2, It teachelh you not to flatter yourselves with the universality of grace and mercy. Many live and die, and rot in their sins, and think Christ will save them, and mercy will save them. You see Ciirist will not save all, and God gave him no conmiission to justify all: Deut, xxix. J 9, 20, ' When he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst : the Lord
ISA. LIII. 12.] THE FIFTY-THIRD CHAPTER OF ISAIAH. 455
will not spare him, but then the anger of the Lord and his jealousy shall smoke against that man.' Mark, it is said, against that man. God hath a special quarrel at him that abuseth mercy : there will a time come when they shall see his justice ; as the thief said on the cross, Luke xxiii. 41, 'And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds.'
Use 3. Is to the people of God, that have had any sense of their justification by Christ — any inclination to walk after the Spirit and not after the flesh : Rom. viii. 1, ' There is no condemnation to them.' Man is most taken with anything that is appropriate ; it is a privilege that is mine, — it is not given to others. This exhorteth you to the greater sense of this privilege ; it is not every one's mercy. The apostle showeth this is one of God's reasons in passing by the reprobate world: Rom. ix.-23, ' That he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory.' Your mercies are mightily aggravated by their want. Respects are not favours when they are bestowed promiscuously. Oh, consider this is the mercy of God's own people: Ps. cxix. 132, 'Look upon me, and be merciful unto me, as thou usest to do to those that love thy name.' Alas ! what should engage God to you above others? Oh, consider and admire the good- ness of God, that hath passed by millions, and yet manifested himself to thee, in whom there was no desert! This was an endearment to the Israelites: Ps. cxlvii. 19, 20, ' He hath showed his word to Jacob, his statutes and his judgments to Israel ; he hath not dealt so with any nation ;' Deut. vii. 7, 8, 'The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you because ye were more in number than any people, but because the Lord loved you.'
THE TWELFTH VERSE.
Therefore ivilll divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured outhissoid unto ^ death : and he ivas tiumbered loith the transgressors; and he hare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
In this last verse, as in most of the former, you may observe a scandal, and a provision against it ; for the proj)het still continueth his method. As in the life of Christ, there was no passage or occurrence that did deject him to such a degree of abasement but that he showed forth some glimpse of his power and Godhead ; as when they came to take him, he forced them to go backward and fall to the ground, John xviii. G. So here, the prophet never giveth a single scandal, but addeth some glorious event and effect of it. Observe, then, two parts : —
First, Christ's conflict.
Secondly, Christ's conquest. The conflict is last in the order of the words, but first in order of nature and time.
There observe that the scandal of Christ's conflict is reduced to four heads: —
456 A PRACTICAL EXPOSITION UPON [ISA. LIII. 12.
1. His death : he poured out his soul unto death.
2. The ignominy of it : he ivas numbered luith the transgressors.
3. The cause of it, both of his death and ignominy: he bore the sins of many.
4. The prayer, meekness, and patience of Christ, together witli his desire of the application of this remedy : he made intercession for the transgressors.
Secondly, For the conquest ; there it is first hinted in the promise of the Father : / luill divide him a portion luith the great.
2, The possession and enjoyment of the Son, what the Father would give, and what the Son shall enjoy : I loill give him a portion ivith the great, and he shall divide the spoil ivith the strong. Or, if you will have it more particularly, you may consider it thus : —
1. The ground of the conquest, implied in the causal particle, there- fore.
2. The donor or author of it, God the Father : I ivill divide.
3. The reality of it, it was done; God the Son shall find this promise accomplished : he shall divide the spoil ivith the strong.
4. The nature of the conquest ; it is expressed hy a pjortion with the great, and by dividing the spoil.
5. From whom he shall take them : from the great and the strong.
6. Others add the persons whom he shall admit into co-partnership in the conquest and spoils, as implied in that word, with the strong ; how justly, we shall see by and by. Though you may now guess at the sense of the words by this explication of them into their parts, yet I shall give you some better satisfaction about the phrases before I let them pass.