Meditation Sixteenth.
On Jesus suffering for our sins.
I. SEEING men lost in their sins, God was pleased to take pity on them; but his divine justice required satisfaction, and there was no one capable of making adequate satisfaction. On this account he sent his own Son, made man, into the world, and loaded him with all our offences: The Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all. Isa. liii. 6: so that he might pay our debt, satisfy divine justice, and save mankind. O eternal God, what more couldst thou have done to induce us to confide in thy mercy, and to attract our hearts to thy love, than give us even thy own Son? But how could I, after all that thou hast done for me, have been guilty of so many offences against thee? O my God, for the love of this thy Son, have pity on me. I am sorry above every evil for having offended thee. And though I have grievously offended thee, I desire to love thee with the greatest fervour; give me strength so to love thee.
II. The eternal Father having loaded his Son with all our crimes, was not content even with such satisfaction from him, as would have amply atoned for us all, but, as Isaias continues, The Lord was pleased to bruise him in infirmity, v. 10. He would nave him mangled to exhaustion, with scourges, thorns, nails, and torments, until he died of tortures on an infamous gibbet. If faith, O God, did not assure us of this excess of thy love towards men, who could possibly believe it? O God, worthy of all love permit us not to be any more ungrateful to thee. Enlighten and strengthen us to correspond with such immense love during the remainder of our lives; do this, we beseech thee, for the love of this thy Son, whom thou hast given to us.
