424 THE WRATH OP THE LAMB. [DISC. V. 3. It is wrath that must avenge the affronts and inju- ries done tó the prime minister of God's government, and the chief messenger of his mercy. All the patriarchs, and the, prophets, and angels themselves, were but ser- vants to bring messages of divine grace to men : And some of them, in awful forms and appearances, repre- sented the authority of God too : But the Son of God is the prime minister of his government, and the noblest ambassador of his grace, and the chief deputy or vicege- rent in his Father's kingdom. See Heb. i. 1. 2. Ps, ii, 6, 9, 12. His Father's glory and grandeur, compassion and love, are most sublimely exhibited in the face of Christ his Son, and God will not have his highest and fairest image disgraced and affronted, without peculiar and signal vengeance. The great God will vindicate the honours of his Son Jesus, in the infinite destruction of a rebellious and un- believing world : And the Son himself bath wrath and just resentment ; he will vindicate his own authority, and his cómmission of grace. He hath a rod of iron put into his hands, as well as a sceptre of mercy, and with his rod will he break to pieces rebellious nations. Rev. ii. 27. It is not fit, that the first minister of the empire of the King of heaven, and the. brightest image of his majesty, and of his love, should appear al- ways in the character of a lamb, a meek and unresent- ing creature. He will put on the lion, when his commis- sion of grace is ended : " He is the lion of the tribe of Judah ;" Rev. v. 5. andwill rend the caul of the heart of those unrepenting sinners, who have resisted his autho- rity, and abused his love. And howwill the wrath of the Lamb of God penetrate the soul of sinners with intense anguish, when the meek and compassionate Jesus shall be commissioned and constrained to speak the language of resentment and vine indignation ? "Did you not hear of me sinners, in yonder world, which lies weltering in flames? Did younot read of me in the gospel of my grace? Did you not learn my cha- racter and my salvation in the ministrations ofmy word? Were you not told, that I was appointed to be the Savi- our of a lost world, and a minister of divine mercy to men? And was there not abundant evidence of it by
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