The Wrath of the Lamb
Rev. vi. 15, 16, 17. And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free-man, hid themselves in the dens, and in the rocks of the mountains; and said to the mountains and rocks, fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand.
When some terrible judgment, or execution of divine vengeance is denounced against an age or a nation, it is sometimes described in the language of prophecy, by a resemblance to the last and great judgment-day, when all mankind shall be called to account for their sins, and the just and final indignation of God shall be executed upon obstinate and unrepenting criminals; the discourse of our Saviour in the xxivth of Matthew, is an eminent example of this kind, where the destruction of the Jewish nation is predicted, together with the final judgment of the world, in such uniform language, and similar phrases of speech, that it is difficult to say whether both these scenes of vengeance run through the whole discourse, or which part of the discourse belongs to the one and which to the other. The same manner of prophecy appears in this text.
Learned interpreters suppose these words to foretell the universal consternation which was found among the heathen idolaters and persecutors of the Church of Christ, when Constantine, the first Christian Emperor, was raised to the throne of Rome, and became governor of the world.
But whether they hit upon the proper application of this prophecy or not, yet still it is pretty evident, that this scene of terror is borrowed from the last judgment, which will eminently appear to be the “day of wrath,” as it is called, Rom. ii. 5. It is the great day of divine indignation, in so eminent a manner, that all the tremendous desolations of kingdoms and people, from the creation of the world, to the consummation of all things, shall be but as shadows of that day of terror and vengeance.
I shall therefore consider these words at present, as they contain a solemn representation of that last glorious and dreadful day; and here I shall enquire particular! v, ( 1. ) ‘Who are the persons whose aspect and appearance shall then be so dreadful to sinners? (2.) How comes the wrath which discovers itself at that time to be so formidable? and (3.) How vain will all the shifts and hopes of sinners be, in that dreadful day, to avoid the wrath and vengeance.’
First, Who are the persons that appear clothed in so much terror?
It ia he that “sits upon the throne, and the Lamb.” It is God the Father of all, the great and Almighty Creator, the supreme Lord and Governor of the world, and the Lamb of God, i. e. our Lord Jesus Christ, his Son, dwelling in human nature, to whom the judgment of the world is committed, and by whom the Father will introduce the terrible and the illustrious scenes of that day, and manage the important and eternal affairs of it. It is by these names that the Apostle John, in this prophetical book, describes God the Father and his Son Jesus. Rev. iv. 10. and v. €. — 13.
If it be enquired, why God the Father is described as the person ‘sitting on the throne,’ this is plainly agreeable to the other representations of him throughout the Scripture, where he is described as first and supreme in authority, as sitting on the throne of majesty on high, as denoting and commissioning the Lord Jesus, his well-beloved Son, to act for him, and as placing him on his throne, to execute his works of mercy or vengeanee. Rev. iii. 21. “He that overcometh shall sit down with me on my throne,” saith our Saviour, “even as I have overcome, and am set down with the Father on his throne.” John v. 22, 27. “The Father hath committed all judgment into the hands of the Son.” It is true, the Godhead or divine essence is but one, and it is the same Godhead which belongs to the Father that dwells in the Son, and in this respect “Christ and the Father are one, he is in the Father, and the Father in him,” John x. 30, 38; yet the Father is constantly exhibited in Scripture, with peculiar characters of prime authority, and the Son is represented as receiving all from the Father.* John v. 19,20, 23, 26, 27. If it be farther enquired, ‘why Christ is called the Lamb of God,’ I shall not pursue those many fine metaphors and similes, in which the wit and fancy of men have run a long course on this subject; but shall only mention these two things.
1. He is called the Lamb, from the innocence of his behaviour, the quietness and meekness of his disposition and conduct in the world. The character of Jesus, among men, was peaceful, and harmless, and patient of injuries; “when he was reviled, he reviled not again, but was led as a Lamb to the slaughter,” with submission, and without revenge. This resemblance appears, and is set forth to view in several Scriptures, wherein he is compared to this gentle creature. Acts viii. 32. 1 Pet. ii. 23.
2. He was called the Lamb, because he was appointed a sacrifice for the sins of men; John i. 29, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world.” 1 Pet. i. 18, 19, “You were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish, and without spot.” It was a lamb that was ordained for the constant daily sacrifice among the Jews, morning and evening, to typify the constant and everlasting influence of the atonement made by the death of Christ. Heb. x. 11, 12. It was a lamb which was sacrificed at the passover, and on which the families of Israel feasted, to commemorate their redemption from the slavery of Egypt, and to typify Christ who is “our passover, who was sacrificed for us,” and for whose sake the destroying angel spares all that trust in him. 1 Cor. v. 7.
