verse.

Neither is it to be understood of man's nature, which in respect of God is servile: because Christ's emptying of himself, consisting, according to the text, in his taking on the form of a servant was surely over, and at an end, in his exaltation, and the full manifestation of his divine glory; while yet his human nature remains. Neither doth that mean, low, and servile kind of condition, into which he was brought in his sufferings, seem to explain sufficiently the form of a servant, which he took upon himself.

The plain and literal sense of these words I take to be the true sense of them, viz. That the Son of God, our blessed Lord Jesus Christ, really became a servant, as really as ever man did, who served for his bread. He voluntarily took upon himself, that wherein the essence of that relation, on the servant's part, doth consist; and so was formally constituted a servant, to all intents and purposes of the bargain with him whose servant he became. As this is the literal sense of the words, from which we are never to depart without necessity; so it is confirmed to be the genuine sense, by the true import of that phrase, Being in the form of God. His being in the form of God, denotes his being very God; therefore his taking upon him the form of a servant, must denote his becoming really a servant.

Now, the scripture represents Jesus Christ, (1.) As a servant in his state of humiliation, and so he is called, a servant of rulers, Isa. xlix. 7. (2.) As a servant in his state of exaltation, Isa. liii. 11, "By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many." Compare Acts v. 31, " Him hath God exalted, with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins." It can hardly be a question with any who reads the text and context, whether the form of a humbled servant, or of an exalted servant, is meant here? Our Lord Jesus did take on both, the one in his humiliation, and the other in his exaltation; but it is evident, the former, and not the latter, is here meant; and they are vastly different. The form of a humbled servant he submitted to; the form of an exalted servant was conferred on him, as the reward of that submission, Philip. ii. 9. In this form of a servant, he has a most exalted and glorious honorary ministry; being a servant, for whose law the isles shall wait, Isa. xlii. 1, 4, "For the Father -hath committed all judgment unto the Son," John v. 22, hath "set him king upon his holy hill of Zion," Psalm ii. 6, and "given him all power in heaven and in earth." Matth. xxviii. 18. But in that form, whereof the text speaks, he had a service low and humble, onerous and heavy, a surety-service, a servitude; and so the form was the form of a bond-servant. In both the one and the other

Joseph was a shining type of him, being first sold for a servant, aud then exalted to be ruler over all Egypt under Pharaoh.

Here then is a stupendous mystery: Christ Jesus, very God, the Father's equal, Lord of heaven and earth, became a servant for us, a bond-man or bond-servant; for so the word properly signifies, and therefore is the word that is constantly used in that New Testament phrase which we read bond or free, or bond and free, 1 Cor. xii. 13, Gal. iii. 28, Eph. vi. 8, Col iii. 11, Rev. xiii. 16, and xix. 18. The greatest inequality found in any relation among men, is in that betwixt the master and the servant, the bond-servant: so the lowest levelling among them is that whereof mention is made, Isa. xxiv. 2, "It shall be-as with the servant, so with his master." Then, what unparallelled condescension, wonderful emptying was this! God's equal becoming a servant, a bond-servant, for poor sinners! Both these characters, the highest and the lowest, met together in Christ, in his state of humiliation, Zech. xiii. 7, " Awake, O sword,-against the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord." Isa. xlii. 1, "Behold my servant;" the very same word that is rendered bond-man and bond-servant, Lev. xxv. 39, 42, 44.

DOCTRINE. Our Lord Jesus Christ, continuing to be his Father's equal, humbled himself into a state of servitude, and became his servant, his bond-servant, in man's nature, for poor sinners of Adam's race. This was a step lower than his becoming man; but the lower it was, the higher did his free love to man appear.

I am aware, that some in the height of their own wisdom, measuring gospel mysteries by their carnal reason, may be apt to say here, "This is an hard saying, who can hear it?" But it is undeniable, that Christ is expressly called God's servant in the holy Scripture; as Isa. xlii. 1," Behold my servant whom I uphold," &c. compared with Matth. xii. 18, where that text is directly applied to him, Zech. iii. 8, "I will bring forth my servant the BRANCH." But what kind of a servant unto his Father was he? did he become a bond-man, a bond-servant? Yea, he did. Hear his own decision in that point, Psal. xl. 6, "Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire, mine ears hast thou opened." The word here rendered opened, properly signifies digged, as you may see in the margin: and so the words are, "Mine ears thou diggedst through;" that is, boredst, as it is well expressed in our paraphrase of the Psalms in metre, "Mine ears thou bored." This plainly hath a view to that law concerning the bond-servant, Exod. xxi. 6, "Then his master shall bring him unto the judges, he shall also bring him to the door, or unto the door-post: and his master shall bore his ear through with

an awl; and he shall serve him for ever." This is confirmed from Hos. iii. 2, "So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver," which was the half of the stated price of a bond-woman. In the original it is, "So I digged her thorough to me," &c., the same word being here used, as Psalm. xl. 6. It is a pregnant word, which is virtually two in signification: and the sense is, I bought her, and bored her ear to my door-post, to be my bond-woman, according to the law, Deut. xv. 17, "Thou shalt take an awl, and thrust it through his ear into the door, and he shall be thy servant for ever: and also unto thy maid servant thou shalt do likewise." The boring of her ear as a bond-woman, was noways inconsistent with the prophet's betrothing of her to himself, Hos. iii. 3, see Exod. xxi. 8.

