Isaiah 53 — The Eleventh Verse

    Heshallseeofthetravailofhissoul,andshallbesatisfied:byhisknowledgeshallmyrighteous servant justify many for he shall bear their iniquities.

    THE prophet goeth on in describing the glorious effects of the covenant of God with Jesus Christ, and his obedience and humiliation answerable thereunto. God the Father’s part was to bestow privileges, grace, and glory, and every good thing upon believers; and God the Son’s part was to obey, and suffer, and die, to submit himself to all kind of labour and travail of spirit for our sakes: for God being about to deal with us in mercy, would first deal with Christ in justice; and the state of the work of redemption was so laid, that, as Suarez proveth well, our grace and glory was due to Christ injustice, as the reward of his merit. Much was spoken before what God would do, and what Christ might expect in case he would lay down his soul as an offering for sin; he should ‘see his seed, prolong his days, and God’s pleasure should prosper in his hands.’ And the prophet here goeth on in repeating the same thing, only addeth words more particular and significant, that he might more fully and expressly draw out the sense and meaning of the former privileges to your apprehensions: ‘He shall see of the travail of his soul, and be satisfied.’

    In these words three things are asserted:—

    1.      Christ’s travail of soul in the work of our redemption.

    2.      The certainty of success: heshallsee; that is, reap the wished and expected fruits of his labour and sorrows, which is the comfort and salvation of poor creatures.

    3.      His contentment therein: heshallbesatisfied. He counts the salvation of lost sinners to be satisfaction enough for all his pains. You may take the words as relating to God’s decree, or to the execution of it.

    [1.] As to God’s decree, the foregoing verse intimateth the compact and bargain between God the Father and the Son; there were articles of agreement stated between them. Now when Christ came to consider what he should give, and what he should gain, he professeth he is satisfied, and abundantly pleased with the terms propounded. Our Lord Jesus made no blind bargain. He knew from all eternity what it would cost him to save sinners; he had leisure enough to cast up his accounts. And when he foresaw the temptations of the wilderness, and the agonies of the garden, the ignominy of the cross, the vile usage of his body, and the travail of his soul, yet saith our dearest Redeemer, I will go down and suffer upon these terms; I am satisfied out of all this, if a few broken-hearted creatures may be brought home to God.

    [2.] To the execution of God’s decree. When sinners are brought to accept of mercy, I count my blood well shed, my bitter agonies well recompensed: here is wages enough for all my toil. There is joy in heaven, in Christ’s heart, when a sinner is converted.

    I begin with the first; the travail of his soul. The word for travail noteth the highest degree of labour, such as is tiring and wearisome. The soul is often put for the whole man; so many souls came out of Egypt, that is, so many persons. So Acts xxvii. 37, ‘There were in the ship two hundred threescore and six souls.’ So that the travail of his soul is his whole labour and travail. Or properly it may imply his soul-troubles, which were the passion of his passion, the bitterest part of his sufferings: ‘Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say?’ John xii. 27.

    The doctrine is, that our salvation cost Christ much travail of soul. He was afflicted in his whole man, but chiefly in his inward man.

    1.      As a kind of imaginary person: he suffered in his reputation, which, is another kind of being in the hearts and opinions of others. They accuse him of the two highest crimes in either table, blasphemy and sedition; blasphemy against God, and sedition against Caesar, Luke xxiii. 2. They mock him in all his offices; his kingly office, by putting a soldier’s coat upon him for a royal robe, a reed for a sceptre, and thorns for a crown, and floutingly saying unto him, ‘Hail, King of the Jews,’ Mat. xxvii. 29. In his prophetical office; when they had blindfolded him, they smote him on the face, saying, ‘Prophesy who it was that smote thee;’ scoffing at those who honoured him as a prophet. When he was upon the cross, offering up himself for our sins, they wagged the head, saying, ‘Save thyself,’ and ‘He saved others, himself he cannot save.’ Mat. xxvii. 39, 42. There they scoff at his priestly office, while doing the part of a Saviour.

    2.      Nearer they come to his real person. In his body he suffered in every part, and afflictions were poured in upon him by the conduit of every sense. His feeling was exercised with weariness, and wounds, and scourges; his ears with their railing and the clamorous noises of popular outrage; his taste with vinegar and gall; his sight and smell with Golgotha, the place of skulls and dead men’s bones. We have made all our senses inlets of sin, and therefore in Christ they were inlets of sorrow.

