Chapter XIII
The greatest of all Christ s sufferings were those of his soul. What were the
causes of those sorrows. The greatness of those sufferings. Wherein they did consist. How it could consist with his being the Son of God, to be for saken of God } and to bear such extremity of his Father s wrath.
But yet, though we have seen the woe and curse in this life due to us by sin passed over and sustained by Christ ; and secondly, the curse of bodily death undergone too ; yet (as the Revelation to another purpose speaks) there is a third woe, which a guilty conscience fears more than all the other, and which is the curse of curses, Thou shalt die the death. Two woes
are passed ; behold, a third woe is yet to come, which is the great and main curse of the law that is to be undergone (as the text says) before the law be
fulfilled. For as the life promised Do this and live is more than to
live bodily, or as a beast doth, or rationally, as men do ; it being to live in communion with God, as angels do ; so,
* Dying thou shalt die is more than the bodily death and returning unto dust. And as that life promised is the favour of God
* Thy favour is better than life, Ps. xxxvi. 3 ;
* With thee is the fountain of life, Ps. Ixiii. 9, says David so this death here threatened is from the wrath of God, which therefore is put for hell and death ; as when it is said, We are saved from wrath to come, 1 Thess.
i. 10 ; This is the second death, as it is called, Rev. xx. 6. And it is the original curse, the fountain of curses ; whereas the death of the body, and all miseries of this life, are but the streams. This is the pure curse, without mixture, as it is called in the Revelation ; the other is the curse in the dregs, mingled and conveyed by creatures. All other curses light upon the outward man first, and upon the soul but at the rebound, and at the second hand, only by way of sympathy and compassion ; but the immediate-
272 OF CHRIST THE MEDIATOR. [BOOK V.
and proper subject of this curse is the soul and spirit
: Indignation and
wrath, tribulation and anguish upon every soul that doth evil, Rom.
ii. 9. And this is the sum of all curses, and instead of all the rest. And
therefore Paul, when he would express his willingness not only to die bodily, but to endure hell also, for his brethren, as Christ had done for him, he
expresseth it by this, I could wish myself to be accursed from Christ, (Rom. ix. 3) ; that is, to be separated from all the comfort I shall have by him, and endure that wrath that is due unto me, though undergone by him
for me. Which wish of his may help us to understand how far Christ was made a curse for us ; for it was the love of Christ which constrained Paul s heart unto this wish ; and his meaning was to undergo that for his brethren
in Christ, which Christ underwent for him, and so far as Christ underwent
it, without sin. And so far as Paul wished it without sinning (for he spake
it in Christ, and in the Holy Ghost, as ver. 1), so far might and did Christ
undergo it without sin also. His meaning therefore was not that he was content to be cut off from being a member of Christ, and so to have no in
fluence of grace from Christ derived to him. No ; that had been a sinful
wish, and not from the Holy Ghost. But his meaning is, that he could be content to lose that portion of comfort which was to be had in the enjoying of Christ, and so undergo that displeasure from him which was due unto
his sins, by feeling the effects of it in anguish and pain, &c. Thus when
it is said, that Christ was made a curse, not only in bodily miseries, but in
his soul also, the meaning is not that the hypostatical union was dissolved, or the influence of divine grace restrained, but only, that in regard of com
fort he was forsaken of God, and felt the fearful effects of his anger due
to our sins, without sin and despair.
In like manner, when it is said, Christ underwent this curse also, Dying thou shalt die, the meaning is not that Christ s soul did die the second death : the Scripture speaks it not, neither are we to speak it ; but thus the
* his soul was heavy unto death, Mat. xxvi. 37, 38.
Scripture expresseth it, that
It is spoken of this curse of his soul, which did not work death in it, but a heaviness unto death, not extensive so as to die, but intensive, that if he had died it could not have suffered more. As Jonas is said to be
* angry unto death, Jonah iv. 10 that is, he thought that misery and cross for which he was angry to be even as great an affliction as death itself, and so he could out of his anger wish for death so Christ s heaviness was as great as theirs that undergo that death ; yet die he did not ; it was but unto
* sick unto death, or as a woman in
death, as Onesiphorus was said to be
travail is said to be at the point of death, because if she were a-dying, she could not have more pain. There is such another phrase, Acts ii. 24, where
* was raised up, God having loosed the sorrows of
it is said, that Christ
death, u&baf, the throes of death, of which it was impossible he should be
held. It is evident that it is spoken of his soul ; for if it were spoken of
bodily death, there were no sorrows that remained on his body in the grave, to withhold it from rising again. No ; these sorrows died when he died, and were then ended, and so could not be said to be upon his body, to hinder it from rising. Again, it is not absolutely called death, but the sorrows of death ; that is, the same pains and throes that dying men s souls
have, he felt. And it is observed, that the same phrase that is used to ex
press the sorrows of hell, 1 Thess. v. 3, the travail of a woman (so Ps.
xviii. 4, 5, the pangs of hell, or birth-throes, as the word signifies), the same phrase [d&fotf] is here used, signifying the throes of a woman in
travail, and having reference to that phrase in Isaiah liii. 11, He shall see
CHAP. XIII.] OF CHRIST THE MEDIATOR. 273
of the travail of his soul. His soul, and not his person, is there properly meant, for it is spoke as of a part of himself, He shall see of the travail of
his soul. Those pains were indeed birth-throes to us, they tending to our
life, but in him they were the sorrows of death. And so in this he bare the woman s curse in his soul, as well as Adam s curse in his body ; as he did
eat in sweat, so he brought forth in pain, and in sorrows unto death ; but
yet such as did not kill his soul, it died not, for he was to live to see his
seed, and have joy in his soul for them for whom he had had most pain
so it is in Isa. liii. 10. For, thirdly, these sorrows did not hold him ; had they held him, then indeed he had died. And the reason why he died
not, was not that he had not the same throes and stabs that use to kill others ; for they are therefore called the sorrows of death, because they were the same which kill all men s souls in hell ; but he was too strong for them, nature was too potent in him, and life too vigorous ; otherwise that which he underwent was enough to have killed out of hand all men and angels ; but him they could not hold, it was impossible. Yet, fourthly, they were loosened, not so as never to have hold of him, or as if he never came in to them (as Bellarmine trifles) ; no, he was in them : (as Ps.
cxxiv. 7), His soul escaped as a bird out of the snare : the snare was broken, and he was delivered. The devils they are reserved in chains too strong for them, Jude 5, but he, like another Samson, brake these ropes, these cords. So Ps. xviii. 5, 6, where the sorrows of hell are called cords, for the same word, v3n, sigmnes both, and so the Chaldee Paraphrast reads it.
