II.

THE FATHER'S ELECT SERVANT.

PREACHED BEFORE THE WESLEYAN METHODIST CONFERENCE, LEEDS, AUGUST 4, 1845; AND ON SEVERAL MISSIONARY OCCASIONS.

BEHOLD MY SERVANT, WHOM I UPHOLD; MINE ELECT, IN WHOM MY SOUL DELIGHTETH; I HAVE PUT MY SPIRIT UPON HIM: HE SHALL BRING FORTH JUDGMENT TO THE GENTILES. HE SHALL NOT CRY, NOR LIFT UP, nor cause HIS VOICE TO BE HEARD IN THE STREET. A BRUISED REED SHALL HE NOT BREAK, AND THE SMOKING FLAX SHALL HE NOT QUENCH: HE SHALL BRING FORTH JUDGMENT UNTO TRUTH. HE SHALL NOT FAIL NOR BE DISCOURAGED, TILL HE HAVE SET JUDGMENT IN THE EARTH: AND THE ISLES SHALL WAIT FOR HIS LAW.-Isaiah xlii, 1—4.

THE words which have now been read to you belong to one of the most impressive portions of the prophetic Scriptures; and, happily, the proper interpretation of their import, and of the general subject to which they relate, is in no degree a matter of doubt or difficulty. They most unquestionably relate to the character and work of our Lord Jesus Christ. This might be argued with sufficient certainty from the internal evidence of the passage itself; but it is expressly affirmed, moreover, by an inspired expositor. The evangelist Matthew, in the twelfth chapter of his Gospel, quotes this prophecy at full length, and applies it to our Saviour. On the general subject of the text, therefore, it is only necessary to offer one preliminary remark before I proceed to a more minute examination of its statements: namely, that it is to be regarded as descriptive of the whole work and administration of the Messiah, including the commencement of it in his personal humiliations, labors, and sufferings while on earth; its progress and successive developments in subsequent ages of the Church, by the instrumentality of his ministers, and the institutions of the Gospel; and its future completion in the universal extension of his mediatorial kingdom.

This prophecy, then, presents to our view four objects of contemplation. It calls us to behold, with admiring attention,

I. The Messiah's official character and qualifications, as God's servant, his elect, on whom he has put his Spirit, whom he upholds, and in whom his soul delighteth.

II. The work to which he is appointed. "He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles."

III. His manner of executing that work. "He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench."

IV. The success which shall crown his undertaking. "He shall bring forth judgment unto truth. He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth and the isles shall wait for his law.”

I. The Messiah's official character and qualifications are described.

1. Our blessed Saviour is the Father's servant. This appellation is repeatedly given to him in Holy Scripture. "My servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high." (Isa. lii, 13.) "By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities." (Isa. liii, 11.) "Behold, I will send forth my servant the Branch." (Zech. iii, 8.) "It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel; I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth." (Isa. xlix, 6.) These passages show us that it is entirely with reference to his mediatorial work that our Lord is denominated the Father's servant. To him an infinitely important commission has been confided: for the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world; and the Son, so sent, sustains the character of a servant to him who sent him. In his divine nature, as the SON, he possesses, from eternity to eternity, an essential equality with the FATHER. But, for the purpose of recovering our fallen race to holiness