    But the consummation of his bodily sufferings was at his death, which consisted in the separation of the soul from the body, though both still remained united to the divine nature; otherwise for a while he would not be God-man, and his resurrection would be a new incarnation; though separate from one another, yet they were both united to the Godhead. As a man drawing his sword holdeth the sword in one hand, and the sheath in the other; there is a separation between the sword and the sheath, but the same man holdeth both. O Christians! do we believe this, and wonder no more that life itself should die, and Christ be free among the dead? If any had cause to love his life, Christ had; every man’s life is valuable, much more Christ’s, which was enriched with the continual presence of God. We are often a burden to ourselves; we wish for death; but that Christ should die, whose soul dwelt with God in a personal union, is a wonder.

    His death was not a naked death, but the painful, shameful, and accursed death of the cross. The law pronounced the death of the cross accursed: Deut. xxi. 23, ‘He that is hanged is accursed of God.’ In the account of all nations it is ignominious. It was cruel and painful, to show that he came to bear not only our curse but our sorrows: Gal. iii. 13, He was ‘made a curse for us;’ Isa. liii. 4, ‘Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows.’ If you follow him to the grave, it was a continuation of his abasement, though not of his pain. Thither Christ went to shut and seal up our sins, that they should no more come into remembrance, as Abraham buried his dead out of his sight. If we look only to what was visible, Christ was a man of sorrows; his life was full of sorrows, his death violent, and bloody, and ignominious.

    But all this doth not answer the expression, travailofsoul. Our souls sinned, and therefore Christ must lay down his soul as an offering for sin, Isa. liii. 10. In Christ’s soulsufferings we may take notice of two things—his desertion and agonies. These have some correspondence with the poena damni et sensus.

    I.      His desertion: Mat. xxvii. 46, ‘My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?’ Christ’s desertion cannot be meant of outward afflictions, of being left to the rage and violence of men. The word forsaking implieth God’s withdrawing: 2 Cor. iv. 9, ‘We are persecuted, but not forsaken;’ though given up to the will of men, yet still enjoying the presence of God: but Christ was both persecuted and forsaken.

    But how could he be forsaken, who was God-man in the same person?

    Ans. As the personal union gave way to the death of the body, so it gave way to the troubles of the soul. Christ, by virtue of the eternal covenant, was to yield up the whole human nature, both body and soul, to suffer according to the will of God. Now, he declined no part of the service; as he offered his body to the pains of death, so his soul to the trouble of desertion.

    But what was this desertion?

    [1.] The personal union was not dissolved—the two natures united, ἀχωρίστως,—his inherent holiness not lessened, for then he should have been less fit to be either priest or sacrifice. God’s love to him was not abated; he was now doing his work, and in the height of obedience: John x. 17, ‘Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life.’ This was a new argument and reason of love.

    [2.] Assisting and sustaining grace was not wholly withdrawn: Isa. xlii. 1, ‘Behold my servant, whom I uphold;’ and John xvi. 32, ‘I am not alone, because the Father is ever with me.’ What was that, then, which Christ lost? It was the sense and actual comfort of his Father’s love, the want of a sensible consolation, those effects of joy and solace which he used to have.. Now, this was a very grievous loss to Christ. He complaineth of it. The disciples were fled, his friend and lover was afar off, but he doth not complain of that: Disciples, why have ye forsaken me? Peter, why hast thou denied me?—but, ‘My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?’ It was a greater loss to Christ, because it was more natural to him to enjoy this comfort and solace than it can be to any creature. To have a candle put out, is no great matter; but to have the sun eclipsed, who is the fountain of light, that sets the world a-wondering. Christ, as God-man, had more to lose. We lose drops; he an ocean. The greater the enjoyment, the loss or want of it is the greater.

    [3.] He knew how to value the comfort of the union, having a pure understanding, heavenly affections, excellent contemplations. God’s children, that have tasted of his love, if anything of it be shed abroad in their hearts, they would not part with it to gain the world. They know how to value it, and so none are so sensible of the loss of it as they. Now, Christ was best able to apprehend the worth of communion with God, having such a clear understanding, and such tender affections.

    [4.] So near an interest and relation to God: Prov. viii. 30, ‘I was by him as one brought up with him; I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him;’ Col. i. 13, he is called ‘his dear Son.’ Creatures that have any interest in God, how mournfully do they brook his absence! As Mary Magdalene: ‘Woman, why weepest thou?’ ‘They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him.’ She sought for Christ, and found a grave.

    [5.] Christ’s trouble was more than a believer’s, because it was to be satisfactory. Our desertions are for trial or correction; his from vindictive justice, and the revenging hand of God for our sins, that met on him: Isa. liii. 6, ‘The Lord laid on him the iniquities of us all.’ He was forsaken for a time, that we might be received for ever.

