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tion does the sword of justice give the bloody stroke to this glorious person?" It pleased the Lord to bruise him and put him to grief." Isa. liii. 10. Why, how is this consistent with the ineffable love he had to his eternally beloved? Yes, most consistent; for the Father loved the Son in dying, and for dying; John x. 17. "Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again." He loved his Son for this very act of obedience which he yielded to him: Christ's obedience to the death was the highest and most acceptable worship and service to God, that ever was, or ever will be; it is a sacrifice of such a sweet smell that it drowned the stink of all the sins of an elect world; a sacrifice more pleasing to God than all their sins were displeasing: and therefore, with infinite pleasure and satisfaction, he says, “Awake, O sword.” This leads me to

IV. The fourth thing proposed, What special hand JEHOVAH the Lord of hosts had in making this awful sword to awake against this glorious person?" Awake, O sword, saith the Lord of hosts." It was the Lord of hosts, the eternal Father of this eternal Son, that mustered the hosts of vengeance against him, and had the main and principal hand in Christ's sufferings, which we are to commemorate this day. JEHOVAH's hand was supreme in this business; and that in these four respects.

1. It was JEHOVAH, the Lord of hosts, that determined all beforehand, and agreed with his Son for that effect. It was concluded in the counsel of God what he should suffer, what should be the price that JEHOVAH would have, and the sacrifice he would accept of from his hands. It was not the Jews, nor the scribes and Pharisees, nor Pilate, but principally it was the Lord's doing, and the accomplishment of his eternal counsel, Acts iv. 27, 28. "Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel were gathered together, to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done." In all they

were doing they did nothing, but what was carved out before in the eternal counsel of God: and therefore says Peter, Acts ii. 23. "Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain."

2. As he, the great JEHOVAH, the Lord of hosts, determined, that the sword should awake against him, so he prepared the subject capable to receive the stroke of justice's sword; Heb. x. 5. "A body hast thou prepared me." He gave him a nature, a soul and body capable of suffering: the stroke of justice fell only upon the man Christ, upon his human nature; though the dignity of his divine person did infinitely enhance the merit of his sufferings; yet his divine person, his divine nature was never reached, nor reachable, by the sword of jus-` tice; the eternal word was untangible and incapable of suffering, till the word was made flesh. Now, this flesh, this human nature, he prepared.

3. It was JEHOVAH, the Lord of hosts, that ordered and over-ruled all his sufferings, when it came to the execution of his ancient decree. He who governs all the counsels, thoughts, and actions of men, did, in a special manner, govern and over-rule the sufferings of the mediator. Though wicked men were following their own designs, and were stirred and acted by the devil, who is said to have put it into the heart of Judas to betray Christ; yet God had the ordering of all, who should betray him; what death he should die; how he should be pierced; and yet not a bone of him broken.

4. It was JEHOVAH, the Lord of hosts, that had an active hand in reaching the stroke to Christ; he was the chief party that pursued Christ with the sword of justice in his hand: "It pleased the Lord to bruise him, and to put him to grief." It was he that was exacting the elect's debt of him; and therefore Christ looked over Pilate and Herod, and all the wicked instruments used in this work, as of no consideration in this matter; he looked over them to the Lord JEHOVAH his Father, and says to the chief of them, Pilate, (that cowardly

self-condemned judge) "Thou couldst have no power over me, except it were given thee from above." It was this interest that his Father had in his sufferings that made him say, John xviii. 11. "The cup which my Father hath given me shall I not drink it?" His Father pursued him as cautioner in our room; and to his Father he cries when the sword was running through his heart; My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken. me?" He spared not his own Son, when he cried, but would have him drink out the bitter cup to the bottom: "Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts; smite the shepherd." The message comes from him, and he gave the sword a charge, and orders it to smite him: it was this more than the whips, the thorns, the nails, the spear, that made him cry out. Another and a higher hand brought his soul to more bitterness, than all the sufferings he endured from men. Thus his soul was crucified more than his body; and his heart had sharper nails to pierce it than his hands and feet.