But will a lamb discover such dreadful wrath? Has the Lamb of God such indignation in him? Can the meek, the compassionate, the merciful Son of God, put on such terrible forms and appearances? Are his tender mercies vanished quite away, and will he renounce the kind aspect, and the gentle language of a lamb for ever?
To this I answer, that the various glories and offices of our blessed Lord require a variety of human metaphors and emblems to represent them. He was a lamb, full of gentleness, meekness, and compassion, to invite and en-
*A11 the passages of Scripture which ascribe inferiority or dependence to the Son, speak of him in his mediatorial character, or have reference to hie human nature. — Ed.
courage sinful perishing creatures, to accept of divine mercy: but he has now to deal with obstinate and rebellious criminals, who renounce his Father’s mercy, and resist all the gentle methods of his own grace and salvation: and he is sent by the Father to punish those rebellions; but he is named ’ the Lamb of God’ still, to put the rebels in mind what gentleness and compassion they have affronted and abused, and to make it appear that their guilt is utterly inexcusable.
Let us remember, Christ is now a Lamb, raised to the throne in heaven, and furnished and armed ‘with seven eyes and seven horns,’ with perfect knowledge and perfect power, to govern the world, to vindicate his own honour, and to avenge himself upon his impenitent and obstinate enemies, Rev. v. 5, 6. Here the Lamb will assume the name of the “Lion of the tribe of Judah” also, and he must act in different characters, according to the persons he has to deal with.
The second general question which we are to consider, is, ‘How comes the wrath of that great day to be so terrible?’
I answer in general, because it is not only the ’ wrath of God,’ but of ’ the Lamb.’ It is the wrath that is manifested for the affronts of divine authority, and the abuse of divine mercy: it is wrath that is awakened by the contempt of the laws of God, written in the books of nature and Scripture, and for the contempt of his love revealed in the Gospel by Jesus Christ.
It is proper to observe here, that the ’ wrath of God,’ and the wrath of the Lamb,’ are not to be conceived as exactly the same, for it is the wrath of the Son of God in his human nature exalted, as well as the displeasure of God the Father. It is the righteous and holy resentment of the man Jesus, awakened and let loose against rebellious creatures that have broken all the rules of his Father’s government, and have refused all the proposals of his Father’s grace. It is the wrath of the highest, the greatest, and the best of creatures, joined to the wrath of an offended Creator.* But let us enter a little into particulars.
* Here let it be observed, that when the holy Scripture speaks of the
wrath and indignation of the blessed God, we are not to understand it as
though God were subject to such passions or affections of nature, as we feel
fermenting or working within ourselves when our anger rises. But because
1. It is righteous wrath, and just and deserved vengeance, that ’ arises from the clearest discoveries of the love of God neglected, and the sweetest messages of divine grace refused.’ All the former discoveries of the love of God to men, both in nature and providence, as well as by divine revelation, whether in the days of the Patriarchs, or in the days of Moses and the Jews, were far inferior to the grace which was revealed by Jesus Christ; and therefore the sin of rejecting it is greater in proportion, and the punishment will be more severe. “If the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward, — how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation, as this which began to be spoken by our Lord?” Heb. ii. 2, 3.
Moses had many true discoveries of grace made to him and entrusted with him, for sinful men. But the Scripture saith, John i. 17, “The law came by Moses, and grace and truth came by Jesus Christ,” i. e. in such superabundance, as though grace and truth had never appeared in the world before. The forgiving mercy of God, under the veil of ceremonies and sacrifices, and the mediation of Christ, under the type of the high priest, was but a dark and imperfect discovery, in comparison of the free, the large, the full forgiveness, which is brought to us by the gospel of Christ. Learn this doctrine at large, from Heb. x. 1. — 14. This is amazing mercy, astonishing grace, and the despisers of it will deserve to perish with double destruction, for they wink their eyes against clearer light and reject the offers of more abounding love.
the justice or rectoral wisdom of God inclines him to bring natural evil, pain or sorrow, upon those who are obstinately guilty of moral evil or sin, and to treat them as anger or wrath inclines men to treat those that have offended them; therefore the Scripture, speaking after the manner of men, calls it, the -wrath and indignation of God.
