} our Lord Jesus, on the one side, stept in and faid, Hold, Lord, let that stroak fall upon me, and let them go free; and, upon their side, there was God's good pleasure, condescending to accept of his offer, faying, Awake, O fword; fmite the Shepherd, and spare the sheep. Poor foul, that defires to flee to him for refuge! Christ has changed rooms with you, by interpofing to keep the stroak off you, and receiving it into his own bowels: and, O what infinite obligations to love and thankfulness does this lay you under! How will he be praifed for ever among the redeemed for his love! Come, finga ing unto him that loved us, and washed us from our fins, in his blood, to him be glory. (3.) Come with boldness, confidence, and chearfulness. What a shame and dishonour to the glorious Shepherd is it, that the sheep should be always trembling and quaking, while they are under such a fure and fafe co vert, as the blood and righteousness of the Shepherd! If we were coming to deal with God about falvation, upon the footing of any thing in us, we might indeed be confounded with despair, and could not stand far enough away from God; but when you are to deal with him upon the score of the God-pleasing, justicesatisfying blood of the man that is his Fellow, we can not come with too much boldness: on this ground let us come boldly to the throne of grace, having boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. Is it the blood of God's Shepherd, the blood of the man that is his Fellow! Is it not thy valuable blood, or not? Then, why should you give way to diffidence? What a shame is it that we dare scarcely trust to his facrifice! Therefore, (4.) Come with full afsfurance of faith: affured of the love and good-will of God in Christ, in whom his sword is pacified, and through whom peace with God is proclaimed, and a cessation of arms to all eternity. If you can attain to this full assurance of faith, poor weak believer, you will, no doubt, come forward, as the Lord shall help you, under covert of this honourable facri fice; come hoping against hope, and believing againft unbelief; say, Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. Come VOL. I. lamenting N lamenting your unbelief, and crying to him for faith. Come depending on him for grace to communicate in a fuitable way, and for grace to take a hearty draught of the fword-fatisfying blood of the man that is his Fellow. SERVICE at the TABLE. Nange OW, believers, what was Mofes's work when the of the Lord appeared in a flame of fire out of the midst of the bush, Exod. iii. 2. when the bush burned with fire and was confumed? Why, says Mofes, I will turn afide, and fee this great fight. That fame should be your work and exercise now, at a communion-table: turn aside, and fee this great fight; what fight? the greatest fight that ever was seen, the eternal Son of God in the bush of our nature, and this bush burning in the flames of divine wrath, for our fakes, and in our room and stead, and yet the bush not confumed. O! with what holy fear ought you to look upon this great fight! Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, fays God to Mofes, for the place where thou standest is holy ground : and Mofes hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God. You may perhaps think, if you were as great a faint as Mofes, you would not be afraid; but, O the fight of God is an awful thing to the greatest faint on earth, and humbles them to the dust! But, if you be a faint at all, I will tell you, you will be reckoning yourfelf the greatest finner out of hell, the chief of finners; and if it be so, fure I am, this great fight may be more wonderful in your eyes to fee the fword of divine wrath drunk in the blood of the glorious Surety, in your room. Solomon fays, He that is furety for a stranger shall Smart for it, Prov. xi. 15. Behold the Son of God become Surety for you, that was a stranger and alien; but he must smart for it: or, as it may be rendered, He shall be fore broken. So was the Son of God, our Surety; he was broken in foul, broken in body, broken to pieces; and we have here the symbols of his broken body; for, In the same night in which he was betrayed, be he took bread, as you see us take it here, after his example. Now, spectators; now, commmunicants; if you have the eye of faith, you might fee a broken Christ represented under this broken bread; now you may hear God faying, Awake, O fword, against my Shepherd. All we like lost sheep had gone astray; and we have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord, the Lord of hosts, has laid on him the iniquities of us all. Sin brings down the fword of vengeance; but, behold your fin laid upon the Shepherd, and thereupon the Lord of hosts saying, Awake, O fword, against the Shepherd. O rare and ravishing contrivance! O admirable and amiable contrivance! O beautiful and beneficial contrivance! Eternally blessed be the Contriver! and eternally blessed be the Shepherd! O infinitely kind and compaffionate Shepherd, that laid down his life for the sheep, and feeds his flock like a shepherd! yea, feeds them with his flesh and blood! for, having broken it, he gave it to his difciples, faying, Take ye, eat ye; this is my body broken for you : this do in remembrance of me. - ME! what for a ME, is this? who was it that was smitten by the sword of justice? Why, it is even the Shepherd, the man that is God's Fellow, his