I shall only add, that, accordingly, his most precious life, which was the ransom for the lives of the whole elect world, was sold by Judas for thirty pieces of silver, the stated price of the life of a bond-servant, Exod. xxi. 32, "If the ox shall push a man-servant, or maid-servant, he shall give unto their master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned." And the death he was put to, namely, to die on a cross, was a Roman punishment, called by them the servile punishment, or punishment of bond-servants: because it was the death that bond-men malefactors were ordinarily doomed unto; free men seldom, if ever, according to law. And it is plain, that "Joseph who was sold for a servant," (Psalm cv. 17,) was therein a type of Christ.

Now, for the opening of this mystery of the state of servitude the Lord of glory put himself into for wretched sinners of Adam's race, we shall briefly consider the following particulars. (1.) To whom he became a servant. (2.) For whom. (3.) The necessity of it. (4.) The contract of service. (5.) His fulfilling of it. (6.) Wherefore he engaged in it.

I. To whom he became a servant. The Son of God, in our nature, became a servant to man's great Lord and Master. He put himself in a state of servitude to his Father, who said unto him, "Thou art my servant," Isa. xlix. 3. It was with his Father he entered into the contract of service: he it was that bored his ears, Psalm xl. 6. It was his Father's business he was employed in, Luke ii. 49, and to him he behoved to work, John ix. 4, "I must work the work of him that sent me." So, how beit our Lord Jesus was and is, in respect of his divine nature, the Father's equal; yet, in that respect, he acknowledgeth the Father greater than he, as the lord is greater than the servant, John xiv. 28, "My Father is greater than I." Compare chap. xiii. 16, "The servant is not greater than his lord, neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him."

Christ is indeed called a servant of rulers, Isa. xlix. 7. But not in respect of the prime servile relation he stood in that relation he bore to his Father only: but in regard of a secondary occasional relation; as when a master obligeth his servant to serve another man in a particular piece of business. Thus our Lord Jesus was, by his Father, subjected to the Jewish and Roman rulers; he paid. tribute, and was by them both treated as a servant. But herein he was still about his Father's business.

II. For whom he became a servant. Our blessed Lord Jesus took on the service for and instead of others, who were bound to it, but utterly unable for it. The cup is found in Benjamin's sack; therefore poor Benjamin, his father's darling, must be kept a bond-man in Egypt: Nay, says Judah, "Let me abide instead of the lad, a bond-man to my lord, and let Benjamin go," Gen. xliv. 33. An elect world is found guilty before the Lord; they must therefore be bond-men for ever, as well as the rest of mankind: Nay, Father, saith our Lord, who sprang out of Judah, that yoke will be utterly insupportable to them, they will undoubtedly be ruined and perish for ever under it: I will take their state of servitude upon me, let that yoke be laid on my neck, let me be thy bond-man in their stead; and let them go free. So be it, said God, who had set his electing love on them from eternity, I am well pleased with the exchange: thou then "art my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified," Isa. xlix. 3. As to which words, it is evident from the context, that Christ is the party therein spoke to. By Israel is meant the spiritual Israel, to wit, the elect of mankind. Compare Rom. ix. 6, "They are not all Israel who are of Israel." The former text stands thus precisely in the original, "Thou art my servant; Israel, in whom I will glorify myself." As if the Father had said to Christ, Son, these are utterly unable to make out their service; for, their work-arm being broken by the fall, I cannot expect a good turn of their hand: be it known then, that it is agreed, that I take thee in their room and place, to perform the service due in virtue of the original contract; thou in their stead art my servant, from whose hand I will look for that service: thou art Israel's representative in whom I will glorify myself, and make all mine attributes illustrious; as I was dishonoured, and they darkened, by Israel the collective body of the elect. So, it was for the elect Christ became a servant.

III. The necessity of his becoming a servant for their salvation. No doubt all mankind might have been left to perish, even as the fallen angels, without any the least imputation of injustice, either on the Father, or on the Son. The saving of any of the lost

race of Adam, was not a necessary act which could not have been left undone; but an act of sovereign free grace. Howbeit, on the supposition that God would have an elect company saved, there was a necessity of Christ's taking upon himself the state of servitude for them. This will appear from the following particulars jointly considered.

1. The elect of God were, with the rest of mankind, constituted God's hired servants by the first covenant, the covenant of works; and actually entered to that their service, in their head the first Adam. And in token of this, we are all naturally inclined in that character to deal with God; though by the fall we are rendered incapable to perform the duty of it, Luke xv. 19,." Make me as one of thy hired servants." The work they were to work was perfect obedience to the holy law; the hire they were to have for their work was life; "The man which doth those things, shall live by them," Rom. x. 1. The penalty of breaking away from their master was perpetual bondage under the curse, Gal. iii. 10, “Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them."

2. Howbeit they never made out their service: but, by the time they were well entered home, they, through the solicitation of the great runaway servant the devil, violated their covenant of service, and brake away from their Lord and Master. So they lost all plea for the hire; and justly became bond-men under the curse of the broken covenant of works, liable to be whipt to their work, and, for their malefices, to die the death of slaves, Gal. iv. 24, " These are the two covenants; the one from the Mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage." Their falling under the curse inferred the loss of their liberty, and constituted them bond-men for ever; as is evident from the nature of the thing, and instances of the cursed in other cases, as Gen. ix. 25, "Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be." Josh. ix. 23, "Now therefore ye (the Gibeonites) are cursed, and there shall none of you be freed from being bond-men." The very ground being cursed, (Gen. iii. 17,) falls under bondage, according to the seripture, Rom. viii. 21. Compare Gal. iii. 13, "Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree;" which hath a special respect to dying on a cross, the capital punishment for bond-men.

3. By the breaking of that covenant, they lost all their ability for their service, and were left without strength, Rom. v. 6. They had no suffering strength to bear the punishment of their breaking away from their service; but they must have for ever perished under it. They had no doing or working strength left them; their work-arm, once sufficient for their service, was now quite broken,