given up His passible nature to the cruelty and malice of fierce
men, that they might waste it away and destroy it. For this reason,
therefore, He said, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?"
This word has besides an inward meaning, according to which Christ,
in His sensitive parts, complained to His Father that He had been
forsaken by Him. For as many as contend for His honour, and endure
patiently the troubles of this world, our merciful God so moderates
and tempers their crosses and afflictions by the inpouring of His
divine consolation, that by His sensible grace He makes their
crosses hardly felt; but He left His own beloved Son quite without
any comfort, and so deprived Him of all consolation and light, that
He endured as much in His human nature as had been ordained by the
Eternal Wisdom, according to the strictness of justice, as much as
was needed to atone for so many sins. And indeed our salvation was
the more nobly and perfectly achieved, in that it was done and
finished without any light at all, in absolute resignation and
abandonment. For a chief cause of the Passion was to show clearly
how great was the injury and insult brought upon His most high
Godhead by the sins of the human race. Now as the knowledge of
Christ was greater and more acute than that of all other beings, in
heaven or in earth, so much the greater and heavier was His sorrow
and agony. Nay more--what is more wonderful than anything--whatever
afflictions have been endured by all the saints, as members of
Christ, existed much more abundantly in Christ their Head; and this
I wish to be understood according to the spirit and reasonably. For
all the saints have suffered no more than flowed in upon them
through Christ, joined to them as His members, who communicated to
them His own afflictions. For He took upon Himself the afflictions
of all the saints, out of His great love for His members, and
wondrous pity, and He suffered far greater internal anguish than any