And it is hard to say, whether or no the wrath of the Lamb, i. e. of the man Christ Jesus, in whom the Godhead dwells, be any thing more than the calm, dispassionate, rectoral wisdom of the human nature of Christ, inclining him to punish rebellious and impenitent sinners, in conformity to the will of God his Father, or in concurrence with the Godhead which dwells in him. — Watts.
[Jesus is not to be viewed as merely man, in discharging the functions of Mediator. We might as well imagine a human body to act without a soul, as Christ to act separately from the divine nature. In his Person the two natures are inseparably united. The “wrath of the Lamb” is the execution of his just judgment upon sinners. — Ed.]
2. It is wrath that is ‘awakened by the most precious and most expensive methods of salvation slighted and undervalued.’ Well may God say to Christian nations, especially to Great-Britain, who sits under the daily sound of this gospel, ‘What could I have done more for you than I have done?’ Isa. v. 4. ‘I have sent my own Son, the son of my besom, the son of my eternal love, to take flesh and blood upon him, that he might be able to die in your stead who were guilty rebels, and deserved to die: I have given him up to the insults and injuries of men, to the temptations, the buffetings, and rage of devils, to the stroke of the sword of my justice, to the cursed death of the cross for you; here is heaven and salvation purchased for man, with the dearest and most valuable life in all the creation, with the richest blood that ever ran in the veinsof a creature, with the life and blood of the Son of God; and yet you refused to receive and accept of this salvation, procured at so immense a price. I called you to partake of this invaluable blessing freely, “without money and without price,” and yet you slighted ail these offers of mercy; what remains but that my wrath should kindle against you in the hottest degree, and fill your souls with exquisite anguish and misery; you have refused to accept of a covenant which was sealed with the blood of my own Son, which was confirmed by miraculous operations of my own Spirit; you have valued your sinful pleasures, and the trifles of this vain world, above the blood of my Son, and the life of your souls: it is divinely proper that divine vengeance should be your portion, who have rejected such rich treasures of divine love.’ Heb. x. 28 — 31. ‘He that despised Moses’ law, died without mercy, under two or three witnesses; of how much sorer punishment suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace? For we know him that hath said vengeance bc-longeth unto me, I will repay, saith the Lord.’
3. It is wrath that ‘must avenge the affronts and injuries done to 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 ‘servants7 to bring messages of divine grace to men: and some of them in awful forms and appearances, represented 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 vicegerent in his Father’s kingdom. See Heb. i. 1, 2. Psal. 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 unbelieving world: and the Son himself hath wrath, and just resentment; he will vindicate his own authority, and his commission of grace. He hath a rod of iron put into his hands, as well as a sceptre of mercy, and with this rod will he break to pieces rebellious nations. Rev. iii. latter end. 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 always in the character of a Lamb, a meek and unrcsenting creature. He will put on the Lion when his commission of grace is ended: he is the l 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 authority 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 the compassionate Jesus, shall be commissioned and constrained to speak the language of resentment and divine 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 character and my salvation in the ministrations of my word? Were you not told that I was appointed to be the Saviour of a lost world, and a minister of divine mercy to men? And was there not abundant evidence of it by miracles and prophecies? Were you not told that I was exalted after my sufferings to the right hand of God, on purpose to “bestow repentance and remission of sins?” Acts. v. 31. And were you not informed also, that I had a “rod of iron” given me to dash rebels to death? Psal. ii. What is the reason you never came to me, or submitted to my government, or accepted of my grace? Did you nevei hear of the threatenings that stood like drawn swords against those who wilfully refuse this mercy? Did you think these were mere bugbears, mere sounding words to fright children with, and harmless thunder that would never blast you? Did you think these flashes of wrath in my word, were such sort of lightnings as you might safely play with, and flame that would never burn? What punishments think you, do you deserve, first for the abuse of my authority, and then for the wilful and obstinate refusal of my grace? Is it not divinely fit and proper, my wrath should awake against such heinous criminals? Where is any proper object for my resentment, if you are not made objects of it? Take them, angels, bind them hand and foot, and cast them into utter. darkness. Let them be thrown headlong into the prison of hell, where fire and brimstone burn unquenchably, where light, and peace, and hope can never come. Let them be crushed with the rod of iron, which the Father hath put into my hands, as the first minister of his kingdom, as the avenger of his despised grace.’