    2. There is something positive, or the apprehension of his Father’s wrath, which he was to undergo for man’s sins. There is the trouble of a guilty conscience, that is proper to the sinner himself; and there is a penal disturbance, which was found in our surety. He was to stand in the sinner’s stead, and the great burden of sin he was to undergo was an amazement to him that had such a delicate and tender spirit as Christ had: Mat. xxvi. 38, ‘My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death.’ He was ‘sore amazed,’ Mark xiv. 33. He had his ‘fears.’ Heb. v. 7. The effects were sensible in his bloody sweat. These were a part of that fire in which our sacrifice was to be roasted. It was not the fear of temporal death that caused these agonies. Christ had not a childish, womanish spirit; not to say anything of the fortitude of the martyrs, many of whom kissed the stake, and thanked the executioner. And we see in malefactors what a courage and stubbornness men of a stout heart will put on. No; it was the apprehension of his Father’s wrath, which he was to undergo for man’s sin, when ‘made a curse for us,’ Gal. iii. 13. We have slight thoughts of sin, and the wrath of God deserved thereby; but Christ had other thoughts of it. When God cometh to deal with him in our stead, we, that know not the power of God’s anger, are not affected with it. But when the Father shall fall upon him with all his weight, this was properly the travail of his soul: Isa. liii. 10, ‘It pleased the Father to bruise him: he hath put him to grief.’

    Hence learn:—

    1.      The heinousness of sin. You see it is no easy matter to reconcile sinners to God. It cost Christ a life of sorrows, and afterwards a painful, shameful, and an accursed death; the loss of actual comfort, and a terrible feeling, or an amazing sense of the wrath of God. We jest and sport away our souls, but Christ found it hard work to save them, and recover them to God. Surely they that sin freely in thought, and foully in act, have low thoughts of the blood of Christ. You count it common blood: Heb. x. 29, ‘And have counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing.’ When you make it a light thing to sin, you do in effect say so. When a precious vessel cannot be mended or repaired but with the cost of a thousand pounds, you would be careful how you break it. You slight the sufferings of Christ when you break with God for every trifle. Is it nothing for the Son of God to come down from heaven to die for poor sinners? He calleth to you, ‘Behold, all ye that pass by, is any sorrow like unto my sorrow?’ Is it nothing to offend your heavenly Father, and to lie under the burden of his displeasure? By his dealing with his dear Son, substituted into the room and place of sinners, God would convince all wicked and hardhearted sinners what it is to break his commandments. Dare you, after all this, to go on pleasingly and delightfully in an evil course, as if God made a small matter of our sins? Now he is satisfied for them by a Mediator.

    2.      Learn hence the terribleness of God’s wrath. It put Jesus Christ upon dying, yea, upon much travail of soul. Christ knew before all that he was to suffer, and yet he is amazed when it came upon him. Many roar upon their death-beds when the anger of the Lord breaketh in upon them like an armed man. They never thought of their danger before, and were not prepared for it; but Christ knew it before. Besides, Christ had no personal guilt to weaken his strength; you have wounded consciences. Christ had all graces in him to the height; but you have none or little patience and fortitude. Christ was God-man, you are poor creatures.

    Christ knew what glory his sufferings would bring to God, what good to man; and yet he feareth what he was to undergo; and Christ knew they would be short, yet he prayeth, ‘Father, save me from this hour:’ but yours are to endure for ever. The Lord Jesus is lifted up as a sign of salvation to them that trust in him, and is a pledge of what shall light upon the wicked to all eternity—an instance to all others of’ God’s wrath. God will make you see what it is to lie under his wrath. If a spark of it light upon the conscience, what a burden is a man to himself!

    3.      We learn hence the greatness of our obligations to Christ, that he willingly condescended to endure such hard and bitter things for our sakes. He would be deserted and submit to soul-troubles; he knew well enough what it would cost him, yet he willingly undertook the business: Ps. xl. 7, 8. ‘Then said I, Lo, I come; in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God; thy law is within my heart.’ Divine justice is there introduced proposing its demands: Son, you must take a body and suffer in it. Man’s blood is tainted, and you must be formed in fashion like one of them, and stand before me in their stead. You must expect to be tempted by the devil, hunted and baited by men,—to be responsible to my justice, to bear my wrath, and to be handled as if you were the sinner in law. And Christ said, Heb. x. 7, ‘Lo, I come to do thy will, O God;’ I am satisfied and well pleased with the terms. Oh! woe unto us, if after all this we should slight Christ, and will not come at him, though it cost us travail of soul. To pray, wait, meditate, is tedious, and to break our hard hearts we are hardly brought to; yet how willingly and readily did Christ undergo all his sufferings for our sakes!

