were obftructed, yet you fee his foul cleaves fiducially to God for all that: My God, &c Though fenfe and feeling fpeak as well as faith, yet faith speaks firft, My God, before tente fpeaks a word of his forfaking. His faith prevented the complaint of fenfe; and tho' fenle comes in afterwards with a word of complaint, yet here are two words of Faith to one of Sense: it is, "My God, my God," and but one word of forfaking. As his faith fpake first, fo it fpake twice, when fenfe and feeling fpake but once: yea, and as faith fpake firit, and twice as much as fenfe, fo it Spake more confidently than fenfe did. He lays a confident claim to God as his God; "My God, my God," and only queries about his forfaking of him, "Why haft thou forfaken me?" This is fpoken more dubiously, the former more confidently.

To be short, his faith laid hold on God, under a most fuitable title, or attribute, Eli, Eli, "my ftrong One, my strong "One." q. d. O thou, with whom is infinite and everlasting ftrength; thou that haft hitherto supported my manhood, and according to thy promife upheld thy fervant; what! wilt thou now forfake me? My ftrong One, I lean upon thee. To these fupports and refuges of faith this desertion fhut up Christ: By thele things he flood, when all other vifible and fenfible comforts fhrunk away, both from his foul and body. This is the true, though brief account of the nature and quality of Christ's desertion.

Secondly, In the next place, let us confider the defigns and ends of it; which were principally fatisfaction and fanctification: Satisfaction for thofe fins of ours which deferved that we should be totally and everlastingly forfaken of God. This is the defert of every fin, and the damned do feel it, and shall to all eternity: God is gone from them for ever, not effentially; the juft God is with them fill, the God of power is ftill with them, the avenging God is ever with them; but the merciful God is gone, and gone for ever. And thus would he have withdrawn himfelf from every foul that finned, had not Christ borne that punishment for us in his own foul: If he had not cried, 66

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My God,

my God, why haft thou forfaken me?" we must have howled out this hideous complaint in the loweft hell for ever, O righteous God! O dreadful! O terrible God! thou haft for ever forfaken me!

And as fatisfaction was defigned in this defertion of Chrift, fo alfo was the fanctification of all the desertions of the faints defigned in it. For he having been forsaken before us, and for us, whenever God foríakes us, that very forfaking of his is fanctified, and

thereby turned into a mercy to believers. Hence are all the precious fruits and effects of our desertions: such are the earnest excitations of the foul to prayer, Pfal, lxxvii. 2. Pfal. lxxxviii. 1, 9. The antidoting the tempted foul against fin. The reviving of ancient experiences, Pial. Ixxvii. 5. Enhancing the value of the divine prefence with the foul, and teaching it to hold Chrift fafter than ever before, Cant. iii. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Thefe, and many more, are the precious effects of fanctified defertion; but how many, or how good foever these effects are, they all owe themselves to Jefus Chrift, as the author of them; who, for our fakes, would pafs through this fad and dark state, that we might find thofe bleffings in it. So then, the Godhead's fufpending of all the effects of joy and comfort from the humanity of Chrift at this time, which had not ceafed to flow into it, in an ineffable measure and manner, till now, muft needs be, both a fpecial part of Christ's satisfaction for us, and, confequently, that which makes all our temporary desertions rather mercies, and bleffings, than curfes to us.

Thirdly, Let us, in the next place, confider the effects and influence this desertion had upon the fpirit of Christ.

And though it did not drive him to defpair, as the Papifts fallly charge Mr. Calvin to have affirmed; yet it even amazed him, and almost swallowed up his foul in the deeps of trouble and confternation. This cry is a cry from the deeps, from a fou! oppreffed even to death. Never was the Lord Jesus so put to it before it is a most astonishing outcry.

Let but five particulars be weighed, and you will fay, never was there any darkness like this; no forrow like Chrift's forrow, in his deferted ftate: For,

First, Apprehend, reader, this was a new thing to Christ, and that which he never was acquainted with before, From all eternity, until now, there had been conftant and wonderful outlets. of love, delight, and joy, from the bofom of the Father, into his bofom. He never missed his Father before: never faw a frown, or a vail, upon that bleffed face before. This made it an heavy burden indeed, the words are words of admiration and aftonithment; "My God, my God, why haft thou forfaken me?" thou that never didst so before, haft forfaken me now,

Secondly, As it was a new thing to Chrift, and therefore the more amazing, fo it was a great thing to Chrift; fo great, that he fcarce knew how to fupport it. Had it not been a great trial indeed, fo great a fpirit as Chrift's was, would never have fo drooped under it, and made fo fad a complaint of it. It was fo fharp, fo heavy an affliction to his foul, that it caused

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him, who was meek under all other sufferings as a lamb, to roar under this like a lion: for fo much those words of Christ signify, Pial. xxii. 1. 66 My God, my God, why haft thou forfaken me? Why art thou fo far from the voice of my roaring?" It comes from a root, that fignifies "to howl, or roar as a lion: and ra"ther fignifies the noile made by a wild beaft, than the voice of 86 a man *."

And it is as much as if Christ had said, O my God, no words can express my anguish: I will not speak, but roar, howl out my complaint; pour it out in vollies of groans: I roar as a lion. It is no mall matter will make that majestic creature to roar ; and, fure, so great a spirit as Christ's would not have roared under a flight burden.

Thirdly, As it was a great burden to Chrift, fo it was a burden. laid on in the time of his greateft diftress. When his body was in tortures, and all about him was black, difmal, and full of horror and darkness. He fell into this desertion at a time when he never had the like need of divine fupports and comforts, and that aggravated it.

Fourthly, It was a burden that lay upon him long, even from the time his foul began to be forrowful, and fore amazed, in the garden, till his very death. If you were but to hold your fioger in the fire for two minutes, you would not be able to bear it. But what is the finger of a man to the foul of Christ? Or what is material fire to the wrath of the great God!

