Chapter XXVI.
Of the matter of the punishment that Christ underwent, or what he suffered.
Having despatched this digression, I return again to the consideration of the death of Christ as it was a punishment, which shall now be pursued unto its issue.
The third thing proposed to consideration on this account, was the matter of this punishment that Christ underwent, which is commonly expressed by the name of his “death.”
Death is a name comprehensive of all evil, of what nature or of what kind soever, — all that was threatened, all that was ever inflicted on man. Though much of it falls within the compass of this life, and short of death, yet it is evil purely on the account of its relation to death and its tendency thereunto; which when it is taken away, it is no more generally and absolutely evil, but in some regard only.
The death of Christ, as comprehending his punishment, may be considered two ways: 1. In itself; 2. In reference to the law.
On the first head I shall only consider the general evident concomitants of it as they lie in the story, which are all set down as aggravations of the punishment he underwent; on the latter I shall give an account of the whole in reference to the law:—
1. Of death natural, which in its whole nature is penal (as hath been elsewhere evinced), there are four aggravations, whereunto all others may be referred: as, — (1.) That it be violent or bloody; (2.) That it be ignominious or shameful; (3.) That it be lingering and painful; (4.) That it be legal and accursed. And all these to the height met in the death of Christ.
(1.) It was violent and bloody: hence he is said to be, — [1.] Slain, Acts ii. 23, Ἀνείλετε, “Ye have slain;” [2.] Killed, Acts iii. 15, Ἀπεκτείνατε, “Ye have killed;” [3.] Put to death, John xviii. 31, 32; [4.] Cut off, Dan. ix. 26.
The death of Christ and the blood of Christ are on this account in the Scripture the same. His death was by the effusion of his blood, and what is done by his death is still said to be done by his blood. And though he willingly gave up himself to God therein as he was a sacrifice, yet he was taken by violence and nailed to the cross as it was a punishment; and the dissolution of his body and soul was by a means no less violent than if he had been most unwilling thereunto.
(2.) It was ignominious and shameful.1 Such was the death of the cross, — the death of slaves, malefactors, robbers, pests of the earth and burdens of human society, like those crucified with him. Hence he is said to be “obedient unto death, the death of the cross,” Phil. ii. 8, that shameful and ignominious death. And when he “endured the cross,” he “despised the shame” also, Heb. xii. 2. To be brought forth and scourged as a malefactor amongst malefactors in the eye of the world, made a scorn and a by-word, men wagging the head and making mouths at him in derision, when he was full of torture, bleeding to death, is no small aggravation of it. Hence the most frequent expression of his death is by the cross, or crucifying.
(3.) It was lingering. It was the voice of cruelty itself concerning one who was condemned to die, “Sentiat se mori,’ — “Let him so die that he may feel himself dying;” and of one who, to escape torture, killed himself, “Evasit,’ — “He escaped me.” Sudden death, though violent, is an escape from torture. Such was this of Christ. From his agony in the garden, when he began to die (all the powers of hell being then let loose upon him), until the giving up of the ghost, it was from the evening of one day to the evening of another; from his scourging by Pilate, after which he was under continual pain and suffering in his soul and in his body, to his death, it was six hours; and all this while was he under exquisite tortures, as, on very many considerations, might easily be made manifest.
(4.) It was legal, and so an accursed death. There was process against him by witness and judgment. Though they were, indeed, all false and unjust, yet to the eye of the world his death was legal, and consequently accursed: Gal. iii. 13, “Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree,” — that is, because of the doom of the law, whose sentence is called a curse, Deut. xxi. 23. Such was that of Christ, Isa. liii. 4.
2. As all these aggravations attended his death as it was death itself, so there was a universality in all the concernments of it as it was a legal punishment. Briefly to give some instances:—
(1.) There was a universality of efficient causes, whether principal or instrumental. The first great division of causes efficient is into the Creator and the creatures; and both here concurred:—