I. The manner in which he wears his name or title. It is written upon his vefture, and upon his thigh. 1. This name being written upon his vefture, denotes the manifeftation, and the ground of his authority. It is written upon his outward garment, to be read, known, and acknowledged, by all beholders. And it is upon his bloody garment, upon the vefture ftained with his own blood, and the blood of his enemies; which intimates to us, that his government is founded upon the fuccefs of his great undertaking. In the paffage from whence this verfe is selected, there are three names attributed to MESSIAH. He has a name which no one knows but himfelf, agreeable to what he declared when upon earth. No man, oudes, no one, (neither man nor angel) knoweth the Son, but the Father; this refers to his eternal powerand Godhead. A fecond name, The Word of God, denotes the mystery of the divine perfonality. The name in my text imports his glory, as the Mediator between God and man, in our nature, which, when he refumed it from the grave, became the feat of Ver. 12. + Ver. 13. all power and authority; which power, we are now taught to confider, not merely as the power of God, to whom it effentially belongs, but as the power of God exercised in, and by that Man, who died upon the cross for our fins. In confequence of his obedience unto death, he received a name which is above every name *. This infcription his own people read, by the eye of faith, in the prefent life, and it infpires them with confidence and joy, under the many tribulations they pass through, in the course of their profeffion. Hereafter, it fhall be openly known and read by all men. Every eye shall fee it, and every heart muft either bow or break before him. his thigh. The 2. It is written upon his thigh. thigh is the emblem of power, and is the part of the body on which the fword is girded. By this emblem we are taught, that he will affuredly maintain and exercise the right which he has acquired. As he has a just claim to the title, he will act accordingly. Many titles among men are merely titular. So the king of Great-Britain is tyled likewife king of France, though he has * Phil. ii. 9. + Pf. xlv. 3. neither neither authority nor poffeffions in that kingdom. But this name, which MESSIAH bears, is full of life, truth and influence. He is styled King of kings, and Lord of lords, because he really is fo. Because he actually rules and reigns over them, and does according to his own pleasure in the armies of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth, with an abfolute and uncontroulable fway, fo that none can stay his hand, or fay unto him, what doeft thou * ? II. The title itfelf is King of kings, and Lord of lords. He is the Prince of the kings of the earth. Too many of them imagine a vain thing. They take counfel together, and fet themselves against him ‡, faying, Let us break his bands afunder. But he fitteth in the heavens, and has them in derifion. He has his hook in their nofe, and his bridle in their lips, and the refult of all their contrivances, is neither more nor less than the accomplishment of his will. 1. The rage they difcover, and the refiftance they make, cannot weaken this truth, but rather render it more evident. If it be afked, Why does he permit them to refist? * Dan. iv. 35. + Rev. i. 5. + Pf. ii. 3. we we may give an anfwer, in point, from the cafe of Pharach. He refifted, and he perished. He was often warned and rebuked, but he ftill hardened his neck, and continued ftubborn under repeated judgments, till at length he was deftroyed without remedy. Thus the God of Ifrael was more magnified, and the people of Ifrael were more honoured, in the view of the furrounding nations, when they were brought from Egypt with a high hand and with a ftretched out arm; and when Pharaoh and his armies were overthrown in the Red Sea, than the nature of the cafe would have admitted, if Pharaoh had made no oppofition to their departure. Yet the obftinacy of Pharaoh was properly his own. It is true, we are affured that God hardened his heart; but we are not thereby warranted to fuppofe, that God is the author of the fin, which he hates and forbids. It is written again, that God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man*, and the fcripture is to be interpreted confiftently with itself. It would be abfurd to afcribe darkness, or ice, to the agency of the fun; though both inevitably follow, if the light * James i. 13. and and heat of the fun be withdrawn to a certain degree. A degree of heat is necessary to keep water in that state of fluidity which we commonly fuppofe effential to its nature; but it is rather effential to the nature of water, to harden into ice, if it be deprived of the heat which is neceffary to preserve it in a fluid ftate; and the hardest metals will melt and flow like water, if heat be proportionably increased. Thus it is with the heart of fallen man. In whatever degree it is foft and impreffive, capable of feeling and tendernefs, we must attribute it to the fecret influence of the Father and Fountain of light; and if he is pleased to withdraw his influence, nothing more is needful to its complete induration. 2. The kings of the earth are continually difturbing the world with their schemes of ambition. They expect to carry every thing before them, and have feldom any higher end in view, than the gratification of their own paffions. But in all they do, they are but fervants of this great King and Lord, and fulfil his purposes, as the instruments he employs to inflict prescribed punishment upon tranfgreffors against him, or to open a way |