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           Title: Messiah Vol. 1
      Creator(s): Newton, John (1725-1807)
          Rights: Public Domain
   CCEL Subjects: All; Sermons;
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   MESSIAH

   Fifty Expository Discourses

   Preached in the years 1784 and 1785

   by John Newton

   VOLUME I

   Digitized by Susanna K. Martens
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   PREFACE

   The following Sermons, as to the substance (for most of them are
   considerably abridged) were preached at a public and numerous assembly.
   And, therefore, an accurate and logical discussion of the several
   subjects was not aimed at. They are rather popular discourses; in
   which, the Author, though he wished not to treat the politer part of
   his auditory with disrespect, thought it likewise his duty, so to adapt
   his manner to the occasion, as to be intelligible to persons of weak
   capacities, and in the lower ranks of life. He conceives himself to be
   a debtor to every class of his hearers; and that he ought to endeavour
   to please all men, with a view to their education; but, farther than
   this, not to be greatly affected, either by their approbation, or by
   their censure.

   Many of the subjects, are so nearly coincident, that repetitions could
   not be always avoided, without the appearance of affectation. Besides,
   as it may be expected, that in a large congregation, there are always
   some persons present for the first time; with respect to these, an
   observation may be new , though, perhaps, the more stated hearers, may
   recollect its having been mentioned before. For a similar reason, such
   repetitions are not improper, in print. Many persons read part of a
   book, who may not have opportunity, or inclination, to read the whole.
   Should any one, by opening these sermons at a venture, meet with a
   passage, which, by a divine blessing, may either awaken a careless, or
   heal a wounded spirit, that passage will be in exactly the right page,
   even though the purport of it should be expressed in several other
   places. Farther, since we do not always so much stand in need of new
   information, as to have, what we already know, more effectually
   impressed upon the mind; there are truths which can scarcely be
   inculcated too often, at least, until the design, for which they were
   uttered once , be effectually answered. Thus, when the strokes of a
   hammer are often repeated, not one of them can be deemed superfluous;
   the last, which drives the nail to the head, being no less necessary,
   than any of those which preceded it.

   From those Readers, whose habits of thinking on religious subjects, are
   formed by a close attachment to particular systems of divinity, the
   Author requests a candid construction of what he advances, if he
   ventures, in some instances, to deviate a little from the more beaten
   track. If he is, sometimes, constrained to differ from the judgment of
   wise and good men, who have deserved well of the Church of God, he
   would do it modestly. Far from depreciating their labours, he would be
   thankful for the benefit which he hopes he has received from them. It
   is a great satisfaction to him, that in all doctrinal points of primary
   importance, his views are confirmed by the suffrage of writers and
   ministers eminent for genuine piety, and found learning; who assisted
   him in his early enquiries after truth, and at whose feet he is still
   willing to sit. And yet, remembering that he is authorized and
   commanded to call no man Master , so as to yield an implicit and
   unqualified submission to human teachers; while he gladly borrows every
   help he can, from others, he ventures, likewise, to think for himself.
   His leading sentiments concerning the grand peculiarities of the
   Gospel, were formed many years since, when he was in a state of almost
   entire seclusion from society; when he had scarcely any religious book,
   but the Bible, within his reach; and had no knowledge, either of the
   various names, parties, and opinions, by which, Christians were
   distinguished and divided, or of the controversies which subsisted
   among them. He is not conscious, that any very material difference has
   taken place in his sentiments, since he first became acquainted with
   the religious world; but, after a long course of experience and
   observation, he seems to possess them in a different manner. The
   difficulties, which, for a season, perplexed him, on some points, are
   either removed, or considerably abated. On the other hand, he now
   perceives difficulties, that constrain him to lay his hand upon his
   mouth, in subjects, which, once appeared to him obvious and plain.
   Thus, if he mistakes not himself, he is less troubled with scepticism,
   and at the same time, less disposed to be dogmatical, than he formerly
   was. He feels himself unable to draw the line, with precision, between
   those essential points, which ought to be earnestly contended for (in a
   spirit of meekness) as for the faith once delivered to the saints; and
   certain secondary positions, concerning which, good men may safely
   differ, and wherein, perhaps, we cannot reasonably expect them to be
   unanimous, during the present state of imperfection. But if the exact
   boundary cannot be marked with certainty, he thinks it both desirable
   and possible, to avoid the extremes, into which, men of warm tempers
   have often been led.

   Not that the Author can be an advocate for that indifference to truth,
   which, under specious semblance of moderation and candour , offers a
   comprehension, from which none are excluded, but those who profess, and
   aim, to worship God in the Spirit, to rejoice in Christ Jesus, and to
   renounce all confidence in the flesh. Moderation , is a Christian
   grace. It differs much from that tame, unfeeling neutrality between
   truth and error, which is so prevalent in this present day. As the
   different rays of light, which, when separated by a prism exhibit the
   various colours of the rainbow, form, in their combination, a perfect
   and resplendent white , in which every colour is incorporated; so, if
   the graces of the Holy Spirit were complete in us, the result of their
   combined effect, would be a truly candid, moderate, and liberal spirit
   towards our brethren. The Christian, especially he who is advanced and
   established in the life of faith, has a fervent zeal for God, for the
   honour of His name, His law, and His Gospel. The honest warmth which he
   feels, when such a law is broken, when such a Gospel is despised, and
   when the great and glorious name of the Lord his God is profaned,
   would, by the occasion of his infirmities, often degenerate into anger
   or contempt, towards those who oppose themselves, if he was under the
   influence of zeal only. But his zeal is blended with benevolence and
   humility; it is softened by a consciousness of his own frailty and
   fallibility. He is aware that his knowledge is very limited in itself,
   and very faint in its efficacy; that his attainments are weak and few,
   compared with his deficiencies; that his gratitude is very
   disproportionate to his obligations, and his obedience unspeakably
   short of conformity to his prescribed rule; that he has nothing but
   what he has received, and has received nothing, but what, in a greater
   or less degree, he has misapplied and misimproved. He is therefore a
   debtor to the mercy of God, and lives upon his multiplied forgiveness.
   And he makes the gracious conduct of the Lord towards himself, a
   pattern for his own conduct towards his fellow-creatures. He cannot
   boast, nor is he forward to censure. He considers himself, lest he also
   be tempted (Galatians 6:1); and thus he learns tenderness and
   compassion to others, and to bear patiently with those mistakes,
   prejudices, and prepossessions in them , which once belonged to his own
   character; and from which, as yet, he is but imperfectly freed. But
   then, the same considerations, which inspire him with meekness and
   gentleness, towards those, who, oppose the truth, strengthen his regard
   for the truth itself, and his conviction of its importance. For the
   sake of peace, which he loves and cultivates, he accommodates himself,
   as far as he lawfully can, to the weakness and misapprehensions of
   those who mean well; though he is thereby exposed to the censure of
   bigots of all parties, who deem him flexible and wavering, like a reed
   shaken with the wind. But there are other points, nearly connected with
   the honour of God, and essential to the life of faith, which are the
   foundations of his hope, and the sources of his joy. For his firm
   attachment to these, he is content to be treated as a bigot himself.
   For here, he is immovable as an iron pillar, nor can either the fear,
   or the favour of man, prevail on him to give place, no not for an hour
   (Galatians 2:5). Here his judgment is fixed; and he expresses it, in
   simple and unequivocal language, so as not to leave, either friends or
   enemies, in suspense, concerning the side which he has chosen, or the
   cause which is nearest to his heart.

   The minister who possesses a candour, thus enlightened, and thus
   qualified, will neither degrade himself to be the instrument , nor
   aspire to the head , of a party. He will not servilely tread in the
   paths prescribed him by men, however respectable. He will not multiply
   contentions, in defence, either of the shibboleths of others, or of any
   nostrum of his own, under the pretence that he is pleading for the
   cause of God, and truth. His attention will not be restrained to the
   credit, or interest, of any detached denomination of Christians, but
   extended to all who love the Lord Jesus Christ, in sincerity. On the
   other hand, knowing that the Gospel is the wisdom and power of God, and
   the only possible mean, by which, fallen man can obtain either peace or
   rectitude, he most cordially embraces and avows it. Far from being
   ashamed of it, he esteems it his glory. He preaches Christ Jesus the
   Lord, and Him crucified. He dares not sophisticate (II Corinthians
   4:2), disguise, or soften the doctrines of the grace of God, to render
   them more palatable to the depraved taste of the times. He disdains the
   thought. And he will no more encounter the prejudices, and corrupt
   maxims and practices of the world, with any weapon, but the truth as it
   is in Jesus (Ephesians 4:21), than he would venture to fight an enraged
   enemy, with a wooden sword.

   Such is the disposition which the Author wishes for himself, and which,
   he would endeavour to cultivate in others. He hopes that nothing, of a
   contrary tendency, will be found in the volumes now presented to the
   Public. MESSIAH, the great subject of the oratorio, is the leading and
   principal subject of every sermon. His person, grace, and glory; His
   matchless love to sinners; His humiliation, sufferings, and death; His
   ability and willingness to save to the uttermost; His kingdom, and the
   present and future happiness of His willing people; are severally
   considered, according to the order suggested by the series of texts.
   Nearly connected with these topics, are the doctrines of the fall and
   depravity of man, the agency of the Holy Spirit, and the nature and
   necessity of regeneration, and of that holiness, without which, no man
   shall see the Lord. On these subjects, the Author is not afraid of
   contradictions, from those who are taught of God.

   With respect to some other points which incidentally occur, he has
   endeavoured so to treat them, as to avoid administering fuel to the
   flame of angry controversy. He is persuaded himself, and shall be happy
   to persuade his readers, that the remaining differences of opinion,
   among those who truly understand, and cordially believe the
   declarations of Scripture, on the preceding articles, are neither so
   wide, nor so important, as they have sometimes been represented. Many
   of these differences are nearly (merely?) verbal, and would cease, if
   due allowance was made for the imperfection of human language, and the
   effects of an accustomed phraseology, which often lead people to affix
   different ideas to the same expressions, or to express the same ideas
   in different words. And if, in some things, we cannot exactly agree,
   since we confess that we are all weak and fallible, mutual patience and
   forbearance, would be equally becoming the acknowledgements we make,
   and the Gospel which we profess. We should, thereby, act in character,
   as the followers of Him who was compassionate to the infirmities and
   mistakes of His disciples, and taught them, not every thing at once,
   but gradually, as they were able to bear.

   The Author ought not to be very solicitous, upon his own account, what
   reception his performance may meet with. The fashion of this world is
   passing away. The voice, both of applause and of censure, will soon be
   stifled in the dust. It is, therefore, but a small thing to be judged
   of man's judgment (I Corinthians 4:3). But conscious of the vast
   importance of the subject, which he thus puts into the Reader's hands,
   he cannot take leave of him, without earnestly entreating his serious
   attention.

   The one principle, which, he assumes for granted, and which, he is
   certain cannot be disproved, is, That the Bible is a revelation from
   God. By this standard, he is willing, that whatever he has advanced,
   may be tried. If the Bible be true, we must all give an account, each
   one of himself, to the great and final Judge. That when we shall appear
   before His awful tribunal, we may be found at His right hand, accepted
   in the Beloved, is the Author's fervent prayer, both for his Readers
   and for himself.

   London,

   15 April, 1786.
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   Sermon I

   The Consolation

   Isaiah 40:1, 2

   Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably
   to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare

   is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned:

   for she hath received at the LORD 's hand double for all her sins.

   T he particulars of the great "mystery of godliness," as enumerated by
   the Apostle Paul, constitute the grand and inexhaustible theme of the
   Gospel ministry, "God manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit,
   seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world,
   received up into glory" (I Timothy 3:16) . It is my wish and purpose to
   know nothing among you but this subject; to preach nothing to you but
   what has a real connection with the doctrine of Jesus Christ and Him
   crucified, and with the causes and the effects of His obedience unto
   death, even the death of the cross. But a regard to the satisfaction
   and the advantage of my stated hearers, has often made me desirous of
   adopting some plan, which might lead me to exhibit the principal
   qualities of the Saviour's character and meditation in a regular series
   of discourses; so as to form, if not a picture, at least a slight
   sketch, of those features of His glory and of His grace, which endear
   Him to the hearts of His people. Such a plan has lately, and quite
   unexpectedly, occurred to me. Conversation in almost every company, for
   some time past, has much turned upon the commemoration of Handel; the
   grand musical entertainments, and particularly his Oratorio of the
   Messiah , which have been repeatedly performed on that occasion in
   Westminster Abbey. If it could be reasonably hoped that the performers
   and the company assembled to hear the music, or the greater part, or
   even a very considerable part of them, were capable of entering into
   the spirit of the subject; I will readily allow that the Messiah ,
   executed in so masterly a manner, by persons whose hearts, as well as
   their voices and instruments, were tuned to the Redeemer's praise;
   accompanied with the grateful emotions of an audience duly affected
   with a sense of their obligations to His love; might afford one of the
   highest and noblest gratifications, of which we are capable in the
   present life. But they who love the Redeemer, and therefore delight to
   join in His praise, if they did not find it convenient, or think it
   expedient, to hear the Messiah at Westminster, may comfort themselves
   with the thought, that, in a little time, they shall be still more
   gratified. Ere long death shall rend the veil which hides eternal
   things from their view, and will introduce them to the eternal song and
   universal chorus, which are even now performing before the Throne of
   God and of the Lamb. Till then, I apprehend, that true Christians,
   without the assistance of either vocal or instrumental music, may find
   greater pleasure in humble contemplation on the words of the Messiah ,
   than they can derive from the utmost efforts of musical genius. This
   therefore is the plan I spoke of. I mean to lead your meditations to
   the language of the Oratorio , and to consider in their order (if the
   Lord on whom our breath depends shall be pleased to afford life,
   ability, and opportunity), the several sublime and interesting passages
   of Scripture, which are the basis of that admired composition.

   If He shall condescend to smile upon the attempt, pleasure and profit
   will go hand in hand. There is no harmony to a heaven-born soul like
   that which is the result of the combination and coincidence of all the
   divine attributes and perfections, manifested in the work of
   Redemption; mercy and truth meeting together, inflexible righteousness
   corresponding with the peace of offenders, God glorious, and sinners
   saved. There is no melody upon earth to be compared with the voice of
   the blood of Jesus speaking peace to a guilty conscience, or with the
   voice of the Holy Spirit applying the promises to the heart, and
   sweetly inspiring a temper of confidence and adoption. These are joys
   which the world can neither give nor take away, which never pall upon
   the mind by continuous repetition; the sense of them is always new ;
   the recollection of them is always pleasant. Nor do they only satisfy,
   but sanctify the soul. They strengthen faith, animate hope, add
   fervency to love, and both dispose and enable the Christian to run in
   all the paths of holy obedience with an enlarged heart.

   The Messiah of Handel consists of three parts. The first , contains
   prophecies of His advent and the happy consequences, together with the
   angel's message to the shepherds informing them of His birth, as
   related by St. Luke. The second part describes His passion, death,
   resurrection and ascension; His taking possession of His Kingdom of
   glory, the commencement of His Kingdom of grace upon the earth, and the
   certain disappointment and ruin of all who persist in opposition to His
   will. The third part expresses the blessed fruits and consummation of
   His undertaking in the deliverance of His people from sin, sorrow and
   death, and in making them finally victorious over all their enemies.
   The triumphant song of the redeemed, to the praise of the Lamb who
   bought them with His own blood, closes the whole. The arrangement or
   series of these passages, is so judiciously disposed, so well
   connected, and so fully comprehends all the principal truths of the
   Gospel, that I shall not attempt either to alter, or to enlarge it. The
   exordium, or introduction, which I have read to you from the prophecy
   of Isaiah is very happily chosen.

   If, as some eminent commentators suppose, the prophet had any
   reference, in this passage, to the return of Israel from Babylon into
   their own land, his principal object was undoubtedly of much greater
   importance. Indeed their deliverance from captivity, and their state
   afterwards as a nation, do not appear to correspond with the
   magnificent images employed in the following verses. For though they
   rebuilt their city and temple, they met with many insults and much
   opposition, and continued to be a tributary and dependent people. I
   shall therefore wave the consideration of this sense.

   The eye of the Prophet's mind seems to be chiefly fixed upon one august
   [high-ranking; lofty] Personage, who was approaching to enlighten and
   bless a miserable world; and before he describes the circumstances of
   His appearance, he is directed to comfort the mourners in Zion, with
   assurance, that this great event would fully compensate them for all
   their sorrows. The state of Jerusalem, the representative name of the
   people of God, was very low in Isaiah's time. The people, who in the
   days of Solomon were attached to the service of God, honoured with
   signal tokens of His presence and favour, and raised to the highest
   pitch of temporal prosperity, were now degenerated, the gold was become
   dim, and the fine gold changed. Iniquity abounded, judgments were
   impending, yet insensibility and security prevailed, and the words of
   many were stout against the Lord. But there were a few who feared the
   Lord, whose eyes affected their hearts, and who mourned for the evils
   which they could not prevent. These and these only were, in strictness
   of speech, the people of the Lord, and to these the message of comfort
   is addressed. Speak to Jerusalem comfortably, speak to her heart (as
   the Hebrew word is) to her very case, and tell her there is a balm for
   her wounds, a cordial [tonic] for all her griefs in this one
   consideration, MESSIAH is at hand. In the prophetic style things future
   are described as present, and that which the mouth of the Lord has
   spoken as sure to take place, is considered already done. Thus the
   Prophet rapt [enraptured] into future times contemplates the
   manifestation of MESSIAH, the accomplishment of His great undertaking,
   and all the happy consequences of His obedience unto death for men, as
   though he stood upon the spot, and with John, the harbinger of our
   Lord, (whose appearance he immediately describes,) was pointing with
   his finger to the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.

   This comfortable message consists of two parts. First, the removal of
   evil; her warfare is accomplished, her iniquity is pardoned. Secondly,
   a promise of good more than equivalent to all her afflictions; she has
   received at the Lord's hand double for all her sins.

   I.

   Two ideas are included in the original term translated warfare.

   (1.) A state of service connected with hardship, like that of a
   military life (Numbers 1:3)

   (2.) An appointed time, as it is rendered in Job 7:1 and 14: 14.

   These ideas equally apply to the Mosaic dispensation. The spirit of
   that institution was comparatively a spirit of bondage, distance, and
   fear; and the state of the Church, while under the law, is resembled,
   by the Apostle, to that of a minor, who, though he be an heir, is under
   tutors and governors, and differs but little from a servant, until the
   appointed time of the Father (Galatians 4:1-4) The ceremonial law, with
   respect to its inefficacy, is styled weak , and with respect to the
   long train of its multiplied, expensive, difficult, and repeated
   appointments, a yoke and a burden . But it was only for a prescribed
   time. The Gospel was designed to supersede it, and to introduce a state
   of life, power, liberty, and confidence. The blackness and darkness,
   the fire and tempest, and other circumstances of terror attendant on
   the promulgation of the law at Mt. Sinai, (Hebrews 12:18-22) which not
   only struck the people with dismay, but caused even Moses himself to
   say, I exceedingly fear and quake , were expressive of its design;
   which was not to lead the people of Israel to expect peace and hope
   from their best obedience to that covenant; but rather to convince them
   of the necessity of a better covenant, established upon better
   promises, and direct their hopes to MESSIAH , who was prefigured by all
   their sacrifices; and who, in the fulness of time, was to make a
   complete atonement for sin by the sacrifice of Himself. Then their
   legal figurative constitution would cease, the shadows give place to
   the substance, and the true worshippers of God would be instructed,
   enabled and encouraged to worship Him in spirit and in truth; no more
   as servants, but in the temper of adoption, as the children of God by
   faith in the Son of His love.

   There is considerable analogy to this difference between the Law and
   the Gospel, as contradistinguished from each other, in the previous
   distress of a sinner, when he is made sensible of his guilt and danger
   as a transgressor of the law of God, and the subsequent peace which he
   obtains by believing the Gospel. The good seed of the word of grace,
   can only take root and flourish in a soil duly prepared. And this
   preparation of the heart (Proverbs 16:1) is wholly from the Lord
   --without which all that is read or heard concerning MESSIAH produces
   no permanent good effect.

   The first good work of the Holy Spirit, upon the heart of fallen man,
   is to convince of sin (John 16:9) He gives some due impressions of the
   majesty and holiness of the God with whom we have to do, of our
   dependence upon Him, as our obligations to Him as our Creator,
   Lawgiver, and Benefactor; then we begin to form our estimate of duty,
   of sin and its desert, not from the prevalent maxims and judgments of
   mankind, around us, but from the unerring standard of Scripture. Thence
   new and painful apprehensions arise --the lofty looks of man are
   humbled, his haughtiness is brought low, his mouth stopped, or only
   opened to confess his guilt and vileness and to cry for mercy. He now
   feels himself under the law, it condemns him and he cannot reply, it
   commands him and he cannot obey. He has neither righteousness nor
   strength, and must sink into despair, were it not that he is now
   qualified to hearken to the Gospel with other ears, and read the
   Scriptures with other eyes (if I may so speak) than he once did. He now
   knows he is sick, and therefore knows his need of a physician. This
   state of anxiety, conflict and fear, which keeps comfort from his
   heart, and perhaps slumber from his eyes, is often of long continuance.
   There is no common standard whereby to determine either the degree or
   the duration. Both differ in different persons; and as the body and the
   mind have a strong and reciprocal influence upon each other, it is
   probable the difference observable in such cases may in part depend
   upon constitutional causes. However, the time is a prescribed time, and
   though not subject to any rules or reasonings of ours, is limited and
   regulated by the wisdom of God. He wounds, and He heals in His own
   appointed moment. None that continue waiting upon Him, and seeking
   salvation in the means which He has directed, shall be finally
   disappointed. Sooner or later He gives them, according to His promise,
   beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of
   praise for the spirit of heaviness (Isaiah 61:3) This warfare is
   accomplished, when they rightly understand, and cordially [sincerely]
   believe the following clause:

   Her iniquity is pardoned. Though the sacrifices under the law had an
   immediate and direct effect to restore the offender, for whom they were
   offered, to the privileges pertaining to the people of Israel
   considered as a nation or commonwealth, they could not of themselves
   cleanse the conscience from guilt. It is a dictate of right reason, no
   less than of revelation, that it is not possible that the blood of
   bulls and goats should take away sin (Hebrews 10:4) For this purpose
   the blood of Christ had a retrospective efficacy, and was the only
   ground of consolation for a convinced sinner from the beginning of the
   world. He was proposed to our first parents as the seed of the woman
   who should break the serpent's head (Genesis 3:15) In this seed Abraham
   believed and was justified, and all of every age who were justified
   were partakers of Abraham's faith. Therefore the Apostle teaches us,
   that when God set Him forth as a propitiation through faith in His
   blood, He declared His righteousness in remissions of sins that were
   past (Romans 3:25) For though we may suppose God would have declared
   His mercy in forgiving sin upon any terms, no consideration but the
   death of His Son could have exhibited His righteousness --that is His
   holiness, justice and truth, in the pardon of sin. True penitents and
   believers were pardoned and saved under the law, but not by the law.
   Their faith looked through all the legal institutions to Him who was
   represented and typified by them. But the types [prophetic symbols]
   which revealed Him, in a sense concealed Him likewise. So that though
   Abraham saw His day, and rejoiced, and a succession of the servants of
   God foresaw His glory and His sufferings and spake of Him; yet in
   general the Church of the Old Testament rather desired and longed for,
   than actually possessed, that fulness of light and knowledge concerning
   the person, offices, love and victory of MESSIAH, which is the
   privilege of those who enjoy and believe the Gospel (Hebrews 11:39, 40)

   Yet great discoveries of these things were vouchsafed [graciously
   granted] to some of the prophets, particularly to Isaiah, who on
   account of the clearness of his views of the Redeemer and His Kingdom,
   has been sometimes styled a fifth Evangelist. The most evangelical part
   of his prophecy, or at least that part in which he prosecutes that
   subject with the least interruption, begins with this chapter and with
   this verse. And he proposes it for the comfort of the mourners in Zion
   in his day. We know that the Son of God, of whom Moses and the prophets
   spake, has actually come (I John 5:20) --that the atonement for sin has
   been made, the ransom for sinners paid and accepted. Now the shadows
   are past, the veil removed, the night is ended, the dawn, the day is
   arrived, yea the Sun of Righteousness is arisen with healing in His
   beams (Malachi 4:2) . God is reconciled in His Son, and the ministers
   of the Gospel are now authorized to preach comfort to all who mourn
   under a sense of sin, to tell them all manner of sin is forgiven for
   the Redeemer's sake, and that the iniquity of those who believe in Him,
   is freely and abundantly pardoned.

   II.

   Though the last clause of the verse does not belong to the passage, as
   selected for the Oratorio , it is so closely connected with the subject
   that I am not willing to omit it: She hath received at the LORD 's hand
   double for all her sins. The meaning here cannot be that her
   afflictions had already been more, and greater, than her sins had
   deserved. The just desert of sin cannot be received in the present
   life, for the wages of sin is death and the curse of the law, or in the
   Apostle's words, is everlasting destruction from the presence of the
   Lord and the glory of His power (II Thessalonians 1:9) Therefore a
   living man can have no reason to complain under the heaviest
   sufferings. If we acknowledge ourselves to be sinners, we have likewise
   cause to acknowledge, that He hath not dealt with us according to our
   iniquities.

   Nor can the words be so applied to MESSIAH as to intimate that even His
   sufferings were more than necessary, or greater than the exigency of
   the case required. The efficacy of His atonement is indeed greater than
   the actual application, and sufficient to save the whole race of
   mankind if they truly believed in the Son of God. We read, that He
   groaned and bled upon the cross, till He could say, It is finished ,
   but no longer. It becomes us to refer to infinite Wisdom, for the
   reasons why His sufferings were prolonged for such a precise time; but
   I think we may take it for granted that they did not endure for an hour
   or a minute longer than was strictly necessary. The expression seems to
   be elliptical, and I apprehend that the true sense is, that Jerusalem
   should receive blessings double, much greater than all the afflictions
   which sin had brought upon her. And in general to us, to every
   believing sinner, that the blessings of the Gospel are an unspeakably
   great compensation, and overbalance, for all the afflictions of every
   kind with which we have been, or can be exercised. Afflictions are the
   fruit of sin, and because our sins have been many, our afflictions may
   be many. But where sin has abounded, grace has much more abounded
   (Romans 5:20)

   Before our Lord healed the paralytic man who was brought to Him, He
   said, Be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee (Matthew 9:2) . His
   outward malady rendered him an object of compassion to those who
   brought him; but he appears to have been sensible of an inward malady,
   which only Jesus could discern, or pity, or relieve. I doubt not but
   his conscience was burdened with guilt. An assurance therefore that his
   sins were forgiven, was sufficient to make him be of good cheer,
   whether his palsy be removed or not. To this purpose the Psalmist
   speaks absolutely and without exception. Blessed is the man , however
   circumstanced, whose transgression is forgiven, whose iniquity is
   covered (Psalm 32:1) Though he be poor, afflicted, diseased, neglected
   or despised, if the Lord imputeth not his iniquity to him, he is a
   blessed man. There is no situation in human life so deplorable, but a
   sense of the pardoning love of God can support and comfort the sufferer
   under it, compose his spirit, yea make him exceedingly joyful in all
   his tribulations; for he feels the power of the blood of Jesus
   cleansing his conscience from guilt, and giving him access by faith to
   the Throne of Grace, with liberty to say, Abba, Father; he knows that
   all his trials are under the direction of wisdom and love, are all
   working together for his good, and that the heaviest of them are light,
   and the longest momentary, in comparison of that far more exceeding and
   eternal weight of glory, which is reserved for him in a better world
   (II Corinthians 4:16, 17) Even at present in the midst of his
   sufferings, having communion with God, and a gracious submission to His
   will, he possesses a peace that passeth understanding, and which the
   world can neither give nor take away.

   I shall close this preliminary discourse with a few observations, by
   way of improvement.

   (1.)

   How justly may we adopt the Prophet's words, Who is a God like unto
   Thee! (Micah 7:18) . Behold and admire His goodness! Infinitely happy
   and glorious in Himself, He has provided for the comfort of those who
   were rebels against His government, and transgressors of His holy law.
   What was degenerate Israel, and what are we, that He should thus
   prevent [favour] us with His mercy, remember us in our low estate, and
   redeem us from misery, in such a way and at such a price! Salvation is
   wholly of grace : " by grace ye are saved" (Ephesians 2:5, 8) ; not
   only undeserved, but undesired by us, till He is pleased to awaken us
   to a sense of our need of it. And then we find everything prepared that
   our wants require, or our wishes can conceive: yea, that He has done
   exceedingly beyond what we could either ask or think.

   Salvation is wholly of the LORD (Psalm 3:8) , and bears those
   signatures of infinite wisdom, power and goodness, which distinguish
   all His works from the puny imitations of men. It is in every way
   worthy of Himself, a great, a free, a full, a sure salvation. It is
   great, whether we consider ^(1) the objects miserable and
   hell-deserving sinners; ^(2) the end, the restoration of such alienated
   creatures to His image and favour, to immortal life and happiness; or
   ^(3) the means, the incarnation, humiliation, sufferings and death of
   His beloved Son. It is free, without exception of persons or cases,
   without any conditions or qualifications, but such as He Himself
   performs in them, and bestows upon them. It is full, including every
   desirable blessing; pardon, peace, adoption, protection and guidance
   through this world, and in the world to come eternal life and
   happiness, in the unclouded, uninterrupted enjoyment of the favour and
   love of God, with the perfect and perpetual exclusion of every evil.

   (2.)

   When the Lord God who knows the human heart would speak comfort to it,
   He proposes one object, and only one, as the necessary and
   all-sufficient source of consolation. This is MESSIAH. Jesus in His
   person and offices, known and received by faith, affords a balm for
   every wound, a cordial [tonic] for every care. If we admit that they
   who live in the spirit of the world, can make a poor shift to amuse
   themselves, and be tolerably satisfied in a state of prosperity, while
   everything goes on according to their wish; while we make this
   concession, (which however is more than we need allow them, for we know
   that no state of life is free from anxiety, disappointment, weariness,
   and disgust) yet we must still consider them as objects of compassion.
   It is a proof of the weakness and disorder of their minds, that they
   are capable of being satisfied with such trifles.

   Thus, if a lunatic conceives his cell to be a palace and that his
   chains are ornaments of gold, if he calls a wreath of his straw a
   crown, puts it on his head, and affects the language of majesty --we do
   not suppose the poor creature to be happy, because he tells us that he
   is so; but we rather consider his complacence in his situation, as an
   effect and proof of his malady. We pity him, and if we were able, would
   gladly restore him to his senses, though we know a cure would
   immediately put an end to his pleasing delusions.

   But, I say, supposing or admitting the world could make its votaries
   happy in a state of prosperity --it will, it must, leave them without
   resource in the day of trouble. And they are to be pitied indeed, who,
   when their gourds are withered, when the desire of their eyes is taken
   from them with a stroke, or the evil which they most feared touches
   them, or when death looks them closely in the face, have no
   acquaintance with God, no access to the Throne of Grace, but being
   without Christ, are without a solid hope of good hereafter, though they
   are forced to feel the vanity and inconstancy of everything here. But
   they who know MESSIAH, who believe in Him, and partake of His Spirit,
   cannot be comfortless. They recollect what He suffered for them, they
   know that every circumstance and event of life is under His direction,
   and designed to work for their good; that though they sow in tears,
   they shall soon reap in joy; and therefore they possess their souls in
   patience, and are cheerful, yea comfortable, under those trying
   dispensations of Providence, which when they affect the lovers of
   pleasure, too often either excite in them a spirit of presumptuous
   murmuring against the will of God; or sink them into despondency, and
   all the melancholy train of evils, attendant on those, who languish and
   pine away under the depression of spirits, emphatically styled a broken
   heart.

   (3.)

   To be capable of the comfort my text proposes, the mind must be in a
   suitable disposition. A free pardon is a comfort to a malefactor, but
   it implies guilt; and therefore they who have no apprehension that they
   have broken the laws, would be rather offended, than comforted, by an
   offer of pardon. This is one principle cause of that neglect, yea
   contempt, which the Gospel of the grace of God meets with from the
   world. If we could suppose that a company of people who were all
   trembling under an apprehension of His displeasure, constrained to
   confess the justice of the sentence, but not as yet informed of any way
   to escape, were to hear this message for the first time, and to be
   fully assured of its truth and authority, they would receive it as life
   from the dead. But it is to be feared, that for want of knowing
   themselves, and their real state in the sight of Him with whom they
   have to do, many persons who have received pleasure from the music of
   the Messiah [Oratorio], have neither found, nor expected, nor desired
   to find, any comfort from the words.

   ---- O ----
     __________________________________________________________________

   Sermon II

   The Harbinger

   Isaiah 40:3-5

   The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of
   the LORD ,

   make straight in the desert a high-way for our God. Every valley shall
   be exalted,

   and every mountain and hill shall be made low,

   and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain.

   And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it
   together,

   for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.

   T he general style of the prophecies is poetical. The inimitable
   simplicity which characterizes every part of divine revelation, is
   diversified according to the nature of the subject: and the
   magnificence and variety of imagery which constitute the life and
   spirit of poetry, evidently distinguish the style of the Psalms, of
   Isaiah, and the other poetical books, from that of the historical, even
   in the common versions. The various rules and properties of Hebrew
   poetry are not, at this distance of time, certainly known. But the
   present Bishop of London, in his elegant and instructive lectures on
   the subject, and in the discourse prefixed to his translation of
   Isaiah, has fully demonstrated one property. It usually consists either
   of parallel, or contrasted sentences. The parallel expressions
   (excepting in the book of Proverbs) are most prevalent. In these the
   same thought, for substance, expressed in the first member, is
   repeated, with some difference of phrase, in the following; which, if
   it enlarges or confirms the import of what went before, seldom varies
   the idea. Almost any passage I first cast my eye upon, will
   sufficiently explain my meaning. For instance, in the 59 ^th chapter of
   Isaiah,

   1: Behold, the LORD 's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save;

   Neither His ear heavy, that it cannot hear:

   9: Therefore is judgment far from us, Neither doth justice overtake us;

   We wait for light, but behold obscurity;

   For brightness, but we walk in darkness.

   So in chapter 55.

   2: Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread?

   And your labour for that which satisfieth not?

   Hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good,

   And let your soul delight itself in fatness.

   So likewise in Psalm 2.

   4: He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh:

   The LORD shall have them in derision. 5: Then shall He speak unto them
   in His wrath,

   And vex them in His sore displeasure.

   These specimens may suffice for my present purposes. The knowledge of
   this peculiarity of the poetical idiom, may often save us the trouble
   of enquiring minutely into the meaning of every single word, when one
   plain and comprehensive sense arises from a view of the whole passage
   taken together. This observation applies to the first of the verses in
   my text. Though it be true that John the Baptist lived for a season
   retired and unnoticed in a wilderness, and began to preach in the
   wilderness of Judea, the expression, The voice of him that crieth in
   the wilderness, does not merely foretell that circumstance. The verse
   consists of two parallels. The Prophet, rapt into future times, hears a
   voice proclaiming the approach of MESSIAH, and this is the majestic
   language--

   In the wilderness prepare ye the way of the LORD ;

   Make straight in the desert a high-way for our God.

   The wilderness and the desert are the same here, as likewise in chapter
   35 where the happy, the sudden, the unexpected effects of His
   appearance are described -- The wilderness and the solitary place shall
   be glad.

   And the desert shall rejoice, and blossom like a rose.

   Now to see, by the eye of faith, the glory of the Redeemer in His
   appearance; to see divine power preparing the way for Him; to enter
   into the gracious and wonderful design of His Salvation; to
   acknowledge, admire and adore Him as our God, must afford a pleasure,
   very different from that which the most excellent music, however well
   adapted to the words, can possibly give. The latter may be relished by
   a worldly mind; the former is appropriate, and can only be enjoyed by
   those who are taught of God.

   When the Eastern monarchs travelled, harbingers went before to give
   notice that the king was upon the road; and likewise proper persons to
   prepare his way, and to remove obstacles. Some of them, (if we may
   depend upon history) in the affectation of displaying their pomp and
   power, affected extraordinary things upon such occasion. For man,
   though vain, would appear wise ; though a sinful worm, he would fain be
   accounted as g reat. We read of their actually having filled up
   valleys, and levelled hills to make a commodious road, for themselves
   or their armies, through places otherwise impassable. The Prophet thus
   illustrates great things by small, and accommodates the language and
   usages of men to divine truth. MESSIAH is about to visit a wilderness
   world, and those parts which He blesses with His presence, shall become
   the garden of the Lord. Till then it is all desolate, rocky, and wild.
   But His way shall be prepared. Mountainous difficulties shall sink down
   before Him into plains. In defiance of all obstacles His glory shall
   see it, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.

   The leading ideas respecting MESSIAH'S appearance, suggested by this
   sublime representation, are:

   I. The state of the world at His coming -- A wilderness.

   II. The preparation of His way -- Every valley shall be exalted, and
   every mountain and hill shall be made low.

   III. The manner and effects of His manifestation -- And the glory of
   the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it.

   I.

   The word wilderness, I suppose, generally excites the idea of an
   intricate, solitary, uncultivated, dangerous place. Such is the
   description Jeremiah gives of that wilderness, through which the Lord
   led Israel, when He had delivered them from Egypt. A land of deserts
   and of pits, a land of drought and of the shadow of death, a land that
   no man passeth through, and where no man dwelt (Jeremiah 2:6) The
   world, in which we sojourn for a season, does not appear to us in this
   unpleasing view at first. The spirit and the things of it, are
   congenial to our depraved inclinations; and especially in early life,
   our inexperienced hearts form high expectations from it, and we rather
   hope to find it a paradise, than a wilderness. But when the convincing
   power of the Holy Spirit opens the eyes of the understanding, we awake
   as from a dream; the enchantment by which we were deluded is broken,
   and we then begin to judge rightly of the world; that it is a wearisome
   wilderness indeed, and that our only important concern with it, is to
   get happily out of it. In a spiritual view, a wilderness is a
   significant emblem of the state of mankind, both Jews and Gentiles, at
   that period which the Apostle calls the fullness of time , when God
   sent forth His Son (Galatians 4:4)

   Israel, once the beloved people of God, was at that time so extremely
   degenerated that, a few individuals excepted, the vineyard of the Lord,
   so signally protected, yielded only wild grapes (Isaiah 5:4) Though
   they were not addicted to imitate the idolatry of the heathens, as
   their forefathers had been, they were no less alienated from the true
   God, and their wickedness was the more aggravated, for being practiced
   under a professed attachment to the forms of His law. They drew nigh to
   God with their lips, but their hearts were far from Him (Mark 7:6)
   Their very worship profaned the temple in which they gloried, and the
   holy house of prayer, through their abominations, was become a den of
   thieves. They owned [acknowledged] the divine authority of the
   Scriptures, and read them with seeming attention, but rendered them of
   none effect, through the greater attention they paid to the corrupt
   traditions of their elders. They boasted in their relation to Abraham
   as their father, but proved themselves to be indeed the children of
   those who had persecuted and murdered the prophets (Matthew 23:30, 31)

   The Scribes and Pharisees who sat in the chair of Moses, and were the
   public teachers of the people, under an exterior garb of sanctity, of
   prayer and fasting, were guilty of oppression, fraud and uncleanness:
   and while they trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and
   despised others, their real character was a combination of pride and
   hypocrisy. Therefore, He who knew their hearts and saw through all
   their disguises, compared them to painted sepulchres, fair to outward
   appearances, but full of filth and impurity within (Matthew 23:27) .
   From the spirit of these blind guides we may judge of the spirit of the
   blind people, who held them in admiration, and were willingly directed
   and led by them. Thus was the faithful city become a harlot. It was
   once full of judgment; once righteousness lodged in it, but now
   murderers (Isaiah 1:21) Such a wilderness was Judea when MESSIAH
   condescended to visit it.

   Among the heathens, ignorance, idolatry, sensuality and cruelty
   prevailed universally. Their pretended wise men had, indeed, talked of
   wisdom and morality from age to age. But their speculations were no
   more than swelling words of vanity --cold, trifling, uncertain, and
   without any valuable influence, upon themselves or upon others. They
   had philosophers, poets, orators, musicians and artists, eminent in
   their way; but the nations reputed to be the most civilized, were
   overwhelmed with abominable wickedness equally with the rest. The
   shocking effect of their idolatry upon their moral principles and
   conduct, not withstanding their attainments in arts and science, is
   described by the Apostle in the close of the first chapter of his
   epistle to the Romans. With great propriety therefore the state of the
   world, both Jew and Gentile, considered in a moral view, is compared by
   the Prophet to a wilderness --a barren and dreary waste. The pursuits
   and practices of the world were diametrically opposed to the spirit and
   design of that Kingdom which MESSIAH was about to set up; and
   therefore, as the event proved, directly disposed to withstand His
   progress. But,

   II.

   Before His appearance a way was prepared for Him in the wilderness.

   The Providence of God, by a gradual train of dispensations, disposed
   [set in order; adjusted] the political state of mankind in a
   subservience to this great event. All the commotions and revolutions
   which take place in the kingdoms of this earth, are so many detached
   parts of a complicated but wisely determined plan, of which the
   establishment of MESSIAH'S Kingdom is the final cause. The kings and
   politicians of this world are not aware of this. God is not in their
   thoughts. But while they pursue their own ends, and make havoc of the
   peace of mankind, to gratify their own interests and ambition, and look
   no higher, they are ignorantly and without intention, acting as
   instruments of the will of God. The wrath of man is overruled to His
   praise and His purpose (Psalm 76:10) , and succeeds so far as it is
   instrumental to the accomplishment of His designs, and no farther.
   While they move in this line, their schemes, however judiciously laid,
   and whatever disproportion there may seem between the means they are
   possessed of and the vast objects they aim at, prosper beyond their own
   expectations, but the remainder of their wrath He will restrain. Their
   best projected and best supported enterprises issue in shame and
   disappointment, if they are not necessary parts of that chain of causes
   and events which the Lord of all has appointed. Thus Sennacherib, when
   sent by the God whom he knew not, to execute his displeasure against
   the kingdom of Judah, had, for a time, a rapid and uninterrupted series
   of conquests (Isaiah 37:26-29) : but his attempt upon Jerusalem was
   beyond the limits of his commission and therefore failed.

   Among the principal instruments appointed to prepare a way in the
   wilderness for MESSIAH, and to facilitate the future spread of His
   Kingdom, we may take note of Alexander the Great; and this designation
   secured his success, though the extravagancies, excesses and rashness,
   which marked his character, were sufficient to have rendered his
   undertakings abortive, had he not been in the hand of the LORD of
   hosts, as an axe or a saw in the hand of the workman. By his conquests
   the knowledge of the Greek language was diffused among many nations;
   and the Hebrew Scriptures being soon afterward translated into that
   language, an expectation of some great deliverer was raised far and
   wide, before the MESSIAH appeared. When his [Alexanders] service was
   fulfilled, the haughty presumptuous worm who had been employed in it
   was no longer necessary, and therefore was soon laid aside; all his
   proud designs, for the establishment of his own family and dominion,
   perished with him. His empire was divided towards the four winds of
   heaven, and this division likewise contributed to bring forward the
   purpose of God (Daniel 8:8) For each of the four kingdoms established
   by his successors, being thus separated, became a more easy prey to the
   Roman power. This power, which had been gradually increasing and
   extending in the course of several hundred years, was at the height,
   about the time of our Lord's birth. The greatest part of the habitable
   earth which was at that time distinctly known, was united under one
   empire composed of various kingdoms and governments, which, though once
   independent and considerable, were then no more than Roman provinces;
   and as all the provinces had an immediate connection with Rome, a way
   was thus prepared and an intercourse opened on every side for the
   promulgation [proclamation] of the Gospel.

   Among the Jews, the professing people of God, a way was prepared for
   MESSIAH by the ministry of His harbinger, John the Baptist, who came in
   the spirit and power of Elijah, (as had been foretold of him by the
   prophets, particularly by the last of the prophets, Malachi) preaching
   the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins, and proclaiming
   that the Saviour and His Kingdom were at hand. He who sent him
   accompanied his mission with a divine power. A multitude of persons, of
   various descriptions, were impressed by his message, insomuch that John
   himself seems to have been astonished at the numbers and characters of
   those who came to his baptism.

   When the ministry of John had thus previously disposed the minds of
   many for the reception of MESSIAH, and engaged the attention of the
   people at large, the MESSIAH Himself entered upon His public office, on
   the same scene and among the same people. As He increased, John
   willingly decreased. So the morning star ceases to be seen as the sun
   advances above the horizon. This distinguished servant of God having
   finished his work, was removed to a better world. Not in the triumphant
   manner in which Elijah was translated, but as he came to announce a new
   dispensation, under which believers were to expect opposition and ill
   treatment, to walk by faith, and frequently be called to seal their
   testimony with their blood, he was permitted to fall a sacrifice to the
   revenge of a wanton woman; and though we are assured that none of the
   race of Adam was greater in the estimation of God than he, his death
   was asked and procured as the reward of an idle dance (Matthew 6:11;
   14:8-11)

   III.

   The latter of my text describes the manner and immediate effects of
   MESSIAH'S appearance during His personal ministry, with an intimation
   of its future and more extensive consequences -- The valleys shall be
   exalted.

   A valley is an emblem of a low condition. Such was the condition of
   most of our Lord's followers; but His notice and favour exalted them
   highly. He came to preach the Gospel to the poor, to fill the hungry
   with good things, to save the chief of sinners, to open a door of hope
   and salvation to persons of the vilest and most despicable characters
   in human estimation. Such, for instance, was the woman mentioned by the
   Evangelist Luke (Luke 7:37, 38) The Pharisees thought our Lord
   dishonoured Himself by permitting such a one to touch Him, nor had she
   a word to say in her own behalf.

   But the compassionate Saviour highly exalted her, when He vouchsafed
   [graciously agreed] to plead her cause, to express His gracious
   acceptance of her tears and love, and to assure her that her sins,
   though many, were forgiven. Very low likewise was the state of the
   malefactor on the cross; he had committed great crimes, was suffering
   grievous torments, and in the very jaws of death (Luke 23:42) . But
   grace visited his heart, he was plucked as a brand out of the fire, and
   exalted to Paradise and glory. The world accounts the proud happy, and
   honours the covetous if they be prosperous. But true honour comes from
   God. They who are partakers of the faith and hope of the Gospel, and
   have interest in the precious promises, are, indeed, the rich, the
   happy, the excellent of the earth, however they may be unnoticed or
   despised by their fellow-creatures. The honour of places, likewise, is
   to be considered in this light. Bethlehem, though but of little note
   among the thousands of Judah, was rendered more illustrious by the
   birth of MESSIAH, than Babylon or Rome. The Galileans were held in
   contempt by the inhabitants of Jerusalem, as a mean and provincial
   people; but the places in Galilee which our Lord frequently visited, or
   where He sometimes resided, are spoken of as exalted unto heaven, by
   the honour and privilege of His presence, though some of them were no
   more than fishing towns. And so at this day, if we have spiritual
   discernment, we shall judge that a little village, where the Gospel is
   known, prized and adorned by a suitable conversation, has a dignity and
   importance far preferable to all the parade of a wealthy metropolis, if
   destitute of the like privileges.

   On the contrary, Every mountain and hill shall be brought low MESSIAH
   came to pour contempt on all human glory. He detected the wickedness,
   and confounded the pride of the Scribes and Pharisees and rulers; and
   made it appear that what is highly esteemed by men, the summit of their
   boasted excellence, To v^Xov, is worthless, yea, abomination in the
   sight of God (Luke 16:15) And by living Himself in a state of poverty,
   and associating chiefly with poor people, He placed the vanity of the
   distinctions and affluence which mankind generally admire and envy, in
   the most striking and humiliating light. Such, likewise, was and will
   be the effect of the Gospel. When faithfully preached, it is found
   mighty through God, to the pulling down of strongholds, high thoughts,
   and every species of self-exaltation. When the convincing Word touches
   the heart, it has an effect like the hand-writing which Belshazzar saw
   upon the wall (Daniel 5:6) In that day the lofty looks of man are
   humbled, and his haughtiness bowed down (Isaiah 2:11) ; he dares no
   longer plead the goodness of his heart, or trust to the work of his
   hands. A sense of forgiveness and acceptance through the Beloved,
   received by faith in His atonement, lays him still lower; he now
   renounces as loss, for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
   the Lord, all that he once esteemed his gain, and is glad that he has
   nothing to trust or glory in but the cross (Philippians 3:7,8) .
   Farther, every mountain that opposes the Kingdom of MESSIAH, in due
   time must sink into a plain (Zechariah 4:7) Though the nations rage,
   and the rulers take counsel together, He who sits in the heavens will
   support and maintain His own work, and all their power and policy shall
   fall before it.

   The crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places smooth. He
   came to rectify the perverse disposition of the hearts of men, to
   soften and subdue their obstinate spirits, and to form to Himself a
   willing people in the day of His power. The Jewish teachers, by their
   traditions and will-worship [self-imposed worship] , had given an
   apparent obliquity to [had deviated from] the strait and perfect rule
   of the law of God, and deformed the beauties of holiness, binding heavy
   burdens, and grievous to be borne upon the conscience; but He
   vindicated the law from their corrupt glories, and made the path of
   obedience plain, practicable and pleasant.

   Thus the glory of the LORD was revealed --not to every eye. Many,
   prejudiced because of His outward appearance, and by the low mistaken
   views the Jews indulged of the office and Kingdom of the MESSIAH whom
   they expected, could see no form or excellence in Him, that they should
   desire Him; but His disciples could say, We beheld His glory (John
   1:14) . He spake with authority. His Word was power. He controlled the
   elements, He raised the dead. He knew, and revealed, and judged the
   thoughts of men's hearts. He forgave sins, and thus exercised the
   rights, and displayed the perfections of divine sovereignty in His own
   person. But the prophecy looks forward to future times. After His
   ascension He filled His apostles and disciples with light and power,
   and sent them forth in all directions to proclaim His love and grace to
   a sinful world. Then the glory of the LORD was revealed, and spread
   from one kingdom to another people. We still wait for the full
   accomplishment of this promise, and expect a time when the whole earth
   shall be filled with His glory -- For the mouth of the LORD hath spoken
   it! It is to the power of His Word that we owe the continuance of day
   and night, and the regular return of the seasons of the year. But these
   appointments are only for a limited term; the hour is coming, when the
   frame of nature shall be dissolved. Heaven and earth shall pass away;
   but not a jot or tittle of what He has declared of His Kingdom of grace
   shall fail, till the whole be fulfilled.

   Those of you who have heard the Messiah [Oratorio] will do well to
   recollect, whether you were affected by such thoughts as these, while
   this passage was performed; or whether you were only fascinated by the
   music, and paid no more regard to the words than if they had no
   meaning. They are, however, the great truths of God. May they engage
   your serious attention, now they are thus set before you.

   ---- O ----
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   Sermon III

   The Shaking of the Heavens and the Earth

   Haggai 2:6, 7

   Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Yet this once, it is a little while,

   and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea,

   and the dry land: and I will shake all nations, and

   the desire of all nations shall come, and I will fill this house

   with glory, saith the LORD of hosts.

   G od shook the earth when He proclaimed His law to Israel from Sinai.
   The description, though very simple, presents to our thoughts a scene
   unspeakably majestic, grand and awful. The mountain was in flames at
   the top, and trembled to its basis (Exodus 19:16-19)

   Dark clouds, thundering and lightning filled the air. The hearts of the
   people, of the whole people, trembled likewise; and even Moses himself
   said, I exceedingly fear and quake. Then, as the Apostle, referring to
   this passage, observes, the voice of the LORD shook the earth. But the
   Prophet here speaks of another, a greater, a more important and
   extensive concussion. Yea, once a little while and I will shake not the
   earth only, but the heavens (Hebrews 12:26)

   If we really believe that the Scriptures are true, that the prophecies
   were delivered by holy men, who spake as they were moved by the Holy
   Spirit, and that they shall all be certainly fulfilled; how studious
   should we be to attain a right understanding of passages and events in
   which we are so nearly interested, that our hearts may be duly affected
   by them? But alas! experience and observation strongly confirm the
   remark of the poet, ^* "Men are but children of a larger growth." ^*
   from " All For Love" by John Dryden (1631-1700)

   If you put a telescope into the hands of a child, he will probably
   admire the outside, especially if it be finely ornamented. But the use
   of it, in giving a more distinct view of distant objects, is what the
   child has no conception of. The music of the Messiah [Oratorio] is but
   an ornament of the words, which have a very weighty sense. This sense
   no music can explain, and when rightly understood, will have such an
   effect as no music can produce. That the music of the Messiah has a
   great effect in its own kind, I can easily believe. The ancients, to
   describe the power of the music of Orpheus, pretend, that when he
   played upon his harp, the wild beasts thronged around him to listen,
   and seemed to forget their natural fierceness. Such expressions are
   figurative, and designed to intimate, that by his address and
   instructions, he civilized men of fierce and savage dispositions. But
   if we were to allow the account to be true in the literal sense, I
   should still suppose that the wild beasts were affected by his music
   only while they heard it, and that it did not actually change their
   natures, and render lions and tigers gentle, as lambs, from that time
   forward. Thus I can allow that they who heard the Messiah [Oratorio],
   might be greatly impressed during the performance, but when it was
   ended, I suppose they would maintain the very same dispositions they
   had before it began. And many, I fear, were no more affected by the
   sublime declaration of the Lord's design to shake the heavens and the
   earth, than they would have been, if the same music had been set to the
   words of a common ballad.

   The Jews when they returned from captivity, and undertook to rebuild
   the temple of the Lord, met with many discouragements. They were
   disturbed by the opposition and arts of their enemies, who at one time
   so far prevailed, as to compel them, for a season, to intermit the
   work. And when the foundation of the temple was laid, the joy of those
   who hoped soon to see the solemn worship of God restored, was dampened
   by the grief of others, who remembered the magnificence of the first
   temple, and wept to think how far the second temple would come short of
   it (Haggai 2:3) In these circumstances the prophets Haggai and
   Zechariah were sent to animate the people by a promise, that inferior
   as the second temple might appear, compared with that which Solomon
   built, the glory of the latter house should be greater than the former
   (Ezra 3:12, 13) Had this depended upon a profusion of silver and gold,
   the Lord could have provided it, for the silver is mine, and the gold
   is mine, saith the LORD of hosts. But the glory spoken of was of a
   different kind. The presence of MESSIAH in the second temple, would
   render it far more honourable and glorious, though less pompous than
   the temple of Solomon; and would be attended with greater consequences,
   than even the manifestation of the God of Israel on Mt. Sinai. Then He
   only shook the earth; but under the second temple, He would shake the
   heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land, to introduce the
   Kingdom of MESSIAH.