And yet, fifthly, because these were truly the pains of death, therefore this
delivery of his soul from them is called a resurrection ; and the greatest wonder of his resurrection is ascribed to this ; for the main power of the resurrection was seen in raising his soul, because it conflicted with such sorrows. For his soul had a resurrection as well as his body, which Peter
also, to shew he means it here, does distinctly mention, Acts ii. ver. 27. God s promise was, that he would not leave Christ s soul in hell ; that
is, under the pressures of these sorrows ; there is the resurrection of his soul from the sorrows of death expressed ; nor suffer the Holy One to see corruption ; there is the resurrection of his body from the power of the grave, both which make up that greater resurrection of his there spoken of. For to raise a soul from the terrors of God s wrath, does as much de serve the name of a resurrection, and more, as to raise a dead body. There
fore, says Heman (suffering these terrors in his soul), I am like the slain that lie in the grave, and wilt thou shew wonders to the dead ? shall the dead arise and praise thee? Ps. Ixxxviii. 5, 10. And this resurrection Christ s soul had before it went out of his body
: for after it went out, it went to paradise, and encountered not with the pains of death ; but before
it left his body, it did, and was rescued. And therefore, after that long conflict, for three hours space, whilst the curtains of the world were close drawn, and all was hushed up in darkness, during which time he had
struggled with these sorrows and with God s wrath, which towards the conclusion he manifests by that bitter expression, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ? after that conflict (I say) he cries out,
* It is finished ; which some divines think not to have reference to the work of
redemption, that that work was finished. No ; for that was not as yet finished, his bodily death being a part of it, as also the piercing of his side, and laying of him in the grave ; but the meaning is, that now the great brunt was over, that cup which he so feared was drunk off, his soul was VOL v. s
274 OF CHEIST THE MEDIATOR. [BOOK V.
come out of its eclipse, as the sun did then also out of its darkness, which was a shadow or sign of this in his spirit ; unto this it is that those words
refer. And that which seems to confirm it is that when first these kind
of sorrows fell on him in the garden, the evangelist notes it, saying, that then
his soul began to be heavy ; and now when they went off him, he shews, that then it was finished. As therefore we, who are his members, have a double resurrection in onr
souls whilst they are in our bodies, John v. 25, The time now is, &c., and
in our bodies, at the latter day, ver. 29 in the same chapter; so had
Christ : one of his soul from the terrors following the guilt of sin, the sor rows of death upon the cross ; the other of his body from the grave the
third day, which was a manifestation of the first. And answerably those sorrows may be called a kind of death, at least the sorrows of death, in the same sense that bodily dangers and distresses are called dying, as Paul,
* die daily, 1 Cor. xv. 31 ; and so
being in jeopardy every hour, is said to
in that sense, and no other, may he be said to have undergone this curse
of dying the death. Therefore, Isa. liii. 9, we have his deaths in the
: He made his grave with the wicked
plural mentioned, not his death only
in his deaths. So in the original. And in his bearing these sorrows of death was the curse abundantly fulfilled, although he did not die the second death ; for that wrath, which is the cause of the second death in others, he underwent ; and those sorrows of death, which that cause produceth, he
bore ; though the same event followed not, his soul died not, as theirs
through weakness doth.
Having thus explained and fitted these phrases to our hand, we will now come to the particulars of the sufferings of his soul, which are merely and
properly such, and which, as that curse seizeth on wicked men by degrees, so did seize on him by degrees, towards his end. The first mention we have of them is in John xii. 27, four days before his passion, when on the sudden he breaks forth, Now is my soul troubled ; and what shall I say ? He then saw the storm acoming, and a black cloud rising, which troubled him ; and in the expectation of it, he saw so much to be troubled at, as he knew not how to express it, but cries out, What shall I say ? The second degree was in the garden, as both Mat. chap. xxvi. from
ver. 36 to the end, Mark xiv. from ver. 32 to 51, Luke xxii. 40, and John
xviii. 1, 2, do set it down. There it was where the storm overtook him, ere ever he fell into the hands of Judas or the high priest, and he began to feel some drops of it ; and indeed the sorrows that there seized on him were such as fetched blood from him ere these his enemies approached him. Whereby was shewn, that he had other and greater miseries to encounter with than from men. And whereas, for all his bodily sorrows, we hear not one groan from him, as neither for his wounding with the crown of thorns, with nails, &c., but as a sheep that openeth not his mouth, so was he
led to the slaughter, Isa. liii. 7 ; yet here, in the very entrance into these
sorrows, we hear him lamenting
: Mat. xxvi. 38, My soul is heavy unto
death. He names, and as it were lays his finger on, the part affected, which was not his body, but his soul ; it was there where his grief lay. And we have many words and expressions which may help us to see into
his grief what it was. Amongst which, the first and lowest expression is
XvneTffQai, Mat. xxvi. 37. He had said before, that he was troubled : and we read not so much as of the least trouble of his for outward pains ; but now it is said, he became sorrowful. It was no pain of his body could make his great spirit sorrowful. Sorrow is more than pain, as joy is more
CHAP. XIII.J OF CHRIST THE MEDIATOR. 275
than delight. Beasts are never sorrowful properly, and yet they have all
sorts of pains of the body, which touch not their souls with a reflection, and
so cause sorrow. The cause of Christ s sorrow reached his reasonable soul, which is the proper subject of sorrow, and not the inferior, but the superior
part also. Yea, Tully restrains the word tristis to sorrow for the punish ment of sin and wickedness : poena sceleris tristis est. And yet this is but
the lowest degree, but the beginning of sorrows, which, notwithstanding, reached as deep as any kind of worldly sorrow could do ; for even David s
sorrow or affliction for his son Absalom is expressed by the same word.
