God's fellow, in this has fellowship with the Father, that the Father's sheep are his sheep; and his sheep are the Father's sheep and they are equally concerned and engaged in keeping the sheep; only Christ as mediator, is engaged for them as the Father's servant and commissioner; My shepherd. My shepherd.Now, thus much concerning the character of the person whom the sword of the Lord of Hosts must awake against: and, O if we had a view, by a saving faith, of this glorious one, God's shepherd, the man that is his fellow, God-man mediator, we could say no less than that he is white and ruddy, the chief among ten thousands. The white and red of his infinitely fair face would charm and allure us. Now,

II. The second thing, what for a sword must awake against this man? Why, in general, it is the sword of God's awful justice; which is metamorphically called a sword, because of its terrible, piercing, wounding, killing nature. Now the strokes of this sword are either mediate or immediate. I. Mediate, by the hands of men; particularly the sword of the civil magistrate : Or, 2. Immediate, by the hands of God himself, without the intervention of such outward means. Now, the sword of justice, that awaked against Christ, and smote the shepherd, is to be considered in both these respects; for his suffering, as our surety, by the stroke of justice's sword, was both external upon his body, and internal upon his soul.

(1.) There was his external sufferings in his body: and herein justice did strike more mediately by the hand of man, and especially in his severest bodily sufferings; justice did employ and make use of the sword of the civil magistrate. Magistrates have the sword of civil power and authority put into their hands, and they ought not to bear the sword in vain: they are a power which God has ordained, and armed with the sword for the punishment of malefactors; though this be the right use of the magistrate's sword, yet sometimes the magistrate makes unjust use of it; as in this

1

case, when the civil government, Herod, Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together against the holy child Jesus, Acts iv. 27. But whatever injustice was therein, on man's part, yet on God's part, impartial justice did therein act, while it did thereby bring about the death and sufferings of the surety, which the hand and counsel of God determined before to be done, Acts iv. 26.

(2.) There were his internal sufferings in his soul; and herein justice did strike more immediately; for, "It pleased the Lord to bruise him, and to make his soul an offering for sin," Isa. liii. 10. Thus the sword of justice was such as pierced both his soul and body. This two-edged sword was edged with the violence of earth, and with the fury of heaven; it was edged with the curse of the law, and with the wrath of God. But more particularly, what for a sword is this? O rouze up your ears and hearts to hear and consider what for a sword it was that awaked against the man that is God's fellow!

1. It is a broad sword; so broad that it covers all mankind, and hangs over all Christless sinners, who would all have fallen a sacrifice to it, unless Christ had come between them and it. When this sword did awake against Christ, he found it as broad as the curse denounced against mankind, upon the back of our fall in Adam, which you may read, that you may the better understand what the man that is God's fellow underwent, when he substitute himself in our room, and undertook to suffer the punishment due for our sins, the curse pronounced against Adam, and in him against all his posterity, and which, in all the parts of it, lighted upon Christ; you read of it generally Gen. ii. 17. "In the day thou eatest, thou shalt surely die; or, dying, thou shalt die; and more particularly, Gen. iii. 17, 18, 19. "Cursed is the ground for thy sake, in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the

ground, for out of it was thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." Where you see the curse has three parts. 1. The frailties and infirmities that human nature was subject to after the fall. 2. The calamities incident to man's life; " Thou shalt eat thy meat with the sweat of thy brows: thorns and thistles shall the ground bring forth." 3. Death; "Dust thou art, and to dust thou shalt return:" which has in it the death of the soul as well as the body. Here is an abridgment of all the curses of the Bible; and this broad sword must awake against the man that is God's fellow, and our surety, for this curse in all its parts seized upon him.

(1.) The first was the frailties and infirmities of human nature, a part of the curse: this seized upon Christ at his incarnation; for his body was of the dust like ours, subject to the like infirmities with ours; he took not on him our nature in its prime and glory, but after broken and shattered with the fall, Ron.. viii. 3. "He came in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in the flesh."

