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value, of infinite ftrength and power, was able to fatisfy justice, and bear all at once, that which the elect could never have borne. Yet he met with the effentials

of that which fin deferves, viz. death and the curfe; the hiding of his Father's face, and the fufpending and keeping back of that confolation, which, by virtue of the perfonal union, flowed from the Godhead to the manhood; and alfo, had the actual fenfe and feeling of the wrath of God; the awakened fword of the juice of God actually fmiting him: fo that, though men wondered how he could be dead fo foon, not knowing what firoaks of infinite juftice he met with; yet these ftroaks 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 infatiable fword: this fword of juftice was not fatisfied with the blood of Sodom and Gomorrah; it was not fatisfied with the blood of the old world; it was not fatisfied with the blood of bulls, goats, and all the legal facrifices of old; yea, the blood of the whole creation cannot give it fatif faction, though it were bathed therein; without the fhedding of more blood, better blood, there is no remiffion, no fatisfaction to juftice, no real fatisfaction with God; no falvation of the finner; therefore, "Awake, O fword, against the man that is my Fellow:" till it be drunk with the blood of this man, it never gets a fatisfying draught of blood, Well then, fays this man, "Lo, I come!" let juftice take a full draught of my blood: well," Awake, O fword let the blood of this man, my Fellow, be thed; fhed at his circumcifion, fhed in the Garden, fhed in his being crowned with thorns, fhed in his being fcourged, fhed in his crucifying; well, thus the blood of God's Fellow was fhed. What fay you now, O fword of juftice, Are you pleafed? Are you fatisfied with blood? Yes, I have got my fill of blood; "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased;" I am pleafed and fatisfied to the full with his obedience to the death; I have got all the fatisfaction I wanted from my Shepherd, and I have no more to demand of him, or his theep either.

O glory to God, that ever this bloody infatiable fword did awake againft one that could give it blood enough, fatisfaction enough; and yet,

4. It is a dreadful, terrible, flaming, and devouring fword: fo it is reprefented, Gen. iii. 24. where it is faid, Cherubims were placed, and a flaming fword, which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life." The leaft flame of this fword of juftice is enough to burn up the whole creation; and, O! how terrible will this fword be for ever to them that live and die in a Chriflefs flate! The dreadfulnefs of this fword is no-where to be feen fo lively as in its awaking against the man that was God's Fellow: his human nature trembled at the fight of it; John xii. 27. "Now is my foul troubled, and what fhall. I fay?" He faw the dreadful florm coming, the black cloud arifing, ard fo much wrath in it, that he knew not how to exprefs himfelf, Matth. xxvi. 38. and Mark xiv. 34. There he cries out, " "My foul is exceeding forrowful, even unto death." We never hear of one groan from Chrift for all his bloody fufferings; when crowned with thorns, fcourged, and laid on the crofs; " As a fheep before her fearers is dumb, fo he opened not his mouth;" but on the firft entrance of his foul-fufferings, he fell a lamenting, "My foul is exceeding forrowful the original words are moft emphatic,' He was begirt with forrow;" he was plunged over head and ears in the wrath of God: all the faculties and powers of his foul were begirt with forrow; "He began to be fore amazed," Mark xiv, 33. The word fignifies the greateft extremity of amazement, and fuch as makes a man's hair ftand, and his flesh creep; and it is added, "He was very heavy" if we confult the derivation of the word, it fignifies, a finkingof fpirit; his heart was like wax melted at the fight of that terrible wrath. But the evangelift Luke has yet a ftronger expreffion, Luke xxi. 44. Being in an agony, his fweat was, as it were, great drops of blood, falling to the ground:"Being in an agony, engaged in a combat,' as the Greek word fignifies: he had be fore combated with principalities and powers in the wilderness; but now he is combating with the Father's

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wrath. He was in an agony, and fwate great drops of blood: all fweats arife from weaknefs and preffures of nature; therefore a dying fweat, is a cold fweat: but never one, but Chrift, fwate a bloody fweat; and great drops of blood, in fuch abundance, that it came through his garments, and fell to the ground: and this was all but the first cnfet, a little fkirmish before the main battle; for the main fight was to be on mount Calvary, after they nailed him to the crofs; then, on a fudden, the curtain of heaven is drawn, the fun lofes his light; he was now combating with all the powers of hell and darknefs, and therefore the field he was to fight in was dark. The punishment of lofs and fenfe both was due to us for fin, therefore he fuffered both the punishment of lofs, for all comfort now fails Chrift; angels appeared before ftrengthening him; but now not an angel dares peep out of heaven for his comfort; yea, now his God fails him, in refpect of his comfortable prefence: formerly his heart failed him, in fome refpects, but now his God; which makes him cry out, " My God, my God, why haft thou forfaken me?" Never was there fuch a cry in heaven or earth, before or since yea, now he fuffered the punishment of fenfe alfo due to us; for now all the wrath of God was poured down immediately upon his foul all the fluices of divine fury are opened, and all the waves and billows of his vengeance palled over him. "Darkness was over all the earth :" all things hufhed into filence, that Chrift might, without interruption, grapple with his Father's wrath, until he cried, "It is finished, and gave up the ghost."What think you of this dreadful fword that awaked against our Surety, the man God's Fellow, when he was to expiate our fins ?