    4.      We learn hence what reason we have to be willing to suffer any thing for Christ, and to yield obedience to God at the dearest rate. We are called upon in the gospel to take up our cross and follow Christ, and when he invited us first to engage with him, he gave us warning of it; yet most men hope to shift well enough for all this, and are not troubled, and out of the impatiency of the flesh repine when it cometh really and actually to their share to take it up and bear it. Certainly, in the general, we should not desire a better lot than Christ himself had; for the disciple is not above his Lord: ‘If they have persecuted me, they will persecute you also,’ John xv. 20. He stooped to more than ever we were or shall be put to. But, in particular, we should be as willing to suffer for his sake as he for ours. He left the bosom of his Father to suffer for you, and will not you leave the bosom of your dearest relations to surfer for Christ? There is a great disproportion between the persons, and his sufferings and ours. Christ suffered as an evil-doer, and we surfer for well-doing; otherwise, it is the cross of Barabbas, not of Christ. His name was rent and torn with reproaches; and though he never did anything worthy of blame, yet he bore the taunts of the world, as well as the curse of God that was due for our sins, and suffered not only in his person, but in his name and reputation, and foul crimes were unjustly laid to his charge. It is an honour to suffer for Christ, and for his interest, and can be no disgraceful thing. He was the innocent Son of God, completely just and righteous—not only as God, but as man, being wholly freed of that original contagion wherewith others that come of Adam are defiled, Luke i. 35; fully conform to the law of God, both in heart and practice, Mat. iii. 15; and by just deserving lovely in the eyes of God and men, for he did all things well. But we, how innocent soever of those things which the world chargeth upon us, yet we are faulty before God, and cannot altogether justify ourselves before men. And so far as God’s hand is in our troubles, we must keep silence. Therefore, in the sense of our sinfulness in other things, we should the sooner submit: Micah vii. 3, ‘I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against him.’ Again, he hath taken the sting out of our sufferings, and borne all the wrath due for our sins. Our crosses are not a satisfaction to his vindictive justice; he is but trying our sincerity, not pursuing his vengeance upon us. And we have our comforts allowed us; his were suspended. In short, since he endured the anger and wrath of God for us, shall not we endure the anger and wrath of men for his sake? So that, upon the whole matter, our murmuring and impatience under the cross show that we have not a due sense of Christ’s sufferings, but too slight a value of them.

    The next thing offered in this scripture is the certainty of success. Heshallsee; that is, enjoy, receive the fruits of it. The prophet speaketh of some that travail in vain; as if they went but with the wind: Isa. xxvi. 18, ‘We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have as it were brought forth wind.’ And of others we read, that when the child came near to the birth, there was not strength to bring forth, Isa. xxxvii. 3. But the fruits of this travail should be a plentiful harvest of souls, or a numerous issue of believers begotten unto God.

    Doct. That Christ will infallibly, and without miscarrying, obtain the end of his death. What was the end of his death?

    1.      The salvation of all such as belong to the election of grace. Christ died not at uncertainties, nor laid down his life at a venture, that some might be saved if they would; but his intention is fixed. He laid down his life ‘for his sheep,’ John x. 17; ‘for his church.’ Eph. v. 26; ‘for his people.’ Mat. i. 21. These expressions are exclusive; these, and not all.

    2.      He effects and procures the conditions by which this salvation is brought about:— [1.] In effectual calling.

    [2.] By final perseverance.

    [1.] Effectual calling. Christ died not only to procure privileges for us, but to purchase faith and repentance: Acts v. 31, ‘Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a prince and a Saviour, to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins;’ Heb. xii. 2, ‘Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God;’ and Heb. xiii. 21, ‘Working in you what is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ;’ Phil. i. 29, ‘For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake,’ ὑπερ Χρίστου, that is, upon Christ’s account. He merited faith and holiness for us.

    [2.] Final perseverance. He is both the author and finisher of our faith: John x. 29, ‘My Father, who gave them me, is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand;’ Heb. x. 14, ‘For by one offering he perfected for ever them that are sanctified,’ i.e., set apart for God. He hath made them fully and perfectly happy.