(2.) As to the calamities and miseries that attended man's life, this part of the curse seized on him also; he eat his bread with the sweat of his brows, when he followed the calling of an handicraftsman; and after he entered into his public ministry, he travelled from place to place, watched whole nights in prayer; and thus might be said truly to eat his bread with the sweat of his brows. As for other calamities never one met with more; the world denied him a lodging; the fig-tree denied him figs; he was blasphemed by his enemies, betrayed by one of his disciples, and forsaken by them all.

(3.) As for the death threatened in the curse; why dying, he died indeed; for the sword did run through his body and soul at once, when he endured the curse, and despised the shame; his body was sore tortured, and his soul was sore amazed, and very heavy, Mark xiv. 33. His bodily sufferings were extremely great, as you may see from the evangelists; and yet as nothing in comparison of his soul-sufferings, while he en

dured the wrath of God immediately upon his soul. Here was a broad sword indeed, as broad and extensive as all the curses of the law, all the wrath that the elect deserved for their sin; for God designed not to pass one of their sins, without a satisfaction made to justice, but to sue the cautioner for them all: O but he needed a broad back that could bear the shock of such a broad sword! Well, so he had; for he was God as well as man; "Awake O sword! against the man, my fellow."

2. It is a long sword: if we may so call it, infinite in length, from the point to the hilt of the sword: it is as long as eternity; and this makes the punishment of the damned eternal, because the sword of divine wrath, that pierces them, is so long, that it never can reach to the hilt, in such finite. worms as they are. The dura tion of the wrath and the curse is eternal; because the sinner, being a mere creature, cannot at one shock meet with the infinite wrath of God, and satisfy justice at once; therefore God supports the poor damned creature for ever under wrath; because it cannot, being finite, satisfy infinite justice: but one shepherd, being Godman, the man God's fellow; and therefore being of infinite worth and value, of infinite strength and power, was able to satisfy justice, and bear all at once, that which the elect could never have borne. Yet he met with the essentials of that which sin deserves, viz. death and the curse; the hiding of his father's face, and the suspending and keeping back of that consolation, which, by virtue of the personal union, flowed from the Godhead to the manhood; and also, hath the actual sense and feeling of the wrath of God; the awakened sword of the justice of God actually smiting him: so that, though men wondered how he could be dead so soon, not knowing what strokes to infinite justice he met with; yet these strokes lighting upon the like of him, the man God's fellow, was equivalent to the eternal punishments and torments of the damned.

3. It is a bloody and insatiable sword: this sword of justice was not satisfied with the blood of Sodom and

Gomorrha; it was not satisfied with the blood of the old world; it was not satisfied with the blood of bulls, goats, and all the legal sacrifices of old; yea, the blood of the whole creation cannot give it satisfaction, though it were bathed therein; without the shedding of more blood, better blood, there is no remission, no satisfaction to justice, no real satisfaction with God; no salvation of the sinner; therefore, "Awake, O sword, against the man that is my fellow:" till it be drunk with the blood of this man, it never gets a satisfying draught of blood. Well then, says this man, "Lo, I come!" let justice take a full draught of my blood: well, "Awake, O sword!" let the blood of this man, my fellow, be shed; shed at his circumcision, shed in the garden, shed in his being crowned with thorns, shed in his being scourged, shed in his crucifying; well, thus the blood of God's fellow was shed. What say you now, O sword of justice, are you pleased? Are you satisfied with blood? Yes, I have got my fill of blood; "This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased:" I am pleased and satisfied to the full with his obedience to the death I; have got all the satisfaction I wanted from my shepherd, and I have no more to demand of him, or his sheep either. O glory to God, that ever this bloody and insatiable sword did awake against one that could give it blood enough, satisfaction enough; and yet,

4. It is a dreadful, terrible, flaming, and devouring sword: so it is represented, Gen. iii. 24. where it is said "Cherubims were placed, and a flaming sword, which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life." The least flame of this sword of justice is enough to burn up the whole creation; and, O! how terrible will this sword be for ever to them that live and die in a Christless state! The dreadfulness of this sword is nowhere to be seen so lively as in its awaking against the man that was God's fellow: his human nature trembled at the sight of it; John xii. 27. "Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say?" He saw the dreadful storm coming, the black cloud arising, and so much wrath in it, that he knew not how to express himself,