Now there were two things which made his soul to be thus sorrowful.
1. The sins of the world imputed to him and charged on him.
2. The curse or wrath of God upon him for those sins.
1. First, the sins of the world came in upon him ; and therefore, ver. 38, he is not simply said to be sorrowful, but crgg/Xycros, which word signifies an
* The sor rows of hell encompassed me about, Ps. xviii. 5. His soul was plunged into them over head and ears, so that he had not so much as a breathing hole. For intention, this sorrow was unto death, and for extension, all the
encompassing about with sorrows, as David often expresseth it :
powers and faculties of his soul were begirt, besieged, and imprisoned; and
this expression is especially used in respect to our sins taking hold of him. So Ps. xl. 12, Innumerable evils encompass me about: mine iniquities take hold of me. It is spoken by Christ as in his sufferings, for of him is
that psalm prophetically made. So that, I take it, this phrase crgg/Xorof hath a more proper respect to the charging of our particular sins upon him, which began to encompass him, or (as Isaiah s phrase is, Isa. liii) to meet
in him, to come about him from every quarter. His soul was so environed and shut up in sorrows (or in prisons, as Isaiah s phrase, Isa. liii. 8, is), that he had not a cranny left for comfort 1o come in at. Gal. iii. 23, the law is compared to a prison, in which men under the guilt of sin are shut up ; and so was Christ. Now, no temporal mercies do so environ an
ordinary man s spirit, but that there is some hole left to take breath at. But sin can do it ; and much more all the sins of the world, which now at once did meet at and beset Christ s soul. As Heb. xii. 1, sin is said to be
* easily besets us, and so do both the power and the guilt of it.
that which
2. Secondly, there is yet a further expression used by another evangelist, that respects the terrors of God s wrath, seconding and following upon this
his apprehension of our sins, and it is in Mark xiv. 33, He began to be
sore amazed, ex6af&e7a&a,i t which is a third expression used concerning his
* sore amazed, for SapStft
trouble. Our translation rightly renders it
signifies to be amazed ; but EX added, signifies the extremity of that amaze
ment, such as when men fall into it, their hair stands on end, and their
* to be in horror. No sooner hath these our
flesh trembles. It signifies
sins presented themselves to him, as being our surety, but that withal thunder and lightning from God do presently strike him, and his wrath and curse for them suddenly arrests him ; this was it that put him into such an amazement as contains in it both fear and horror. His Father is
presented unto him as an angry judge brandishing his sword of justice. And as the delivering of the law made Moses tremble, so the curse of the law made Christ ; I quake and tremble, says Moses, or (as David ex
presseth it) My flesh trembleth because of thy judgments, Ps. exix. 120. Now. in the third place, follows the effect of both these two (namely, the
imputation of our sins, and the inflicting of God s wrath), which was an
a, an exceeding heaviness upon him. Which word, both Mat.,
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chap. xxvi. 87, useth, saying, q^aro abr^ovsTv, which is translated, He
began to be very heavy ; and the same in Mark, chap. xiv. 33, where it in
like manner follows that former expression of his being amazed. Now, this word imports first the deep intention of his mind, so as to be wholly taken and swallowed up with sorrow and amazement, and even to be
abstracted from his own thoughts, and to forget all comfort whatsoever,
being wholly intent and thinking upon nothing else but God s wrath, with which he was to encounter so full, so adequate an object is sin and the wrath due unto it, even broad enough for Christ s understanding to be
wholly taken up with it. And therefore he hath the thoughts of our sal
vation, as it were, struck out of his mind for a time ; all his powers being so occupied about, and possessed with these doleful sights presented, that
they forget their own functions. Some have put a further emphasis upon the word, as noting out, not only an abstraction of the mind, but a dis
traction also upon the suddenness of the blow, such as might befall him
through simple infirmity, deriving it from a privative a and drjf^og, populus, because men in distractions are separated from the rest of the people, which, in the sense before given, may be safely attributed to him, namely, that the
powers and faculties of nature did for a while forget their functions. Now,
all this might be without sin ; as the wheels of a clock may be stopped in
their ordinary course, and yet not put out of frame or disordered. And
this strong intention of his upon wrath was, then, that which God did call
for ; for Christ s business was to suffer God s wrath for sin ; and as taking pleasure in any thing, so suffering too depends upon the intention, inso much, that some do therefore judge, that even the damned in hell cannot
sin, because their thoughts are so intently taken up with wrath, that there
is no room for a thought of sin.