and happiness, and of re-establishing that divine dominion over the apostate creatures which sin had subverted, he laid his glory by. When he took upon him to deliver man, he did not abhor the virgin's womb. By his incarnation he "made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." To this obedience he had pledged himself when he said on coming into the world, "Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me in burnt-offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me) to do thy will, O God." And this pledge he gloriously fulfilled. Though he were a Son, yet having become, as the Son given, and sent, and incarnate, the servant of his Father, he learned and practiced obedience. He "was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house." It was his meat and drink to do the will of the Father, and to make it known to others. In pursuance of this one object he refused no labors, no sacrifices, no sufferings, but persevered in his course, till, faithful unto death, he made his soul an offering for sin, and was thus authorized to say, in the fullest sense, "I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do." Nor was it only in his mediatorial humiliation that he acknowledged the Father's authority, and conducted himself as a servant. In his mediatorial exaltation, also, now that he has a name above every name, and is come into his kingdom, he enjoys that exaltation as the recompense of his acts and services of filial submission, and zeal, and piety; recognizes that name as a name "given" to him by God; and administers that kingdom with a view to the glory of the Father, to whom, when the proper season shall arrive, he will solemnly resign it, that God may be all in all. In the mean time he acts as a Minister of the heavenly sanctuary, and as the Head over all things to the Church, which is his body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all. The pleasure of the Lord -God's gracious purpose to pardon, and purify, and save the

souls of men-is confided to his hands; and he is sleeplessiy occupied in rebuilding in our world the ruined temple of Jehovah, and in gathering out of the nations of the earth a people who shall show forth his praise, and be presented to him at last as a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing. Thus every energy of the mediatorial kingdom is employed, in fact, for the one ultimate purpose of restoring and maintaining the rights and the sovereignty of God, and of raising a revenue of eternal praise for Him for whom are all things, and by whom are all things. At the name of Jesus every knee must bow, and every tongue must be made to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord; but all this is finally to issue in "the glory of God the Father."

These observations, illustrative of the sense in which the Mediator is the Father's servant, are of practical importance, for this reason, among others, that they remind us that it is not to the Second Person only of the blessed Trinity that we owe our grateful acknowledgments for the stupendous work of human salvation. We are indebted to the Father, and to the Holy Spirit, as well as to the Son. The Father's wisdom, authority, and love are the fountain of that astonishing grace which, acting by the incarnation, teaching, atonement, and administration of the Son, and applied by the power of the Spirit, brings many sons unto glory. All things are thus of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ. We are not to conceive of the Father as of a stern, implacable, ungracious being, who would entertain no thoughts of peace toward us until won over to compassion by the sufferings and importunities of the Son. The whole plan and process of redemption is "the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself "_" the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord." The mission, the death, the intercession of our Lord, all are results of the Father's love, demonstrations of its previous existence, striking expressions of its tenderness and intensity, and means which it has itself appointed in order to give effect to its designs of mercy toward our fallen race. toward our fallen race. Wherefore, "glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost: as

it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end."

2. Our Redeemer is the Father's elect. He was chosen and called of God to the mediatorial office. "No man," says Paul, "taketh this honor unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron. So also Christ glorified not himself to be made a high priest; but he that said unto him, Thou art my Son, to-day have I begotten thee: thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec." (Hebrews v, 4-6.) The ground of this choice and appointment was, doubtless, that none but he who was actually elected was able to discharge with efficiency and acceptance the duties of the office. In him alone, who became EMMANUEL, GOD WITH US, did the wisdom. of the Father behold the attributes and perfections which were indispensable for the task of salvation. As the great prophet of the Lord, he was to manifest the Father's name to a world which had not known him. Now, for this purpose none but a divine person was or could be fully adequate. "No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him." (John i, 18.) He was ordained to offer a vicarious sacrifice for the sins of the world, and to present effectual intercession for as many as should come unto God by him. The merit and prevalency of these acts depended materially on the spotless purity and infinite dignity of the sacrifice which was to be offered, and of the priest who was to intercede. When only a typical priesthood was to be instituted, the high priest might properly be taken from among men. The law, therefore, made men high priests, which had infirmity; but the word of the oath (by which the covenant of redemption, as revealed in the Gospel, was established) maketh the Son our high priest, who alone was fit to be consecrated for evermore. Finally, the government was to be on the shoulders of the Messiah. He was to redeem by power, as well as by price; and to undertake the administration of a spiritual kingdom, which requires, for the proper transaction of its vast and immensely complicated concerns, a wisdom and an energy such as no mere creature can exert. On all these accounts, when the servant was to be VOL. I.-3