   We may consider from the words,

   I. A character of MESSIAH -- The desire of all nations.

   II. The effects of His appearance -- Shaking the heavens and the earth.

   III. His -- filling the house with glory. This close of verse 7 is not
   in the passage set to music, but it is an eminent part or the prophecy,
   and I shall not exclude it.

   I.

   MESSIAH is styled, the desire of all nations. The propriety of this
   title may be illustrated by two considerations.

   (1.)

   Before He came into the world to save sinners, an expectation prevailed
   in many nations that a great deliverer and friend of mankind was at
   hand. This was, perhaps, partly the effect of some ancient traditions
   founded on the promises of God respecting the seed of the woman, the
   traces of which, though much corrupted by the addition of fables, were
   not worn out --but might be chiefly owing to several of the dispersions
   of the people of Israel, and imperfect notices derived from the
   Scriptures in their hands. The sense of many prophecies concerning
   MESSIAH, though misapplied, is remarkably expressed in a short poem of
   Virgil, written a few years before our Saviour's birth. This eclogue
   [pastoral poem], of which we have a beautiful imitation in our own
   language, by Mr. Pope, affords a sufficient proof that the heathens had
   an idea of some illustrious personage, who would shortly appear and
   restore peace, prosperity, and all the blessings of their imaginary
   golden age to mankind. The miseries and evil with which the world was
   filled, made the interposition of such a deliverer highly desirable.
   There were even a few among the heathens, such as Socrates and his
   immediate disciples, who seem to have felt the necessity of a divine
   teacher; and to be sensible that man, in a state of nature, was too
   depraved, and too ignorant, to be either able or disposed to worship
   God acceptably, without one. There is reason to believe that the
   revelation which we enjoy, though despised by too many who affect to be
   called philosophers in modern times, would have been highly prized by
   the wisest and best of the philosophers of antiquity. Socrates thought
   that men were not capable of knowing and expressing their own wants,
   nor or asking what was good for themselves, unless it should please God
   to send them an instructor from Heaven, to teach them how to pray. And
   therefore,

   (2.)

   The need that all nations had of such a Saviour, is sufficient to
   establish His right to this title, admitting they had no knowledge or
   expectation of Him. If we could suppose a nation involved for ages in
   the darkness of night, though they had no previous notion of light, yet
   light might be said to be their desire, because the light, whenever
   they should enjoy it, would put an end to their calamity, would answer
   their wants, and in that sense accomplish their wishes; for if they
   could not directly wish for light, they would naturally wish for
   relief. The heathens were miserably bewildered. They had a thirst for
   happiness, which could not be satisfied by any or all the expedients
   and pursuits within their reach. They had fears and forebodings of
   conscience for which they knew no remedy. They were so sensitive, both
   of their guilt and their weakness, that being ignorant of the character
   of the true God, and of that forgiveness which is with Him, in times of
   extremity they frequently offered the most expensive sacrifices to the
   objects of their idolatrous superstitions, even the blood and the lives
   of their children (Micah 6:6)

   When MESSIAH appeared, as He was the glory of Israel, so He was a light
   to the Gentiles, as we shall have opportunity of observing more at
   large hereafter. He therefore who came purposely to bless the nations
   by turning them from darkness to light, and from the worship of dumb
   idols to serve the living and true God, may justly be called their
   desire, though, in the time of their ignorance, they could form no
   suitable conception of Him.

   II.

   I will shake the heavens and the earth. This part of the prophecy has
   been, in a measure, literally fulfilled. At His birth a new star
   appeared. At His death the sun withdrew its shining, the earth quaked,
   the rocks rent, the dead rose. During His life He often suspended and
   overruled the stated rules of nature, and exercised supreme power over
   the visible and invisible worlds. He shook the kingdom of darkness,
   spoiled principalities and powers, triumphing over them by His cross.
   He shook the kingdoms of the earth; the idols trembled and disappeared
   before His Gospel, till at length the Roman empire renounced
   heathenism, and embraced the Christian name. But the language of
   prophecy is highly figurative. Mountains and trees, land and water, sun
   and moon, heaven and earth, often signify nations, people and
   governments. And particularly heaven and earth are used to denote the
   religious and political establishment of Israel; or, as we say, their
   constitution in church and state. This without doubt is a primary sense
   here. The appearance of MESSIAH shall be connected with the total
   dissolution of the Jewish economy. The whole of their Levitical
   institution was fulfilled, superseded and abrogated by MESSIAH, which
   was solemnly signified, by the rending of the veil of the temple from
   the top to the bottom at His death. And, a few years afterwards, the
   temple itself was destroyed. By which event, the worship of God,
   according to law, of which the temple service was an essential part,
   was rendered utterly impracticable. Their civil state likewise was
   dissolved, they were extirpated [uprooted] from the promised land, and
   dispersed far and wide among the nations of the earth. Though in one
   sense they are preserved by the wonderful Providence of God, as a
   distinct people, unaffected by the changes and customs around them; in
   another sense they are not a people, having neither settlement nor
   government, but living as strangers and foreigners in every country
   where their lot has been cast (Hosea 3:4) . Nothing like this can be
   found in the history of mankind. It is an obvious, striking, and
   perpetual proof of the truth of the Scriptures. What was foretold
   concerning them by Moses and the succeeding prophets, is accomplished
   to a demonstration before our eyes. How unlikely was it once that is
   should be thus! yet thus it must be, because the mouth of the LORD has
   spoken it. And all that He has spoken is equally sure. He will yet
   again shake the heavens and the earth, dissolve the frame of nature ,
   and execute His threatened judgments upon all those who do not receive
   and obey His Gospel.

   III.

   He shall fill this house with glory. He did so when He condescended to
   visit it in person. The blind and the lame came thither to Him and He
   healed them (Matthew 21:14-16) . Children felt His power, and sang
   Hosanna to the Son of David, a title appropriate to MESSIAH; and when
   the Pharisees rebuked them, He said, If these should hold their peace,
   the stones would cry out (Luke 19:40) As the Lord in His own house, He
   purged the temple, and drove out those who profaned it, and not one of
   His enemies durst offer the least resistance to His will. And when He
   left it at the last time, with sovereign authority, He denounced that
   awful sentence, which was soon afterwards executed by the Romans, both
   upon the temple and the nation (Matt. 23:37)

   His glory filled the temple when He was an infant, so that Simeon and
   Anna then acknowledged His character, and spake of Him to those who
   were waiting for the consolation of Israel (Luke 2: 25, 38) Especially
   His glory was manifested when He proclaimed Himself the fountain of
   life, and invited every thirsty weary sinner to come to Him, to drink
   and live forever (John 7:37)

   The temple in Jerusalem has been long since destroyed. But He still has
   a house, a house not made with hands. This is His Church, comprising
   all the members of His mystical Body. He dwells in each of them
   individually; He dwells in and among them collectively. Where two or
   three are met in His name, where His ordinances are administered and
   prized, where His Gospel is faithfully preached and cordially
   [sincerely] received, there He is present in the midst of them. There
   His glory is seen, His voice heard, His power felt, His goodness
   tasted, and the favour of His name is diffused as a precious ointment,
   which refreshes the hearts of His people, renews their strength, and
   comforts them under all their sorrows and cares. The glory and
   magnificence of the temple worship, even in the days of Solomon, was
   faint, compared with the glory displayed to the hearts of believers,
   who worship Him in spirit and truth, under the New Testament
   dispensation. But it can only be perceived by an enlightened and
   spiritual mind. To outward appearance all may be low and humiliating.
   The malice of their enemies has often constrained His people to
   assemble in woods and on mountains, in places underground; or, in the
   dead of night, to secret themselves from informers. But vaulted roofs,
   and costly garments, the solemn parade of processions, music and
   choristers, and the presence of nobles and dignitaries, are not
   necessary to constitute the glory of Gospel worship. It is enough that
   He, in whose name they meet, condescends to visit them with the power
   and influence of His Spirit, to animate and hear their prayers, to feed
   them with the good Word of His grace, and to fill them with joy and
   peace in believing. If they have these blessings they desire no more,
   they are compensated for all their difficulties and hardships; and
   however unnoticed and despised by the world, they can say, This is none
   other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven (Genesis 28:17)
   . For they approach, by faith, the city of the living God, the
   Jerusalem which is above, to the worship that is carried on, day
   without night, by the innumerable company of angels, and the spirits of
   just men made perfect (Hebrews 12:22, 23)

   But every member of this mystical temple, being by nature afar off from
   God, experiences a previous change, which may be fitly described by the
   terms of my text. Before the LORD takes possession of His people, and
   in order to it, He shakes the heavens and the earth . Their former
   views of God and of themselves, are altered by a light which penetrates
   the soul. All that they have been building in religion, until then, is
   shaken and overturned. Their vain hopes are shaken to the foundation.
   This concussion makes way for the perception of His glory as a Saviour.
   In this Day of His Power they are made willing to throw open the gates
   of their hearts, that the King of Glory may enter.

   But as I do not stand here to amuse you with a declamation on a subject
   in which you are not immediately interested; and as my office as a
   preacher both warrants and requires me to address myself not only to
   your understandings, but likewise to your consciences, I must be
   allowed, before I conclude, to propose this question to your
   consideration: Is MESSIAH, the desire of all nations, the object of
   your chief desire? How much depends upon the answer! Do you wish to
   know your present state in the sight of God? If you are faithful to
   yourselves you may be satisfied, provided you will abide by the
   decision of the Scripture. God is well-pleased in his Son; if you are
   well pleased with H im, if He is precious to you, and the desire of
   your soul is supremely directed to Him, then you assuredly possess the
   beginning, the foretaste and the earnest of eternal life. If you so
   enter into the descriptions given in the Bible, of His person, love,
   office, and glory, as to place your whole dependence upon Him, to
   devote yourselves simply to Him, and to place your happiness in His
   favour, then you are happy indeed! Happy, even at present, though not
   exempted from a share in the afflictions incident in this mortal state.
   For your sins are pardoned, your persons are accepted in the Beloved;
   to you belong the promises of guidance, protection and supply through
   life, victory over death, and then a crown of glory that fadeth not
   away. To say all, in a few words, God is your Father, and Heaven is
   your home.

   But on the other hand, If you trust in yourself that you are righteous
   and good, at least comparatively so; if your attachment to the business
   or the pleasure of the world engrosses your thoughts and application,
   so that you have no leisure to attend to the record which God has given
   of His Son, or no relish for the subject, you have been hitherto guilty
   of treating the most glorious display or the wisdom and goodness of God
   with contempt. Many persons thus employed and thus disposed, bear
   respectable characters in civil life, from which I do not wish to
   detract. But however amiable you may be in the judgment of your
   fellow-creatures, you are a sinner in the sight of God, and will be
   treated by Him as an enemy of His government and glory, if you finally
   persist in a rejection of His Gospel. The great point which will
   determine your destiny for eternity, will be this, What think you of
   Christ? For it is written, If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ,
   let him be Anathema Maranatha (I Corinthians 16:22) He must and will
   fall under the curse and condemnation of the law, and be punished with
   everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and the glory of
   His power. Today, therefore, while it is called today (for tomorrow is
   not ours) may you hear His voice, and flee for refuge to the hope set
   before you!

   ---- O ----
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   Sermon IV

   The LORD Coming To His Temple

   Malachi 3:1-3

   The LORD , whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His temple;

   even the messenger of the covenant in whom ye delight:

   Behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts.

   But who may abide the day of his coming?

   and who shall stand when he appeareth?

   For he is like a refiner's fire, and like a fuller's soap,

   -- and he shall purify the sons of Levi --

   that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness.

   W hereunto shall we liken the people of this generation? and to what
   are they like? (Luke 7:31) . I represent to myself a number of persons
   of various characters, involved in one common charge of high treason.
   They are already in a state of confinement, but not yet brought to
   trial. The facts, however, are so plain, and the evidence against them
   so strong and pointed, that there is not the least doubt of their guilt
   being fully proved, and that nothing but a pardon can preserve them
   from punishment. In this situation, it would be their wisdom, to avail
   themselves of every expedient in their power for obtaining mercy. But
   they are entirely regardless [negligent; heedless] of their danger, and
   wholly taken up with contriving methods of amusing themselves, that
   they must pass away the term of their imprisonment with as much
   cheerfulness as possible. Among other resources, they call in the
   assistance of music. And amidst a great variety of subjects in this
   way, they are particularly pleased with one. They choose to make the
   solemnities of their impending trial, the character of the judge, the
   methods of his procedure, and the awful sentence to which they are
   exposed, the ground-work of a musical entertainment. And, as if they
   were quite unconcerned in the event, their attention is chiefly fixed
   upon the skill of the composer, in adapting the style of his music to
   the very solemn language and subject with which they are trifling. The
   king, however, out of his great clemency and compassion towards those
   who have no pity for themselves, prevents them with his goodness.
   Undesired by them, he sends them a gracious message. He assures them
   that he is unwilling they should suffer: he requires, yea, he entreats
   them to submit. He points out a way in which their confession and
   submission shall be certainly accepted; and in this way, which he
   condescends to prescribe, he offers them a free and full pardon. But
   instead of taking a single step towards a compliance with his goodness,
   they set his message likewise to music; and this, together with a
   description of their present state, and of the fearful doom awaiting
   them if they continue obstinate, is sung for their diversion,
   accompanied with the sound of cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery,
   dulcimer, and all kinds of instruments (Daniel 3:5) . Surely, if such a
   case as I have supposed could be found in real life, though I might
   admire the musical taste of these people, I should commiserate their
   insensibility!

   But is not this case more than a supposition? Is it not in the most
   serious sense actually realized amongst ourselves? I should insult your
   understandings, if I judged a long application necessary. I know my
   supposition must already have led your thoughts to the subject of the
   Messiah [Oratorio], and to the spirit and temper of at least the
   greater part of the performers, and of the audiences The holy Scripture
   concludes all mankind under sin (Romans 3:9, 10). It charges them all
   with treason and rebellion against the great sovereign Lawgiver and
   Benefactor; and declares the misery to which, as sinners, we are
   obnoxious. But God is long-suffering, and waits to be gracious. The
   stroke of death, which would instantly place us before His awful
   tribunal, is still suspended. In the meantime He affords us His Gospel,
   by which He assures us there is forgiveness with Him. He informs us of
   a Saviour, and that of His great love to sinners, He has given His only
   Son to be an Atonement and Mediator, in favour of all who shall sue for
   mercy in His name. The character of this Saviour, His unspeakable love,
   His dreadful sufferings, the agony He endured in Gethsemane, and upon
   the cross, are made known to us. And as His past humiliation, so His
   present glory, and His invitation to come to Him for pardon and eternal
   life, are largely declared. These are the principal points expressed in
   the passages of the Messiah [Oratorio]. Mr. Handel, who set them to
   music, has been commemorated and praised, many years after his death,
   in a place professedly devoted to the praise and worship of God; yea,
   (if I am not misinformed) the stated worship of God, in that place, was
   suspended for a considerable time, that it might be duly prepared for
   the commemoration of Mr. Handel. But, alas! how few are disposed to
   praise and commemorate MESSIAH Himself! The same great truths, divested
   of the music, when delivered from the pulpit, are heard by many
   admirers of the Oratorio with indifference, too often with contempt.

   Having thus, as I conceive myself bound in duty, plainly and publicly
   delivered my sentiments, of the great impropriety of making the
   fundamental truths of Christianity the subject of amusement, I leave
   what I have said to your serious reflections, hoping it will not be
   forgotten; for I do not mean to trouble you often with a repetition of
   it. Let us now consider the passage before us. If you read it with
   attention, and consider the great ideas it suggests, and the emphatical
   language with which they are clothed, you will not, perhaps, think the
   manner of my introducing it wholly improper. Malachi confirms and
   unites the prophecies of Isaiah and Haggai, which were the subjects of
   our two last discourses. John is the messenger, spoken of in the
   beginning of the first verse, sent to prepare the way of the Lord Then
   the LORD Himself shall come suddenly to His temple, that is,
   immediately after the appearance of His fore-runner, and with regard to
   the people in general, unexpectedly.

   The question, Who may abide the day of His coming? intimates the
   greatness and solemnity of the event. If we take His coming in the
   extensive sense, to denote the whole of His sojourning here on earth,
   from His incarnation to His ascension, it is unspeakably the greatest
   of all events recorded in the annals of mankind; though He lived in the
   form of a servant, and died the death of a malefactor, the vast
   consequences which depend upon His appearance under these humiliating
   circumstances, rendered it a manner of coming every way worthy of
   Himself. It afforded a more awful discovery of the majesty, glory, and
   holiness of God, than was displayed upon Mount Sinai, and proved a
   closer and more searching appeal to the hearts and consciences of men.
   To enter more into the spirit and meaning of the question here
   proposed, we shall briefly take notice of the following points which
   the words offer to our serious meditation. May the Holy Spirit, whose
   office it is to glorify the Saviour, enlighten our hearts to understand
   them, with application to ourselves!

   I. The names which are ascribed to MESSIAH.

   II. The suddenness of His coming.

   III. The searching power of it in general, expressed by a refiner's
   fire and by fuller's soap.

   IV. Its purifying power on the sons of Levi , the priesthood in
   particular.

   I.

   The names ascribed to the MESSIAH.

   The LORD It is a general rule with our translators to express LORD in
   capital letters, where it answers to Jehovah, in the Hebrew, and there
   only. But this place is an exception. The word here is not Jehovah, but
   Adonai. It is however, a name of God, though not incommunicable like
   the other, being frequently applied to kings and superiors. It properly
   implies authority and rule. As we say, A Lord and Master. In this
   connection it is undoubtedly a divine name. The LORD is said to come to
   His temple, to His own temple. It was a house consecrated to the God of
   Israel. The first temple He honoured with tokens of His presence; the
   second, He visited in person; on which account it exceeded the first in
   glory. MESSIAH, therefore, who appeared in our nature, and was known
   among men, as a man, and who is now worshipped both in heaven and upon
   earth, is the God of Israel. He came to His own. This doctrine of God
   manifest in the flesh, is the pillar and ground of the truth: The only
   foundation on which a sinner, who knows the just desert of his sin, can
   build a solid hope of salvation, is, that Jesus Christ is the true God
   and eternal life (I John 5:20) . Unless this be admitted, the whole
   tenor, both of the Old and New Testament is unintelligible. To say that
   this doctrine approves itself to human reason in its present fallen
   depraved state, would be to contradict the Apostle, who asserts, that
   no man can say that Jesus Christ is LORD but by the Holy Ghost (I
   Corinthians 12:3) . But it is highly reasonable, to those who see that
   they must perish, without such an atonement as shall declare the
   righteousness of God, no less than His mercy, in the forgiveness of
   sin; who feel the necessity of holiness, in order to happiness; and are
   acquainted with the nature and variety of the snares, temptations, and
   enemies to which they are exposed. Such persons cannot venture their
   eternal concerns upon the dignity, or care, or power, or patience of a
   mere creature, however exalted or excellent; they must be assured, that
   their Saviour is Almighty, or they dare not trust in Him: nor would
   they dare to honour the Son as they honour the Father, to love Him with
   all their heart and soul and strength, to devote themselves absolutely
   to His service, and expect their supreme happiness from His favour and
   approbation, if they did not know that He is over all, God blessed for
   ever.

   With respect to the inferior character He sustains in our nature and
   for our sakes, as the Father's servant, He is styled, the Messenger of
   the covenant. He is the gift, promise, head and substance of the
   Everlasting Covenant. And He came Himself to establish the Covenant,
   and to declare and bestow the blessings it contained. God who had
   before spoken at divers times and in sundry manners by His prophets,
   spoke in the fulness of time by His Son (Hebrews 1:1) ; testifying to
   Him by a voice from Heaven, This is my beloved Son, hear Him; in Him I
   am well pleased (Matthew 3:17) . To the same purpose our Lord spake of
   Himself. He prefaced His gracious invitation to all, without exception,
   who are weary and heavy laden, to come to Him for rest (Matthew 11:27,
   28) , with a declaration of His commission and authority saying, All
   things are delivered unto me of my Father, and no one knoweth the Son
   but the Father, neither knoweth any one the Father, save the Son, and
   he to whom the Son will reveal Him . The law was given by Moses (John
   1:17) ; the moral law to discover the extent and abounding of sin ; the
   ceremonial law , to point out by typical sacrifices and ablutions , the
   way in which forgiveness was to be sought and obtained. But grace , to
   relieve us of the condemnation of the one , and truth answerable to the
   types [prophetic symbols] and shadows of the other , came by Jesus
   Christ.

   It is farther said, The LORD whom ye seek, and the Messenger in whom ye
   delight -- MESSIAH was the hope and desire of the true Israel of God,
   from the earliest times; and when He was born into the world, there was
   a prepared people waiting and longing for Him, as their consolation.
   The people at large likewise professed to expect great things from the
   coming of MESSIAH. But their expectations were low and earthly. They
   supposed that He would deliver them from the Roman yoke, and give them
   victory and power over the heathen nations. The more grievous bondage
   of sin under which they were enslaved, they were not sensible of, nor
   had they a disposition suited to the privileges and honours of the
   Kingdom He designed to establish; and therefore, their understandings
   being darkened by prejudice and prepossession, they could not discern
   His character. The prophecies which were read in their synagogues every
   Sabbath, marked out the time and circumstances of MESSIAH'S appearance,
   the places which He should principally visit, the doctrine He should
   teach, and the works which He should perform: but though all these
   particulars exactly applied to Jesus, they obstinately rejected Him,
   and proceeded to fulfil, what was farther foretold of His sufferings
   and death, with such a minute punctuality, as if they had designedly
   taken the prophecies for the rule of their conduct. Thus, by giving
   neither more nor less than thirty pieces of silver to His betrayer, by
   buying the potter's field, and no other, with the money afterwards; by
   casting lots for one of His garments, and making a distribution of the
   rest; by piercing His side, contrary to the custom in such punishments,
   and by omitting to break His legs, which, from their treatment of the
   malefactors, who suffered with Him, seems to have been usual --in these
   and several other instances, they acted, though unwittingly, as if it
   had been their design and study to accomplish the Scriptures to their
   own confusion and condemnation.

   II.

   This was why His coming to His temple was sudden to them Though long
   foretold and long expected, and though the precise time of His Advent,
   and the accompanying signs, were accurately defined and described, yet
   when the season arrived He came suddenly, unlooked for and unknown. He
   came upon them in an hour that they thought not of, and in a manner of
   which they were not aware. When He stood in the midst of them, they
   knew not that it was He. How dreadful does sin harden and infatuate the
   hearts of men! The Jews, in our Saviour's time, furnish us with a
   striking instance that it is possible for people fatally to miscarry
   even with the greatest advantages and means for information in their
   possession. They accounted themselves the people of God, made their
   boast of His law and their relation to Abraham. But they hated MESSIAH,
   and crucified Him , who was the object of Abraham's faith. The
   opposition of their leaders and teachers was the most malicious, for
   many of them acted against the light of their minds and were often
   convicted in their consciences, though they refused to be convinced.
   But an ignorant attachment to these blind guides was ruinous to their
   blind followers, who, though they sometimes, from a view of His mighty
   works, were struck with astonishment, and constrained to say, Is not
   this the Son of David? were at length influenced by their priests to
   prefer a murderer to Him, and, with a clamorous importunity, to compel
   Pilate to put Him to death. The like misapprehensions produce the like
   effects among professed Christians today. We likewise have the
   Scriptures, but how many who admit their authority in words, live
   willingly ignorant of their contents and act in direct contradiction to
   their tenor! The power of the Saviour is likewise displayed among us:
   His preached Gospel is daily made effectual to the great purposes to
   which it was vouchsafed [graciously given], yet multitudes reject it
   with no less pertinacity [persistent determination], than the Jews
   rejected Him in person. At length, death surprises them and they sink
   into darkness beyond recall. To them, the LORD may be said to come
   suddenly, for they think not of Him till they actually find themselves
   at His tribunal. And this, not only when they are cut off by a sudden
   stroke, but often when their dissolution is most gradual, and everyone
   about them can perceive its approach by their countenances; they
   themselves, though wasting with disease, worn out with pain, still
   flatter themselves with hopes of amendment and recovery to their last
   gasp; lingering death is to them no less sudden than if they were
   killed by a flash of lightening.

   III.

   It is asked, Who may abide the day of His coming? The effect is
   compared to a refiner's fire, and to fuller's soap. The refiner's fire
   penetrates the metal, and thereby searches, discovers, and consumes the
   dross. The fuller's soap also, though it does not destroy the texture
   of the cloth, cleanses it by removing, as it were consuming the spots
   and defilement which are found in it. The idea conveyed by these
   illustrations is the same. The day of His coming is a day of trial, a
   trial which issues in the purification of the work of God in His
   Church, and in the detection and destruction of everything in it which
   is contrary to His will.

   The coming of MESSIAH may be taken in several senses.

   To the Jews according to the promise of God repeated from age to age,
   He came in person. The Word was made flesh and dwelt among them (John
   1:14) The term in the original alludes to the visible symbol of the
   divine presence, which resided in the tabernacle and temple. Thus for a
   season He resided among them, in a temple not made with hands, but
   formed, by the immediate agency of the Holy Spirit, in the womb of a
   virgin. This was a happy time to those who received and acknowledged
   Him. But the bulk of the nation could not abide the trial which His
   appearance exposed them to; they were proved by it to be but reprobate
   and counterfeit silver. The thoughts of many hearts were revealed (Luke
   2:35) Many specious characters were detected. The pretended sanctity
   and outward strictness of the Scribes and Pharisees, was evidenced to
   be mere hypocrisy. He exposed them in their true colours, and upon many
   occasions put them to shame and to silence.

   And where His Word did not cleanse like soap, it burnt like fire, and
   the persons and places that rejected Him, were rendered inexcusable.
   Their great privilege of seeing His wonderful works, and hearing His
   gracious words, being abused, aggravated their guilt and condemnation,
   and made their doom heavier than that of Sodom and Gomorrah. To them
   the Day of the LORD , which in their own sense they professed to
   desire, was darkness and not light (Amos 5:18) If He had not come and
   spoken to them Himself, they had not had sin (John 15:22) . That is,
   comparatively; He found them great sinners, and they would have been
   such if He had not visited them. But after He had spoken to them, and
   spoken in vain, they had no cloak for their sin. From that time they
   were deprived of every shadow of plea, excuse, or extenuation. And all
   their former wickedness was light, compared with the enormous crime
   they were guilty of in rejecting and crucifying the Son of God. By
   refusing Him, they rendered their case helpless and hopeless, because
   there is no other name but His, given among men, whereby they might be
   saved. But He cleansed those who received him, He removed their guilt,
   their fears, their ignorance. He gave them a clean heart and a new
   spirit. Yet to these also He was as a refiner's fire, and as fuller's
   soap. They likewise had prejudices and selfish tempers, which were not
   at once removed. He called them to a state of suffering and
   self-denial, to forsake all, and to take up their cross daily for His
   sake.

   In another sense, His coming is not restrained to a particular time.
   Wherever His Gospel is preached, the Lord is come. It is by the Gospel
   He rides forth prosperously, conquering and to conquer (Psalm 45:4)
   Thus He has promised to be present with His ministers, and wherever two
   or three are met in His name, to the end of the world. Thus He is come
   to us. And the effects are the same, as when He was personally upon
   earth. His Gospel still discovers the thoughts of many hearts. Many
   persons who till then were reputed religious by the contempt they cast
   upon this wonderful expedient of infinite wisdom and love to save
   sinners, manifest their ignorance and hatred of the law and holiness of
   God, and that the religion they pretend to is a lifeless form,
   destitute of love and power. To them, though in itself a favour of
   life, it proves a favour of death. It provokes their enmity, increases
   their obduracy, and leaves them without excuse. But it is life indeed
   to those who receive it. They are raised by it from a death of sin,
   unto a life of righteousness and peace. Their tempers, desires,
   pursuits, and hopes are changed and elevated. Old things pass away, and
   all things become new to them, according as it is written, If any man
   be in Christ Jesus, he is a new creature (II Corinthians 5:17)

   He comes to individuals by the power of His Spirit. This makes the Word
   of His Gospel effectual. For the Kingdom of God is not in word only,
   but in power. When He thus visits the hearts of sinners, His Word is
   like fire and soap; quick and powerful, and sharper than a two-edged
   sword (Hebrews 4:12) Then they feel and tremble, and cry out with the
   Prophet, Woe is me, I am undone. But in this way their dross is
   consumed, their defilement removed. When He thus wounds, He likewise
   heals. He gives them faith; by faith they look unto Him, and are
   enlightened and saved.

   We surely expect that He will come again. Not as He once came, in a
   state of humiliation. The Babe of Bethlehem, the Man of Sorrows, who
   hung, and bled, and died upon the cross for our sins, will return in
   glory. Behold He cometh in the clouds, and every eye shall see Him
   (Revelation 1:7) Concerning this day, emphatically called the day of
   the LORD , we may well say, Who may abide it? To those who have not
   been the subjects of His refining operations here, He will then be a
   consuming fire. That great Day (for which all other days were made)
   when the LORD shall descend with the voice of the archangel and the
   trump of God, will burn like an oven, and all the proud, and all that
   do wickedly shall be as stubble, and the Day that cometh shall burn
   them up (Malachi 4:1) Where then shall the impenitent ungodly sinner
   appear? But it will be a joyful day to them that love His appearing. He
   will arise upon them, as the Sun of Righteousness, with healing in His
   wings; He will wipe away their tears, vindicate their characters,
   acknowledge them before the assembled world, and say unto them, Come,
   ye blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you (Matthew
   25:34)

   IV.

   It is particularly said, He will purify the sons of Levi, that they may
   offer an offering to the LORD in righteousness. The sons of Levi , the
   priests, the official ministers of God, were gone (departed) out of the
   way , and had corrupted the covenant of the Lord, and thereby had
   caused many to stumble (Malachi 2:8, 9) ; they dishonoured their
   office, and became themselves vile and contemptible. Thus they went on
   from bad to worse, till the men of that generation filled up the
   measure of iniquity of their forefathers, by the rejection of MESSIAH.
   He also rejected them. The blasted barren fig tree (Matthew 21:19) ,
   which withered to the very root at His Word, was an emblem of their
   condition. In a little time, wrath came upon them to the uttermost;
   they saw the temple in which they had trusted, and which they had
   profaned, destroyed by fire, and the greater part of them perished. But
   a remnant of them was purified. We read that after His ascension, a
   great company of priests were obedient to the faith (Acts 6:7) And His
   apostles and disciples were sent forth with a new spirit, and in a new
   character, to offer and to serve in righteousness. The purport of this
   passage has been repeatedly exemplified under the Christian
   dispensation. A declension from the simplicity and purity of worship,
   principles, and morals, was visible very early in the Church. The
   progress of it was rapid, especially from the time of Constantine. When
   the persecution ceased, and a tide of wealth and worldly honours flowed
   in upon those who by their profession, were bound to be patterns of
   humility and self-denial to others, from that period, till the
   Reformation, ecclesiastical history affords us little more than a
   detail of such instances of pride, intrigue, oppression, and cruelty,
   under the pretext of religion, as had not been known among the
   heathens. And the nations which were relieved from the chains of
   darkness of popery, at the Reformation, did not long preserve much more
   than a name and a form to distinguish them. In most countries, the
   state became the idol of the church, and the church the creature of the
   state. How it is with us in this nation, I need not say. The facts
   speak for themselves. It is a mournful fact that the ministry is become
   contemptible; nor is it difficult to assign the cause. But we are
   favoured with the Gospel, and are eye-witnesses of its purifying power.
   It still produces the effects, which marked its progress when preached
   by the apostles. It enlightens the dark mind, softens the hard heart,
   heals the wounded spirit; and many persons who before were burdensome
   to society, are rendered by it ornamental and useful. When every other
   argument and motive has failed of success, the consideration of the
   mercies of God in Christ, revealed by the Gospel, constrains the
   believing sinner to present himself a living, willing, holy sacrifice
   unto God. Thus being purified by the blood of Jesus, he offers to the
   Lord a sacrifice in righteousness. Such principles and aims are
   essential to a Christian minister. He knows the terrors of the Lord ,
   and has tasted of His goodness. He is constrained by love, the love of
   Christ and the love of souls. He preaches as the Apostle did, Jesus
   Christ and Him crucified; a subject which, though despised and
   reproached by the formal Jew, and the sceptical Greek, is evidenced by
   its efficacy to be the wisdom and power of God. Such ministers may be,
   and frequently are, depreciated and disregarded; but they cannot be
   contemptible, until integrity, benevolence, and usefulness are the
   proper objects of contempt.

   ---- O ----
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   Sermon V

   Immanuel

   Isaiah 7:14

   Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son,

   and shall call his name IMMANUEL , God with us.

   T here is a signature of wisdom and power impressed upon the works of
   God, which evidently distinguishes them from the feeble imitations of
   men. Not only the splendour of the sun, but the glimmering light of the
   glow-worm proclaims His glory. The structure and growth of a blade of
   grass, are the effects of the same power which produced the fabric of
   the heavens and the earth. In His Word likewise He is inimitable. He
   has a style and manner peculiarly His own. What He is pleased to
   declare about Himself by the prophet, may be prefixed as a proper motto
   to the revelation of His will in the Bible. My thoughts are not your
   thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD . For as the
   heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your
   ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts (Isaiah 55:8, 9) . This
   superiority of His thoughts to ours, causes a proportional difference
   in His manner of operation. His ways are above our conceptions, and
   often contrary to them. He sometimes produces great effects, by means,
   which, to us, seem unsuitable and weak. Thus He gave Gideon a complete
   victory, not by providing him an army equal to that of the enemy, but
   by three hundred men furnished with earthen pitchers and lamps (Judges
   7:19, 20) . At other times the greatness of His preparations, intimates
   that there are difficulties in the case, insuperable to any power but
   His own, where our narrow apprehensions, until enlightened and enlarged
   by His teaching, can scarcely perceive any difficulty. It is eminently
   so, with respect to the restoration of fallen man to His favours. We
   have but slight thoughts of His holiness, and therefore are but
   slightly affected by the evil of sin. But though He be rich in mercy,
   no wisdom, but His own, could have proposed an expedient, whereby the
   exercise of His mercy towards sinners, might be made to correspond with
   His justice and truth, and with the honour of His moral government. His
   Gospel reveals this expedient, and points out a way in which mercy and
   truth meet together; and His inflexible righteousness is displayed, in
   perfect harmony with the peace of sinners who submit to His
   appointment; and thus God appears, not only gracious but just, in
   receiving them to favour. This is the greatest of all His works, and
   exhibits the most glorious discovery of His character and perfections.
   The means are answerable to the grandeur of the design, and are
   summarily expressed in my text.

   I shall not take up your time with attempting to clear the difficulties
   which have been observed in the text. It may suffice for my purpose to
   affirm, that this passage expressly and exclusively refers to MESSIAH;
   for which my warrant is, the authority of the Evangelists Matthew and
   Luke (Matthew 1:23 ; Luke 1:31, 32) , who directly apply it to Him, and
   assure us that it was accomplished in Him. If sinners are to be saved,
   without injury to the honour of His law and government (and otherwise
   they must perish) two things are necessary,

   I. That a virgin shall conceive and bring forth a son.

   II. That this son of the virgin shall have a just right to be called
   Immanuel, God with us.

   I.

   A virgin shall conceive and bring forth a son. The mediator, the surety
   for sinful men, must himself be a man. Because those whom he came to
   redeem were partakers of flesh and blood, he therefore took part of the
   same. Had not MESSIAH engaged for us, and appeared in our nature, a
   case would have occurred, which we may warrantably deem incongruous to
   the divine wisdom. I mean, that while fire and hail, snow and vapour,
   and the stormy wind fulfill the will of God; while the brutes are
   faithful to the instincts implanted in them by their Maker, a whole
   species of intelligent beings would have fallen short of the original
   law and design of their creation, and indeed have acted in direct and
   continual opposition to it. For the duty of man, to love, serve, and
   trust God with all his heart and mind, and to love his neighbour as
   himself, is found in the very nature and constitution of things, and
   necessarily results from his relation to God, and his absolute
   dependence on Him as a creature. Such a disposition must undoubtedly
   have been natural to man before his fall, as it is for a bird to fly,
   or a fish to swim. The prohibitory form of the law delivered to Israel
   from Mount Sinai, is a sufficient intimation that it was designed for
   sinners. Surely our first parents, while in a state of innocence, could
   not stand in need of warning and threatening to restrain them from
   worshipping idols, or profaning the name of the great God whom they
   loved. Nor would it have been necessary to forbid murder, adultery, or
   injustice, if his posterity had continued under the law of their
   creation, the law of love. But the first act of disobedience degraded
   and disabled man, detached him from his proper centre, if I may so
   speak, and incapacitated him both for his duty and his happiness. After
   his fall, it became impossible for either Adam or his posterity to obey
   the law of God. But MESSIAH fulfilled it exactly, as a man, and the
   principles of it are renewed, by the power of His grace, in all who
   believe on Him. And though their best endeavours fall short, His
   obedience to it is accepted on their behalf; and He will at length
   perfectly restore them to their primitive order and honour. When they
   shall see Him as He is, they will be like Him, and all their powers and
   faculties will be perfectly conformed to His image.

   Again, MESSIAH must not only be a man, but a partaker of our very
   nature. It had been equally easy to the power of God to have formed the
   body of the second Adam, as He formed the first, out of the dust of the
   earth. But though, in this way he would have been a true and perfect
   man, he would not have been more nearly related to us than the angels.
   Therefore, when God sent forth His Son to be made under the law, to
   redeem us from the curse of the law, that we might receive the adoption
   of children (Galatians 4:4, 5) , and be re-admitted into His happy
   family, He was made of a woman. Thus He became our Gä·al , our nearest
   kinsman, with whom the right of redemption lay.

   But farther, if He had derived His human nature altogether in the
   ordinary way, from sinful parents, we see not how He could have avoided
   a participation in that defilement and depravity which the fall of Adam
   had entailed upon all his posterity But His body , that holy thing ,
   conceived and born of a virgin, was the immediate production of God.
   Therefore He was perfectly pure and spotless, and qualified to be such
   a High Priest as became us, holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate
   from sinners ; who needed not, as the typical high priests of Israel,
   to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sin, and then for the sins of
   the people (Hebrews 7:26, 27) . These difficulties were obviated by a
   virgin's conceiving and bearing a son. His obedience was without
   defect, His nature without blemish, and having no sin of His own, when
   He voluntarily offered Himself to make atonement for the sins of His
   people, His sacrifice was, so far, answerable to the strict and
   extensive demands of the law and justice of God.

   Let us make a solemn pause, and call upon our souls to admire and adore
   the wisdom and power of God in this appointment. Thus the LORD created
   a new thing upon the earth!

   II.

   But surely our admiration and gratitude will be raised still higher, if
   we rightly understand the latter part of my text. This Son of the
   virgin shall be called Immanuel, God with us . Though the human nature
   of Christ was absolutely perfect, His obedience commensurate to the
   utmost extent of the law, and His substitution and sufferings for
   sinners voluntary; yet, had He been no more than a man, He would not
   have been equal to the great undertaking of saving sinners. A due
   consideration of the majesty, holiness, authority, and goodness of God,
   will make sin appear to be, as the Apostle expresses it, exceedingly
   sinful (Romans 7:13) Whoever has a right sense of the nature and
   effects of that rebellion against the Most High, which the Scripture
   intends by the term Sin , will not need many arguments to convince him,
   that the Mediator between God and man, must be possessed of such
   dignity and power as cannot be attributed to a creature, without
   destroying the idea of a created and dependent being, by ascribing to
   him those perfections which are incommunicably divine.

   If MESSIAH had been a sinless and perfect man, and no more, he might
   have yielded a complete obedience to the will of God, but it could have
   been only for himself. The most excellent and exalted creature cannot
   exceed the law of his creation. As a creature, he is bound to serve God
   with his all, and his obligations will always be equal to his ability.
   But an obedience acceptable and available for others, for thousands and
   millions, for all who are willing to plead it, must be connected with a
   nature which is not thus necessarily bound. A sinner, truly convinced
   of his obnoxiousness to the displeasure of God, must sink into despair,
   notwithstanding the intimation of a Saviour, if he were not assured by
   the Scripture that it was a divine person in the human nature who
   engaged for us. It is this alone affords a solid ground for hope, to
   know that He who was before all, by whom all things were made, and by
   whom they consist, assumed the nature of man; that the great Lawgiver
   Himself submitted to be under His own law. This wonderful condescension
   gave an immense value and dignity to all that He did, to all that He
   suffered; thus He not only satisfied but honoured the law. So that we
   may, without hesitation, affirm that the law of God was more honoured
   by MESSIAH , in His obedience to it, during the few years of His
   residence upon earth, and terminated by His last and highest act of
   obedience in submitting to the death of the cross, than it could have
   been the un-sinning obedience of all mankind to the end of time.

   But MESSIAH was not only to obey the law for us, He was likewise to
   expiate, to sustain and to exhaust the curse due to sin (Galatians
   3:13) In this attempt, no mere creature could have endured. Nor could
   the sufferings of a creature have been proposed to the universe, to
   angels and men, as a consideration sufficient to vindicate the
   righteousness and truth of God in the remission of sin, after He had
   determined and solemnly declared that the wages of sin is death. The
   Apostle assures us, that it is impossible for the blood of bulls and of
   goats to take away sin (Hebrews 10:4) . They who differ from the
   Apostle in their judgment, who think it very possible for God, if He
   pleased, to forgive the sinner who should offer a bull or a goat, or
   even without any offering, by the sovereign exercise of His mercy, may
   be reminded, that the question is not simply what God can do, but what
   it becomes him to do , agreeable to His perfections, and to His
   character as Governor of the world. Of this His infinite wisdom is the
   only competent Judge; and we learn from His Word, that it is impossible
   any blood but that of His own Son, can cleanse us from guilt, or save
   us from misery. The blood of a bull or a goat, of a man or an angel (if
   angels could bleed) are all equally insufficient to the great purpose
   of declaring His righteousness, of manifesting to all intelligent
   creatures, His inflexible displeasure against sin, in the very act of
   affording mercy to sinners. But since the atoning blood is the blood of
   Immanuel, of Him who is God with us ; the sinner who makes it his plea,
   builds his hope upon a rock which cannot be removed; and obtaining
   forgiveness in this way, he likewise obtains by it such a knowledge of
   the heinousness of sin, as disposes him from that hour to fear, hate,
   and forsake it.

   But though forgiveness be an essential part of Salvation, it is not the
   whole. We cannot be happy, except the power of sin be likewise
   destroyed. A well-grounded hope in the mercy of God, is connected with
   a thirst for sanctification, and a conformity to His image. But neither
   this hope nor this desire are natural to us. Our case requires the help
   of an almighty arm, of the power which can cause the blind to see, the
   deaf to hear, the dead to arise ; which can take away the heart of
   stone, and create a heart of flesh. So likewise the difficulties
   attendant on our Christian profession, arising from the spirit of the
   world around us, the snare to which we are exposed in every situation,
   our weakness, the deceitfulness of our hearts, the subtlety, vigilance,
   and power of our spiritual enemies, are so many and great, that unless
   He, on whom we depend for Salvation, be able to save to the uttermost,
   we can have no security, either for our progress, or our perseverance,
   in the grace of God.

   Unless the Saviour of sinners be omnipresent, omniscient, unchangeable,
   the same yesterday, today, and for ever , that is, unless He be God,
   how can He answer the prayers, satisfy the wants, and relieve the
   distresses of all who trust in Him in every age, and of all who in
   every place equally need His support at the same moment? Or how can He
   engage to give rest to every weary soul, to secure them from perishing,
   and to bestow upon them eternal life? David comfortably concluded, that
   because the LORD was his Shepherd, he should not want, and had no
   reason to fear (Psalm 23:4) , not even when passing through the valley
   of the shadow of death. To us Jesus is made known as the great Shepherd
   of the sheep; but how can we place the like confidence in Him, unless
   we are likewise assured that our Shepherd is the LORD ?

   I shall not attempt to vindicate this doctrine largely from the
   exceptions of those who call themselves men of reason. It is a point of
   revelation, and it is expressly revealed. It demands our assent upon
   the authority of God, who requires us to receive this record which He
   has given us of His Son. Thus far it approves itself to our reason,
   that however difficult it may be to our conceptions, yet thus it must
   be, upon a supposition that sinners can be saved without prejudice to
   the honour of the divine government. If we affirm that He who was born
   in a stable, and suffered as a malefactor upon Mount Golgotha, is the
   true God and eternal life, many will think it a hard saying. But it is
   the doctrine of Scripture, the very pillar and ground of truth; the
   only foundation of hope for an awakened conscience, the only standard
   by which we can properly estimate the evil of sin, the worth of soul,
   and the love of God. We do not however, say that the human nature of
   Christ, considered in itself, possesses the attributes of Deity, or is
   the proper object of worship; nor do we suppose that God should suffer,
   bleed, and die. But we say, with the Apostle, that God was in Christ,
   reconciling the world unto Himself (II Corinthians 5:19) . We believe
   that the human nature was so intimately and indissolubly united to the
   divine, that the properties and actings of each nature, are justly
   ascribed to the one person of Christ, God-man, Immanuel, God with us .
   Thus we read that the final judgment of the world is committed to a
   man, and that God hath purchased the Church with His own blood (Acts
   20:28)

   Behold then the character of MESSIAH in this prophecy! a man! a God! a
   Divine Person in the human nature! God manifested in the flesh!
   Immanuel, God with us.

   As fallen creatures we had lost the true knowledge of God, and were
   unable to form such conceptions of His greatness and goodness as are
   necessary to inspire us with reverence to engage our confidence, or
   produce obedience to His will. His glory shines in the heavens and
   fills the earth; we are surrounded by the tokens of His power and
   presence; yet, till we are instructed by His Word, and enlightened by
   his Holy Spirit, He is to us an unknown God. The prevalence of idolatry
   was early, and (with exception to the people of Israel) soon became
   universal. Men who boasted their reason, worshipped the sun and moon,
   yea, the works of their own hands, instead of the Creator. And even
   where revelation is vouchsafed [graciously given], the bulk of mankind
   live without God in the world. But He is known, trusted, and loved by
   those who know MESSIAH To them His glory is displayed in the person of
   Jesus Christ (II Corinthians 4:6) . His agency is perceived in the
   creation, His providence is acknowledged, and His presence felt as God
   with us.

   As fallen creatures, God is against us, and we are against Him. The
   alienation of our hearts is the great cause of our ignorance of Him. We
   are willingly ignorant. The thoughts of Him are unwelcome to us, and we
   do not like to retain Him in our knowledge. Guilt is the parent of
   atheism. A secret foreboding, that if there be a God, we are obnoxious
   to His displeasure; and if He takes cognizance of our conduct, we have
   nothing to hope, but every thing to fear from Him, constrains many
   persons to try to persuade themselves that there is no God; and many
   more to think, or at least to wish, that if there be a God He does not
   concern Himself with human affairs. What a proof is this of the enmity
   of the heart of man against Him! That so many persons who would tremble
   at the thought of being in a ship, driven by the wind and waves,
   without compass or pilot, should yet think it desirable, if it were
   possible, to be assured that in a world like this, so full of
   uncertainty, trouble and change, all things were left at random,
   without the interference of a supreme governor. But this enmity, these
   dark apprehensions are removed, when the Gospel is received by faith.
   For it brings us the welcome news that there is forgiveness with Him.
   That God is reconciled in His Son to all who seek His mercy. In this
   sense, likewise, MESSIAH is Immanuel, God with us , on our side, no
   longer the avenger of sin, but the author of salvation.

   Immanuel is God with us , God in our nature still. He suffered as a
   man, and as a man He now reigns on the Throne in glory; exercising all
   power and authority, and receiving all spiritual worship both in heaven
   and upon earth. He is the Head of all principalities and power, thrones
   and dominions. Thus man is not only saved, but unspeakably honoured and
   ennobled. He is brought into the nearest relation to Him, who is over
   all blessed forever. The angels adore Him, but only the redeemed
   sinners can say, He loved us, and gave Himself for us; He has washed us
   from our sin in His own blood (Revelation 1:5) ; He is our Saviour, our
   Shepherd, our Friend, our Immanuel, God with us.

   I shall conclude with a few obvious reflections which offer from this
   important subject.

   (1.)

   What a cold assent is paid to the doctrine of the Godhead of Christ, by
   many who profess and receive it as a truth! They have received from
   education, from books or ministers, what is called an orthodox scheme
   of religious sentiments, and with this they are contented. They have
   not been accustomed to doubt of it, and therefore take it for granted
   that they really believe it. But as I have already hinted, it is so
   contrary to our natural apprehensions, that no man can, from his heart,
   say Jesus Christ is LORD , unless he be taught of God.

   And a cordial [sincere] belief of this point, will and must produce
   great and abiding effects. They who know the Saviour's name, will so
   trust in Him, as to renounce every other ground of confidence. They
   will love Him supremely, and forsake everything that stands in
   competition with His favour. They will glory in His cross, they will
   espouse His cause, and devote themselves to His service. They will make
   continual application to Him, that they may receive out of His fulness
   grace according to their need. They will obey His precepts, and walk in
   His Spirit. Happy were it, indeed, if all who join in repeating the
   Creed, and who bow their knee at the mention of His name, were thus
   minded. But the lives, tempers, and pursuits of thousands, give too
   sure an evidence, that when they express their assent with their lips,
   they neither know what they say, nor whereof they affirm. Their
   acknowledgement of His character, has no more salutary influence, than
   that of the evil spirits when He was upon earth, who said, and perhaps
   with a much fuller conviction, We know Thee who Thou art, the holy one
   of God (Mark 1:24)

   (2.)

   What a strong foundation does this doctrine afford for the faith and
   hope of those who indeed know MESSIAH, and have put their trust in Him.
   This truth is the rock upon which the Church is built, and the gates of
   hell shall not prevail against it. If God be for us, who shall be
   against us? The difficulties of our warfare are great, the enemies of
   our peace are many. The world may frown, and Satan will rage, but Jesus
   has overcome the world, and is greater than all our foes. He will guide
   His people with His unerring wisdom, support them with His almighty
   arm, supply them out of the inexhaustible riches of His grace, revive
   them when fainting, heal them when wounded, plead for them above as
   their great High Priest, manage for them upon earth as their great
   Shepherd, and at last make them more than conquerors, and give them a
   crown of life!

   (3.)

   On the contrary, how dreadful must be the state of those who finally
   reject Him, and say in their hearts, We will not have this man to rule
   over us! He is now proposed as a Saviour, He invites sinners to come to
   Him that they may have life, and assures us, that him that cometh He
   will in no wise cast out (John 6:37) . Happy are they who hear and obey
   His voice today, while it is called today. Tomorrow is uncertain. Death
   may be at the door, and at death our state will be determined for
   eternity. They who refuse Him now, in the character of a Saviour, must
   then appear at His tribunal, and stand before Him as their Judge; and
   must answer, in their own persons, for all their transgressions of the
   holy law, and for their contempt of the Gospel of the grace of God!

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   Sermon VI

   Salvation Published from the Mountains

   Isaiah 40:9

   O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain;

   O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with
   strength;

   lift it up, be not afraid: say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your
   God!

   I t would be improper to propose an alteration, though a slight one, in
   the reading of a text, without bearing my testimony to the great value
   of our English version, which I believe, in point of simplicity,
   strength, and fidelity, is not likely to be excelled by a new
   translation of the whole Scripture. But there are, undoubtedly,
   particular passages, where a small change in the expression, might
   render the sense clearer, and be equally answerable to the original
   Hebrew or Greek. The address of this verse as it stand in the Messiah
   [Oratorio] is, O thou that tellest good tidings, etc. as the Bishop of
   London has lately translated it. Zion and Jerusalem are considered by
   the Prophet, not as bringing, but as receiving good tidings; and the
   publisher of these good tidings is written with a feminine
   construction.

   The sense may be thus expressed, "Let her that bringeth good tidings to
   Jerusalem and Zion, get up into the high mountains and lift up her
   voice." But the apostrophe is more animated. That it was the custom in
   Israel for the women to publish and celebrate good news with songs and
   instruments is well known. We have an early instance in the book of
   Exodus. When the LORD had delivered them from the power of Pharaoh, and
   they saw their enemies, dead upon the sea-shore, Miriam, the sister of
   Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand, and all the women went out after her
   with timbrels and dances; And Miriam answered them, Sing ye to the LORD
   for he hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath he
   thrown into the sea (Exodus 15: 10, 21) So afterwards, when David
   returned from the slaughter of the Philistines, the women came out to
   meet him and Saul with tabrets and instruments of music; and they
   answered one another as they played, Saul hath slain his thousands, and
   David his ten thousands (I Samuel 18:6, 7) . Thus likewise, Deborah, in
   her sublime song, represents the mother of Sisera (Judges 5:28, 29) ,
   and her women, singing alternately, from a confident, though vain
   expectation, that Sisera would return a conqueror. In my text the
   Prophet, in prospect of MESSIAH'S appearance, speaks of it as an event
   suited to excite a general joy. The Gospel (as the word imports) is
   good news, glad tidings indeed! the best news that ever reached the
   ears, or cheered the heart of man.

   The women are, therefore, called upon to proclaim His approach, on the
   tops of the hills and mountains, from whence they may be seen, and
   heard to the greatest advantage, for the spreading of the tidings
   throughout the whole country. Zion is a besieged city, but let her know
   that relief is at hand; say unto her, Behold your God! The Lord will
   come with a strong hand, or against the strong one, and His people
   shall know Him as their Shepherd, full of care, kindness, and power.

