NUN.
I pass over several very interesting observations which might be offered on the verses in this portion, (for there is not a part of them but is well calculated to make our meditation sweet); but I pass them over to call the Reader's attention, and my own, to that very precious thought, contained in these expressions, as considered with reference to Jesus: Accept, I beseech thee, the free-will offering of my mouth. I beg that I may be clearly understood on this grand point. According to my apprehension, it is the willingness of Christ in his human nature, which is here spoken of, and which is highly proper to be considered, and well weighed and pondered in our thoughts; for it gives validity, importance, and efficacy, to the meritorious sacrifice. The human nature of Jesus, as distinct from the divine nature, had a distinct will also: for although, in the assumption of the human nature for the purposes of salvation, the Son of God coming into the world, putting his name among creatures, and entering into covenant engagements before the world began; though these purposes were solely in the acts and trans actions of the Persons of the Godhead, yet the free will and full consent of the human nature, when taken into union with the Son of God, and becoming one Christ by the junction of both, became necessary to make the offering of Christ's body a free-will sacrifice. Now, without enlarging on this subject, doth not such a view of Jesus in his human nature, thus speaking, and thus acting, refresh the soul? Thy law, saith Jesus, in another Psalm, is within my heart; not put there, but habitually there, formed there; or in a stronger expression, as the margin hath it, in the midst of my bowels. Psalms 40:8. Either of which phrases would be unsuitable, and indeed improper to be applied in the least respect to the divine nature, and can be only meant of the human. So that God's holy law is natural to his holy nature. And his zeal for that law made all his services, in the human nature as well as the divine, altogether free and voluntary. May my soul feel the blessedness of this view of Jesus! Here then is seen in our great Head and Husband, a holy nature, devoted to Jehovah. And such (by virtue of his people's union with him) are his people also. Hosea 2:19-20; Jeremiah 23:6; 1 Corinthians 1:30.