Secondly, The word notes out a failing, deficiency, and sinking of spirit ;
it is pene exanimari, as happens to men in sickness and swoundings. So
Epaphroditus his sickness, whereby he was brought near unto death, Phil,
ii. 26, 27, is called d&j/aov/a. So that, we see, Christ s soul was sick and
fainted. Thus, Ps. xl. 12, 13 (which psalm is all of Christ, for it is that
psalm quoted, Heb. x. 5, 6), where Christ is brought in saying, when he came to offer himself, that innumerable evils encompassed him about, and
his iniquities took hold of him; therefore his heart failed him. Iniquities are there promiscuously put for sins and punishments. If sin be meant, Christ our surety now calls our sins his ; and being laid to his charge, they take hold of him. If he had stood in his own righteousness he would not have feared, but being invested with, and appearing in our sins, he was
afraid, as Adam was, and his heart forsook him ; not sinfully, out of dis
trust, but of simple infirmity of nature, such a failing as a creature, though never so holy, must needs have at the greatness of God s wrath the creature being unto God s wrath, and before him who is
* everlasting burnings (as Isaiah speaks, Isa. xxxiii. 14), and a consuming fire (as Moses calls him, Deut. iv. 24), but as the wax is to the fire before which
it melts. Which is also Christ s own expression concerning himself, Ps.
* My heart, says he, was melted like wax ; noting out that natural infirmity and deficiency which was in his human nature as such, now when God approached to him
xxii. 14 (a psalm throughout speaking of his crucifying),
as a consuming fire ; so as it was merely a natural failing, not a moral. And this we must know, that in these his sufferings Christ s human nature was
left to its infirmities, that he might fully suffer. The Godhead, though
sustaining him in union with himself, and in faith towards God as his
CHAP. XIII.] OF CHRIST THE MEDIATOE. 277
Father, yet left him to the natural weakness of a creature, not shewing his
power in strengthening him so against his wrath, as that he should not be
sensible of it, but in supporting him under it. Therefore, 2 Cor. xiii. 4,
* He was crucified through weakness, but raised in power. For in this work of suffering, the Godhead slept (as the fathers express it), and left him to natural infirmities (but not to sinful) ; otherwise he had not been crucified. In respect of which infirmity unto which he was left it is
it is said,
said, Luke xxii. 43, that an angel came to strengthen him. And it argued a great inanition or emptying himself, that the Creator of the ends of the
earth, who faints not, and who is the God of comfort, should borrow com
fort of an angel. A third and further degree of this his suffering was that which Luke adds, Luke xxii. 44, that he was sv ayuviq,
l at strife, or engaged in a combat, as
the word implies, it coming from ayuv, certamen. And yet there was no man
to encounter with ; and the good angel who comforted him did not wrestle with him. Christ had before wrestled with principalities and powers in the
wilderness ; but those encounters with Satan fetched no blood from him, as these here do. This agony, this wrestling, was therefore with his Father s wrath, which now had taken hold on him, and under which he now
lay struggling. And this I make a further degree of his soul s suffering than the former ; for the former expressions set forth the trouble of his
spirit, as but at the first onset and encounter, when first he entered into the lists, and the warning only was given to this bloody combat. There
fore when all the former are mentioned, it is still said in every evangelist, he began tojbe heavy, and began to be sore amazed, &c., as noting out those
to have been the troubles of his spirit upon the first view, and in the very entrance and beginning of them. But now he is in an agony, in a set
battle ; it came now to blows, to wounds, to blood. He sweats drops of blood at this agony, so hot and grievous was it. Neither could fervency of prayer cause this sweat, for it was this agony that was the cause of that fer
vency in prayer. So in Luke it follows, Being in an agony he prayed more earnestly. What was it then that he encountered with ? Even that which Job struggled with ; Job vi. 4, The terrors of God, says he, set themselves in array against me. And for the effect of this encounter and
agony, it was answerably greater than the former ; it made him sweat drops of blood. All sweat is from weakness, and an overpressing of nature ; and
so in him it argues that failing, sinking, and wounding of spirit before men
tioned. Dying men do use through faintness to sweat a cold sweat, but never a bloody sweat ; but Christ s soul being now heavy unto death, and scorched with God s wrath, does sweat blood. These dolours fetch not only watery tears from his eyes, but he weeps blood all over, and not by drops
only, but dodders, and that in a cold night. Yea, it came through his
garments, and that in such abundance as it fell upon the ground, and left the marks of it thereon behind. Adam in innocency should not have sweat nor eaten his meat with labour and pain ; but Christ now tastes of the cup which he desired should pass from him, and it casts him into a sweat of blood.
Well, but yet all this was but the first onset of this great battle ; it was but a skirmish to begin it, in which and after which God gave him a time to breathe, and to go to his disciples, and then come again to the same
place. These blows came but at times ; not so thick, but that they suffered him to take breath. He had lucida intervdUa, some flashes of comfort in
this agony, some intermissions, some respite for a time ; but the main and
278 OF CHRIST THE MEDIATOR. [BOOK V.
great battle is yet to be fought, even upon mount Calvary, and thither let us follow him ; where, after they had hung his body up upon a tree, and divided his garments before his face, and had a while said and done their
pleasures, Christ having made his will, and given heaven to the believing
thief, and Lequeathed the care of his mother unto John ; after all this, on
the sudden are the curtains of the world drawn, and the sun for three hours
loseth its light. A bloody battle was now towards, and therefore it was a black day ; Christ was to encounter with the utmost power of darkness, and
therefore the field he fights it out in is darkness. Two things were due unto us for our sins :
1. Pcena damni, the loss of God s favour, and a separation from God and
all good, even to a drop of water.
2. Pcena sensus, the curse and wrath of God. Other things are but either circumstances or consequents of suffering these in those who are sinners. We have them both mentioned ; Job xiii. 24, Wherefore hidest thou thy face (says he to God; there is the punishment of loss and privation), and holdest me for an enemy ? (There is the punishment of sense). These two are the substance of the pains in hell, and do now both fully meet in Christ.