own Son: we have finned, and he is smitten for it; the sword awaked against him, and we go free: O finner, finner! O guilty finner, filthy finner, wretched finner! who in all the world would have done that for you that Christ has done? Who in all the world could have fuffered that for you, that Christ has fuffered? O communicant, apply, apply his doing and dying to yourself in particular, and fay, O marvellous and matchless love! O boundless and bottomless love! He loved me, and gave himself for me! Or, if you cannot attain to the particular application, that he did it for you; yet, O wonder, wonder, that ever he did and fuffered fo much for any; for he fuffered the hell of all the elect; God made a gape or wound in the breast of Chrift, with the fword of his justice, and then poured in a whole hell of wrath upon him. O! is it not good your part, to remember him, who remembred you when the fword of justice was ready to be sheathed in N2 your bowels, and to drink in the blood of your fout? No fooner did the Son of God behold the fword at your breast, and the hand of justice fetching the bloody stroak, but he cries out, O Father, hold thy hand; let all that vengeance that is due to those poor guilty creatures, fall upon me; behold I open my breast to receive the ftroak of justice in their room. They have broken thy law, but here I am to fulfil it for them; they have enraged thy justice, but here I am ready to fatisfy justice for them; they have drunk up iniquity like water; but lo! I will drink up the gall and vinegar of thy vengeance for them: Lo! I come; let the fword light upon me with all its vengeance. Come, come then, my beloved Son, fays God, the Lord of hosts, you know what this work will cost you; will you stand your hazard? Yes, yes, fays Christ: what will I not do for thy glory, and for those miferable sinners? What will I not fuffer for them? let it be infinite vengeance, I bear it for them. --Content, content, then says the Father; and therefore, Awake, O fword, against my Shepherd, and against the man that is my Fellow; smite the Shepherd. Well, the Shepherd, the man, the wonderful man, is smitten, and the bloody stroak opens a wide gap in his heart, from hence streams a river of blood; A river, the streams whereof make glad the city of God: and of this river you are called to drink this day. Christ having facrificed himself a peace-offering to the Lord of hosts, He, as the antetype of Mofes, did fprinkle the blood of the facrifice on the people; and therefore, in the fame manner, after fupper, also he took the cup, when he had fupped, faying, This cup is the New Testament in my blood; this do, as oft as you drink it, in remembrance of me; for, as oft as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do shew forth the Lord's death till he come again. Without the shedding of blood there is no remission: but there is blood shed; take it, and remission of your fins with it; it is worthy blood, the blood of the man that is God's Fellow: the fword of justice has got fuch a full draught of this blood, that it craves no more. As long as God's justice is demanding vengeance, no man can stand before God; but here justice has no more to crave; for the . was a precept, a promife, and a penalty. The precept was do, or perfect obedience; the promise was life, or eternal happiness upon obedience; and the penalty was death and eternal damnation, in cafe of disobedience. Now, man by his fin hath broken the precept of that covenant, and fo forefeited the promise of life, and incurred the penalty of death. If ever we have access to God, this broken precept must be repaired, this forfeited life must be redeemed, this penalty must be execute. Here is a vail that feparates betwixt God and us; a vail that neither men nor angels can rend, and yet a vail that must be rent, otherwise we die and perish for ever; and this vail is the harder to be rent, because of the following, namely, 2. The vail of God's injured perfections; particularly, his incenfed justice, and injured holiness. Justice, infinite justice, was a black vail that obstructed our access to heaven; for God became an angry God, a God filled with fierce wrath against the sinner. God hath set this penalty upon the law, commanding perfect obedience upon pain of death: God's justice was engaged to make this penalty effectual upon man's falling into fin. Nothing can fatisfy justice but infinite punishment; The wages of fin is death: and God will, by no means clear the guilty: And fo, if this vail be not rent by a complete fatisfaction, the guilty finner must go down to the pit. The holiness of God also was injured by the breach of the law; Sin is a tranfgreffion of the law; a tranfgreffion of the precept. Now, as God's justice stands up in defence of the threatening and penalty, so his holiness stands up for the defence of the precept and command of the holy law. God cannot justify the finner, nor accept of him as righteous, unlefs he hath a complete righteousness; not a lame, partial, and imperfect righteousness; but a righteousness every way commenfurate to the extensive precept of the law, will fatisfy an infinitely holy God. As infinite justice cannot be fatisfied, without a complete fatisfaction, anfwering to the threatening and penalty of the law; so the infinite holiness of God cannot be fatisfied without a perfect obedience, answerable to the precept and |