Cm ISAIAH, LXVI. 10—13. [1024.
a clay." To this period we should look forward with joy : and whatever occasions there may be for sorrow, on account of existing circumstances, the prospect of such a glorious event should fill us with heavenly consolation.
That we may enter more fully into the exhortation in our text, we shall set before you,
I. A general view of the consolations which God has prepared for his people —
God delights in the character of a comforter : he calls himself " The Comforter of all them that are cast down:" yea, each person of the ever-blessed Trinity is expressly designated by this title : " The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort3 :" The Lord Jesus is "the Consolation of IsraelV and the Holy Spirit is yet more particularly made known to us as " The Comforter, (that other Comforter,) whom the Father will send to us in Christ's namec." And well is God set forth under this character, since he has prepared most abundant and " everlasting consola- tion" for us,
1. In the work and offices of his Son —
[What is there which fallen man can want, that is not treasured up for us in the Lord Jesus Christ ? Are we igno- rant, guilty, polluted, and enslaved? " Christ is of God made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctincation, and redemption11:" he is a Priest, on purpose to make atonement for us ; a Prophet, on purpose to teach us by his word and Spirit ; a King, on purpose that he may rule over us and in us. In a word, there is " all fulness treasured up in Hime," in order that we may " receive out of His fulness grace for grace f." Hence the Apostle, assuming it as an obvious and acknowledged truth, urges it as a motive to universal love ; " If there be any consolation in Christ, fulfil ye my joy," being all in perfect unity with each other6.]
2. In the fulness and stability of his covenant —
[The " everlasting covenant," which from all eternity was made between the Father and the Son, was " ordered in all
a 2 Cor. i. 3. b Luke ii. 25. c John xiv. 16, 26.
«» 1 Cor. i. 30. e Col. i. 19. f John i. 16.
s Phil. ii. 1, 2.