came out of the womb clothed with the white robe of innocency, and he never contracted one black spot on that fair robe of the highest image of God from the womb to the grave, and therefore there was no fhame fundamentally in Christ. 66 2. There is fhame formally in fin: and that, first, In being ashamed actively. Secondly, In bearing of fhame paffively. In the former confideration, because fin is a fhameful thing in itself, Jer. xi. 13. There is an internal blushing, and fhame arifing from fin; the confcience of the finner (if it be not cauterized) thinking ill of fin, and efteeming itself bafe in doing it, Rom. vi. 21." What fruit had you in those things whereof you are now afhamed?" So Chrift thought ill of fin, and esteemed the creature bafe in finning. 2. Chrift our Lord being our Surety, though he could not be afhamed of any fin he did himself, yet being made fin for us, he did bear the fhame of our fin: and thus he was not free from shame paffively, as it is a punishment of fin, Ifa. 1. 6. "I gave my back to the fmiters, and "my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid "not my face from fhame and spitting," Heb. xii. 2. “He endured the cross, defpifing the fhame." So then in thefe refpe&ts, Chrift did bear our fhame. 1. In that, though he was the Lord of glory, and "thought it no robbery to be equal with the Father," yet he abafed himself to become man: yea, the lowest of men, a fervant, Phil. ii. 6, 7, 8. Matt. xx. 28. Ifa. xlix. 7. 2. All the tokens of reproach and fhame were on his fufferings: as, 1. In geftures: they put a crown of thorns on his head, and a reed for a fceptre in his hand, to mock his kingly power. They faluted him with mocks, and bowing the knee to him. 2. In words: They cried out, " Hail, King of the "Jews:" They fcorned his prophetical dignity, when they they blindfolded him, faying, "Prophefy who it is that fimcte them." And to deride his priesthood, they put a robe on him: and when he was on the cross offering himfelf as our prieft in a facrifice to God, all that paffed by, wagged their heads, and shot out their lips, faying," He trufted in God, let him deliver him,” &c. Then did they spit in his face, which in the law was a great fhame, Deut. xxv. 9, 50. Job xxx. 10. 3. His death was fhameful, the death of a thief and robber: fo it is called Chrift's reproach, Heb. xiii. 13. "Let us go forth bearing his reproach." It was a fhameful thing to see the Lord of glory, bearing his own crofs on his back, and all the children and base ones of the city wondering at him, and crying out upon him. This is called the reproach, or fhame of Chrift, Heb. xi. 26. Pfal. xxii. ́ ́. 4. They shamed him in pulling off his garments, and fcourging him, as Jer. xiii. 26. They brought him bound to Pilate as if he had been a common thief, Mat. xxvi. 2. Hence Ifa. liii. 3. "He was defpifed, and 66 rejected of men and we hid as it were our faces "from him." He had all fhame put upon him: He was branded as the greatest thief of the three: He went out at the gate of life bleeding, pained, curfed, fhamed, forfaken, defpifed, and mocked. Even the fun feemed to be ashamed to fee its Creator in fo painful a condition, and therefore hid its head. The third character which was engraven on Christ's death, was the curfe of God. Now the curse that Christ was made, was, 1. The Lord's pronouncing him a curse, Deut. xxi. 23. "Curfed is he that hangeth on a tree;" which Paul applies to Christ, Gal. iii. 10, 13. This indeed was a ceremonial curse; but had a special relation to Christ, who was under a real and moral curse. 2. God's devoting and fetting him apart in his eternal counsel for suffering the punishment of fin. 64 The Life and Death of our Blessed LORD, &c. 66 66 3. The difhonour that was put upon him; and fo was Christ under a curse, Pfal. xxii. 7. "He was a worm and no man," Ifa. liii. 3. The leaft of men : the contempt and refuse of men, Acts iv. 11. "The "stone rejected by the builders." Hanging is the death of the poorest and basest of men: and thus was Christ used, Acts v. 30. "Whom ye flew and hanged on a tree," Acts ii. 23. "Whom by wicked hands "ye have crucified and flain." Hanging is more than flaying: it is putting him to a bafe death that is curfed of God and man: and this to be inflicted on a king lineally defcended of the blood royal, the kingly tribe of Judah the only man on earth that by birth and law had title to the crown of Judea, was the worst that men or devils could do. : Edin-Printed by- FINI S. |