1. The question springeth not out of doubting, or not knowing the cause of his sufferings, and of Gods dereliction and forsaking of him, as if some strange and unlooked for matter had befallen him. Far be it from us to think so! Jesus Christ knew that he was now under the curse of the Law, under the execution of Justice, under the wrath of God as our Surety. There be divers kinds of Rhetorical questions, in all discourses and writings, and many in the Scriptures, see a taste, if any please to turn to, 1 Pet. 4.17, 18. Rom. 8.35. 1 Cor. 12.29, 30. Psal. 2.1. and a thousand more. These are Rhetorical questions to express in a word some great matter, that would require many words to express it at large, nay, more then can be expressed or conceived. Such is this expostulatory question of Jesus Christ, when he was in the depths of misery, why hast thou forsaken me? to express the extreme dolour and bitter sense that he had of the Fathers dereliction of him, his Fathers forsaking him was the bitterest cup that ever he tasted. He tasted the vinegar cup of death, but one drop of this is more bitter then all their gall & vinegar; to teach man what a dreadful thing it is to be separated from God and to assure us that he did bitterly experience what it is: it is penal Hell. This question is to express the uttermost and deepest degree of desertion, next unto desperation, Psal. 22.11. trouble and anguish, and none to help. It is to express, that it is infinitely more deep then humane nature could have born, had it not been supported by the divine nature, unto which he was personally and inseparably united, he hung over, and looked down into the bottomless gulf of separation from God. This desertion was not total, nor final, neither could it be so, nor did it need to be so, because Justice was infinitely satisfied with that measure that it was. But it was to the uttermost degree next unto total, so much as it could be, or needed to be.
1. The question springeth not out of doubting, or not knowing the cause of his sufferings, and of Gods dereliction and forsaking of him, as if some strange and unlooked for matter had befallen him. Far be it from us to think so! Jesus Christ knew that he was now under the curse of the Law, under the execution of Justice, under the wrath of God as our Surety. There be divers kinds of Rhetorical questions, in all discourses and writings, and many in the Scriptures, see a tast, if any please to turn to, 1 Pet. 4.17, 18. Rom. 8.35. 1 Cor. 12.29, 30. Psal. 2.1. and a thousand more. These are Rhetorical questions to express in a word some great matter, that would require many words to express it at large, nay, more then can be expressed or conceived. Such is this expostulatory question of Jesus Christ, when he was in the depths of misery, why hast thou forsaken me? to express the extream dolor and bitter sense that he had of the Fathers dereliction of him, his Fathers forsaking him was the bitterest cup that ever he tasted. He tasted the vinegar cup of death, but one drop of this is more bitter then all their gall & vinegar; to teach man what a dreadful thing it is to be seperated from God and to assure us that he did bitterly experience what it is: it is penal Hell. This question is to express the uttermost and deepest degree of desertion, next unto desperation, Psal. 22.11. trouble and anguish, and none to help. It is to express, that it is infinitely more deep then humane nature could have born, had it not been supported by the divine nature, unto which he was p•rsonally and inseparably united, he hung over, and looked down into the bottomless gulf of seperation from God. This desertion was not total, nor final, neither could it be so, nor did it need to be so, because Justice was infinitely satisfied with that measure that it was. But it was to the uttermost degree next unto total, so much as it could be, or needed to be.