   The promise of Immanuel, God with us , is now to be spread like the
   morning from the tops of the mountains. The day is breaking, and this
   passage prepares for the following, Arise, shine, for thy light is
   come! The welcome news is to be dispersed from Jerusalem to Samaria,
   from Jew to Gentile, from one kingdom to another people, till all the
   nations and the ends of the earth shall see the Salvation of God (Psalm
   98:3)

   The cause of this exultation arises from the character of MESSIAH,
   compared with the design of His appearance, and this is answerable to
   the condition in which He finds mankind.

   The deplorable state of fallen man by nature, is largely described both
   in the Old Testament and the New. It may suffice to take notice of two
   principal features, which characterize our whole species, and apply to
   every individual of the race of Adam, until the grace of God, which
   bringeth Salvation, affords relief. These are guilt, alienation of
   heart, and misery.

   (1.)

   Guilt. All have sinned. We are the creatures of God. He made us, and He
   preserves us. Our life, faculties, and comforts are all from Him. He is
   therefore our great Lord, our supreme Benefactor. Of course we belong
   to Him. His we are, and not our own. It follows that dependence,
   gratitude, submission, and obedience, are incumbent on us, as they must
   be upon all intelligent creatures, from the very nature of things. The
   relation which subsists between an infinitely wise and good Creator and
   His creatures, if capable of knowing Him, necessarily implies this
   subjection. And the obligation is indissoluble. But we have evidently
   broken this law of our creation. We have violated the order of God's
   government. We have implicitly, if not formally, renounced our
   allegiance, disowned His right over us, and set up for ourselves. A
   dependent creature affecting independence; a worm presuming upon its
   own power, making itself its own end; a rebel against the divine
   government, boasting of morality and goodness, and trusting to his own
   conduct to recommend him to the favour of his Maker; a being formed for
   immortality, proposing his whole happiness in things which he feels to
   be unsatisfying, knows to be uncertain, and from which he is conscious
   he must, in a few years at most, be finally removed; these are
   solecisms [improprieties] which strongly prove the depravity,
   degeneracy, and demerit of man. It is possible, that had we been wholly
   left to ourselves, we should never have been aware, while in this
   world, of the just and inevitable consequences of our rebellion. Having
   lost all right thoughts of God, and conceiving of Him, as if He were
   altogether as ourselves, we might have felt neither fear nor remorse.
   But there is a revelation, by which we are informed of His determined
   purpose to avenge disobedience, and to vindicate the honour of His
   government; and we are assured, that He is not an indifferent spectator
   of our opposition to His established order. His justice and truth are
   engaged to punish transgressors, and our obnoxiousness to punishment,
   is what we mean by guilt. If the Scripture be true, there is no way of
   escape, unless He Himself be pleased to appoint one. This He has done,
   and the declaration of this appointment is a part of the good-tidings
   contained in my text. Proclaim it from the tops of the mountains, that
   there is forgiveness with Him. Say unto Jerusalem, Behold MESSIAH,
   Behold your God! He comes to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself
   (Hebrews 9:26) . He can do it, for He is God; and He will do it, for He
   has taken on Himself our nature for this very purpose (II Corinthians
   5:21) Behold the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world!

   (2.)

   Alienation of mind. Not only is it true that we have sinned against the
   Lord, but a principle of aversion from Him is deeply rooted in our
   hearts. Therefore one part of our natural character is, haters of God
   (Romans 1:30) . This is thought a hard saying. Many who will admit that
   their conduct is blameable, and that they are not altogether what they
   ought to be, will by no means plead guilty to this charge. If they fall
   short of their duty, and in some instances transgress His commandment,
   they say, It is their infirmity [moral weakness or failing]; they are
   sorry, and hope to do better some time or other. However, they are
   willing to think that their hearts are tolerably good, they mean well,
   and are shocked at the idea of hating God. They rather presume that
   they love Him, though they are not so careful of pleasing Him as they
   should be.

   I do not assert that we hate God under that character, which, our vain
   imaginations form of Him. If we can persuade ourselves, in direct
   contradiction to the testimony of Scripture, that He is not strict to
   mark what is amiss; that He will dispense with the strictness of His
   law; that He will surely have mercy upon us, because we are not openly
   abandoned and profligate in our conduct; that He will accept of
   lip-worship in which the heart has no concern, reward us for actions in
   which we had no intention of pleasing Him, permit us to love and serve
   the world with all our mind, and soul, and strength, while we live, and
   make us happy in another world, when we can live in this no longer --
   If we form such an image of God, it is too much like our own to provoke
   our enmity, for it is destitute of holiness, justice, and truth. But
   the carnal mind is and must be, enmity against God (Romans 8:7)
   according to the character He has given of Himself in His Word. We have
   an inbred dislike to all His moral attributes, to the rule of His
   government, and to the methods of His grace. We cannot, that is, we
   will not, propose either His glory as our chief end, or His favour as
   our chief good. The proof is plain. The ends which we actually pursue,
   and supposed good which we deliberately prefer, are utterly
   inconsistent with the plan which He has prescribed for us. His ways,
   though truly pleasant in themselves, appear unpleasing to us, and we
   think we can plan better for ourselves. We do not like to retain God in
   our thoughts (Romans 1:28) , which is a sure sign of enmity. Nay, this
   enmity is so strong in us naturally, that we cannot bear others think
   more highly of God than we do, or be more attached to Him than we are.

   This was the ground of the first murder. Abel loved God, and God was
   pleased to testify His approbation of Abel --therefore Cain killed him
   (I John 3:12) . This has been the great cause of the opposition and
   ill-treatment which the servants of God have met with from the men of
   the world in all succeeding ages. A cause which still subsists, and
   will continue to operate upon posterity yet unborn. Can we show a
   stronger mark of dislike to a person, than by hating all who profess a
   regard to him, and when that is the only cause of our resentment? Such
   is the prevailing enmity against God. For how often do we see that when
   His grace enables a sinner to forsake the spirit and practice of the
   world, his former friends are immediately offended; and, perhaps, those
   of his own household, become his inveterate enemies?

   But, O thou that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice. Say to poor
   sinners, Behold thy God! He comes to take this enmity away! The cross
   of Christ subdues it, when every other expedient has been found
   ineffectual. The heart, too hard to be softened by a profusion of
   temporal blessings, and too stout to be subdued by afflictions, is
   melted by the dying love of a Saviour; and by that discovery of the
   divine perfections, which is exhibited in redemption.

   We have a striking instance of this effect, in the case of Saul of
   Tarsus (Acts 9:1-20) . His misguided conscience, under the influence of
   prejudice, persuaded him, that he ought to do many things against Jesus
   of Nazareth. Instigated with rage, and not satisfied with the injuries
   he had offered to His disciples at Jerusalem, but still breathing out
   threatening and slaughter, he journeyed towards Damascus, designing to
   harass and persecute them wherever he found them. In this temper of
   mind, he was suddenly arrested on his way, by a light, and a voice from
   Heaven. He fell to the ground. But Jesus, whom he had ignorantly
   persecuted, instructed him in the knowledge of His person and love,
   pardoned his sin, and commissioned him to preach the faith he had
   laboured to destroy. How sudden, how evident, how abiding was the
   change which then took place in his heart and in his conduct! From that
   moment he accounted all things loss and dung, for the excellency of the
   knowledge of Jesus Christ his Lord (Philippians 3:8) . Unwearied by
   labour and hardship, undismayed by opposition and danger, he spent the
   remainder of his life in the cause of his Master; and, like Caesar,
   accounting nothing done, while anything remained to do, his active and
   intrepid [courageous] spirit was continually meditating new services
   (Acts 19:21) . And, though he knew that bonds and afflictions awaited
   him in every place, he was always upon the wings to publish to his
   fellow sinners, the grace and glory of Him, whom he had so long
   opposed, only because he knew Him not. And although the circumstances
   attending the Apostle's case were extraordinary, the case itself, as to
   the substance, is not singular. I trust many persons in this assembly
   have been subjects of a like change. The doctrine which Paul preached,
   has enlightened your understandings, has inspired you with hopes and
   desires to which you were once strangers, and given a new direction to
   the conduct and aims of your life. You were once afar off from God, but
   you are now brought nigh by the blood of Christ. You once lived to
   yourselves, but now you feel that you are no longer your own, and have
   devoted yourselves to Him who died to save you from the present evil
   world, and from the wrath to come.

   (3.)

   Misery. If we are guilty in the sight of God, and alienated from Him in
   our hearts, we must be miserable. Guilt entails a burden, and a
   foreboding of evil upon the conscience. And our alienation from the
   fountain of living waters (Jeremiah 2:13) , compels us (for we are
   insufficient in our own happiness) to seek our resources from broken
   cisterns, and pits which will hold no water. Farther, sin has filled
   the world with woe. The whole creation travails and groans; and natural
   evil is inseparable from moral, as the shadow from the body. Though the
   earth be filled with tokens of the goodness, patience, and forbearance
   of God, it likewise abounds with marks of His displeasure. I think we
   have sufficient reason to attribute earthquakes, hurricanes, famine,
   and pestilence, to sin as their original cause. We can hardly conceive,
   that if mankind had continued in that happy state of love and obedience
   to God, in which our first parents were created, they would have been
   exposed to such calamities.

   When God at the beginning, surveyed every thing that He had made,
   behold, it was very good (Genesis 1:31) . All was beauty and harmony,
   till sin introduced disorder and a curse. But far worse than what we
   suffer immediately from the Providence of God, are the evils which we
   bring upon ourselves and upon each other. The dreadful consequences of
   war, rapine [robbery, pillage], discord, hatred, ambition, avarice, and
   intemperance, furnish part of every page in the mournful history of
   human life, and are felt in every nation, city, village, and family.
   Want, cares, and diseases prey upon individuals. Disappointment,
   dissatisfaction, vanity, and vexation of spirit, are experienced by
   persons of every rank, and in every stage of human life. How much more
   desirable would it be, were it not for the hope of the Gospel, to share
   with the brute creation, than to bear the name of man in his fallen
   state! The brutes have few wants; their propensities, and the means of
   gratifying them, are suited to their natures, adapted to their powers,
   and conducive to the preservation of their species. They neither regret
   the past, nor tremble under apprehensions of the future. It is far
   otherwise with man. His boasted pleasures end with a sting, and often
   he cannot bear his own reflections on them. He suffers almost as much
   from imaginary fears, as from real afflictions. The more he possesses,
   the more are the sources of his anxieties multiplied and enlarged. And
   after having been long wearied with a train of mortifications, pains,
   and inquietudes [disquieting thoughts], he must at last, however
   unwilling, yield to that stroke of death; the thought of which, when
   strongly realized to his mind, was always sufficient to embitter the
   happiest hours of his life.

   But publish the glad tidings from the mountains, and let the joyful
   sound diffuse over the plain -- Your God cometh! MESSIAH establishes a
   new, a spiritual Kingdom upon the earth, and His happy subjects are
   freed from the misery in which they were involved. They commit all
   their concerns to Him, and He manages for them. Their fears are
   removed, their irregular desires corrected, and all that is really good
   for them, is secured to them by His love, promise, and care.
   Afflictions still await them, but they are sanctified. To them the
   nature of afflictions is changed. They are appointments graciously
   designed for their advantage. Their crosses no less than their
   comforts, are tokens of God's favour (Hebrews 12:6,7) , they have them
   only because their present situation requires discipline, and they
   could not be so well without them. They are assured of support under
   them (II Corinthians 12:9) , and a final deliverance out of them all:
   for there is a happy hour approaching when all their troubles shall
   cease, and they shall enter upon a state of eternal, uninterrupted,
   inconceivable joy (Isaiah 60:20)

   For these purposes the Son of God was revealed. The prophets saw His
   day afar off, and proclaimed His approach -- Thy God cometh! Though
   truly man, He is truly God. Neither man nor angel could remove our
   guilt, communicate to us a spiritual life, relieve us from misery, and
   give us stable peace in a changing world, hope and triumph in death,
   and eternal life beyond it. But His wisdom and power are infinite, and
   His purpose unchangeable. He would not have invited the weary and heavy
   laden to come to Him, if He was not able and determined to give them
   rest. None that seek Him are disappointed, or sent empty away. A
   sufficient proof that His compassion, His bounty, His fulness are
   properly divine. Therefore the Apostle, speaking of the riches of His
   grace, uses the epithet, Unsearchable (Ephesians 3:8) . His treasury of
   life and salvation is inexhaustible, like a boundless, shoreless,
   bottomless ocean; like the sun, which having cheered the successive
   generations of mankind with its beams, still shines with undiminished
   lustre, is still the fountain of light, and has always a sufficiency to
   fill innumerable millions of eyes in the same instant.

   Does the language of my text cause joy to spring up in your hearts? or
   is it nothing to you? If you heard the Messiah [Oratorio], you were,
   perhaps, affected by the music of the passage; how much are you to be
   pitied, if you are hitherto unaffected by the sentiment! Yet once more,
   hear -- Thy God cometh! He did come in the fulness of time, according
   to the prophecy, and the Word of prophecy assures us, that He will come
   again. Behold He cometh in the clouds; and every eye shall see Him, and
   they also that pierced Him (Revelation 1:7) -- Prepare to meet thy God!
   (Amos 4:12)

   ---- O ----
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   Sermon VII

   The Morning Light

   Isaiah 60:1-3

   Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen
   upon thee.

   For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the
   people:

   but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon
   thee.

   And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness
   of thy rising.

   O ne strong internal proof that the Bible is a divine revelation, may
   be drawn from the subject matter; and particularly that it is the book,
   and the only book, that teaches us to think highly and honourably of
   God. I say, the only book, for there is no right knowledge of God where
   the Bible is not known. What is the Jupiter of Homer, compared with the
   God of Israel as He is presented to us by His servants the prophets?
   And if the heathen philosophers, in some detached passages, have
   sentiments not altogether unworthy of Him, history honestly tells us
   how they obtained them. They travelled, and they are generally said to
   have travelled into Phoenicia or Egypt, to the confines of that people
   who alone thought rightly of God, because to them only He had made
   Himself known by revelation. If such a description as we have in the
   fortieth chapter of Isaiah, from the twelfth verse to the end, had been
   known only of late years, recovered, we will suppose, out of the ruins
   of Herculaneum, there is little doubt but it would have engaged the
   attention and admiration of the learned world. For the most admired
   writings of antiquity, upon candid comparison, are unspeakably inferior
   to it. The inimitable sublimity [high spiritual and moral worth] of the
   prophets is natural, just, and unforced, and flows from the grandeur of
   their subjects, because they were influenced by Him, who alone can
   speak worthily of Himself. A song so vast, a theme so high,

   Calls for the voice that tuned the sky.

   With them, the whole compass of the creation is but as dust upon the
   balance, in respect of the great Creator. His purpose is fate, His
   voice is power. He speaks, and it is done. Thus He called the universe
   into being; and thus, as the great LORD and Proprietor of all, He still
   maintains and governs it, directing the frame of nature, and every
   particular event and contingence, to the promoting of His own glory,
   the last and highest end of all His works.

   The principal of these is, the exhibition of His perfections in the
   Person of His Son. The prophecies we have already considered, announce
   this event, with a gradual increase of clearness and precision, as the
   period of accomplishment is supposed to draw nigh. We lately heard the
   command to proclaim His approach from the hills and the tops of the
   mountains. Here the Prophet begins to contemplate the effects of His
   actual appearance. The earth is considered as involved in a state of
   gross darkness; but the sun, the Sun of Righteousness is about to
   arise, and to fill it, by His beams, with light, life, and glory. These
   effects, indeed, will not extend to all, for many will love darkness
   rather than light. But He will not shine in vain. There will be a
   people prepared to receive Him, and to rejoice in His light. They shall
   arise as from sleep, as from the grave, and His light reflected upon
   them, shall cause them to shine likewise. Darkness shall still cover
   those who reject Him; yea, their darkness will be increased. But the
   glory of the Lord shall be seen upon all who believe, and their
   numbers, from age to age, shall be enlarged. Nations shall come to Him,
   and kings shall be subservient to the spreading of His Kingdom. Such is
   the scope of the passage before us. I shall briefly consider a few of
   the leading particulars contained in it.

   I.

   As the sun is the source of light to the natural world, so is MESSIAH
   to the moral and spiritual world. Light, and its opposite, darkness,
   are figuratively used in Scripture. The latter is applied to the state
   of ignorance, sin, and misery, as in the following texts, He that
   walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth (John 12:35) ; If we
   say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and
   do not the truth (I John 1:6) ; And cast ye the unprofitable servant
   into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth
   (Matthew 25:30) . The former, therefore, signifies true knowledge,
   holiness, and happiness. For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye
   light in the LORD : walk as children of light (Ephesians 5:8) When I
   sit in darkness, the LORD shall be a light unto me (Micah 7:8) Light is
   sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart (Psalm
   97:11) . I select but one instance of each kind; an attentive reader of
   the Scriptures will meet with many expressions of a like import. But
   there is likewise an intermediate state. Light advancing from the early
   dawn to the perfect day. This twilight, no less than daylight, is from
   the sun. Such was the state of the Old Testament Church. MESSIAH was
   the source of their knowledge, hope, and joy; but He was (if I may so
   speak) below the horizon, as to them. Though believers, under that
   dispensation, were a people saved of the Lord, they were trained up
   under types [symbols] and shadows, were influenced by a spirit of
   comparative bondage and distance, like children under age, and rather
   longed for, than actually possessed the gracious liberty which the
   children of God enjoy under the Gospel. But the Sun arose, and the
   shadows vanished, when the Son of God incarnate dwelt and conversed
   with men, honoured His temple with His personal presence, and
   superseded all the Levitical sacrifices, by the one offering of Himself
   upon the cross. The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by
   Jesus Christ. But more especially we date the beginning of His visible
   Kingdom from the day of Pentecost, which followed after His ascension.
   Then He signally bestowed the gifts, which, as Mediator, He had
   received for men, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, authorized and
   qualified His servants to go forth and preach Salvation in His name.
   Then the partition wall between Jew and Gentile was taken away, and His
   righteousness was openly shown in the sight of the heathen. Abraham,
   Moses, Elijah, and other servants of God, had been highly favoured and
   highly honoured; but we are assured by our Lord Himself, that none born
   of a woman had been greater than John His fore-runner -- and yet He
   added, the least in the Kingdom of Heaven , that is, the New Testament,
   or Gospel Church, is greater than he (Matt. 11:11) . The apostles were
   happy in the peculiar privilege of attending His person; yet He told
   them, It is expedient for you that I go away (John 16:7) . There were
   still greater privileges depending upon the influence of the promised
   Comforter, who was to abide with the Church forever. By the power of
   this Holy Spirit, the Lord is now present with all His ministers and
   people in every place, whether retired in secret from the view of men,
   or assembled together in His name (Matthew 6:6; 18:20; 28:20) ; and
   though the great events upon which their hopes were founded, His life,
   passion, death, resurrection, and ascension took place long ago, He so
   realizes the declaration of them in His Word to their hearts, that they
   are no less assured of what they read, than the apostles who saw Him
   with their own eyes. Thus the Gospel state is a dispensation of light.
   The Sun is risen with life and healing in His beams, and those who have
   the eyes of their understanding opened, enjoy a bright and marvellous
   day. They see, admire, adore, rejoice, and love.

   II.

   The subjects of MESSIAH'S Kingdom, the living members of His Church,
   are so irradiated by Him, that they shine likewise. As the moon shines,
   but with a borrowed light, derived from the sun. Beholding, in this
   glass [magnifying glass] , the glory of the Lord, they are changed into
   the same image from glory to glory (II Corinthians 3:18) , according to
   the measure and growth of their faith. Two points may be observed under
   this head.

   (1.)

   The fact. That they do thus shine. Though they were once darkness, they
   are now light (Ephesians 5:8) . A dark, ignorant, wicked, selfish
   Christian, is a contradiction in terms. There may be such, there are
   too many such amongst those who make profession of the name of Christ;
   but they who truly know Him walk in the light, as He is in the light.
   They have knowledge, a good understanding (Psalm 111:10) . Perhaps, the
   greater part of real Christians have little acquaintance with the
   literature and science of the world; their natural capacities may be
   weak, and not improved by education; they may be in the esteem of men,
   as they are in their own, but babes; yet they know more than the wisest
   philosophers, who are destitute of the grace of God. They know
   themselves, they know the Lord, they know the evil of sin, and the way
   of salvation; what their proper happiness consists in, and how it is to
   be obtained. They have learned to endure affliction, to forgive
   injuries, and to overcome evil with good. They have attained a just
   sense of the vanity of the world, and the importance of eternity. They
   are instructed to be contented and useful in their stations, to
   discharge their duties in relative life with propriety, and to meet
   death with comfort. In all these particulars, many who have dazzling
   talents, and are celebrated for abilities and endowments, are miserably
   at a loss. True believers are conformed to the spirit and temper of
   their Saviour, and therefore are different and distinguished from the
   world around them. And they have, at least, the beginnings of true
   peace and solid happiness, in communion with Him whom they serve.

   (2.)

   The cause. They shine wholly by His light. If their own words may be
   taken, the proof of this is easy. They are free to confess that they
   are only wise by His wisdom, strong by His power working in them, and
   that without Him they have not sufficiency to think a good thought (II
   Corinthians 3:5) . Experience has taught them that they cannot stand
   unless He upholds them, nor watch unless He watches with them, nor be
   safe or happy a single day, without fresh communications from Him. But
   this, their experience and acknowledgment, is the express and current
   doctrine of Scripture. There is a real, though mystical, union between
   Christ and His people. He is the Vine (John 15:1) , they the branches:
   He is their Head, they the members of His body. They dwell in Him by
   faith, He dwells in them by His Spirit. He is their root and their
   life; all their springs are in Him, and it is out of His fulness that
   they receive (John 1:16) . Therefore the Apostle says, I live; yet not
   I, but Christ liveth in me (Galatians 2:20) ; I can do all things
   through Christ strengthening me (Philippians 4:13) . And our Lord
   Himself, who comforted Paul with that promise, My grace is sufficient
   for thee (II Corinthians 12:9) , apprised all His followers of their
   entire dependence upon Him, by saying, Without me ye can do nothing
   (John 15:5) The language of the Old Testament is to the same purport,
   They looked unto Him and were enlightened (Psalm 34:5) ; In the LORD
   Jehovah I have everlasting strength (Isaiah 26:4) He giveth power to
   the faint, and to them that have no might He increaseth strength
   (Isaiah 40:29) Thus things are constituted and conducted, that no flesh
   should glory in His presence, but that he who glories may glory in the
   LORD (I Corinthians 1:29-31)

   III.

   They who wilfully refuse and turn from this light, do thereby involve
   themselves in double darkness, and become more infatuated and wicked
   than those to whom the light has not been proposed. Their evils,
   likewise, are more aggravated than they would have been if the light
   had not visited them. Thus our Lord , MESSIAH, speaks of the Jews; If I
   had not come and spoken to them, they had not had sin; but now they
   have no cloak for their sin (John 15:22). And again, For judgment I am
   come into the world, that they which see not might see, and that they
   which see might be made blind (John 9:39). He came to make the ignorant
   wise unto salvation; but they who, from a proud conceit of their own
   wisdom and sufficiency, disdain His instruction, being left to
   themselves, give abundant evidence that the light they boast of, is but
   gross and palpable darkness. The grossest errors, the greatest obduracy
   of heart, the most extreme profaneness of spirit, and the most
   abominable wickedness in practice, may be expected, and will certainly
   be found where the Gospel is despised.

   It is evident, that the morality which is so highly admired by the
   Christian world, and set in opposition to the Gospel of Christ, is much
   leaner, and more scanty than the morality of the heathens. I speak of
   the idea only, for neither have the heathens of old, nor of the present
   day, acted up to their own rules. But I do not hesitate to affirm, that
   none of our modern moralists, who have disowned the Gospel revelation,
   have given us a system of morality equal to that of ^* Tully the pagan.
   Many of the heathens acknowledged the desirableness and necessity of
   revelation; though infidels, born in a Christian land, think it a high
   mark of their wisdom to despise it. And avowed atheists, that is, men,
   who deny either the Being or Providence of God, or the obligations
   mankind are under to obey Him, are seldom to be met with but in
   countries where the Bible is known. The heart must have obstinately and
   repeatedly resisted light and conviction, before it can ordinarily
   proceed to these dreadful lengths. But while the blind stumble in the
   noon of day, MESSIAH'S people shall walk in confidence and peace (Psalm
   89:15, 16) , and shine as lights in the midst of a crooked and perverse
   generation (Philippians 2:15).

   ^* Roman Philosopher, Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 BC - 43 BC)

   IV.

   The third verse of this chapter foretells, and therefore secures, the
   conversion of the Gentiles or heathens. The times and seasons are in
   the disposal of God, but the Scriptures must be fulfilled. Much was
   done in the first age of Christianity. A single instrument, the Apostle
   Paul, as he himself informs us, preached the faith, which he formerly
   tried to destroy, from Jerusalem, and round about unto Illyricum
   (Romans 15:19) , and probably much farther afterwards. And the Lord,
   who appointed him to this service, accompanied His message with His own
   power; so that he had signal success, in turning men from darkness to
   light, and from the worship of dumb idols, to serve the living and true
   God; and in planting the Gospel, and gathering churches in every
   province. The Gospel found an early reception at Rome, which
   facilitated its spread into the different parts of the Roman Empire.
   And we have reason to believe it was introduced into our island, in a
   few years after our Lord's ascension. And though it was called the
   conversion of the heathen nations, in some following ages, it went
   little farther than to prevail on them to assume the name of
   Christians, and left them, considered as nations, as destitute of the
   spirit and blessing of Christianity, as it found them; yet I cannot
   doubt, that wherever the New Testament, and the sufferings of MESSIAH
   were known, some individuals, at least, experienced a real and saving
   change. And we are warranted to hope for still greater things; for a
   time when the gross darkness, which as yet covers a great part of the
   world, shall be dispelled; and the Redeemer's Kingdom, spoken of by
   Daniel the prophet, as a stone cut out without hands, shall become a
   great mountain, and fill the whole earth (Daniel 2:35) . But this
   pleasing subject shall come more directly under our consideration
   hereafter.

   V.

   The call in my text, may be taken in a general sense, like that of the
   Apostle, Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ
   shall give thee light (Ephesians 5:14) Natural light requires eyes to
   perceive it. It would be absurd to point out the beauties of an
   extensive prospect to a blind man. To him the face of nature presents
   only a universal blank. But the light of the Gospel, not only discovers
   the most important objects to those who can see, but has a marvellous
   efficacy to open the eyes of the blind. It is the appointed instrument
   of Divine power for this purpose. In vain would be the labour and
   expectation of the husbandman, if God did not afford the rain, and the
   snow, to water the earth, and the enlivening influences of the sun, to
   draw forth the tender blade, and to ripen the corn. Equally
   unsuccessful would the preaching of the Gospel prove to sinful men,
   though in itself it be eminently the truth and wisdom of God, exactly
   suited to their state, and of the highest importance to their welfare,
   if He had not promised that His Word, where simply and faithfully
   delivered, in dependence upon His blessing, shall not be spoken in
   vain, but shall certainly accomplish the end for which He has sent it
   (Isaiah 55:10, 11) This promise, together with the experience of its
   truth in our own case, and our knowledge of its uniform effects in
   every age and country where the doctrine of the cross has been
   preached, encourages ministers to persevere in publishing the glad
   tidings, in defiance of all the opposition and disappointments we meet
   with.

   We lament, but cannot wonder, that the Gospel is so generally
   neglected. As a dispensation of grace, it offends the pride of man; as
   a dispensation of holiness, it contradicts his desires and passions.
   His spirit is degraded, his heart is pre-engaged, he loves the present
   world, and has no more taste or inclination for a life of communion
   with God here, and such a heaven as the Scripture proposes hereafter,
   than the beasts of the field. But the LORD has said, I will work, and
   who shall let it? I act and who can reverse it? (Isaiah 43:13 KJV &
   NASV) When He is pleased to clothe the Word preached, with the
   influence of the Holy Spirit, and to apply it to the conscience, it is
   quick, powerful, penetrating, and irresistible as lightening; it
   conveys a voice, which the deaf, yea, the dead, must hear; it forces a
   light upon the mind which cannot be evaded. Then things are seen as
   they are. The nature and desert of sin is apprehended, and then the
   Gospel is found to be the only balm for a distressed and wounded
   conscience. Therefore having the Lord's command and promise, we are not
   to be discouraged by the carelessness or obstinacy of those who know
   not what they do. We are aware of the difficulty, yea the impossibility
   of succeeding in our endeavour to save the souls of our hearers, if we
   had only to depend upon our own arguments or earnestness. We are not to
   reason, but to obey. Our business is to deliver our message, and in our
   happier moments to water it with our prayers and tears. When we have
   done this we can do no more. The event must be left with Him in whose
   Name we speak.

   We must not suppress nor disguise what we are commanded to declare; nor
   wilfully make any additions of our own, to accommodate it to the taste
   or prejudice of our hearers (II Corinthians 4:2) . Let those preach
   smooth things who will venture to answer, at the great tribunal, for
   the souls that have miscarried under their ministry, we dare not. Let
   those be ashamed of the Gospel of Christ (Romans 1:16) , who feel no
   obligations to Him for His dying love; we cannot, and by the grace of
   God, we will not. We will glory in it. God forbid that we should glory
   in anything else! (Galatians 6:14) Like Ezekiel, we are commanded to
   preach and prophecy to dry bones, and He who sends us can cause the dry
   bones to live. O ye dry bones, hear the Word of the LORD (Ezekiel 37:4)
   The Word of His Salvation is sent to you. The Lord is risen indeed!
   Arise, shine, for your light is come. In His name we proclaim pardon
   and peace to all who will seek Him. But seek Him to day, while it is
   called today, tomorrow is not yours. Seek Him now, while He may be
   found. Harden not your hearts. Tremble lest, a promise being left us of
   entering into His rest, any of you should finally come short of it
   (Hebrews 4:1)

   ---- O ----
     __________________________________________________________________

   Sermon VIII

   The Sun Rising upon a Dark World

   Isaiah 9:2

   The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light:

   they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon then hath the
   light shined.

   C ontrasts are suited to illustrate and strengthen the impression of
   each other. The happiness of those, who by faith in MESSIAH, are
   brought into a state of peace, liberty, and comfort, is greatly
   enhanced and heightened by the consideration of that previous state of
   misery in which they once lived, and of the greater misery to which
   they were justly exposed. They are not only made meet to be partakers
   of the inheritance of the saints in light (Colossians 1:12, 13) , but
   they have been delivered from the powers of darkness. Thus while they
   have communion with God as a Father, they contemplate their privilege
   with a greater pleasure, than they probably could do if they had never
   known a difference. They remember a time when they were afar off,
   without hope and without God in the world; and they remember how
   carelessly they then trifled upon the brink of destruction. In this
   deplorable and dangerous situation they were found of the LORD , when
   they sought Him not (Isaiah 65:1) He convinced, humbled, and pardoned
   them, brought them near to Himself, into a state of adoption and
   communion by the blood of Jesus. The admiration, gratitude, and love
   which they feel for this undeserved grace, gives them a more lively
   sense of the blessings they enjoy. Yea, the thought of what they have
   redeemed from (of which they will then have a much clearer perception
   than at present) will add to their joys in Heaven, and inspire such a
   song of praise as will be peculiar to themselves, and in which the holy
   angels, who never felt the stings of guilt, nor tasted the sweetness of
   pardoning mercy, will not be able to join them. They are accordingly
   represented, in the prophetical vision, as standing nearest to the
   Throne, and uniting in the noblest strains of praise to Him who sitteth
   upon it (Revelation 5:9-12) , while the surrounding angels can only
   take part in the chorus, and admire and adore, when they behold the
   brightest displays of the glory of the wonder-working God, manifested
   in His love to worthless, helpless sinners. These opposite ideas are
   joined in my text. The people who are spoken of as rejoicing in a great
   light, were, till this light arose and shone upon them, in darkness ;
   walking, sitting, living in darkness, and in the land of the shadow or
   death. That this passage refers to MESSIAH, we have direct proof. The
   evangelist refers it expressly to Him (Matthew 4:15, 16) , and points
   out the time and manner of its literal accomplishment. I shall first
   consider the literal sense and completion of the prophecy, and then
   show how fitly it applies to the state of mankind at large, and to the
   happy effects of the Gospel of Salvation; which, by the blessing of
   God, has been the instrument of bringing multitudes of many nations,
   peoples, and languages, out of a state of gross darkness, into
   marvellous light (I Peter 2:9 ).

   I.

   Hebrew words (like many in our own language) have often more than one
   signification. But only one sense can be expressed in a version. And
   therefore interpreters and translators frequently differ. Which of the
   different words, used to express the meaning of the same original term,
   is most happily chosen, may be sometimes decided by the context. The
   two words, in the first verse of this chapter, rendered lightly
   afflicted and grievously afflicted , signify likewise, the one to think
   lightly of, to account vile; and the other, to honour, to render
   honourable and glorious. Both these words occur in one verse, and are
   used in these senses, in the LORD 's message to Eli, Them that honour
   me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed (I
   Samuel 2:30) . Had the same words been thus rendered in the passage
   before us, the sense of both verses would, I think, have been more
   plain, connected, and consistent, to the following purport, agreeable
   to the translation given by ^* Vitringa, and the present Bishop of
   London. "Nevertheless there shall not be dimness [misunderstanding -
   vagueness] as in the time of her vexation or distress. He formerly
   debased [made light or vile] the land of Zebulon and Naphtali, but in
   the latter time He made it glorious, even the land by the way of the
   sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles. For the people that walked
   in darkness have seen a great light, etc." --Such was the afflicted and
   low state of Galilee, previous to the coming of MESSIAH; such was the
   exaltation and honour it derived from His appearance.

   ^* Vitringa Campegius (the Elder) - Dutch Christian Hebraist (1669 -
   1722)

   (1.)

   The land allotted to the tribes of Issachar, Zebulon, and Naphtali, was
   chiefly included in the province, which, upon a subsequent division of
   the country, obtained the name of Galilee. The northern part of it, the
   inheritance of Naphtali, was the boundary or frontier towards Syria,
   and had been frequently vexed and afflicted, when the sins if Israel
   brought the armies of their enemies upon them, as frontier countries
   usually suffer most in times of invasion and war. Particularly this
   part of the land, called Galilee of the Gentiles, was the first, and
   most immediately exposed to the ravages of Tiglath-Pileser and
   Sennacherib. And as the people there were more mixed with foreigners,
   and at the greatest distance from the capital, Jerusalem, on these
   accounts, Galilee was lightly esteemed by the Jews themselves. They
   thought no prophet could arise in Galilee (John 7:52) It even
   prejudiced Nathanael against the first report he received of Jesus as
   MESSIAH, that He lived, and was generally supposed (by those who were
   content to be governed by popular rumour, without enquiring attentively
   for themselves ) to have been born in Galilee. He asked , with an
   appearance of surprise , Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? (John
   1:46) They [The Galileans] were accounted a rude, unpolished,
   provincial people. And therefore, when Peter would have denied any
   acquaintance with his Lord, he was discovered to be a Galilean (Mark
   14:70) by his dialect and manner of speech.

   (2.)

   This despised and least valued part of the land of Israel, was the
   principal scene of MESSIAH'S life and ministry. Insomuch, that, as I
   have observed, He was supposed to have been born there. A mistake which
   His enemies industriously supported and made the most of; for those who
   could persuade themselves that it was so in fact, would think
   themselves justified in rejecting His claim. It being one undeniable
   mark of MESSIAH, given by the prophet Micah, that He was born in
   Bethlehem of Judah (Micah 5:2) He was, however, brought up at Nazareth,
   and lived for a time in Capernaum, towns in Galilee; but both of so
   little repute, that had they not been connected with His history, it is
   not probable that their names would have been transmitted to posterity.

   (3.)

   By His residence there, Galilee was honoured and ennobled. He Himself
   declared, that on this account, Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum
   (though probably none of them were more than inconsiderable fishing
   towns) were exalted even to heaven (Matthew 11: 21-23) Those were
   highly privileged places which our Lord condescended to visit in
   person; so, likewise, are those places where He is pleased to send His
   Gospel. I have observed formerly, and I make no apology for repeating a
   truth so very important, and so little attended to, that the glorious
   Gospel of the blessed God (I Timothy 1:11) , when faithfully preached,
   and thankfully received and improved [used to good purpose], renders an
   obscure village more honourable, and of more real consequence, than the
   metropolis of a great empire, where this light shineth not. For what
   are the dark places of the earth (Psalm 74:20) , however celebrated for
   numbers and opulence, for the monuments of ambition and arts, but
   habitations of cruelty, infatuation, and misery!

   (4.)

   Though Galilee was favoured with the Scripture, and with synagogue
   worship; and the inhabitants were a people who professed to know the
   God of Israel, it was a land of darkness at the time of MESSIAH'S
   appearance. Though they were not idolaters, ignorance prevailed among
   them. The Law and the Prophets were read in the synagogues; but we may
   believe to little good purpose, while they were under the direction of
   perverse teachers, who substituted the traditions of men for the
   commands of God. The single circumstance of keeping herds of swine, as
   the Gadarenes did, seems a proof, that the law of Moses was but little
   regarded by them. They, as well as the people of Judea, were under the
   guidance of the Scribes and Pharisees in their religious concerns, who
   were, if I may use a modern phrase, the clergy of that time; and these,
   we are assured by Him who knew their hearts, were generally corrupted;
   blind, leaders of the blind. Yet they were held in ignorant admiration,
   and implicitly submitted to. From the character of the public ministers
   of religion, we may, without great danger of mistake, infer the
   character of the people who are pleased and satisfied with their
   ministrations. As the disciple cannot, ordinarily, be expected to be
   superior to his Master (Luke 6:40) ; the religion of the Scribes may be
   taken as a standard of that of the Galileans, who were instructed by
   them. Yet these were the people among whom MESSIAH chiefly conversed;
   so that His enemies styled Him a Galilean and a Nazarene, as a mark of
   reproach and contempt. Many of His apostles --perhaps most of them were
   Galileans likewise. He seeth not as men seeth (I Samuel 16:7) . The
   most of His immediate followers while upon earth, were such as men
   despised, on account of their situation, rank, or callings; publicans
   and sinners, fishermen and Galileans. This was, among other reasons,
   for the encouragement of the poor, the destitute, the despised, the
   miserable, and the guilty, in succeeding ages, who should desire to put
   their trust in His name, and to implore His mercy. To those who
   received Him, He was the light, the true light; He relieved them from
   the ignorance, wickedness, and distress in which He found them. They,
   on their parts, bore testimony to Him. They saw and acknowledged His
   glory. They felt His power, and devoted themselves to His service. Thus
   much for the literal sense.

   II.

   But this prophecy is not to be restrained to the first and more
   immediate season of its accomplishment. The LORD speaks thus of MESSIAH
   in another place, It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant
   to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of
   Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou
   mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth (Isaiah 49:6) . And
   there are many declarations of a like import. He is still the light of
   the world (John 8:12) , though no longer visible and conversant with
   men. By the influence and power of His Spirit, He is still present
   wherever His Gospel is known. This, His Word of grace and truth, He
   sends where He pleases, and with a discrimination, not unlike that
   which He observed when He was upon earth. The Gospel is preached to the
   poor. Courts and palaces are seldom favoured with it. While He passes
   by many great cities, many habitations of the wise and wealthy, He is
   known in villages and cottages. His condescension and favour to those
   who are unnoticed by the world, cannot be too highly extolled. That the
   others are excluded from the same benefits, is more properly ascribed
   to their obstinacy than to His will. They exclude themselves. He stands
   at the door and knocks (Revelation 3:20) His Word is within their
   reach, His ministers are within their call. They might easily enjoy
   every mean [resource] and help which the Gospel provides for sinners if
   they pleased, but they do not please. They are either engaged in a
   round of sensual pleasure, or engrossed by studies and pursuits, which
   possess their hearts, and fill up their thoughts and time, so that they
   have neither leisure nor inclination to attend to the things which
   pertain to their peace. Instead of inviting His Gospel to them, they
   too frequently employ their power and influence to discountenance, and
   if possible, to suppress it. They have their choice. The great and the
   gay will not receive His message; it is therefore sent to the poor, and
   to the wretched, and they will hear it. Yet as He visited Jerusalem in
   person, and taught there, so London likewise is favoured with the light
   of His Gospel. But alas, How few believe the report? They who do,
   experience the change described in my text. Their darkness is changed
   into marvellous light.

   Mankind, until enlightened by the Word and Spirit of grace, is truly in
   a state of darkness. Thick darkness is a veil which conceals from us,
   not only distant, but the nearest objects. A man in the dark cannot
   perceive either friend or enemy; he may be in great danger, yet think
   himself in safety; or, if he thinks himself in danger, be unable to
   take any step for his preservation, from a want of light. Thus, though
   God be our Maker and Preserver, though in Him we live and move and have
   our being , though we are surrounded with His presence, and proofs of
   His wisdom and goodness are before us wherever we turn our eyes; yet we
   live without Him in the world. Equally ignorant we are of ourselves, of
   the proper happiness of our nature, or how it is to be attained. We
   know neither the cause, nor the cure, nor the consequences of our
   tendency to cleave to the dust, and of placing our affection on
   inadequate and unsatisfying objects.

   And if we suppose a person awakened to a conviction of the evil of sin,
   and to understand that nothing less than the favour of God can make a
   rational and immortal creature happy, still without the Gospel he would
   be in darkness and the shadow of death. His case may be compared to
   that of a person shipwrecked upon some desert, inhospitable coast,
   suffering great horrors and anxiety, from his exposedness to perish by
   hunger, by enemies, or wild beasts --who, if he saw, at no very great
   distance, an island, and was, by some means, informed and assured that
   island was the seat of safety, plenty, and pleasure; and that if he was
   once there , his dangers would all cease, and his utmost wishes be
   satisfied; still, if there were neither bridge, nor boat, nor any means
   by which he might arrive thither, to know that happiness was so near
   him, yet inaccessible to him, would but aggravate his misery, and make
   his despair more emphatically pungent. Miserable, indeed, must we be,
   if we clearly perceived that only He, whose creatures we are, can make
   us happy; and that as sinners we have forfeited His favour, and are
   utterly incapable of regaining it, if we were left under these views
   without any hope of relief. Such must have been our situation sooner or
   later, if God who is rich in mercy, had not Himself provided the means
   of reconciliation. For though a hope of pardon is easily taken up by
   those who are ignorant of the holiness of God and the malignity of sin,
   yet nothing but a declaration from Himself, that there is forgiveness
   with Him, can give peace to a truly awakened conscience.

   But Jesus dispels this darkness, and brings life and immortality to
   light by the Gospel. For,

   (1.)

   The office and agency of the Holy Spirit, so absolutely necessary to
   make us duly sensible, either of our danger, or of the possibility of
   escaping it, is entirely the effect if His mediation. The soul of man,
   originally formed to be the temple of the living God, when defiled by
   sin, was justly forsaken by its great Inhabitant; and since the Fall,
   answers the prophetical description given of Babylon. It is become the
   habitation of devils, the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of
   every unclean and hateful bird (Revelation 18:2) If we ask, as with
   good reason we may, How can the wise and holy God, who is of purer eyes
   than to behold iniquity, and with whom evil cannot dwell, return to His
   sanctuary thus polluted and profaned? an answer is afforded in that
   gracious promise, I will sprinkle clean water upon you and you shall be
   clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I
   cleanse you; and I will take away the stony heart, and will give you an
   heart of flesh, and (in order to do this) I will put My Spirit within
   you (Ezekiel 36: 25, 26) But the source of this mercy is His sovereign
   love and purpose, to give the seed of the woman, His only Son, to be
   the Mediator of sinners. By His atonement to be manifested in due time,
   but which had a virtual influence from the beginning, the Holy Spirit
   returned to dwell with men.

   (2.)

   His obedience unto death, when revealed by the Holy Spirit to the
   enlightened conscience, affords a clear and satisfactory discovery of
   reconciliation with God: it shows that on His part, every hindrance to
   the free exercise of mercy is thereby removed, the honour of His law
   vindicated, and the demands of His justice answered. On our parts, by
   opening a door of hope, it removes that enmity and obduracy [hardness]
   of heart which are nourished by a consciousness of guilt, and a secret
   foreboding of deserved punishment. But when the dignity of the
   Redeemer's person, the causes, nature, and design of His sufferings are
   understood, emotions of admiration, love, and gratitude, till then
   unknown, are felt, and obstinate sinners are made a willing people in
   this day of divine power.

   (3.)

   The doctrine of the cross pours a light upon every subject and
   circumstance in which we are concerned. It enlarges the mind , and
   forms the judgment and taste, agreeable to the standard of truth, and
   the real nature of things. It rectifies those prejudices and
   prepossessions which dispose us to mistake good for evil, and evil for
   good (Isaiah 5:20) , to pursue trifles with earnestness , and to trifle
   with things of the greatest importance In Jesus Christ crucified, all
   the treasures of wisdom and knowledge , are, at once, both hidden and
   exhibited. The holy angels, whose knowledge of the wonders in creation,
   without doubt, greatly surpasses our conceptions, incessantly
   contemplate this Object with delight, as affording the brightest
   displays of the manifold wisdom of God (Ephesians 3:10) It is
   especially the fountain of wisdom to sinners. They look unto Him and
   are enlightened. The slight and partial thoughts they once entertained
   of the great God, the mistaken judgment they formed of themselves, of
   their state and their conduct, are corrected by their knowledge of the
   cross; from thence they derive a solid hope, a humble spirit, just
   views of their duty and obligations, and motives and prospects which
   animate them in a course of cheerful, persevering obedience to the will
   of God.

   (4.)

   In this way, God, as revealed in Christ, is apprehended and chosen, as
   the chief and proper good of the soul. Thus the poor are enriched with
   the pearl of great price, and the weary obtain rest. The mind, no
   longer burdened with anxiety, nor mortified with a succession of
   disappointments, which attended the vain pursuit of happiness in
   earthly things, possesses present peace, and rejoices in the
   expectation of future glory. It is released from the slavery of hewing
   out broken cisterns, and introduced to the fountain of living waters.
   Or, to close with the beautiful image in my text, The people who once
   walked in darkness and the region of the shadow of death, are
   translated into the Kingdom of life and salvation (Colossian 1:13)

   How greatly are they to be pitied who reject the light of the Gospel!
   It is true, they cannot see it; but it is equally true, they will not.
   But may I not hope, that this is a day of divine power, in which some
   of you shall be made a willing people. Do not reason against your own
   life, but repent and believe the Gospel. The light shines around you;
   whether you perceive it or not; and has an efficacy to open the eyes of
   the blind. Where the Gospel is preached the Lord is present. If you
   call upon Him He will hear, and you shall receive your sight. If the
   grace and the glory of the Saviour have hitherto made no impression
   upon your heart, you are spiritually blind. Could you be sensible of
   your disorder, the remedy is at hand. If now at last you are willing to
   seek Him, He will be found of you. But if you deliberately prefer
   darkness, your state is awfully dangerous; and if you persist in your
   obstinacy, your ruin is unavoidable. God is gracious and
   long-suffering, but He will not be mocked (Galatians 6:7) Humble
   yourself at once and implore His mercy, or else prepare to meet Him in
   judgment. But be assured He will not meet you as a man. You must either
   bend or break. The Lord forbid that He should say to any of you, Depart
   from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire!

   ---- O ----
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   Sermon IX

   Characters and Names of Messiah

   Isaiah 9:6

   For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given:

   and the government shall be upon his shoulder:

   and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor,

   The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

   S uch was the triumphant exultation of the Old Testament Church! Their
   noblest hopes were founded upon the promise of MESSIAH; their most
   sublime songs were derived from the prospect of His Advent. By faith,
   which is the substance of things hoped for, they considered the
   gracious declarations of the faithful unchangeable God as already
   accomplished, though the actual performance respected a period, as yet,
   future and distant. Especially, as believers, under that dispensation,
   already felt the influence of the redemption which MESSIAH was to
   consummate in the fulness of time. It was the knowledge of His
   engagement on the behalf of sinners, that gave life and significance to
   all the institutions of the ceremonial law which otherwise, though of
   divine appointment, would have been a heavy and burdensome yoke (Acts
   15:10) Isaiah therefore prepares his joyful song for the true servants
   of God, who lived in his time; and though it was a day of trial and
   rebuke, they were provided with a sufficient compensation for all their
   sufferings, in being warranted to say, Unto us a child is born, unto us
   a son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulder, etc.

   This ancient song is still new. It has been, and will be taken up from
   age to age, by the New Testament Church, with superior advantage. I
   trust many of you understand it well, and rejoice in it daily. Men
   naturally look for something wherein to rejoice and glory. Little
   reason have the wise (Jeremiah 9:23) to glory in their supposed wisdom,
   or the strong in their fading strength, or the rich in their transitory
   wealth; but this is a just and unfailing ground of glory to true
   Christians, that Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given, etc.

   When a sinner is enlightened by the Holy Spirit, to understand the
   character and offices of MESSIAH, to understand His ability to save
   those who are ready to perish, and the happiness of all who are brought
   into subjection to His gracious government; and when he begins to feel
   the cheering effects of faith in His name, then this song becomes his
   own, and exactly suits the emotions and gratitude of his heart. But
   many persons will despise and pity him as a weak enthusiast [fanatic] .
   And yet, perhaps, they do not think so unfavourably of the rapture of
   Archimedes, of whom it is related, that having suddenly discovered the
   solution of a difficult problem while he was bathing, he was so
   transported with joy, that he forgot his situation, sprung instantly
   from the bath, and ran through the city crying, "I have found it! I
   have found it!" He is not usually charged with madness on this account,
   though the expression of his joy was certainly over-proportioned to the
   cause. The truth is, the world will allow of a vehemence approaching
   ecstasy on almost any occasion, but on that alone, which, above all
   others, will justify it. A person who would be thought destitute of
   taste, if he was unaffected by the music to which this passage is set,
   would, at the same time hazard his reputation for good sense, with some
   judges, if he owned himself affected by the plain meaning of the words.
   Incompetent judges surely! who are pleased to approve of warmth and
   emotion of spirit, provided the object be trivial, and only condemn it
   in concerns of the greatest importance! But, I trust, the character of
   my audience is very different, and that the most of you desire to enter
   into the spirit of this passage, and to have a more lively sense of
   your own interests in it. May the Lord grant your desire, and accompany
   our meditations upon it with His power and blessing!

   Every clause in this passage might furnish subject for a long
   discourse; but my plan will only permit me briefly to touch upon the
   several particulars, which will lead to a recapitulation or summary of
   what has already been considered more largely concerning the Person,
   Offices, and Glory of MESSIAH. We have,

   I.

   His incarnation. Unto us a child is born. In our nature, born of a
   woman: Unto us a son is given, not merely a man-child, but,
   emphatically, a Son, the Son of God. This was the most precious gift,
   the highest proof and testimony of divine love. The distinction and
   union of these widely distant natures, which constitute the Person of
   Christ, the God-man, the Mediator, is, in the judgment and language of
   the Apostle, the great mystery of godliness (I Timothy 3:16) , the
   pillar and ground of truth. I shall not repeat what I have already
   offered on this point in the fifth sermon. It is the central truth of
   revelation, which, like the sun, diffuses a light upon the whole
   system, no part of which can be rightly understood without it. Thus the
   Lord of all humbled Himself, to appear in the form of a servant, for
   the sake of sinners.

   II.

   His exaltation. The government shall be upon His shoulder. In our
   nature He suffered, and in the same nature He reigns. When He had
   overcome the sharpness, the sting of death, He took possession of the
   kingdom of glory as His own, and opened it to all who believe in Him.
   Now we can say, He who governs in heaven and on earth, and whom all
   things obey, is the Child who was born, the Son who was given for us.
   Some subsequent passages will lead us, hereafter, to contemplate more
   directly the glory of the Redeemer's administration in the kingdoms of
   providence and grace. At present, therefore, I shall only observe, that
   the exaltation of the Redeemer, infers the dignity and security of the
   people who are united to Him by faith. They have, in one respect, an
   appropriate honour, in which the angels cannot share. Their best
   friend, related to them in the same nature, is seated upon the throne
   of glory. Since He is for them, who can be against them? What may they
   not expect, when He who has so loved them as to redeem them with His
   own blood, has all power committed to Him, both in heaven and on earth!
   For,

   III.

   The names and characters here ascribed to Him, are not only expressive
   of what He is in Himself, but of what He is engaged to be to them.

   (1.)

   His name shall be called Wonderful. In another place the word is
   rendered Secret (Judges 13:8) . It is true of Him in both senses. He is
   Wonderful in His person, obedience, and sufferings; in His grace,
   government, and glory. So far as we understand His name, the revelation
   by which, as by a name, He is made known, we may, we must, believe,
   admire, and adore. But how limited and defective is our knowledge! His
   name is Secret. Who can by searching find Him out? (Job 11:7) His
   greatness is incomprehensible, His wisdom untraceable, His fulness
   inexhaustible , His power infinite No one knoweth the Son but the
   Father! But they have a true knowledge of Him , who trust , love , and
   serve Him And in their view He is Wonderful! The Apostle expresses the
   sentiment of their hearts, when he says, Yea, doubtless, I count all
   things but loss and dung for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ
   Jesus the LORD

   (2.)

   Another of His names is Counsellor. The great councils of redemptions,
   in which, every concern respecting the glory of God, and the salvation
   of sinners, was adjusted, were established with Him, and in Him, before
   the foundation of the world. And He is our Counsellor or Advocate with
   the Father, who pleads our cause, and manages all our affairs in
   perfect righteousness, and with infallible success; so that no suit can
   possibly miscarry which He is pleased to undertake. To Him likewise we
   must apply (and we shall not apply in vain) for wisdom and direction,
   in all that belongs to our duty, and the honour of our profession in
   this present life; in all our difficulties, dangers, and cares, we must
   look to Him for guidance and support. This is to be wise unto salvation
   . His secret is with them that consult Him, so that though the world
   may deem them weak and ignorant as babes (and He teaches them to think
   thus of themselves) they have a cheering and practical knowledge of
   many important subjects, which are entirely hidden from those who are
   wise and prudent in their own eyes.

   (3.)