1. Pcena damni, for all comforts fail him. If he desires but a drop of
water, it is denied him ; if a beam of light, the sun affords none ; his dis
ciples had all forsaken him ; and whereas heretofore an angel came to him and comforted him, now not an angel dares look out of heaven. His heart had before this melted out of fear, and failed him ; ay, but (says David)
* though my flesh fails, yet God fails me not, Ps. Ixxiii. 26. But behold, God himself forsakes Christ. So at the end of this conflict he complains, or rather vehemently affirms it (as the Hebrew phrase bears it). He is
said to be forsaken, not only in regard of his being kept in the hands of his
enemies, as some would have it only meant. For,
(1.) This then would have been uttered by him at the first, when he fell
into their hands, and not now at last only. And,
(2.) Though enemies persecute us and have their wills of us, yet we are
said not to be forsaken, as 2 Cor. iv. 9, Persecuted, but not forsaken ; that is, though left in the hands of men, yet not forsaken by God ; so that
forsaken is put in opposition to being left to the persecutions and power of our enemies. But Christ is not only said to be left to the power of ene
mies, but to be forsaken by God himself, which how it could be, I shall afterwards explain. And this was the extremity of his emptying, emptying to nothing, as Dan. ix. 26, Messiah shall have nothing, that is, nothing left to comfort him ; so his cutting off is expressed. 2. Pwna sensus ; he was made a curse, and encountered his Father s
wrath, which, first , the darkness that was then about him may inform us
of. If ever the face of hell were upon the earth, it was at that day. All which while we read not of any word which Christ spake, till at last. So
that as darkness covered, so silence hushed all about him, that so he might without interruption or intermission encounter with his Father s wrath. And the place was the air, the very kingdom of the prince of darkness.
Secondly, the tree he hangs on declares it, which God before had cursed ; and therefore now especially it is that Christ is made a curse, as the apostle intimates, Gal. iii. 13 ; where he speaks as if Christ had never been a curse
until now ; and therefore it is that Christ is said to bear our sins in his
body (that is, his human nature) on the tree. And he had no type of
his being ^crucified but the brazen serpent, which of all worms else God had
CHAP. XIII. J OF CHKIST THE MEDIATOR. 279
only cursed. And therefore now it is that the treasures of wrath are broke
up, the cataracts of curses set open, and the sluices pulled up, so to let in
all our sins upon him, God now afflicting him with all his waves. And when this eclipse by reason of God s wrath went off his spirit, and it re
ceived light again, then he cried out, (as was said), It is finished ; which was spoken just before his giving up the ghost, as declaring that the great brunt was over, as was before explained.
There is one thing which yet remains to be done, for the finishing of
this point, viz.,
By way of explication, to shew how it might stand with his being the Son
of God to be thus forsaken, and made a curse.
1. For the explication (which I put first because it will facilitate and make way for the proofs themselves, both by laying foundations for them, and also by removing prejudices that might hinder the entertainment of
them) ; there are two things which I mentioned as the integral parts of that
punishment due to us for sin, but undergone by Christ.
1 . His being forsaken by God ; 2. His enduring God s wrath ; both which make up this curse.
I will speak distinctly and apart to the explication of either. And first, how to understand his being forsaken of God, which is not to be under
stood,
1. As if the union of the Godhead with the human nature had been dis
solved, but so as it might still be compatible, and rightly stand with it. For it was not a forsaking in respect of the essence of the Godhead, but of
his presence, and so in a way of sense. The Godhead was not separated, though the operation of comfort from the Godhead were sequestered. The union hypostatical continued still with his soul, now filled with the sorrows of death, as well as it did with his body when he lay in the grave. And so as although his body was united to the fountain of life, yet it might die in
respect of a natural life : so his soul, although the hypostatical union con
tinued, might yet want comfort, which is life.
2. Nor yet is it to be understood as if all communion had been cut off
in regard of support and the influence of grace ; but only in respect of joy and comfort in and from God s face ; even as the sun hath influence into the
generation of metals buried under the earth, whither its light comes not. Though grace naturally followed from that union, yet comfort proceeded
voluntarily from it, and therefore might be and was now suspended. Dens
se communicat^ says Scotus, rel qua beatus est, vel qua sanctus : God com municates himself to the creature, either as he is blessed, by comforting it and making it partaker of his happiness, or as he is holy, by making it
partaker of his purity. Now these two may be severed. God ceased not now to communicate himself to Christ in holiness, but only in comfort and
sense of happiness.
3. This his deprivation of comfort was possible ; for he was not yet glori
fied, as John says. Wherefore as his Deity might and did withhold from
his body that glory which was due unto it whilst on earth, and which shone
so in his transfiguration ; by the like reason might the Deity withhold all sense of comfort from his soul during that hour. Subtraxit Deus visionem, non unionem, as Leo Magnus speaks. Yea, 4. It was necessary that there should be such a suspension of communion of beatifical comfort, and so a sensible want of it. For had God then com municated himself in that fulness of comfort and joy that was Christ s due by virtue of that union hypostatical, Christ had not felt any sufferings from
280 OF CHRIST THE MEDIATOE. [BOOK Y.
man at all, even as many martyrs have not, though a joy unspeakable and
glorious. He was therefore to be left to his infirmity, that he might be
sensible, and therefore to be forsaken in respect of comfort; and if in respect of some degrees of comfort, then why not in respect of all ? So that,
5. This support was only in respect of upholding his faith ; that as one who walketh in darkness, and hath no light, yet trusts in the name of God,
Isa. 1. 10, so Christ forsakes him not, but cries, My God, my God, and
to the last cleaves fast unto him. And therefore God s forsaking him was not such an one as befell Saul, when he also forsook God. No ; Christ, though he kills him, does still trust in him. Now in the second place, to explain how he might endure God s wrath, and be made a curse, which is the pcena sensus, and the second thing men
tioned. There are many difficulties in view, which seem to argue it
impossible, and it is therefore the more hardly to be received, both because
.there is no other instance of one innocent and beloved that was made a
curse for another, or that endured God s wrath, as also because no mere
creature can be made sin by imputation, but that it must be denied by it, neither can it bear the wrath of God, but must certainly despair and sink under it. Now all those objections and difficulties which divines bring in
against it, I shall take away by these following conclusions, which also ex
plain the point.
