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.
and
will
rend
the caul
of
the
heart
of
those
unrepenting sinners,
who
have resisted his
autho-
rity,
and abused
his love.
And
how
will
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
you
not read
of
me
in
the gospel
of
my
grace? Did
you
not learn
my
cha-
racter
and
my
salvation
in
the
ministrations
of
my
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