SERMON XIX.

ACTS xvi. 30, 31.

What must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.

HAVING spoken of the incarnation of the Son of God from these words of the Creed, "Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary," we proceed now to another foundation of fact, on which we build our steadfast belief in Jesus as a sufficient Saviour; namely, suffered under Pontius Pilate.

There will need no more to be said concerning the words. "under Pontius Pilate," but to observe, that they are added either to determine the time of our Saviour's sufferings, because it was the manner of the Jews at that time to record the history of remarkable facts by referring to the name of the person under whose government they happened, or to account for the particular manner and nature of his suffering, and thereby to ascertain the fulfilment of certain prophecies relative thereto, and which would not have been fulfilled had Jesus suffered after the Jewish manner of punishment.

The main point is, his suffering. And here our believer goes forward with his profession, and declares,

First. I believe that the person, of whose suffering I now speak, is that very God-man, and no other, Jesus; of whose being Christ, the only Son of the Father, our Lord, and incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, I have already pronounced my most unshaken persuasion. I believe it was this very person, and no other, that suffered; that it was he, who being the only-begotten of the Father, and Lord of all things, was made man, that suffered. Not in his divine nature did he suffer; he could not; but in his human: yet inasmuch

as I know that his human nature has no subsistence but in and with the divine in one person, while I deny that the Godhead did or could suffer, I affirm that he who is God as well as man suffered; and therefore by virtue of this personal union applying the actions of the one nature to the other, I stick not to say with St. Paul, "The princes of this world crucified the Lord of glory." And,

Secondly. As I am satisfied that he, Jesus, the Son of God and the Son of man, suffered, so am I fully assured that what he suffered was the whole curse of the law. He suffered for us; and if so, he must needs suffer what lay against us, which was no less than the curse of the law. I believe that it was his office to redeem us from the curse of the law; and I know that he could not do this unless he were made a curse for us, because through original and actual transgression we all lay under sentence of death. All that curse which was due to our sins by the justice of God, and was pronounced against them by his righteous sentence, I know that he suffered; and that to the whole extent unto which the sentence reached. Therefore, since the sentence reached to the whole man, soul and body, I believe that he suffered in both. In his body, as throughout his whole life, so more especially in the conclusion of it, when I see him in the hands of wicked and bloodthirsty men, and treated by them with an uncommon degree of severity, cruelty, and inhumanity, till they had effected their malicious and furious purposes by nailing him to the accursed tree, where he continued till these sufferings were completed and issued in the pangs of death. In his soul, by inexpressible grief, exceeding sorrow, and sore amazement, when the Lord was laying upon him the iniquities of us all, and he was bearing our griefs and carrying our sorrows; by a distress of spirit, which, however innocent, was too big to be contained, bursting forth in the most earnest prayers for the removal of this bitter cup, if, consistent with the Father's will and the ends of his sufferings, it were possible, and at the same time in a sweat which was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground. In a word, I know that he suffered in his whole man, and all the curse of the law. And,

Thirdly. As I am satisfied there was necessity this Son of God in our nature should thus give his soul a sacrifice for sin, as

well for perfecting the work of reconciliation as for fulfilling the Scriptures of God concerning him; so am I assured that this his suffering was altogether effectual to all the ends designed by it, and particularly to make atonement for sin. Of which efficacy of his sufferings to take away sin I have no manner of question, as I am assured there was that in them which could not but make them every way meritorious. For I am con

strained to believe there must be an infinite merit in these propitiatory sufferings.

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First. Because of the dignity of the person whose sufferings they were. The dignity of his glorious person I cannot comprehend when I consider him in his divine nature the Son of God, whom he hath appointed Heir of all things, by whom he made the heavens, the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person neither can I reach unto the comprehension of that dignity his human nature (despised as he was, and is, and rejected of men) was exalted unto by being assumed into union with him, who is over all, God blessed for ever. But this I can easily conceive, that if so august a person gave himself for us, the curse of the law must by his sufferings have been fully executed, and the demands of justice paid to the uttermost farthing. I can well conceive the merit of this bloodshedding, while I certainly know that the blood shed is that of the Son of God.-Nor is this all, for as I acknowledge the merit of Christ's sufferings, because especially of the dignity of his person; so,

