by Rev. Samuel Rutherford,
a Preparation Sermon, before the communion, at [Church]mabreck, 19 July 1634
published by Rev. Andrew A Bonar, Glasgow, 1876 (reproduced in https://archive.org/stream/fourtcomm00ruth);
minimally modernised, edited and footnoted by JJ Lim
Part 2 of 3: Christ’s Battles
“Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken, ye people, from far; The LORD hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name. 2 And he hath made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of his hand hath he hid me, and made me a polished shaft; in his quiver hath he hid me; 3 And said unto me, Thou art my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified. 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” (Isaiah 49:1-4).
[Ed. Continuing his exposition of Isaiah’s inspired words, Rutherford speaks of how the battles of Christ are fought in the arena of men’s conscience, and exhorts us to respond humbly by yielding to Him. —JJL
PS. If you wish, you may read the full sermon here.
2. Christ’s Battles (v. 1c-2)
“From the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name” (v. 1c)—The law asked who should suffer for man? It was not content with the general answer, “A cautioner and surety;” but one behoved to be named. So the Lord named Christ, and said; Talk no more of that, there is none other meet for the work but Mine own eternal Son; the Son of God, and the Son of man. And upon Christ’s consenting, and answering to His name, God booked Him; and writes it in His holy word, that Christ is Cautioner for His people. He was made to undergo the curse due to us, and His name was written in our bond. An honest man, especially in a high station, will not have his name called in question for a sum of money. He would rather pay the sum ere his name were heard in the Court. So, ere his name be heard for a fault that deserves infamy and death by the law, he would rather die. But our dear Redeemer was not so thin skinned; for His name was within our black bond, along with the perjured man, the adulterer, &c., and justice laid hold on Him as if He had been the transgressor and sinner. He did not become the sinner actually, as the Antinomians say, else He could not have made satisfaction for the sins of His people. It is but a foolish conceit of theirs to imagine that He was both the sin, and the sacrifice for sin. No, instead of being the sinner, “He was holy, harmless, and undefiled” (Heb. 7:26). Yet (what is matter of admiration and wonder) this Holy One did undergo the full punishment that law and justice did require! “He poured out His soul unto death; and He was numbered with the transgressors; and He bore the sins of many, and made intercession for the transgressors” (Isa 53:12). Lo, hear His name in God’s high count-book, and the Father cries, “Jesus Christ is made sin for sinners.” This is a sore [accusation];1 the law of God’s curse and malediction lighted on Christ! O! The angels might wonder to hear Christ’s name called in question. Then you who think much to be spoken of for Christ, to be reproached and nick-named; or to have your names heard of before judges and rulers for Him; why [do that]?2 He took a blot on His name for you! Christ did not hang down His head, nor think shame of you! He avows you and your cause before His Father. So then, avow… His name, Him and His truth also, before all the world. Take not a backside, hold not your peace, flee not the place, when His cause comes in competition, with your name being heard of for Him. “It is your honour.” Oh! That we love ourselves so well, that we will not suffer a wrong for Him! Oh! Your spirit will rise if your name is but changed. And some of you will say, I thank God, none will say that of me, “But a whore’s son!” and I thank God, my name is known where I dwell. And so is His name. Is your name better known than your Saviour, Christ’s? Who has the name of King of kings? And yet His name was put in God’s book along with the transgressor’s. Christ took a little low style, as from a lord or an earl to a good man. He is [always]3 called here, in our country, the Son of man. Many irreverent people, in the days of His flesh, called Him Mary’s son. “He hath made my mouth like a sharp sword” (v. 2a)—Christ can shed blood with the tongue. (Rev 1:16), “And out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, that with it He should smite the nations.” All whom Christ slays, as Mediator and Saviour, He slays them with His mouth; for see how sharp His sword is, (Heb 4:12), “The Word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” Woe, then, to them who have a heart of iron and flint, that slips Christ’s word, and are never slain with it. Some men’s consciences are made of iron; let Christ strike they will never stir. But yet Christ will beat such men’s consciences all to flinders,4 and then they can never be mended again. But [more] of this afterward.
