when he followed the calling of an handicraftsman ; and after he entered into his public ministry, he travelled from place to place, watched whole nights in prayer; and thus might be faid truly to eat his bread with the sweat of his brows. As for other calamities never one met with more; the world denied him a lodging; the fig-tree denied him figs; he was blafphemed by his enemies, betrayed by one of his difciples, and forfaken by them all.

(3.) As for the death threatened in the curfe; why dying, he died indeed; for the fword did run through his body and foul at once, when he endured the curse, and defpifed the fhame: his body was fore tortured, and his foul was fore amazed, and very heavy, Mark xiv. 33. His bodily fufferings were extremely great, as you may fee from the evangelifts; and yet as nothing in comparison of his foul-fufferings, while he endured the wrath of God immediately upon his foul. Here was a broad fword indeed, as broad and extensive as all the curfes of the law, all the wrath that the elect deferved for their fin; for God defigned not to pass one of their fins, without a fatisfaction made to justice, but to fue the cautioner for them all: O but he needed a broad back that could bear the shock of fuch a broad fword! Well, fo he had; for he was God as well as man; Awake, O fword against the man, My Fellow.

2. It is a long fword: if we may fo call it, infinite in length from the point to the hilt of the fword: it is as long as eternity; and this makes the punishment of the damned eternal, because the fword of divine wrath, that pierces them, is fo long, that it never can reach to the hilt, in fuch finite worms as they are. The duration of the wrath and the curfe is eternal; because the finner, being a mere creature, cannot at one fhock meet with the infinite wrath of God, and fatisfy justice at once; therefore God fupports the poor damned creature for ever under wrath; because it cannot, being finite, fatisfy infinite justice: but our Shepherd, being God-man, the man God's Fellow; and therefore being of infinite worth and

value, of infinite strength 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 efsentials of that which fin deserves, 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 juftice of God actually fmiting him: fo that, though men wondered how he could be dead fo foon, not knowing what ftroaks 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 sword: this fword of justice 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 fatisfaction, though it were bathed therein; without the shedding 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, Ofword, 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 fhed; fhed at his circumcifion, fhed in the Garden, fhed in his being crowned with thorns, shed in his being scourged, fhed in his crucifying; well, thus the blood of God's Fellow was fhed. What fay you now, O fword of juftice? Are you pleased? are you fatisfied with blood? Yes, I have got my fill of blood; This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleafed; I am pleafed and fatisfied to the full with his obedience to the death; I have got all the fatisfaction I wanted from my Shephed, and I have no more to demand of him, or his fheep either.

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O glory to God, that ever this bloody insatiable fword did awake against 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 Christless ftate! The dreadfulness 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 shall I fay? He faw the dreadful storm coming, the black cloud arifing, and 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 cross; As a sheep before her Shearer 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 greatest 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 finking of fpirit; his heart was like wax melted at the fight of that terrible wrath. But the evangelift Luke has yet a stronger 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 before combated with principalities and powers in the wildernefs; but now he is combating with the Father's VOL. I. G

wrath. He was in an agony, and fwate great drops of blood: all fweats arife from weakness 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 firft onfet, 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 fince: yea, now he suffered 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 paffed 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 finifhed, 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 stain upon this fword; no: the sword is fpotlefs. Juftice, holy justice: there is no unrighteousness with God. As there is no drop of unrighteousness 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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Surety, drank up to the bottom. Chrift had faid of old, Lo, I come; I come to be cautioner, and enter myself 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 himself 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 himself with a but; BUT for this caufe came I into this hour, John xii. 27.

And in

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the beginning of the twenty-second pfalm, which know is one of the most clear prophecies of Christ's sufferings, 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 difcouragement, but of finlefs nature, when arraigned before the tribunal of God, affected with the horror of divine wrath, and not being able easily to endure that there fhould be a cloud between God and him; I fay, after these words he adds, ver. 3. But thou art holy: he cannot complain of injustice; 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 fword: 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 everlasting 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