1. The soul of a creature, and so of Christ as such, may in itself properly and immediately suffer God s wrath, and not only mediately, by compassion or fellow-feeling from the body. This is evident ; for besides that many have in their spirits suffered the wrath of God in this life, when environed with outward comforts, as David did ; and therefore Solomon calls it the
* wounding of the spirit, and so differenceth it from other infirmities ; it is
farther evident by this, that in hell the soul suffers immediately, without
the body, until the day of judgment. And the reason of this is as plain ; for God is the Father of spirits ; and as the fathers of our bodies can
chastise them, so can God the spirit, Heb. xii. 9.
2. That the wrath of God should be thus endured, it is not of absolute
necessity that men should be in the place of hell ere they undergo it ; it may be endured here. For the devils, being out of that place and in the
air, do still endure it, or at least may ; as the angels when out of heaven, about their ministration here below, are said to see God s face, Mat. xviii. 10.
* Their angels, says Christ, speaking of little children, do always behold
the face of my father which is in heaven. They are said to be their angels, in respect of their being sent for them, and their waiting on them ; and
whilst they wait on them here below, still their beholding God s face is not
interrupted, for they always see God s face. If Paul were rapt up into the
third heaven when alive, then why might not Christ in his spirit descend
into the nethermost hell, and this whilst in the body, and here upon earth ? And if he himself was as in heaven when transfigured, why then not in hell when crucified ? For it is God s wrath that is hell, as it is his favour that
is heaven. Many wicked men have a kind of hell here, the earnest of hell
hereafter, even as the godly have a taste and earnest of heaven in this life. So had Cain, Judas, &c., but they cannot undergo the full torments of hell
here ; and the reason is, because their souls would then die, and their bodies be consumed. The people hearing but the law given by God, thought they should die, of which their weakness was the cause. As corruption cannot
inherit incorruption, nor bear alive in this mortal flesh the joys of heaven
1 Who hath seen him and lived ? so nor could this corruption fully endure
CHAP. XIII.J OF CHRIST THE MEDIATOR.
the pains of hell. But Jesus Christ s soul could subsist in his body, it
being backed with the Godhead, even when filled with God s wrath, as well
as when filled with glory, as at the transfiguration. The creatures, like an
altar of straw, would have been burnt up by that fire if their souls had been
to serve for the sacrifice ; whereas this altar of Christ s body was covered
with brass (as in the Levitical law), to conserve it from being consumed
to ashes.
3. It is not a thing impossible or unjust for an innocent soul to have the
sins of others imputed to it ; no more than it is impossible for a sinful soul
to have the righteousness of another made over to it. Now, 2 Cor. v. 21,
it is said that Christ was made sin, that we might be made righteousness; and not having my own righteousness, says Paul, Phil. iii. 9. I say, it
is not unjust, and therefore not impossible, in case the party innocent be
content to become a surety ; as Judah was, Gen. xliii. 9, who was content,
if Joseph should detain his brother Benjamin, to take that sin and evil
upon him: Let me then, says he to his father, be always as a sinner
unto thee. And the ground is, because though his own acts make him
not a sinner, yet his own covenant and consent do make him a surety ; and so oblige him to the other s guiltiness and punishment, and wholly to
bear the blame. Thus, Prov. vi. 1-3, it is said of a surety, that he may be snared with the words of his mouth ; and so was Christ. It was by his own compact and agreement.
4. A soul having thus taken the guilt of sin upon it, God may justly vent his anger upon such a soul for sin, and express that anger against that soul, as against the sinner, though otherwise God loves him. For it
is just with God to inflict his wrath and curse for sin on whomsoever he
finds that sin, whether by personal guilt or by imputation. And therefore
it is no wonder if he be accursed by God, who hath the guilt of that upon him which God hates, and therefore curseth. If God cursed the earth
because of man s sin, which was but his house he dwelt in, then much more must man s surety expect wrath and a curse, who will be so hardy as to
take his sin upon him.
5. And further ; that soul, though innocent in itself, may be made sen
sible of the impressions of that anger for sin thus imputed. Those of a
contrary judgment think that therefore he could not have been made sen
sible of God s wrath for sin, because he had not the worm of conscience. But though it be true that Christ had not an evil conscience (which to
affirm were blasphemy), that is, not such a conscience as that sin could
ever trouble him by way of accusing him (as sinners consciences do), so
as to make him say, What a wretch am I, that I should do thus and thus !
(which is one of the greatest torments in hell) though this troubled not
Christ, yet his conscience might,
(1.) Apprehend the evil of sin as fully, nay more, than any of ours ; and
to see sin as sin is hell, says Luther. And so,
(2.) He might be made conscious of sin, not directly or immediately as
sinners are, but by being conscious of his own covenant to take sin upon him as his own. An accusing could not arise from within, but it might from without, as sin was imputed. His conscience might tell him that he
by compact did undertake the guilt of these sins which he sees to be thus
evil, and so he might come to look upon them as his by covenant ; and
this with a grief and horror suitable to the evil of them. So Ps. xl. 12,
* Mine iniquities have taken hold on me, so that I am not able to look up ;
they are more than the hairs of my head : therefore my heart faileth me.
282 OF CHRIST THE MEDIATOR. [BOOK Y.
That psalm is made of Christ. Now, if he confessed sins as his own, he
might have grief and dolour for them ; and so though not an accusing con
science from within himself, yet a conscience loaded and charged with them
by God from without.
