even the heathen reckoned it an unpropitious omen, if the animal showed any reluctance. In all that he did to make atonement for sin, Jesus manifested no degree of reluctance. At every step we meet with evidence of the most perfect willingness. To the proposal in the eternal covenant he gave his cheerful consent, Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire, burnt-offering and sin-offering hast thou not required. Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God; yea, thy law is within my heart.** It was the same spirit that dictated the well-known reply to his mother, when yet young,- How is it that ye sought me? Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business.'† At a later period he said, 'I lay down my life: no man (oidsìs, no one) taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. In no instance did he manifest the slightest symptom of backwardness. The inspired writers speak of him as submit. ting to every suffering with a fixed determination of purpose which nothing could shake. 'He gave his back to the smiters and his cheeks to them that plucked off the hair-He gave himself a ransom for all-He gave him. self for us- He bowed his head and gave up the ghost.'§ 6 His death was as voluntary as any part of his suffer. ings. The Roman soldiers, indeed, were employed in crucifying him; and this instrumentality was necessary to prevent his being involved in the guilt of suicide. But we err egregiously if we suppose that, notwithstanding of this, he died otherwise than voluntarily. I lay down my life; no one taketh it from me,' is his own unequivocal and emphatic language. He died, neither from disease nor exhaustion. Just before he expired, he had strength enough to cry with a loud voice, It is finished.' He could then, or at any other moment, had it so pleased him, have stepped down from the cross, to the confusion of those who assailed him with the bitter taunt,If thou be the Christ, come down from the cross and save thyself.' But, then, the scriptures should not have been fulfilled, nor the redemption of man have been effected. Nevertheless, his own decisive words, as well as the fact of his divinity, * Psal. xl. 6-8. † Luke ii. 49. 6 John x. 17, 18. § Is. 1. 6; 1 Tim. ii. 6; Eph. v. 25; John xix. 30. leave us without a doubt that, had he not cheerfully given it up of his own accord, earth or hell could not have wrung from him his life. Neither could cruel men, nor hellish hosts have borne off his body in triumph to the grave, had he not freely resolved to descend into the tomb. The very time of his death was that of his own choice; for neither could the barbarities of his persecutors precipi. tate, nor the lingering punishment of crucifixion protract it beyond the period in which he determined himself to yield up the ghost; and, accordingly, when the soldiers came to break his legs, they found that he was dead already. The voluntary nature of the Saviour's death, it may here be remarked by the way, affords a strong argument in proof of the divinity of his person, and also of the spot. less innocence of his humanity. Had he been a creature, even a super-angelic creature, brought into being for the purpose of dying for us, his death could not have been said to be voluntary. Much less could this be said if his human nature had been in any sense sinful, for then he must have died of necessity, not of free-will; he must have died, as has been said, by the common property of flesh to die because it was accursed in the loins of our first parents,' and then the doctrine of atonement with all its comforting influences, must have been given up. This willingness of Christ to suffer and to die, was not the result of ignorance. A person may thoughtlessly en. gage to submit to treatment, of the amount of which he may not, at the moment of engagement, be aware; and, when the reality comes to be known, he may, from the force of honour or some such principle, persevere in his determination to suffer. But such suffering could scarcely be called voluntary. Such, at all events, was not that of Christ. He knew, from the first, the full amount of what he was to endure. It was, with the perfect knowledge of all that should befall him in the Jewish capital, that 'he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem.** It was, knowing every bitter ingredient that was infused into the mingled chalice of woe, that he said, 'The cup which my Father hath given me shall I not drink it.' It was, with a full understanding of all the terrors with which that cloud of Jehovah's wrath was charged which was soon to burst in awful vengeance on his head, that he magnanimously exclaimed, 'I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I straitened till it be accomplished." It was no sudden impulse of transient enthusiasm which moved the Son of God to undertake the work of our redemption. It was no momentary movement of generous pity, which the experience of difficulties and dangers might cool or extirpate. No. It was a settled and immovable purpose, which time and obstacles only served to strengthen and confirm. In. stead of shrinking from dangers, and seeking excuses for desisting from his expressed determination, his fortitude seemed to gather power in proportion as he approached the final scene of complete woe; and, it is remarkable, that the only occasion on which he ever used language that might be said to indicate a degree of intemperate feeling, was when an attempt was made to dissuade him from suf. fering. On representing to his disciples that he must go up to Jerusalem and suffer many things, Peter presumed to expostulate with him, saying, 'Be it far from thee, Lord : this shall not be unto thee; but he