed in the gospel, read, preached, and represented unto us. But what can we see herein? What glory is in these things? Are not these the things which all the world ofJews and Gentiles stumbled and took offence at? Those wherein he was appointed to be a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence? Was it not esteemed a foolish thing to look for help and deliverance by the miseries of another? To look for life by his death? The apostle declares at large that such it was esteemed, I Cor. i. So was it in the wisdom of the world. But even on the account of these things is he honourable, glorious, and precious in the sight of them that do be- lieve, 1 Peter ii. 6, 7. For even herein he was the wisdom of God, and the power ofGod, i .Cor. i. 24. And the apostle declares at large, the grounds and reasons of the different thoughts and apprehensions of men, concerning the cross and sufferings of Christ, 2 Cor. iv. S, 4. as But " if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: 4, in whom the God of this world hath blinded theminds "of themwhich believe not, lestthe light of the glori_ 'ious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should "shine unto them." Y{ ).,/?4
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