(3.) His conscience, looking at sin as thus evil, and deserving God s
wrath, and as made his own by covenant, he might in fear look upon God
as a judge. And thus afraid and amazed was Christ in the garden, for
then he appeared with our sins on him, and thereupon was afraid, as Adam was ; only Adam out of a guilt that he had done the fact himself, but Christ
that, knowing what God s wrath was, he had exposed himself unto it by assuming Adam s sin. And that this may be, appears by this ; for if we have peace of conscience from Christ s righteousness imputed to us, by faith apprehending it to be thus imputed by a covenant, and so rejoice in God as ours, then why (in a contrary way) might not Christ have fears, and terrors, and impressions of wrath from the guilt of sin, which he ap prehended as made his only by a covenant between God and him, yet really and justly charged on him ?
6. Neither did the personal union of his soul unto the Godhead put in
such a bar or hindrance to all this, or make such an exception, that though the soul of a mere creature might be capable of all this, yet not his, by reason of this union. For he might be forsaken, and the union not dis
solved, as was before shewn ; and he might as well be left to endure God s wrath and anguish in his spirit from it, that union continuing, as if he had
not been so united. For if the Godhead might and did leave his body to bodily pains for sin (which were fruits of the curse), which yet was
thus united to the Godhead as well as his soul, why might not his soul be
also left to suffer such torments as the souls of men are capable of? If it
be said, that of all things else the state and relation he stood in towards God by reason of this union would not admit this, that Christ should be
accursed of God, and dealt withal in wrath by him, seeing he was his be
loved Son ; and that neither could the Father be thus displeased with him, nor could the Son really apprehend God to be so indeed and in truth, see
ing he must needs know himself to be God s Son, and so beloved of him
all the while ; the resolution is,
(1.) That God, for his part, might have both these affections towards him at once, although he was his natural Son ; and the reason is evident,
for if Christ might bear and sustain two such relations or persons, the one
as the Son of God and beloved of him, the other as our surety made sin
for. us, then might God suitably bear towards him two such contrary affec
tions of love and wrath, and accordingly express them. Or thus, as Christ
stands with two respects upon him, as a Son and as a surety, so did God
also in answer to these two sustain two relations towards him, of a Father towards him as a Son, and of a judge towards him as a surety. And these two might well stand together; as in a father that is a just judge, before whom his son is brought as a surety for another s debt, though he entirely loves him as a son, yet he must and ought to condemn him in the suit, and exact the payment of the debt, or inflict some other punishment on him (as the matter he is surety for requires), as he is a judge ; and he is
to act both these parts, as the several respects in the things themselves
require, justice in this case as well requiring that he should punish him, as well as nature that he should love him. We may see this exemplified in an instance fetched from God himself, and his carriage towards us his
adopted sons and children, whom he loves with the same love, though not
CHAP. XIII.] OF CHRIST THE MEDIATOR. 283
in the same degree, that he loves his natural Son, John xvii. 23. God is
upon several respects both an enemy and a friend unto us at once ; we are
at once both hated and beloved, even whilst we are in the state of nature. God s elect, if considered as invested with sin, and in the state of unre-
generacy, upon which God hath pronounced a curse, they are under wrath,
flnd children of wrath, and so pronounced accursed. And yet at that
time their persons, as they are his chosen ones from everlasting, are be
loved, and therefore called his people and his sheep. So were the Jews : Rom. xi. 28,
* As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes ; but as touching election, they are beloved for their fathers sake. They are at once children of wrath as well as others, Eph. ii. 3, and
* sons of
peace, Luke x. 6 ; and this when uncalled. Now, thus it may be towards
his natural Son, if he over and above takes such a relation on him, of
being a surety for sinners ; only with this difference, that God s love to him is natural, because he is his natural Son, and the relation natural ; and his anger but accidental and adventitious, and taken up by him (yet
justly), because this relation of Christ his being a surety is, answerably, but assumed and taken up by him. Yet they are real, both on the one
side and on the other. And therefore, Zech. xiii. 7, where God is said to
1 smite the shepherd (namely, Christ), it is made to be a forced act, as it
were, and such as he is fain to stir up himself to do by respects of justice;
* Awake, sword, against the man
and therefore he calls upon his sword :
that is my fellow. God considers he is his Son, and natural Son (his
fellow), and so he naturally loves him, and cannot find in his heart to
strike him ; yet justice must be done, seeing he stands as a surety for
sinners, and so he draws his sword ; notwithstanding as being put upon it
by arguments, reasons, and considerations moving him to it ; and therefore he is said to awaken it. In a word, it is one thing to be an enemy, and another to carry one s self
* Why countest thou me
as an enemy. So Job xxxiii. 10 ; says Job to God,
thine enemy ? that is, why dealest thou with me as if I were so, whenas I am thy child ? Thus did God with Christ.
(2.) And in the second place. Christ for his part might have answerable
apprehensions and impressions on his soul, notwithstanding he knew him
self beloved. For he might apprehend (according as the truth was) that himself stood at the present under an adventitious relation of a surety, to bear God s wrath for sin, notwithstanding that withal he knew he was God s natural Son, and so beloved. He might look upon himself as a Son, and a Son performing an obedience to his Father, even in suffering his wrath, and never pleasing him more than now, and in that respect most beloved of him ; and yet withal, as a surety for sinners, and so punished, and in that respect he might apprehend God for the present angry, and full of wrath against him, as being made sin and so a curse for us, yet so as to the end that he might be well pleased with sinners in him. And both these
differing apprehensions of his did Christ accordingly express in that one
sentence, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ? He speaks it as apprehending himself a Son still, and united to God, and beloved of him, and yet forsaken by him, and, as a surety, accursed. And to this end there were two principles in him, that let in these so differing apprehensions or impressions, faith and present sense. By faith he knew himself a Son ; therefore Ps. xxii., when on the cross, his trusting upon God is mentioned. And, Heb. xii. 2, it is said, that he endured the cross, for the joy that was
set before him, namely, by faith ; and therefore we from his example are
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there exhorted unto faith (which is the apostle s scope and argument) seeing he thus believed and trusted, who, as it follows there, is
* the author and
finisher of our faith.