   He is the Mighty God. Though in the office of Mediator, He acts in the
   character of a servant, His perfections and attributes are truly
   divine. Only the mighty God, could make a provision capable of
   answering the demands of the holy law, which we had transgressed; only
   the mighty God could be a suitable Shepherd to lead millions of weak,
   helpless creatures to glory; through the many difficulties, dangers,
   and enemies they are exposed to in their passage. Add to this, the
   honour, dependence, and obedience, which this great Shepherd claims
   from His sheep, are absolute and supreme; and they would be guilty of
   idolatry, if they did not know the He is the mighty God. Though real
   Christians, who are enlightened and taught by the Holy Spirit may, and
   do, differ in their views and explanations of some revealed truths, I
   conceive they must be all agreed on this point. It is not only
   necessary to be known as the only solid foundation of a sinner's hope,
   but it immediately respects the object of divine worship. For if the
   Redeemer is not possessed of the incommunicable perfections of Deity,
   the New Testament in its most obvious and literal signification, would
   be chargeable, not only with countenancing, but with expressly teaching
   and enjoining idolatry.

   (4.)

   Farther, He shall be called the Everlasting Father. He is not ashamed
   to call them brethren (Hebrews 2:11) , having condescended to assume
   their human nature. But they are also called His children. They are
   born into His family by the efficacy of His own Word and Spirit. From
   Him they derive their spiritual life, and receiving from first to last
   out of His fulness. And He is an everlasting Father. Our fathers,
   according to the flesh, are subject to death; but His relation to them
   subsists unshakeably, and therefore they cannot be destitute; and He is
   thus, equally to them all. They live upon the earth, and are removed
   from it, in a long succession of ages; but He is the Father of the
   everlasting age, the same yesterday, today, and for ever. All
   generations shall call Him blessed. To Him, therefore the Apostle
   teaches us to apply that sublime passage of the Psalmist, Thou, LORD ,
   in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens
   are the work of Thy hands (Psalm 102:25-27) They shall perish, but Thou
   remainest; and they shall wax old as doth a garment; and as a vesture
   shalt Thou fold them up, and they shall be changed; but Thou art the
   same, and Thy years shall not fail (Heb. 1:10-12)

   (5.)

   Lastly, He shall be called the Prince of Peace , whose sovereign
   prerogative it is, to speak peace to His people (Psalm 85:8) And there
   is no peace, deserving the name, but that which He bestows. The
   Scripture expressly declares, There is no peace to the wicked (Isaiah
   57:21) By whatever name we call that thoughtless security and
   insensibility, in which mankind generally live, while ignorant of God
   and of the themselves, we cannot allow it to be peace. It is the effect
   of blindness and hardness of heart; it will neither bear reflection nor
   examination. Can they be said to posses peace, however fatally
   regardless they may be of futurity, who are at present under dominion
   of restless, insatiable, and inconsistent passions and appetites? But
   the Kingdom of MESSIAH is a Kingdom of Peace, and in Him, His happy
   subjects enjoy a peace which passeth all understanding (Philippians
   4:7) , such as the world can neither give nor take away. He has made
   peace by the blood of His cross (Colossians 1:20) , for all that come
   unto God by Him. Until they are in trouble and distress; until they
   feel the bitterness, and fear the consequences of their sins, and see
   the impossibility of helping themselves, they will not apply to Him;
   but whenever they do seek Him, thus weary and heavy laden, He hears
   their prayer. Their minds, for a season, are like the sea in a storm,
   they are distressed with guilt, fears, and temptations; but when He
   reveals His mighty name, and boundless grace to their hearts, and says,
   Peace be still (Mark 4:39) , there is a great calm. Being justified by
   faith, they have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ. He
   gives them peace likewise in a changing troublesome world; by inviting,
   and enabling them to cast all their cares upon Him, and to trust all
   their concerns in His hands, upon the assurance His Word gives them,
   that He cares for them, and will manage and control everything for
   their good. In proportion as their faith realizes His promises, they
   feel a composure and satisfaction. Knowing that the hairs of their head
   are numbered, that their afflictions, no less than their comforts, are
   tokens of His love, that He will give them strength according to their
   day, that He will be their guide and their guard even unto death ; they
   are not greatly moved by any events, or disturbed by apprehensions,
   because their hearts are fixed (Psalm 112:7) , trusting in the Lord.

   Farther, He teaches them (what can only be learnt of Him) how to seek
   and maintain peace among men. His love subdues the power of self, and
   forms them to a spirit of philanthropy and benevolence, which has often
   such an effect, that they who dislike them for their attachment to Him
   and to His precepts, and would willingly speak evil of them, are
   ashamed, and put to silence, by their perseverance in well-doing. Thus
   their peace increases as a river, which runs with a deeper and a
   broader stream as it approaches the ocean. For their peace is then
   strongest and most unshaken when they draw near to death, and are upon
   the point of resigning their souls into His hands. This is the time,
   when, if not before, the false peace of the worldling will give way to
   terror and dismay. But mark the perfect man, and behold the upright,
   for the end of that man is peace (Psalm 37:37) . It must be allowed,
   that many of His people, through the power of temptation and remaining
   unbelief, have, at some seasons, uncomfortable fears concerning a dying
   hour; but when the time of their dismission actually arrives, we seldom
   see them afraid of the summons.

   There is a strength necessary to support the soul at the approach of
   death, which is usually withheld till the time of need. But then it is
   vouchsafed [graciously given] . They who have frequently access to the
   beds of dying believers, can bear testimony, as eye-witnesses, to the
   faithfulness of their Lord. How often have we seen them triumphing in
   the prospect of immortality! as happy, in defiance of pain and
   sickness, as we can well conceive it possible to be, while in the body,
   and as sure of Heaven, as if they were already before the Throne.

   Such is the character of MESSIAH! This is the God whom we adore; our
   almighty unchangeable Friend! His greatness and goodness, His glory and
   His grace, when once known, fix the heart no more to rove; and fill it
   with admiration, gratitude, and desire. From hence spring a cheerful,
   unreserved obedience to His commands, and a deliberate voluntary
   submission to His holy will. For His people do not serve him, or yield
   to Him by constraint; at least, it is only the pleasing constraint of
   love, which makes their duty their delight; and their burden and grief
   is, that they can serve Him no better.

   May we be all thus minded. I dare not hope it is so with us all at
   present. But this is the day of His grace. For this cause He came into
   the world, that He might draw many hearts to Himself (John 12:32) And
   for this purpose He favours us with His Gospel, by which He still says,
   Look unto me and be ye saved (Isaiah 45:22) ; Come unto me, and I will
   give you rest (Matthew 11:28) . To be found among His faithful
   followers, in the great day when He shall come to judge the world, is
   the one thing, which, above all others, deserves our solicitude.

   Hear then His voice today. Perhaps you are apprised of the necessity of
   a change of heart and life, at some future period, in order to die
   safely. Such a change is equally necessary, if you wish to live
   comfortably. While you are unfit to die, you can have no true enjoyment
   of life. It were easy to prove at large, that procrastination is highly
   dangerous. Admitting, that according to your present feelings, you
   really think yourself determined to seek the Lord at some future time,
   do you consider how many uncertainties you presume upon? Are you sure
   that you shall not be suddenly cut off, by an unexpected and
   unthought-of stroke; or visited by a fever, which may quickly bring you
   into a state of delirium or stupefaction, and render your projected
   repentance impracticable? yea, it will in any circumstances be
   impracticable, unless God is pleased to influence your mind by His good
   Spirit. If you grieve this Spirit now, by resisting His operations,
   what reason have you to expect that He will then return? Do we not see
   many instances of what the poet, with great propriety, calls, ^* a slow
   sudden death? How many people, while pining away under the power of
   incurable disease, amuse themselves with the hope of recovery to the
   last gasp; and though their acquaintances read death in their
   countenance for weeks or months, in defiance of such repeated and
   long-continued warnings, they die as suddenly, with respect to their
   own apprehensions, as if killed by lightning. Tremble lest such be your
   last end, if you trifle with God, who now calls you, by His Gospel, to
   seek Him today, while it is called today.

   ^* "The Complaint - or Night Thoughts on Life, Death, and Immortality"
   by Edward Young (1856)

   But I would lead you to consider your delay, not only as dangerous, but
   as unreasonable. Why are you afraid of being happy too soon? What
   strange and hard thought have you of God, if you suppose you can find
   more pleasure in living, according to your own wills, than in obedience
   to His commands! Can the world give you such peace and satisfaction as
   I have attempted to describe? Do you think a real persuasion that God
   is your Friend, and that Heaven will be your home, will spoil the
   relish of your earthly enjoyments, or make your lives uncomfortable?
   What hard thing does the Lord require of you, that you are so unwilling
   to comply? If we set aside, for a moment, the consideration of a future
   state, and a final judgment, yet even in a temporal view you would be a
   great gainer, if your spirit and your conduct were regulated by the
   Gospel. What heart-breaking troubles, what losses, contests, pains of
   body, and remorse of conscience, would some of you have avoided, if you
   had believed and obeyed the Word of God! What distresses may your
   head-strong passions soon plunge you into, if you presume to go on in
   your sins! For that the way of transgressors is hard, is not only
   declared in Scripture, but proved by the history and observation of
   every day.

   Forsake the foolish, therefore, and live. And while the door of mercy
   is still open before you, pray to Him who is able to bless you, indeed,
   by delivering you from the guilt, and from the power of your
   iniquities. Lest, if being often reproved , and still hardening your
   hearts, you should suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy
   (Proverbs 29:1)

   ---- O ----
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   Sermon X

   The Angel's Message and Song

   Luke 2:8-14

   And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field,
   keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the LORD
   came upon them, and the glory of the LORD shone round about them: and
   they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for,
   behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all
   people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour,
   which is Christ the LORD . And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall
   find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And
   suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host
   praising God, and saying,

   Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

   T he gratification of the Great, the Weakly, and the Gay, was chiefly
   consulted in the late ^* exhibitions in Westminster Abbey. But
   notwithstanding the expense of the preparations, and the splendid
   appearance of the auditory, I may take it for granted, that the
   shepherds who were honoured with the first information of the birth of
   MESSIAH, enjoyed at free cost, a much more sublime and delightful
   entertainment. How poor and trivial is the most studied magnificence
   and brilliance of an earthly court, compared with the effulgence of
   glory which surrounded the shepherds? ^* a reference to the performance
   of Handel's MESSIAH Oratorio at Westminster Abbey

   The performers of that Oratorio , if I may be allowed the expression,
   were a multitude of the heavenly host. And though I do not suppose that
   the angel delivered his message in the cadence which we call
   Recitative, I have no doubt but the chorus was a Song, sweetly
   melodious as from blest voices. A song which the redeemed and the
   angels of the Lord, are still singing before the Throne. A new song
   (Revelation 5:9) -- a song which will always be new. We are made
   acquainted with the subject, yea, with the very words of this song. May
   our hearts be suitably affected by the consideration of them today! The
   melody and harmony of heaven are far above our conceptions. The music
   of that happy land has no dependence upon the vibrations of the air, or
   the admirable structure of the human ear. But we have reason to
   believe, there is, in the world of light and love, something analogous
   to what we call music, though different in kind, and vastly superior in
   effect, to any strains that can be produced by the most exquisite
   voices, or instruments upon earth; as we readily judge the glory of an
   angel to be unspeakably more excellent, both in kind and in degree,
   than anything that is deemed glorious among mortals. To consider this
   passage at large would require many discourses. I shall confine myself
   at present to a few brief reflections, on the circumstances of this
   heavenly vision, the message of the angel, and the concluding chorus or
   song.

   I.

   The circumstances:

   (1.) Lo, an angel came upon them, etc. Suddenly, when they had no
   expectation of such a visit, without any thing that might previously
   engage their attention, all at once, like a flash of lightning, a glory
   shone around them, and an angel appeared. We do not wonder that they
   were impressed with fear. We live near, perhaps, in the midst of, an
   invisible world, full of great and wonderful realities, which, yet, by
   too many persons, are considered and treated as nonentities, because
   they are not perceived by our bodily senses. But the Scripture assures
   us of the fact; and to reject this testimony, because it is not
   confirmed by our senses, is no less irrational and un-philosophical,
   than impious. A man born blind, can have no more conception of light
   and colours, than we have of what passes in the world of spirits. And a
   nation of blind men, if there were such a nation, would probably treat
   a seeing person as a visionary madman, if he spoke to them of what he
   saw. But he would be sure of his own perceptions, though he could not
   satisfy the enquiries and cavils of the blind. Our senses are
   accommodated to our present state; but there may be a multitude of
   objects, as real in themselves, and as near to us, as any that we
   behold with our eyes; of which we, for want of suitable faculties, can
   have no idea. To deny this, and make our senses the criteria of the
   existence of things, which are not within their reach, is exactly such
   an absurdity, as a blind man would be guilty of, who should deny the
   possibility of a rainbow, because he never heard of it nor felt it.
   However, Faith is the evidence of things not seen. And they who believe
   the Word of God, cannot doubt of the existence of an invisible state
   and invisible agents. The barrier between the inhabitants of that state
   and us, is too strong to be passed; for the will of the great Creator
   seems to be the barrier. Otherwise it is probable they could easily
   surprise us, since, upon special occasions, they have been permitted to
   discover themselves. We have a natural dread of such visitants, even
   though they should appear to us, as they did to the shepherds, as
   messengers of peace and mercy from God. Yet we must shortly mingle with
   them. Death will introduce us to the world of spirits; and who can say
   what we shall meet with then? what Beings will be ready to accost us
   upon our first entrance into that unknown, unchangeable state? It
   deserves our serious thought. We are now encompassed by the objects of
   sense, but we must soon be separated from them all. We live in a crowd,
   but we must die alone. Happy are they, who, like Stephen, shall be able
   to commend their parting spirits into the hands of Jesus! He is the
   Lord of all worlds, and has the keys of Hades, of the invisible state.

   (2.)

   The angel spoke. The Gospel was preached by an angel to Zacharias, to
   the virgin mother of MESSIAH, and now to the shepherds; and, perhaps to
   none but these. The angel who appeared to Cornelius, said nothing to
   him about Jesus, but only directed him to send for Peter (Acts 10:4, 5)
   The glorious Gospel of the blessed God, with respect to its dignity,
   depth, and importance, may seem a fitter theme for the tongue of an
   angel than of a man; but angels never sinned, and though they might
   proclaim its excellence, they could not, from experience, speak of its
   efficacy. In this respect sinful worms are better qualified to preach
   to others, concerning Him by whom they have, themselves, been healed
   and saved. Their weakness, likewise, is better suited to show that the
   influence and success of the Gospel is wholly owing to the power of
   God. It has, therefore, pleased God to put this treasure into earthen
   vessels, and to commit the ministry of His Word, not to angels, but to
   men. They whom He is pleased to employ in this office, however weak and
   unworthy in themselves, derive an honour and importance from the
   message entrusted to them, and are so far worthy of the same attention,
   as if an angel from Heaven spoke. They are sinful men, and have reason
   to think humbly of themselves: nor should they, as the servants of a
   suffering, crucified Master, either wonder or complain if they meet
   with unkindness from those whom they wish to serve; but they may
   magnify their office (Romans 11:13) , and it is at the peril of their
   hearers to despise it. What the world accounts in us the foolishness of
   preaching , is made to those who simply receive it, the wisdom and
   power of God. To others, even angels would preach in vain. They who
   hear not Moses and the prophets, who submit not to the ordinary means
   of grace which God has appointed, would not be persuaded, though one
   should rise from the dead.

   (3.)

   The angel was sent with the most interesting news that could be made to
   mankind; not to Caesar, or to Herod, or to the High Priest, but to
   obscure and lowly shepherds. The LORD seeth not as man seeth --the
   petty distinctions that obtain among men are not regarded by Him. He is
   equally near to them that fear Him in every situation of life, as the
   sun shines, as freely and fully, upon a cottage as upon a palace. These
   shepherds were, doubtless, of the number of the happy few, who in that
   time of degeneracy, were waiting and longing for the consolation of
   Israel. The heads of the Jewish people found their consolation in their
   rank and wealth, and in the respect paid to them by the vulgar. These
   things usually add to the idea of self-importance, and feed those
   tempers that are most displeasing to the Lord, and which indispose the
   mind to the reception of the Gospel, or to any due enquiry concerning
   it. And thus, in fact, from age to age, it has generally been hidden
   from the wise and the great, and revealed unto babes. The magi, or wise
   men, who lived in the East, where the knowledge of astronomy obtained,
   but where the Scripture was not known, were guided to MESSIAH by the
   appearance of a new star, or meteor. The shepherds, who were acquainted
   with the prophecies concerning MESSIAH, were informed of their
   accomplishment [fulfillment] by an angel. Thus the Lord was pleased to
   suit the different manner of making known His will, to the previous
   situation of the persons.

   II.

   The message of the angel, though concise, was comprehensive and full.
   It contained,

   -- The fact, Unto you is born this day

   -- The place, In the city of David, that is, in Bethlehem, so called,
   because David likewise had been born there (Luke 2:4)

   -- The office of MESSIAH, A Saviour

   -- His name, honour, and character, Christ or the Anointed; The LORD ,
   the Head and King of Israel, and of the Church, the Lord of all.

   I do but recite these particulars now, as they will repeatedly offer to
   our consideration in the series of subjects before me. The description
   of the state in which they would find Him, was such, as could only be
   reconciled to His titles and honours by that simple faith, which,
   without vain reasoning, acquiesce in the declarations of God. For how
   unlikely would it seem to a merely human judgment, that the Saviour of
   sinners, the promised MESSIAH, the Lord of all, should be a babe
   wrapped in swaddling clothes, and lying in a manger.

   Yet, thus it was. Though rich in Himself, He became poor for our sakes
   (II Corinthians 8:9) . On this account, as the Scripture had foretold,
   He was despised and rejected of men. Though He came to His own, as a
   Lord or Master to His own house; yet, coming in this manner, His own
   professed servants, who pretended that they were longing and waiting
   for Him, slighted and opposed Him; preferred a notorious malefactor to
   Him, and put Him to death as an impostor and blasphemer. But the
   shepherds reasoned not through unbelief, and therefore they were not
   staggered; they obeyed the message, they went, they saw, they believed.

   The seeming repugnance between the greatness of MESSIAH'S claims, and
   the state of humiliation in which He appeared when upon earth, was the
   great stumbling-block then, and continues to be so at this day. Because
   He stooped so low, and made Himself of no reputation, too many still
   refuse to acknowledge His divine character. But they who are willing to
   be taught by the Word and Spirit of God, see a beauty and propriety in
   His submitting to be born in a stable, and to live as a poor man,
   destitute of house or property. Hereby He poured contempt upon worldly
   pomp and vanity, sanctified the state of poverty to His followers, and
   set them an encouraging example to endure it with cheerfulness. They,
   like the shepherds and His first disciples, are delivered from their
   natural prejudices, and are enabled to behold His glory, through the
   veil of His outward humiliation, as the glory of the only begotten of
   the Father. And His condescension in becoming poor for their sakes,
   that they through His poverty might be made rich, affects their hearts
   with admiration and gratitude. But though too many, who are governed by
   the spirit and maxims of this world, are far from admiring His love, in
   assuming our nature under those circumstances, which, from His infancy
   to His death, exposed Him to the contempt of His enemies, it is
   otherwise thought of in yonder world of light. For we read, that when
   the angel had declared the glad-tidings to the shepherds, a multitude
   of the heavenly host expressed their joy by a song, which is the next
   subject that offers to our consideration.

   III.

   Their highest praise was excited by a view of the effects which this
   unexampled love would produce.

   (1.)

   Glory to God in the highest. In the highest Heaven, in the highest
   degree, for this highest instance of His mercy. At the creation these
   morning-stars sang for joy (Job 38:7) But redemption was a greater work
   than they had yet seen, and a work, by which His goodness, wisdom, and
   power would be still more abundantly magnified. The glory of God, the
   exhibition of His adorable perfections, to the view of intelligent
   creatures, is the last and highest end of all His works. Nor would it
   be worthy of the infinite eternal God, in comparison with whose
   immensity, the aggregate of all created good is no more than a point
   compared with the universe, or a single ray of light compared with the
   sun, to propose anything short of His own glory, as the ultimate, final
   cause of His designs. And in proportion as any finite intelligences,
   are conformed to the will of their Creator, and impressed with a sense
   of His pre-eminence, their highest end and aim will be the same with
   His. If, therefore, we compare the glory of God and the good of His
   creatures together, we may refer to them what our Lord was pleased to
   declare of the two great commandments. The former is incomparably the
   first and greatest of His ends; the second, in its proper place and
   foundation, is like unto it, and inseparably connected with it, or
   rather derived from it. The former is, if I may so speak, the essential
   difference of the divine operations; the latter, so far as consistent
   with it, is the result of a glorious and efficacious property of His
   consummate excellence. In the redemption of fallen man, both are
   displayed to the highest advantage. Glory to God in the highest, and on
   earth, peace, good-will towards man.

   The glory of His goodness, this shines bright in the capacities and
   happiness He has communicated to angels; but it shines with greater
   brightness in the mercy afforded to mankind. Whether we consider the
   objects who are sinners, rebels, and enemies; or His purpose in their
   favour, not only to restore the life they had forfeited, but to bestow
   it more abundantly (John 10:10) , with respect to title, security, and
   honour; or, lastly, and principally, the mean [method], by which, their
   deliverance from everlasting misery, and their possession of
   everlasting happiness is procured; and which could only be procured by
   the humiliation and death of the Son of His love.

   The glory of His wisdom , in adjusting the demands of His holiness,
   justice, and truth, with the purposes of His mercy. In providing such a
   method for the exercise of His mercy, as renders His displeasure
   against sin more conspicuous by pardoning, than by punishing it. In
   abasing the sinner's pride, by the very considerations which inspire
   his hope and confidence; so that while he confesses himself unworthy of
   the very air that he breathes, he is encouraged and warranted to claim
   a participation in all the blessings of grace and glory. And finally,
   in proposing motives, which, when rightly understood, are always found
   sufficient to influence the heart, even though it has been habitually
   hardened in sin, long deaf to the voice of reason, conscience, and
   interest, and equally unaffected by the judgments and the mercies of
   God, till enlightened to perceive the excellence of the Gospel.

   The glory of His power. In making all the acts of free agents, through
   a long succession of ages, subservient to this great purpose, not
   excepting those who most laboured to obstruct it; in changing the
   disposition of the sinner, however obstinate; and in carrying on His
   work of grace, when once begun, in such feeble inconsistent creatures
   as men are; in defiance of all difficulties and opposition arising from
   within, or without.

   These are subjects which the angels desire to look into (I Peter 1:12)
   , which fill the most exalted intelligence with admiration. The glory
   of God was manifest, was celebrated in the highest heavens, when
   MESSIAH was born of a woman.

   (2.)

   The great design and effect of His appearance with regard to mankind,
   is peace. On earth peace. Man as a fallen creature is in a state of war
   and rebellion against his Maker. He has renounced his allegiance and
   dependence, is become his own end. He is now against God, disobedient
   to His laws, and disaffected to His government. And his conscience, if
   not stupefied and cauterized by frequent resistance of conviction,
   suggests that God is against him. He feels he is not happy here, he
   fears he shall be miserable hereafter. This apprehension strengthens
   his aversion from God. And, indeed, without an express assurance from
   the Lord Himself whom He has offended, that there is forgiveness with
   Him, he would not only fear, but sink into despair, if he rightly
   understood the horrid enormity of a state of alienation from the
   blessed God. But infinite wisdom and mercy have provided, and
   propounded a method, by which the honour of the divine perfections and
   government are secured, and pardon and peace vouchsafed [graciously
   granted] to rebels. God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself.
   The knowledge of this mercy, when revealed to the sinner's heart,
   subdues his enmity, constrains him to throw down his arms, and to make
   an unreserved submission and surrender of himself; forms him to a
   temper of love and confidence, and disposes him to habitual and
   cheerful obedience. Now mercy and truth are met together, righteousness
   and peace have kissed each other (Psalm 85:10) ; and God is glorified
   in the highest, for peace proclaimed upon the earth.

   The expression of good-will towards men, seems to rise upon the former.
   Not only peace, but acceptance and adoption in the Beloved. Sinners,
   who believe in the Son of God, are not merely delivered from the
   condemnation they have deserved, but are united to their Saviour;
   considered as one with Him, His children, the members of His body, and
   made partakers of His life, and His glory. God is their portion, and
   heaven is their home. The Lord's satisfaction in this, as the greatest
   of all His works, is expressed by the Prophet in such astonishing terms
   of condescension, as surpass our utmost conceptions: and we can only
   say, Lord, what is man that Thou art thus mindful of him! We believe,
   admire, and adore. The LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty: He
   will save, He will rejoice over thee with joy: He will rest in His
   love, He will rejoice over thee with singing (Zephaniah 3:17)

   Assuredly this song of the heavenly hosts is not the language of our
   hearts by nature. We once sought our pleasure and happiness in a very
   different way. We were indifferent to the glory of God, and strangers
   to His peace. And some of us are still blind to the excellencies of the
   Gospel, and deaf to its gracious invitations. But we must not expect to
   sing with the great company of the redeemed hereafter, before the
   Throne of glory, unless we learn and love their song while we are here
   (Revelation 15:3) . They who attain to the inheritance of the saints in
   light, are first made meet for it in the present life, and in this way.
   They believe the testimony of the Scripture respecting their own guilt,
   unworthiness, and helplessness; then they receive the record which God
   has given of His Son. They renounce all confidence in the flesh
   (Philippians 3:3) ; they rejoice in Christ Jesus, and from His fulness
   they derive grace to worship God in the Spirit. A sense of their
   obligations to the Saviour, disposes them to praise Him now as they can
   ; and they rejoice in hope of seeing him ere long as He is, and that
   then they shall praise Him as they ought . For heaven itself, as
   described in the Word of God, could not be a state of happiness to us,
   unless we are like-minded with the Apostle, to account all things loss
   and dung for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ our Lord

   ---- O ----
     __________________________________________________________________

   Sermon XI

   Messiah's Entrance into Jerusalem

   Zechariah 9:9, 10

   Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem:
   behold, thy King cometh unto thee: He is just, and having salvation;
   lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass. --
   And He shall speak peace unto the heathen.

   T he narrowness and littleness of the mind of fallen man are
   sufficiently conspicuous in the idea he forms of magnificence and
   grandeur. The pageantry and parade of a Roman triumph, or of an eastern
   monarch, as described in history, exhibit him to us in what, he himself
   accounts, his best estate. If you suppose him seated in an imperial
   carriage, arrayed in splendid apparel, wearing a crown or tiara,
   ornamented with jewels, preceded and followed by a long train of guards
   and attendants, surrounded by the unmeaning acclamations of ignorant
   multitudes, you see the poor worm at the summit of his happiness. He
   has no conception of anything greater than this. And the spectators are
   generally of the same mind. They admire, and they envy, his lot. And
   there is hardly a person in the crowds around him, but would be very
   glad to take his place were it practicable. Yet this great little
   creature would surely be mortified, if, in the height of his
   self-complacence, he could consider, that he had the very same regard
   for a pre-eminence in finery, the same desire to be admired and envied,
   and felt the same kind of satisfaction in distinction above his
   fellows, when he was a child ten years old. He is in effect a child
   still, only he has changed his play-things, and now acts upon a larger
   scale, but with the same trifling and contracted views.

   How different was MESSIAH'S entry into Jerusalem foretold in this
   prophecy; the accomplishment of which, we read in the Evangelists! And
   how differently was He affected by the object around Him! He poured
   contempt upon the phantom of human glory. This King of kings, and Lord
   of lords, was meek and lowly, riding upon an asses' colt (Luke 19:
   25-38) And though a secret divine influence constrained the multitude
   to acknowledge His character, and, with some accommodation to the
   customs of those times, to strew their garments in the way , as they
   proclaimed the King who came in the name of Jehovah; yet He appeared
   unmoved by their applause. Had the history of Jesus, like those which
   we have seen of Socrates or Cyrus, been merely the work of a human
   writer, ambitious to adorn a favourite character with the most splendid
   qualities of a philosopher or hero, we should never have known how His
   mind was engaged in this situation. The Saviour must be divine, His
   historian must be inspired, the fact must be true; for man could not
   have invented such a circumstance, that this meek and lowly Saviour
   took no notice of the zeal and homage of His friends, because His heart
   was filled with compassion for His enemies, who were thirsting for His
   blood. For it was then, amidst the acclamation of His disciple, that He
   beheld the city and wept over it, while He foretold the evils which the
   rejection of Him would bring upon it. Oh that thou hadst known, even
   thou, at least in this thy day, the things belonging to thy peace! But
   now they are hidden from thine eyes (Luke 19:42)

   An angel proclaimed His birth to the shepherds; and wise men from the
   East paid such attention to the new-born Saviour, that the jealousy of
   Herod was excited, and attempts were made to destroy Him. But this
   wonderful infant was brought up in a state of obscurity, in a place of
   no repute, and known by no higher description than that of The
   carpenter's son. In the course of His ministry He appeared and was
   treated as a poor man, He had no certain dwelling-place, He submitted
   to receive supplies, for His support, from the contributions of a few
   of His followers, for the most of them were poor like Himself. And
   though He wrought many wonderful works for the relief of the
   necessitous and miserable, He admitted no alteration in His own
   external state, but was content to be poor and despised, for our sakes,
   to the end of His life. I think the only occasion on which He permitted
   a public acknowledgment of His person and character, was, when He
   fulfilled this prophecy. And still He was the same meek and lowly
   Saviour. As His Kingdom was not of this world, neither were there any
   marks of human grandeur in His procession. He approached Jerusalem,
   attended, indeed, by a concourse of people, but riding upon an ass, and
   weeping for His enemies.

   The passage of the Messiah [Oratorio] which follows the chorus of the
   heavenly host, is taken from these verses. It does not include the
   whole of them. In one clause there is a small alteration in the
   expression, but it does not affect the sense. Instead of, He is just,
   having Salvation , it is, He is a righteous Saviour.

   We may notice,

   I. The prophet's address. To the daughter of Zion and Jerusalem.

   II. The exhortation to joy. Rejoice and shout.

   III. The cause assigned for this joy. Thy King cometh.

   IV. The characters of the King. A righteous Saviour.

   V. His great design. To speak peace to the heathen.

   I.

   Zion and Jerusalem, are indifferently used as emblems of the Church, or
   professing people of God. When they occur together, as here,
   contradistinguished from each other, Zion, the city of David, the seat
   of government, and of the temple-worship, may denote the principal
   persons of the ecclesiastical and civil state; and Jerusalem may be
   expressive of the people at large, the daughters of a place,
   signifying, according to the Hebrew idiom, the inhabitants. They
   boasted that they were the Lord's peculiar people, they had the
   prophecies and promises concerning MESSIAH in their hands, and were
   professedly expecting and waiting for His appearance. They are
   therefore called upon to rejoice in it. But when He actually came,
   though He came to His own, to His own nation, city, and temple; His own
   people, to whose affection and allegiance He had the most just claim,
   they received Him not (John 1:11) But there were a few who truly waited
   for Him, as the hope and consolation of Israel, at the time of His
   birth; and many more were afterwards convinced by His gracious words
   and works, that He only had the Words of eternal life, and became His
   followers.

   By their acknowledged principles, they were all bound to acknowledge
   that Prophet whom Moses had foretold, God would raise up among them
   like unto Himself (Deuteronomy 18:15-19) ; that is, to be, as he had
   been, a lawgiver, to institute a new dispensation of the true religion;
   and their refusal involved them, as a nation, in the punishment, which,
   Moses had likewise denounced against those who should refuse to hearken
   to Him. Thus their peculiar advantage in possessing a divine
   revelation, while the rest of mankind were left ignorant of the will of
   God, proved an aggravation to their guilt, and rendered their obstinacy
   more inexcusable, and their condemnation more severe. I am bound to
   take every opportunity of noticing the striking parallel in this
   respect, between the Jewish nation in our Saviour's time, and the
   nations, who, since that period, have admitted the New Testament as a
   revelation from God. By assuming the Christian name, and so far calling
   the Saviour Lord,' while they reject the spirit and design of the
   Gospel, and treat the ministers of it with neglect or contempt, they
   tread in the steps, and share in the guilt of those who pretended to
   expect MESSIAH, and yet crucified Him when He appeared among them. In
   person, He could be crucified but once, but the Scripture speaks of
   those who crucify the Son of God afresh, and put Him to open shame. How
   far this is the case of the persons who can bear to hear of His Passion
   and His Kingdom, when made the subject of a musical entertainment, but
   upon no other occasion, deserves their serious consideration.

   II.

   The exhortation can only be complied with by those who are sensible of
   their need of a Saviour, and His authority and ability to save. To
   these the Prophet brings a joyful message, and they will rejoice and
   shout. The joy of harvest (Isaiah 9:3) , and of the victors in war,
   when dividing the spoil of the vanquished, is celebrated with shouting.
   But sinners, who, by the knowledge of MESSIAH, are delivered from going
   down into the pit, from the dominion of the powers of darkness, and are
   translated into the Kingdom of God, experience a joy far superior, in
   kind and degree, to any satisfaction that temporal things can afford.
   It is a joy unspeakable, and full of glory (I Peter 1:8) Jesus, when
   known and received by faith, is, in the highest sense, light to those
   who sit in darkness, health to the sick, food to the hungry, and rest
   to the weary soul. Thus many rejoiced in His goodness when He was upon
   earth, and He still has a people, and will have to the end of time, who
   do and shall rejoice in Him upon these accounts, though every spring of
   temporal joy should be dried up. They who know His name, and put their
   trust in Him are warranted to appropriate those strong expressions of
   another Prophet, Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall
   fruit be in the vine, the labour of the olive shall fail, and the
   fields shall yield no meat, the flock shall be cut off from the fold,
   and there shall be no herd in the stalls: yet I will rejoice in the
   LORD , I will joy in the God of my salvation (Habakkuk 3:17, 18)

   III.

   The ground and cause of this joy is assigned. Thy King cometh. MESSIAH
   is a King. This title He avowed to Pilate (Mark 15:2) , by whose order
   it was fixed over Him upon His cross. That this was not a slight and
   arbitrary circumstance, but providential and important, we may, I
   think, infer by the care taken by the Evangelists [Matthew, Mark, Luke,
   John] , to preserve the remembrance of it, for it is recorded by them
   all. He is, indeed, King of kings; King and Lord of nations; King of
   worlds; but He is here spoken of as King of Zion. The Kingdom He came
   to establish upon earth is not of this world, nor like the kingdoms of
   the world. The maxims, language, interests, and aims of it, are
   peculiar to itself. His power and Providence rule over all, but He is
   only known, admired, and willingly obeyed by the subjects of His
   spiritual Kingdom, who, though they are in the world, are not of it,
   but strangers and pilgrims upon earth. Their true citizenship is in
   heaven (Philippians 3:20) . These are His peculiar people. And though
   they partake with others in the changes and trials incident to this
   mortal life, and have their several departments and duties assigned to
   them according to His will, as members of society, it does not yet
   appear what they shall be (I John 3:2) . They are even now the children
   and servants of the Lord, and He manifests Himself to them as He does
   not to others. Happy are these His subjects who dwell under His shadow.
   He rules them not with that rod of iron by which He bruises and breaks
   the power of His enemies, but with His golden sceptre of love. He
   reigns by His own right, and by their full and free consent, in their
   hearts. He reigns upon a throne of grace, to which they have, at all
   times, access; and from whence they receive in answer to their prayers,
   mercy and peace, the pardon of all their sins, grace to help in every
   time of need, and a renewed supply answerable to all their wants,
   cares, services, and conflicts. So that though they are surrounded with
   snares, and fiercely opposed by many enemies, they cannot be
   overpowered, for the Lord Himself is their King and Saviour. We have,

   IV.

   Two characters of this King. He is just, having salvation, or, as it is
   in the passage of the Messiah [Oratorio], He is a righteous Saviour.

   (1.)

   He is righteous. His Kingdom is founded in righteousness. It is the
   effect and reward of His obedience unto death, by which He made an end
   of sin, and brought in an everlasting righteousness. As His people
   receive and expect all from His hand, so likewise for His sake. Such is
   His command, and such is His promise. If ye shall ask anything in my
   name, I will do it (John 14:14) In pleading their cause, and managing
   their concerns, He is their righteous Advocate. And, therefore, because
   His intercession is founded upon a righteous stipulation, which He has
   completely fulfilled, He does not say, Father, I ask, but, I will, that
   those whom Thou hast given me, be with me where I am, that they may
   behold my glory (John 17:24)

   (2.)

   He is a Saviour. Having salvation in Himself; yea, He is their
   salvation (Isaiah 12:2) His wisdom, power, compassion, and determined
   purpose, are all engaged to save them fully, freely, and forever. To
   save them from guilt, from Satan, and from sin, through all the dangers
   and trials of this life. To save them to the uttermost, till He fixes
   them finally, out of reach of all evil, and puts them in possession of
   all the happiness of which their natures are capable, in a conformity
   to His own image, and the enjoyment of unclouded, uninterrupted
   communion with God.

   V.

   His great design was not confined to Israel after the flesh. He shall
   speak peace to the heathen, also. His Kingdom comprises, besides the
   believing posterity of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, a great multitude
   gathered from amidst all nations, people, and languages, from the East
   and the West, from the North and the South (Luke 13:28, 29) Though the
   heathen were universally alienated from God, by evil works and an evil
   conscience, He has undertaken to reconcile them, and to bring those
   near who were once afar off. By their knowledge of Him, their prisons
   shall be opened, their chains broken (Isaiah 45:14) , their
   condemnation reversed, and they shall be renewed and accepted in the
   Beloved, as the true children of Abraham.

   He shall likewise conciliate peace between Jew and Gentile, make, of
   both, one people (Ephesians 2:13-16) , pulling down the walls of
   separation and prejudice, that, with one heart and mind, they may love,
   serve, and praise Him. For where faith in Him obtains, all distinctions
   are lost and superseded. There is then neither Greek nor Jew,
   circumcision nor un-circumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free,
   but Christ is all, and in all (Colossians 3:11)

   Much has already been done by the Gospel. Multitudes have been turned
   from darkness to light, and from the worship of dumb idols to serve the
   living and true God. And we expect a time when this promise will be
   more extensively and literally fulfilled. When the Kingdom shall be the
   Lord's to the end of the earth; when the fulness of the Gentiles shall
   come in, all Israel be saved, and the nations shall learn war no more.

   From these characters of the Saviour, we may collect the characters of
   His people. For they beholding His glory, are changed (according to the
   measure of their faith) into the same image. The incommunicable
   perfections of God, such as His sovereignty and all-sufficiency, can
   only produce in His people correspondent expressions of reverence,
   submission, and dependence; an attempt to be like Him in these respects
   would be highly impious, and was, indeed, the original source of our
   apostasy from Him. Man, by indulging a desire of being like God,
   rebelled against Him, aspired at independence, and preferred the
   gratification of his own will, to the righteous and equitable commands
   of his Maker. The unavoidable consequence of this madness, is misery.
   It is not possible that he should be happy, till he be reduced to his
   proper state of subordination. But that light of the glory of God in
   the person of Jesus Christ, which is revealed to the renewed heart by
   the Gospel, has a transforming effect upon those who receive it; they
   are made partakers of a divine nature, and resemble Him, whose they
   are, and whom they serve, in righteousness, goodness, and truth
   (Ephesians 5:9)

   They are righteous as He is righteous. I speak not of the relative
   state, as they are accepted and accounted righteous in the Beloved, but
   of their real character. They learn of Him to love righteousness and
   hate iniquity (Psalm 45:7) Their principles are right, drawn from the
   revealed truths of God. They comport themselves as becomes weak and
   unworthy sinners, and ascribe the glory of their salvation to the Lord
   alone; and therefore the general tenor of their conduct is governed by
   the righteous rules of His precepts; of which they have the most
   endearing and animating exemplification in the conduct of their
   Saviour; from Him they learn to frame their tempers, desires, and
   hopes, and thus give evidence that they are, in deed and in truth, a
   saved people. His love, in proportion as it is realized in their hearts
   by faith, teaches them likewise to love one another, and to exercise
   benevolence to all men. When they understand the true nature of His
   spiritual Kingdom, which consisteth not in external distinctions and
   form, but in righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost (Romans
   14:17) ; and that it is His great design to form to Himself a people
   from amongst the nations of the earth, who shall be one body, enlivened
   by one and the same Spirit, they acquire a large and comprehensive
   mind. They rise above the influence of names, parties, and divisions;
   are freed from the narrow views and interests of self, and put on, as
   the elect of God, bowels of mercies, kindness, humility, meekness,
   long-suffering, forbearance and forgiveness (Colossians 3:12) , in
   conformity to the pattern and will of their great Exemplar. Thus He
   speaks peace to them, and hushes all their angry, tumultuous passions
   into a calm.

   Such is the spirit and tendency of the Gospel. Let us try ourselves by
   this touch-stone, measure ourselves by this rule, and weigh ourselves
   in these balances of the sanctuary. They that are Christ's have
   crucified the flesh, have put off the old man, and are renewed in the
   spirit of their minds. If He be, indeed, your King, your consciences
   will bear you witness that you revere, imitate, and obey Him. If He be
   your Saviour, you certainly must be sensible yourself, and others must
   observe, that you are different from what you once were.

   And if any of you should be convinced, that, hitherto, you have been a
   Christian only in name and in form, but destitute of that which
   constitutes the life and power of real godliness, this will be a good
   beginning. For though it be high time that you should in good earnest
   attend to these things, blessed be God it is not yet too late. He is a
   righteous and a gracious Saviour; seek Him as such, and He will speak
   peace to you also. His sure promise is recorded for your encouragement
   ---- Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out (John 6:37)

   ---- O ----
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   Sermon XII

   Effects of Messiah's Appearance

   Isaiah 35:5, 6

   The eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall
   be unstopped:

   Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb
   sing.

   H ow beautiful and magnificent is the imagery, by which the Prophet, in
   this chapter, represents the effects of MESSIAH'S appearance! The
   scene, proposed to our view, is a barren and desolate wilderness. But
   when He, who in the beginning said, Let there be light, and there was
   light, condescends to visit this wilderness, the face of nature is
   suddenly changed by His presence! Fountains and streams of water burst
   forth in the burning desert, the soil becomes fruitful, clothed with
   verdure, and adorned with flowers. The towering cedars, which were the
   glory of Lebanon, and the richest pastures, which were the excellency
   of Carmel, present themselves to the eye, where, a little before, all
   was uncomfortable and dreary. How is it, that so few of those who value
   themselves upon their taste, and who profess to be admirers of pastoral
   poetry in particular, are struck with the elegance and beauty of this
   description? Alas, we can only ascribe their indifference to the
   depravity of the human heart. They would, surely, have admired this
   picture, could they have met with it in any of their favourite authors;
   but descriptive paintings in this style, so exquisitely combining
   grandeur with simplicity, are only to be found in the Bible, a book,
   which their unhappy prejudices and passions too often lead to
   depreciate and neglect.

   But they who have a scriptural and spiritual taste, not only admire
   this passage as a description of a pleasing change in outward nature,
   but consider it as a just and expressive representation of a more
   important change, a moral change, of which they have themselves been,
   in a measure, the happy subjects. The barren wilderness reminds them of
   the state of mankind by the Fall, and of their own hearts, before
   MESSIAH, the Sun of Righteousness arose upon them with healing, with
   light, power, and comfort, in His beams. In that memorable hour, old
   things passed away, and all things became new. The Lord, by shining
   into their hearts, and showing them His glory in the person of Christ,
   has created for them a new heaven and a new earth. The works of God
   around them in His creation and providence assume a different
   appearance. Before, they lived without Him in the world; but now, they
   see His hand wherever they look, they hear His voice in every event,
   for now the principles of His grace are planted in their souls, and
   they are no longer barren or unfruitful, but are filled with the fruits
   of righteousness, which are by Christ Jesus to His praise (Philippians
   1:11)

   The verses which I have read, exhibit the effects of MESSIAH'S power
   and goodness by another image equally pleasing. Not only the
   wilderness, but the inhabitants of the wilderness partake of the virtue
   of the great Redeemer. He finds them in circumstances of distress,
   which only He can relieve. But when He comes, the blind receive their
   sight, the deaf hear, the lame walk, and the dumb have voices given
   them to resound His praise. These mighty works, in their literal sense,
   marked His character, and confirmed His claims, when He was upon earth;
   and He Himself appealed to these, in proof of His being the promised
   Saviour whom the prophets had foretold, and that no other was to be
   expected (Matthew 11:3-6)

   But the words have a still more sublime and important sense. As the
   great Physician, He cured all manner of diseases and infirmities. But
   this was not the principle design for which He came into the world. The
   maladies to which sin has subjected the body, are but emblems of the
   more dreadful evils which it has brought upon the soul. He came to open
   the eyes of the mind; to make the obstinate will attentive and obedient
   to the voice of God; to invigorate our benumbed and paralytic
   faculties; that we may be active and cheerful in His service; and to
   open our lips, that our mouths may show forth His praise. I have a good
   hope that I may warrantably say, This day is this Scripture fulfilled
   in your ears (Luke 4:21) Some of you who were once darkness, are now
   light in the Lord.

   These different effects are produced by one simple, but powerful,
   operation. While Lazarus lay in the grave, all his natural powers were
   inactive. But when the voice of the Son of God restored him to life
   (John 11:43) , he was, of course, immediately enabled to see, to hear,
   to move, and to speak. Thus, while we were spiritually dead, we were
   necessarily blind, deaf, dumb, and motionless, with respect to all the
   objects and faculties of that life of God in the soul, which is the
   perfection and honour of our nature. When we are made partakers of this
   life, by a new and heavenly birth, then our spiritual senses are
   brought into exercise. Then the eyes of the blind are opened, to see
   the beauty and glory of divine truths; we hear the voice of God, we
   feel at liberty to walk and act in His service, and our tongues are
   taught to praise Him. Here are four chief effects of a work of grace
   upon the heart, which distinguish believers from the rest of mankind.

   And these effects are all to be ascribed to MESSIAH. For they are all
   wrought by the agency of His Holy Spirit. The gifts and graces of the
   Holy Spirit which are absolutely necessary, as well for the
   perpetuating of His Gospel from age to age, as for making it
   efficacious and successful, are bestowed upon sinners wholly upon the
   account of His mediation. It was when He ascended on high and led
   captivity captive (Psalm 68:18) , that He procured these blessings for
   rebellious men, that the LORD God might dwell among them. And it was
   only for His sake, and on the account of what He was to accomplish in
   the fulness of time, as intimated in the promise of the seed of the
   woman appointed to break the serpent's head, that there were any
   gracious communications afforded to fallen man, from the first entrance
   of sin into the world. But now the Redeemer's great work is fulfilled,
   His salvation is more openly revealed and applied, by the publication
   of the Gospel, with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, and sinners
   hear the voice of God and live. Then all the changes, prefigured and
   predicted in my text, take place, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful
   field.

   (1.)

   They were once blind, but now they see. The religion of true believers
   is not the effect of imagination and blind impulse, but is derived from
   a solid knowledge which will bear the strictest scrutiny, and is the
   reasonable service of an enlightened understanding. They see God; their
   apprehensions of Him, are, in some measure, answerable to His greatness
   and His goodness, and inspire them with reverence and love. Their
   conceptions of other things in which they are most nearly interested,
   are agreeable to the truth. Sin appears to them hateful in itself, as
   well as mischievous in it consequences; and holiness, not only
   necessary by the ordination of God, but desirable for its own sake, as
   essentially belonging to the true dignity and happiness of man. They
   know themselves; they see and feel that they are such creatures as the
   Bible describes them to be, weak, depraved, and vile. Of course, they
   see the folly of attempting to recommend themselves to God, and can no
   longer place any dependence on what they once accounted their wisdom,
   power, and righteousness; and therefore they see the absolute necessity
   of a Saviour. They see, likewise, and approve the method of salvation
   proposed by the Gospel, as worthy of the wisdom and justice of God, and
   every way adapted to the exigencies [urgent requirements] of their
   sins, wants, and fears. They see and admire the excellence, dignity,
   and sufficiency of Him, on whom their help is laid. His power and
   authority engage their confidence, His love captivates and fixes their
   hearts. They see the vanity of the present state, and the vast
   importance of eternity. In these respects they have all of them a good
   understanding, however inferior in natural capacity, or acquired
   knowledge, to the wise men of the world.

   (2.)

   Their knowledge, so far as they have attained, is not merely
   speculative, cold, and indistinct, like the light of the moon. The Sun
   of Righteousness has shined into their hearts. The light they enjoy is
   vital, cheering and effective. Because they thus see, they hear
   likewise. They were once deaf to the voice of God, whether He spoke by
   His Word or His Providence; whether in the language of mercy or
   judgment. But now their deaf ears are unstopped. They are now
   attentive, submissive, and willing to receive His instructions, and to
   obey His commands. With them, one " Thus saith the LORD " has the force
   of a thousand arguments. They desire no further proof of a doctrine, no
   other warrant for their practice, no other reason for any dispensation,
   than Thus the Lord has said, This He requires, and This is His
   appointment. Thus their wills are brought into subjection; and they so
   understand, as to believe and obey.

   (3.)

   Farther, with their sight and hearing, they receive power and activity.
   Once they were tied and bound in the chain of their sins, or like a man
   benumbed with a dead-palsy, unable to move. If they sometimes seemed to
   express desires, that might be called good with respect to their
   object, they were faint and ineffectual. But now their fetters are
   broken, the health and strength of their souls is restored, and God has
   wrought within them not only to will , but also to do according to His
   good pleasure (Philippians 2:13) It is not more wonderful that a
   cripple should suddenly recover the use of his limbs, than that a
   person, who has long been fettered in sinful habits, should be enabled
   to move and act with alacrity in the service of God. But in the day of
   divine power, sinners are made both willing and able. How burdensome
   was that which they once accounted their religion! how little comfort
   did it yield them! how little did it assist them against their
   passions, or against their fears? But all things are become new, since
   they have attained to a life of faith in the Son of God. Their
   religious service is now pleasant, and their warfare against sin and
   the world, victorious.

   Their obligations, motives, resources, encouragements, and prospects,
   inspire them with a holy vigour to run, with patience and perseverance,
   the race that is set before them.

   (4.)

   Having their sight and hearing thus restored, and their hearts enlarged
   to walk at liberty in the ways of wisdom; they are no longer dumb,
   silent, and sullen, but out of the abundance of their hearts their
   mouths speak the language of gratitude, praise, and joy. For though
   most people have the faculty of speech, and can use, or rather abuse,
   their tongues fluently; though we are sufficiently expert from our
   childhood, in the dialects of falsehood, profaneness and folly, yet, by
   nature, we are dumb with respect to the language that becomes us, as
   the creatures of God, and as those who have sinned against Him, and are
   yet invited to seek His mercy. But when grace teaches the heart, then
   the heart teaches the mouth (Proverbs 16:23) When we believe, then we
   speak, yea, we sing and greatly rejoice; as it is written, In that day
   I will praise thee; though Thou wast angry, Thine anger is turned away
   (Isaiah12:1) And again, The voice of joy and thanksgiving is in the
   tabernacles of the righteous (Psalm 118:15) Let the redeemed of the
   LORD say, That He is good, and His mercy endureth for ever (Psalm
   107:1, 2)

   It is of great importance to examine ourselves by this test, and not to
   be satisfied with our knowledge of the Gospel, any farther than our
   consciences bear us witness, that it has produced a real, moral, change
   in our tempers, conduct, and pursuits. For there is a knowledge which
   is falsely so called. It puffeth up, but edifieth not. Our Lord's
   declaration deserves our most serious attention. For judgment I am come
   into this world; that they which see not may see; and that they which
   see might be made blind (John 9:39) It is very possible, yea, very
   easy, by the help of books, sermons, and converse, to acquire an
   orderly and systematic knowledge of divine truths; it may be learnt
   thus, like any other branch of human science, and the head be
   well-stored with orthodox sentiments; and there may be an ability to
   prove and defend them, in a way of argumentation, while the heart is
   utterly a stranger to their salutary influence. Such characters are too
   common. None make a greater parade and boast of seeing, than these
   persons. None are more fatally blinded. They smile, with disdain, when
   they speak of a self-righteousness founded upon prayers, alms-deeds,
   and sacraments; but are not aware that they themselves live in the very
   spirit of the Pharisees (Luke 18:2) , so clearly described, and so
   expressly condemned in the New Testament. Their supposed knowledge of
   the doctrines which they misunderstand and abused, is the righteousness
   on which they base their hopes; and trusting to this, they despise all
   those who are stricter in practice than themselves, as ignorant and
   legal; and discover, almost as great dislike to close and faithful
   preaching, as they could do to poison. Though the doctrines of the
   Gospel, when rightly received, are productive of godliness, it is to be
   feared, there are people who espouse and plead for them, to quiet their
   consciences, by furnishing them with excuses for the sins they are
   unwilling to forsake. It is not surprising, that they who are
   displeased with the yoke of our Lord's precepts, should seem friendly
   to the idea of salvation without the works of the law.

   The notion of the final perseverance of believers, may afford a pillow
   for those to rest on, who being at present destitute of all feeling of
   spiritual life, labour to persuade themselves that they are Christians,
   because they had some serious thoughts, and made some profession of the
   truth, many years ago. So, likewise, in what the Scriptures teach, of
   the total inability of fallen man, they think they have a plea to
   justify their negligence and sloth, and therefore are not disposed to
   contradict the testimony. They evade invitation and command to wait,
   and watch, and strive, in the ways and means of the Lord's appointment,
   as they think, with impunity, by confessing the charge, and saying, I
   am a poor creature indeed, I can do nothing of myself aright, and
   therefore to what purpose should I attempt to do any thing? A minister
   may preach upon these points, in general terms, and obtain their good
   word. But if he speaks plainly and faithfully to conscience; if he
   bears testimony not only against dead works, but against a dead faith;
   against spiritual pride, evil tempers, evil speaking, love of the
   world, and sinful compliances; if he insists that the branches of the
   true vine should bear grapes, and not the same fruit as the bramble;
   hearers of this stamp will think they do God service by censuring all
   he can say, as low and legal trash. How awful! that people should be
   blinded by the very truths which they profess to believe! Yet I fear
   such cases are too frequent. God grant a delusion of this kind may
   never be found amongst us! For if the salt itself should lose its
   savour, wherewith shall it be salted? (Matthew 5:13) May we come simply
   to the light, with a desire of seeing more of ourselves, and more of
   our Saviour; that we may be more humble and spiritual, more afraid of
   sin, more watchful and successful in striving against it; and, in our
   whole conversation, more conformable to our glorious Head!