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V. The fifth thing, viz. The reasons of the doctrine; Why the Lord of hosts ordered the sword of justice to awake against his shepherd, the man that is his fellow? Surely it was necessary, that the sword should awake against him, "Ought not Christ to have suffered these things?" says our Lord himself, Luke xxiv. 26. However innocent he was in himself; yet our sins, which were laid upon him, deserved to be thus treated; and therefore he, as our surety, who had the guilt of the world lying upon him, says, Psal. Ixix. 5. "O God, thou knowest my foolishness: and my wickedness, is not hid from thee:". These are the words of Christ, of whom David was a type. He had enough of sin imputatively; and our sins had never been expiated, our judge never atoned, our souls never saved, our state never secured, justice never satisfied, the bond never cancelled, if the sword had not awaked against him. Ought he not then to have suffered the stroke of the sword? Yea, he gave his oath for it to his Father

from eternity; and all the promises, prophecies, types, and sacrifices of old pointed out this. God was ready to come down with fury in his heart, and red-hot thunder-bolts in his hand, to sink all mankind to hell: and ought not Christ to suffer and interpose? Yea, glory to God that he did. But more particularly,

1. The Lord of hosts the Rector of the universe, designed by this method to rectify what was out of course, by the sin of man, and to bring all things to rights. By the fall, the universal frame suffered a convulsion: the covenant of works was broken; the devil was reigning, and raging in the earth; and all the honour of God's workmanship, in the first creation, was like to be lost. Now, the supreme Rector comes with the sword of justice to rectify these disorders, by drenching his sword in the blood of his eternal Son. Was the covenant of works broken? Behold here is the condition of it fulfilled, by his active and passive obedience; yea, both the two covenants, of works and of grace, were at once fulfilled in his obedience to the death: this is the proper condition of each of these covenants. Was the devil reigning and raging on the earth? Behold! by this blow of justice's sword, given to Christ, the devil and all our spiritual enemies are destroyed; "For this cause was the Son of God manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil." Hence, when Christ is lifted up upon the cross, receiving the stroke of justice's sword, it is said, "Now is the judgment of this world; now is the prince of this world cast out, John xii. 31. By death he destroyed him that had the power of death; that is, the devil." By the bruise of his heel, his human nature, he broke the serpent's head and his power. Again, was all the honour and beauty of God's workmanship like to be lost? Behold, the man that is God's fellow sustaining the stroke of JEHOVAH'S Sword, restores all; Psal. Ixix. 4. "Then restored I that which I took not away." What was taken away? why, the devil, Adam, and Eve took away the glory due to God, the obedience due to the law, and the happiness that belonged to man in his first creation. Well, says Christ, it is much to bring them all back again; but I

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will do it, though I took them not away. I will restore to man his happiness; he has lost the favour of God, I will restore it in justification; he has lost the image of God, I will restore it, in regeneration; he has lost the fellowship of God, I will restore it, being God's Fellow: I will bring them to fellowship with God, by sustaining the stroke of the sword which they should have sustained for ever. I will restore to the law its due obedience; yea, I will magnify the law, and make it honourable, by my obedience to it, in so much that the Lord of Hosts shall be well pleased for my righteousness sake; and so I will restore to God the honour and glory that he lost by the sin of man.

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2. Reason, why the Lord of Hosts made the sword of justice to awake and smite his Shepherd, the man that is his Fellow? Why that thus he might get all his divine attributes glorified in the highest. Glory to God in the highest," was the song of angels when he appeared in our nature, to receive this awful stroke, God's honour was not more impaired and embezzled by the sin of man, than it was restored and repaired by the death of Christ. If all mankind, and all the angels with them, had fallen a sacrifice to the sword of divine 'justice, it could not have repaired the honour of God for one sin: though they had all been offered up in one whole burnt-offering, it could not have satisfied infinite justice; yea, though they had all been damned in hell, to all eternity, justice could never have got full satisfaction. But here is justice glorified to the highest; By one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified;" and at the same time vindicated the spotless holiness and righteousness of God, that it may be known that God is holy and just, who will needs avenge sin in his own Son, the holy and innocent cautioner, when he interposes in the sinner's room. This is the declared design of God's awakening the sword of justice against Christ; Rom. iii. 25. "Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation for sin, through faith -in his blood, to declare his righteousness, that he might be just, and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus.”

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