    But briefly to show why Christ cannot miscarry in his ends from the eternal covenant: Isa. liii. 10, ‘When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed.’ Look to the undertaking of the Father and the Son, and the salvation of the elect is secured; both are intimated in that phrase of being given to Christ: John xvii. 6, ‘Thine they were, and thou gavest them me.’ All souls were God’s in one sense; now they are given to Christ two ways:—

    1.      By way of reward: Ps. ii. 8, ‘Ask of me, and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.’

    2.      By way of charge; and of this charge Christ is to give an account: John vi. 37, 38, ‘All that the Father giveth me shall come unto me; and him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out: for I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.’ And they not only may, but they shall come: John vi. 39, ‘And this is the Father’s will, who hath sent me, that of all that he hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.’ Otherwise Christ would lose part of his reward and part of his charge: Heb. ii. 13, ‘Behold I and the children whom thou hast given me.’

    Use. Is to persuade us to wait for this power, and observe how the whole good pleasure of his will is fulfilled in us. Doth your salvation thrive and prosper in the hands of Christ? Do you come on kindly in a way of faith? You seek to put your Redeemer to shame,—to hinder Jesus Christ of the fruit of his travail, when you are vain, and careless, and obstinate. As a moral agent, so all his travail may be in vain, though not as Mediator. He complaineth as a minister of the circumcision: Isa. xlix. 4, ‘Then I said, I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nought and in vain; yet surely my judgment is with the Lord, and my work with my God.’ When a people that have the means of grace will not be reclaimed, they seek to rob Christ of his purchase, and to make all his labour of love to be in vain. Christians are co-workers with God: ‘We therefore, as workers together with him, beseech you to receive not this grace in vain,’ 2 Cor. vi. 1. Oh, when shall Christ be formed in you? There is travailing in pain till that be done, Gal. iv. 19. Will you be shut out from the blessing?

    Use 2. Here is comfort to God’s elect, and an engagement to make your election sure. How shall we know it? Do you ratify God’s decree by your consent? Consecration answereth giving by way of reward, and committing by way of charge.

    1.      Consecrate and set apart yourselves for the use and service of the Lord: Rom. xii. 1, ‘I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.’ Employ what ever is bestowed upon you for his glory; live according to his will: Ps. cxix. 94, ‘I am thine, save me.’ Lord, I would not be my own, unless I be thine. Thus we should do when God seemeth to put us off.

    2.      Commit yourselves to him in well-doing, and in the course of your obedience venture your souls in Christ’s hands without trouble: 2 Tim. i. 12, ‘For I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him against that day;’ 1 Peter iv. 19, ‘Commit the keeping of your souls to him in well-doing, as unto a faithful Creator;’ Ps. xxxi. 5, ‘Into thy hands I commit my spirit, for thou hast redeemed me, O Lord God of truth.’

    I come to the third thing in this scripture, and that is the satisfaction Christ took in the salvation of men; it was that which gave him full content for all his pains and travail: ‘He shall see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied.’ The gaining and recovering of lost sinners was a great satisfaction to Jesus Christ: John iv. 34, Christ saith unto them, ‘My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.’ When the disciples asked him whether he had eaten anything, it was satisfaction enough to him that he had gained a soul. See Luke xv. 5, ‘And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing.’ He rejoiceth at the return of a poor wandering sinner; after all the refusals of grace, and despising of offers, Christ is glad if he may at length get him home to himself. It is a welcome work to Christ to carry home his lost sheep upon his shoulders.

    Doct. That Jesus Christ taketh an infinite contentment and satisfaction in the salvation of sinners.

    I shall give you—(1.) Evidences of it; (2.) The reasons of it.

    1. For the evidences:—

    [1.] Christ pleased and entertained himself in the thought of it before the world was: Prov. viii. 31, ‘Rejoicing in the habitable parts of the earth, and my delights were with the sons of men.’ But why the habitable parts? The inhabitable are also the work of God’s hands. There are objects of wonder—there is the great leviathan, and there is the sun, moon, and stars; but no men there with whom he was to dwell, or whom he was to save. Next to the complacency he took in God the Father, this was the delight of Christ, that he should come into the world and recover a people to himself.

    [2.] This was the end and aim of his coming into the world; and it is pleasant when a man hath attained his end, especially if it be greatly desired and much laboured for. For delight is according to the degree of the desire and labour.

    (1.) Desires: Luke xii. 50, ‘I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!’ Luke xxii. 15, ‘With desire have I desired to eat this passover;’ that was immediately before his death. And it is remarkable, when Peter dissuaded him from suffering, Christ rebuked him with the same words that he did Satan tempting him to idolatry: Mat. xvi. 23, with iv. 10, ‘He turned and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan.’