   But to return. From what has been offered upon this subject, we may
   observe,

   (1.)

   That true Christianity is friendly to society, and to the common
   interests of mankind. It is the source of peace, tenderness,
   benevolence, and every humane temper. It is calculated to soothe the
   fierce disposition, to enlarge the selfish spirit, and to transform the
   lion into the lamb. What then must we think of those pretended friends
   to liberty and free enquiry, whose unhappy zeal is employed to rob us
   of the only light and balm of life? Who by their misrepresentations and
   cavils, endeavour to persuade others, though they cannot effectually
   persuade themselves, that the Gospel, a scheme so wise in its
   constitution, so salutary in its design, so powerful in its effects, is
   no better than an imposition, the contrivance of superstitious or
   artful men! Why should they attempt to take away the foundation of our
   hope, and the spring of our comfort (if they were able) when they know
   they have nothing to substitute, in their place! Let us think of them
   with the compassion which their state calls for; and pray for them,
   peradventure God will give them repentance to the acknowledgment of the
   truth (II Timothy 2:25)

   (2.)

   The change thus wrought is great, marvellous, and, if not so frequent,
   might be styled miraculous. It is more than education, example,
   persuasion, or resolution can perform. It is the work of God alone to
   open the blind eyes, to change the heart of stone into flesh, and to
   raise the dead.

   This thought should exclude boasting. The happy subjects of this
   change, were no better by nature or practice, than others. They have
   nothing but what they have received. The glory and praise is due to the
   Lord alone. It should likewise soften their censure of those who are
   still in a state of alienation from God, or, at least, prevent the
   emotions of anger and resentment towards them. They know not what they
   do. Their danger should excite our pity, and our friendly endeavours to
   recover them from the error of their way. And, especially, we should be
   careful to regulate our behaviour, that if they obey not the Word, they
   may without the Word be convinced and won (I Peter 3:1) , by the force
   of our example. If the Lord be pleased to do that for them, which He
   has done for us, their dislike of us, and their opposition to us, will
   be quickly at an end; and though they set out after us, they may
   possibly make a swifter progress in the Christian life, than we have
   done. Thus, though Saul of Tarsus approached Damascus as an enemy and a
   persecutor, when the scales fell from his eyes, he not only immediately
   joined the disciples, but in a little time became a pattern to them.

   That the change is the work of God, should likewise be considered by
   those, who, from a sense of the greatness of their sins, and the
   strength of their sinful habits, are ready to sink into despair.
   Whatever apparent difficulty there may be in your case, it is easy to
   divine power. All things are possible with God (Mark 10:27) , and all
   things, likewise, are possible to him that believeth (Mark 9:23) The
   promises invite you to apply to Him who is the Author and Finisher of
   faith, and who has said for your encouragement, Him that cometh unto
   me, I will in no wise cast out.

   ---- O ----
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   Sermon XIII

   The Great Shepherd

   Isaiah 50:11

   He shall feed his flock like a shepherd; He shall gather the lambs with
   His arm, and carry them in His bosom, and shall gently lead those that
   are with young.

   I t is not easy for those, whose habits of life are insensibly formed
   by the customs of modern times, to conceive any adequate idea of the
   pastoral life, as obtained in the eastern countries, before that
   simplicity of manners, which characterized the early ages, was
   corrupted, by the artificial and false refinements of luxury. Wealth,
   in those days, consisted principally in flocks and herds; and Abraham,
   Isaac, Jacob, and others, who were, to speak in modern language,
   persons of high distinction, were likewise shepherds. The book of
   Genesis, which is an authentic and infallible history of the most
   ancient times, exhibits a manner of living, so different from our own,
   that, perhaps, few persons are qualified to enter fully into the spirit
   of the description. The poets seem to have derived their idea of the
   golden age, from some imperfect tradition of this primitive state; and
   if we compare it with the state of things around us, methinks we have
   reason to say, How is the gold become dim, and the fine gold changed!
   (Lamentations 4:1) . The opulence of Jacob may be conjectured from the
   present he sent to his brother Esau (Genesis 32:14, 15) Yet Jacob
   attended his flocks himself, in the drought by day, and in the frost by
   night (Genesis 31:40) . The vigilance, the providence, the tenderness,
   necessary to the due discharge of the shepherd's office, have been
   frequently applied, in describing the nature and ends of government;
   and it has been esteemed a high encomium [formal expression of high
   praise] of a good king, to style him the shepherd of his people. This
   character, MESSIAH the Saviour condescends to bear; and happy are they
   who can say, with pleasing consciousness, We are His people, and the
   sheep of His pasture (Psalm 100:3)

   The passage will lead me to speak of the Shepherd, the flock, and His
   care and tenderness over them.

   I.

   Our Lord expressly styled Himself the "Shepherd," the good Shepherd of
   the sheep (John 10:11, 14) , and the Apostle Peter styled Him the chief
   Shepherd (I Peter 5:4) His faithful ministers have the honour to be
   under-shepherds; He appoints, and qualifies them, to feed His flock.
   They are the messengers of His will, but they can do nothing without
   Him; they can only communicate what they receive, and cannot watch over
   the flock, unless they are themselves watched over by Him (Psalm 127:1)
   . For, with respect to efficacy, He is the chief, and, indeed, the sole
   Shepherd. The eyes of all are upon Him, and His eye is upon, and over,
   all His flock. The Old Testament Church had a Shepherd, and their
   Shepherd was Jehovah (Psalm 23:1) Unless, therefore, the Shepherd and
   Bishop of our souls, likewise, be Jehovah, we fall unspeakably short of
   the privilege of ancient Israel, if their Shepherd was almighty, and if
   ours could be but a creature. Surely we could not then say, what yet
   the Apostle affirms, that we have a better covenant, established upon
   better promises (Hebrews 8:6) ; since MESSIAH, Himself, is expressly
   declared, to be the Surety and the Mediator of this Covenant. But would
   it not be better, upon this supposition, with David, who could say,
   Jehovah is my Shepherd, than with us, who are entrusted to the care of
   a delegated and inferior keeper, if Jesus be not Jehovah. Besides, who
   but Jehovah can relieve the necessities of multitudes in all places, in
   the same moment, and be equally near and attentive to them, in every
   age? The sinner, who is enlightened to know himself, his want, enemies,
   and dangers, will not dare to confide in anything short of an almighty
   arm; he needs a shepherd, who is full of wisdom, full of care, full of
   power; able, like the sun, to shine upon millions at once, and
   possessed of those incommunicable attributes of Deity, omniscience and
   omnipresence. Such is our great Shepherd; and He is eminently the good
   Shepherd also, for He laid down His life for the sheep, and has
   redeemed them to God by His own blood.

   II.

   Shepherd is a relative name; it has reference to a flock. This great
   and good Shepherd has a flock whom He loved from everlasting , and whom
   having loved , He will love to the end (John 13:1) Formosi pecoris
   custos, formosior ipse!

   The Shepherd with a handsome flock, is Himself more handsome!

   He humbled Himself for their sakes, submitted to partake of their
   nature and their sorrows, took upon Him the form of a servant, and was
   made in the likeness of sinful flesh. He died for His sheep, the just
   for the unjust (I Peter 3:18) , to redeem them from the curse of the
   law, from the guilt and dominion of sin, from the power of Satan, and
   to bring them to God. They, by nature, are all gone astray, every one
   to his own way (Isaiah 53:6) ; but having thus bought them with His
   blood, in His own appointed time, He seeks, finds, and restores His
   sheep. By the power of His Word and Spirit, He makes Himself known to
   their hearts, causes them to hear and understand His voice, and guides
   them into the fold. Then, they became His sheep in the sense of my
   text. They are under His immediate protection and government.

   Considered as individuals, they are fitly described by the name of
   sheep. A sheep is a weak, defenceless, improvident creature; prone to
   wander, and if once astray, is seldom known to return of its own
   accord. A sheep has neither strength to fight with the wolf, nor speed
   to escape from him; nor has it the fore-sight of the ant, to provide
   its own sustenance. Such is our character, and our situation. Unable to
   take care of ourselves, prone to wander from our resting-place, exposed
   to enemies which we can neither withstand nor avoid, without resource
   in ourselves, and taught, by daily experience, the insufficiency of
   everything around us. Yet, if this Shepherd be our Shepherd, weak and
   helpless as we are, we may be of good courage. If we say with David,
   The LORD is my Shepherd, we may make the same inferences he did,
   Therefore I shall not want; therefore I need not fear.

   Collectively they are a flock. They are not, indeed, in one place. They
   are scattered abroad, dispersed through different ages and countries,
   separated by seas and mountains, and, too often, by misapprehensions
   and prejudices, by names and forms; and, only a very small part of the
   flock are known to each other. But they are all equally known to Him,
   and equally under His eye. In His view they are one flock, one body;
   they are animated by one and the same spirit; their views, hopes, and
   aims are the same; and, yet a little while, they shall be all brought
   together, a number without number, to rejoice and to join in worship,
   before His throne of glory. For they have an inheritance reserved for
   them in heaven (I Peter 1:4, 5) , and they shall be safely kept, while
   they are sojourners upon earth, for the Shepherd of Israel is their
   Keeper.

   III.

   He shall feed His flock like a shepherd.

   The word is not restrained to feeding. It includes all the branches of
   the shepherd's office. He shall act the part of a Shepherd to His
   flock. We have a beautiful miniature description, of what He has
   engaged to do, for His people, as their Shepherd, in the twenty-third
   Psalm. And the subject is more largely illustrated in the thirty-fourth
   chapter of Ezekiel's Prophecy. His sheep, from age to age, have been
   witnesses to the truth of His promises. He has a flock at present who
   rejoice in His care; and greater multitudes, as yet unborn, shall
   successively arise in their appointed seasons and call Him blessed
   (Psalm 72:17) For He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

   He feeds them.

   He leads them into green and pleasant pastures. These pastures are His
   Word and Ordinances, by which He communicates to them of His own
   fulness; for, in strict propriety of speech, He Himself is their Food.
   They eat His Flesh and drink His blood (John 6:54) This was once
   thought a hard saying (John 6:58-60) by some of His professed
   followers, and is still thought so by too many. But it is His own
   saying, and, therefore, I am not concerned, either to conform, or to
   vindicate it. The knowledge they receive by faith, of His incarnation
   and sufferings unto death, of the names He bears, and of the offices
   and relations in which He is pleased to act for them, is the life and
   food of their souls. The expression of feeding them' is agreeable to
   the analogy He has been pleased to establish, between the natural and
   the spiritual life. As the strength of the body is maintained and
   renewed, by eating and drinking; so they, who, in this sense, feed upon
   Him in their hearts by faith with thanksgiving, even they live (John
   6:57) by Him, for His flesh is meat indeed, and His blood is drink
   indeed.

   He guides them.

   First by His example. He has trodden the path of duty and trial before
   them; and they perceive and follow His footsteps. Again, by His Word
   and Spirit He teaches them the way in which they should go; and both
   inclines and enables them to walk in it (Isaiah 30:21) He guides them,
   likewise, by His Providence; He appoints the bounds of their
   habitations, the line and calling in which they are to serve Him, and
   orders and adjusts the circumstances of their lives, according to His
   infinite wisdom, so as, finally, to accomplish His gracious designs in
   their favour.

   He guards them.

   It is written concerning Him, He shall stand and feed in the strength
   of the LORD , in the majesty of the name of the Lord His God (Micah
   5:4) If we conceive of a flock of sheep feeding in the midst of wolves,
   who are restrained from breaking in upon them, not by any visible
   enclosure, but merely by the power of the shepherd's eye, which keeps
   them in awe at a distance, it will give us some idea of the situation
   of His people. He provides them food in the midst of many mighty
   enemies (Psalm 23:3) , who envy them their privilege; but cannot
   prevent it. If, for a single minute, He should withdraw His attention
   from the flock, they would be worried. But He has promised to keep them
   night and day (Isaiah 27:3) , and every moment; therefore their enemies
   plot and rage in vain. Their visible foes are numerous; but if we could
   look into the invisible world , and take a view of the subtlety,
   malice, machinations, and assiduity of the powers of darkness, who are
   incessantly watching for opportunities of annoying them, we should have
   a most striking conviction that a flock, so defenceless and feeble in
   themselves, and against which such a combination is formed, can only be
   kept by the power of God.

   He heals them.

   A good shepherd will examine the state of his flock. But there is no
   attention worthy of being compared with His flock. Not the slightest
   circumstance in their concerns, escapes His notice. When they are ready
   to faint, borne down with heavy exercises of mind, wearied with
   temptations, dry and disconsolate in their spirits, He seasonably
   revives them. Nor are they in heaviness without a need-be for it. All
   His dispensations towards them are medicinal, designed to correct, or
   to restrain, or to cure, the maladies of their souls. And they are
   adjusted, by His wisdom and tenderness, to what they can bear, and to
   what their case requires. It is He, likewise, who heals their bodily
   sickness, and gives them help in all their temporal trouble. He is
   represented to us, as counting their sighs (Psalm 56:8) , putting their
   tears into His bottle, recording their sorrows in His book of
   remembrance; and even, as being Himself touched with a feeling of their
   infirmities (Hebrews 4:15) , as the Head feels for the members of the
   Body.

   He restores them.

   The power and subtlety of their enemies, are employed to force, or
   entice them from His rule; and too often prevail for a season. The
   sheep turn aside into forbidden paths; and whenever they do, they would
   wander, farther and farther, till they were quite lost again, if He
   were not their Shepherd. If He permits them to deviate, He has a time,
   to convince them, that it was an evil and a bitter thing to forsake the
   LORD their Shepherd (Jeremiah 2:19) , and to humble them, and to bring
   them back. Thus they become more sensible of their own weakness, and of
   the obligations to His gracious care; for He will not suffer their
   enemies to triumph over them. He will not lose one of His true flock;
   not one convinced sinner, who has, indeed, and in truth, surrendered
   and entrusted his all to Him. They must, and they shall, smart and
   mourn for their folly; but He will, in due season, break their snares,
   and lead them again into the paths of peace, for His own name's sake.

   The flock are not all sheep. There are lambs among them These are
   especially mentioned, and for these He expresses a peculiar tenderness.
   He will gather them in His arm, and carry them in His bosom. Though
   they are weaklings, they shall not be left behind. This is a beautiful
   and pathetic [pitiful, piteous] image. If a poor lamb is weary, and
   unable to keep up with the flock, it shall be carried. This clause
   affords encouragement,

   (1.)

   To young people. Early serious impressions are often made upon the
   hearts of children, which we are to cherish, by directing their
   thoughts to the compassion of the Good Shepherd, who has said, Suffer
   little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is
   the Kingdom of God (Mark 10:14) . This high and holy One, who humbles
   Himself to notice the worship of the heavenly host, hears the prayers
   of worms upon the earth; and His ear is open to the prayers of a child,
   no less so, than to the prayer of a king.

   (2.)

   To Young converts. These, at whatever age, are children in the Lord's
   family, lambs in His flock. They are, as yet, weak, unsettled, and
   inexperienced. Almost every day brings them into a new and untried
   situation. They often meet with opposition and discouragement, where
   they have promised themselves help and countenance. Perhaps their
   nearest friends are displeased with them. They are liable, likewise,
   while they are enquiring the way to Zion, to be perplexed by the
   various opinions, and angry contentions, prevailing among the different
   religious persons, or parties, to whom they may address themselves.
   They are frequently discouraged by the falls and miscarriages of
   professors, some of whom, it is possible, they may have admired, and
   looked up to, as patterns for their own imitation. Add to these things,
   what they suffer from new and unexpected discoveries of the evil and
   deceitfulness of their hearts; the mistakes they commit, in judgment
   and practice, for want of a more solid and extensive knowledge of the
   Scriptures; and the advantage the great enemy of their souls derives
   from these their various difficulties to assault their peace, and
   obstruct their progress. What would become of them in such
   circumstances, if their faithful Shepherd had not promised to lead, and
   uphold them, with the arm of His power?

   There is, likewise, particular mention made of those who are with
   young. These He will gently lead. If we take the word according to our
   version, it may signify a state of conviction, or trouble. Many are the
   afflictions of the righteous (Psalm 34:19) , by which they are often
   wearied and heavy-laden. But when their spirits are overwhelmed within
   them, He knoweth their path. Jacob would not permit his cattle, that
   were with young, to be over-driven for one day, lest they should die
   (Genesis 33:13) Much less will this Good Shepherd suffer the burdened,
   among His flock, to be hurried and tempted, beyond what they are able,
   or what He will enable them to bear.

   But the word signifies, Those that have young, rather than those that
   are with young. Two sorts of persons in the Lord's flock, who come
   under this description, feel an especial need of His compassion,
   tenderness, and patience.

   (1.)

   He only knows the feelings of the hearts of parents. What solicitude
   and anxiety they have for their young ones, the sucklings, if I may so
   speak, of the flock, which mingle with all their endeavours, to manage
   rightly the important charge committed to them, and to bring their
   children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

   (2.)

   Ministers, likewise, have painful exercises of mind. The Apostle Paul
   speaks of travailing in birth again, till Christ be formed in our
   hearers (Galatians 4:19) When we know of any newly-awakened, and begin
   to seek his salvation, how solicitous is our care to bring them
   forward, to comfort them, to warn them against the devices of their own
   hearts, and of their enemies! And how piercing our grief and
   disappointment, if they miscarry! How much is felt in sympathy for the
   trials of the flock! What wisdom, faithfulness, courage, meekness, and
   unction from on high, are necessary to the due discharge of what we owe
   to the flocks, of which we have the oversight! Who is sufficient for
   these things! And when we have done our best, our all, what defects and
   defilements have we to mourn over! But this is our great consolation,
   that He, who knows us, and leads us, considers our frame, and remembers
   that we are but dust.

   In this delineation of the character and conduct of the Great Shepherd
   of the sheep (Hebrews 13:20) , we have an affecting Exemplar and
   Pattern, for the imitation of those, who act in the honourable office
   of under-shepherd, and are called, by their profession and engagement,
   to feed His sheep and lambs. Whether there be any ministers in our
   assembly, or not, you will at least permit me to speak a word to my own
   heart; which may, I hope, at the same time, impress your minds with a
   sense of our great need of your prayers. Brethren, pray for us! (I
   Thessalonians 5:25) ; and pray to the Lord of the harvest, that He may
   send forth more faithful labourers into His harvest (Matthew 9:38) ;
   for it is His work alone. It is not absolutely necessary, that a
   minister of the Gospel should be in the first line, of those who are
   admired for their abilities or literature; much less that he should be
   distinguished by such titles, honours, and emoluments as this world can
   give. But it is necessary, and of the last importance, to his character
   and usefulness here, and to his acceptance in the great Day of the LORD
   , that he should have a shepherd's eye and a shepherd's heart. He must
   serve the flock, not for filthy lucre, or by constraint (I Peter 5:2,
   3) -- (that constraint, which the Apostle attributes to the love of
   Christ, only excepted) -- but willingly , and with a view to their
   edification. And he must, indeed, serve them, not acting as a lord over
   God's heritage, but as an example to the flock. Not preaching himself
   (II Corinthians 4:5) , perverting his sacred office to the purposes of
   ambition, or vain-glory, or the acquisition of wealth; but preaching
   Christ Jesus the Lord, and employing all his powers to turn sinners
   from the error of their ways. He who winneth souls is wise (Proverbs
   11:30) If it be wisdom, to propose the noblest end, the faithful
   minister is wise; the end at which he aims, in subordination to the
   will and glory of God, is the salvation of souls; and the recovery of
   one immortal soul to the favour and image of God, is, and will at
   length be found, a greater and more important event, than the
   deliverance of a whole kingdom from slavery or temporal ruin.

   If it be wisdom, to pursue a right end by the fittest means, he is
   wise; he knows the Gospel of Christ to be the power of God, the
   appointed, the effectual, the only sufficient means for accomplishing
   His great purpose; therefore, however unfashionable it may be, he is
   not ashamed of it, he preaches it, and he glories in it. If it be an
   effect of wisdom, not to be deterred from the prosecution of a great
   and noble design, by the censure and dislike of weak and incompetent
   judges, the faithful minister is truly wise. He loves his
   fellow-creatures, and would willingly please them for their good, but
   he cannot fear them, because he fears and serves the Lord. He looks
   forward, with desire, to the day of that solemn and general visitation,
   when the Shepherd and Bishop of souls shall Himself appear (I Peter
   2:25) . And if he may then stand among those, who are pardoned and
   accepted in the Beloved, and receive the crown of life, which his Lord
   has promised to them that love Him (II Timothy 4:8) --this thought
   fully reconciles him to the trials of his situation; and however
   depreciated, misrepresented, opposed, or ill-treated here, he can say,
   None of these things move me, neither count I my life dear to myself,
   so that I may finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have
   received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the Gospel of the grace of God
   (Acts 20:24)

   There is a counterpart to this character, described by the prophets in
   strong and glowing language. There are idle shepherds, who feed not the
   flock, but themselves (Ezekiel 34:2); who neither attempt to heal the
   sick, to strengthen the feeble, to bind up that which is broken, nor to
   recover that which has been driven away. Shepherds who cannot
   understand, greedy, lovers of gain --and who, by a change of metaphor,
   are compared to slumbering watchmen, and dumb dogs that cannot bark
   (Isaiah 56:10, 11) . The New Testament teaches us to expect that such
   persons, under the name of ministers, will be found, likewise, in the
   visible Church of Christ. Men of corrupt minds, destitute of the truth,
   who serve not the Lord Jesus, but their own belly (I Timothy 6:5;
   Romans 16:18) . Men who are of the world (I John 4:5) and speak of the
   world, and therefore the world hears and favours them. But alas
   --neither the wretched slave who toils at the galley-oar, nor he that
   is doomed to labour in a deep mine, where the light of the sun never
   reaches him; nor the lunatic who howls in a chain, are such emphatical
   [striking] objects of our compassion, as the unhappy man, who
   prostitutes the name and function of a minister of Christ, to the
   gratification of his pride and avarice; and the whole object, is not
   the welfare of the flock, but the possession of the fleece. Who
   intrudes into the post of a watchman, but gives no alarm of the
   impending danger (Ezekiel 33:7, 8) . If the Scriptures be true; if the
   Gospel be not, indeed, as Pope Leo the tenth, profanely styled it, a
   lucrative fable; the more he accumulates riches, the more he rises in
   dignity, the more his influence extends, the more he is to be
   commiserated. He may have the reward he seeks. He may be admired and
   flattered; he may, for a season, be permitted to withstand and
   discountenance the efforts of the Lord's faithful servants; he may
   shine in the accomplishments of a scholar or a courtier. But nothing
   less than repentance, and faith in the Redeemer, whose name and cause
   he has dishonoured, can finally screen him from the full effect of that
   terrible denunciation -- Woe to the idle shepherd that forsaketh
   [neglects] the flock: The sword shall be upon his arm, and upon his
   right eye: His arm shall be clean dried up, and his right eye shall be
   utterly darkened (Zechariah 11:17)

   ---- O ----
     __________________________________________________________________

   Sermon XIV

   Rest for the Weary

   Matthew 11:28

   Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden,

   and I will give you rest.

   W hich shall we admire most -- the majesty, or the grace, conspicuous
   in this invitation? How soon would the greatest earthly monarch be
   impoverished, and his treasures utterly exhausted, if all, that are
   poor and miserable, had encouragement to apply freely to him, with a
   promise of relief, fully answerable to their wants and wishes! But the
   riches of Christ are unsearchable and inexhaustible. If millions and
   millions of distressed sinners seek to Him for relief, He has a
   sufficiency for them all. His mercy is infinite to pardon all their
   sins; His grace is infinite, to answer and exceed their utmost desires;
   His power is infinite, to help them in all their difficulties. A
   number, without number, have been thus waiting upon Him, from age to
   age; and not one of them has been sent away disappointed and empty. And
   the streams of His bounty are still flowing, and still full. Thus the
   sun, His brightest material image, has been the source of light to the
   earth, and to all its inhabitants, from the creation; and will be
   equally so to all succeeding generations, till time shall be no more.
   There is, indeed, an appointed hour, when the sun shall cease to shine,
   and the course of nature shall fail. But the true Sun, the Sun of
   Righteousness has no variableness or shadow of turning (Malachi 4:2 ;
   James 1:17) ; and they who depend upon Him, while in this world, shall
   rejoice in His light forever. Can we hesitate to accept of these words,
   as affording a full proof of the divine character, the proper Godhead
   of our Lord and Saviour; supposing only, that He meant what He said,
   and that He is able to make His promise good? Can a creature, however
   excellent and glorious, use this language? Can a creature discharge the
   debts, soothe the distresses, and satisfy the desires of every
   individual who looks to him? Who but the Lord God can raise up all that
   are bowed down, and comfort all that mourn? (Psalm 146:8; Isaiah 61:2).

   Again, as is His majesty, so is His mercy. In acts of grace amongst
   men, there are always some limitations. If a king proclaims a pardon to
   a rebellious nation, there are still exceptions. Some ringleaders are
   excluded. Either their crimes were too great to be forgiven, or their
   obstinacy, or influence, are supposed to be too great, to render their
   safety consistent with the safety of the State. But the Saviour
   excludes none, but those who wilfully exclude themselves. As no case is
   too hard for His power, so no person who applies to Him is shut out
   from His compassion. Him that cometh to Him, whatever his former
   character or conduct may have been, He will in no wise cast out (John
   6:37) This glorious exercise of sovereign mercy, is no less a divine
   attribute, than the power, by which He created the heavens and the
   earth. It is the consideration of His mercy in pardoning sin, and
   saving sinners, which causes that admiring exclamation of the Prophet,
   Who is a God like unto Thee? (Micah 7:18)

   This passage (including the two following verses) closes the first part
   of the Oratorio . In tracing the series of the Scriptures thus far, we
   have considered several signal prophecies which foretold His
   appearance; we have seen their accomplishment in His birth, and have (I
   hope) joined with the heavenly host, in ascribing glory to God in the
   highest, for this unspeakable gift and effect of His love. From the
   prophets we have learnt His characters, as the great Restorer, and the
   great Shepherd. The Evangelist proposes Him to our meditation here, in
   a gracious and inviting attitude, as opening His high commission,
   proclaiming His own sovereignty and power, and declaring His
   compassionate purpose and readiness, to give refreshment and rest to
   the weary and heavy laden.

   The principal points in the text are, the Invitation and the Promise.

   I.

   The Invitation is expressed in very general terms. Come unto me all ye
   that labour and are heavy laden. There is no qualifying or restraining
   clause, to discharge any person who is willing to accept it. Whoever
   hath an ear to hear, let him hear. Let him that is athirst come, and
   whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely (Revelation
   22:17) I cannot doubt, but these words authorize me to address myself
   to every person in the assembly. I speak first to you, who are spending
   your money for that which satisfieth not (Isaiah 55:2) : who are
   wearied in seeking happiness where it is not to be found, and in
   digging pits, and hewing out cisterns for yourselves, which will hold
   no water (Jeremiah 2:13) , and have hitherto been regardless of the
   fountain of living waters, which is always near you. While you are
   pursuing the wealth, or honours, of this world, or wasting your time
   and strength, in the indulgence of sensual appetites, and look no
   higher, are you, indeed, happy and satisfied? Do you find the paths in
   which you are led, or rather hurried and driven on, to be the paths of
   pleasantness and peace? (Proverbs 3:17) With what face can you charge
   the professors of religion with hypocrisy, if you pretend to
   satisfaction in these ways? We have trodden them far enough ourselves,
   to be assured that there are feelings in your heart which contradict
   your assertion. You know that you are not happy, and we know it
   likewise. Are you quite strangers to a secret wish, that you had never
   been born? Or that you could change condition with some of the brute
   creation? Are you not heavy laden, burdened with guilt, and fears, and
   forebodings; harassed with crosses, disappointments, and
   mortifications? Are you not often, at least sometimes, like children in
   the dark, afraid of being alone; unable to support the reflections
   which are forced upon you in a solitary hour, when you have nothing to
   amuse you? And while you seem so alert, and upon the wing, after every
   kind of dissipation within your reach, is not a chief motive that
   impels you, a desire, if possible, of hiding yourselves from
   yourselves, and of calling off your attention from those thoughts,
   which, like vultures, are ready to seize you, and prey upon you, the
   moment they find you unemployed. And how often do your poor expedients
   fail you, especially in a time of trouble, or on a sick bed? What
   comfort does the world afford you then? What relief do you then derive
   from the companions of your vain and gay hours? Most probably, at such
   a season, they stand aloof from you; the house of mourning, or the
   chamber of sickness, are no less unpleasing to them, than to yourself.
   They do not choose the pain of being reminded, by a sight of your
   distress, how soon the case may be their own. Or, if they visit you,
   you find them miserable comforters. But I have to speak to you of One,
   who is able to comfort you in all seasons, and under all circumstances;
   whose favour is better than life. And will you still refuse to hear His
   voice? What hard thing does the Lord require of you? Only to come to
   Him, for that peace and rest, to which you have hitherto been
   strangers. But though you are invited, I know that of yourselves you
   will not come; you will not, and, therefore, you cannot. Be assured,
   however, the invitation does not mock you; and if you finally refuse
   it, the fault will lie at your own doors. But may I not hope that you
   will refuse no longer? The preaching of the Gospel is His appointment,
   and has a great effect, when accompanied with His Holy Spirit, to make
   a willing people in the day of His power.

   There are others, however, to whom this invitation speaks more
   directly. The convinced sinner is heavy laden with the guilt of sin,
   and wearied with ineffectual strivings against it. He is weary of the
   yoke and burden of the law, when he can neither answer its commands
   with cheerful and acceptable obedience, nor see any way of escaping the
   penalty which is due to transgressors. He sighs earnestly and anxiously
   for pardon and liberty. If he has an interval of comparative peace and
   hope, it is more derived from some occasional fervour and liveliness in
   the frame of his spirit, than from the exercise of faith; and,
   therefore, as that fervour abates, (and it will not always remain at
   the same height) his fears return. If, in such a favoured moment, he
   feels little solicitation, or trouble, from the evil propensities of
   his heart, he is willing to hope they are subdued, and that they will
   trouble him no more; but his triumph is short, the next return of
   temptation revives all his difficulties, and he is again brought into
   bondage. For nothing but the knowledge of the Saviour, and the supplies
   of His Spirit, can give stable peace to the mind, or victory over sin.
   A repetition of these disappointments and changes, fixes a heavy burden
   and distress upon the mind. But here is help provided exactly suitable
   to the case. Comply with this invitation, Come to Him, and He will
   surely give you rest.

   But what is it to come to Christ? It is, to believe in Him, to apply to
   Him, to make His invitation and promise, our ground and warrant for
   putting our trust in Him. On another occasion, He said, He that cometh
   to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth in me shall never
   thirst (John 6:35) . The expressions are of the same import. When He
   was upon earth, many who came to Him, and even followed Him for a
   season, received no saving benefit from Him. Some came to Him from
   motives of malice and ill will, to ensnare or insult Him. Some followed
   Him for loaves and fishes. And of others, who were frequently near Him,
   He complained, Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life (John
   5:40) But they who were distressed and came to Him for relief, were not
   disappointed. To come to Him, therefore, implies a knowledge of His
   power, and an application for His help. To us He is not visible, but He
   is always near us. And as He appointed His disciples to meet Him in
   Galilee (Matthew 28:16) , previous to His ascension, so He has promised
   to be found of those who seek Him, and wait for Him, in certain means
   of His own institution. He is seated upon a Throne of Grace; He is to
   be sought in His Word, and where His people assemble in His name; for
   He has said, There will I be in the midst of them (Matthew 18:20) .
   They, therefore, who read His Word, frequent His ordinances and pray
   unto Him with a desire that they may know Him, and be remembered with
   the favour which He bears to His own people (Psalm 106:4) , answer the
   design of my text. They come to Him, and He assures them that, whoever
   they are, He will in no wise cast them out. If they thus come to Him,
   they will of course come out from the world and be separate (II Cor.
   6:17) . If they apply to Him for refuge, they will renounce all other
   refuge and dependence, and trust in Him alone; according to the words
   of the Prophet, Asshur shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses:
   neither will we say any more to the works of our hands, Ye are our
   gods: for in Thee the fatherless (the helpless and comfortless) findeth
   mercy (Hosea 14:3)

   II.

   The promise is, I will give you ^* rest. The word signifies both rest
   and refreshment. He gives a relief and cessation from former labour and
   bondage; and super-adds a peace, a joy, a comfort, which revives the
   weary spirit, and proves itself to be that very satisfaction which the
   soul had been ignorantly, and in vain, seeking, amongst the creatures,
   and objects of sense.

   ^* Compare I Corinthians 16:18 ; II Corinthians 7:13 ; Philemon verse 7

   This rest includes a freedom from the forebodings and distressing
   accusations of a guilty conscience; from the long and fruitless
   struggle between the will and the judgment; from the condemning power
   of the law; from the tyranny of irregular and inconsistent appetites;
   and from the dominion of pride and self, which make us unhappy in
   ourselves, and hated and despised by others. A freedom, likewise, from
   the cares and anxieties, which, in such an uncertain world as this,
   disquiet the minds of those who have no solid scriptural dependence
   upon God; and especially a freedom from the dread of death, and of the
   things which are beyond it. In these and other respects, the believer
   in Jesus enters into a present rest. He is under the guidance of
   infinite wisdom, and the protection of almighty power; he is permitted
   to cast all his cares upon the Lord (I Peter 5:7) , and is assured that
   the Lord cares for him. So far as he possesses by faith the spirit and
   liberty of his high calling, he is in perfect peace. The Prophet
   Jeremiah has given a beautiful description and illustration of this
   rest of a believer (Jeremiah 17:5-8) ; which is rendered more striking,
   by being contrasted with the miserable state of those who live without
   God in the world. Thus saith the LORD , Cursed is the man that trusteth
   in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the
   LORD . For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see
   when good cometh, but shall inhabit the parched places of the
   wilderness, in a salt land not inhabited. But, blessed is the man that
   trusteth in the LORD , and whose hope the LORD is. For he shall be like
   a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the
   river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green,
   and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease
   from yielding fruit.

   But besides rest , there is refreshment. There are pleasures and
   consolations, in that intercourse and communion with God, to which we
   are invited by the Gospel; which, both in kind and degree, are
   unspeakably superior to all that the world can bestow, and such as the
   world cannot deprive us of. For they have no necessary dependence upon
   outward situation or circumstances; they are compatible with poverty,
   sickness, and sufferings. They are often most sensibly sweet and
   lively, when the streams of creature comfort are at the lowest ebb.
   Many have been able to say with the Apostle, As the sufferings of
   Christ (those which we endure for His sake, or submit to from His hand)
   abound in us, so our consolation in Christ also aboundeth (II
   Corinthians 1:5) . The all-sufficient God, can increase these
   communications of comfort from Himself, to a degree beyond our ordinary
   conception; so as not only to support His people, under the most
   exquisite pains, but even to suspend and overpower all sense of pain,
   when the torment would otherwise be extreme. And He has sometimes been
   pleased to honour the fidelity of His servants, and to manifest His own
   faithfulness to them, by such an interposition. Our own martyrology
   affords one well-attested instance --that of Mr. Bainham, who suffered
   in the reign of Queen Mary. When he was in the fire, he addressed
   himself to his persecutors, to this effect: "You call for miracles in
   proof of our doctrine, now, behold one; I feel no more pain from these
   flames, than if I was laid upon a bed of roses." But in ordinary cases,
   and in all cases, they who taste how good the Lord is to them that seek
   Him, how He cheers them with the light of His countenance, and what
   supports He affords them in the hour of need, can without regret, part
   with the poor perishing pleasures of sin, and encounter all the
   difficulties they meet with in the path of duty. Whatever their
   profession of His name, and their attachment to His cause, may have
   cost them, they will acknowledge that it has made them ample amends.

   Come therefore unto Him, venture upon His gracious Word, and you shall
   find rest for your souls! Can the world out-bid this gracious offer?
   Can the world promise to give you rest, when you are burdened with
   trouble? When your cisterns fail, and your gourds wither? Or when you
   are terrified with the approach of death, when your pulse intermits,
   when you are about to take a final farewell of all you ever saw with
   your eyes, and an awful, unknown, untried, unchangeable eternity is
   opening upon your view. Such a moment most certainly awaits you; and
   when it arrives, if you die in your senses, and are not judicially
   given up to hardness and blindness of heart, you will assuredly
   tremble, if you never trembled before. Oh! be persuaded; may the Lord
   Himself persuade you to be timely wise, to seek Him now, while He is
   yet near. Lest that dreadful threatening should be your portion:
   Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand,
   and no man regarded; I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock
   when your fear cometh (Proverbs 1:24, 26)

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   Sermon XV

   Messiah's Easy Yoke

   Matthew 11: 29, 30

   Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in
   heart:

   and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my
   burden is light.

   T hough the influence of education and example, may dispose us to
   acknowledge the Gospel to be a revelation from God; it can only be
   rightly understood, or duly prized, by those persons who feel
   themselves in the circumstances of distress, which it is designed to
   relieve. No Israelite would think of fleeing to a city of refuge
   (Joshua 20:2. 3) , till, by having unwittingly slain a man, he was
   exposed to the resentment of the next of kin, the legal avenger of
   blood; but then, a sense of his danger, would induce him readily to
   avail himself of the appointed method of safety. The skill of a
   physician may be acknowledged, in general terms, by many; but he is
   applied to, only by the sick (Matthew 9:12) . Thus our Saviour's
   gracious invitation to come to Him for rest, will be little regarded,
   till we really feel ourselves weary and heavy laden. This is a
   principal reason why the Gospel is heard with so much indifference. For
   though sin be a grievous illness, and a hard bondage, yet one effect of
   it is, a strange stupidity and infatuation, which renders us (like a
   person in a delirium) insensible of our true state. It is a happy time,
   when the Holy Spirit, by His convincing power, removes that stupor,
   which, while it prevents us from fully perceiving our misery, renders
   us likewise indifferent to the only mean of deliverance. Such a
   conviction of the guilt, and desert of sin, is the first hopeful
   symptom in a sinner's case; but it is necessarily painful and
   distressing. It is not pleasant to be weary and heavy laden; but it
   awakens our attention to Him who says, Come unto me, and I will give
   you rest, and makes us willing to take His yoke upon us.

   Oxen are yoked to labour. From hence the yoke is a figurative
   expression to denote servitude. Our Lord seems to use it here, both to
   intimate our natural prejudices against His service, and to obviate
   them. Though He submitted to sufferings, reproach, and death, for our
   sakes; though He invites us, not because He has need of us, but because
   we have need of Him, and cannot be happy without Him, yet our
   ungrateful hearts think unkindly of Him. We conceive of Him as a hard
   Master; and suppose, that if we engage ourselves to Him, we must bid
   farewell to pleasure, and live under a continual constraint. His rule
   is deemed too strict, His laws too severe; and we imagine that we could
   be more happy upon our own plans, than by acceding to His. Such unjust,
   unfriendly, and dishonourable thoughts of Him, whose heart is full of
   tenderness, whose bowels melt with love, are strong proofs of our
   baseness, blindness, and depravity; yet still He continues His
   invitation, Come unto me --as if He had said, "Be not afraid of me.
   Only make the experiment, and you shall find, that what you have
   accounted my yoke is true liberty; and that in my service, which you
   have avoided as burdensome, there is no burden at all; for my ways are
   ways of pleasantness, and all my paths are peace. " I have a good hope,
   that many of my hearers can testify from their own happy experience,
   that (according to the beautiful expression in our liturgy) His service
   is perfect freedom.

   If we are really Christians, Jesus is our Master, our Lord, and we are
   His servants. It is in vain to call Him, Lord, Lord (Luke 6:46) ,
   unless we keep His commandments. They who know Him will love Him; and
   they who love Him, will desire to please Him, not by a course of
   service of their own devising, but by accepting His revealed will, as
   the standard and rule, to every part of which, they endeavour to
   conform in their tempers, and in their conduct. He is, likewise, our
   Master in another sense; that is, He is our great Teacher; if we submit
   to Him as such, we are His disciples or scholars. We cannot serve Him
   acceptably, unless we are taught by Him. The philosophers of old had
   their disciples, who imbibed their sentiments, and were therefore
   called after their names, as the Pythagoreans and Platonists, from ^*
   Pythagoras and ^* Plato. The general name of Christians, which was
   first assumed by the believers at Antioch (Acts 11:26) (possibly by
   divine directions) intimates that they are the professed disciples of
   Christ. If we wish to be truly wise, to be wise unto salvation, we must
   apply to Him. For in this sense, the disciple or scholar, cannot be
   above his Master (Luke 6:40) We can learn of men no more than they can
   teach us. But He says, Learn of me; and He cautions us against calling
   anyone "master," upon earth. He does, indeed, instruct His people by
   ministers and instruments; but unless He is pleased to super-add His
   influence, what we seem to learn from them only, will profit us but
   little. Nor are the best of them so thoroughly furnished, nor so free
   from mistake, as to deserve our implicit confidence. But they whom He
   descends to teach, shall learn what no instruction, merely human, can
   impart. Let us consider the peculiar, the unspeakable, advantages of
   being His scholars.

   ^* Pythagoras - Greek philosopher and mathematician (approx. 569 -475
   BC )

   ^* Plato - Greek philosopher (approx 429-347 BC)

   (1.)

   In the first place, this great Teacher can give the capacity ,
   requisite to the reception of His sublime instructions. There is no
   respect of excelling in human arts and sciences, without a previous,
   natural ability, suited to the subject. For instance, if a person has
   not an ear and taste for music, he will make but small proficiency
   under the best masters. It will be the same with respect to the
   mathematics, or any branch of science. A skilful master may improve and
   inform the scholar, if he be rightly disposed to learn; but he cannot
   communicate the disposition. But Jesus can open and enliven the dullest
   mind; He teaches the blind to see, and the deaf to hear. By nature we
   are intractable, and incapable of relishing divine truth, however
   advantageously proposed to us, by men like ourselves. But happy are His
   scholars! He enables them to surmount all difficulties. He takes away
   the heart of stone, subdues the most obstinate prejudices, enlightens
   the dark understanding, and inspires a genius, and a taste, for the
   sublime [resplendent, noble] and interesting lessons He proposes to
   them. In this respect, as in every other, there is none teacheth like
   Him (Job 36:22)

   (2.)

   He teaches the most important things . The subjects of human science
   are, comparatively, trivial and insignificant. We may be safely
   ignorant of them all. And we may acquire the knowledge of them all,
   without being wiser, or better, with respect to the concernments of our
   true happiness. Experience and observation abundantly confirm the
   remark of Solomon, That he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.
   The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear with hearing
   (Ecclesiastes 1:8, 18) . Unless the heart be seasoned and sanctified by
   grace, the sum total of all other acquisitions, is but vanity and
   vexation of spirit (Ecclesiastes 2:17) . Human learning will neither
   support the mind under trouble, nor weaken its attachment to worldly
   things, nor control its impetuous passions, nor overcome the fear of
   death. The confession of the learned ^* Grotius, towards the close of
   life spent in literary pursuits, is much more generally known, than
   properly attended to. He had deservedly a great name and reputation as
   a scholar; but his own reflection upon the result of his labours,
   expresses what he learnt, not from his books, and ordinary course of
   his studies, but from the Teacher I am commending to you. He lived to
   leave his testimony for the admonition of the learned, or to this
   effect. Ah, vitam prorfus perdide nihil agendo laboriose. "Alas! I have
   wasted my whole life, in taking much pains to no purpose." But Jesus
   makes His scholars wise unto eternal life, and reveals that knowledge
   to babes, to persons of weak and confined abilities, of which, the
   wisdom of the world can form no idea.

   ^* Hugo Grotius (1583-1645) [Hugo, Huigh or Hugeianus de Groot] was a
   towering figure in philosophy, law, political theory and associated
   fields during the seventeenth century and for hundreds of years
   afterwards.

   (3.)

   Other teachers, as I have already hinted, can only inform the head ;
   but His instruction influences the heart. Moral philosophers, as they
   are called, abound in fine words and plausible speeches, concerning the
   beauty of virtue, the fitness of things, temperance, benevolence, and
   equity. And their scholars learn to talk after them. But their fine and
   admired sentiments, are mere empty notions, destitute of life and
   efficacy, and frequently leave them as much under the tyranny of pride,
   passion, sensuality, envy, and malice, as any of the vulgar whom they
   despise for their ignorance. It is well known, to the disgrace of the
   morality which the world applauds, that some of their most admired
   sentimental writers, and teachers, have deserved to be numbered among
   the most abandoned and despicable of mankind. They have been slaves to
   the basest and most degrading appetites, and the tenor of their lives
   has been a marked contradiction to their fine-spun theories. But Jesus
   Christ effectually teaches His disciples to forsake and abhor whatever
   is contrary to rectitude or purity; and inspires them with love, power,
   and a sound mind. And if they do not talk of great things, they are
   enabled to perform them. Their lives are exemplary and useful, their
   deaths comfortable, and their memory is precious.

   (4.)

   The disciples of Jesus are, or may be, always learning. His providence
   and wisdom have so disposed things, in subservience to the purposes of
   His grace, that the whole world around them is a great school, and the
   events of every day, with which they are connected, have a tendency and
   suitability, if rightly improved [used to profit], to promote their
   instruction. Heavenly lessons are taught and illustrated by earthly
   objects; nor are we capable of understanding them at present, unless
   the mode of instruction be thus accommodated to our situation and
   weakness. The Scripture (John 3:12) points out to us a wonderful and
   beautiful analogy between the outward visible world of nature, and that
   spiritual state which is called the Kingdom of God; the former is like
   a book written in cypher, to which the Scripture is the key, which when
   we obtain, we have the other opened to us. Thus wherever they look,
   some object presents itself, which is adapted, either, to lead their
   thoughts directly to Jesus, or to explain or confirm some passage in
   His Word. So, likewise, the incidents of human life, the characters we
   know, the conversations we hear, the vicissitudes which take place in
   families, cities, and nations; in a word, the occurrences, which
   furnish the history of every day, afford a perpetual commentary on what
   the Scriptures teach, concerning the heart of man, and the state of the
   world as subject to vanity, and lying in wickedness; and thereby the
   great truths, which it behoves us to understand and remember, are more
   repeatedly and forcibly exhibited before our eyes, and brought home to
   our bosoms. It is the peculiar advantage of the disciples of Christ,
   that their lessons are always before them, and their Master always with
   them.

   (5.)

   Men who are otherwise competently qualified for teaching, in the
   branches of science they profess, often discourage and intimidate their
   scholars, by the impatience, austerity, and distance of their manner.
   They fail in that condescension and gentleness, which are necessary to
   engage the attention and affection of the timid and the volatile; or,
   gradually to soften and to shame the perverse. Even Moses, though
   eminent for his forbearance towards the obstinate people committed to
   his care, and though he loved them and longed for their welfare, was,
   at times, almost wearied by them (Numbers 11:11, 12) But Jesus, who
   knows beforehand the weakness, the dullness, and the refractoriness
   [obstinacy; stubbornness] of those whom He deigns to teach, to prevent
   their fears, is pleased to say, Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly.
   With what meekness did He converse among His disciples, while He was
   with them upon earth! He allowed them, at all times, a gracious freedom
   of access. He bore with their mistakes, reproved and corrected them
   with the greatest mildness, and taught them as they were able to bear,
   with a kind accommodation to their prejudices; leading them on, step by
   step, and waiting for the proper season of unfolding to them, those
   more difficult points, which, for a time, appeared to them to be hard
   sayings. And though He be now exalted upon His glorious Throne and
   clothed with majesty, still His heart is made of tenderness, and His
   compassions still abound. We are still directed to think of Him, not as
   one who cannot be touched with a feeling of our infirmities, but as
   exercising the same patience and sympathy towards His disciples now,
   which so signally marked His character, during His state of
   humiliation. The compliment of the orator to a Roman emperor, though
   excessive and absurd, when addressed to a sinful worm, that they who
   durst speak to him, were ignorant of his greatness; and they who durst
   not, were equally ignorant of his goodness, is a just and literal
   truth, if applied to our meek and gracious Saviour. If we duly consider
   His greatness alone, it seems almost presumptuous in such creatures as
   we are, to dare to take His holy name upon our polluted lips; but then,
   if we have a proportional sense of His unbounded goodness and grace,
   every difficulty is overruled, and we feel a liberty of drawing near to
   Him, though with reverence, and with the confidence of children, when
   they speak to and affectionate parent.

   A person may be meek, though in an elevated situation of life; but
   Jesus was likewise lowly. There was nothing in His external appearance,
   to intimidate the poor and the miserable from coming to Him. He was
   lowly or humble. Custom, which fixes the force and acceptation of
   words, will not readily allow us to speak of humility, as applicable to
   the great God. Yet it is said, He humbleth Himself to behold the things
   that are in heaven, and in earth (Psalm 113:6) . Humility, in
   strictness of speech, is an attribute of magnanimity; and indifference
   to the little distinctions by which weak and vulgar minds are effected.
   In the view of the High and Holy One who inhabits eternity (Isaiah
   57:15) , all distinctions that can obtain among creatures vanish; and
   He humbles Himself no less to notice the worship of an angel, than the
   fall of a sparrow to the ground. But we more usually express this idea
   by the term condescension . Such was the mind that was in Christ
   (Philippians 2:5) . It belonged to His dignity, as Lord of all, to look
   with an equal eye upon all His creatures. None could recommend
   themselves to Him, by their rank, wealth or abilities, the gifts of His
   own bounty; none were excluded from His regard, by the want of those
   things which are in estimation among men. And to stain the pride of
   human glory, He was pleased to assume an humble state. Though He was
   rich, He made Himself poor (II Corinthians 8:9) , for the sake of those
   whom He came into the world to save. In this respect, He teaches us by
   His example. He took upon Him the form of a servant (Philippians 2:7) ,
   a poor and obscure man, to abase our pride, to cure us of selfishness,
   and to reconcile us to the cross.

   The happy effect of His instructions upon those who receive them, is,
   Rest to their souls. This has been spoken to before; but as it is
   repeated in the text, I shall not entirely pass it over here.

   He gives rest to our souls

   -- By restoring us to our proper state of dependence upon God. A state
   of reconciliation and peace, and deliverance from guilt and fear. A
   state of subjection; for until our wills are duly subjected to the will
   of God, we can have no rest.

   -- By showing us the vanity of the world, and thereby putting an end to
   our wearisome desires and pursuits after things uncertain, frequently
   unattainable, always unsatisfying.

   -- By a communication of sublimer [more resplendent, more noble]
   pleasures and hopes, than the present state of things can possibly
   afford. And, lastly,

   -- By furnishing us with those aids, motives, and encouragements, which
   make our duty desirable, practicable, and pleasant.

   How truly then may it be said, that His yoke is easy, and His burden
   light! It is such a burden, as wings are to a bird, raising the soul
   above the low and grovelling attachments, to which it was once
   confined. Only they who are capable of contrasting it, with the
   distractions and miseries, the remorse and forebodings, of those who
   live without God in the world, can rightly judge of the value of this
   rest.

   But we are all by profession, His scholars. Ought we not seriously to
   enquire, what we have actually learned from Him? Surely the proud, the
   haughty, the voluptuous, and the worldly, though they have heard of His
   name, and may have attended on His institutions, have not hitherto sat
   at His feet, or drank of His Spirit. It requires no long train of
   examination to determine whether you have entered into His rest, or
   not. Or, if you have not yet attained it, whether you are seeking it in
   the ways of His appointment. It is a rest for the soul, it is a
   spiritual blessing, and therefore does not necessarily depend upon
   external circumstances. Without this rest , you must be restless and
   comfortless , in a palace If you have it, you may be, at least
   comparatively , happy in a dungeon Today , if not before today , while
   it is called today, hear His voice; and while He says to you by His
   Word, Come unto me, and learn of me, let your hearts answer, Behold we
   come unto Thee, for Thou art the LORD our God (Jeremiah 3:22)

   ---- O ----
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   Sermon XVI

   The Lamb of God, the Great Atonement

   John 1:29

   Behold the Lamb of God,

   which taketh away the sin of the world!

   G reat and marvellous are the works of the LORD God almighty! We live
   in the midst of them, and the little impression they make upon us,
   sufficiently proves our depravity. He is great in the very smallest;
   and there is not a plant, flower, or insect, but bears the signature of
   infinite wisdom and power. How sensibly then should we be affected by
   the consideration of the Whole , if sin had not blinded our
   understandings, and hardened our hearts! In the beginning, when all was
   dark, unformed, and waste, His powerful Word produced light, life,
   beauty, and order. He commanded the sun to shine, and the planets to
   roll. The immensity of creation is far beyond the reach of our
   conceptions. The innumerable stars, the worlds, which however large in
   themselves, are, from their remoteness, but barely visible, to us are
   of little more immediate, and known use, than to enlarge our idea of
   the greatness of their Author. Small, indeed, is the knowledge we have
   of our own system; but we know enough to render our indifference
   inexcusable. The glory of the sun must strike every eye, and in this
   enlightened age, there are few persons, but have some ideas of the
   magnitude of the planets, and the rapidity, and regularity of their
   motions. Farther, the rich variety which adorns this lower creation,
   the dependence and relation of the several parts, and their general
   subservience to the accommodation of man, the principal inhabitant,
   together with the preservation of individuals, and the continuance of
   every species of animals, are subjects, not above the reach of common
   capacities, and which afford almost endless and infinite scope for
   reflection and admiration. But the bulk of mankind regard them not. The
   vicissitudes of day and night, and of the revolving seasons, are, to
   them, matters of course; as if they followed each other without either
   cause or design. And though the philosophers, who, professedly, attach
   themselves to the study of the works of nature, are overwhelmed by the
   traces of a wisdom and arrangement, which they are unable to
   comprehend; yet few of them are led to reverential thoughts of God, by
   their boasted knowledge of His creatures. Thus men live without God in
   the world, though they live, and move, and have their being in Him, and
   are incessantly surrounded, by the most striking proofs of His presence
   and energy. Perhaps an earthquake, or a hurricane, by awakening their
   fears, may force upon their minds a conviction of His power over them,
   and excite an occasional momentary application to Him; but when they
   think the danger over, they relapse into their former stupidity.