Some

Fifthly, So heavy was this preffure upon Chrift's foul, that in all probability, it hastned his death; for it was not usual for crucified perfons to expire fo foon; and thofe that were cruci. fied with him, were both alive after Chrift was gone. have hanged more than a day and a night, fome two full days and nights, in those torments, alive; but never did any feel inwardly what Chrift felt. He bare it till the ninth hour, and then makes a fearful outcry, and dies. The ufes follow. Inference 1. Did God forfake Chrift upon the cross, as pu. nishment to him for our fins? Then it follows, That as often as we have finned, so oft have we deferved to be forsaken of God. This is the juft recompenfe and demerit of fin. And, indeed, here lies the principal evil of fin, that it feparates betwixt God and the foul. This feparation is both the moral evil that is in it, and the penal evil inflicted by the righteous God for it. By fin we depart from God, and, as a due punishment of it, God

Id quod rugitum vocat, non humanam, fed leoninam vocem fignificat. Bucer. in loc.

departs from us. This will be the difmal fentence in the laft day, Mat. xxv. "Depart from me, ye curfed " Thenceforth there will be a gulph fixed betwixt God and them, Luke xix. 20. No more friendly intercourfes with the bleffed God for ever. The eternal fhriek of the damned is, Wo and alas, God hath for faken us for evermore. Ten thoufand worlds can nowise recompenfe the lofs of one God. Beware finners, how you lay to God now, Depart from us, we defire not the knowledge of thy ways, left he fay, Depart from me, you shall never fee my face.

Inference 2. Did Christ never make fuch a fad complaint and outcry, till God hid his face from him? Then the hiding of God's face is certainly the greatest mifery that can poffibly befal a gracious foul in this world. When they fcourged, buffeted, and smote Chrift, yea, when they nailed him to the tree, he opened not his mouth; but, when his Father hid his face from him, then he cried out; yea, his voice was the voice of roaring: this was more to him than a thousand crucifyings. And, furely, as it was to Chrift, fo it is to all gracious fouls, the faddeft stroke, the heaviest burden that ever they felt. When David forbad Abfalom to come to Jerufalem, to fee his father, he complains in 2 Sam. xiv. 32. "Wherefore, (faith he), am I come from Geshur, if I may not fee the king's face?" So doth the gracious foul bemoan itfelf; Wherefore am I redeemed, called, and reconciled, if I may not fee the face of my God?

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It it is faid of Tully, when he was banished from Italy, and of Demofthenes, when he was banished from Athens, that they wept every time they looked towards their own country: and, Is it frange that a poor deferted believer should mourn every time he looks heaven-ward? Say, Chriftian, did the tears never trickle down thy cheeks, when thou lookeft towards hea ven, and couldft not fee the face of thy God, as at other times? If two dear friends cannot part, though it be but for a season, but that parting must be in a fhower; blame not the faints, if they figh and mourn bitterly when the Lord, who is the life of their life, depart, though but for a season, from them; for if God depart, their fweetest enjoyment on earth, the very crown of all their comforts is gone, and what will a king take in exchange for his crown? What can recompenfe a faint for the lofs of his God! Indeed, if they had never feen the Lord, or tafted the incomparable fweetnefs of his prefence, it were another matter; but the darknefs which follows the fweeteft light of his countenance, is double darkness.

And that which doth not a little increase the horror of this darkness is, that when their fouls are thus benighted, and the

fun of their comfort is fet; then doth Satan, like the wild beafts of the delart, creep out of his den, and roars upon them with hideous temptations. Surely this is a fad ftate, and deferves tender pity! Pity is a due debt to the diftreffed, and the world fhews not a greater diftrels than this. If ever you have been in troubles of this kind your felves, you will never flight others in the fame case: nay, one end of God's exercifing you with troubles of this nature, is to teach you compaffion towards others in the fame cafe. Do they not cry to you, as Job xix. 21. "Have pity, have pity upon me, O ye my friends, for the "hand of God hath touched me." Draw forth bowels of mercy and tender compaffion to them; for, either you have been, or are, or may be in the fame cafe yourselves: however, if men do not, to be fure Chrift, that hath felt it before them, and for them, will pity them.

Inference 3. Did God really forfake Jefus Chrift upon the cross? Then from the defertion of Chrift's, fingular confolation Springs up to the people of God; yea, manifold confolation: Principally it is a fupport in these two refpects, as it is preventive of your final defertion and a comfortable pattern to you in your prefent fad desertions.

First, Chrift's defèrtion is preventive of your final defertion : because he was forfaken for a time, you fhall not be forfaken for ever: for, he was forfaken for you and God's forfaking him, though but for a few hours, is equivalent to his forfaking you for ever. It is every way as much for the dear Son of God, the darling delight of his foul, to be forfaken of God for a time; as if fuch a poor inconfiderable thing as thou art, should be caft off to eternity. Now this being equivalent, and borne in thy room, muft needs give thee the highest fecurity in the world, that God will never finally withdraw from thee: had he intended to have done fo, Christ had never made fuch a fad outcry as you hear this day, "My God, my God, why hast "thou forfaken me?"

Secondly, Moreover, this fad defertion of Chrift becomes a comfortable pattern to poor deferted fouls in divers refpects: and the proper bufinels of fuch fouls, at fuch times, is to eye it believingly, in thefe fix refpects.

First, Though God deferted Christ, yet at the fame time he powerfully fupported him his omnipotent arms were under him, though his pleased face was hid from him: he had not indeed his fmiles, but he had his fupports So, Chriftian, juft fo fhall it be with thee: thy God may turn away his face, but he will not pluck away his arm. When one asked holy Mr.