    (2.) Labour. According to the labour in the means, so is the joy in the end: ‘God hath made me forget all my toil,’ saith Joseph, Gen. xli. 51, when advanced after all his hardships and sorrows; Ps. cxxviii. 2, ‘Thou shalt eat of the labour of thine hands, and happy shalt thou be.’ These were the wished, longed, laboured-for fruits of his mediation: no such sorrows as his sorrows, therefore no such satisfying joys; things that are the purchase of his blood—things dearly bought, are highly prized. Rachel is brought in mourning because she had a son in sorrows, Jer. xxxi. 15; John xvi. 21, ‘A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come; but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more her anguish for joy that a man is born into the world.’ This was Christ’s travail, and the end that he pursued the salvation of poor, lost, and undone sinners.

    [3.] Now, in heaven it is his rejoicing to see the work thrive: Luke xv. 7, ‘Joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth;’ and ver. 10, ‘There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth;’ that the lost sheep is found, and the lost son returned: John xv. 11, ‘These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.’ There is our joy and Christ’s joy; these are distinct things, joy in us and for us. It is not only matter of rejoicing to us to be taken to grace, but a rejoicing to Christ. When he seeth the gospel prevail, when sins are pardoned, hearts are sanctified, their spirits comforted, he is more pleased in this, and rejoiced in this than you can be, when he heareth in heaven and knoweth how it is with your souls on earth.

    [4.] When he shall come from heaven to judge the world, oh, with what triumph and rejoicing will he come, when he shall deliver up the kingdom to the Father! 1 Cor. xv. 24; Heb. ii. 13, ‘Behold I and the children which thou hast given me.’ He will present them and show them to God as the fruit and proof of his death. See what joy and rejoicing Paul had as a subordinate instrument: 1 Thes. ii. 19, ‘For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ at his coming?’ They are the fruit of his ministerial labours. Paul had not such an interest in them as Christ had; the main virtue came from his death.

    But to determine the point, what this contentment and satisfaction is negatively and positively:—

    1.      Negatively. It is not only that complacency which God taketh in acts of grace and mercy: Micah vii. 18, ‘He delighteth in mercy.’ It is a native act. Justice is as natural to God as mercy; yet the exercise of justice in a punitive way presupposeth a foregoing act of ours; and the due desert of the creatures’ punishment is wrested and extorted from him, and therefore called his ‘strange work.’ Isa. xxviii. 21: but mercy, like live honey, droppeth of its own accord; the exercise of it is more pleasing to him: Lam. iii. 33, ‘He doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men.’ It is not from ‘his heart; for when the rod is in his hand, tears are in his eyes; but, on the other side, Jer. xxxii. 41, ‘I will rejoice over them to do them good, with my whole heart and whole soul.’ It is an act most suitable to the nature of God, which goeth before, and is done without any regard to the creatures’ desert; this is part of it.

    [2.] It is not only that complacency which he taketh in the holiness of his people. In the holiness of his people there is amorbenevolentiae, a good-will and happiness to the unconverted; and there is amorplacentiae, his delight in them as they are holy, because of the suitableness of their nature: Isa. lxii. 4, 5, ‘Thou shalt be called Hephzi-bah, for the Lord delighteth in thee. And as a bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee.’ When we are drawn into a near relation to God, there is another love, for we are in another state; and Zeph. iii. 17, ‘He will rejoice over thee with joy, he will rest in his love.’ His love putteth a comeliness upon his people,—there is the ground of God’s delight. So, for their prosperity, it is said, Ps. xxxv. 27, ‘Let the Lord be magnified, which hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servant.’ He is glad to see when they are holy, and when they do well.

    2.      Positively. The formality of the expression implieth more: he is satisfied, he accounts our well-being a sufficient recompense for all his pains, and all the travail of his soul well bestowed, though he hath been at that expense for it. It is natural and kindly for a good man to do good, and to rejoice in others’ good. But now for Christ to count it a saving bargain, if with the expense of his all he may promote the welfare of others; this is the delight and the contentment here spoken of. Christ did not reckon of the charges, so he might gain sinners to God.