4. It is a wrath, that is ‘excited by a final and utter rejection of the last proposals of divine love.’ When mercy was offered to men by the blessed God at first, the discoveries were more dark and imperfect; there were still further discoveries to be made in following ages. Therefore the crime and guilt of sinners in those former days, was much less than the crime and guilt of those who reject this last proposal of mercy. There is no further edition of the covenant of grace, for those who refuse this offer. Those who neglect Christ as he is set forth in the gospel, to be a sacrifice for sin, “there remains no more sacrifice for them, but a certain fearful expectation of vengeance and fiery indignation, which shall consume the adversary.” Heb. x. 26, 28.
All the former dispensations of grace are contained eminently and completed in this dispensation of the gospel. God can send no greater messenger than his own Son, and he concludes and finishes the whole scene and period of grace, with the gospel of Christ. There remains nothing but wrath to the uttermost for those who have abused this last offer of mercy. This was exemplified in the destruction of Jerusalem and the Jews, a little after they had put Christ to death, and rejected the salvation which he
K proposed; and this wrath will be more terribly glorified in the final destruction of every sinner that wilfully rejects the glad tidings of this salvation.
5. It is such wrath, as ’ arises from the patience of God, tired and worn out by the boldest iniquities of men, and by a final perseverance in their rebellions.’ It is the character and glory of God to be “long-suffering, and slow to anger.” Exod. xxxiv. 6. “The Lord God merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth;” and Jesus his Son, is the minister of this his patience, and the intercessor for this delay of judgment and vengeance. He is represented as interceding one year after another, for the reprieve of obstinate sinners, and at his intercession, God the Father ’ waits to be gracious:’ but God will not wait and delay, and keep silence for ever, nor will Jesus for ever plead. Psal. 1. 1, 3, 21, 22. “Consider this ye that forget God, lest he tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver.” God will say then to obstinate sinners, as he did to the Jews of old, Jer. xv. 5, 6. “I will stretch out my hand against thee and destroy thee, I am weary of repenting;” and even the abused patience of Jesus the Saviour, shall turn into fury, when the ‘day of recompence’ shall come, and the “day of vengeance which is in his heart,” Isa. lxiii. 1,4.
0 let each of us consider, ‘How long have I made the grace of God wait on me? How many messages of peace and pardon have I neglected? How many years have I delayed to accept of this salvation, and made Jesus wait on an impegitent rebel with the commission of mercy in his hand, while I have refused to receive it? Let my soul be this day awakened to lay hold of the covenant of grace, to submit to the gospel of Christ, lest to-morrow the days of his commission of mercy toward me expire, lest the patience of God be finished, lest the abused love of a Saviour turn into fury, and nothing remain for me, but unavoidable destruction.’
6. It is a sentence of divine wrath, which ‘shall be attended with the fullest conviction of sinners, and self-condemnation in their own consciences.’ This doubles the sensations of divine wrath, and enhances the anguish of the criminal to a high degree.
This final unbelief and rejection of grace, is a sin against so much light and so much love, that however men cheat
THE WRATH OF THE LAMB. Ill
their consciences now, and charm them into silence, yet at the last great day their own consciences shall be on the side of the Judge, when he” pronounces wrath and damnation upon them. What infinite terrors will shake the soul, when there is not one of its own thoughts that can speak peace within? When all its own inward powers, shall echo to the sentence of the Judge, and acknowledge the justice and equity of it forever.
0 who can express the agonies of pain and torture, when the impenitent sinner shall be awakened into such reflections as these? i I was placed in a land of light and knowledge; the light of the gospel of grace shone all around me 5 but I winked my eyes against the light, and now I am plunged into utter and eternal darkness; I was convinced often that I was a sinner, and in danger of death and hell, I was convinced of the truth of the gospel, and the all-sufficiency of the salvation of Christ; but I loved the vanities of this life, I followed the appetites of the flesh, and the delusive charms of a tempting world, I delayed to answer to the voice of Providence and the voice of mercy, the voice of the gospel inviting me to this salvation, and the voice of Christ requiring me to be saved. My own heart condemns me with ten thousand reproaches: how righteous is God in his indignation! how just is the resentment of the Lamb of God in this day of his wrath! What clear and convincing and dreadful equity attends the sentence of my condemnation, and doubles the anguish of my soul!,
7. It is such wrath as ’ shall be executed immediately and eternally, without one hour reprieve, and without the least hope of mercy, and that through all the ages to come.’ For though Jesus is the Mediator between God and man, to reconcile those to God who have broken his law, there is no mediator appointed to reconcile those sinners to Christ, when they have finally resisted the grace of his gospel. There is no blood nor death that can atone, for the final rejection of the blood of this dying Saviour. If we resist Jesus Christ the Lord, and his atonement, and his sacrifice, his gospel, and his salvation, there remains no more atonement for us. Let us consider each of these circumstances apart, and dwell a little on these terrors, that our hearts may be affected with them.
