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covenant for her, that was the cause of his love to her, but the effects of his love, as I have proved before. Eph. v. 29, man yet hated his own flesh.

30, 31, 32, for no But let us observe, made with Eve in

that the covenant that God Adam was one thing, and that the covenant between Adam and Eve was another, as we shall observe afterwards. But I say, it was their being one body, one nature, and one life, that was the cause of his love to her, which appeared in

eating,

him, as saith the Evangelist, Luke xxii. 44, And being in an agony, he prayed the more earnestly, and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling to the ground.

The word agony signifies great anxiety and trouble of mind which appeared in the extraordinary effects it produced in his animal frame, which is a full evidence of the unparallelled greatness of his trouble, and the extreme anguish of his mind. No heart can conceive, nor tongue express, the agonies of the Savior's mind! Never did one of such dignity suffer as he, and therefore no sufferings to be compared to his sufferings, who was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, his visage was marred more than any man's, and his form more than the sons of men.

The original spring of all these sufferings was his love, and the procuring cause of them was sin;

but

eating, for Adam was not deceived, 1 Tim. ii. 14.. What should be the cause of his eating then? Some think that he did eat on purpose to be in the same condemned state with his wife; but that could not be, because she was not judicially condemned till he eat; and I observe, that God charges him with harkening to the voice of his wife, Gen. iii. 17.

Now, this voice must be either persuading or ministerial; I am persuaded both; doubtless she preached

but what laid him under a necessity of suffering, was his voluntary engagements to suffer, and his Father's imputation of sin and guilt unto him, for He said unto his Father, Sacrifices and offerings thou wouldst not; and in burnt-offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hadst no pleasure; then said I, Lo, I come. I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I streightened until it is ac-. complished; to this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world.

Christ's sufferings therefore, were not violently imposed upon him, though he was led as a lamb to the slaughter, yet his heart was in every step he trod; it was what he engaged from everlasting to> do, therefore styled, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

But the cause of the real sensation of his sufferings, was his Father's imputation of sin and guilt

unto

preached to him the doctrine of the Devil, and persuaded as an application; however, we see that her eating had taken no effect upon him to cool his love to her, notwithstanding what she had done, till he had sinned himself; she was his own flesh still, his own body still, she was life of his life, nature of his nature, body of his body; so he naturally loved her, his love could not decay nor cease, without his nature decayed or ceased; even so Christ loved, not for any thing out of his

nature;

unto him, Isaiah liii. 10, Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He impressed his mind with a piercing charge of our guilt, and excited a most painful sensation in his soul of the dreadful evil, contanimation, and vileness of sin; and as he stood as the surety of his people, he made known to him the demerit of sin..

First. In that he not only imputed it unto him, but he made his soul an offering for sin, he charged the curse due to sin upon him,, Gal. iii. 13, being made a curse for us. All the punishment that was due to sin, was inflicted upon the Son of God:: Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, thereby we are delivered from the condemnation of it, and enjoy a divine jubilee in our minds, for if the Son makes us free, then are we free indeed, for it is his sufferings and death for sin that obtains our immu

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nature: so the fall nor the effects of it never altered his love, except their fall could have altered his nature; they were his body, his nature, his life; yet their fall could not alter the relation of Christ to his Father, not only in co-equality of might, but in co-essentiality of life, one God, as has been proved before, Rom. viii. 38, 39. The doctrine is this, that the formal union, natural union, which is human and vital, which is one life, is the cause of Christ's love to his body, for look, what was the cause of Christ's love to his Father? In the same order does he love his body;

nity from the curse of sin; there is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, Rom. viii. I.

Secondly. The cause of Christ's sufferings being so heavy, or what they sprang from, was the Far ther's withdrawing that sense of delight, favor, and love from his human mind; as to his divine nature, that was always swallowed up in an ineffable union, and unspeakable communion with the Father; no breach, darkness, or cloud, could possibly take place upon that, his Godhead could never be eclipsed, nor his divine nature unhappy. His divine nature was consummately happy in union of essence with the Father, while his soul was the subject of punishment and sorrow, though his human nature partook of its sufferings in union with the divine, yet his divine nature was always happy without alloy." What

he being really both divine and human, he is highly concerned with both natures, for the promotion of both in his own person; and as the Father's determinate will was, that the body of Christ should eat, so it was the will of the body to eat, and Christ's suffering his body to fall, fulfilled the will of both natures.

Obj. But you will say if God willed the fall, how could God say, because thou hast harkened to the voice of thy wife? The answer to this brings

me

What constituted an awful part of these sufferings, was his Father's leaving of him. By the Father's leaving of him, we are not to understand the lessoning of his approbation and delight which he took in him as the head of the church, the Mediator of the new covenant, and the Savior of his people ;-no, his interest in his favor was not dissolved by his sufferings, but then he did withold the sensible communications from his human mind, of that love, delight, and complacency, with which he was wont to crown him, as such says Christ, Prov. viii. 30, I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him. But sin had made a seperation between God and man, and as Christ's soul was suffering for sin, the desert of which was a seperation from God, therefore Christ's soul suffering in our stead, must feel that seperation, not as was said before, as to interest and relation

to

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