    The reasons of the point:—

    1.      Because this was his work, his personal work; every person of the Godhead is refreshed in his work. God the Father, his personal work is creation,—the first mercy we received, and so proper to the first person. Now, it is said, Exod. xxxi. 17, ‘In six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh he rested and was refreshed;’ not in point of weariness, but in point of delectation. It was a refreshment to God the Father, to see all the creatures disposed into their apt cells and places, as the fruit and effect of his goodness, wisdom, and power. He delighted himself in the survey of his work. So God the Spirit is grieved with the resistance and opposition he meeteth with in our hearts, Eph. iv. 30, but gratified and delighted with our obedience to his sanctifying work. And likewise the second person, when he seeth of the travail of his soul, what a numerous in crease ^his death will bring in, he is refreshed and satisfied. Christ hath his rest as God hath his rest: he took great complacency and delight in the salvation of poor sinners, as the fruit of all his labours.

    2.      His love was the cause of all: his love to the Father, and his love to the saints.

    [1.] His love to the Father, to see him fully glorified. When Christ came into the world, it was sung by the angels: Luke ii. 14, ‘Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, good-will towards men;’ John xiii. 31, ‘Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him.’ Our comfort is not only concerned in the salvation of the elect, but God’s glory. He would have been but half discovered to the world if we had only been created and not redeemed: we should have known but half his goodness, for that goodness which was manifested in creation was in order to some other thing. God did not create us merely that he might create us, but that he might communicate himself to us, and manifest more of his glory, and that we might see more of his wisdom, and goodness, and power. These were in part discovered in making the world, but much more in the gospel: there is much of his wisdom seen in making the creatures, but much more in the mystery of redemption, in bringing God and man together—justice and mercy together, ‘which the angels desire to look into,’ 1 Peter i. 12.      We see his power in making us out of nothing, in dissolving the works of the devil, loosing the bands of death, raising the dead. His goodness is seen in giving the world, in giving Christ, in giving eternal life. Christ saith in love to his Father, I am satisfied; I see it will be a way wherein the glory of God will be much promoted.

    [2.] Love to poor lost sinners.

    (1.) They are dearly bought: they are his own; and having loved them so as to buy them, he will love them to the end. The saints are the purchase of his blood, and therefore they are called ‘the purchased possession,’ Eph. i. 14. Things dearly bought are much esteemed and valued. The church, which he hath purchased with his precious blood, he paid dear for it—expended his royal blood for it. The Lord Jesus forgets all his agonies and sorrows, because this was it he travailed for, and the end which he pursued.

    (2.) They are his own, his interest is concerned in them: John xvii. 6, ‘I have manifested thy name unto the men thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me.’ He hath not only undertaken a charge concerning them, but received them as a reward at the hands of God: John xiii. 1, ‘Having loved his own.’ Propriety endeareth a thing. They are his, and therefore his heart is made glad when they thrive and do well—when his work doth prosper in their hands. He is the owner of the saints; and as a man is dissatisfied when his bargain turneth to no good account, so is Christ when you do not grow in grace and make a daily progress in your heavenly journey.

    Use 1. Let us consider our obligations to Christ. It was wonderful love that the Son of God should lay aside his glory and willingly come down from heaven, and undertake the business of our salvation. He needed us not; God was alone from all eternity, and yet happy from all eternity, when there was nothing besides his divine majesty. If he had any happiness by making the world, he might have made it sooner; he wanted not us, we are of no worth to him. What can we, that are less than the dust of the balance, contribute to the perfection of our Redeemer? yet that he should take pleasure in our welfare, and count himself satisfied, so we may be saved! Oh, the greatness of this love! How shall we answer it but by loving Christ again, by imitating him? Let us be satisfied in Christ; let it be enough to allay our cares, and fears, and worldly distractions, that we have an interest in him. Say with the psalmist: Ps. lxxiii. 25, ‘Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none on earth that I desire besides thee.’ Let this draw us from outward comforts and worldly satisfactions: if Christ did ‘so much for you, that are not worth the having, oh, how should your souls be satisfied in him! The merchant sold all for the pearl; but what doth Christ get by us creatures, of us sinners? We can give a reason of our love to Christ, because of his excellency and our obligations to him: Cant. vi. 9, 10, ‘My dove, my undefiled, is but one; she is the choice one of her that bare her: the daughters saw her, and blessed her; yea, the queens and the concubines, and they blessed her. Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners?’ But ‘Lord, what is man that thou regardest him? and the son of man that thou makest account of him?’ Let all worldly contentments be as nothing to you, so you may win Christ, Phil. iii. 8. And when you have him, you should say, It is enough. He that hath God for his portion may say with the psalmist, Ps. xvi. 5, 6, ‘The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup: thou maintainest my lot. The lines are fallen to me in pleasant places; I have a goodly heritage.’

