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 our 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 sorrows 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, being in jeopardy every hour, is said to die daily,' 1 Cor. xv. 31; and so 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 plural mentioned, not his death only: 'He made his grave with the wicked 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 produce th, 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 a-coming, 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. 88, 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 AUTεiola, 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

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 punishment 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 regiλumos, which word signifies an encompassing about with sorrows, as David often expresseth it: The sorrows 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 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 Tegíλumos 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 to 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 that which easily besets us,' and so do both the power and the guilt of it. 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,' ixtaμCeolar, which is a third expression used concerning his trouble. Our translation rightly renders it sore amazed,' for Jaulεñ signifies to be amazed; but ix added, signifies the extremity of that amazement, such as when men fall into it, their hair stands on end, and their flesh trembles. It signifies to be in horror.' No sooner hath these our 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 expresseth 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 adnμovía, an exceeding heaviness' upon him. Which word, both Mat.,

chap. xxvi. 37, useth, saying, garo adnuove, 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 salvation, 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 distraction also upon the suddenness of the blow, such as might befall him through simple infirmity, deriving it from a privative & and oños, 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, insomuch, 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.

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Secondly, The word notes out a failing, deficiency, and sinking of spirit; it is penè 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 dònμovía. 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 distrust, 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 wraththe 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. xxii. 14 (a psalm throughout speaking of his crucifying), '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 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

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, it is said, ' 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 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 comfort of an angel.

A third and further degree of this his suffering was that which Luke adds, Luke xxii. 44, that he was iv dywviq, at strife,' or engaged in a combat, as the word implies, it coming from ȧywv, 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. Therefore when all the former are mentioned, it is still said in every evangelist, he began to be 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 fervency 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 mentioned. 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 clodders, 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.

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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 intervalla, some flashes of comfort in this agony, some intermissions, some respite for a time; but the main and

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 bequeathed 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. Pana damni, the loss of God's favour, and all good, even to a drop of water.

a separation from God and

2. Pœna sensús, 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. Pana 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 disciples 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. lxxiii. 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 enemies, 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. Pana 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