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 fo it is here; Awake, against 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, Ofword: 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 fee what for a fword it is that awakes against Christ. to fee and believe this truth this day!

you

III. The third thing was to fhew, in what manner this fword did awake against Christ, 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 itfelf: however it may a little further appear, in the import of this wonderful call, Awake, O fword, etc.

1. It imports, as if the fword had been fleeping, and now must awake against him: Chrift having no fin of his own to answer 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 say 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 justice had a right to purfue him; and therefore, Awake, O fword.

2. Awake, Ofword, it imports, that not only while the counfel 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 counsel of God, but that af ter this glorious tranfaction, the fword defigned against the Son of God, had long lumbered: 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 representations of his death; but

now,

now, he must be actually flain; therefore, Awake, O fword. God was now fpeaking of the day of Chrift, the gofpel-day in the first verse of the chapter, where our text lies, faying, 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 fhall this fountain be opened? Why, the fword of juftice must pierce the fide and heart of the Son of God, and fo open a fountain of cleanfing blood; therefore, when the decree breaks forth, he fays, Awake, O fword.

3. Awake, Ofword; it imports, that the fword of justice did not rafhly fmite the man that is God's Fellow: A man in his fleep, or half fleeping, may give a rafh unadvised ftroak to his fellow; but before God gave the ftroak to the man that is his Fellow, he did awake his juftice, as it were, out of fleep, and proceeded upon the matureft deliberation; Awake, O fword. It was no unadvised ftroak that Chrift got by the fword of juftice; it was the fruit of a glorious tranfaction: neither did the fword ftrike 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 juftice was lively and vigorous in executing the vengeance due upon our Surety for our fin: Juftice 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 ftrength. Well, justice arifes, 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 juftice fatisfied: O fword; Awake, O fword. God

speaks

fpeaks here with affectionate concern: "Ofword! O justice! thou must be honoured, glorified, and fatisfied, one way or other: and feeing I have proposed to my eternal Son to bear the ftroak of vengeance in the room of elect finners; and feeing he has undertaken it, my very heart is fet upon the accomplishment of this glorious work; my juftice is one of the pearls of my crown; I will not fhew mercy to the detriment of my juftice. 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 juftice 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 juftice give the bloody ftroak to this glorious perfon? It pleased the Lord to bruife him, and put him to grief, Ifa. liii. 10. Why, how is this confiftent with the ineffable love he had to his eternally Beloved? Yes, most confiftent; 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 lov ed 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 service to God, that ever was, or ever will be: it is a facrifice of fuch a sweet smell that it drowned the ftink of all the fins of an elect world; a facrifice more pleafing to God than all their fins were difpleafing: and therefore, with infinite pleasure and fatisfaction, he fays, Awake, Ofword. This leads me to

IV, The fourth thing propofed, What Special hand Jehovah the Lord of hofts, had in making this awful fword to awake against this glorious perfon? Awake, O fword,-faith the Lord of hofts. It was the Lord of hofts, the eternal Father of this eternal Son that muftered the hofts 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

was

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 counfel of God what he fhould fuffer, what should be the price that Jehovah would have, and the facrifice he would except of from his hands. It was not the Jews, nor the fcribes 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 counfel determined before to be done. In all they were doing they did nothing, but what was carved out before in the eternal counfel of God; and therefore fays Peter, Acts ii. 23. Him being delivered by the determinate counfel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and flain.

2. As he, the great Jehovah, the Lord of hofts, determined, that the fword fhould awake against him, fo he prepared the fubject capable to receive the ftroak 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 ftroak of justice fell only upon the man Christ, upon his human nature; though the dignity of his divine perfon did infinitely inhance the merit of his fufferings; yet his divine perfon, his divine nature was never reached, nor reachable, by the fword of juftice; the eternal Word was untangible and incapable of fuffering, till the Word was made flefh. Now, this flesh, this human nature, he prepared.

3. It was Jehovah, the Lord of hofts, that ordered. and over-ruled all his fufferings, when it came to the execution of his antient decree. He who governs all the counfels, thoughts, and actions of men, did, in a fpecial manner, govern and over-rule the fufferings of the Mediator. Though wicked men were following their own defigns, and were stirred and acted by the devil, who is faid to have put it into the heart of

Judas

Judas to betray Chrift; 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 hofts, that had an active hand in reaching the ftroak to Chrift; he was the chief party that pursued Christ with the sword of justice in his hand; It pleafed 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 inftruments ufed in this work, as of no confideration in this matter; he looked over them to the Lord Jehovah his Father, and fays 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 intereft that his Father had in his fufferings that made him fay, John xviii. 11. The cup which my Father hath given me, fhall I not drink it? His Father pursued him as Cautioner in our room; and to his Father he cries when the fword was running through his heart; My God, my God, why hast thou forfaken me? He fpared 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 hofts; fmite the Shepherd. The meffage comes from him, and he gave the fword a charge, and orders it to fmite him; it was this, more than the whips, the thorns, the nails, the fpear, 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 reafons of the doctrine; Why the Lord of hofts ordered the fword of juftice to awake against his Shepherd, the man that is his Fellow? Surely it was neceffary, that the fword. fhould awake against him; Ought not Chrift to have

Suffer