    Use 2. It is a ground of comfort in the work of faith. We may plead with you not only from your own interest, but from Christ’s contentment: he hath chidden many for not coming, but never any for corning to him. Nay, in point of gratitude, thou hast long grieved the Spirit of God with thy stubbornness and impenitency, taking liberty in fleshly delights, and running after vanity and folly. Oh, come now, and make glad the heart of thy Redeemer! When Isaac longed for savoury meat, a profane Esau would take his bow and arrows and go and kill. Go and try how thou canst mourn over an unbelieving heart, what thou canst do in compliance with Christ’s desire. So, in point of hope, when he seeth you begging pardon, you speak to his very heart; he will join issue with you, and sue out the fruit of his labour. He rejoiceth in our justification and salvation. It will be accomplished by his desire and contentment.

    Use 3. It giveth ample encouragement to faith to come to Christ. It maketh his heart joyful when you come; the Lord Christ counteth it worth all his pains. People question Christ’s willingness; would any be against their own joy and satisfaction? You have high thoughts of an interest in Christ, and Christ hath high thoughts of our interest in him; and therefore the saints plead it reciprocally: Ps. xlii. 5, ‘Why art thou disquieted, O my soul? Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance.’ They speak to their own hearts. Again, Ps. cxix., ‘I am thine; save me.’ It is your gain, and yet Christ counts it his joy. Why should we stand back, when Christ crieth earnestly to us? Mat. xi. 28, ‘Come unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.’ Pray come; he chideth earnestly for not coming: John v. 40, ‘Ye will not come unto me, that you may have life.’ But he never chid you for coming. It is hard to distinguish whether Christ be more willing to take the soul, or the soul to take Christ. We cannot desire it more than Christ will delight in it. If you are afraid of seeking self in it, consider it would not be for your contentment but Christ’s; when he seeth the travail of his soul he is satisfied. Your souls are enough to him. You are vile creatures. It is no matter; your Spouse thinketh it worthy of all his pains and entreaties to gain a daughter of light into his embraces; your comfort is his privilege.

    Use 4. It yieldeth fuel to increase the flame of love. There are three circumstances offered here as matter of this divine fire:—The impatiency of his desires; the painfulness of his endeavours; and the sweetness and fulness of his contentment, intended for the good of our souls.

    1.      The impatiency of his desires. The whole life of Christ was but a thirst after our good, spent in the heat of love and desire. And when he died, he said, John xix. 28, ‘I thirst.’ No doubt, in such agonies, his natural moisture was turned into drought; but especially it was a thirst after the good of souls, the good of the creatures; it was a thirst that the prophecies might be fulfilled. Paul, that had the Spirit of Christ by measure, see what longings he expresseth: Gal. iv. 19, ‘My little children, of whom I travail in birth again till Christ be formed in you.’ This ‘was but a taste, a drop of what was in Christ. Phil. i. 8, ‘For God is my record, how greatly I long for you in the bowels of Christ.’ All Paul’s longings were but a glimpse or specimen of those bowels in Christ. The impressions upon his spirit were more pure and powerful.

    2.      The painfulness of his endeavours, such as could not be expressed by a lower term than the travail of his soul; and do but remember all the hardships of Christ’s life, the woes of the garden, all the conflicts and assaults of hell upon his spirit; you shall see Christ’s love did not dwindle in a wish, nor die away in a cold desire. The sparks of the creature’s love may soon languish, but Christ’s love did not leave him till it got him out of heaven into the womb, from the womb to the wilderness, to the garden, to the cross, to the grave. All these waters could not quench it. The apostle expresseth the common acts of the creature’s love by labour: ‘The labour of love.’ Heb. vi. 10. But here was higher labour in the utmost degree, yea, travail: ‘He shall see the travail of his soul.’ Paul maketh it an endearing circumstance: 1 Thes. ii. 9, ‘Ye remember, brethren, our labour and travail, labouring night and day.’ But what was it for Paul to part with his allowance, when Christ parted with his glory? Well, then, consider it was no lazy love, no idle wish, but such as ended in restless endeavours for your good. There are pains on the cross, and pains in his spirit.

    3.      The sweetness and fulness of contentment. Still the Lord went on till he took the last sour draught of vinegar; then he said, ‘It is finished,’ John xix. 30. Christ’s spirit was restless, but then satisfied; it was enough if he could gain souls. O vile wretches that we are, that God should think our souls enough! Alas! what can we bring to him that Jesus Christ should set up his rest in the good of our souls? The merchant sold all for a pearl; but alas! we are but an ill purchase. What doth Christ get by us so as to be satisfied when he gaineth sinners?

    Use 5. It holdeth forth a high pattern for our imitation.