of God is called, Ifa. xxvii. 1. It takes the strength of God to weild it; and fo he does here, Awake, O fword. It takes the strength of God to bear the blow of it, and so it is here; Awake, against the man that is my Fellow. One blow of it given to the angels and seraphims, would have brought them all down from the battlements of heaven to the bottom of hell. Awake, O fword : God is here speaking to himself; 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 itself. Thus you fee what for a fword it is that awakes against Christ. O to fee and believe this truth this day! III. The third thing was to fhew, in what manner this sword did awake against Christ, and what is imported in the phrafe, Awake, O fword. How the sword did awake againft 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. 1. It imports, as if the sword had been fleeping, and now must awake against him: Christ having no fin of his own to answer for, the fword of justice had nothing to lay to his charge; and so was fleeping, as it were, with respect to him, having nothing to say againft, 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 justice had a right to pursue him; and therefore, A wake, 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 justice delay the execution, though Christ was the Lamb flain from the foundation of the world, in the decree and counsel of God, but that after this glorious transaction, the fword designed against the Son of God, had long slumbered: the fword had slumbered above four thousand years after Adam's fall; the Lamb was not flain all that time, but only in dark typical representations of his death; but now, he must be actually flain; therefore, Awake, O fword. God was now speaking of the day of Christ, the gospel-day in the first verse of the chapter, where our text lies, saying, In that day, there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David, and to the inhabitants of Jerufalem, for fin, and for uncleanness: Now, how shall this fountain be opened? Why, the fword of justice must pierce the side and heart of the Son of God, and so open a fountain of cleansing blood; therefore, when the decree breaks forth, he says, Awake, O fword. now, 3. Awake, O fword; it imports, that the fword of justice did not rafhly smite the man that is God's Fellow: A man in his fleep, or half sleeping, may give a rafh unadvised stroak to his fellow; but before God gave the stroak to the man that is his Fellow, he did awake his justice, as it were, out of fleep, and proceeded upon the maturest deliberation; Awake, O fword. It was no unadvised stroak that Christ got by the sword of justice; it was the fruit of a glorious tranfaction: neither did the sword strike him without a warrant, by particular orders from the Judge of all: It was warranted to brandish itself against him; Awake, O fword. 4. It imports, that justice was lively and vigorous in executing the vengeance due upon our Surety for our fin: Justice did not give him a fleepy, lazy, drowsy blow; but a strong, lively, awakened blow: as it is faid, in another cafe, Ifa. ii. 9. Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord; fo, Awake, O fword, put on strength. Well, justice arises, as it were, like one out of fleep, puts on its cloaths of vengeance, and armour of power, rallies its forces, goes forth with warlike robes, and attacks the man that is God's Fellow with all it force; and acts, like itself, with impartial equity, without fparing our Surety, because of his quality Rom. viii. 32. God spared not his own Son : Awake, O fword. 5. Awake, O fword, it imports, the great concern and earnestness that was in God's heart to have his justice fatisfied: O fword; Awake, O fword. God speaks speaks here with affectionate concern: 'Ofword! O justice! thou must be honoured, glorified, and fatisfied, one way or other: and seeing I have proposed to my eternal Son to bear the stroak of vengeance in the room of elect sinners; and feeing he has undertaken it, my very heart is set upon the accomplishment of this glorious work; my justice is one of the pearls of my crown; I will not shew mercy to the detriment of my justice. A facrifice I must have, a facrifice I will have; therefore, Awake, O fword.' 6. I think it imports, not only God's concern to have his justice fatisfied this way, but his great delight in the fatisfaction; Awake, O fword, against the man that is my Fellow. With what infinite pleasure and fatisfaction does the fword of justice give the bloody stroak to this glorious person? It pleased the Lord to bruise him, and put him to grief, Ifa. 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; Chrift's obedience to the death was the highest and most acceptable worship and fervice to God, that ever was, or ever will be: it is a facrifice of fuch a sweet smell that it drowned the stink of all the fins of an elect world; a facrifice more pleasing to God than all their fins were displeasing: and therefore, with infinite pleasure and fatisfaction, he says, Awake, O fword. This leads me to IV. The fourth thing propofed, What special hand Jehovah the Lord of hosts, had in making this awful fword to awake against this glorious person? Awake, O fword, faith the Lord of hosts. It was the Lord of hofts, the eternal Father of this eternal Son that muftered the hosts of vengeance against him, and had the main and principal hand in Christ's fufferings, which we are to commemorate this day. Jehovah's hand i was fupreme in this business; and that in these four respects. 1. It was Jehovah the Lord of hosts that determined all before-hand, and agreed with his Son for that effect. It was concluded in the counsel of God what he should fuffer, what should be the price that Jehovah would have, and the sacrifice he would except of from his hands. It was not the Jews, nor the scribes and Pharifees, 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 Ifrael 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 flain. 2. As he, the great Jehovah, the Lord of hosts, determined, that the fword should awake against him, fo he prepared the fubject capable to receive the stroak of justice's sword; Heb. x. 5. A body haft thou prepared me. He gave him a nature, a foul and body capable of fuffering: the stroak of justice fell only upon the man Christ, upon his human nature; though the dignity of his divine person did infinitely inhance the merit of his fufferings; yet his divine person, his divine nature was never reached, nor reachable, by the sword of justice; the eternal Word was untangible and incapable of fuffering, till the Word was made Aesh. Now, this flesh, this human nature, he prepared. 3. It was Jehovah, the Lord of hosts, that ordered and over-ruled all his fufferings, when it came to the execution of his antient decree. He who governs all the counsels, thoughts, and actions of men, did, in a special manner, govern and over-rule the fufferings of the Mediator. Though wicked men were following their own designs, and were stirred and acted by the devil, who is faid to have put it into the heart of Judas 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 stroak to Chrift; 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 confideration in this matter; he looked over them to the Lord Jehovah his Father, and says to the chief of them, Pilate, (that cowardly felf-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 fufferings that made him fay, 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 fword, against my Shepherd, and against the man that is my Fellow, faith 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 foul to more bitterness, than all the fufferings he endured from men. -Thus his foul was crucified more than his body; and his heart had sharper nails to pierce it than his hands and feet. 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 fword should awake against him; Ought not Christ to have Suffer |