The safety of appearing at the day of judgement, in the righteousness of Christ

1. It was great love that God should send his son to endure such sore sufferings for us; it was much that God should condescend upon any account that his Son should undergo such sufferings: it was a great thing that God should be willing that Christ should be brought into such a condition, when we consider the glorious excellency of his person, and the dear love of the Father to him, it may well be admired by us that God should find in his heart to put him upon such sufferings: we may well conclude that those persons for whose sakes all this was, were greatly beloved of God, that the heart of God was mightily concerned in their good: it was a great thing for the glorious Son of God to suffer any thing, much more to bear what he did: his suffering was very great, he was a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief, Isa. 53.4.

1. He suffered much pain, though many men have endured more, yet it was a great deal that the Son of God endured: especially when he was cruelly scourged, and after that crucified; that manner of death was exquisitely painful, Psal. 22 16. they pierced my hands and my feet: the nailing of his body ⟨p. 74⟩to the cross, and the weight of his body being born by those wounded parts for so many hours, could not be without exquisite pain: he expresses it by his bones being out of joint, Psal. 22.14. it must needs be a terrible torture, because persons that were crucified, was not wont to be very long in that condition before they dyed. The suddenness of their death could not be from the mere effusion of blood, but the exquisiteness of their pain contributed much to it. 2. He suffered much disgrace, he endured all manner of indignities from men: he of whom God said, let all the Angels of God worship him; subjected himself to great contempt: they flouted at him, mocked him, made themselves sport in abusing him, spit on him; yea, the punishments that were inflicted on him were very disgraceful, such as were wont to be inflicted on the basest of men: the death of the cross was a shameful death; his enemies studied to render him vile and contemptible; the Heathens were wont afterwards to upbraid the christians with their crucified God. 3. He suffered much inward trouble, not only from the sense he had of his outward troubles, and from the temptations of the Devil, but also from Gods withdrawing the sense of his savour, & putting into him the sense of his wrath: the fiery wrath of God typified by that fire from heaven that consumed the sacrifices, took hold of him: as believers have great inward peace of conscience arising from his righteousness: so had he great inward sorrow arising from the guilt of our sins, he tells his Disciples, that his soul was very sorrowful and very heavy, even unto death,