Secondly. Because of his perfect obedience to the law of God. Without this he might indeed have suffered, but he could have made no satisfaction for sin. But when I know him to be a Lamb without blemish; when I remember that he always did the things that please God; when I hear God's repeated testiof him from heaven, This is my beloved Son, in whom mony I am well pleased,' which he could not have been, had not that Son been an obedient Child; when I know that he magnified the law by submitting to it, and made it honourable by setting it forth before the world in its full beauty, majesty, and loveliness, through his obedience; so that the glory thereof, which otherwise had not and could not have been so seen, was brought openly before the face of the world, and displayed in its most engaging light; when I am assured that, as the representative

of sinners, and as appointed by God thereunto, he fulfilled all the righteousness of the law, without coming short in the least degree of the high demands it makes upon our nature, dispositions, desires, thoughts, words, and works, insomuch that the prince of this world had nothing in any sort in him: when, I say, in connexion with the dignity of his person, I consider the perfectness of his obedience, I am fully persuaded that the sufferings of such an one could not but be, what they are said to be, of a sweet-smelling savour to God. And,

Thirdly. To complete the meritoriousness of his sufferings, I see that he was not only obedient in life, but likewise was so unto death; his suffering was the greatest and most noble part of his obedience. This completed his righteousness, for he was made perfect through sufferings; this crowned the whole, and finished his work of making atonement and propitiation for sin. Had he not been a perfectly righteous man, he could have made no satisfaction for others, whatever he had suffered; and whatever were his righteousness, if he had not made the atonement, the curse had still stood out against us. But I see him not only obedient, but obedient unto death, in the merit of his purity and holiness going forward to make a sacrifice for sin, which not only the dignity of his person, but also the holiness of his human nature, rendered him alone capable of making, and which he could make to the full satisfaction of infinite Justice. And while I behold so great and so good a person suffering for us; while I see Divinity stooping so low, and humanity lifted so high above everything that is in man, as through an amazing act of submission to the divine will, through the exertion of a most disinterested regard to the divine glory, and to the happiness of miserable creatures, freely to consent unto and to endure every kind and degree of suffering, which either the malice of men or devils could invent, or the vindictive wrath of God had demanded and denounced; I find all the powerful reasonings of unbelief silenced, and, bowing down before so great and astonishing an atonement, I am enforced to believe that justice is satisfied, and that even such a sinner as I have not that guilt lying upon me, which this suffering has not taken away by an ample satisfaction. For these reasons, and upon these foundations, I cordially and comfortably consent unto the merit and efficacy of

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the sufferings of my Lord; and do boldly declare my steadfast assurance, that "the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin," and therefore that "whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life."-But,

Fourthly. Besides the firm persuasion of the sufficiency of Christ's sufferings unto reconciliation, there are certain other consequences arising therefrom, which do so strongly present themselves to my mind, that I cannot avoid feeling the force of them. As,

First. Herein I am forced to see myself in a character no way agreeable to my pride; and therefore the more mortifying, because I cannot doubt the truth of what I am, while I see the divine and holy Jesus suffering for me. Beholding these sufferings, I am constrained to own that I am a sinner and a rebel ; that far from having any claim upon God's favour for the sake of anything I do, I am guilty altogether, a criminal condemned and sentenced to die; that justice has demands upon me which I could not answer, though I should lie for ever in the bottomless pit; that in God's account of me I am what, till the sufferings of Christ taught me, I was not wont to think myself, vile even to God's abhorring me, and miserable without power of helping myself. For what have I seen in the sufferings of my Lord? What but all this? He was holy, harmless, separate from sinners, yea, the well-beloved and the only-begotten of the Father. Wherefore then do I see justice exerting itself in putting thee to grief? Why is thy soul thus sorrowful? And why are they buffeting, and scourging, and crucifying thee? Thou hadst done no sin, all was for me. And what then am I? What a provoking sinner, that nothing but thy sufferings could appease the wrath of God gone out against me! The heir of hell! what an heir, that thy blood only could make satisfaction for me! O may I ever behold thy sufferings to the confusion of every high thought in me! may they serve as a glass to represent to me with increasing clearness my real vileness and desert! may every thought I have of thy agony and bloody sweat, thy cross and passion, and precious death, convince me more and more that I am nothing; that, being lowly in mine own eyes, I may render all the glory of my salvation unto thee; and that when I stand a pillar in the eternal house of thy Father and my Father