   What can engage the attention, or soften the obduracy, of such
   creatures? Behold, one wonder more, greater than all the former; the
   last, the highest effect of divine goodness! God has so loved
   rebellious, ungrateful sinners, as to appoint them a Saviour in the
   person of His only Son. The prophets foresaw His manifestation in the
   flesh, and foretold the happy consequences --that His presence would
   change the wilderness into a fruitful field, that He was coming to give
   sight to the blind, and life to the dead; to set the captive at
   liberty; to unloose the heavy burden; and to bless the weary with rest.
   But this change was not to be wrought merely by a word of power, as
   when He said, Let there be light, and there was light (Genesis 1:3) It
   was great, to speak the world from nothing; but far greater, to redeem
   sinners from misery. The salvation, of which He is the Author, though
   free to us, must cost Him dear. Before the mercy of God can be actually
   dispensed to such offenders, the rights of His justice, the demands of
   His law, and the honour of His government, must be provided for. The
   early institution and long continued use, of sacrifices, had clearly
   pointed out the necessity of an atonement; but the real and proper
   Atonement could only be made by MESSIAH. The blood of slaughtered
   animals could not take away sin, nor display the righteousness of God
   in pardoning it. This was the appointed, covenanted work of MESSIAH,
   and He alone could perform it. With this view He had said, Lo I come
   (Psalm 40:7) . And it was in this view, when John saw Him, that he
   pointed Him out to his disciples, saying, Behold the Lamb of God!

   Three points offer to our consideration,

   I. The title here given to MESSIAH, The Lamb of God.

   II. The efficacy of His sacrifice, He takes away sin.

   III. The extent of it, The sin of the world

   I.

   He is the Lamb of God. The paschal lamb, and the lambs which were daily
   offered, morning and evening, according to the law of Moses, were of
   God's appointment; but this Lamb was, likewise, of His providing. The
   others were but types [prophetic symbols]. Though many, they were all
   insufficient to cleanse the offerers from guilt (Hebrews 10:1) ; and
   they were all superseded, when MESSIAH, by the one offering of Himself,
   once for all, made an end of sin, and brought in an everlasting
   righteousness, in favour of all who believe in His name.

   This title, therefore, The Lamb of God, refers to His voluntary
   substitution for sinners, that by His sufferings and death, they who
   deserved to die, might obtain eternal life through Him, and for His
   sake. Mankind were universally chargeable with transgression of the law
   of God, and were in a state of alienation from Him. A penalty, in case
   of disobedience, was annexed to the law they had broken; to which,
   they, as offenders, were therefore obnoxious. Though it would be
   presumptuous in such worms as we are, to determine, upon principles of
   our own, whether the sovereign Judge of the universe could,
   consistently with His own glory, remit this penalty without
   satisfaction, or not; yet, since He has favoured us with a revelation
   of His will upon this point, we may speak more confidently, and affirm
   that it was not consistent with His truth and holiness, and that of His
   moral government to do it, because this is His own declaration. We may
   now be assured, that the forgiveness of one sinner, and, indeed, of one
   sin, by an act of mere mercy, and without any interposing
   consideration, was incompatible with the inflexibility of the law, and
   the truth and justice of the Lawgiver. But mercy designed the
   forgiveness of innumerable sinners, each of them charged with
   innumerable sins. And the declaration, that God is thus merciful, was
   to be recorded and publicly known, through a long succession of ages,
   and to extend to sins not yet committed. An act of grace so general and
   unreserved, might lead men (not to speak of superior intelligences) to
   disparaging thoughts of the holiness of God, and might even encourage
   them to sin with hope of impunity, if not connected with some
   provision, which might show, that the exercise of His mercy was in full
   harmony with the honour of all His perfections. How God could be just,
   and yet justify those whom His own righteous constitution condemned,
   was a difficulty too great for finite understandings to solve (Romans
   3:26) But herein is God glorious. His wisdom propounded, and His love
   afforded, the adequate, the only possible expedient. He revealed to our
   first parents His purpose, which in the fulness of time He
   accomplished, of sending forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the
   law, to redeem sinners from the curse of the law (Galatians 4:4, 5) ,
   by sustaining it for them. Considering the dignity of His person, and
   the perfection of His obedience, His sufferings and death for sins not
   His own, displayed the heinousness of sin, and the severe displeasure
   of God against it, in a much stronger light, than the execution of the
   sentence upon the offenders could possibly do. It displays, likewise,
   the justice of this sentence, since neither the dignity, nor the
   holiness of the Surety, could exempt Him from suffering; and that
   though He was the Beloved of God, He was not spared. This is what I
   understand by atonement and satisfaction for sin.

   II.

   The efficacy of this Atonement is complete. The Lamb of God, thus
   slain, takes away sin; both with respect to its guilt, and its
   defilement. The Israelites, by looking to the brazen serpent (Numbers
   21:9) , were saved from death and healed of their wounds. The Lamb of
   God is an object, proposed not to our bodily sight, but to the eye of
   the mind, which indeed, in fallen man, is naturally blind; but the
   Gospel message, enlivened by the powerful agency of the Holy Spirit, is
   appointed to open it. He who thus sees the Son, and believes on Him
   (John 6:40) , is delivered from guilt and condemnation, is justified
   from all sin. He is warranted to plead the sufferings of the Lamb of
   God in bar of his own; the whole of the Saviour's obedience unto death,
   as the ground and title of his acceptance unto life. Guilt or
   obnoxiousness to punishment being removed, the soul has an open way of
   access to God, and is prepared to receive blessings from Him. For as
   the sun, the fountain of light, fills the eye that was before blind,
   the instant it receives sight; so God, who is the Fountain of Goodness,
   enlightens all His intelligent creatures according to their capacity,
   unless they are blinded by sin, and rendered incapable of communion
   with Him. The Saviour is now received and enthroned in the heart, and
   from His fulness, the life of grace is derived and maintained. Thus not
   only the guilt, but the love of sin, and its dominion, are taken away,
   subdued by grace, and cordially [sincerely] renounced by the believing,
   pardoned sinner. The blood, which frees him from distress, preserves a
   memory of the great danger and misery, from which he has been
   delivered, warm upon his heart; inspires him with gratitude to his
   Deliverer; and furnishes with an abiding constraining motive, for
   cheerful and universal obedience.

   III.

   The designed extent of this gratuitous removal of sin, by the oblation
   of the Lamb of God, is expressed in a large and indefinite manner. He
   takes away the sin of the world. Many of my hearers need not be told,
   what fierce and voluminous disputes have been maintained, concerning
   the extent of the death of Christ. I am afraid the advantages of such
   controversies, have not been answerable to the zeal of the disputants.
   For myself, I wish to be known, by no name, but that of a Christian;
   and implicitly to adopt no system but the Bible. I usually endeavour to
   preach to the heart and the conscience, and to wave [avoid], as much as
   I can, all controversial points. But as the subject now lies directly
   before me, I shall embrace the occasion, and simply, and honestly, open
   to you the sentiments of my heart concerning it.

   If it be inferred that He actually designed and intended the salvation
   of all men, because the death of Christ is here said to take away the
   sin of the world, or, (as this Evangelist expresses it in another
   place) the whole world (I John 2:2) , such an inference would be
   contradicted by fact. For it is certain that all men will not be saved
   (Matthew 7:13, 14) It is to be feared, that the greater part of those,
   to whom the Word of His salvation is sent, perish in their sins. If,
   therefore, He cannot be disappointed of His purpose, since many do
   perish, it could not be His fixed design, that all men should be
   finally and absolutely saved.

   The exceeding great number, once dead in trespasses and sins, who shall
   be found on His right hand, at the great Day of His appearance, are
   frequently spoken of in appropriate and peculiar language. They are
   styled His sheep (John 10:11, 16) , for whom He laid down His life; His
   elect (Mark 13:27) , His own (John 13:1) ; those to whom it is given to
   believe in His name (Philippians 1:29) , and, concerning whom, it was
   the Father's good pleasure to predestinate them to the adoption of
   children (Eph. 1:5) By nature, they are children of wrath, even as
   others (Ephesians 2:3) ; and no more disposed in themselves to receive
   the truth, than those who obstinately and finally reject it. Whenever
   they become willing they are made so, in a day of divine power (Psalm
   110:3) ; and wherein they differ, it is grace that makes them to differ
   (I Corinthians 4:7) Passages in the Scriptures to this purpose, are
   innumerable; and though much ingenuity has been employed to soften
   them, and to make them speak the language of an hypothesis, they are so
   plain in themselves, that he who runs may read. It is not the language
   of conjecture, but of inspiration, that they whom the Lord God did
   foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His
   Son (Romans 8:29) . And though some serious persons perplex themselves
   with needless and painful reasonings, with respect to the sovereignty
   of God in His conduct towards mankind, they all, if truly spiritual and
   enlightened, stand upon this very ground, in their own experience.
   Many, who seem to differ from us in the way of argumentation, perfectly
   accord with us, when they simply speak of what God has done for their
   souls. They know, and acknowledge as readily as we, that they were
   first found of Him when they sought Him not; and that otherwise, they
   neither should, nor could, have sought Him at all; nor can they give
   any better reason than this, why they are saved out of the world. That
   it pleased the LORD to make them His people (I Samuel 12:22)

   But, on the other hand, I cannot think the sense of the expression is
   sufficiently explained, by saying, That the world, and the whole world,
   is spoken of, to teach us, that the sacrifice of The Lamb of God was
   not confined, like the Levitical offerings, to the nation of Israel
   only; but that it is available for the sins of a determinate number of
   persons, called the Elect , who are scattered among many nations, and
   found, under a great variety of states and circumstances in human life.
   This is, undoubtedly, the truth, so far as it goes; but not, I
   apprehend, fully agreeable to the Scriptural manner or representation.
   That there is an election of grace, we are plainly taught; yet, it is
   not said, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save the Elect, but
   that He came to save sinners, to seek and to save them that are lost (I
   Timothy 1:15; Luke 19:10) . Upon this ground, I conceive that ministers
   have a warrant to preach the Gospel to every creature, and to address
   the conscience of every man in the sight of God: and that every person
   who hears this Gospel, has thereby a warrant, an encouragement, yea, a
   command, to apply to Jesus Christ for salvation. And that they who
   refuse, thereby exclude themselves, and perish, not because they never
   had, nor possibly could have any interest in His atonement, but,
   simply, because they will not come unto Him that they may have life. I
   know something of the cavils and curious reasonings which obtain upon
   this subject, and I know I may be pressed with difficulties, which I
   cannot resolve to the full satisfaction of enquiring and speculative
   spirits. I am not disheartened, by meeting with some things, beyond the
   grasp of my scanty powers, in a book, which I believe to be inspired by
   Him, whose ways and thoughts are higher than ours, as the heavens are
   higher than the earth (Isaiah 55:8, 9) But, I believe, that vain
   reasonings, self-will, an attachment to names and parties, and a
   disposition to draw our sentiments from human systems, rather than to
   form them by a close and humble study of the Bible, with prayer for
   divine teaching, are the chief sources of our perplexities and
   disputes.

   The extent of Atonement is frequently represented, as if a calculation
   had been made, how much suffering was necessary for the Surety to
   endure, in order to exactly expiate the aggregate number of all the
   sins, of all the Elect; that so much He suffered precisely, and no
   more; and that when this requisition was completely answered, He said,
   It is finished, bowed His head, and gave up the ghost (John 19:30) But
   this nicety of computation does not seem analogous to that unbounded
   magnificence and grandeur, which overwhelms the attentive mind, in the
   contemplation of the divine conduct of the natural world. When God
   waters the earth, He waters it abundantly (Psalm 65:10) . He does not
   restrain the rain to cultivated, or improvable spots, but, with a
   profusion of bounty worthy of Himself, His clouds pour down water, with
   equal abundance, upon the barren mountain, the lonely desert, and the
   pathless ocean. Why may we not say with the Scripture, that Christ died
   to declare the righteousness of God (Romans 3:25, 26) , to manifest
   that He is just in justifying the ungodly, who believe in Jesus? And
   for anything we know to the contrary, the very same display of the evil
   and demerit of sin, by the Redeemer's agonies and death, might have
   been equally necessary, though the number of the Elect were much
   smaller, than it will appear to be, when they shall all meet before the
   throne of glory. If God had formed this earth for the residence of one
   man only; had it been His pleasure to afford him the same kind and
   degree of light which we enjoy; the same glorious sun, which is now
   sufficient to enlighten and comfort the millions of mankind, would have
   been necessary for the accommodation of that one person. So, perhaps,
   had it been His pleasure to save but one sinner, in a way that should
   give the highest possible discovery of His justice, and of His mercy,
   this could have been done by no other method, than that which He has
   chosen for the salvation of the innumerable multitudes, who will, in
   the Great Day, unite in the song of praise, to the Lamb who loved them,
   and washed them from their sins in His own blood. As the sun has a
   sufficiency of light for the eyes, (if there were so many capable of
   beholding it) equal in number to the leaves on the trees, and the
   blades of grass that grow upon the earth; so in Jesus, the Sun of
   Righteousness, there is plenteous Redemption, He is rich in mercy to
   all that call upon Him (Psalm 130:7 ; Romans 10:12) ; and He invites
   sinners, without exception, to whom the Word of His salvation is sent,
   even to the ends of the earth, to look unto Him, that they may be saved
   (Isaiah 45:22)

   Under the Gospel dispensation, and by it, God commands all men,
   everywhere, to repent (Acts 17:30) . All men, therefore, everywhere,
   are encouraged to hope for forgiveness, according to the constitution
   prescribed by the Gospel; otherwise repentance would be both
   impracticable and unavailing. And therefore, the command to repent,
   implies a warrant to believe in the name of Jesus, as taking away the
   sin of the world. Let it not be said, that to call upon men to believe,
   which is an act beyond their natural power, is to mock them. There are
   prescribed means for the obtaining of faith, which it is not beyond
   their natural power to comply with, if they are not wilfully obstinate.
   We have the Word of God for our authority. God cannot be mocked
   (Galatians 6:7) , neither doth He mock His creatures. Our Lord did not
   mock the young Ruler, when He told him, that if he would sell his
   possession upon earth, and follow Him, he should have treasure in
   Heaven (Luke 18:22) Had this Ruler no power to sell his possessions? I
   doubt not, but that he himself, thought he had power to sell them if he
   pleased. But while he loved his money better than he loved Christ, and
   preferred earthly treasures to heavenly, he had no will to part with
   them. And a want of will, in a moral agent, is a want of power in the
   strongest sense. Let none presume to offer such excuses to their Maker,
   as they would not accept in their own concerns. If you say of a man, he
   is such a liar that he cannot speak a word of truth; so profane that he
   cannot speak without an oath; so dishonest that he cannot omit one
   opportunity of cheating or stealing; do you speak of his disability to
   do good, as an extenuation, and because you think it renders him free
   of blame? Surely you think the more he is disinclined to do good; and
   habituated to evil, the worse he is. A man that can speak lies and
   perjury, that can deceive and rob, but is such an enemy to truth and
   goodness, that he can do nothing that is kind or upright, must be a
   shocking character indeed! Judge not more favourably of yourself if you
   can love the world and sensual pleasure, but cannot love God. If you
   can fear a worm like yourself, but live without the fear of God; if you
   can boldly trample upon His laws, but will not, and therefore cannot
   humble yourself before Him, and seek His mercy, in the way of His
   appointment. We cannot ascribe too much to the grace of God ; but we
   should be careful , that under a semblance of exalting His grace , we
   do not furnish the slothful and unfaithful with excuses for their
   wilfulness and wickedness (Matthew 25:16) . God is gracious; but let
   man be justly responsible for his own evil, and not presume to state
   his case so, as would, by just consequence, represent the holy God as
   being the cause of sin, which He hates and forbids.

   The whole may be summed up in two points, which I commend to your
   serious attention; which it must be the business of my life to enforce,
   and which, I trust, I shall not repent of having enforced, either at
   the hour of death, or in the Day of Judgment, when I must give an
   account of my preaching, and you of what you have heard in this place.

   (1.)

   That salvation is, indeed, wholly of grace. The gift of a Saviour, the
   first dawn of light into the heart, all the supports and supplies
   needful for carrying on the work, from the foundation to the top-stone,
   all is of free grace.

   (2.)

   That now the Lamb of God is preached to you, as taking away the sin of
   the world, if you reject Him, which may the Lord forbid! I say, if you
   reject Him, your blood will be upon your own head. You are warned, you
   are invited. Dare not to say, Why doth He yet find fault, for who hath
   resisted His will? (Romans 9:19) . If He will save me, I shall be
   saved; if not, what can I do? God is merciful, but He is also holy and
   just; He is almighty, but His infinite power is combined with wisdom,
   and regulated by the great designs of His government. He can do,
   innumerable things, which, He will not do. What He will do (so far as
   we are concerned) His Word informs us, and not one jot or tittle
   thereof shall fail (Matthew 5:18)

   ---- O ----
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   Sermon XVII

   Messiah Despised, and Rejected of Men

   Isaiah 53:3

   He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrow, and acquainted
   with grief.

   T he heathen moralists, ignorant of the character and perfections of
   God, the true dignity and immorality of the soul, and the root and
   extent of human depravity, had no better foundation, for what they call
   virtue, than pride; no higher aim in their regulations, than the
   interests of society, and the conduct of civil life. They expressed,
   indeed, occasionally, some sentiments of a superior kind; but these,
   however just and valuable upon the principles of revelation, were
   delusive and impracticable upon their own. And ^* Brutus, one of the
   most admired characters of antiquity, confessed, just before he put an
   end to his own life, that having long been enamoured of virtue as a
   real good, he found it, at last, to be but an empty name. But though
   they had so little satisfaction, or success, in the pursuit of virtue,
   they were so pleased with the idea they formed of it, as generally to
   supposed, that if virtue could become visible, it would necessarily
   engage the esteem and admiration of mankind.

   ^* Marcus Junius Brutus - Roman politician (85 - 42 BC)

   There was, however, one remarkable exception to this opinion. The
   wisdom of ^* Socrates, seems to have been, in many respects, different
   from that of the bulk of their philosophers. Socrates having expressed
   his idea of a perfect character, a truly virtuous man, ventured to
   predict the reception such a person, if such a one could ever be found,
   would meet with from the world. And he thought that his practice would
   be so dissimilar to that of other men; his testimony against their
   wickedness so strong, and his endeavours to reform them, so importunate
   and unwelcome, that, instead of being universally admired, he would be
   disliked and hated. That mankind were too degenerate, and too
   obstinate, to bear, either the example, or the reproof, of such a
   person; and would most probably revile and persecute him, and put him
   to death as an enemy to their peace. ^* Socrates - Greek philosopher
   (469-399 BC)

   In this instance, the judgment of Socrates accords with the language of
   the Old, and with the history of the New Testament. MESSIAH was this
   perfect character. Isaiah describes Him as such. Isaiah likewise
   foresaw how He would be treated, and foretold that He would be numbered
   with transgressors ; despised and rejected, by the very people who were
   eye-witnesses of His upright and benevolent conduct. And thus, in fact,
   it proved. When Jesus was upon earth, true virtue and goodness were
   displayed; and thereby, the wickedness of man became signally
   conspicuous. For they, among whom He was conversant, preferred a robber
   and a murderer to Him (John 18:40) They preferred Barabbas, who had
   been justly doomed to die for enormous crimes; and they nailed Jesus to
   the cross in his stead.

   When MESSIAH appeared, the Jews professed to blame the wickedness of
   their forefathers, who had opposed and slain the prophets. If they
   regretted the ill-treatment the servants of God had formerly received,
   might it not be hoped that they would reverence His Son? (Matthew
   21:37), concerning whom, under this character of MESSIAH, their
   expectations were raised by the Scriptures which were read in their
   synagogues every Sabbath-day?

   But He was despised and rejected of men. Angels sang praises at His
   birth, but men despised Him. He took not upon Him the nature of angels,
   but of man; yet men rejected him. Sinful, helpless men, rejected and
   despised their only Saviour. He came to His own, but His own received
   Him not. How lamentable and fatal was their obstinacy! Pretended
   messiahs were eagerly regarded and followed by them (John 5:43) , but
   the true MESSIAH was despised and rejected of men!

   Let us consider the clauses of our text separately, in the order in
   which we read them,

   I.

   He was despised and rejected of men. It would be a great mistake to
   imagine that the Jews were the only people capable of this ingratitude
   and obstinacy. If any person here thinks, Surely I would not have
   despised Him, had I seen His wonderful works, and heard Him speak as
   never man spake;' possibly that thought may prove you to be of the very
   same spirit with those who, while they thirsted for His blood,
   ignorantly presumed that, if they had lived in the days of their
   fore-fathers, they would not have joined with them in persecuting the
   prophets (Matthew 23:31) . The prejudices which operated so strongly
   against our Lord's mission and ministry, were not peculiar to the
   people of one age, or country, but such as are deeply rooted in the
   nature of fallen man. The same principles which influenced the Jews to
   oppose and despise His person, still influence multitudes to slight and
   oppose the doctrine which He taught, and which He commanded His
   disciples to preach, and to perpetuate to the end of the world. In
   proof of this, it will be sufficient to assign some of the principal
   causes of the contempt and hatred which He met with from the men of
   that generation.

   (1.)

   They despised Him for, what they accounted, the meanness of His
   appearance. Though rich in Himself, He became poor for our sakes, and
   His poverty made Him contemptible in their eyes. They expected MESSIAH
   would appear with external pomp and power. But when they saw Him, they
   scorned Him, saying, Is not this the carpenter's son? (Matthew 13:55)
   He who had not money to pay the tribute demanded of Him (Matthew 17:27)
   , nor a house wherein to lay His head, was of small esteem with those
   who were covetous, proud of worldly distinctions, and fond of the
   praise and admiration of men.

   (2.)

   Their contempt was heightened when this poor man publicly asserted His
   proper character and claim, demanded their attention and homage, and
   styled Himself in a peculiar sense the Son of God, the resurrection and
   the Life (John 5:18; 11:25) . For this seeming inconsistence between
   the appearance He made, and the honours He affirmed, they treated Him
   as a demoniac and a madman (John 10:20) Their language strongly
   expressed their sentiments of Him, when they asked Him with disdain,
   Art thou greater than our father Abraham? Whom makest thou thyself?
   (John 8:53)

   (3.)

   They objected to Him the low state and former characters of His
   followers . Some of them were of low rank in life. The most of those
   who constantly attended Him were poor fishermen. Others had been of bad
   repute, publicans and open sinners. For this they reproached Him, and
   thought they were fully justified in their contempt, while they could
   say, Have any of the rulers or Pharisees believed on Him? (John 7:48)

   (4.)

   They were farther exasperated against Him, by the authority and
   severity with which He taught. It is true, He was gentle and meek to
   all who felt their need of His help, or sincerely desired His
   instruction. He received them without exception, and treated them with
   the greatest tenderness. But He vindicated the honour of the law of
   God, from the corrupt doctrine and tradition of their professed
   teachers. He exposed and unmasked the hypocrisy of their most admired
   characters, and compared the men who were in the highest reputation,
   for wisdom and sanctity, to whited sepulchres, warning the people
   against them as blind guides and deceivers.

   (5.)

   These blind guides strengthened the prejudices of their blind followers
   against Him, by misrepresentation. They attempted to avail themselves
   of the Scripture, when they thought it would serve their purpose. They,
   eagerly, made the most of a prevailing mistake, that Jesus was born in
   Galilee, because He was brought up in Nazareth from His infancy. This
   they urged as a proof that He could not be the MESSIAH , whom the
   prophets had declared was to be born at Bethlehem in Judea. When He
   healed diseases on the Sabbath day, they represented the effects of His
   compassion, as a breach of that strict observance of the Sabbath, which
   was enjoined by the law of Moses, and that therefore He could not be of
   God (John 9:16) . And when they were not able to deny the reality of
   His wonderful works, they ascribed them to the agency of Satan (Matthew
   12:24) We, at this distance of time, can easily perceive the folly, and
   madness of their attempts. But the Scribes and Pharisees were the
   public, authorized doctors and teachers of the people, and were
   supported by the ecclesiastical and civil power; or, as we should now
   express it, by church and state. The people were not apt to suspect
   their leaders, whom they thought wiser, and better than themselves. Or,
   if sometimes they hesitated, were impressed by the majesty of His
   words, or the evidence of His miraculous works, and constrained to say,
   Is not this the Son of David? (Matthew 12:23) , they were soon
   intimidated and silenced by canons and laws. For it was carefully
   enacted, in order to keep them in subjection, that whoever acknowledged
   Him should be put out of the synagogues (John 9:22; 12:42) ; that is,
   according to our modern language, excommunicated. This among the Jews,
   as it has often since been among Christians, was a punishment which
   drew after it terrible consequences. A man must be in good earnest, or
   rather taught and supported by the grace of God, who could resist such
   arguments as these.

   These things are easily applicable to the church history of succeeding
   times. The Gospel of Christ has often been, and is to this day,
   rejected and despised upon similar grounds. Its simplicity and
   plainness, and the manner of its proposal, adapted to the use and
   capacity of the vulgar, offend those who are wise in their own conceit,
   and proud of their understanding and taste. At the same time they are
   equally disgusted by the sublimity [high spiritual and moral worth] of
   its doctrines, which will not submit to the test of their vain
   reasonings, and can only be received by humble faith. The faithfulness
   and freedom which its ministers are enjoined to use, give great offence
   likewise. And because they cannot comply with the humours of those, who
   wish them to prophesy smooth things, and deceits, they are accounted
   censorious, and uncharitable, and disturbers of the public peace.
   Again, the dislike and opposition it frequently meets with from persons
   of great titles and high stations, deter multitudes from pursuing those
   inquiries, which some conviction of the truth would prompt them to,
   were they not discouraged by the fear of consequences. How often has
   the dread of the displeasure of doctors, bishops, universities,
   councils, and popes, or an ignorant, slavish deference to their
   judgments or decisions, prevented people from following that light,
   which had begun to force itself upon their consciences? How few among
   those of reputation for wisdom and learning, how few of the great, and
   opulent, have encouraged, or espoused, the doctrine of the cross? It
   is, therefore, more properly, a subject for lamentation, than for
   wonder, that this way is despised, and almost everywhere spoken against
   (Acts 28:22) Farther, as the bulk of those who embrace it are of low
   condition, so, many of them, are as free to confess to the praise of
   the grace of God, as others can be to urge it to their reproach, that
   till they knew and received this despised Gospel, their characters and
   practices were vile. Lastly, what unhappy subtlety has been employed,
   in a way of reason and argument, with an appeal to detached and
   perverted passages of Scripture, to misrepresent the work of the Holy
   Spirit, as folly, hypocrisy, or enthusiasm [fanaticism]; and even to
   charge the Gospel itself with giving encouragement to licentious
   conduct? In short, the spirit of the world, the arts and influence of
   designing men, are so powerful, that what our Lord said in Judea, holds
   equally true in Christendom, Blessed is he who is not offended in Me!
   (Matthew 11:6)

   I have reserved, to a distinct paragraph, the mention of one cause why
   the Gospel is frequently despised and reproached. Because though it be
   no less unjust or unreasonable, than those which I have recited, it is
   more immediately incumbent upon all who name the name of Christ, to
   prevent it as much as possible ; I mean , the scandal which arises from
   the miscarriages of those who profess it. Offences of this kind must
   come, but woe to them by whom they come (Matthew 18:7) . There were
   pretended Christians, even in the apostles' times, who were enemies to
   the cross of Christ (Philippians 3:18) , and by their evil conduct,
   caused the ways of truth to be evil spoken of. And, therefore, we
   cannot be surprised that there are such persons now. But you that love
   the LORD , hate evil (Psalm 97:10) There are many who watch for your
   halting, and are ready to say, There! there! so we would have it. It
   will be in vain for ministers to declare that the doctrines of grace
   are doctrines according to godliness, unless our testimony is supported
   by the tempers and conduct of the people: the world will probably
   judge, rather by what they see in you, than what they hear from us. Nor
   will it suffice that they cannot say you are an adulterer, a drunkard,
   a miser, or a cheat. If you espouse our doctrine, they will expect you
   to be humble, meek, patient, and benevolent; to find integrity in all
   your dealings, and a punctual discharge of your duty in every branch of
   relative life. What must the world think of our principles, if they who
   avow them are fretful, envious, censorious, discontented, slothful, or
   unfaithful; or, if they are niggardly and hard-hearted, or voluptuous
   and dissolute, or implacable and revengeful! They who thus lay
   stumbling-blocks before the blind (Leviticus 19:14) , and confirm the
   prejudices of the ignorant, will have much to answer for.

   II.

   It is farther said, He was a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.
   He was surrounded with sorrows on every side, and grief was His
   intimate, inseparable companion. Surely, this consideration, if any,
   will animate us to endure the cross, and to despise the shame we may be
   exposed to for His sake. The illustration of this subject will offer
   more fully in the next sequel It shall suffice, at present, to offer
   three causes for His continual sorrows.

   (1.)

   The outward course of life , to which He submitted for the sake of
   sinners, exposed Him to want, weariness, contempt, and opposition; and
   though His resignation, and patience were perfect, yet He was truly a
   man, and partaker of our nature with all its affections and
   sensibilities, which do not imply sin. His feelings, therefore, were
   human, similar to our own in similar circumstances, and were often
   painfully exercised. Once and again, we read that He was hungry and had
   no food; He was thirsty and was nearly refused a little water to drink,
   when wearied with His journeying in the heat of the day (Matthew 4:2;
   21:18; John 4:9) . His character was aspersed, His person despised, His
   words insidiously wrested, His actions misrepresented. He was
   misunderstood even by His friends, betrayed by one disciple, denied by
   another, and forsaken by the rest (John 7:5) It is hardly possible for
   His followers to meet with any outward trial, which may not remind
   them, of some part of the history of their Lord and Master, who left
   them an example of suffering, that they should cheerfully follow His
   steps (I Peter 2:21)

   (2.)

   His perfect knowledge and foresight of those sufferings, which we,
   emphatically, call His Passion. How often does He speak of them, and
   describe the circumstances as if they were actually present? Futurity,
   is, in mercy, concealed from us. It would often bereave us from all
   present comfort, if we knew, what the next year, or, perhaps, what the
   next day would bring forth. If some of you, could have foreseen, many
   years ago, what you have since been brought through, you would probably
   have sunk under the apprehension; or, the stoutest of us, might sink
   now, if we were certainly to know what may be yet before us. But Jesus,
   long before He made atonement for our sins, had counted the cost. And
   though His love determined Him to save us, the prospect which was
   continually present to His view, of the approaching unutterable agonies
   of His soul, of all that He must endure from God, from the powers of
   darkness and from wicked men, when He should be made a curse for us to
   redeem us from the curse of the law (Galatians 3:13) ; I say, this
   tremendous prospect, was, doubtless, a perpetual source of sorrow.

   (3.)

   The frame of His spirit. Whoever has a measure of the mind that was in
   Christ, must be proportionally burdened and grieved, like righteous Lot
   in Sodom (II Peter 2:8) , with the wickedness around him, if he lives
   in society. Who that has any regard for the honour of God, or the souls
   of men, can bear to see what passes every hour; how the authority of
   God is affronted, His goodness abused, and His mercy despised, without
   emotions of grief and compassion? If we are spiritually-minded, we must
   be thus affected; and we should be more so, if we were more spiritual.
   But the holiness of MESSIAH, and, consequently, His hatred of sin, was
   absolutely perfect. His view of the guilt and misery of sinners, was
   likewise comprehensive and clear. How must He be therefore grieved by
   the wickedness and insensibility of those with whom He daily conversed!
   especially as He not only observed the outward conduct of men, but had
   an intimate knowledge of the evil heart, which is hidden from us. In
   this sense, His sufferings and sorrows began with His early years, and
   continued throughout the whole of His life. He undoubtedly could say,
   with an emphasis peculiar to Himself, I beheld the transgressors, and
   was grieved ; rivers of waters ran down my eyes, because men keep not
   Thy law (Psalm 119:136, 158)

   We call ourselves the servants and followers of Him who was despised of
   men, and encompassed with sorrows. And shall we then seek great things
   for ourselves? (Jeremiah 45:5) as if we belonged to the present world,
   and expected no portion beyond it? Or shall we be tremblingly alive to
   the opinion of our fellow-creatures, and think it a great hardship, if
   it be our lot to suffer shame for His sake, who endured the cross and
   despised the shame for us? Rather may we account such disgrace our
   glory, and every loss and suffering, that we may endure for Him, a
   gain. While on the other hand, we learn with the Apostle Paul, to
   esteem every gain and honour this world can afford, to be but loss, and
   dung, in comparison of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
   our Lord (Philippians 3:8)

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   Sermon XVIII

   Voluntary Suffering

   Isaiah 50:6

   I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off
   the hair:

   I hid not my face from shame and spitting.

   T hat which often passes amongst men for resolution, and the proof of a
   noble, courageous spirit, is, in reality, the effect of a weak and
   little mind. At least, it is chiefly owing to the presence of certain
   circumstances, which have a greater influence upon the conduct, than
   any inherent principle. Thus may persons who appear to set death and
   danger at defiance in the hour of battle, while they are animated by
   the examples of those around them, and instigated by a fear of the
   punishment or shame they would incur if they deserted their post; upon
   a change of situation, as for instance, on a bed of sickness, discover
   no traces of the heroism for which they were before applauded, but
   tremble at the leisurely approach of death, though they were thought to
   despise it under a different form. It was not true fortitude, it was
   rather a contemptible pusillanimity [cowardice], that determined the
   celebrated ^* Cato to destroy himself. He was afraid of Caesar; his
   dread of him, after his victories, was so great, that he durst not look
   him in the face; and, therefore, he killed himself to avoid him. We may
   confidently ascribe the pretended gallantry of modern duellists to the
   same meanness of sentiment. They fight, not because they are not afraid
   of death, but because they are impelled by another fear, which makes a
   greater impression upon a feeble, irresolute mind. They live upon the
   opinion of their fellow-creatures, and feel themselves too weak to bear
   the contempt they should meet with, from the circle of their
   acquaintance, if they should decline acting upon the false principles
   of honour which pride and folly have established. They have not
   resolution sufficient, to act the part which conscience and reason
   would dictate, and, therefore, hazard life, and every thing that is
   dear to them, as men, rather than dare to withstand the prevalence of
   an absurd and brutal custom.

   ^* Marcus Porcius Cato Uticensis (95-46 BC), known as Cato the Younger,
   was a politician and statesman in the late Roman Republic.

   A patient enduring of affliction, and especially of disgrace and
   contempt, to which the characters the world most admire are confessedly
   unequal, is a much surer proof of true fortitude, than any of those
   actions which the love of praise, the fear of man, or even a mercenary
   attachment to lucre, are capable of producing. True Magnanimity is
   evidenced by the real importance of the end it proposes, and by the
   steadiness by which it pursues the proper means of attaining that end;
   undisturbed and unwearied by difficulty, danger, or pain, and equally
   indifferent to the censure or scorn of incompetent judges. This
   greatness of mind is essential and peculiar to the character of the
   Christian. I mean the Christian who deserves the name. His ends are
   great and sublime, to glorify God, to obtain nearer communion with Him,
   and to advance in conformity to His holy will. To attain these ends, he
   employs the means prescribed by the Lord, he waits at Wisdom's gates
   (Proverbs 8:34) , and walks in the paths of dependence and obedience.
   He, therefore, cannot conform to the prevailing maxims and pursuits of
   the many, and is liable to be hated and scorned for his singularity.
   But he neither courts the smiles of men, nor shrinks at the thought of
   their displeasure. He loves his fellow-creatures, and is ready to do
   them every kind office in his power; but he cannot fear them, because
   he fears the Lord God.

   But this life the Christian lives by faith in the Son of God (Galatians
   2:20) Jesus is the source of his wisdom and strength. He, likewise, is
   his Exemplar. He is crucified to the world by the cross of Christ; and
   a principal reason of his indifference to the opinion of the world, is
   the consideration of the manner in which his Lord was treated by it. He
   is the follower of Him who said, I gave my back to the smiters, and my
   cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame
   and spitting. We may observe from the words, that the humiliation of
   MESSIAH was voluntary, and that it was extreme.

   I.

   With respect to His engagement, as the Mediator between God and
   sinners, a great work was given Him to do, and He became responsible;
   and, therefore, in this sense, bound, and under obligation. But His
   compliance was, likewise, voluntary, for He gave Himself up freely to
   suffer, the just for the unjust. Could He have relinquished our cause,
   and left us to the deserved consequence of our sins, in the trying
   hour, when His enemies seized upon Him, then legions of angels, had
   they been wanted, would have appeared for His rescue (Matthew 26:53) .
   But if He was determined to save others, then His own sufferings were
   unavoidable. Men, in the prosecution of their designs, often meet with
   unexpected difficulties in their way; which, though they encounter with
   some cheerfulness, in hope of surmounting them, and carrying their
   point at last, are considered as impediments; but the sufferings of
   MESSIAH, were essentially necessary to the accomplishment of His great
   designs, and precisely determined, and present to His view beforehand,
   so that (as I lately observed) there was not a single circumstance that
   happened to Him, unawares. He knew that no blood but His own could make
   atonement for sin, that nothing less than His humiliation could expiate
   our pride; that if He did not thus suffer, sinners must inevitably
   perish; and, therefore, (such was His love!) He cheerfully and
   voluntarily gave His back to the smiters, and His cheeks to them that
   plucked off the hair. Two designs of vast importance filled His mind,
   the completion of them was that joy set before Him, for the sake of
   which He made Himself of no reputation, endured the cross, and despised
   the shame. These were, the glory of God, and the salvation of sinners.

   (1.)

   The highest end of His mediation was to display the glory of the divine
   character in the strongest light, to afford to all intelligent
   creatures (Ephesians 3:10) , the brightest manifestation they are
   capable of receiving, of the manifold wisdom of God, His holiness,
   justice, truth, and love, the stability and excellence of His moral
   government, all mutually illustrating each other, as combined and
   shining forth in His person, and in His mediatorial work. Much of the
   glory of God may be seen, by an enlightened eye, in creation; much in
   His providential rule and care over His creatures; but the brightness
   of His glory (John 1:18 ; Hebrews 1:3) , the express and full discovery
   of His perfections, can only be known by Jesus Christ, and the
   revelation which God has given of Himself, to the world, by Him. And,
   accordingly, we are assured, that the angels, whose knowledge of the
   natural world is, doubtless, vastly superior to ours, desire to look
   into these things; and that the manifold wisdom of God is
   super-eminently made known to principalities and powers, in heaven, by
   the dispensation of His grace to the Church redeemed from the earth.

   (2.)

   Subordinate to this great design, closely connected with it, and the
   principal effect for which it will be admired and magnified to
   eternity, is the complete and everlasting salvation of that multitude
   of miserable sinners, who, according to the purpose of God, and by the
   working of His mighty power, shall believe in this Saviour; and who,
   renouncing every other hope, shall put their trust in Him, upon the
   warrant of the promise and command of God, and yield themselves to be
   His willing and devoted people. Many are their tribulations in the
   present life, but they shall be delivered out of them all; they shall
   overcome, they shall be more than conquerors, by the blood of the Lamb,
   and by the Word of His testimony (Revelation 12:11) ; and then they
   shall shine, like the sun, in the Kingdom of Heaven. The consummation
   of their happiness, is a branch of the joy which was set before Him.
   For their sakes, that they might be happy, that He may be admired in
   them, and by them, to the glory of God, who is all in all, He
   voluntarily substituted Himself to sufferings and death. He endured the
   cross, and He despised the shame. He gave His back to the smiters, His
   cheeks to them that plucked off the hair, He hid not His face from
   shame and spitting.

   II.

   But are we reading a prophecy, or the history of His extreme
   humiliation? It is a prophecy; how literally and exactly it was
   fulfilled, we learn from His history by the Evangelists. With what
   cruelty, with what contempt was He treated, first by the servants in
   the hall of the High Priest, afterwards by the Roman soldiers! Let us
   consider Him, who endured the contradiction of sinners against Himself
   (Hebrews 12:3) These words of the Apostle suggest some preliminary
   observations, to prepare our minds for receiving a due impression, from
   the several particulars mentioned here.

   When the Apostle would dispose believers by an argument or motive
   (which, if we fully understood it, would render all other arguments
   unnecessary) to endure sufferings and crosses patiently; he says,
   Consider Him --he uses a word which is properly a mathematical term,
   denoting the ratio or proportion between different numbers, or figures:
   --compare yourselves with Him, and His sufferings with your own,
   --consider who He is, no less than what He endured.

   In the apprehensions of men, insults are aggravated, in proportion to
   the disparity between the person who receives, and who offers them. A
   blow, from an equal, is an offence, but will be still more deeply
   resented from an inferior. But if a subject, a servant, a slave, should
   presume to strike a king, it would justly be deemed an enormous crime.
   But Jesus, the King of kings, and Lord of lords, whom all the angels of
   God worship, made Himself so entirely of no reputation, that the basest
   of the people, the servants, the common soldiers, were not afraid to
   make Him the object of their derision, and to express their hatred in
   the most sarcastic and contemptuous manner. It is said that He endured
   the contradiction of sinners. So, perhaps , do we; but we are sinners
   likewise, and deserve much more than we suffer, if not immediately from
   the instruments of our grief, yet from the Lord, who has a right to
   employ what instruments He pleases, to afflict us for our sins. This
   thought quieted the spirit of David, when his own son rose up against
   his life, and his own servant cursed him to his face (II Samuel 16:11)
   But Jesus was holy, harmless, and undefiled --He had done nothing
   amiss; yet the usage He met with was such, as has seldom been offered
   to the vilest malefactor. Their cruel and scornful contradiction was,
   likewise, expressly and directly against Himself, whereas His people
   only suffer from unreasonable and wicked men, for His sake, and for
   their professed attachment to Him. In the most violent persecutions,
   they who could be prevailed on to renounce His name, and His cause,
   usually escaped punishment, and were frequently favoured and rewarded.
   And this is still the ground of the world's displeasure; fierce and
   bitter as their opposition may seem, the way to reconciliation is
   always open; they are not angry with us farther than we avow a
   dependence upon Him, and show ourselves determined to obey Him, rather
   than men. If we could forsake Him, their resentment would be disarmed,
   for they mean no more than to intimidate us from His service. I do not
   think that they who make peace with the world upon these terms, are
   esteemed by them for their compliance, but they are seldom disturbed
   any longer. It is plain, therefore, that if we suffer as Christians, it
   is for His sake. He likewise suffered for our sake, but how wide is the
   difference between Him and us! We, when the trial is sharp, are in
   danger of flinching from the cause of our best friend and benefactor,
   to whom our obligations are so innumerable, and so immense; whereas He
   gave Himself up to endure such things for us, when we were strangers
   and enemies! He was not only treated with cruelty, but with every mark
   of the utmost detestation and scorn, which wanton, unfeeling,
   unrestrained barbarity could suggest.

   (1.)

   They began to spit upon Him in the High Priest's hall. The Roman
   soldiers likewise did spit upon Him, when they had contemptuously
   arrayed Him in a scarlet robe, and bowed the knee before Him, in
   mockery of His title of King. Great as an insult of this kind would be
   deemed amongst us, it was considered as still greater, according to the
   customs prevalent in the eastern countries. There, to spit, even in the
   presence of a person, though it were only upon the ground, conveyed the
   idea of disdain and abhorrence. But the lowest of the people spit in
   the face of the Son of God. No comparison can fully illustrate this
   indignity. There is some proportion between the greatest earthly
   monarch, and the most abject slave. They did not spit upon Alexander,
   or Caesar, but upon the Lord of glory.

   (2.)

   They buffeted and beat Him on the face, and when He meekly offered His
   cheeks to their blows, they plucked off the hair. The beard was in
   those times accounted honourable; and when David and his servants were
   shaven by the command of Hanun, they were ashamed to be seen. But Jesus
   was not shaven. With savage violence they tore off the hair of His
   beard (II Samuel 10:5) ; while He, like a sheep before His shearers,
   was dumb and quietly yielded Himself to their outrages.

   (3.)

   His back they tore with scourges, as was foretold by the Psalmist --
   The plowers plowed upon my back, they made long their furrows (Psalm
   129:3) The Jewish council condemned Him to death for blasphemy, because
   He said He was the Son of God. Stoning was the punishment prescribed by
   the law of Moses, in such cases (Leviticus 24:16) But this death was
   not sufficiently lingering and tormenting to gratify their malice. To
   glut their insatiable cruelty, they were therefore willing to own their
   subjection to the Roman power to be so absolute, that it was not lawful
   for them to put anyone to death (John 18:31) , according to their own
   judicial law; and thus wilfully, though unwittingly, they fulfilled the
   prophecies. They preferred the punishment which the Romans appropriated
   to slaves who were guilty of flagitious [shamefully wicked] crimes, and
   therefore insisted that He should be crucified. According to the Roman
   custom, those who were crucified, were previously scourged. Thus when
   they had mocked Him, and made Him their sport, by putting a crown of
   thorns upon His head, and a reed in His hand for a sceptre, in derision
   of His Kingly Office, He was stripped and scourged. It was not
   infrequent for the sufferers to expire under the severity and torture
   of scourging. And we may be certain that Jesus experienced no lenience
   from their merciless hands. The plowers plowed His back. But more and
   greater tortures were before Him. He was engaged to make a full
   atonement for sin, by His sufferings; and as He had power over His own
   life, He would not dismiss His spirit until He could say, It is
   finished.

   And now, to use the words of Pilate, Behold the man! (John 19:5) Oh!
   for a realizing impression of this extreme humiliation and suffering,
   that we may be duly affected with a sense of His love to sinners, and
   of the evil of our sins, which rendered it necessary that the Surety
   should thus suffer! Behold the Lamb of God, mocked, blindfolded, spit
   upon, and scourged! Let us add to all this the consideration of His
   praying for His tormenters (Luke 23:34) , and we have an example of
   perfect magnanimity.

   Shall we therefore refuse to suffer shame for His sake, and be
   intimidated by the frowns or contempt of men, from avowing our
   attachment to Him! Ah! Lord, we are, indeed, capable of this baseness
   and ingratitude. But, if Thou art pleased to strengthen us with the
   power of Thy Spirit, we will account such disgrace our glory. Then we
   will not hang down our heads and despond, but will rather rejoice and
   be exceeding glad, if the world revile us and persecute us, and speak
   all manner of evil against us, provided it be falsely (Matthew 5:11) ,
   and provided it be for Thy sake!

   Shall we continue in sin (Romans 6:1) , after we know what it cost Him,
   to expiate our sins? God forbid! When Mark Antony addressed the
   citizens of Rome, to animate them to avenge the death of Caesar, he
   enlarged upon Caesar's character, his great actions, his love to the
   Roman people, and the evidence he had given of it, in the donations and
   bequests he had appointed them in his will, the particulars of which he
   specified. When he had thus engaged their admiration and gratitude, and
   they discovered emotions of regret and sensibility, that Caesar, the
   greatest character in Rome, who had fought and triumphed for them, and
   had remembered them in his will, should be slain, Antony drew aside the
   cloth, and showed them his dead body, covered with wounds and blood.
   This sight rendered it needless to say more. The whole assembly united
   as one man, to search out, and to destroy his murderers. The
   application is obvious. May our hearts, from this hour, be filled with
   a determined, invariable resentment against sin, the procuring cause of
   the humiliation and death of our best Friend and Benefactor!

   ---- O ----
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   Sermon XIX

   Messiah Suffering and Wounded for Us

   Isaiah 53:4, 5

   Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: .....

   He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our
   iniquities:

   the chastisement of our peace was upon Him;

   and with His stripes we are healed.

   W hen our Lord was transfigured, Moses and Elijah appeared in glory and
   conversed with Him. Had we been informed of the interview only, we
   should probably have desired to know the subject of their conversation,
   as we might reasonably suppose it turned upon very interesting and
   important topics. The Scripture makes little provision for the
   indulgence of our curiosity, but omits nothing that is necessary for
   our instruction: and we learn thus much from it, that they discoursed,
   not upon the trifling things which the world accounts great, such as
   the rise and fall of empires; but they spake of the sufferings of
   Jesus, and of the decease which He should accomplish at Jerusalem. They
   spake of His Exodus (Luke 9:31) (as the word is) His departure out of
   life, the issue and completion of His engagement for sinners, that is,
   His crucifixion and death. This is the grand theme of heaven and
   heaven-born souls. We lately considered the cruel insults that MESSIAH
   submitted to from the servants in the High Priest's hall, and from the
   Roman soldiers. The passage I have now read, leads our meditations to
   the foot of the cross. May the Holy Spirit realize the scene to our
   hearts! The cross of Christ displays the divine perfections with
   peculiar glory. Here the name of God is revealed, as a just God, and a
   Saviour. Here the believer contemplates in one view, the unspeakable
   evil of sin, and the unsearchable riches of mercy. This gives him the
   most affecting sense of the misery which he has deserved, while at the
   same time he receives the fullest assurance that there is forgiveness
   with God, and discovers a sure foundation whereon he may build his hope
   of eternal life, without fear of disappointment. From the moment the
   Apostle Paul was enlightened to understand this mystery of redeeming
   love, he accounted his former gain but loss; his former supposed
   wisdom, no better than folly, and became determined to know nothing to
   depend upon nothing, to glory in nothing, but Jesus Christ, and Him
   crucified (I Corinthians 2:2)

   A representation of the Redeemer's sufferings, capable of exciting
   tears and moving the passions, may be by the powers of oratory; and
   similar emotions have often been produced by a romance or a tragedy,
   though the subject is known, beforehand, to be entirely fictitious. But
   light in the understanding, is necessary to convince and influence the
   heart. Unless the mind be deeply penetrated with the causes, which
   rendered MESSIAH'S death necessary, the most pathetic description of
   the fact , will leave the will and the affections unchanged. I hope
   many of my auditory [many in my audience] can assign these causes. You
   have felt yourselves personally concerned in an event which took place
   long before your birth; and if you are asked, Why was Jesus mocked,
   buffeted, and spit upon? and why were His enemies permitted to nail Him
   to the cross? you answer, Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried
   our sorrows --and you can likewise say, By His stripes we are healed.

   The words lead us to consider the cause, and the effect.

   I.

   The cause of the Redeemer's sufferings, implied in the word our, --He
   bore the griefs and sorrows which were our desert. Such is the
   language, the confession, the grateful acknowledgement of all who
   believe in His name. They who are delivered by grace from the spirit
   and power of this evil world, and who live by His death; and, likewise
   they, who see they must perish, unless saved by Him, are authorized to
   consider Him as mindful of them, and making provision for them, in the
   day of His trouble. They who were actually healed by looking at the
   brazen serpent, according to God's appointment, had a sufficient proof
   in themselves, that it was erected, and placed in view of the camp on
   their account (Numbers 21:9) He bore our griefs. --It does not follow
   that sinners must have been crucified, if the Saviour had not been
   crucified on their behalf. But as this was a painful and terrible
   punishment, it may teach us, that without His interposition we were
   justly liable to extremity of misery in the present life. That we who
   have offended God, should enjoy health, peace, or satisfaction for a
   single hour; that we do not draw every breath in the most excruciating
   pain; that we derive any comfort from creatures; that we are not a
   burden and terror to ourselves, and mutually to each other; that our
   state, while upon earth, is, in any respect, better than an image of
   hell, must wholly be ascribed to Him. A sinner, as such, is under the
   curse of the law, and this curse includes every species of misery that
   can affect us either in mind, body, or estate. But He was appointed,
   from the beginning, to sustain and exhaust the curse for us. And,
   therefore, the earth, though so long inhabited by wretches in a state
   of bold rebellion against their Maker, is filled with the fruits and
   evidences of His long-suffering patience and mercy. Therefore He still
   affords us rain and fruitful seasons (Acts 14:7), indulges us with a
   variety of temporal blessings, and gives us power to take comfort in
   them. This consideration greatly enhances the value of temporal good
   things to His people. They receive them as from His hand, as tokens of
   His love and pledges of His favour, sanctified to their use by His
   blood and promise. Cheered by such thoughts as these, His poor people
   often enjoy their plain fare with a pleasure, of which, the expensive
   and dissipated sensualist has no conception. And how does it add to the
   relish of all earthly comforts, to think, while we are using them,

   There's not a gift His hand bestows,

   But cost His heart a groan!

   So likewise, the remembrance of what He bore for them alleviates the
   pressure of all their sufferings and affords them a ground whereon they
   may rejoice, yea, glory in tribulation also (Romans 5:3)

   But His crucifixion, and the whole of His sufferings from wicked men,
   cannot give us a just idea of what He endured for us. Grievous as they
   were, considered in themselves, they were light if compared with the
   agonies of His soul. These extorted the blood from His body (Luke
   22:44) , before the hand of man touched Him. And when He uttered His
   most dolorous cry upon the cross, it was not for the anguish of His
   bodily wounds, but His soul felt, for a season, a separation from the
   presence and comforts of God. Therefore He said, Why has Thou forsaken
   Me ? (Matthew 27:46) . It is true His holy nature was not capable of
   some part of the impenitent sinner's portion. Remorse of conscience,
   the stings of the never-dying worm, the horrors and rage of despair,
   could not touch Him, who had no personal sin, and whose love and faith
   were always perfect. But a sword pierced His soul, and it pleased the
   Father, not only to permit Him to be bruised by the cruelty of His
   enemies, but to bruise Him Himself (Isaiah 53:10)

   The ground of all this was laid in His voluntary substitution of
   Himself, from before the foundation of the world, to obey and suffer in
   behalf of His people. This point will offer more directly from the
   passage we are next to consider. At present, let us briefly notice the
   expressions before us.

   (1.)

   He was wounded. This word, which signifies pierced or stabbed, refers
   to His crucifixion. This punishment, being unknown to the Jews till
   they were brought under the Roman power, they had, therefore, no
   express name for, in their language. Yet it is plainly described by the
   Psalmist, who, speaking by the Spirit of Prophecy, in the person of
   MESSIAH, says, They pierced my hands and my feet (Psalm 22:16) . And it
   was typified under the law of Moses (Deuteronomy 21:23; Galatians 3:13;
   I Corinthians 5:7; John 3:14) , by the curse annexed to hanging upon a
   tree, which was the nearest death to this; by the Paschal lamb, which
   was roasted; and by the brazen serpent. It was a fit death for a
   sinner, painful and ignominious. How circumstantial were the
   prophecies, how apposite [how strikingly appropriate and relevant] the
   types [prophetic symbols], how exactly was all fulfilled, and how
   wonderful was it that the Jews should be led to depart from their own
   customs and purposes, in order to their accomplishments, though they
   intended nothing less! But it was the determined counsel and
   appointment of God (Acts 2:23) , who overrules all the designs of men,
   and all that to us appears contingent, to the purposes of His own will
   and glory.