It is true some are moved at the word, they will thrust out a tear. But I compare their motion to a strong physic on a weak stomach; they are sick for a time, but incontinently they vomit it up again, and are as well as ever they were again. So are some men’s hearts with the word; they will be physic[ally] sick, but they will soon vomit up Christ’s physic again: it goes not out of the [church]-yard with them; it abides not with them till the next Lord’s day. “He hath hid me in the shadow of His hand” (v. 2b)—This is a speech borrowed from a man carrying his child in his arms, in a stormy day, who keeps his hand betwixt the child and the blast. Or, when he is on his knee, and is too near the fire, he holds his hand betwixt the child’s face and the fire, and keeps him from burning under the shadow of his hand. The man, Christ, was made to suffer a sore blast: a black storm of the north wind of God’s anger blew upon His fair face till it was like to take all the skin off it. God put His hand betwixt His face and the fire, and preserved Him in the shadow of His hand. And this is nothing else but God’s protecting and defending Christ at His calling as King, Priest, and Prophet.
What would you have more? In all Christ’s sufferings, and troubles, God had the man, Christ, hidden under the shadow of His hand. God had a hearty handful of Christ, and that two ways. You know oftentimes His enemies would have been about with Him, but no man laid hands on Him, for His hour was not yet come. God gave Christ twelve hours in His day, so that He could neither stumble nor fall till His night came: for, in despite of His enemies, He stayed in the city till He got His turn done. They could not chase Christ to the fields, nor make Him flee the place. He came down to plead for the life of His Church and her laws; and made a vow that He would not go home again till He got a [decree],5 and [won]6 the plea; and He got that or ere He rested. He was not chased out of the town till He had done His errand. Until He had all His silly ones brought out of hazard and danger, and brought out of hell, He [went]7 not up to heaven again. He died not before His time: He was not like green corn, cut down [before]8 it be half-ripe. But Christ got His fill of the ground, and was ripe at all will, [before] ever the Lord’s hook cut Him off out of the land of the living; and so He was [always] in the shadow of the Lord’s hand.
But under Christ’s last sufferings, how He was hid under the shadow of God’s hand is harder to understand: for Christ got justice and law, and no mercy. But I answer.
(1) That although Christ got no sparing mercy, yet He got helping mercy under His sufferings. Observe it, for there is need we go attentively here: the ground is somewhat slippery. The Word says, “God spared Him not.” There was no collusion, or secret [pact]9 betwixt Christ and God’s justice. Nay, the law would not take a composition from Christ for so much and forgive the rest, as if it had been great rigour to take all. If Christ had gotten a remission, He should have got some of the sweet Evangel. Nay, but Christ got nothing but law, the sour law; and kept all the sweet Evangel to His poor [bankrupt]10 friends, to poor, silly, helpless sinners. Therefore, Christ said, I will take all the sour, and you shall get all the sweet. Nay, under desertion, Christ could not get a blink or word of His Father. Nay, I say more, God might not, He could not, as law went then. Christ cried, Is there not a word, dear Father, not a look? And He answers, No, not a look for a world. But Christ got God’s helping mercy: the sweet shadow of His almighty hand covered Him. For God sent His angel to comfort Him, but would not come Himself. God gave Him armour against all the strokes; for He had assurance that the Godhead and the manhood should never sunder. That was Christ’s great Charter that He leaned [much]11 to in time of trouble.