7. But there was another principle in him, and that was present sense of
the impressions of God s anger
: his mind by sight or vision seeing nothing
else, and his will by the impressions on it feeling nothing else. Both which
principles, as they are in us, so they might be and were in him, we being in faith and sufferings to be conformed to him, and he being in all things tempted like as we are.
8. And therefore, eighthly, all this curse and wrath did not, nor could make him miserable, although uncomfortable, both because he undertook
it and underwent it voluntarily (and as the greatest good cannot make a man happy against his will, so nor the greatest evil with one s will can make
a man miserable, there being an end obtained to sweeten that estate), and
also because he knew he should eluctate out of it, and overcome it in a few
hours, as he did when he cried, It is finished,
9. And so, ninthly, this curse was endured by him, without sinning or
despair. For the Godhead both helped and preserved him, as his body from corruption in the grave, so his soul from sinning whilst under wrath. And though God left him to the infirmities of a passible nature, to be sen
sible of all impressions to the full, yet he left him not to any infirmities
of sinning, or weakness of unbelief, the ordinary consequents of such suf
ferings in others. Again, despair ariseth not from the present extremity, but the apprehension of the eternity of those sufferings, and a certain fore
knowledge that they shall never have end. Whereas Christ knew he should
overcome, and that it was impossible that he should be held of them.
10. Tenthly and lastly. This therefore was for the substance of the suf
fering itself, the same that we in hellj should have undergone ; only such circumstances were wanting and cut off in his undergoing it, as were either not necessary ingredients to the discharge of our debt, or but accidental
consequents ; as,
(1.) He descended not, or went not down to the place of the damned, to endure God s wrath there. For seeing that the place of payment is no in
gredient into the discharge of the debt, and but a mere circumstance, and
that he could endure it on earth as fully as in hell itself, and that, through the supportment of the Godhead, without dying, which no creature could ; therefore though this circumstance were wanting, it detracts not anything from the fulness of the substance of that payment which was due from us, and therefore this may be accounted the same with that.
(2.) He endured it without dying the second death, otherwise than in the sense fore-mentioned. But this hinders it not from being the same in substance that we should have endured, and so it may stand for it. For
dying, or quite sinking under this curse, is but the consequence of under
going the wrath of God in those that are mere creatures, who cannot bear
it and live, and so is not any part of the substance of the punishment itself,
simply in itself considered. This ariseth only from the creature s weakness, and no more indeed does despair, it being no part of the punishment, but the
consequent of it, through the creature s infirmity and sinfulness. As now, suppose two men in a like and equal distemper and heat of a burning fever, the one through the weakness of his brain is light-headed, and raveth, and in the end dieth ; but the other, having more natural strength of body, overcomes the distemper and survives, having through the strength and cool temper of his brain not once lost the right use of his senses all that while ; yet
CHAP. XIII.] OF CHRIST THE MEDIATOR. 285
still it may be said, that their distempers were the same, and alike intense
for degrees of heat, though the consequents of each were contrary, accord
ing to the differing capacities and dispositions of the subjects. Or take two guns charged with like measure of powder and shot : the one breaks and flies in pieces when fire is given to it, when the other holds, as being of more firm and solid metal, or better tempered, or having all its parts more compactly cast according to art, when yet the charge of each is for
quantity and force the same. Thus the charging of sin, and of the wrath of God upon men in hell, causeth their souls to despair, and die the second
death, through their inability to bear them ; whenas the same sins, and
the same wrath, though charged home on Christ, yet prevail not to kill his
soul, but through his strength and support from the Godhead, his spirit remains whole under them. Despair and dying is but from being overcome, which his soul was not ; but as a great fire overcomes a smaller quantity of water cast upon it, so did the worth of his person and sufferings in the end overcome the guilt of our sins, which falls short of the merit of his satisfac
tion ; and therefore this consequent of despair and death followed not upon
it. Which therefore being an effect of suffering the pains of hell, is not a
part of the substance of them.
(3.) In like manner, for the same reason, though he suffered them not
eternally, yet his suffering was the same, and equivalent to what we should have undergone.
For, first, eternity is but a circumstance of time, as hell is of place ; and not simply eternity, but extremity of sufferings was the punishment due. The lying ever in prison is no part of the debtor s punishment simply con
sidered ; for he is to lie there but till he hath paid the utmost farthing (as Christ speaks), which because he can never do, therefore he is never released. But Christ could undergo in a few hours all the wrath due unto sin, and so swallow up death and hell in victory, 1 Cor. xv. 24. That portion or measure of wrath which we by reason of our narrowness could have received
in but by drops, and so it would ever have been raining down ; that his
soul might be and was so enlarged as to receive in at once, even the whole
vials and cataracts of it. That cup which is so full of mixture, that we are
adrinking of it down unto eternity, that can he take off unto the bottom, in a few hours. Yea, and by reason of the incapacity of the damned in hell to take in the full measure of God s wrath due to them for their sins, therefore
their punishment, though it be eternal, yet never satisfies, because they can never take in all, as Christ could and did, and so theirs is truly less than what Christ underwent. And therefore Christ s punishment ought not in
justice to be eternal, as theirs is, because he could take it all in a small
space, and more fully satisfy God s wrath in a few hours, than they could unto all eternity. And this may well be one meaning of those words, Acts
* impossible he should be held by the pains of death, not only in respect of his power, able to prevail against the power of God s wrath and anger, but impossible in respect of justice, that God should any longer continue angry ; seeing that as God s love had such a full vent and
ii. 24, that it was
sway in Christ, so also had revenging justice its full process against sin in
him, and wreaked its utmost, sucking from him so much blood both of his body and soul, as being full it fell off of itself, as fully satisfied.
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