   (2.)

   He was bruised. If we distinguish wounded from bruised, the latter may
   be referred to the sorrows of His soul, (for it is expressly said, It
   pleased the LORD to bruise Him ) that distress broke His heart, filled
   Him with dismay, caused Him to be sore amazed and very heavy, and to
   say to His disciples, My soul is exceedingly sorrowful even unto death
   (Matthew 26:38) No words can be more selected and emphatical, than
   those which the Evangelists use, in describing His consternation in the
   Garden of Gethsemane. How can this His dejection and terror be
   accounted for, by those who deny that His sufferings and death were a
   proper atonement for sin; and who suppose, that when He had given to
   men a perfect rule of life, and commended it to them by His own
   example, He died, merely to confirm the truth of His doctrine, and to
   encourage His followers to faithfulness under sufferings! Many of His
   followers, who were thus witnesses for the truth, and patterns of
   faithfulness to us, have met death in its most terrible forms with
   composure, yea, with pleasure, yea, with transports of joy. But is the
   disciple above his Lord? If Christians have triumphed in such
   circumstances, why did Christ tremble? Not surely because their courage
   and constancy were greater than His. The causes were entirely
   different. The martyrs were given up to them who only could kill the
   body, but Jesus suffered immediately from the hand of God. One stroke
   of His mighty hand can bruise the spirit of man, more sensibly than the
   united power of all creatures. Jesus died. They that believe in Him,
   are said to sleep in Him (I Thessalonians 4:14) To them death comes
   disarmed of its sting, wearing a friendly aspect, and bringing a
   welcome message of dismissal from every evil. But the death of Jesus
   was death indeed, death in all its horrors, the death which sinners had
   deserved to suffer as transgressors of the law.

   (3.)

   The chastisement, or, the punishment of our peace, was upon Him. That
   chastisement, or punishment, on the account of which, sinners obtain
   peace with God. It properly signifies here, a punishment for
   instruction or example. Punishments are inflicted, either for the
   correction of an offender, or for the prevention of evil, or for
   example to others. The two former reasons could not apply to our Lord.
   He had committed no evil, He was perfect before, and in suffering. But
   standing in the place of sinners, and engaged to expiate their
   offences, He was made a public example of the misery and distress which
   sin demerited [deserved]. Thus justice was vindicated in the exercise
   of mercy, and sinners believing in His name, are exempted from
   punishment, for His sake, in a way which affords not the least
   encouragement or extenuation to sin. And thus our peace is procured.

   II.

   The effect of His sufferings for sins not His own. He bore our griefs,
   and carried our sorrows: He was wounded and bruised for us, the
   chastisement of our peace was upon Him, that by His stripes we may be
   healed. The Hebrew word here, and the Greek word, the Apostle Peter
   uses in this quotation of this passage, which we render stripes (I
   Peter 2:24) , is, properly, the mark, which stripes or wounds leave
   upon the body, or, as we say, scars. The scars in His hands, feet, and
   side, and, perhaps, other marks of His many wounds, remained after His
   resurrection. And John saw Him in vision, before the Throne, as a lamb
   that had been slain. All these expressions and representations, I
   apprehend, are designed to intimate to us, that though the death of
   MESSIAH is an event long since past, yet the effects and benefits are
   ever new, and, to the eye of faith are ever present. How admirable is
   this expedient, that the wounds of one, yea, of millions, should be
   healed, by beholding the wounds of another! Yet this is the language of
   the Gospel, Look and live. Look unto Me and be ye saved. Three great
   wounds are ours, guilt, sin, and sorrow; but by contemplating His welts
   or scars, with an enlightened eye, and by rightly understanding who was
   thus wounded, and why; all these wounds are healed.

   You who live by this medicine, speak well of it. Tell to others, as you
   have opportunity, what a Saviour you have found. It is usual for those
   who have been relieved, in dangerous and complicated diseases, by a
   skilful physician, to commend him to others who are labouring under the
   like maladies. We often see public acknowledgments to this purpose. If
   all the persons, who have felt the efficacy of a dying Saviour's wounds
   apprehended by faith, were to publish their cases, how greatly would
   His power and grace be displayed! They are all upon record, and will
   all be known in the great Day of His appearing. Some of them are
   occasionally published, and may be read in our own tongue. And though
   they are not all related with equal judgment, nor attended with
   circumstances equally striking, yet there is a sufficiency, in this
   way, to leave the world without excuse. Not to mention modern accounts
   of this kind, (though many might be mentioned which are indisputably
   true, and superior to the cavils of gainsayers) the Confessions of ^*
   Austin may be appealed to, as a proof that the Gospel is not a system
   of notions only, but has a mighty power to enlighten the bewildered
   mind, to subdue the obstinate will, to weaken the force of
   long-confirmed habits of evil, to relieve from distressing fears, and
   to effect a real, universal, permanent, and beneficial change of
   sentiment and conduct, such as no similar instance can be found, in the
   history of mankind, to have been produced by any other principles. But
   if you are a true Christian, in the circle of your connections, you
   will, sometimes, have a fair opportunity of giving a reason of the hope
   that is in you. Pray for grace and wisdom to improve such seasons; and
   if you speak the truth in simplicity and love, you know not but the
   Lord may give His blessing to your testimony, and honour you as an
   instrument of good. And to convert one sinner from the error of his
   way, is an event of greater importance, than the deliverance of a whole
   kingdom from temporal evil. ^* Austin (St. Augustine) - Roman
   philosopher and theologian (354AD - 430AD)

   Yet, remember, if you espouse this cause, a certain consistency of
   character will be expected from you, without which, you had better be
   silent, than speak in its defence, or profess yourself a sharer in the
   privileges of the Gospel. There are too many persons who treat the
   great truths, we profess, as mere opinions, points of speculation,
   which form the shibboleth of a party. There are others, who think an
   attachment to them, the sure sign of an enthusiastic [sure sign of a
   fanatical], deluded imagination. And there are others, again, who
   misrepresent them as unfavourable to morality, and affording a cloak
   and an encouragement to licentiousness. Beware, lest, by an improper
   conduct, you lay stumbling-blocks in the way of the blind, strengthen
   the prejudices of the ignorant, and give weight to the calumnies of the
   malicious. The people of the world are quick-sighted to the faults of
   religious professors, and though they affect to despise their
   principles, they are tolerable judges what that conversation is, which
   only these principles can produce, and always expect it from those who
   avow them. They will make allowances for others, and admit human
   infirmity as a plea for their faults, but they will not extend their
   candour to you. If your zeal for the truth, and your regular attendance
   upon the ministers who preach it, are not accompanied by a spirit of
   humility, integrity, and benevolence; if you are passionate, peevish,
   discontented, censorious, or proud; if they observe that you are greedy
   of gain, penurious, close-fisted, or hard-hearted; or even if you
   comply with their customs and spirit, mingle with them in their
   amusements, and do not maintain a noble singularity by avoiding every
   appearance of evil; they will not only despise you in their hearts, but
   they will take the occasion of despising and speaking evil of the truth
   itself, on your account. But if you are all of a piece, and are truly
   solicitous to adorn your profession, by walking agreeable to the rules
   of the Gospel, and filling up your relations in life to the glory of
   God, and the good of your fellow-creatures; by thus well-doing, you
   will put to silence the ignorance of foolish men (I Peter 2:15) , and
   in a great measure, stop their mouths, if you cannot change their
   hearts. And though they may affect to rail at you, or to ridicule you,
   they will be constrained to feel a secret reverence for you in their
   consciences.

   But are there any hearts of stone amongst us, who are still unaffected
   by the love and sufferings of the Son of God; who are still crucifying
   Him afresh, and living in sin, though they hear and know what it cost
   Him to make an atonement for sin? Yet now hear-- now look --behold the
   Lamb of God! The Lord in mercy open the eyes of your mind. I address
   you once more. I once more conjure you by His agony and bloody sweat,
   by His passion, cross, and death, to seek Him that your souls may live.
   Can you be proof against these arguments? Nay, then, should you live
   and die thus obstinate, you must perish indeed.

   ---- O ----
     __________________________________________________________________

   Sermon XX

   Sin Charged upon the Surety

   Isaiah 53:6

   All we like sheep have gone astray: we have turned every one to his own
   way,

   and the LORD hath laid upon Him the iniquity of us all.

   C omparisons, in the Scripture, are frequently to be understood with
   great limitation: perhaps, out of many circumstances, only one is
   justly applicable to the case. Thus, when our Lord says, Behold, I come
   as a thief (Revelation 16:15) , --common sense will fix the resemblance
   to a single point, that He will come suddenly, and unexpectedly. So
   when wandering sinners are compared to wandering sheep, we have a
   striking image of the danger of their state, and of their inability to
   recover themselves. Sheep, wandering without a shepherd, are exposed, a
   defenceless and easy prey to wild beasts and enemies, and liable to
   perish for want of pasture; for they are not able either to provide for
   themselves, or to find the way back to the place from whence they
   strayed. Whatever they suffer, they continue to wander, and if not
   sought out, will be lost. Thus far the allusion holds. But sheep, in
   such a situation, are not the subjects of blame. They would be highly
   blameable, if we could suppose them rational creatures; if they had
   been under the eye of a careful and provident shepherd, had been
   capable of knowing him, had wilfully and obstinately renounced his
   protection and guidance, and voluntarily chosen to plunge themselves
   into danger, rather than to remain with him any longer. Thus it is with
   man. His wandering is rebellious. God made him upright , but he has
   sought out to himself many inventions (Ecclesiastes 7:29) God has
   appointed for man a safe and pleasant path, by walking in which, they
   shall find rest to their souls; but they say, We will not walk therein
   (Jeremiah 6:16) They were capable of knowing the consequences of going
   astray, were repeatedly warned of them, were fenced in by wise and good
   laws, which they presumptuously broke through. And when they wandered
   from Him, they were, again and again invited to return to Him, but they
   refused. They mocked His messages and His messengers, and preferred the
   misery they had brought upon themselves, to the happiness of being
   under His direction and care. Surely He emphatically deserves the name
   of the Good Shepherd, who freely laid down His life, to restore sheep
   of this character!

   My text, therefore, expresses the sentiment of those, and of those
   only, who are acquainted with the misery of our fallen state, feel
   their own concern in it, and approve of the method which God has
   provided for their deliverance and recovery. It contains a confession
   of their own guilt, and an acknowledgement of His mercy.

   I.

   A confession of guilt and wretchedness. Sin has deprived us both of the
   knowledge and presence of God. In consequence of this, we wander, every
   one to his own way. All are under the power of sin, and all equally
   strangers to the paths of peace and safety. The paths which sinners
   choose for themselves are diverse from each other, as inclination or
   circumstances vary; but however different in appearance, if persisted
   in, they terminate at last in the same point. They all lead to
   destruction. We may observe on this head,

   (1.)

   It is a sufficient proof of our depravity, that we prefer our own ways
   to the Lord's; nor can He inflict a heavier judgment upon us, in this
   life, than to give us up entirely to the way of our own hearts. He made
   us to be happy; but as He made us for Himself, and gave us a capacity,
   and a vastness of desire, which only He Himself can satisfy, the very
   constitution and frame of our nature render happiness impossible to us,
   unless in a way of dependence upon Him, and obedience to His laws. The
   lamb that grazes in the meadow, and the fish that swims in the stream,
   are each in their proper element. If you suppose them to change places,
   they must both perish. But the brute creation have no propensity to
   such changes as would destroy them. The instincts, implanted in them by
   their great Creator, are conducive to their welfare; and to these
   instincts they are uniformly faithful. If you can conceive the beasts
   impatient to leave the shore, and improve their situation by rushing
   into the ocean; and the fishes equally earnest to forsake the waters,
   in quest of new and greater advantages upon the dry land, it may
   illustrate the folly of fallen man, who turned aside by a deceived
   heart, refuses life, and seeks death in the error of his ways. For the
   will of God (if I may so speak) is our proper element; and if we depart
   from it, our sin unavoidably involves our punishment. We naturally
   indulge hard thoughts of God, and think the rule He has enjoined us,
   too strict and severe, intended to restrain us from real good, and
   propose, to ourselves, some unknown advantages, by transgressing it.
   Thus Satan persuaded Eve, and we derive from her. And though we know
   that she only gained misery by the experiment, we rashly repeat it for
   ourselves. The Scripture assures us, that the ways of God are pleasant,
   but we will not be persuaded. Experience proves that the way of
   transgressors is hard, but we resist the conviction, and hurry on in a
   round of continual disappointment. Are the proud, the covetous, the
   voluptuous, or the ambitious, happy? I appeal to their conscience.

   (2.)

   There is only one right way, but a thousand ways of being wrong. If you
   are not following Him, who has said, I am the way, the truth, and the
   life (John 14:6) , you are wandering, you are far from God; for none
   can come to the Father but by Him: and far from peace, for there can be
   no true peace in the mind, unless He bestows and maintains it. The
   profane and the self-righteous, the open sinner and the hypocrite, the
   lover of pleasure and the lover of gold, the formal papist and formal
   protestant, though they seem to travel different roads, though they
   pity or censure each other, will meet at last, (unless the grace of God
   prevent) in the same state of final and hopeless misery. It is grievous
   to a spiritual and benevolent mind, to see those who are all wrong,
   disputing among themselves, which of them is right. Each one is ready
   to think himself wise, if the folly, in which he allows himself, be not
   precisely of the same kind with that which he condemns in his
   neighbour. But the Scripture is the invariable rule to which it is your
   duty and interest to be conformed now; for it is given by the
   inspiration and authority of God, and is the standard, by which you
   must be judged at last. Whatever character you bear amongst men, if you
   have not faith and holiness, you certainly are not in the way of life.
   For it is written, He that believeth not shall be damned (Mark 16:16) ;
   and again, it is written, Without holiness, no man shall see the Lord
   (Hebrews 12:14)

   (3.)

   As wandering sheep are liable to innumerable dangers, which, they can
   neither foresee nor prevent, such is our condition, until, by the power
   of the Holy Spirit, we are stopped, and turned, and brought into the
   fold of the good Shepherd. Oh! the misery of man while living without
   God in the world! He is exposed every hour to the stroke of death,
   which would at once separate him from all that he loves, and plunge him
   into the pit, from whence there is no redemption. And at present, he is
   perpetually harassed with cares and fears, with wants and woes, without
   guidance or refuge; and yet so blinded as to think himself safe, and
   that his crooked, wandering ways, will lead him to happiness!

   II.

   An acknowledgement of mercy. Where sin abounded, grace has much more
   abounded. Man sinned, and MESSIAH suffered. The LORD hath laid, or
   caused to meet upon Him, the iniquity of us all, that is, the
   punishment due them. The evils we had deserved, were in pursuit of us;
   but Jesus interposed, and they all seized upon Him, and He endured
   them, that we might be spared. Do we ask upon what grounds? It was on
   the ground of His voluntary substitution for sinners, as their Covenant
   Head and Representative.

   So much, correspondent to this appointment obtains amongst men, as may
   show that the idea accords with our notion of justice. If a man be
   unable to pay a debt, and the creditor should exact the payment from a
   third person who was no way concerned, it would, with reason, be deemed
   a very oppressive action. But if it be known that this person became
   freely bound and responsible for the debtor, he is allowed to be justly
   liable. But in the present case, I make no appeal to human customs. It
   is a divine appointment, and, therefore, is, and must be right. It was
   a great design, the triumph of infinite wisdom, the highest effect of
   the love of God. It is revealed, not to be submitted to our discussion,
   or that we may sit in judgment upon the propriety of the measure, but
   it demands our highest admiration and praise; and, like the sun, brings
   with it that light, by which the whole system of our knowledge is
   illuminated. For till we know this great truth, and are able to see its
   influence upon everything we are related to, whatever attainments we
   may boast, we are, in fact, encompassed with thick darkness, with
   darkness which may be felt. For the accomplishment of this design, the
   Son of God was so manifested in the nature of man, that He, and they
   who believe in Him, participate in a real, though mystical union, and
   are considered one. He, their living Head. They, His body - consisting
   of many members; each of them represented by Him, accepted in Him, and
   deriving from His fulness, their life, their light, their strength, and
   their joy.

   (1.)

   He was thus appointed and constituted before the world began; according
   to the holy Counsel and Covenant settled from everlasting for the
   redemption of sinners (Proverbs 8:20-31; Titus 1:2) . For the fall of
   man, which rendered His interposition necessary, was not an unexpected
   contingency, but was foreseen and provided for, before man was created
   upon the earth, yea, before the foundations of the earth were laid.

   (2.)

   After man had sinned, this glorious Head and Surety made known the
   certainty and benefit of His mediation, and engagement, on the behalf
   of sinners, according to the good pleasure of His wisdom, and as the
   case required. Otherwise, upon the entrance of sin, the full execution
   of the sentence of the law, denounced against the offenders, might,
   perhaps, have immediately followed. But He revealed Himself. He showed
   mercy to Adam, covenanted with Noah, walked with Abraham, conversed
   with Moses, dwelt with His Church in the wilderness, and was known by
   the name the Holy One of Israel (Isaiah 54:5; Psalm 23:1) . David
   ascribes to the Shepherd of Israel, the name of Jehovah; and Isaiah
   declares, that the LORD of Hosts is the husband of the Church. These
   characters of Shepherd, and Bridegroom, and Husband, are appropriated
   to MESSIAH in the New Testament. He therefore is Jehovah, the LORD of
   Hosts, whom Abraham, David, and Isaiah, worshiped, or His appearance
   upon earth would be evidently to the disadvantage of those who believe
   in Him. If He were not God, He would be a creature, for there is no
   medium. And consequently, our Shepherd would be infinitely inferior to
   that almighty Shepherd, who was the refuge, the trust, and the
   salvation of His people, before MESSIAH was manifested in the flesh.

   (3.)

   In the fulness of time, He veiled His glory. He who was in the form of
   God, and thought it not robbery to be equal with God, took upon Him the
   form of a servant, and was made of a woman, made under the law
   (Philippians 2:6, 7; Galatians 4:4) . Then the union between Him, and
   the people whom He came into the world to save, was completed. Because
   the children were partakers of flesh and blood, He likewise took part
   of the same (Hebrews 2:14) . The Word, who in the beginning was God,
   and was with God, was made flesh (John 1:1) And in our nature, though
   He knew no sin, He was treated as a sinner for us, to declare the
   righteousness of God, in His forbearance and goodness to all who had
   been saved in former ages, and in the forgiveness and salvation of all
   who should trust in Him to the end of time. He suffered once, once for
   all, the just for the unjust, to bring us to God. And now God is
   revealed, not only as merciful, but as just, in justifying him which
   believeth in Jesus. God is well pleased in Him, and for His sake, with
   all who accept Him. Their sins are expiated by His sufferings (Romans
   4:6; Jeremiah 23:6) , and His perfect righteousness, the whole of His
   obedience unto death, is the consideration or ground, on which they are
   accounted righteous.

   By virtue of this union, likewise, He is their life. They receive of
   His fulness, as the branches derive their life and fruitfulness from
   the tree whereon they grow (John 15:1) ; therefore the Apostle said, I
   live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me (Galatians 2:20) . This is the
   great mystery of Christianity, which words alone cannot explain; it is
   a divine appointment, hidden from those who are wise and prudent in
   their own sight, but revealed to all, who, with the simplicity of
   children, are desirous of being taught of God, and wait patiently upon
   Him, in the use of His prescribed means, for the light and influence of
   His Holy Spirit.

   From this subject, the substitution of MESSIAH for sinners, we may
   learn,

   (1.)

   How to estimate the evil of sin. That sin is a great evil, is evident
   by its effects. It deprived Adam of the life and presence of God, and
   brought death, and all natural evil into the world. It caused the
   destruction of the old world by water. It is the source of all the
   misery with which the earth is now filled, it will kindle the last
   great conflagration; yea, it has, already kindled that fire, which
   shall never be quenched. But in no view does the sinfulness of sin
   appear so striking , as in this wonderful [astonishing; amazing] effect
   --the suffering and death of MESSIAH That notwithstanding the dignity
   of His person, and the perfection of His obedience to the law, and that
   though He prayed in His agonies, that if it were possible the cup might
   pass from Him (Luke 22:42) , yet, if sinners were to be saved, it was
   indispensably necessary that He should drink it. This shows the evil of
   sin in the strongest light. And in this light it is viewed by all who
   derive life from His death, and healing from His wounds. We may be
   afraid of the consequences of sin, from other considerations; but it is
   only by looking to Him who was pierced for our transgressions, that we
   can learn to hate it (Zechariah 12:10)

   (2.)

   The complete justification of those who believe in Him. They are
   delivered from all condemnation (Romans 8:1) . Every charge against
   them is overruled by this plea, that Christ has died, and is risen on
   their behalf, and ever liveth to make intercession for them. And though
   they are still in a state of discipline, for the mortification of sin
   yet remaining in them; and though for the trial, exercise, and growth
   of their faith, it is still needful that they pass through many
   tribulations, yet none of these are strictly and properly penal. They
   are not the tokens of God's displeasure, but fatherly chastisements,
   and tokens of His love, designed to promote the work of grace in their
   hearts, and to make them partakers of His holiness (Hebrews 12:6-11)
   Though necessary at present, they will not be necessary long; and,
   therefore, the hour is at hand when all tears shall be wiped away from
   their eyes, and they shall weep no more. His true servants, in the
   midst of the storms by which they are tossed on the tempestuous sea of
   this life, are no less safe, and, notwithstanding their imperfections,
   are no less beloved, than those who have already escaped out of the
   reach of every evil, and are now before the Throne.

   (3.)

   The reason why believers are not wearied, nor overpowered, by all the
   difficulties of their service, nor by all the arts and efforts of their
   enemies. They are one with Christ. He who has all power in heaven and
   in earth, is engaged for their support. When they faint, He revives
   them; when they are wounded, He heals them; when their foot slips, He
   upholds them. He has said, because I live, ye shall live also.
   Therefore who can prevail against them, when their life is hidden with
   Christ in God? (Colossians 3:3) And further, the knowledge of their
   Saviour's love, and of the holy, awful, yet amiable and endearing
   character of God displayed in His mediation, is the source of their
   love, gratitude, and cheerful obedience. It is this makes hard things
   easy, and bitter things sweet. The love of Christ constrains them (II
   Corinthians 5:14) They look to Him and are enlightened. And when they
   consider who He is, in what way, and at what price He redeemed them,
   and what He has prepared for them; when they attend to His gracious
   Word, Fear none of these things, thou shalt suffer; be thou faithful
   unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life (Revelation 2:10) ;
   they, out of weakness, are made strong; they are inspired with fresh
   courage; they take up their cross with cheerfulness, and can adopt the
   language of the Apostle, None of these things move me, neither count I
   my life dear, so that I may finish my course with joy (Acts 20:24)

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   Sermon XXI

   Messiah Derided Upon the Cross

   Psalm 22:7, 8

   All they that see me laugh me to scorn:

   they shoot out the lip, they shake the head saying, He trusted on the
   LORD that he would deliver him:

   let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him.

   F allen man, though alienated from the life of God, and degraded with
   respect to many of his propensities and pursuits, to a level with the
   beasts that perish, is not wholly destitute of kind and compassionate
   feelings towards his fellow-creatures. While self-interest does not
   interfere, and the bitter passions of envy, hatred, malice, and
   revenge, are not roused into exercise, he has a degree of instinctive
   sympathy with them in their sufferings, and a disposition to assist
   them, if he can do it without much detriment to himself. The source of
   these social feelings, we express, by the term humanity ; which seems
   to imply a consciousness that they properly belong to our nature, and
   that we ought , at least, to be always, and universally affected in
   this manner, when occasions offer. But while the heart is under the
   government of self, our humanity is very partial and limited. And it is
   to be ascribed to the goodness of God, rather than to any real goodness
   in man, that it is not wholly extinguished. Were this the case, and
   were the native evils of the heart left to exert themselves in their
   full strength, and without control, earth would be the very image of
   hell, and there could be no such thing as society. But to prevent
   things from running into utter confusion, God mercifully preserves in
   mankind, some social dispositions. They are, however, so weak in
   themselves, so powerfully counteracted by the stronger principles of
   our depravity, and so frequently suppressed by obstinate habits of
   wickedness; that in the present state of things, we may almost as
   justly define man, (whatever impropriety there may seem in the
   expression) by saying, He is an inhuman creature , as by ascribing to
   him the benevolent properties of humanity.

   The rage, cruelty, and savage insensibility, with which sin and Satan
   have poisoned our nature, never appear in so strong a light, as when
   they assume a religious form; when ignorance, bigotry, and blind zeal,
   oppose the will and grace of God, under a pretence of doing Him
   service. By this infatuation, every hateful passion is sanctified, and
   every feeling of humanity stifled. Thus, though the sufferings of the
   most atrocious malefactors, usually excite pity in the spectators, and
   often draw tears from their eyes; yet, the agonies of God's persecuted
   servants, under the most exquisite tortures which malice could invent,
   have frequently raised no other emotions, than those of derision and
   scorn. My text leads us to consider the highest instance of this kind.
   The 22 ^nd Psalm, undoubtedly, refers to MESSIAH. It begins with the
   very words which He uttered upon the cross; nor could David speak of
   himself, when he said, They pierced my hands and my feet. He was God's
   servant in the most eminent sense, and the service He performed, was an
   uninterrupted course of benevolence to the souls and bodies of men. He
   spent His life in going about doing good (Acts 10:38) , nor could His
   enemies fix a single stain upon His conduct. Yet they thirsted for His
   blood; and, because He came into the world to save sinners, they
   accomplished their cruel designs. We have already seen how He was
   treated by the servants and by the soldiers, when condemned by the
   Jewish council, and by the Roman governor. This prophecy was fulfilled
   when He hung upon the cross. There have been persons in our own days,
   whose crimes have excited such detestation, that the populace would
   probably have torn them in pieces, before, and even after their trial,
   if they could have had them in their power. Yet when these very
   obnoxious persons have been executed, according to their sentence, if,
   perhaps, there was not one spectator who wished them to escape, yet
   neither was one found, so lost to sensibility, as to insult them in
   their dying moments. But when Jesus suffers, all that see Him laugh Him
   to scorn; they shoot out the lip, they shake the head; they insult His
   character, and His hope. The Evangelists furnish us with an affecting
   comment upon this passage. They inform us, by whom He was thus scorned
   and derided; they mention some circumstances, which strongly mark the
   peculiar and excessive contempt, with which He was treated; and they
   take notice of the especial scope and object of their insults, namely,
   the gracious purpose He had often expressed towards sinners, and the
   strong confidence He had avowed in God His Father.

   I.

   The persons who scorned and derided Him, were various, and of different
   characters.

   (1.)

   The Chief Priests, Elders, and Rulers of the people. When these, who
   were held in ignorant admiration by the multitude, set the example, we
   do not wonder that it was generally followed. They had been His most
   avowed and determined enemies, they had long conspired to take away His
   life, and in the appointed hour their plots were permitted to succeed.
   They now rejoiced in their success. By their office as teachers and
   expounders of the law, they ought to have pointed Him out to the people
   as the object of their reverence and hope; but having rejected Him
   themselves, they employed all the authority and influence to make Him
   the object of general contempt. And lest the extremity of His torments
   should awaken sentiments of commiseration in the multitude, they were
   the first, and the loudest, in reviling Him, as He hung upon the cross.

   (2.)

   The populace derided Him. They had been instigated by the priests to
   demand His death of Pilate, when he was desirous of dismissing Him,
   and, rather, to insist that Barabbas should be spared (Matthew 27:20)
   The populace, though no less ignorant, were less malicious than their
   leaders. At different times, when they heard His public discourses, and
   saw His wonderful works, they had been staggered and constrained to
   say, Is not this the Son of David? and not many days before, the
   popular cry had been strongly in His favour (Matthew 21:10, 11) ;
   though quickly after, it was, Crucify Him, crucify Him (Luke 23:21) As
   the sea, though sometimes smooth, is always disposed to obey the
   impulse of the wind, so the common people, though easily roused to
   oppose the truth, would, perhaps, be quiet, if they were left to
   themselves; but there are seldom wanting artful and designing men, who
   by a pretended regard for religion, and by misrepresentations, work
   upon their passions and prejudices, and stir them up to a compliance
   with their purposes. The priests by degrees, wrought the populace up,
   first to reject MESSIAH, and then, to join their leaders, in mocking
   and deriding Him.

   (3.)

   The Roman soldiers , who had contemptuously clothed Him with a scarlet
   robe, and bowed the knee before Him in derision, continued to mock Him
   when He was hanging upon the cross. The Romans to whom many monarchies
   were become subject and tributary, affected to despise the name of
   king. They held the Jewish nation in peculiar contempt. Therefore, the
   title KING of the JEWS , affixed to His cross, afforded them a subject
   for the keenest sarcasm.

   (4.)

   Yea, such is the hardness of the human heart, that one of the
   malefactors (Luke 23:39) , who was crucified by His side, unaffected
   with his own guilt, and insensible of the just judgment of God, and of
   the account he was soon to render at His awful tribunal, seemed to seek
   some relief in the midst of his agonies, by joining with the priests
   and people, in railing on the innocent Jesus, who was suffering before
   his eyes. Thus He was the object of universal derision. They who were
   at the greatest distance in character and sentiment, who differed from,
   despised and hated each other, on other accounts, united as one man, in
   expressing every possible mark of hatred and scorn against Him, who had
   done nothing amiss.

   II.

   They showed their scorn in the most pointed and cruel manner. Not only
   they, who had clamoured for His death, derided Him, but others, who
   were only passing by upon their ordinary occasions, could not pass on
   till they had stopped a while to insult Him, wagging their heads, and
   reminding Him of what He had formerly said, and charging Him with the
   supposed folly and arrogance of His claims. They jested upon His wants;
   when He said, I thirst , they gave Him vinegar to drink, mingled with
   gall. They jested upon His words; when He uttered His dolorous
   complaint, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? My God, My God, why hast Thou
   forsaken Me? some of them, with a malicious turn, (which possibly was
   applauded for wit by others) from the sound of the beginning of the
   sentence, took occasion to suggest, that by saying Eli, Eli, He called
   for Elias, the Prophet, to come to His assistance. Alas! of what
   dreadful malignity and obduracy [stubbornness] is the heart of man
   capable? How may we conceive the heavenly host to have been affected
   with this scene, when they beheld their Lord, the object of their
   worship and supreme love, thus treated by sinners? But it behoved Him
   thus to suffer (Luke 24:46) , for He had undertaken to expiate the sins
   of many of His murderers, and to offer such satisfaction to pardon the
   vilest offenders who should trust in His name, in all future ages.
   Therefore there was no voice, arrest, or interposition from the
   heavenly world --thus He must be tormented, thus He must be scorned,
   and suspended as a spectacle to angels and to men, till He had paid the
   full price of redemption, and could say, It is finished. Then, and not
   till then, He bowed His head, and breathed His spirit into His Father's
   hands. There were, however, attestations to his dignity, in this His
   lowest state. He showed, by His gracious answer to the penitent
   malefactor, that He had still upon earth authority to forgive sin, and
   to save to the uttermost. And the sun withdrew his light, and the rocks
   rent, though daring sinners derided and mocked.

   III.

   The bulk of the people bore their part in this tragedy, through
   precipitation and ignorance. In His prayer for their forgiveness (a
   prayer which was signally answered after His ascension) He mentioned
   the only extenuation their wickedness could possibly admit, They knew
   not what they did. It was otherwise, with those who were principally
   concerned in procuring His death. Long before, when they could not deny
   the reality of His miracles, they ascribed them to the agency of
   Beelzebub. By this malicious, wilful opposition to the strongest
   evidence of fact, against the conviction of their own minds, and by
   their violent, determined rejection of His mission, they committed the
   unpardonable sin. They spoke and sinned against the Holy Spirit. This
   sin no one can have committed, while he is fearful lest he has
   committed it, for it essentially consists, in a deliberate and wilful
   refusal of the only means of salvation. It is the sign of final
   absolute impenitence. They who had thus ascribed His miracles to
   Beelzebub, expressed the same height of enlightened malice against Him
   in His dying agonies, and there was a poignancy in their insults, of
   which the ignorant multitude were not capable.

   (1.)

   They reproached His great design for which He came into the world. He
   saved others, himself he cannot save (Matthew 27:42) How different is
   the force of the same words, according to the intention of the speaker!
   When they said, His blood be upon us and upon our children! (verse 25)
   they spoke the very language of the hearts of those who love Him, and
   who derive all their hopes, and all their happiness, from the
   application of His blood to their consciences. But, to themselves, it
   proved the most dreadful imprecation. So, it will be the grateful
   acknowledgment of His people in time, and to eternity, that when He was
   resolved to save them, the difficulties in the way were so great, that
   neither His prayers, nor His tears, nor His unspotted innocence, could
   prevail to save Himself. But for this, His love to sinners, His enemies
   reviled Him. Nor would they have offered to believe, if He would come
   down from the cross, as they supposed there was the least probability
   of such an event; for they had often rejected evidence, equal to what
   they now demanded.

   (2.)

   They reproached Him for His trust and confidence in God. He had said
   that God was His own Father (John 5:18) And they understood Him to use
   the expression in so high a sense, as thereby to make Himself equal to
   God. Had they misunderstood Him; had He not really intended what they
   laid to His charge, surely He would have explained Himself. This was
   the very ground of their proceeding against Him before the council, and
   the formal reason of the sentence of death they pronounced against Him.
   How often did He appeal to the testimony of the Scriptures, and of
   John, whom they durst not but acknowledge to have been a Prophet, and
   to His own mighty works, in support of His claim? But having fastened
   Him upon the cross, they triumphed and unwittingly expressed their
   exultation, in the very words which David had foretold should be used
   to MESSIAH. So exactly were the Scriptures fulfilled, by those who used
   their utmost endeavours to evade them, and to prevent their
   accomplishment.

   But what is all this to us? It is very much to us. Christ could suffer
   but once, yet we read of those who crucify Him afresh. His Gospel
   represents His personal ministry, declares His character, reveals His
   love, produces the same effects in those who receive it, and they who
   oppose it, are considered as opposing Him, and are influenced, by the
   same spirit, which instigated the unbelieving Jews. It is to be hoped
   that many reject and scorn it through ignorance, as the multitude did
   of old; and that the intercession of Him, who prayed for those that
   knew not what they did, will prevail for their conversion. Whenever
   their eyes are opened, they will be pricked to the heart (Acts 2:37) ,
   and will then gladly enquire of those, whom now they despise, What they
   must do to be saved?

   But it is to be feared, there are, in Christian countries many persons
   who too nearly resemble the spirit and conduct of the Jewish rulers;
   whose opposition proceeds from rooted enmity to the truth persisted in
   against light that has sometimes forced upon their minds, and who,
   though convinced, will not be persuaded. They, who despise, calumniate
   and scorn the believers of the Gospel, would certainly offer the like
   treatment to the Author of it, if He was within their reach. They are
   ill-treated for His sake, and He considers it as an affront to Himself.
   Thus He said to Saul of Tarsus, when breathing out threatening against
   His disciples, Why persecutes thou Me? They who reject his ministers,
   reject Him (Luke 10:16) They who speak disdainfully of His dying
   Himself to save others; they who reproach or ridicule the humble
   confidence of His people; who censure and revile their hopes and
   comforts derived from His good Word, as enthusiasm [fanaticism] or
   hypocrisy; who have no compassion for their distresses, but rather
   wound them as with a sword in their bones, saying unto them, Where is
   now your God? (Psalm 115:2) , are certainly treading, if not altogether
   with equal vehemence, in the footsteps of the Jewish rulers. May the
   Lord, in mercy, show them the danger of their path, and give them a
   timely apprehension of the destruction to which it leads! That they may
   humble themselves to do His will, implore His pardon, espouse His
   cause, and experience the comforts and privileges of that Gospel, which
   they have hitherto reviled and scorned.

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   Sermon XXII

   Messiah Unpitied, and Without a Comforter

   Psalm 69:20

   Reproach [Rebuke] hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness:

   and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none;

   and for comforters, but I found none.

   T he greatness of suffering cannot be certainly estimated by the single
   consideration of the immediate, apparent cause; the impression it
   actually makes upon the mind of the sufferer, must likewise be taken
   into the account. That which is a heavy trial to one person, may be
   much lighter to another, and, perhaps, no trial at all. And a state of
   outward prosperity, in which, the eye of the bystander can see nothing
   wanting to happiness, may be, (and I doubt not, often is) a state of
   torment to the possessor. On the other hand, we know that the
   consolations, with which it has sometimes pleased God to cheer His
   suffering servants, have enabled them to rejoice in the greatest
   extremities. They have triumphed upon the rack, and while their flesh
   was being consumed by the fire. The Lord has had many followers, who,
   for His sake, have endured scourgings, and tortures, and terrible
   deaths, not only without reluctance or dismay, but without a groan. But
   He, Himself, was terrified, amazed, and filled with anguish when He
   suffered for us. Shall we say, The disciples, in such cases, have been
   superior to their Master; when yet they acknowledged, that they derived
   all their strength and resolution, from Him? This difference, cannot be
   well accounted for, by those who deny that His sufferings were a proper
   atonement for sin, and who can see no other reason for His death, than
   that by dying He was to seal the truth of His doctrine, and to propose
   Himself to us as an example of constancy and patience. But the great
   aggravation of MESSIAH'S sufferings was, the suspensions of those
   divine supports, which enable His people to endure the severest
   afflictions to which He calls them. Perhaps some persons who
   acknowledge our Lord's true character, may, upon that ground, think His
   agonies less insupportable, since He was not a mere man, but God in the
   human nature. It was, indeed, the dignity of His person that gave
   influence and efficacy to all that He did and suffered for sinners. It
   is likewise true that the weight laid upon Him was more than any mere
   creature could sustain. I would speak, with reverence and reserve, upon
   a point which is too high for our weak minds fully to comprehend. But
   in whatever way the nature of man, which He assumed, was upheld by His
   eternal power and Godhead, we may venture to affirm, that He derived no
   sensible comfort from it. For we have His own testimony that, in this
   sense, God had forsaken Him . The divine nature could neither bleed nor
   suffer. He was truly and properly a man; and as a man, He suffered, and
   He suffered alone. Many of His servants have rejoiced while they were
   tormented, because God overbalanced all they felt, with the light of
   His countenance; but the Saviour Himself, deprived of this light,
   experienced to the uttermost all that sin deserved, that was not
   inconsistent with the perfection of His character. My text expresses,
   so far as human words and ideas can reach, His exquisite distress, when
   He bore our sins in His own body, upon the tree. Reproach broke His
   heart, and when He looked for pity and comfort He found none.

   I.

   Reproach hath broken my heart. We must not confine our thoughts here,
   to the reproach of His enemies. The passage in the Messiah [Oratorio]
   expresses it, agreeably to the version of the Psalms used in our
   liturgy, Thy rebuke. Though He knew no sin, He was made sin for us. He
   was accounted and treated as a sinner. Now a sinner is, deservedly, the
   greatest object of contempt in the universe, and, indeed, the only
   object of deserved contempt. Thus He incurred the reproach of the law
   and justice of God. The Holy Father, viewing the Son of His love in
   this light, as charged with the sins of His people, forsook Him. God
   infinitely hates sin, and will have no fellowship with it; and of this
   He gave the most awful proof, by forsaking His beloved Son; when He
   took upon Him to answer for the sins of men. Then the sword of the
   Almighty awoke against Him, and He spared Him not (Zechariah 13:7)

   This rebuke broke His heart. Let broken-hearted sinners look, by faith,
   upon a broken-hearted Saviour. The phrase denotes woe and dejection
   inconceivable, with a failure of all resource. Anything may be borne
   while the spirit, the heart, remains firm; but if the heart itself be
   broken, who can endure? A wounded spirit, who can bear? (Proverbs
   18:14)

   It is not surprising, therefore, that He says, I am full of heaviness.
   In the Evangelists, we read, that He began to be sore amazed, and very
   heavy (Matthew 26:37, 38; Mark 14:33) ; and He said to His disciples,
   My soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death. The most emphatic words
   are used, to describe His sensation of the bitter conflict of His soul,
   in the garden of Gethsemane, when as yet the hand of man had not
   touched Him. He began to be amazed [ ekthambeo ], or astonished. This
   word properly signifies, to be struck with terror and surprise, by some
   supernatural power, such as Belshazzar felt, when he suddenly saw the
   hand-writing against him upon the wall (Daniel 5:6) And to be very
   heavy [ ademoneo --the strongest of the three words used in the New
   Testament for depression] , sated with grief, full, so as to be
   incapable of more. Some critics explain the word, as importing such an
   oppression of mind, as quite unfits a person for converse or society
   (compare Job 30:29) He said, I am exceeding sorrowful -- surrounded,
   encompassed with sorrows [perilypos - encompassed with grief - Matthew
   26:38] . It is added, He was in an agony [agonia - severe mental
   struggle and emotions, anguish - Luke 22:44] --a consternation of mind,
   such as arises from the prospect of some impending, unavoidable evil ;
   like the suspense of mariners upon the point of shipwreck, who tremble,
   equally at the view of the raging waves behind them, and the rocky
   shore before their eyes, on which they expect, in a few moments, to be
   dashed. The evils He was to bear, and to expiate, were now collecting
   to a point, and formed a dark tremendous storm just ready to break upon
   His devoted head; and the prospect filled His soul with unutterable
   horror, so that His sweat was, as it were, great drops of blood falling
   down to the ground. Many have sweat under the extremity of pain, or
   terror; but His agonies, and the effect of them, were peculiar to
   Himself. His sweat was blood.

   This is not a subject for declamation. It rather becomes us to adore in
   humble silence, the manifestation of the goodness and severity of God
   (Romans 11:22) , in the Redeemer's sufferings, than to indulge in
   conjecture and the flights of imagination. What is expressly revealed
   we may assert, contemplate, and admire. His soul was made an offering
   for sin (Isaiah 53:10) We know but little of the extreme malignity of
   sin, because we have but faint views of the majesty, holiness, and
   goodness of God, against whom it is committed. Yet a single sin, if
   clothed with all its aggravations, and the guilt of it brought home
   with power to the heart, is sufficient to make the sinner a terror to
   himself. Adam had sinned but once, when he lost all comfort and
   confidence in God, and sought to hide himself. We have but slight
   thoughts of the extent of sin. Not only positive disobedience, but want
   of conformity to the law of God, is sinful. Every rising thought which
   does not comport with that reverence, dependence, and love, which is
   due to God, from creatures constituted, furnished, and indebted, as we
   are, is sinful. The sins of one person, in thought, word, and deed,
   sins of omission, and commission, are innumerable. What then is
   contained in the collective idea, in what the Scripture calls, the sin
   of the world ? What then must be the atonement, the consideration, on
   the account of which the great God is no less righteous than merciful,
   in forgiving the sins, which His inviolable truth, and the honour of
   His government engage Him to punish. And they are punished, though
   forgiven. They were charged upon Jesus, they exposed Him to a rebuke
   which broke His heart. They filled Him with heaviness. When therefore,
   we are assured that the justice of God is satisfied, with respect to
   every sinner of the race of mankind, who, in obedience to the divine
   command, makes the sufferings of the Saviour his plea for pardon, and
   trusts in Him for salvation; and that upon this one ground they are
   freed from all condemnation, and accepted as children; when we are
   told, that the glory of the divine perfections is displayed in the
   highest, by this method of saving millions, who deserved to perish; we
   safely infer the greatness of the cause, from the greatness of the
   effect. The sufferings of Christ, which free a multitude of sinners
   from the guilt of innumerable sins, must have been inconceivably great
   indeed!

   II.

   Under this accumulated distress, though His will was perfectly
   submissive to the will of God, and His determination fixed to endure
   all that the case required; yet, as He was truly a man, He felt like a
   man. His fortitude was very different from a stoical hardness of
   spirit. All the affections of pure humanity, whatever does not imply
   sin (such as impatience under suffering, and an undue premature desire
   for deliverance), operated in Him, as they might do in one of us. It
   was no impeachment of His innocence, or of His willingness, that He
   wished, if it were possible, for some relief or alleviation of His
   misery. He looked, as we do, when we are in heaviness, for some to have
   pity on Him, and to comfort Him, but there was none. Though the pity of
   our friends is often ineffectual, and can afford us no real assistance,
   yet it gives a little relief to have those about us, to whom we can
   open our minds; who will sympathize with us, and compassionately attend
   to our complaints, if they can do no more. And to be neglected and
   forsaken in extremity, especially by those who have expressed great
   friendship, or are under great obligations to us, will be felt as an
   aggravation of the most distressing case that can be imagined. But thus
   it was with MESSIAH. He had to complain, not only of the cruelty of His
   enemies, but of the insensibility and inconstancy, of those, who had
   professed the most cordial attachment to Him. The impression this made
   upon Him, as a man, was such that it is distinctly specified in the
   prophetical enumeration of the ingredients, which composed the bitter
   cup of His sufferings.

   He was not only apprehended by cruel men, but betrayed into their hands
   by one whom He had admitted into the number of His select apostles, who
   had been employed in His service, favoured with access to Him in His
   more retired hours, and was present with the rest when he kept His last
   Passover, and took His solemn and affectionate leave of them, before He
   entered upon His Passion. It was not an avowed enemy, but one of the
   twelve who dipped with Him in the dish, that was guilty of this
   enormous ingratitude and treachery. How keen are our resentments, if
   those, to whom we have shown great kindness, are discovered to have
   studied our ruin while they wore the mask of friendship? Though MESSIAH
   was incapable of any sinful perturbation of mind, He was very capable
   of being painfully affected, by the conduct of Judas; He had reason to
   look for pity from him, but He found none.

   When He entered the Garden of Gethsemane, He commanded, may I not say,
   He entreated, His disciples to tarry there and watch with Him. And to
   engage their utmost attention, He spoke plainly to them of His
   distress, saying, My soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death. Yet
   when He returned to them, the first, the second, yea, the third time,
   He found them sleeping. How tender, yet how forcible was His
   expostulation, Could ye not watch one hour! (Matthew 26:40) . What!
   could they know that their Lord was in an agony, wrestling with strong
   cries and tears, and yet sleep! as regardless of His sorrows, as of
   their own approaching danger! Were our dearest friends to show
   themselves equally insensible, when we were in extreme anguish, would
   not their indifference wound our spirits? He also was a man. And we may
   conceive it some addition to His grief, that when He looked to them for
   pity and comfort, He found none.

   When He was apprehended, notwithstanding their former protestation of
   zeal and love, they all forsook Him and fled (Matthew 26:56) They
   sought their own safety, and left Him in the hands of His enemies. The
   Apostle Paul was thus deserted, and his expressions intimate that he
   felt it. At my first answer, no man stood by me, all men forsook me (II
   Timothy 4:16) . He had imbibed, likewise, the spirit of his Master, and
   prayed that it might not be laid to their charge. And though the Lord
   Jesus pitied and excused the weakness of His disciples, and permitted
   them to take care of themselves, it was in them, an instance, how
   little He could depend upon those, who were under the strongest
   obligations to Him.

   But Peter followed his Lord to the hall of the High Priest, and there
   saw Him, with his own eyes, insulted, arraigned, and unjustly
   condemned. Might He not expect that Peter, the most active and earnest
   of all His followers, would have pitied Him at least at such a time?
   Alas! instead of pitying Him, Peter denied Him; he denied with oaths
   and imprecations, that he had any knowledge of Him, whom he had seen
   transfigured upon the mount, and whom he had seen agonizing in the
   garden. We read, That the Lord turned and looked upon Peter (Luke
   22:61) . Who can conceive the energy of that look! It was full of
   meaning, and Peter well understood it. Surely, though a look of
   tenderness and compassion, it conveyed the expostulation of an injured
   benefactor, no less forcibly, than if all who were present had heard
   him say, "Peter, is this the pity I am to expect from thee?"

   When He was nailed to the cross, He was surrounded only by enemies.
   These, as we have seen, far from pitying, or attempting to comfort Him,
   derided and mocked Him. How have some of us felt for our friends in
   their dying hours, though we have seen every possible attention paid to
   them, and everything provided and done for them, that could administer
   to their relief and comfort! But they, who have the faith which
   realizes unseen things, have their best Friend expiring in tortures,
   and insulted by His murderers, in His last moments.

   But had all His disciples been near Him, and had all His enemies been
   His friends, still, in His situation, He would have been alone. The
   loss of the light of God's countenance, will, to the soul that has
   enjoyed it, create a universal solitude, and render every earthly good
   tasteless, in proportion as that soul is united to Him in love; and
   still more, if there be superadded a sense of His displeasure. They,
   who have never tasted that the Lord is good, not having known the
   difference, can have no conception of this subject. Their minds are, at
   present, occupied with earthly things; and while they are thus engaged
   with trifles, they cannot believe, though they are repeatedly told it,
   that to an immortal spirit, a separation from the favour of God
   involves in it the very essence of misery. But should death surprise
   them in their sins, tear them from all that they have seen and loved,
   and plunge them into an unknown, unchangeable world, then (alas! too
   late!) they will be sensible of their immense, irreparable loss, in
   being cut off from the fountain of life and comfort. A suspension of
   this Divine presence, with an awful sense and feeling of what those,
   for whom He made Himself responsible, deserved, was the most dreadful
   part of the Redeemer's sufferings. --He was perfectly united to the
   will and love of His Heavenly Father, and by the perfect holiness of
   His nature, incapable of tasting satisfaction in any thing else, if His
   presence were withdrawn. But when He endured the curse of the law for
   us, He looked to God for pity and comfort, but He found none.

   In this glass [magnifying glass of Gods Word] we are to contemplate the
   demerit of sin. But there are some sufferings due to the impenitent
   sinner, of which MESSIAH was not capable. I mean the consciousness of
   personal guilt, the gnawing of a remorseful conscience, and the rage of
   despair. If we add the idea of eternity to the whole, we may form some
   faint judgment of what they are delivered from, who believe in Him, and
   what misery awaits those who presume to reject Him. Awful thought, to
   reject the only Saviour. If they refuse His mediation, they must answer
   in their own persons. Then they will find no pity, no comforter. For
   who, or what, can comfort, when the LORD God Omnipotent arises to
   punish? What will your pleasures, your wealth, or friends, do for you,
   when the hand of the Lord shall touch you to the quick? What smile can
   you expect will support you, against the terror of His frown?

   Should any of you hear the Messiah [Oratorio] performed again, then and
   there, if not before, may God impress upon your heart the sense of this
   passage. Then you will understand, that the sufferings of the Son of
   God, are, by no means, a proper subject for the amusement of a vacant
   hour.

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   Sermon XXIII

   No Sorrow Like Messiah's Sorrow

   Lamentations 1:12

   Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?

   Behold, and see, if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow!

   A lthough the Scriptures of the Old Testament, the law of Moses, the
   Psalms, and the Prophecies (Luke 24:44) , bear an harmonious testimony
   to MESSIAH ; it is not necessary to suppose that every single passage
   has an immediate and direct relation to Him. A method of exposition has
   frequently obtained [frequently been in vogue], of a fanciful and
   allegorical cast [contrivance], under the pretext of spiritualizing the
   Word of God. Ingenious men, and sometimes men not very ingenious, have
   endeavoured to discover types [prophetic symbols] and mysteries in the
   plainest of historical parts, where we have no sufficient evidence that
   the Holy Spirit intended to teach them. And, upon very slight grounds,
   a proof has been attempted of the great doctrines of the Gospel, which
   may be proved much more safely and solidly from the passages of
   Scripture in which they are plainly and expressly revealed. But, by
   taking this course, instead of throwing real light upon the places they
   have, in this manner, attempted to explain; they have perplexed their
   hearers and readers, and led them to question whether there be any
   fixed and determinate sense of Scripture, that may be fully depended
   upon. It is true, when we have the authority of an inspired expositor
   to lead us, we may follow him without fear; but this will not warrant
   us to strike out a path for ourselves, and trust to our conjectures,
   where we have not such an infallible guide. The epistle to the Hebrews
   is a key to explain to us many passages, in a higher sense, than
   perhaps we should have otherwise understood them. But it is best for us
   to keep within safe bounds, and to propose our own sentiments with
   great modesty, when they are not supported by New Testament authority;
   lest we should incur the censure of being wise, above what is written.
   I may, without scruple, affirm, that the history of Sarah and Hagar, is
   an allegory referring to the two Covenants, because the Apostle Paul
   has affirmed it before me (Galatians 4:24) ; but if I attempted to
   spiritualize the history of Leah and Rachel, likewise, you would not be
   bound to believe me, without proof. I may preach the Gospel of Christ,
   from a text which mentions the manna, or the brazen serpent, because,
   our Lord has expounded these things, as typical of Himself (John 3:14;
   John 6:31, 35) . But I must not be confident that every resemblance,
   which I think I can trace, is the true sense of the place; because, I
   may imagine many resemblances and types [symbols] which the Scripture
   does not authorize.

   There is, however, a useful way of preaching, by accommodation, that
   is, when the literal sense is first clearly stated to apply the
   passage, not directly to prove a doctrine, as if really contained in
   it, but only to illustrate the doctrine expressly taught in other parts
   of the Scripture. Thus, for instance, if the question of Jonadab to
   Amnon (II Samuel 13:4) , were chosen for the subject of discourse, Why
   art thou, being a king's son, lean from day to day? The history of the
   context directly proves the malignity of sinful inordinate desire, and
   the misery of those who are under its dominion; that it poisons every
   situation in life, and renders the sinner incapable of satisfaction,
   though he were a king's son. The form of the question might then lead,
   to observe, That believers are king's sons, to show what are the great
   privileges of their adoption; and to enquire, how it comes to pass that
   many persons, so highly privileged, are lean, that is, uncomfortable,
   weak, and languishing in their profession? These points might, not
   improperly, be introduced, by way of accommodation, though they are
   not, directly deducible from the literal sense of the question.

