Christ he was both a chosen servant and a choice servant. In calling him a chosen servant, it implies his excellency, as a chosen vessel. Acts ix. 15, a chosen arrow in God's quiver. Lament, iii. 13, so a chosen servant, every way excellent.
This adds to our comfort, that whatsoever Christ did for us, he did it as chosen ; he is a chosen stone, as St Peter saith, 1 Peter ii. 6, ' a precious corner-stone ;' though refused of the builders, yet precious in God's sight !
Was Christ a chosen servant of God, and shall not we take God's choice ? Is not God's choice the best and the wisest ? Hath God chosen Christ to work our salvation, and shall we choose any other ? Shall we run to saints' mediation, to the virgin Marj^, and others, for intercession, which is a part of Christ's office ? ^Vho chose Mary, and Peter, and Paul to this work ? There is no mention in Scripture of them for this purpose, but behold mij servant, whom I have chosen.
God in pai'adise did choose a wife for Adam, so God hath chosen a husband for his church ; he hath chosen Christ for us : therefore it is intolerable sacrilegious rebellion and impudency to refuse a Saviour and Mediator of God's choosing, and to set up others of our own, as if we were wiser to choose for ourselves than God is. We may content our- selves well enough with God's choice, because he is the party offended.
Besides, it is folly to go out from Christ, where there is aU fulness and content, to leave God's chosen servant, and to go to any other servant, to any broken vessel. God rests in this sei-vant as Pharaoh did in Joseph, the second person in the kingdom, Gen. xli. 40, 43. Therefore let God's choice and ours agree.
And this directs us also, in our devotions to God, how to carry our- selves in our prayers and services, to ofler Christ to God. Behold, Lord, thy chosen servant, that thou hast chosen to be my Mediator, my Saviour, my all in all to me, he is a mediator and a Saviour of thine own choosing, thou canst not refuse thy own choice; if thou look upon me, there is nothing but matter of unworthiness, but look upon him whom thou hast chosen, my head and my Saviour !
Again, if Christ be a chosen servant, 0 let us take heed how we neglect Christ. When God hath chosen him for us, shall not we think him worthy to be embraced and regarded ; shall we not kiss the Son with the kiss of love, and faith, and subjection ? He is a Saviour of God's own choosing, refuse him not. Wliat is the reason that men refuse this chosen stone '? They will not be laid low enough to build upon this corner stone, this hidden stone. The excellency of Christ is hidden, it appears not to men, men will not be squared to be built upon him. Stones for a building must be fi'amed, and made even, and flat. Men stick out with this and that
A DESCKIPTION OF CHEIST. 11
lust, they will not be pared and cut and fitted for Christ. If they may have their lusts and wicked lives, they will admit of Christ. But wo must make choice of him as a stone to build upon him; and to be built on him, we must be made hke him. We Hke not this laying low and abasing, therefore we refuse this corner stone, though God hath made him the corner of building to all those that have the life of grace here, or shall have glory hereafter.
The papists admit him to be a stone, but not the only stone to build on, but they build upon him and saints, upon him and works, upon him and traditions. But he is the only corner stone. God hath chosen him only, and we must choose him only, that we may be framed and laid upon him to make up one building. So much for that, ' Behold my servant whom I have chosen.'
My Beloved, in whom my soul is well j^leasecl. — How do we know that these words in the prophet Isaiah are fitly appliable to Christ ? By the greatest authority that ever was from the beginning of the world, by the immediate voice of God the Father from heaven, who applies these words in Isaiah to Christ, Matt. iii. 17, in his inauguration when he was baptized, ' This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased,' this is that my Son, that beloved, 6 uyd'TrriThg, the beloved Son, so beloved that my soul delights in him, he is capable of my whole love, I may pour out my whole love upon him. ' In whom I am well pleased,' it is the same with that here, ' in whom my soul delighteth,' the one espresseth the other.
How, and in what respect is Christ thus beloved of God ?
First as he is God, the Son of God, the engraven image of his Father, so he is primum amahile, the first lovely thing that ever was. When the Father loves him, he loves himself in him, so he loves him as God, as the second person, as his own image and character.