5. It is a bright fword, a clear, a glittering fword; there is no fpot of ruft or ftain upon this fword; no: the fword is fpotlefs. Juftice, holy juftice: there is no unrighteoufnefs with God. As there is no drop of unrighteoufnefs in the cup of the damned, who are all damned by an act of holy juftice; fo there was no drop of injuftice in the cup of wrath, which Chrift,

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as Surety, drank up to the bottom. Chrift had faid of old, Lo! I come:" I come to be cautioner, and enter myfelf in the room of poor finners, to pay their debt: juftice, indeed; could not have required our debt of him, if he had not undertaken it; but having entered himfelf cautioner for our debt, he became liable to the payment of it: hence, when Chrift faw the fword, and was crying, "Father, fave me from this hour," he immediately corrected himfelf with a BUT; "BUT for this caufe came I into this hour," John xii. 27. And in the beginning of the twenty-fecond Pfalm, which you know is one of the moft clear prophecies of Chrift's fufferings, after he had cried out, ver. 1. " My God! my God why haft thou forfaken me?" Which is not the expreffion of any quarrelling complaint or discouragement, but of finle s nature, when arraigned before the tribunal of God, affected with the horror of divine wrath, and not being able eafily to endure that there fhould be a cloud between God and him; I fay, after thefe words he adds, ver. 3. "But thou art holy " He cannot complain of injuftice: Thou art juft and holy in exacting all the debt at my hand, which I became furety for: I have all the fins of the elect to anfwer for; and therefore I justify thee, O Father, in giving me this ftroak of thy awakened fwerd: "Thou art holy: Thou art clear when thou judgeft."-It is a clear, bright, fpotlefs, and holy fword.

6. It is a Living fword do you think that God is fpeaking to a piece of cold iron, when he fays, "Awake, Ofword?" Nay, this fword is God himself, the living God: God's juftice is God himself, a juft God. Of this living fword you read, Heb. x. 31. "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." They that fall into hell, they fall into the hands of the living God; and there they are an everlafting facrifice to this ever-living fword. Chrift, when he came to fatisfy juftice, he fell into the hands of this living God; and if he had not been God's equal, God's Fellow, he could never have got out of his hands again. If this fword be a living fword, even the living God, O but it must be a great and strong fword, as the fword

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of God is called, Ifa. xxvii. 1. It takes the frength o God to weild it; and fo he does here," Awake, O fword." It takes the ftrength of God to bear the blow of it, and fo it is here" Awake, againft the man that is my Fellow." One Blow of it given to the angels and feraphims, would have brought them all down from the battlements of heaven to the bottom of hell. "Awake, O fword:" God is here fpeaking to himfelf; as if he had faid, Let me arife in my armour of vengeance and fury, and fall upon my Shepherd, the man that is my Fellow: it is a living fword that can awake itfelf-Thus you fee what for a fword it is that awakes againft Chrift. O to fee and believe this truth this day!

III. The Third thing was to fhew, in what Manner this fword did awake againft Chrift, and what is imported in the phrafe, "Awake, O fword." How the fword did awake against Christ has been partly declared already in the account of the fword itself: however it may a little further appear, in the import of this wonderful call, Awake, O fword," etc.

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1. It imports, as if the fword had been Sleeping, and now muft awake against him: Chrift having no fin of his own to anfwer for, the fword of juftice had nothing to lay to his charge; and fo was fleeping, as it were, with refpect to him, having nothing to fay against him, being the infinitely holy God in himself, until once he made the bargain with his Father, to become our Surety and Cautioner; and whenever he became fin for us, and took on him our debt, then juf tice had a right to pursue him; and therefore, "Awake, O fword.”

2. Awake, O fword," it imports, that not only while the counsel of peace was held between the Father and the Son, did juftice delay the execution, though Chrift was the Lamb flain from the foundation of the world, in the decree and counfel of God, but that af ter this glorious tranfaction, the fword defigned against the Son of God, had long flumbered: the fword had flumbered above four thousand years after Adam's fall; the Lamb was not flain all that time, but only in dark typical reprefentations of his death; but

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