all that men could inflict, not only with resignation, but with joy and triumph: but here we see no less a person than the Son of God exceeding sorrowful even unto death at the very apprehension of his sufferings: we hear him crying for the removal of the bitter cup, and bewailing in the most pathetic manner the intenseness of his agony.

Nor did the Father bruise him only, but as the text intimates, took pleasure in bruising him; "It pleased the Lord to bruise him." The word which is here translated, "It pleased," includes in it an idea of complacency, and is strongly expressive of pleasure: the import of it is much the same with that which the apostle uses, when he says, "With such sacrifices God is wellpleased:" in conformity with which idea, Jehovah is said to smell a sweet savour from those sacrifices which prefigured the crucified Jesus. Indeed, the same idea, though not so expressly asserted, is supported and confirmed by many other passages of scripture. In the very verse following the text, we are informed, that the Father gave him promises on the express condition that he should endure his wrath for man; that "when he should make his soul an offering for sin, he should see a seed, and should prolong his days;" that is, that, on condition of his bearing the wrath due to sinners, many should be everlastingly saved through him, and with him. In another place we are told that "God sent his Son into the world for this very end, that he might be the propitiation for our sins; that is, that he might bear the punishment due to them: St. Paul also says, that "Christ was made sin, that is, a sin-offering, for us:" and again, that "he was made a curse for us:" all of which passages shew that God sent him into the world on purpose to bruise him. We may further observe, that the Father had from the beginning delighted in the sacrifices which were offered, because they were types of that sacrifice, which Christ in due time should offer upon the cross. When Noah came out of the ark, he built an altar, and offered a burnt-offering upon it; and then we are told, "The Lord smelled a sweet savour." So, at the very time that our Lord was bruised, the Father was pleased with it; for the apostle says of Christ,

that he " gave himself an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour;" plainly implying, that as God was pleased with the offering of beasts by Noah, and with the savour of the incense which was composed of bruised spices, so he was pleased with the offering of his own Son, while he was yet consuming with the fire of divine wrath. The Father has moreover exalted Jesus in consideration of his having endured the sufferings which he had appointed him. The apostle having set forth Christ as obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, adds, " Wherefore God hath highly exalted him, and given him a name above every name." In the same manner, every blessing which the Father bestows upon mankind is given as the purchase of Christ's blood, and as the reward of his obedience unto death. Redemption includes every blessing of the covenant; every evil we are delivered from, and every good which we are ever to possess: and this the apostle ascribes wholly to the efficacy of Christ's blood; "We have redemption, says he, through his blood;" and another apostle says, "Ye were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ."

Now did the Father give promises to his Son on the express condition of his suffering? did he send him into the world on purpose that he might suffer? did he delight in other sacrifices merely as typical of those sufferings? did he declare, that the offering up of his dear Son was an offering of a sweet smelling savour? did he exalt Christ for his sufferings? and does he continually bestow the richest blessings on his very enemies as a reward of those sufferings? did he do all these things, and shall we not acknowledge that the sufferings of Christ were pleasing to him; or, to use the words of the text, that it pleased the Lord to bruise him?

However, we must not imagine that the mere act of inflicting punishment on his only dear Son could be pleasing to him: No: "He delighteth in mercy;" and Judgment is his strange work:" he is averse to punish even his enemies; and much more his own Son. But there were very sufficient reasons why he should be pleased with bruising his own Son; to illustrate which we shall consider

III. The reasons of the divine conduct.

If we expect to account for every thing, we shall soon reject the whole of revelation: God never intended that we should; nor indeed is it possible. We know that an ignorant peasant is not able to search out the reasons upon which a profound statesman acts; nor could he even comprehend them, if they were laid before him: and shall we wonder if there be some mysteries in the revelation and in the providence of God which we cannot explore, and which perhaps, if unfolded ever so clearly, would be far above our comprehension? Is not God far more exalted above us, than we can be above our fellow-creatures? We must therefore proceed with great humility and reverence, when we presume to investigate the reasons by which the allwise God is actuated, especially in subjects so deeply mysterious as this which we are now contemplating. However, we will attempt to assign some reasons for his conduct.

