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ferent modes of the fame fituation. It is literally a noify pit, a well, or a bafon; in which, through the fall of waters, as from a breaking cataract or prominent cascade, there is a mighty noife. In allufion to which the pfalmift faid of himself, " Deep "calleth unto deep, at the noise of thy wateri fpouts; all thy waves and billows are gone over me," Pfal. xlii. 7. And as in the bottom of these caverns there is generally fuch a collection of mud and gravel, that one's feet has no folid foundation, upon which to reft; though a perfon literally in fuch fituation was able to bear the danger and inconveniency, arifing from the fall and noife of waters about him; he behoved, from the very nature of the things, to perifh; from the other circumftance, of the yielding bottom upon which he ftood. Thus the Meffiah is reprefented, as faying, "I fink in deep mire, where there is no standing," Pfal. Ixix. 2. Befides, from this striking figure, it would feem, that though the perfon in fuch perilous circumftances had a way through which he might make his escape; yet the mire, in which he dipt, was of fuch an entangling nature, fo tough and congealed, that it held him faft in proportion as it gave way: than which, nothing can exhibite a livelier, more fignificant picture of our Lord's forlorn circumstances in his human nature upon earth.

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SECT. I.

A pit into which, among men, criminals are caft, being a place of fhame, difgrace and contempt; this figure points out the Redeemer's affumption of our nature, and his appearing in the likeness of finful flesh, as, during his humiliation, a state of ignominy and fhame. The undertaking was truly

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noble, generous and divine. But as perfonating and representing finners; as ftanding in their lawroom and stead; he appeared in an ignoble point of light. He was confidered as if he had himself been a tranfgreffor; as if in perfon a law-breaker ; as if not only a finner, but the greatest and grossest of all finners; nay, confidered as if all the iniquities of all the ranfomed ones had been accumulated together in his perfon and character, as Man-Mediator. To this purpose, it was said of him, by the evangelical prophet, that " he was numbered "with the tranfgreffors," If. liii. 12. and accomplished in him, when he fuffered between two finners, as if more finful than either, as if a greater tranfgreffor than both. Nay, on this ftupenduous doctrine, the apostle fays more in one word, than "God we know language fully to open up.

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(fays he) hath made him to be fin for us," 2 Cor. v. 21. not only made him appear in the likenefs and character of a finner; but, as if all fin had met and concentered in his perfon, he made him fin, fet him in fuch a point of light, fubftitute him in the room of fuch a number of vile finners, that, in that abstracted view, nothing but fin, guilt and obligation to fufferings, punishment and death, appeared. Nor was our Lord only a finner, in way of fubftitution by the Father, and right of requifition by the law; but was accounted fuch by men, while he tabernacled with them upon earth; nay, was treated by them, as if not only a finful and worthless man, but as if a messenger detached from the conclave from below. This man is not of "God, (faid they at one time) because he keepeth "not the fabbath day," John ix. 16. We know, "(faith they, at another) that this man is a fin

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ner," verf. 24. again, faid they, "He hath a devil, "and is mad," John x. 20. and, at the concluding

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fcene of his fuffering, don't you hear them crying, "Away with him, away with him?" John xix. 15. as if a nufance, burden and peft to fociety, as if vile to fuch degree, that, the earth groaned underneath him. Of this, too, the Redeemer himfelf had fuch a feeling, fuch a delicate fenfe, that the prophet represents him as faying, "I am a "worm, and no man." Pfalm xxii. 6. accounted a mean, base, grovelling reptile; as is fit for nothing, but to be trampled upon, and trod under foot. How justly, then, is this fituation compared to a place of difgrace, as well as diftrefs?

