Answ. That thou mightest not fry with the devil and damned souls.
Quest. But could not we have been saved if Christ had not died?
Answ. No; for without the shedding of blood there is no remission; and besides, there was no death that could satisfy God’s justice but His, which is evident, because there was none in a capacity to die, or that was able to answer an infinite God by His so suffering but He. 9
Quest. But why did God let Him die?
Answ. He standing in the room of sinners, and that in their names and natures, God’s justice must fall upon Him; for justice takes vengeance for sin wheresoever it finds it, though it be on His dear Son. Nay, God favoured His Son no more, finding our sins upon Him, than He would have favoured any of us; for, should we have died? so did He. Should we have been made a curse? so was He. Should we have undergone the pains of Hell? so did He.
Quest. But did He indeed suffer the torments of Hell?
Answ. Yea, and that in such a horrible way too, that it is unspeakable.
Quest. Could He not have suffered without His so suffering? Would not His dying only of a natural death have served the turn?
Answ. No, in nowise. [1]. The sins for which He suffered called for the torments of Hell; the conditions upon which He died did call for the torments of Hell; for Christ did not die the death of a saint, but the death of a sinner, of a cursed and damned sinner; because He stood in their room, the law to which He was subjected called for the torments of Hell; the nature of God’s justice could not bate Him anything; the death which He was to suffer had not lost its sting; all these being put together do irresistibly declare unto us that He, as a sacrifice, did suffer the torments of Hell (Gal 3:13). But, 2. Had He not died and suffered the cursed death, the covenant had been made void, and His Suretyship would have been forfeited, and, besides this, the world damned in the flames of Hell-fire; therefore, His being a sacrifice was one part of the covenant; for the terms of the covenant were that He should spill His blood. O blessed Jesus! O blessed grace! (Zech 9:10,11).
Quest. But why, then, is His death so slighted by some?