(2) He got [always] help sent Him from the Godhead, at every stroke, inspiring Him with faith, strength, and patience of soul, Isaiah 50:7, “Therefore have I set my face as a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed.” Christ’s soul, because of the personal union, was all as flint. God smote, but the arrows never pierced Him: they only made wounds and rents; but the soul never flew in pieces, nor was turned to nothing. But then, How was the matter? I say, Justice kept Christ from a kiss of the Godhead. For there were two things here: (a) The windows of the Godhead were closed, that neither the light nor the heat thereof, shined in upon the powers of Christ’s soul. (b) All the powers of His human soul were bound up. (i) The natural power of joy was bound up like a great water dammed in, that none could get a [cheerful]12 look of Christ! for He said, “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death.” (ii) The natural power of seeing God in the union was restrained. God hiding Himself, a black cloud of horrible fears was over Christ’s judgment, that He should then believe, but not see nor contemplate the Godhead, as before. (iii) That power of enjoying, in all the whole humanity, and sweet actual complacency, and resting upon a felt Lord, who was absent, was restrained. And yet (which is a wonder of wonders) with horrible fear, He had faith, and extreme love, with sadness; in calling God His Father, with strong cries and tears, admirable patience and hope, which made Him long for an open window, to see day light. Indeed, though it was not possible that Christ should miscarry; yet to our appearance, our salvation was in a venture. If Christ had here [made a mistake],13 and gone a wrong step; then adieu to our salvation. But God be thanked, it was not a loose matter, nor loose hung. God had, all this time, Christ and our heaven in the hollow of His hand. See then, whenever God sends Christ, or any of His servants, an errand, He has them [always] hard and fast in the hollow of His hand. God’s faithful ministers and professors, serving in a lawful calling, are all here. If He sends you to bear witness, and suffer for Him, He will bear your charges. If He [set you to work]14 against any foe, He will defend you: but if you go to the whore, and get an [nasty]15 sickness; or go to the world, and seek your happiness there; then you are not under the shadow of God’s hand: He will not bear your charges. If you but yoke against any sin, He will defend you; but if you sin against Him, you are exposed to all the arrows in His quiver. Why? The devil has employed you, and not God. Were you in God’s service, your Master would stand for you. Then go on in His service, and draw upon Him for all your expenses. Christ, at the time when He stood at the great bar, held by the grand Charter in His hand, and answered.
Now, what can Christ not abide, and what can He not do? What can bits of clay creatures, rulers and princes, do against Him? Even He endured such a battle! We lose heart and courage, when we fear matters go so hard against God’s service, and His truth. Indeed, our unbelief will be saying, Christ suffered not such a thing as God’s wrath. [Do you know what you are saying]?16 Some will say, We doubt not but Christ can break all His enemies in pieces, like as many potsherds: but O, say they, we fear we have no strength; we [know]17 not if He will give us part of His strength.
I answer. Christ’s strength is not to lie beside Him, as the [miser’s money]:18 it is to give out for His [church]. But I must say one thing; every professor should try whether he be in Christ or not. If you be not in Christ, this world will blow you clean, clean away from Him. Nay, in any trouble, it is not possible you can stand still. For this cause our Lord has sent a trial, that those who have nothing to do with Christ may be blown away. If you would suffer for Christ, slay your affections, and mortify your lusts. They shall not be honoured with suffering who have not given sin its death’s wounds. If you would suffer for Christ, and die for Him, you must be a member: for a [wooden-leg]19 suffers not when the head bleeds. If your heart be prepared, and if you be resolved to see Christ get a bloody head in His members, or in His cause, see that you suffer with Him.