Such a pit, having floods of water breaking continually in upon it, with impetuous rapidity, rushing down as from an immenfe precipice, gufhing forth, as from a hovering, diftended, burfti ng cataract or water fpout; ferves, elegantly ferves, to point out the terms in which men, finful men, ftand with God; and in which the Man Chrift, when doing and fuffering in their room, stood with his Father. Sin no fooner entered into the world, men were no fooner in the pit of tranfgreffion, than the clouds of wrath began to gather, and to hover above their guilty heads; now and then breaking out in a visible manner, as by the flood on the old world, by fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah, by the opening earth swallowing up Korah and his unhappy affociates. And, as the clouds of wrath, in particular inftances, broke out in a visible manner; fo, fince the fall, they have continued to discharge themselves in a real, though infenfible way, upon the workers of iniquity, in all these pains and perils, in all that distress and danger, with which a present state is so imbittered; and to discharge themfelves upon the finally impenitent, in the fucceffive damnation of their refpective fouls. But never did those clouds of wrath gather to fuch an awful

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head, never did they wear fuch a louring afpect, nor fall with equal intrepidity and vengeance, as when the Man Chrift, in the room of finners, was the object upon whom they were levelled, and against whom they were directed. In pouring out his wrath upon particular perfons, cities, focieties or nations; Jehovah, the God of truth, punished them indeed, but punished them only for their own iniquities whereas, in reckoning with the Mediator, though the Father faw no iniquity in himself to punish him for, he had countlefs vials of inexpreffible wrath to pour out upon him; not for the fins of one perfon, or city, or nation, or generation; but for the whole fins of a whole elect world. Whence he pronounces fentence against him, confidered as our furety, in these surprising, these amazing terms; "Awake, O fword, against my shepherd,

and against the man that is my fellow, faith the "Lord of hofts: fmite the fhepherd," Zech. xiii. 7. In execution of this tremenduous fentence, "The Lord (actually) laid on him the iniquity "of us all," If. liii. 6. i. e. the wrath due to the manifold iniquity of all the ranfomed ones; and, under the dreadful conflict, our Lord himself is reprefented as faying, "The waters are come in into my foul," Pfal. lxix. 1. O firs, if the wrath of God, poured out into the foul of one finner, for his own fins only, makes fuch a hell of anguish and mifery; what a hell must the Man Christ have gone through, under the weight of all the wrath due to thousands, and ten thousands; nay, under the load of all the wrath, due to fuch "a great multitude

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as no man can number!" But vaft as his hell of wrath behoved to be; "furely he hath born our griefs, and carried our forrows; he was wounded "for our tranfgreffions, he was bruised for our " iniquities, the chaftifement of our peace was up

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"on him; and by his ftripes we are healed," If. liii. 4, 5. Thefe clouds of wrath, thofe cataracts of vengeance, broke out upon him, in his foul and body, in his life and death: and though there was no period of his humiliation, in which he was not bearing as well as doing, fomething, in the room of finners; yet there were particular feafons, in which he was more remarkably overwhelmed by the wrath of God. Now, we find " his foul exceeding for"rowful, even unto death;" then, we fee him fweating great drops of blood;" and again, we hear him crying unto a hiding Father, and groaning after a forfaking God.

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As, in fuch a pit, the ears of the forlorn prifoner are continually filled, and his heart perpetually alarmed, with the noife of thefe falling waters; and with the breaking of thofe impending clouds, ready to burft in with redoubled force; fo, the humbled state, was noify, an horrible pit, to Jefus Chrift. In it he heard the curfes of the holy law; the demands of his Father's juftice, thundered, as from mount Sinai, against him. Taken by the throat, as his people's furety and cautioner, he practically heard these alarming founds, "Pay what thou "oweft." He heard likeways a noise from earth, while men fet their mouths against him, in ftrains of irony and contempt; "All they that fee me laugh me to fcorn, they fhoot out the lip, they shake the "head; many bulls have compaffed me about, ftrong bulls of Bashan have beset me round; they

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gaped upon me with their mouths, as a gaping "and a roaring lion," Pfal. xxii. 7, 12, 13. "When I "wept and chaftened my foul with fafting, that was "to my reproach; I made fackcloth alfo my garment, " and I became a proverb to them; they that fit in "the gate speak against me, and I was the fong of "the drunkards," Pfal. Ixix. 10, 11, 12. Nor did

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