66 self, makes of them, on the night on which he was betrayed. When Christ went out to the mount of Olives, after the institution of the sacramental supper, he says to his disciples " All ye shall be offended "because of me this night : for it is written, I will "smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall "be scattered:"(r) And this we find no where written but in the passage before us. Here, then, God calls upon his own sword to awake against Christ, and to smite him. And, this is evidently the language, the expression, of righteous indignation. God's sword is that by which he executes vengeance: As the jus gladii among the Romans, the sword of the civil magestrate, means his authority to execute punishments. Therefore the Psalmist saith," God judgeth "the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day. If he turn not, (that is, if the wicked "turn not,) he (God,) will whet his sword; he hath "bent his bow, and made it ready. He hath also prepared for him the instrument of death: he or"daineth his arrows against the persecutors."(s) And the apostle urgeth the fear of the civil magistrate on this consideration that he "beareth not the sword "in vain, but is the minister of God, a revenger to "execute wrath upon him that doeth evil."(†) Hence it is evident that God's sword is used in the execution of vengeance: Nor, is it ever made use of in othThe sword he made use of, when he smote Christ, was more especially, the cruel and perfidious Jews. Accordingly, we find that David stiles wicked men God's sword. Thus he prays, " Arise, O Lord, "disappoint him, cast him down; deliver my soul "from the wicked which is thy sword."(u) And this prayer, we have reason to suppose, David made in the Spirit, personating Christ, of whom he was an eminent er way, (r) Matt. xxvi. 31. (s) Psalm vii. 11, 13. (u) Psalm xvii. 13. any type. And, the prayer itself is the same, for sub. stance, which Christ, in his own person, made when he cried if it be possible let this cup pass from me. Thus God made use of wicked men as his sword against Christ, to smite him and take away his life. IN like manner God had, before made use of the Assyrians as his rod to correct and chastise the people of Israel. In such language as this doth the Prophet foretel the evils which God was about to bring upon his people by the hand of the proud Assyrians: "O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in "their hand is mine indignation. I will send him "against an hypocritical nation; and against the people "of my wrath will I give him a charge to tread "them down like the mire of the streets."(w) When, therefore, God makes use of the same instruments, wicked men, in bringing evil upon Christ that he had, again and again, made use of in executing his wrath; when they are expressly called his sword, which is never drawn but for the execution of vengeance: And, when this sword is expressly called up by God: himself, and commissioned to smite Christ; the whole rule and analogy of divine dispensation, and every concurring circumstance, lead us to view this astonishing event as an awful manifestation of divine displeasure. All these considerations being taken fully into view, if we cannot read the holy anger of God in the death of Jesus Christ, it will be difficult to determine that this is written in legible characters, in any evil that God has ever yet brought upon men. BUT, further, we are expressly told that Christ was made a curse. The Apostle says, "Christ hath re"deemed us from the curse of the law, being made a "curse for us; for it is written, Cursed is every one (w) Isaiah 1.5, +6. ^ "that hangeth on a tree."(x) These words plainly suppose that the sufferings of Christ on the tree, were a fruit and manifestation of divine anger. For, 1. THE curse that Christ suffered, or was made, was none other than the curse of God. The words which the Apostle quotes in proof of Christ's being made a curse, are these, For he that is hanged, (on a tree) is accursed of God. And, if Christ's being crucified, and hanged on a tree, are a proof that he was made a curse, they are equally a proof that the curse which he was made, was the curse of God. For every one that was hanged on a tree, was accursed of God: Christ's being hung upon a tree was a proof that he was made a curse; and therefore, a proof that, if he was made any curse, it was the curse of God-if he suffered, or endured any curse, he suffered and endured the curse of God. 2. We know of no other curse of God, than what is threatened in his holy law. God inflicts, or executes, no curses but such as are denounced in his law. The holy scriptures, certainly know of no other curse, and treat of no other curses that are ever, either denounced, or executed, by the Deity, than those which are penalties of the law, and with which the breakers of the law are threatened. Therefore, 3. CHRIST'S suffering the curse of God, was his suffering the curse of the law. If Christ endured the curse of God, and the holy scriptures know of no other curse of God than the curse of the law; it plainly follows that Christ endured, or was made, the curse of the law. And that it was the curse of the law that Christ was made, is manifestly implied in the words under consideration. The Apostle saith that Christ (x) Galatians iii. 13. hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. He was then treating of the curse of the law and no other: He had just said that as many as are of the works of the law, are under the curse. And then asserts, that it is from the curse of the law that Christ hath redeemed us. From this curse Christ redeems his people by being made a curse for them: Which evidently implies that it was the curse of the law that Christ was made. There is not here given the least hint of any other curse; nor any thing said to lead the thoughts to any other, or suggest the most distant idea of any other. And as an evidence that Christ, who, it was well known, had been hanged on a tree, was made a curse; the Apostle quotes a passage from the old testament in which it is asserted that he who is hanged on a tree is accursed of God, and applies it to Christ. This makes it manifest that the curse of God, which is the curse of the law, was laid upon Christ: And by his being made this curse, he redeemed his people from the curse of the law. The particle for, with which the Apostle introduceth the text from the Mosaic law, plainly shows that the passage is not exegetical, nor brought with design to explain the nature of the curse which Christ was made.; but to prove that he was indeed made a curse. should it be admitted, (which however there is no reason for admitting) that the Apostle designed, in those last words, to let us know what the curse was which Christ endured; still it will be evident that he was made a curse in which God manifested his anger; And, therefore, that the sufferings and death of Christ were indeed cxpressions of divine anger. It there. fore follows, that the scriptures plainly teach us that the fruits of divine displeasure were endured by Christ, especially when he hung upon the tree. Or SOME have supposed that to represent Christ as enduring the curse of the law, would necessarily involve in it the idea of his being a sinner, and of his feeling those horrors and that despair which are peculiar to sinners. And this supposition is founded on an apprehension that spiritual death is a great, if not principal part of the curse of the law. But this is a supposition quite without foundation. Spiritual death, as the phrase is commonly used, means a person's being perfectly under the dominion and power of sin; or to express it in scripture-language, being dead in trespasses and sins: which is the same as his being wholly and totally a sinner. But this surely can with no propriety be considered as a curse upon the sinner. Sin is voluntary; it is what is chosen by the sinner; and is not the curse itself, but that which exposes to it, and incurs it. It would be strange that for committing one sin, which must be a voluntary act, God should threaten the sinner with committing another, which must be equally voluntary; and make this the penalty of the former-the curse to be endured for it. At this rate, the penalties of the law could not possibly be any terror to the sinner. THE penalties of the law, therefore, must of necessity, and in the nature of things, be natural evils, not moral. By bringing natural evil it is, that God expresseth his displeasure against moral. Natural evils are punishments, but moral are not: The former, therefore, and only the former, are the sanctions, or curses of the law. So that Christ's enduring the curse of the law, would by no means imply that he was a sinner; that God was angry with Christ; or that Christ felt those sensations of despair, and those horrors of an accusing conscience, which will necessarily accompany, and be a bitter part of the sufferings of sinners, when they endure the curse of the law. NATURAL evils which express the anger of God, are the curse of the law. Natural evils Christ suffer |