   The text I have just read to you (Lamentations 1:12) , has led me to
   this digression. I find it in the series of the passages in the Messiah
   [Oratorio], but I am not sure that, in the literal sense, it
   immediately refers to Him. It is a pathetic exclamation by which the
   Prophet Jeremiah expresses his grief, or rather the grief of Jerusalem,
   when the sins of the people had given success to the Chaldean army, and
   the temple and the city were destroyed. Jerusalem is poetically
   considered as a woman, lately reigning a queen among the nations, but
   now a captive, dishonoured, spoiled, and sitting upon the ground. She
   entreats the commiseration of those who pass by, and asks, If there be
   any sorrow like unto her sorrow? Such a question, has often been in the
   heart, and in the mouth of the afflicted, especially in an hour of
   impatience. We are all, in our turns, disposed to think our own trials
   peculiarly heavy, and our own cases singular. But to them who ask this
   question, we may answer, Yes --there has been a sorrow greater than
   yours, greater than the sorrow of Jeremiah, or of Jerusalem. They who
   have heard of the sorrows of Jesus, will surely, upon the hearing of
   this question, be reminded of Him, whether it was the intention of the
   Prophet to personate Him, or not. If we conceive of Him hanging upon
   the cross, and speaking in this language to us, Was ever any sorrow
   like my sorrow? must not we reply with admiration and gratitude, "No
   Lord, never was love, never was grief like Thine."

   The expostulation, and the question, are equally applicable to the
   sufferings of MESSIAH. The former, indeed, is not inserted in the
   Oratorio , but I am not willing to leave it out. The highest wonder
   ever exhibited to the world, to angels, and men, is the Son of God,
   suffering and dying for sinners. Next to this, hardly anything is more
   astonishing to an enlightened mind --than the gross and stupid
   insensibility with which the sufferings of the Saviour are treated, and
   the indifference with which this wonderful event is regarded by
   creatures who are so nearly concerned in it. If they believe in Him,
   they will be healed by His wounds, and live by His death. If they
   finally reject Him, they must perish; and their guilt, and misery will
   be greatly aggravated by what they have heard of Him! But sin has so
   blinded our understandings, and hardened our hearts, that we have,
   naturally, no feeling, either for Him, or for ourselves.

   I.

   Is the expostulation suited to any person here? Can I, with propriety,
   say, to some who are now present, Has this subject been, hitherto,
   nothing to you? Then, surely, you have not heard of it before; and,
   therefore, now you do hear of it, you will, you must, be affected. If
   you were to read in the common newspapers, that a benevolent and
   excellent person had fallen into the hands of murderers, who had put
   him to death in the most cruel manner, would it not be something to
   you? Could you avoid impressions of surprise, indignation, and grief?
   Surely, if this transaction were news to you, it would engross your
   thoughts. But alas! you have rather heard of it too often, till it has
   become to you as a worn-out tale. I am willing to take it for granted,
   that you allow the fact. You believe that Jesus Christ suffered under
   Pontius Pilate, was condemned by the Jews, and crucified by the Romans.
   And is it possible this should be nothing to you? Is it too
   insignificant to engage, or deserve your attention? And yet, perhaps,
   you have wept at a representation, or a narrative, which, you knew, was
   wholly founded in fiction. How strange? What! the sorrows of Jesus
   nothing to you ! when you admit that He suffered for sinners, and will
   probably admit that you are a sinner. No longer, then, boast of your
   sensibility! Your heart must be a heart of stone. Yet thus it is with
   too many; your tempers, your conduct, give evidence that, hitherto, the
   death of Jesus has been nothing to you. You would not have acted
   otherwise, at least you would not have acted worse, if you had never
   heard of His name. Were His sufferings anything to you, is it possible
   that you would live in the practice of those sins, for which no
   atonement could suffice, but His blood? Were you duly affected by the
   thought of His crucifixion, is it possible that you could crucify Him
   afresh, and put Him to open shame, by bearing the name of a Christian,
   and yet living in a course unsuitable to the spirit and precepts of His
   Gospel? But if you are indifferent to His grief, is it nothing to you
   on your own account? What! is it nothing to you whether you are saved
   or perish? whether you are found at His right, or His left hand, in the
   great Day of His appearance? or whether He shall then say to you, Come
   ye blessed, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you; or, Depart, ye
   cursed, into everlasting fire? (Matthew 25:34, 41) . There is no
   medium, no alternative. If you refuse this, there remains no other
   sacrifice for sin. This lamentable indifference to the Redeemer's
   sorrows, is a full proof of the baseness and wickedness of the human
   heart; and it is felt as such, when the Holy Spirit convinces of sin.
   Natural conscience, may excite a painful conviction, of the sinfulness
   of many actions. But this stupid unbelief of the heart is, if I may so
   speak, the sin of sins, it is the root and source of every evil, and
   yet so congenial to our very frame as we are depraved creatures, that
   God alone can make the sinner feel it (John 16:9) ; and when he does
   feel it, the sense of it wounds and grieves him, more than all his
   other sins.

   II.

   With respect to the question, if we rightly understand what has been
   observed from the Scripture history, in the six preceding sermons,
   concerning the particulars of His Passion; we may answer, without
   hesitation, Never was suffering or sorrow like that which MESSIAH
   endured, in the Day of the Lord's fierce anger. It is possible that
   history, which is little more than a detail of the cruelty and
   wickedness of mankind, may furnish us with instances of many persons
   who have suffered excruciating torments, and have been mocked and
   insulted in their agonies: But,

   (1.)

   Was there ever a character, of His dignity and excellence, treated in
   such a manner? Job considered his former state as a great aggravation
   of his sufferings. He enlarges upon the respect which had been shown
   him in his prosperity. When I went out to the gate, through the city,
   the young men saw me and hid themselves, the aged arose and stood up.
   When the ear heard me, then it blessed me; and when the eye saw me, it
   gave witness to me (Job 29: 8, 11) But afterwards speaking of fools, of
   base men, of the vilest of the earth, he adds, Now I am their song,
   yea, their by-word. They abhor me, and spare not to spit in my face.
   They mar my path, they set forward my calamity, they come upon me as a
   wide breaking in of waters (Job 30:8-14) . But Jesus was the Lord of
   glory. He whom all the angels of God worshipped, was buffeted and spit
   upon by the lowest rabble. If a great king was degraded from his
   throne, and exposed to the derision of slaves, this would be a small
   thing, compared with the humiliation of Him, who, in His own right, was
   King of kings, and Lord of lords.

   (2.)

   Was there ever so innocent a sufferer? When Aaron lost his two sons, he
   held his peace (Leviticus 10:3) . A little before, he had been guilty
   of making the golden calf. The remembrance of this offence, composed
   his mind under his great trial. He saw that he deserved a still heavier
   punishment, and was silent. In like manner, David, when his rebellious
   son Absalom conspired against his life, was patient; he remembered the
   adultery and murder he had committed; and, though he mourned under his
   afflictions, he durst not complain (II Samuel 16:11) . The malefactor
   upon the cross submitted to his sentence, because he was a malefactor,
   saying, And we indeed justly (Luke 23:41) It is thus with all who know
   themselves. Under their severest afflictions, they admit the propriety
   of the Prophet's question, Why should a living man complain?
   (Lamentations 3:39) And they acknowledge, It is of the LORD 's great
   mercy, they are not utterly consumed (verse 22) But Jesus was holy,
   harmless, and undefiled; He had fulfilled the whole law, and had
   nothing amiss, yet He yielded Himself as a lamb to the slaughter, and
   as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth
   (Isaiah 53:7)

   (3.)

   Did ever any sufferer experience, in an equal degree, the Day of God's
   fierce anger? In the greatest of our sufferings, in those which bear
   the strongest marks of the Lord's displeasure, there is always some
   mitigation, some mixture of mercy. At the worst, we have still reason
   to acknowledge that, He hath not dealt with us after our own sins, nor
   according to the full desert of our iniquities (Psalm 103:10) If we are
   in pain, we do not feel every kind of pain at once, yet, we can give no
   sufficient reason why we should not. If we are exercised with poverty
   and losses, yet something worth the keeping, and more than we can
   justly claim, is still left to us, at least our lives are spared,
   though forfeited by sin. If we are in distress of soul, tossed with
   tempest and not comforted, we are not quite out of the reach of hope.
   Even if sickness, pain, loss, and despair, should all overtake us in
   the same moment, all is still less than we deserve. Our proper desert
   is hell, an exclusion from God, and confinement with Satan and his
   angels, where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.
   Everything short of this is a mercy. But Jesus, though He had no sin of
   His own, bore the sins of many. His sufferings were indeed, temporary,
   limited in their duration, but otherwise extreme. Witness the effects,
   His heaviness unto death, His consternation, His bloody sweat, His
   eclipse [His humiliating end] upon the cross, when deprived of that
   Presence, which was his only, and His exceeding, joy. On these
   accounts, no sorrow was like unto His sorrow!

   The unknown sorrows of the Redeemer, are a continual source of support
   and consolation to His believing people. In His sufferings, they
   contemplate His atonement, His love, and His example, and they are
   animated by the bright and glorious issue: For He passed from death to
   life, from suffering to glory.

   (1.)

   His atonement, apprehended by faith, delivers them from guilt and
   condemnation, gives them peace with God, and access to Him with liberty
   as children (Romans 5:1, 2) Being thus delivered from their heavy
   burden, and from the power of Satan, and having a way open for
   receiving supplies of grace, and strength, according to their day, they
   are prepared to take up their cross, and to follow Him.

   (2.)

   His love , in submitting to such sorrows for their sakes, attaches
   their hearts to Him. Great is the power of love! It makes hard things
   easy, and bitter sweet. Some of us can tell, or rather, we cannot
   easily tell, how much we would cheerfully do, or bear, or forbear, for
   the sake of the person whom we dearly love. But this noblest principle
   of the soul, can never exert itself with its full strength, till it is
   supremely fixed upon its proper object. The love of Christ has a
   constraining force indeed! (II Corinthians 5:14) . It is stronger than
   death. It overcomes the world. And we thus love Him, because He first
   loved us; because He loved us, and gave Himself for us (I John 4:19 ;
   Galatians 2:20)

   (3.)

   His example. The thought that He suffered for them, arms them with the
   like mind. They look to Him and are enlightened. By His cross they are
   crucified to the world, and the world to them. They no longer court its
   favour, or are afraid of its frown. They know what they must expect, if
   they will be His servants, by the treatment He met with; and they are
   content. He, who endured the contradiction of sinners against Himself,
   for them, is worthy that they should suffer, likewise, for Him. It is
   their desire neither to provoke the opposition of men, nor to dread it.
   They commit themselves to Him, and are sure that He will not expose
   them to such sufferings, as He endured for them. So, likewise, under
   all the trials and afflictions, which they endure, more immediately,
   from the hand of the Lord, a lively thought of His sorrows reconciles
   them to their own. Thus by His stripes they are healed, and are
   comforted by having fellowship with Him in His sufferings.

   (4.)

   Lastly, if more were necessary, (and, sometimes, through remaining
   infirmity and surrounding temptation, every consideration is no more
   than necessary) they know that their Lord passed through sufferings to
   glory. And they know (for they have His own gracious promise) that if
   they suffer with Him, they shall also reign with Him (John 12:26;
   Romans 8:18) They are sure, that the sufferings of the present life,
   are not worthy to be compared with the joy which will then be revealed;
   and that when Christ, who is their life, shall appear, they also shall
   appear with Him in glory (Colossian 3:4) ; and therefore they are
   comforted in all their tribulation, and can say, None of these things
   move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I may finish
   my course with joy (Acts 20:24)

   ---- O ----
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   Sermon XXIV

   Messiah's Innocence Vindicated

   Isaiah 53:8

   He was taken from prison and from judgment,

   and who shall declare his generation?

   For he was cut off out of the land of the living;

   for the transgression of my people was he stricken.

   L et not plain Christians be stumbled because there are difficulties in
   the prophetical parts of the Scriptures, and because translators and
   expositors sometimes explain them with some difference, as to the
   sense. Whatever directly relates to our faith, practice, and comfort,
   may be plainly collected from innumerable passages, in which all the
   versions, and all sober expositors agreed. That there are some
   differences, will not appear strange, if we consider the antiquity of
   the Hebrew language, and that the Old Testament is the only book
   extant, which was written during the time that it was the common
   language of the people. For this reason we meet with many words which
   occur but once; and others, which do not occur frequently, are
   evidently used in more than one sense. If we suppose that a time should
   come, when the English language should be no longer spoken, and no more
   than a single volume in it be preserved, we may well conceive that
   posterity might differ, as to the sense of many expressions,
   notwithstanding the assistances they might obtain, by comparing the
   English with the French, Dutch, and other languages, which were in use
   at the same period. Such assistance, we derive from the Chaldee,
   Syriac, Greek, and other ancient versions of the Old Testament,
   sufficient to confirm us in the true sense of the whole, and to throw
   light upon many passages otherwise dark and dubious; and yet, there
   will remain a number of places, the sense of which, the best critics
   have not been able to fix with certainty. Farther, the prophecies are
   usually expressed in the style of poetry, which, in all languages, is
   remote from the common forms of speaking. The grand evidence to a
   humble mind, that the Holy Scripture was originally given by
   inspiration of God, and that the version of it, which by His good
   Providence we are favoured with, is authentic, is, the effect it has
   upon the heart and conscience, when enlightened by the Holy Spirit. And
   without this internal, experimental evidence, the learned are no less
   at a loss than the vulgar.

   An acquaintance with the Hebrew, will, perhaps, suggest a meaning in
   this verse (the latter part of which is taken into the Messiah
   [Oratorio] ) which may not readily occur to an English reader. But, the
   purport of it, is plainly expressed, in many other passages. The text
   is not merely a repetition of what was spoken before, concerning the
   Redeemer's sufferings; rather the declaration, of what was to follow
   them, begins here. It is the opening of a bright and glorious subject.
   He was taken, He was taken up, like Enoch and Elijah, from prison, and
   from judgment, and who can declare His generation? or, (as the word
   properly signifies) His age? Who can declare His state, the
   establishment and duration of His dignity, influence, and government?
   For though He was cut off, made an excision and a curse, from amongst
   men, it was not upon His own account, but for the transgression of my
   people, that He was smitten.

   God was manifested in the flesh (I Timothy 3:16) and, in the flesh, He
   suffered as a malefactor. Undoubtedly the divine nature is incapable of
   suffering; but the human nature, which did suffer, was assumed by Him
   who is over all, God, blessed for ever (Romans 9:5) But He was
   justified in the Spirit; and sufficient care was taken, that in His
   lowest humiliation, though He was condemned and reviled, His character
   should be vindicated. I shall, therefore, consider, at present, the
   testimonies given to His innocence. Though He was cut off out of the
   land of the living, it was only as a substitute for others. He was
   stricken, for the transgression of His people.

   (1.)

   The first attestation, and which of itself is fully sufficient to
   establish this point, is that of Judas. He was one of the twelve
   apostles who attended our Lord's person, and who were admitted to a
   nearer and more frequent intercourse with Him than the rest of His
   disciples. Though our Lord knew that his heart was corrupt, and that he
   would prove a traitor, He does not appear to have treated him with
   peculiar reserve; or, to have kept him more at a distance than the
   other apostles; for when He told them, One of you shall betray me, they
   had no particular suspicion of Judas. He, therefore, was well
   acquainted with the more retired hours of his Master's life. He had
   been often with Him in Gethsemane, before he went thither to betray Him
   to His enemies. When he had acted this treacherous part, if he, who had
   been frequently present when Jesus conversed most freely in private,
   with His select followers, had known anything amiss in His conduct, we
   may be sure he would gladly have disclosed it, for his own
   justification.

   Christian societies have usually been reviled and slandered by those
   who have apostatized from them; their mistakes, if they were justly
   chargeable with any, have been eagerly published and exaggerated; and
   many things, often laid to their charge, which they knew not. But
   Judas, on the contrary, was compelled by his conscience, to return his
   ill-gotten gain to the chief priests and elders, and to confess, I have
   sinned, in that I have betrayed the innocent blood (Matthew 27:4)
   Considering the time of making this declaration, when he saw that he
   was already condemned, and the persons to whom he made it, even to
   those who had condemned Him, it cannot be denied that he was an
   unsuspected and competent witness to His innocence. And the answer of
   the chief priests, implied, that, though their malice could be
   satisfied with nothing less than the death of this innocent person,
   they were unable to contradict the traitor's testimony.

   (2.)

   Though Pilate, likewise, condemned MESSIAH to death, to gratify the
   importunity of the Jews, he repeatedly declared his firm persuasion of
   His innocence. And he did it with great solemnity. He took water, and
   washed his hands, publicly, before the multitude, saying, I am innocent
   of the blood of this just person (Matthew 27:24) He laboured for His
   release, though the fear of man prevailed upon him at last, as it has
   upon many, to act in defiance to the light and conviction of his
   conscience. And from him we learn that Herod, notwithstanding he mocked
   Him and set Him at naught, considered the accusations of His enemies to
   be entirely groundless (Luke 23:15) . And farther, when the Jews
   proposed such an alteration of the title affixed to His cross, as might
   imply that the claims our Lord had made were unjust and criminal,
   Pilate utterly refused to comply with their demand.

   (3.)

   The thief upon the cross, with his dying breath, said, This man hath
   done nothing amiss. If his competency as a witness should be disputed,
   because it is probable he had known but little of Him, I admit the
   objection. Be it so, that this malefactor had little personal knowledge
   of our Lord. Then his opinion of His innocence must have been founded
   upon public report; and, therefore, it seems he spoke not for himself
   only; but his words may be taken as a proof, that the people at large,
   though they suffered themselves to be influenced by the chief priests,
   to demand His death, and to prefer Barabbas a robber and a murderer to
   Him, were generally conscious that He had done nothing amiss. Many of
   those who now said, Crucify Him, Crucify Him, had, not long before,
   welcomed Him with acclamations of praise, saying, Hosanna to the Son of
   David. This inconsistence, and inconstancy, is not altogether
   surprising to those who are well acquainted with the weakness and
   wickedness of human nature in its present state; and who consider the
   effects which the misrepresentations and artifice of persons of great
   name, and in high office, have often produced in the minds of the
   ignorant and superstitious. Thus, at Lystra, through the persuasion of
   the Jews, the Apostle Paul was stoned and left for dead by the very
   people who, a little before, could with difficulty be restrained from
   paying him divine honours (Acts 14:12, 19)

   (4.)

   Though the salvation of men, and the honour of the law of God, required
   that when MESSIAH undertook to make an atonement for our sins, He
   should be thus given up to the rage and cruelty of His enemies, suffer
   all the infamy due to the worst and vilest transgressors, and be
   deserted by God and man; yet, His Heavenly Father , bore a signal and
   solemn testimony to His character. The frame of nature sympathized with
   her suffering Lord. The heavens were clothed with sackcloth; the sun
   withdrew his shining; the sanctuary was laid open, by the rending of
   the veil of the temple from the top to the bottom; the earth trembled
   greatly; the rocks were rent; the graves opened; and the dead arose.
   These events, in connection with what had passed before, extorted an
   acknowledgement of His innocence from the Roman centurion, who was
   appointed to attend His execution.

   Thus it appears, that Judas who betrayed Him; the Jewish council, which
   could not find sufficient ground, even though they employed false and
   suborned witnesses, to pass sentence upon Him; Herod, who derided Him;
   Pilate, who condemned Him; the malefactor, who suffered with Him; and
   the commander of the soldiers who crucified Him, all combined in a
   declaration of His innocence: God Himself confirming their word, by
   signs and wonders in heaven, and upon earth.

   It may seem quite unnecessary to prove the innocence of Him, who in His
   human nature was absolutely perfect, and in whom, the presence and
   fulness of God dwelt. And it is, indeed, unnecessary to those who
   believe in His name. It is, however, a pleasing contemplation to them,
   and has an important influence upon their faith and hope. In this they
   triumph, that He who knew no sin Himself, was made sin, was treated as
   a sinner for them, that they might be made the righteousness of God in
   Him. The High Priest of our profession needed not, as those who
   typified His office of old, to offer up sacrifice, first for His own
   sins, and then for the sins of the people, for He was perfectly holy,
   harmless, and undefiled. And had He not been a lamb without spot or
   blemish, He could not have been accepted on our behalf. It was the
   perfection of His voluntary obedience to the law of our nature, under
   which He submitted to be made, which, conjoined with the excellence of
   His character as the Son of God, made Him meet [qualified], able, and
   worthy, to expiate our transgressions. By the one offering --of
   Himself, once offered, He has made an end of sin, brought in an
   everlasting righteousness, and having appeared with His own blood
   within the veil, in the presence of God for us, and ever living to make
   intercession for all who come unto God by Him. In Him, all the seed of
   Israel shall be justified and shall glory (Isaiah 45:17, 25) In Him the
   true Israel, the partakers of the faith of Abraham shall be saved,
   saved to the uttermost, saved with an everlasting salvation; they shall
   not be ashamed, nor confounded, world without end.

   But who that knows these things, can sufficiently commiserate the fatal
   effects of that unbelief, which blinds and hardens the hearts of
   multitudes! especially that more learned, and informed, and, therefore
   more inexcusable unbelief, which characterizes the modern patrons of
   scepticism. They read and admire ancient history. There is no old story
   so frivolous, or improbable, but it is sufficient to engage their
   attention, and to exercise their acumen, if it be found in ^*
   Herodotus, or ^* Livy. They spare no pains, they perplex themselves,
   and weary their readers, with their attempts to decipher an ancient
   inscription, or to fix the date, or reconcile the circumstances of a
   supposed event, which after all, perhaps, never took place, but in the
   imagination of the writer. Their implicit deference to such uncertain
   authorities as these, often verges upon the border of extreme
   credulity. The Bible is an ancient history likewise, and if it was only
   received upon the footing of the rest, as merely a human composition,
   the facts which it relates, and the manner in which they are related,
   the admirable simplicity of narration in some parts, the unrivalled
   sublimity [excellence, grandeur, beauty] of description in others; the
   justness and discrimination of characters; the views it unfolds, of the
   workings of the human heart, and the springs of action, so exactly
   conformable to experience and observation, might surely recommend it to
   their notice. And possibly, if it did claim no higher authority than a
   human composition, men, who have any just pretensions to taste, would
   admire it, no less, than they now undervalue it. But because it does
   not flatter their pride, nor give indulgence to their corrupt
   propensities, they are afraid to study it, lest the internal marks of
   its divine original, should force unwelcome convictions upon their
   minds. Therefore they remain willingly ignorant of its contents, or the
   knowledge they discover of it is so very superficial, that a
   well-instructed child of ten years of age may smile at the mistakes of
   critics and philosophers. That such a book is extant, is undeniable.
   How can they account for its production? A view of what they have
   actually done, will warrant us to assert that the wisest men of
   antiquity, neither would have written such a book if they could; nor
   were they able, had they been ever so willing. And yet we have as good
   evidence, that the New Testament was written by plain and unlearned
   men, as we have for any fact recorded in history. How could such men,
   invent such a book! And how could they, without seeming directly to
   design it, but incidentally, as it were, represent that persons of such
   various characters, who concurred in putting Jesus to death, should all
   equally concur in establishing the testimony of His innocence! ^*
   Herodotus - Greek historian of the 5 ^th Century.

   ^* Livy - Titus Livius (59 BC - AD 17), a Roman historian

   True Christians, when they suffer unjustly, may learn, from the example
   of their Lord, to suffer patiently. The Apostle presses this argument
   upon servants (I Peter 2:18-21) --who in those days were chiefly
   bond-servants, or slaves. He, therefore, evidently supposes that the
   knowledge of the Gospel was sufficient to qualify people, in the lowest
   situations of human life, with a fortitude and magnanimity of spirit of
   which philosophy could scarcely reach the conception. In effect, to be
   much taken up with the interests of self, to live upon the breath of
   others, to be full of resentment for every injury, and watchful to
   retaliate it, these are the properties and tokens of a little and
   narrow mind. It requires no energy, no sacrifice, no resolution, to
   acquire such a disposition; for it is natural to us, and powerful and
   habitual, in the weakest and least respectable characters. But to act
   uniformly as the servants of God, satisfied with His approbation, under
   the regulation of His will, and, for His sake cheerfully to bear
   whatever hardships a compliance with duty may expose us to, enduring
   grief, suffering wrongfully, and acting in the spirit of benevolence
   and meekness, not only to the good, but also to the froward; this
   indicates a true nobleness of soul. And to this, we are called, by our
   profession; for thus Christ suffered. He did no sin, neither was guile
   found in His mouth; yet He was reviled, but He reviled not again. He
   suffered, though innocent; but He threatened not. He was crucified by
   wicked men; but He prayed for them, while they were nailing Him to the
   cross. This was an eminent branch of the mind that was in Christ, and
   it ought to be a distinguishing feature in the character of His people.
   For, is the disciple above his Lord? or should the conduct of the
   disciple contradict that of his Lord? Undoubtedly, so far as we are
   partakers in the doctrine of His sufferings, and have real fellowship
   with Him in His death, we shall resemble Him. If we say, we abide in
   Him, we ought to walk even as He walked (I John 2:6) . But they, who,
   calling themselves Christians, are full of the spirit of
   self-justification, contention, and complaint; while they profess to
   believe in Him, deny Him by their works. The Apostles, Peter and John,
   deeply affected by their obligations to Him, and by the exquisite
   pattern of meekness and tenderness which He had set before them,
   departed from the presence of the council, not swelling with anger, nor
   hanging down their heads with grief, but rejoicing that they were
   counted worthy to suffer shame for His sake (Acts 5:41) And He deserves
   no less from us, than He did from them. It was for us, no less than for
   them, that He endured reproach, and was content to die as a malefactor,
   though He was innocent.

   ---- O ----
     __________________________________________________________________

   Sermon XXV

   Messiah Rising from the Dead

   Psalm 16:10

   For Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell,

   neither wilt Thou suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption.

   T hat the Gospel is a divine revelation may be summarily proved from
   the character of its Author. If an infidel was so far divested of
   prejudice and prepossession, as to read the history of Jesus Christ,
   recorded by the Evangelists, with attention, and in order to form his
   judgment of it, simply and candidly, as evidence should appear; I think
   he must observe many particulars in his spirit and conduct, so very
   different from the prevailing sentiments of mankind, as to convince
   him, that man, in his present state, could not possibly have conceived
   the idea of such a character. Poets, and historians, have often
   employed their powers in delineating, what appeared to them, the great,
   and the excellent, in human conduct. But how different are the pictures
   of their admired heroes, sages and legislators, from the portrait of
   the Saviour, as it is drawn, with the utmost simplicity, by plain,
   unlettered men, who, without art or affectation, only describe what
   they profess to have seen and heard. I fix, at present, upon a single
   consideration, which, perhaps, cannot be expressed more properly, or
   forcibly, than in the words of an ingenious ^* writer, now living --

   " He [ Jesus Christ ] is the only founder of a religion, in the history
   of mankind, which is totally unconnected with all human policy and
   government, and, therefore, totally unconducive to any worldly purpose
   whatever. All others, Mahomet, Numa, and even Moses himself, blended
   their religious institutions with their civil, and by them, obtained
   dominion over their respective people; but Christ neither aimed at, nor
   would accept of any such power. He rejected every object (John 18:36)
   which all other men pursue, and made choice of those which others fly
   from and are afraid of. He refused power, riches, honours, and
   pleasure; and courted poverty, ignominy, tortures, and death. Many have
   been the enthusiasts and impostors, who have endeavoured to impose on
   the world, pretended revelations; and some of them from pride,
   obstinacy, or principle, have gone so far, as to lay down their lives,
   rather than retract: but I defy history to show one, who ever made his
   own sufferings and death (John 12:24, 32, 33) , a necessary part of his
   original plan, and essential to his mission. This Christ actually did,
   He foresaw, foretold, declared their necessity, and voluntarily endured
   them (John 12:33, 34) ."

   ^* Soame Jenyns (1704-1787) - "Internal Evidence of the Christian
   Religion"

   The death of our Lord was, indeed, essential to His plan; as such, it
   was constantly in His view, and He often spoke of it. Probably it was
   the whole of His enemies' plan, and when they saw Him dead, buried, and
   the sepulchre sealed, they triumphed in their success, and expected to
   hear of Him no more. But the Scriptures, which were read in their
   synagogues every Sabbath day, foretold His resurrection from the dead.
   The text before us, if there were no other, is a sufficient proof of
   this, to those who acknowledge the authority of the New Testament,
   since it is expressly applied to Him by the Apostles, Peter and Paul.

   The word in the Hebrew text before us, rendered, in our version, Soul,
   is used in different senses. According to the connection in which it
   stands, it signifies breath, life, soul, or spirit; and sometimes dead
   body. The corresponding Greek word, where the Apostle quotes this verse
   (Acts 2:27) , has, likewise, various significations. And the original
   words answering to Hell , signify both the invisible world; or the
   state of the dead, and sometimes the grave. Notwithstanding this
   seeming diversity, we are at no loss here for the precise sense.
   Scripture is the best interpreter of itself. It is evidently the
   Apostle's design to prove that the Psalmist foresaw and foretold the
   resurrection of that body which was taken down dead from the cross, and
   laid in Joseph's tomb. With this body our Lord arose on the third day,
   according to the Scriptures.

   Though MESSIAH was, for our sakes, treated as a malefactor, all who
   were immediately concerned in His death, were constrained (as we have
   seen) to declare His innocence. But He was worthy of a more solemn and
   authoritative justification. Accordingly, He was declared to be the Son
   of God, with power, by His resurrection from the dead (Romans 1:4)

   The Apostle expounds Thine Holy One, by the word flesh (Acts 2:26) .
   The human nature, the body formed by the immediate power of God, and
   born of a virgin, was holy. --It was, A holy thing (Luke 1:35) Perfect
   and pure, and therefore naturally not mortal, though subject to death
   for us. In this nature, the Son of God was charged with sins not His
   own; He became willingly responsible for many (Matthew 20:28) .
   Whatever was necessary on the behalf of sinners, to render their
   forgiveness consistent with the honour of the law, justice, truth, and
   government of God, was exacted of Him, and He performed, and paid, to
   the utmost. He made a full atonement for sin; and though He had power
   over His life, He hung hour after hour in agonies upon the cross, till
   He said, It is finished . Then, He resigned His spirit into the hands
   of His Heavenly Father. He was afterwards buried. But having finished
   His whole undertaking, destroyed death, and him that had the power of
   it, and opened the way to the Kingdom of Heaven, in favour of all who
   should believe in Him, it was not possible that He should be detained
   in the grave (Acts 2:24) He had power, likewise, to resume the life He
   had laid down for His sheep; and He arose the third day, to exercise
   all power and authority in heaven and in earth.

   His resurrection, therefore, is the grand principal fact, upon which
   the truth and importance of Christianity rests. For though Christ died,
   if He had not risen again, your faith, and our preaching, would be in
   vain. We should be yet in our sins (I Corinthians 15:17) And though it
   was not necessary that His resurrection should have been so publicly
   known, at the time, as His crucifixion, the evidence for it is strong
   and decisive. No one point of ancient history is capable of such clear,
   accumulated proof. The apostles frequently saw Him, conversed with Him,
   ate and drank with Him, and were assured, that it was He, by many
   infallible proofs. They could not be deceived themselves, nor could
   they have any temptation to deceive others. They declared His
   resurrection to the very people who put Him to death; and they
   confirmed it by many indisputable miracles, which they performed in His
   name. They persevered in this testimony, in defiance of the malice of
   the Jews, and the scorn of the heathens. And by this doctrine of a
   crucified risen Saviour, though unsupported by the patronage of human
   power, yea, though opposed by it, in every place, they effected that
   change in the moral world wherever they went, which the philosophers
   had not been able to produce, by all their instructions, in a single
   instance; turning men, whom they found under the strongest prejudices
   of education and habit, from darkness to light, and from the worship of
   dumb idols to serve the living and true God (I Thessalonians 1:9)

   But there are proofs of this point which depend not upon arguments or
   history, which require neither learning, genius, nor study to
   comprehend; but are equally adapted to persons of all capacities, and
   in all circumstances. These are the effects which this doctrine
   produces on the hearts of those who truly receive it upon the authority
   of Scripture, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, whose office it
   is to open the eyes of the mind, to take of the things of Jesus, (what
   the Scripture reveals of His person, offices, and glory) and to present
   them, with infallible light and evidence, to those who humbly yield
   themselves to His teaching. These are made partakers of the power of
   His resurrection (Philippians 3:10) It delivers them from guilt and
   fear, animates them with confidence towards God, weans them from the
   love and spirit of this evil world, inspires them with great and
   glorious hopes, and delivers them from the fear of death. They are
   risen with Christ, by faith, and seek the things which are above
   (Colossians 3:1) . where they know their Lord and Saviour is seated in
   glory.

   I do but touch upon these particulars at present, because the subject
   will come under our consideration again, from a subsequent passage in
   the Oratorio . Yet I would not wholly omit leading your reflections to
   them, though what I briefly offer now, may make, what I shall then
   offer (if my life is prolonged to proceed so far), appear under the
   disadvantage of a repetition of the same thoughts. Indeed, I know not
   how to place the proof of this capital doctrine in a light entirely
   new. The most satisfactory proofs are the most obvious; and it would be
   folly to substitute weaker in their place, for the sake of novelty. But
   if I should live to resume the subject, some of you, who are now
   present, may not live to hear me. So far as concerns the fact, I may
   hope that the most, or all of you, are believers, and that you are
   already persuaded in your minds that the Lord is risen indeed! (Luke
   24:34) I am not preaching to Jews, or Mohammedans, but to professed
   Christians. But permit me to ask, What influence this truth has upon
   your hopes, your tempers, and your conduct? The powers of darkness know
   that Christ is risen. They believe, they feel, they tremble. I hope
   none of you will be content with such a faith as may be found in fallen
   angels. As surely as He is risen, He will at length return to judge the
   world. Behold He cometh in the clouds, and every eye shall see Him!
   They who are prepared to meet Him, and who long for His appearance,
   have reason to rejoice that He once died, and rose again!

   Many are the advantages which true Christians derive from a spiritual
   and enlightened knowledge of this doctrine. I will mention a few.

   (1.)

   As MESSIAH was delivered, that is delivered up, as a hostage to the
   demands of justice, for our offences, so they know that He was raised
   again for our justification (Romans 4:25) By virtue of that union,
   which subsists between MESSIAH, as the Head of His Body the Church, and
   all His members; that is, all in the successive ages of the world, who
   believe in Him by a faith of divine operation: He is their legal
   representative; He and they are considered as one. His sufferings, His
   whole humiliation and obedience unto death, is so imputed to them, that
   they, thereby, are exempted from condemnation; and though not from all
   sufferings, yet, from all that is properly penal, or, strictly, a
   punishment. What they suffer, is only in a way of discipline or
   chastisement; and to them a token, not of wrath, but of love. On the
   other hand, as He by His resurrection, was vindicated, justified from
   the reproaches of His enemies, declared to be the Son of God with
   power, and raised to glory; they have fellowship with Him herein. God
   exalted Him to glory, and gave Him a name above every name, that their
   faith and hope might be in God (I Peter 1:21) They are not only
   pardoned, but accepted in the Beloved. And after this state of
   discipline is ended, they shall be treated as if they had never sinned.
   For if sins are sought for, in that day they shall not be found. If any
   charge should be brought against them, it shall be overruled -- by this
   comprehensive unanswerable plea -- Christ that died, yea, rather, that
   is risen again; appears in the presence of God, acknowledges them as
   His own, and makes intercession for them (Romans 8:33, 34) . Among men,
   a criminal may obtain a pardon, may escape the sentence he has
   deserved, and yet be left in a destitute and miserable condition. But
   justification is God's manner of pardoning sinners, according to the
   sovereignty and riches of His grace in the Son of His love. Those whom
   He pardons, he also justifies; and whom He justifies, He also
   glorifies. And even now in this life, though it doth not yet appear
   what they shall be, though their present privileges are far short of
   what they hope for, and though eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor
   hath it entered into the heart of man, to conceive what God hath
   prepared for them (I Corinthians 2:9) ; yet even now are they the
   children of God (I John 3:2) --and in the midst of their trials and
   infirmities, though conscious of much defect, and many defilements, in
   their best hours and services; and though they have not forgotten their
   iniquities and provocations, when they lived without God in the world,
   yet, according to the measure of their faith, exercised upon their
   Saviour, who was raised for their justification, they can rejoice in
   the knowledge of their acceptance, and rely upon Him for their
   perseverance; and they dare approach the great, holy, heart-searching
   God, as to a Father, and pour out their hearts before Him with greater
   freedom than they can use to their dearest earthly friends. And while
   they feel and confess themselves unworthy of the smallest of His
   mercies, they are not afraid to ask for the greatest blessings His
   bounty can bestow, even to be set as a seal upon His heart, and upon
   His arm, to be filled with all His communicable fulness, and to claim
   Him as their everlasting portion.

   (2.)

   The resurrection of Christ from the dead, is a pledge and specimen of
   that almighty power which is engaged on their behalf, to overcome all
   the obstacles, difficulties and enemies they are liable to meet with in
   their pilgrimage, which threaten to disappoint their hopes, and to
   prevent them from obtaining their heavenly inheritance. The first
   communication of a principle of faith and spiritual life to their
   hearts, whereby they are delivered from the dominion of sin, and from
   the spirit and love of the world, is attributed to the exceeding
   greatness of that might power, which raised the dead body of their Lord
   from the grave, and set Him at His own right hand, far above all
   principality and might, and every name that is named (Ephesians
   1:19-21) And often the Church, collectively, in its militant state, and
   the individuals which compose it, in their personal concerns, have been
   brought, to outward appearance, exceeding low. Their enemies have
   seemed upon the point of triumphing, and saying, Down with them, even
   to the ground. Such was the boast of the Jewish rulers, when they had
   slain the Shepherd, and dispersed His flock. But it was a short-lived
   boast. He arose, He ascended, He took possession of His Kingdom for
   Himself, and for them. He poured out His Holy Spirit upon them, and
   they went forth preaching His Word, which spread like the light of
   advancing day, from Judea to Samaria, and to the distant parts of the
   earth. The united force of the powers of hell and earth, endeavoured to
   suppress it, but in vain. Many nations and kingdoms laboured to
   extirpate the very name of Christianity from among men, but they
   successively perished in the attempt; and the cause, against which they
   raged, is still preserved. It is founded upon a Rock, and the gates of
   hell cannot prevail against it (Matthew 16:18) Nor can any weapon
   prosper that is formed against the weakest and meanest of those who
   sincerely espouse this cause. He, to whom they have devoted and
   entrusted themselves, has promised that none shall pluck them out of
   His hands (John 10:28) And while He remains faithful to His Word, and
   able to fulfill it, they shall be safe. Yet they are often pressed
   above measure, beyond strength, insomuch that they, perhaps, despair
   even of life. But when they are at the lowest, the Lord is their
   helper; and they are taught, by the exigencies they pass through, to
   trust, not in themselves, but in God who raiseth the dead (II
   Corinthians 1:9) . It is, indeed, the Lord's usual method of training
   up His people, to an habitual dependence upon Himself. When He has
   raised their expectations by His promises, He permits, as it were, a
   temporary death to overcloud their prospect; and that which He has said
   He will surely do for them, appears for a season, to the judgment of
   sense, impracticable and hopeless. We might illustrate this point at
   large from the history of Abraham, of Israel in Egypt, of David, and of
   the rebuilding of the second temple. And I doubt not, but it might be
   illustrated from the history of many in this assembly. If you have been
   walking with God for any considerable time, you have met with turns and
   changes, which have almost put you to a stand. You have been, and
   perhaps now are, in such circumstances that you feel you have no
   resource in yourself, and you are sure that the help of man cannot
   relieve you; but while your help is in the name of the LORD who made
   heaven and earth (Psalm 124:8) , and while you are warranted to trust
   in Him, who raiseth the dead, you have no just reason to despond. It
   was a dark season with the disciples, when their Lord, whom they loved
   and in whom they trusted, that it had been He who should have redeemed
   Israel (Luke 24:21) , was condemned, and put to death. But the
   appointed third day relieved their fears, and turned their mourning
   into joy.

   (3.)

   His resurrection is the pledge and pattern of ours. As certainly as
   Christ the firstfruits is risen, so certainly shall they that are
   Christ's arise at His coming. And each of His people shall arise, "
   aliusque & idem" -- another, and yet the same. Their bodies, though
   properly their own, shall be changed, and fashioned like unto His
   glorious body (Philippians 3:21) This corruptible must put on
   incorruption; and the body, which is sown in dishonour and weakness, be
   raised in power and glory. Flesh and blood, in its present state,
   cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. The body, in this life, is a clog
   and a burden to those who place their chief happiness in the service of
   God, and in communion with Him. It is a vile body, defiled by sin, and
   it defiles their best desires and noblest efforts. Even the grace of
   the Holy Spirit, by which they live, though perfectly pure in itself,
   is debased when communicated to them, and exercised under the
   disadvantages of a sinful nature, as the best wine, will receive a
   taint, if poured into a foul vessel. The body, in another view, is a
   prison in which the soul, confined and pent up, is limited in its
   operations, and impeded in its perceptions of divine things. Though we
   are probably surrounded by the glorious realities of the spiritual
   world, only short and transient glances of them are discoverable by us;
   we see but by reflection, and darkly (I Corinthians 13:12) ; we know
   but in part, and should know nothing of them, but for the good report
   of the Word of God. Farther, the body, as it is the seat of innumerable
   infirmities, and the medium which connects us with the calamities
   incident to this mortal state, is often a great hindrance to our most
   desirable enjoyments. Pain and sickness call off the attention, and
   indispose our faculties, when we wish to be most engaged in prayer,
   detain us from the ordinances, or prevent the pleasure we hope for in
   waiting upon the Lord in them. But our new, spiritual, and glorified
   bodies, will be free from all defilement, or defect. They will be
   completely qualified to answer the best wishes, and most enlarged
   activity of the soul. Then, but not till then, we hope to be all eye,
   all ear, always upon the wing of His service, and perfectly conformed
   to His image, in light, holiness, and love; for then we shall see Him
   as He is, without any interposing veil or cloud (I John 3:2)
     __________________________________________________________________

                                    Indexes
     __________________________________________________________________

Index of Scripture References

   Genesis

   [1]1:3   [2]1:31   [3]3:15   [4]28:17   [5]31:40   [6]32:14
   [7]32:15   [8]33:13

   Exodus

   [9]15   [10]19:16-19

   Leviticus

   [11]10:3   [12]19:14   [13]24:16

   Numbers

   [14]1:3   [15]11:11   [16]11:12   [17]21:9   [18]21:9

   Deuteronomy

   [19]18:15-19   [20]21:23

   Joshua

   [21]20:2

   Judges

   [22]5:28   [23]5:29   [24]7:19   [25]7:20   [26]13:8

   1 Samuel

   [27]2:30   [28]12:22   [29]16:7   [30]18:6   [31]18:7

   2 Samuel

   [32]10:5   [33]13:4   [34]16:11   [35]16:11

   Ezra

   [36]3:12   [37]3:13

   Job

   [38]7:1   [39]11:7   [40]29   [41]30:8-14   [42]30:29   [43]36:22
   [44]38:7

   Psalms

   [45]2   [46]3:8   [47]16:10   [48]22:7   [49]22:8   [50]22:16
   [51]23:1   [52]23:1   [53]23:3   [54]23:4   [55]32:1   [56]34:5
   [57]34:19   [58]37:37   [59]40:7   [60]45:4   [61]45:7   [62]56:8
   [63]65:10   [64]68:18   [65]69:20   [66]72:17   [67]74:20   [68]76:10
   [69]85:8   [70]85:10   [71]89:15   [72]89:16   [73]97:10   [74]97:11
   [75]98:3   [76]100:3   [77]102:25-27   [78]103:10   [79]106:4
   [80]107:1   [81]107:2   [82]110:3   [83]111:10   [84]112:7
   [85]113:6   [86]115:2   [87]118:15   [88]119:136   [89]119:158
   [90]124:8   [91]127:1   [92]129:3   [93]130:7   [94]146:8

   Proverbs

   [95]1:24   [96]1:26   [97]3:17   [98]8:20-31   [99]8:34   [100]11:30
   [101]16:1   [102]16:23   [103]18:14   [104]29:1

   Ecclesiastes

   [105]1:8   [106]1:18   [107]2:17   [108]7:29

   Isaiah

   [109]1:21   [110]2:11   [111]5:4   [112]5:20   [113]7:14   [114]9:2
   [115]9:3   [116]9:6   [117]12:2   [118]26:4   [119]27:3   [120]30:21
   [121]35:5   [122]35:6   [123]37:26-29   [124]40:1   [125]40:2
   [126]40:3-5   [127]40:9   [128]40:29   [129]43:13   [130]45:14
   [131]45:17   [132]45:22   [133]45:22   [134]45:25   [135]49:6
   [136]50:6   [137]50:11   [138]53:3   [139]53:4   [140]53:5
   [141]53:6   [142]53:6   [143]53:7   [144]53:8   [145]53:10
   [146]53:10   [147]54:5   [148]55:2   [149]55:8   [150]55:8
   [151]55:9   [152]55:9   [153]55:10   [154]55:11   [155]56:10
   [156]56:11   [157]57:15   [158]57:21   [159]60:1-3   [160]60:20
   [161]61:2   [162]61:3   [163]65:1

   Jeremiah

   [164]2:6   [165]2:13   [166]2:13   [167]2:19   [168]3:22   [169]6:16
   [170]9:23   [171]17:5-8   [172]23:6   [173]45:5

   Lamentations

   [174]1:12   [175]1:12   [176]3:39   [177]4:1

   Ezekiel

   [178]33:7   [179]33:8   [180]34:2   [181]36   [182]37:4

   Daniel

   [183]2:35   [184]3:5   [185]5:6   [186]5:6   [187]8:8

   Hosea

   [188]3:4   [189]14:3

   Amos

   [190]4:12   [191]5:18

   Micah

   [192]5:2   [193]5:4   [194]6:6   [195]7:8   [196]7:18   [197]7:18

   Habakkuk

   [198]3:17   [199]3:18

   Zephaniah

   [200]3:17

   Haggai

   [201]2:3   [202]2:6   [203]2:7

   Zechariah

   [204]4:7   [205]9:9   [206]9:10   [207]11:17   [208]12:10   [209]13:7

   Malachi

   [210]2:8   [211]2:9   [212]3:1-3   [213]4:1   [214]4:2   [215]4:2

   Matthew

   [216]1:23   [217]3:17   [218]4:2   [219]4:15   [220]4:16   [221]5:11
   [222]5:13   [223]5:18   [224]6:6   [225]6:11   [226]7:13   [227]7:14
   [228]9:2   [229]9:12   [230]9:38   [231]11   [232]11   [233]11:3-6
   [234]11:6   [235]11:11   [236]11:27   [237]11:28   [238]11:28
   [239]11:28   [240]12:23   [241]12:24   [242]13:55   [243]14:8-11
   [244]16:18   [245]17:27   [246]18:7   [247]18:20   [248]18:20
   [249]20:28   [250]21:10   [251]21:11   [252]21:14-16   [253]21:18
   [254]21:19   [255]21:37   [256]23:27   [257]23:30   [258]23:31
   [259]23:31   [260]23:37   [261]25:16   [262]25:30   [263]25:34
   [264]25:34   [265]25:41   [266]26:37   [267]26:38   [268]26:38
   [269]26:38   [270]26:40   [271]26:53   [272]26:56   [273]27:4
   [274]27:20   [275]27:24   [276]27:42   [277]27:46   [278]28:16
   [279]28:20

   Mark

   [280]1:24   [281]4:39   [282]7:6   [283]9:23   [284]10:14
   [285]10:27   [286]13:27   [287]14:33   [288]14:70   [289]15:2
   [290]16:16

   Luke

   [291]1:31   [292]1:32   [293]1:35   [294]2   [295]2:4   [296]2:8-14
   [297]2:35   [298]4:21   [299]6:40   [300]6:40   [301]6:46   [302]7:31
   [303]7:37   [304]7:38   [305]9:31   [306]10:16   [307]13:28
   [308]13:29   [309]16:15   [310]18:2   [311]18:22   [312]19
   [313]19:10   [314]19:40   [315]19:42   [316]22:42   [317]22:44
   [318]22:44   [319]22:61   [320]23:15   [321]23:21   [322]23:34
   [323]23:39   [324]23:41   [325]23:42   [326]24:21   [327]24:34
   [328]24:44   [329]24:46

   John

   [330]1:1   [331]1:11   [332]1:14   [333]1:14   [334]1:16   [335]1:17
   [336]1:18   [337]1:29   [338]3:12   [339]3:14   [340]3:14   [341]4:9
   [342]5:18   [343]5:18   [344]5:40   [345]5:43   [346]6:31   [347]6:35
   [348]6:35   [349]6:37   [350]6:37   [351]6:37   [352]6:40   [353]6:54
   [354]6:57   [355]6:58-60   [356]7:5   [357]7:37   [358]7:48
   [359]7:52   [360]8:12   [361]8:53   [362]9:16   [363]9:22   [364]9:39
   [365]9:39   [366]10:10   [367]10:11   [368]10:11   [369]10:14
   [370]10:16   [371]10:20   [372]10:28   [373]11:25   [374]11:43
   [375]12:24   [376]12:26   [377]12:32   [378]12:32   [379]12:33
   [380]12:33   [381]12:34   [382]12:35   [383]12:42   [384]13:1
   [385]13:1   [386]14:6   [387]14:14   [388]15:1   [389]15:1
   [390]15:5   [391]15:22   [392]15:22   [393]16:7   [394]16:9
   [395]16:9   [396]17:24   [397]18:31   [398]18:36   [399]18:40
   [400]19:5   [401]19:30

   Acts

   [402]2:23   [403]2:24   [404]2:26   [405]2:27   [406]2:37   [407]5:41
   [408]6:7   [409]9:1-20   [410]10:4   [411]10:5   [412]10:38
   [413]11:26   [414]14:7   [415]14:12   [416]14:19   [417]15:10
   [418]17:30   [419]19:21   [420]20:24   [421]20:24   [422]20:24
   [423]20:28   [424]28:22

   Romans

   [425]1:4   [426]1:16   [427]1:28   [428]1:30   [429]3:25   [430]3:25
   [431]3:26   [432]3:26   [433]4:6   [434]4:25   [435]5:1   [436]5:2
   [437]5:3   [438]5:20   [439]6:1   [440]7:13   [441]8:1   [442]8:7
   [443]8:18   [444]8:29   [445]8:33   [446]8:34   [447]9:5   [448]9:19
   [449]10:12   [450]11:13   [451]11:22   [452]14:17   [453]15:19
   [454]16:18

   1 Corinthians

   [455]1:29-31   [456]2:2   [457]2:9   [458]4:3   [459]4:7   [460]5:7
   [461]12:3   [462]13:12   [463]15:17   [464]16:18   [465]16:22

   2 Corinthians

   [466]1:5   [467]1:9   [468]3:5   [469]3:18   [470]4:2   [471]4:2
   [472]4:5   [473]4:6   [474]4:16   [475]4:17   [476]5:14   [477]5:14
   [478]5:17   [479]5:19   [480]5:21   [481]6:17   [482]7:13   [483]8:9
   [484]8:9   [485]12:9   [486]12:9

   Galatians

   [487]2:5   [488]2:20   [489]2:20   [490]2:20   [491]2:20   [492]3:13
   [493]3:13   [494]3:13   [495]4:1-4   [496]4:4   [497]4:4   [498]4:4
   [499]4:4   [500]4:5   [501]4:5   [502]4:19   [503]4:24   [504]6:1
   [505]6:7   [506]6:7   [507]6:14

   Ephesians

   [508]1:5   [509]1:19-21   [510]2:3   [511]2:5   [512]2:8
   [513]2:13-16   [514]3:8   [515]3:10   [516]3:10   [517]4:21
   [518]5:8   [519]5:8   [520]5:9   [521]5:14

   Philippians

   [522]1:11   [523]1:29   [524]2:5   [525]2:6   [526]2:7   [527]2:7
   [528]2:13   [529]2:15   [530]3:3   [531]3:7   [532]3:8   [533]3:8
   [534]3:8   [535]3:10   [536]3:18   [537]3:20   [538]3:21   [539]4:7
   [540]4:13

   Colossians

   [541]1:12   [542]1:13   [543]1:20   [544]3:1   [545]3:3   [546]3:11
   [547]3:12

   1 Thessalonians

   [548]1:9   [549]4:14   [550]5:25

   2 Thessalonians

   [551]1:9

   1 Timothy

   [552]1:11   [553]1:15   [554]3:16   [555]3:16   [556]3:16   [557]6:5

   2 Timothy

   [558]2:25   [559]4:8   [560]4:16

   Titus

   [561]1:2

   Hebrews

   [562]1:1   [563]1:3   [564]1:10-12   [565]2:11   [566]2:14   [567]4:1
   [568]4:12   [569]4:15   [570]7:26   [571]7:27   [572]8:6   [573]9:26
   [574]10:1   [575]10:4   [576]10:4   [577]11:39   [578]11:40
   [579]12:3   [580]12:6   [581]12:6-11   [582]12:7   [583]12:14
   [584]12:18-22   [585]12:22   [586]12:23   [587]12:26   [588]13:20

   James

   [589]1:17

   1 Peter

   [590]1:4   [591]1:5   [592]1:8   [593]1:12   [594]1:21   [595]2:9
   [596]2:15   [597]2:18-21   [598]2:21   [599]2:24   [600]2:25
   [601]3:1   [602]3:18   [603]5:2   [604]5:3   [605]5:4   [606]5:7

   2 Peter

   [607]2:8

   1 John

   [608]1:6   [609]2:2   [610]2:6   [611]3:2   [612]3:2   [613]3:2
   [614]3:12   [615]4:5   [616]4:19   [617]5:20   [618]5:20

   Revelation

   [619]1:5   [620]1:7   [621]1:7   [622]2:10   [623]3:20   [624]5:9
   [625]5:9-12   [626]12:11   [627]15:3   [628]16:15   [629]18:2
   [630]22:17
     __________________________________________________________________

            This document is from the Christian Classics Ethereal
               Library at Calvin College, http://www.ccel.org,
                   generated on demand from ThML source.

References

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