(1.) This ’ wrath shall be executed immediately,’ for the time of reprieve is come to an end. Here divine wisdom and justice have set the limits of divine patience, and they reach no further.
(2.) It is * wrath that shall be executed without mercy,’ because the day and hour of mercy is for ever finished. That belongs only to this life. The day of grace is gone for ever. “He that once made them, will now have no mercy upon them: and he that formed them will shew them no favour,” Isa. xxvii. 11. The very mercy of the Mediator, the compassion of the Lamb of God, is turned into wrath and fury. The Lamb himself has put on the form of a Lion, and there is no redeemer or advocate to speak a word for them who have finally rejected Jesus the only Mediator, worn out the age of his pity, and provoked his wrath as well as his Father’s.
(3.) It is ’ wrath without end,’ for their souls are immortal, their bodies are raised to an immortal state, and their whole nature being sinful and miserable, and immortal, they must endure a wretched and miserable immortality. This is the representation of the book of God, even of the New Testament, and I have no commission from God, either to soften these words of terror, or to shorten the term of their misery.
REMARKS ON THIS DISCOURSE.
Remark 1. ‘What a wretched mistake is it to imagine the great God is nothing else but Mercy,’ and Jesus Christ ’ is nothing else but love and salvation.’ It is true, God has more mercy than we can imagine, his love is boundless in many of its exercises, and Jesus his Son, who is the image of the Father, is the fairest image of his love and grace. His compassions have “heights and depths, and lengths and breadths in them, that pass all our knowledge,” Eph. iii. 18. But God is an universal Sovereign, a wise and righteous Governor. There is majesty with him as well as grace; and ( Jesus is Lord of lords and King of kings; he bears the image of his Father’s justice, as well as of his Father’s love; otherwise, he could not be the full “brightness of his glory, nor the express image of his person.”
And besides, the Father hath armed him with powers of divine vengeance, as well as with powers of mercy and salvation. Psal. ii. 9. He has put ’ the rod of iron’ into his hand, “to dash the nations like a potter’s vessel.” Rev. ii. 27. and xix. 13. He is the “elect and precious coi’ner stone laid in Zion,” 1 Pet. ii. 6. But he is a stone that “will bruise those who stumble at him,” and “those on whom he shall fall, he will grind them to powder,” Matth. xxi. 42. He is a Lamb and a Lion too. He can suffer at Jerusalem and mount Calvary, with silence, ’ and not open his mouth;’ and he can roar from heaven with overspreading terror, and shake the world with the sound of his anger. See that his mercy be not abused.
Remark 2. ‘The day of Christ’s patience makes haste to an end.’ Every day of neglected grace hastens on the hour of his wrath and vengeance. Sinners waste their months and years in rebellion against his love, while he waits months and years to be gracious; but Christ is all-wise, and he knows the proper period of long-suffering, and the proper moment to let all his wrath and resentment loose, on obstinate and unreclaimable sinners. 0 may every one of our souls awake to faith and repentance, to religion and righteousness, to hope and salvation, before this day of our peace be finished and gone for ever! Psal. ii. 12. “Kiss the Son lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little.” There was once a season when he saw the nation of the Jews, and the people of Jerusalem, wasting the proposals of his love; they let their day of mercy pass away unimproved, and he foretold their destruction with tears in his eyes. Luke xix. 41, 42. “He beheld the city and wept over it;” alas, for the inhabitants who would not be saved. He was then a messenger of salvation, and clothed with pity to sinners, but in the last great day of his wrath,. there is no place for these tears of compassion, no room for pity or forgiveness.
Remark 3. When we preach terror to obstinate sinners, we may preach Jesus Christ as well as when we preach love and salvation, for he is the minister of his Father’s government both in vengeance and in mercy.’ The Lamb hath wrath as well as grace, and he is to be feared as well as to be trusted; and he must be represented under all the characters of dignity to which he is exalted, that ’ knowing the terrors of the Lord,’ as well as the compassion of the Saviour, ’ we may persuade sinful men to accept of salvation and happiness.’
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