turned and said unto Peter, 'Get thee behind me, Satan; thou art an offence unto me for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.'t From all this it appears, that the work of Christ, in giving himself up to suffer and die for us, was strictly voluntary. In no step of that glorious undertaking, was he constrained by any thing but his own free will and matchless love. It was a high act of sovereign grace; not a boon forcibly wrung from a reluctant benefactor. To deny this, is to destroy altogether its efficacy. It is of the utmost importance for us to know,' as has been beautifully observ. ed, that through every step of the painful process through which he passed, the benefits derived to us by his sufferings, were not by constraint wrung from him, but willingly purchased for us, that he was not bound to endurance by the iron chain of his own fallen and sinful personal constitution, but by the golden chain of that love to God whose glorious perfections he was manifesting to the universe, and of that love to men through whose salvation he was making the manifestation, which no waters could quench, and no floods could drown.'+ * Luke xii. 50. + Matt. xvi. 22, 23. + Dods, p. 126. VI. There is one ingredient still necessary. It is of such essential importance as to have been supposed by many to be all that is requisite. In a compensatory arrangement, such as the atonement is, both parties must be voluntary. Not only must the one party be willing to make the compensation; the other must be willing to accept of it when made. The appointment of the Father is no less important than the voluntary engagement of the Son; and this, we have now to state, is a prerequisite to validity which the work of Christ distinctly possessed. The necessity of divine appointment will appear, if it is considered, that God, being the party offended by man's sin, had a right to determine whether sin should be pardoned at all, and if, to be pardoned, on what ground. It was not enough, that a person heroic and benevolent enough should be found, to offer to substitute himself in the place of the guilty. To the offended sovereign does it belong to determine whether the proposed substitution shall serve all the ends of justice. Of this He is the only judge. And, supposing him satisfied on this point, it is still a part of his sovereign prerogative to determine whether he shall be pleased to accept of this, or shall insist that the penalty be inflicted on the person offending. To say otherwise, is to hold the monstrous opinion, that the Almighty could be compelled to adopt a line of procedure pointed out by another. In short, the acceptance of commutative satisfaction is such a deviation from the ordi. nary course of legislative wisdom, that none but the sovereign legislator himself is qualified to say when it may be wise and proper to put forth so high an exertion of the dispensing power. The power of dispensing, in any parti cular, with the laws, can reside only in him who has the power of making the laws. Now, in the case before us, there is a dispensing with the letter of the law as far as it requires the personal punishment of the offender. It is thus clear as noon-day that, had not God voluntarily consented to accept of the sufferings of Christ, these sufferings, however otherwise precious, could have been of no avail. They might have been rejected, as an unauthorized interference with the regular flow of legislative procedure. No security could have existed for their ever being accept. ed. Intrinsically valuable though they were, they might have been relatively worthless; and, as regards the grand design of appeasing the wrath of God, the precious blood of Christ might have been as water spilt upon the ground. The evidence that the sacrifice of Christ was appointed by God is happily as satisfactory as the necessity for the appointment is indispensable. In giving himself for our sins that he might redeem us from the present evil world, he acted according to the will of God, even our Father.** It was, in consequence of no fortuitous concurrence of circumstances, or private overture of benevolence, that Jesus died, but from being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God.'t The character in which he suffered was stamped with the authority of a divine delegation,' I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was.' At the very time that he claims for himself the character of entire self-devotement, he fails not to point distinctly to his commission from above, I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.'§ Just before entering on the final scene of woe to which so much importance is attached, did he say, 'As the Father gave me commandment so I do; arise, let us go hence.'|| Not less decisive is the testimony of the apostles. Whom,' says Paul, God hath set forth (foreor. dained, polero) to be a propitiation through faith in his blood.'T For of a truth,' says Peter, against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together, for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.' And again, Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold-but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world.*** In beautiful harmony with these testimonies is the descriptive language of the beloved disciple, The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.'tt Thus does it fully appear that, in making atonement for our sins, Jesus acted, not only with the full consent, but under the high commission of God. He it was who awaked, by his vindictive call, the fiery sword of · * Gal. i. 4. § John x. 18. † Acts ii. 23. **Acts iv. 27, 28; 1 Pet. i. 19, 20. Prov. viii. 23. T Rom. iii. 25. tt Rev. xiii. 8. |