our Lord Jefus, on the one fide, ftept in and faid, Hold, Lord, let that ftroak fall upon me, and let them go free; and, upon their fide, there was God's good pleasure, condefcending to accept of his offer, faying, Awake, Ofword; fmite the Shepherd, and fpare the sheep. Poor foul, that defires to flee to him for refuge! Christ has changed rooms with you, by interpofing to keep the ftroak off you, and receiving it into his own bowels: and, O what infinite obligations to love and thankfulnefs does this lay you under! How will he be praised 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 fhame and difhonour to the glorious Shepherd is it, that the fheep fhould be always trembling and quaking, while they are under fuch a fure and fafe covert, 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 defpair, and could not stand far enough away from God; but when you are to deal with him upon the fcore of the God-pleafing, jufticefatisfying 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 Jefus. 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 fhould you give way to diffidence? What a fhame is it that we dare scarcely trust to his facrifice! There fore,

(4) Come with full affurance of faith: affured of the love and good-will of God in Chrift, in whom his fword is pacified, and through whom peace with God is proclaimed, and a ceffation of arms to all eternity. If you can attain to this full affurance of faith, poor weak believer, you will, no doubt, come forward, as the Lord fhall help you, under covert of this honourable facri fice; come hoping against hope, and believing against unbelief; fay, Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. Come VOL. I. lamenting

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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.

OW, believers, what was Mofes's work when the angel of the Lord appeared in a flame of fire out of the midst of the bufh, Exod. iii. 2. when the bush burned with fire and was confumed? Why, fays Mofes, I will turn afide, and fee this great fight. That fame fhould be your work and exercise now, at a communion-table: turn afide, and fee this great fight; what fight? the greatest fight that ever was feen, the eternal Son of God in the bufh of our nature, and this bush burning in the flames of divine wrath, for our fakes, and in our room and ftead, and yet the bush not confumed. O! with what holy fear ought you to look upon this great fight! Put off thy fhoes from off thy feet, fays God to Mofes, for the place where thou ftandeft 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 duft! 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 fo, 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 muft fmart for it: or, as it may be rendered, He fhall 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 fymbols of his broken body; for, In the fame night in which he was betrayed,

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he took bread, as you see us take it here, after his example.

Now, fpectators; now, commmunicants; if you have the eye of faith, you might fee a broken Chrift reprefented under this broken bread; now you may hear God faying, Awake, O fword, against my Shepherd. All we like loft fheep had gone aftray; and we have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord, the Lord of hofts, 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 hofts faying, Awake, O fword, against the Shepherd. O rare and ravishing contrivance! O admirable and amiable contrivance! O beautiful and beneficial contrivance! Eternally bleffed be the Contriver! and eternally blessed be the Shepherd! O infinitely kind and compaffionate Shepherd, that laid down his life for the fheep, and feeds his flock like a fhepherd! yea, feeds them with his flefh 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 fmitten by the fword of justice? Why, it is even the Shepherd, the man that is God's Fellow, his own Son: we have finned, and he is fmitten for it; the fword 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 Chrift has done? Who in all the world could have fuffered that for you, that Chrift has fuffered? O communicant, apply, apply his doing and dying to yourself in particular, and fay, O marvellous and matchlefs love! O boundlefs and bottomlefs 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 suffered the hell of all the elect; God made a gape or wound in the breast of Christ, 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 juftice was ready to be fheathed in

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your bowels, and to drink in the blood of your foul? No fooner did the Son of God behold the fword at your breaft, and the hand of juftice fetching the bloody ftroak, but he cries out, O Father, hold thy hand; let all that vengeance that is due to thofe poor guilty creatures, fall upon me; behold I open my breaft 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 hofts, you know what this work will cost you; will you ftand your hazard? Yes, yes, fays Chrift: what will I not do for thy glory, and for thofe miferable finners? What will I not fuffer for them? let it be infinite vengeance, I bear it for them. -Content, content, then fays the Father; and therefore, Awake, Ofword, against my Shepherd, and against the man that is my Fellow; fmite the Shepherd. Well, the Shepherd, the man, the wonderful man, is fmitten, and the bloody ftroak opens a wide gap in his heart, from hence ftreams a river of blood; A river, the ftreams whereof make glad the city of God: and of this river you are called to drink this day. Chrift having facrificed himself a peace-offering to the Lord of hofts, He, as the antetype of Mofes, did fprinkle the blood of the facrifice on the people; and therefore, in the fame manner, after fupper, alfo he took the cup, when he had fupped, faying, This cup is the New Teftament 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 fhew forth the Lord's death till he come again.-Without the shed ding of blood there is no remiffion: but there is blood fhed; take it, and remiffion of your fins with it; it is worthy blood, the blood of the man that is God's Fellow: the fword of juftice 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 juftice has no more to crave; for

the

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was a precept, a promise, 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 promife 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 muft be execute. Here is a vail that separates 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. Juftice, infinite justice, was a black vail that obftructed our accefs to heaven; for God became an angry God, a God filled with fierce wrath against the finner. God hath fet this penalty upon the law, commanding perfect obedience upon pain of death: God's juftice was engaged to make this penalty effectual upon man's falling into fin. Nothing can fatisfy juftice 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 muft go down to the pit. The holiness of God alfo 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, fo his holinefs ftands 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 righteoufnefs; not a lame, partial, and imperfect righteoufnefs; but a righteoufnefs every way commenfurate to the extenfive precept of the law, will fatisfy an infinitely holy God. As infinite juftice cannot be fatisfied, without a complete fatisfaction, answering to the threatening and penalty of the law; fo the infinite holinefs of God cannot be fatisfied without a perfect obedience, anfwerable to the precept

and