“He hath made me a [sharp arrow]” (v. 2c); an arrow with a sharp point. The sword slays near at hand, and the arrow kills afar off. They are within Christ’s bounds who are slain with the sword; but the arrow flies over the devil’s camp, and kills many on the other side of it. Therefore, it slays those who are over in Satan’s wilderness, and the wild beasts that are in the woods. It kills lions, leopards, asses, and tigers, that is, men of a wild and savage nature, and makes them obedient to the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. This arrow flies over to the wild people of America, and those who are without Christ in the world, worshipping the host of heaven. I think Christ is a keen hunter; He lays about Him with His sword, and slays those who are within His reach. Those who are half in half out, He pulls them in, and takes them in His arms. Those who are afar off, over in America, He bends His bow, and sends a flight or two of arrows amongst them, and the wounded come mourning in, and say, Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do? But know this, that some in this world, at whose conscience Christ shoots His arrows, they lie behind a dyke, and the arrow flies by them. (Mt 22:5, 6, Lk 14:18, 19, 20), “When the chief priests and Pharisees had heard the parable, they perceived that He spake of them: and they sought to lay hands on Him.” They who brought the woman taken in adultery (Jn 8:9), when they heard Christ say, “He that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone at her: being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest even unto the last.” The Lord shot an arrow at their consciences, but they crouched and hid themselves behind a wall. See we not that the seventh command shoots an arrow at the fleshly man? He crouches by it and runs to the harlot. The eighth command shoots an arrow at the covetous man, and cries, Woe upon the oppressor and deceiver; and yet he skips away by, crouches and goes after his covetousness. Nay, some wild beasts go away, and the arrow sticking in them, and the blood coming out; but they shake and fling out the arrow, the blood dries, the wound closes up, and mends again. The conscience of many that God’s arrow makes a hole in, and causes them bleed, fling out the arrow, and the wound mends. The devil can lay a [plaster]20 upon a wounded conscience, and heal it again. See Acts 7. Some heard Stephen preach, and they saw his face shine like an angel of God; and were not able to resist the spirit wherewith he spake. He calling them stiff-necked, and uncircumcised in heart, and casting up to them their idolatry, they pulled out Christ’s arrow, and fell to their idolatry again, and stoned Stephen to death. I love it not when men can crouch, and run away from the word, and find excuses, and wrestle a fall with Christ, and His word. Well, beware of this; if you wrestle with Him and fight against His word, take heed you break not your arm, and that your shoulder blade be not out of [joint].21 But this is not Christ the Mediator’s arrow, this is His deaf arrow. Our Lord Jesus has another arrow with a thistle point, that He shoots at the heart of His elect, the Lord crying with its coming, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?” He shot him off his horse, and laid him on the ground, that like a wounded man, he cried, trembling and astonished, “Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?” (Act 9:6). Come near to Christ in the word and Sacraments. Christ has now here, under the elements of bread and wine, a bended bow in His hand; with which, and by the foolishness of preaching (as it is called by men) He is lying, as it were, behind a dyke, and stealing a shot at you. Lord, send Him His prey! The Lord sends you in the gospel the thing you shall never shake off again. For [know that]22 when Christ speaks to the Elect there, there is a sharp steel-pointed arrow in the end of His tongue, that will pierce sinners to death, and lay them low. “The Lord hath given Me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary” (Isa 50:4). For our Lord has good skill to aim a shot of His arrow, and drive it even to the feather: right to the head in the conscience of His own. See when He comes by Matthew, and says, Follow Me; immediately he falls over like a dead man: he leaves his custom and his count-books, and follows Christ. Christ comes by Zaccheus, sitting on a sycamore tree and bids him come down: He bends His bow, and shoots an arrow at him, and cries, “Come down, Zaccheus, for today I must abide at thy house;” and he came down good speed; and from his heart he could never pull out the arrow to this day. Coming by Jacob’s well at Samaria, Christ bended His bow and shot the woman of Samaria: she left her waterpot, and came in to the city and said, “Come, see a man that told me all things that ever I did. Is not this the Christ?” (Act 2). With an arrow from Peter’s mouth, Christ shot three thousand at one shot: He shot them all with one broad arrow through the heart: they were pricked in their hearts. I think Christ, ever since Adam sinned in Paradise, has been hunting, and until the end of the world, will still be hunting and shooting wild beasts. O! but He will come to His Father at night with a rich prey: many slain men—many shot with His arrow. It is true, we think Christ’s arrow is sharp, and that the word of God pains us, for we have [no wish for]23 a bloody head. But we must bear and suffer the word of exhortation. Christ will not slay us, but will bind up the wounds again: His wounds are sweet.
