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laid on thyself ; the Lord saith, on Christ. Do not believe the father of lies before tlie Father of liglits.
4. The Lord hatli laid, even God, that hath so jifreat an interest in Christ that he can deny him nothinf^. Look, as God denieth Christ nothing that he asketh him, so Christ denieth God nothin<^ that he commandeth him. Thus you shall see when God commandeth Christ to die for souls, Ps. xl. 8, ' I delight to do thy will, 0 God ; 3'ea, thy law is within my heart' It was a gladsome intimation to Christ to be ordained to such a service. There is a law ujion the bowels of Christ ; he is called to bear your sins ; he will be accounted the sinner, and you shall go free. Therefore see what rich matter there is for your faith to work upon, and beg the Spirit to fix it upon you.
Use 2. Is exhortation to glorify God for his goodness. Here are two things I would exhort you to : —
1. To glorify God for his mercy and goodness ; and,
2. To glorify him alone.
1. Glorify God. Though Christ effected your deliverance, yet he was sent by the Father ; the Lord laid our iniquities upon him. We have experience not only of Christ's love, but of God's ; every person of the Trinity hath a hand in it, and every person must have his dis- tinct glory. I will not speak now of what the Son did, or what the Spirit doth, but of the love of the Father. He showed a great deal of love : —
[1.] In deputing Christ to this office, and laying his command upon Christ for it : John xvii. 23, ' That the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved me.' It is a high expression of the love of God to lay our sins upon his own Son, to send Christ to die for our sins. It is an expression of the same love to you that God bare to Christ ; it was the same kind of love, though not the same degree, God's complacency in Christ being infinite and incomprehensible, above all the creatures in the world.
[2.] In fitting Christ to bear the sins that were laid upon him. God anointed him with a compassionate spirit, so that the Spirit of the Godhead was always with him in the greatest agonies, and also in giving him readiness and strength. Acts x. 38, it is said, ' God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power.' It is usual in scripture to express the powerful graces of God's Spirit by anointing.
[3.] In loving him for it, for taking our sins upon him according to his will : John x. 17, ' Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I may take it up again.' Though God's love to Christ were eternal, yet you see how he expresseth it, as if he were loved the more for his kindness to us. The like expression you have John XV. 10, ' If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love, even as I kept my Father's, and abide in his love ; ' that is, his com- mandments about the office of his mediatorship. This is a great en- dearment to God's affection.
[4.] God rewarded him for it : Heb. ii. 9, ' But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour ; ' so Phil. ii. 9, * Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name above every name.'
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322 A PRACTICAL EXPOSITION UPON [ISA. LIII. 6.
God restored him to his glory with a great deal of renown in the eyes of men. So Christ i)rayeth, John xvii. 5, ' And now, 0 Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.'
2. Glorify God alone. Let not other things share with him in your thoughts ; do not think it is for your sakes. God can have no higher motive than his own will. The Lord laid it upon Christ, but nothing moved him to lay it but his own goodness. Now men usually fancy something without God to be the ground of his love ; but he ex- pressly saith, Isa. xliii. 25, ' I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.' ]\Iark, his oicii sake. Therefore exalt God, in that, as j'ou see, nothing else could lay it upon Christ: Isa. ii. 11, ' The Lord alone shall be exalted in that day ; ' that is, so separately and so singly, that you may see it was his own mere will that put him upon such a design of mercy. Dr Crisp disputeth at large that nothing else could lay it upon Christ, and so excludeth faith and all holy means, out of a mis- take that we think faith layeth it on Christ, whereas faith only ap- prehendeth it to be laid on Christ. But this we may safely say, Nothing did put God upon it that could be found in us, no good dis- position, faith or works foreseen. It is merely his own sovereignty and goodness ; and therefore, Rom. iii. 24, we are said to be 'justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.'