ence of all; and the violated obligations of man, with the tendency and awful effects of sin, were fully before him. The more dearly he loved his people, the more would his trouble be increased; as we are much more affected by the crimes of a relative or friend, than by the crimes of others*. Such a view of the evil and hateful nature of sin must have been inconceivably painful to the Saviour, when not counterbalanced by an equally clear view of good, which during his last sufferings he had not, because at that time he was left to distress unmingled with gladness.

In this hour of anguish he had a deep sense of the Divine wrath against sin. Though he was personally the object of the Divine love, he endured that which to the guilty is the awful expression of the Divine displeasure. The God of our spirits can easily deluge the soul with sorrow and anguish, even when the spirit is pure, and is the object of his approbation. In such a case, the painful feelings cannot be those of a guilty conscience; and, in the case of our Lord, there could be nothing of this kind. It is utterly wrong to represent his sufferings as, in all respects, the same with those of the impenitent in the world of woe. They eat of the fruit of their own ways-they are under the dominion of the most sinful propensities-their ungovernable passions are for ever excited, and never find gratification—they have no self-respect, but are conscious of personal guilt, and filled with remorse—

Psalm xl. 12.

and their final despair is accompanied with every fu rious and malignant principle, and with settled hostility to the character and government of God. Nothing of this nature could have place in the breast of the Saviour. He knew, and he confessed, the sinfulness and demerit of man. He acquitted the throne of God, and laid the undivided blame on the sinner. Even when he exclaimed in the bitterness of his soul, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" he murmured not, but said, "Thou art holy." When his heart was broken, and his spirit distracted with agonies passing comprehension, he bowed with profound and cheerful submission to the hand of God, and with perfect resignation drank the whole of the bitter cup. It were equally wrong, on the other hand, to infer, from the difference between his sufferings and those of the finally condemned, that his woes were not of the most intense kind. That difference arises from the opposite characters of the parties. Where no difference of character exists, there must be a similarity of suffering or enjoyment. We are apt to connect future punishment with place to such a degree, as to suppose that the former cannot be endured but in a particular local situation; but place is only a circumstance, not at all affecting the essence of punishment. In as far as Jesus could feel it, he endured the wrath of God due to sin. It was not death in itself from which he suffered so much, but death as penal, or as the wages of sin. He contemplated God in the character of the offended Judge; and, under a sense of his anger against sin, he was filled with dread.

His outward sufferings were nothing to the distresses of his soul; of the former we find him, accordingly, speaking with the greatest composure, while the latter called forth the most bitter exclamations and the most intense supplications.

Another ingredient in his cup was the desertion of his Father: Of this he speaks in the most plaintive manner*. Separation from God is a part of the curse: hence Adam was expelled Eden; and the wicked shall be doomed to depart from the presence of Him in whose favour is life. This may be thought light here, but in the other world it causes inexpressible misery. As it forms an essential part of the curse due to sin, it behoved our Lord to experience it when he stood for the guilty. This, however, is a subject awfully mysterious, and on which little can be said. If life lies in the favour of God, and his frown be destructive of the bliss of a spiritual being, the sufferings of the Redeemer must have been inconceivably great when the frown of Jehovah fell upon him. The bitter lamentations which this extorted from him discover the feelings of his heart. Although he was kept from utterly sinking, there were seasons when he endured the total absence of Divine joy, and the entire want of kind of comfort. Not that his mind was always in this state, even in the deepest of his trials; but this was on such occasions, and particularly in the last scenes of his suffering, the general state of his soul. To him the sun of consolation was then totally eclipsed.

every

* Psalm xxii. 1. lxxxviii. 14.

B

This is the deepest mi

misery of which the Re

Our depravity and the weakness of our powers hinder us from forming adequate ideas of his distress, when deprived of the light of his Father's countenance, and doomed to suffer his frown. sery which man can feel, and deemer must have been most painfully sensible, in consequence of his situation, the greatness of his powers, and the holiness of his character. No evil principle obscured his view of the Divine glory-no sinful bias kept him from perceiving, in the most vivid light, the worth of the Divine favour-and nothing could cool his love to Jehovah, or turn away his heart from him. The more he loved God the clearer views he had of his glory; and the more that he delighted in fellowship with him the greater must have been his sorrow and anguish of heart when the Father hid his face from him. His aversion to this was the language of nature, which must ever be averse to pain; but it was much more: it was also the fruit of piety. As the more he was devoted to God, the greater must have been his aversion to that which cut him off from the enjoyment of him. The more too that he was averse to the cup on such principles, the more glorious does his drinking of it appear, that the Divine law, character, and government might be honoured, and the salvation of sinners thus completely secured. The reluctance of our Lord to the cup, and the distress of his soul when drinking of it, shew the strength of his love both to God and man. It admirably manifests

the perfection of his character. His sufferings afford

ed an opportunity for the exercise and display of all

that is great and good-of all that can command the highest veneration, the warmest love, and the most heartfelt gratitude.

To prefigure our Lord's endurance of that separation which is an essential part of the curse, the most remarkable of the sin-offerings were burnt without the camp. As polluted victims, they were removed from the place where God dwelt In like manner, Jesus suffered without the gate of the holy city, because he was in the eye of the law an unclean victim*. This was but an indication of his actual state as separated from the enjoyment of fellowship with God. He died in an unclean place, where the bones of many of the dead, and these of the worst character too, lay all around: every thing in the place, as well as in the manner of his death, marking him out as dying under the frown of Heaven, and in a state of exclusion from the holy sanctuary of Jehovah. From this sanctuary every thing unclean was excluded under the law; and in allusion to this, our Lord speaks of his sufferings as a pollution, and in this light they were viewed by the Jews + Every one saw that our Lord's sufferings were of no common character. The circumstances attending his bodily sufferings were unprecedented, and their effects upon his mind were remarkable; while, on the other hand, the effects of his mental torture upon his body were still more striking. Much must have been visible which was calculated to offend those who could look only to the outward appearance,

Heb. xiii. 11, 12.

+ Psalm xxii. 6, 7.

Psalm cix, 22-25.