Now, we know that when an arrow is loosed off, and flies through the air, if a man sees it not coming upon him, and if it be shot with [vigour],24 he cannot hinder it to go through his flesh, or enter into the bone. So no man can resist one of Christ’s arrows. The enemies of God’s grace say, that free will is so good and hard, that it will break the point of an arrow, and drive it back. I’ll warrant you that free will is as hard as flint; but if the devil had put on a double corslet25 of proof upon the soul, Christ’s arrow will go through it. Why? Because (Eph 1:19, Col 2:12), by as great power does Christ work faith in us, as was that omnipotent power which raised Jesus Christ from the dead; and it was by the strong hand of the Almighty that Christ of necessity behoved to be raised. And therefore they are liars who say, In conversion, grace and free will start and begin to run both together, like two horses at the starting place. They lie, for God’s grace has the first start. It breaks off first, and powerfully and sweetly draws our free will, so that we run: but Christ prays, calls, and gives us strength, and speed of foot. It is not here, as in a ship equally belonging to two merchants, the one half his, and the other his; as if Christ did the one half, by shooting the arrows; and we the other half, by opening the windows of our hearts, to let the arrows come in. Nay, all is Christ’s work; His arrow drives up the window. There is no danger that Christ’s arrow turns aside and kills nothing: He is a complete marksman, and will not miss. Nay, He waits not on till our free will be in her good blood, and well disposed; He makes us well disposed, and draws, and runs, then we run.
It is true, our will is like the stomached child,26 who has taken offence, and will not go near his father. But here Christ winds in His arrow near the heart, and makes the child love the father, and come creeping in to him; as Matthew and Zaccheus did. Fy27 then! If Christ be such a tried Saviour, [cast your burdens]28 on Him: it is a pity that such a strong Saviour should not be burdened. Who is here who have not their own burdens? One groaning under covetousness; another under pride, sweating with the devil’s packmantle:29 a backful of lusts, running at the devil’s horse foot. Fy then! Ease yourselves, and lay the burden upon Christ; and yourselves also. Now, I say, debts, losses, horses, sums of money, lands, &c., lay them all upon Christ.
I [think]30 men pity Christ; they fear He lose. No, fear not; I’ll warrant Him: He will bear both you and your burdens. Then let us all burden Christ; lay enough upon Him; come and hang upon Him. O! if all who are in this house would come just now, as fast as they could win forward,31 and hang all about Him, like a hive of bees. Rest upon Him, about His neck, and upon His arm, as birds upon a branch. O, fly as doves to His windows, and build your nests in Him (Isa 60:8).
… to be continued
—JJ Lim
1 Orig. “ditty,” a legal charge or accusation
2 Orig. “do ye so.”
3 Orig. “aye.”
4 I.e., fragments or splinters.
5 Orig. “decreet.”
6 Orig. “wan.”
7 Orig. “wan.”
8 Orig. “ere.”
9 Orig. “paction.”
10 Orig. “dyvour.”
11 Orig. “mickle.”
12 Orig. “blyth,” i.e. cheerful or joyful.
13 Orig. “gotten a wrong cast.”
14 Orig. “yoke you.”
15 Orig. “uncouth.”
16 Orig. “Know ye what ye say.”
17 Orig. “wot.”
18 Orig. “wretch’s gold.”
19 Orig. “tree-leg.”
20 Orig. “plaister.”
21 Orig. “lith.”
22 Orig. “ken ye.”
23 Orig. “no will to.”
24 Orig. “pith.”
25 I.e., a piece of defensive armour covering the body.
26 I.e., a child suffering from stomach ache.
27 An exclamation of disgust which Rutherford uses frequently.
28 Orig. “lay mickle.”
29 According to Bonar: a cloak in which a load is wrapped up in.
30 Orig. “trow.”
31 I.e., “make advance.”