He was pleased when he bruised his Son, first, because the bruising of him was pleasing to his Son. As the Father did not take pleasure in inflicting punishment, so neither did the Son in enduring it, for itself; the punishment considered separately from its consequences was equally grievous to him who inflicted, and to him who bore it. But Jesus thirsted for the salvation of men; he knew that it could not be accomplished consistently with the rights of justice and truth, unless he should become their surety: he was well aware of all that he must undergo, if he should stand in the place of sinners; yet he cheerfully undertook it; and "for the joy that was set before him" of redeeming so many millions from destruction, "he endured the cross, and despised the shame." When the time drew nigh, he so longed for it, that "he was quite straitened till it could be accomplished." And therefore, as the Father knew how pleasing it would be to his Son to have the iniquities of mankind laid upon him, he himself found pleasure in laying them upon him: it gave him pleasure to put the finishing hand to that which had been agreed upon between them, and thus to make him "the author of eternal salvation" to all his people.

Another reason may be this: God was pleased with bruising his own Son, because it would prove so beneficial to man. We are not to imagine that the Son loved us more than the Father; for the Father expressed as much love in giving his Son, as the Son did in giving himself; the Father testified his compassion as much in laying our iniquities on his Son, as the Son did in bearing them in his own body on the tree. The whole work of salvation is the fruit of the Father's love: he pitied us when we fell; he in his own eternal counsels provided a Saviour for us before we did fall, yea, before we were brought into existence. He saw how inconceivably miserable we must have been to all eternity if left to ourselves: he therefore covenanted with his Son, and agreed to pardon us, to give us peace, to adopt us for his children, to restore us to our forfeited inheritance, and to exalt us to glory, if he would, by substituting himself in our place, remove the obstacles which prevented the exercise of his mercy towards us. When therefore these counsels were nearly executed, the Father was pleased with putting the bitter cup into the hands of his Son, because it would henceforth be taken out of the hands of all those who should believe in Christ; none should perish but through their obstinate rejection of this Saviour; and all, who would embrace him, would be exalted to far higher glory than they would ever have obtained, if they had never fallen.

A third reason we may assign is this; the Father was pleased with bruising his own Son, because it would put great honour upon the divine law. We cannot but suppose that God must be concerned for the honour of his own law, because it is a perfect transcript of his own mind and will. Now this law had been violated and dishonoured by the transgression of man: if the sanctions of the law were not enforced, the law itself would be set aside: or, if the sanctions were enforced, still the punishment of the offender would never repair the dishonour done to the law, and the contempt he had poured upon it. But by the sufferings of Jesus "the law was magnified and made honourable." The majesty of the law was manifested in having the Son of God himself subject to it: the authority of the law was established, in

that its penalties were inflicted even on the Son of God, when he stood in the place of sinners; and therefore no sinner could hope thenceforth to transgress it with impunity: the purity of the law was declared, in that nothing less than the blood of the Son of God could expiate any transgression against it: the justice of the law was held forth, in that it did not relax one jot or tittle of its demands even in favour of the Son of God. Now when the divine law was to be so magnified by the voluntary sufferings of the Son of God, we cannot wonder that the lawgiver should be pleased; especially as the majesty of the law was more fully manifested, its authority more firmly established, its purity more conspicuously declared, and its justice more awfully displayed by means of the sufferings of the Son of God, than it could have been by the everlasting obedience of angels, or the everlasting misery of the whole human race.

The last reason we shall assign, is this; the Father was pleased with bruising his own Son, because he himself was thereby transcendently glorified. God cannot but de light in the manifestation of his own glory: nor did he ever manifest it in such bright colours, as while he was bruising his own Son. When Judas went out to betray his Master, "Now, said Jesus, the Son of man is glori fied, and God is glorified in him." In that awful hour the divine perfections, which seemed, as it were, to be at variance, were made to harmonize, and to shine with united splendor. We are at a loss what to admire most; the inflexibility of his justice, which required such a sacrifice, or the heights of his love, which gave it; his inviolable truth in punishing sin, or the extent of his mercy in pardoning the sinner; the holiness of his nature in manifesting such indignation against iniquity, or his wisdom and goodness in providing such a way of deliverance from it. Every attribute of the Deity is incomparably more glorified than it could have been in any other way: mercy shines in the way of satisfying the demands of justice, and justice in the way of exercising mercy. This view of the Deity was not more new to man, than it was to the angels in heaven: and when a ray of this glory shone forth at the incarnation of our Lord, the angels burst forth in joyful acclamations, and sang, "Glory to