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 xvi. 16;) and again, it is written, "Without holiness, no man shall see the Lord," Heb. xii. 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 acknowledgment 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 to 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 grounds 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 every thing 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 as 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, (Prov. viii. 31; Tit. i. 2,) for the redemption of sinners. 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 of the Holy One of Israel, Isa. liv. 5. David ascribes (Psal. xxiii. 1) 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 worshipped, 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, Phil. ii. 6, 7; Gal. iv. 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, Heb. ii. 14. The Word, who in the beginning was God, and was with God, was made flesh, John i. 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; (Rom. iv. 6; Jer. xxiii. 6;) and his perfect righteousness, the whole of his obedience unto death, is the consideration or ground on which they are accounted righteous. From the subject, the substitution of Messiah for sinners, we may learn, for our transgressions, that we can learn to hate it. 2. The complete justification of those who believe in him. They are delivered from all condemnation, Rom. viii. 1. Every charge against them is over-ruled by this plea, that Christ has died, and 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, Heb. xii. 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. By virtue of this union likewise he is their life. They receive out of his fulness, as the branches (John xv. 1) derive their life and fruitfulness from the tree whereon they grow; therefore the apostle said, "I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me," Gal. ii. 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 re- 3. The reason why believers are not weavealed to all who, with the simplicity of chil-ried, nor overpowered, by all the difficulties of dren, are desirous of being taught of God, their service, nor by all the arts and efforts and wait patiently upon him, in the use of of their enemies. They are one with Christ. his prescribed means, for the light and in- He who has all power in heaven and in earth fluence of his Holy Spirit. is engaged for their support. When they faint, he revives them; when they are wounded, he heals them; when their foot 1. How to estimate the evil of sin. That slippeth, he upholdeth them. He has said, sin is a great evil, is evident by its effects. It" because I live, ye shall live also." Theredeprived Adam of the life and presence of fore, who can prevail against them, when God, and brought death and all natural evil their life is hidden with Christ in God? And into the world. It caused the destruction of farther, the knowledge of their Saviour's the old world by water. It is the source of love, and of the holy, awful, yet amiable and all the misery with which the earth is now endearing character of God displayed in his filled; it will kindle the last great conflagra- mediation, is the source of their love, gratition; yea, it has already kindled that fire tude, and cheerful obedience. It is this which shall never be quenched. But in no makes hard things easy, and bitter things view does the sinfulness of sin appear so sweet. The love of Christ constraineth them, striking as in this wonderful effect-the 2 Cor. v. 14. They look to him and are ensuffering and death of Messiah: that not-lightened. And when they consider who he withstanding 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 xxiii. 42,) yet, if sinners were to be saved, it was indispensably necessary that he should drink it. This shows the they out of weakness, are made strong; evil of sin in the strongest light; and in this they are inspired with fresh courage; they light it is viewed by all who derive life from take up their cross with cheerfulness, and his death, and healing from his wounds. We can adopt the language of the apostle, "None may be afraid of the consequence of sin from of these things move me, neither count I my other considerations, but it is only by look-life dear, so that I may finish my course with ing to him who was pierced (Zech. xii. 10) joy," Acts xx. 24. is, in what way, and at what a price he redeemed them, and what he has prepared for them; when they attend to his gracious word, "Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life;" Rev. ii. 10 ;) SERMON XXI. MESSIAH DERIDED UPON THE CROSS. All they that see me, laugh me to scorn they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, He trusted in the Lord, that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him. Psalın xxii. 7, 8. FALLEN 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 refers to Messiah. It begins with the very kind. The twenty-second psalm undoubtedly words which he uttered upon the cross; nor could David speak of himself, when he said, 66 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 i. 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 special scope and object of their insults, namely, the gracious purpose he had often expressed towards sinners, and the strong confidence he had vowed 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 their 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, Matt. xxvii. 20. The populace, though no less ignorant, were less inalicious 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; (Matt. xxi. 10, 11;) though quickly after, it was, "Crucify him, crucify him," Luke xxiii. 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 the Messiah, and then to join their leaders in mocking and deriding him. 3. The Roman soldiers, who had contemptuously clothed him with a scarlot robe, and bowed the knee before him in derision, continued to mock him when hanging upon the cross. The Romans, to whom many inonarchies were become subject and tributary, affected to despise the name of king; and they held the Jewish nation in peculiar contempt. The title, therefore, of 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 xxiii. 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 ether, 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 is the heart of man capable? How may we conceive the heavenly hosts 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 xxiv. 26,) for he had undertaken to expiate the sins of many of his murderers, and to offer such satisfaction to the justice and law of God, as might render it consistent with his holiness and truth 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 hea venly 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 out 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 authority upon earth 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 extenu ation 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 op position 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 com mitted, while he is fearful lest he has coinmitted it; for it essentially consists in a de 1. They reproached his great design, for which he came into the world, "He saved others, himself he cannot save," Matt. xxvii. 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," (ver. 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, had they supposed there was the least probability of such an event, for they had often rejected evidence equal to what they now demanded. liberate and wilful refusal of the only means | spirit which instigated the unbelieving Jews. of salvation. It is the sign of final absolute It is to be hoped that many reject and scorn impenitence. They who had thus ascribed it, as the multitude did of old, through ignohis miracles to Beelzebub, expressed the same rance; and that the intercession of him who height of enlightened malice against him in prayed for those that knew not what they did, his dying agonies, and there was a poignancy will prevail for their conversion. Whenever in their insults, of which the ignorant multi- their eyes are opened, they will be pricked to tude were not capable. the heart, (Acts ii. 37,) and will then gladly inquire of those whom they now 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 threatenings against his disciples, "Why persecutest thou me?" They who reject his ministers, reject him, Luke x. 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 or hypocrisy; who have no compassion for their distresses, but rather wound 2. They reproached him for his trust and them as with a sword in their bones, saying confidence in God. He had said that God unto them, Where is now your God? (Psal. was (5) his own Father; (John v. 18;) and cxv. 2,) are certainly treading, if not altoge they understood him to use the expression in ther with equal vehemence, in the footsteps so high a sense, as thereby to make himself of the Jewish rulers.-May the Lord in merequal with God. Had they misunderstood cy show them the danger of their path, and him, had he not really intended what they give them a timely apprehension of the delaid to his charge, surely he would have ex-struction to which it leads! That they may plained 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 use 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 humble themselves to his will, implore his pardon, espouse his cause, and experience the comforts and privileges of that gospel which they have hitherto reviled and scorned. SERMON XXII. MESSIAH UNPITIED, AND WITHOUT COM- 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.— Psalm xix. 20. THE 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 ac |