peace, Lev. x. 3. A little before he had been guilty of making the golden calf. The remembrance of this offence composed his inind 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, 2 Sam. xvi. 11. The malefactor upon the cross submitted to his sentence, because he was a malefactor, saying, "And we indeed justly," Luke xxiv. 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?" Lam. iii. 39. And they acknowledge, that it is of the Lord's great mercy they are not utterly consumed. But Jesus was holy, harmless, and undefiled; he had fulfilled the whole law, and had done 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, Is. liii. 7.

3. Did ever any other 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 sins, nor according to the full desert of our iniquities, Psal. ciii. 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. Every thing 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 other wise extreme. Witness the effects: his-heaviness unto death, his consternation, his bloody sweat, his eclipse 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 suffergs 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, Rom. v. 1, 2. Being thus delivered from their heavy burden, and from the power of Satan, and having a way open for receiving supplies of 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 never can exert itself with its full strength, till it is supremely fixed upon its proper object. The love of Christ has a constraining force indeed! 2 Cor. v. 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, 1 John iv. 19; Gal. ii. 20.

(3.) His example. The thought that hesuffered 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, nor 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 gra cious promise) that if they suffer with him, they shall also reign with him, John xii. 26 、 Rom. viii. 18. They are sure that the suf ferings 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..

SERMON XXIV.

MESSIAH'S INNOCENCE VINDICATED.

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, (1 Tim. iii. 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, Rom. ix. 5. But he was justified in the Spirit, and sufficient care was taken, that in his lowest humiliation, though he was condemned and re

him in glory; (Col. iii. 4;) and therefore they | perhaps suggest a meaning in this verse (the are comforted in all their tribulation, and can latter part only of which is taken into the say, "None of these things move me, neither Messiah) which may not readily occur to an count I my life dear unto myself, so that I English reader. But the purport of it is may finish my course with joy," Acts xx. 24. 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 He was taken from prison and from judg-jah, from prison, and from judgment, and who taken, he was taken up, like Enoch and Eliment; 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.-Isaiah liii. 8. LET not plain christians be stumbled, because there are difficulties in the prophetical parts of the scripture, 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, are 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 that was written during the time that it was the com-viled, his character should be vindicated. I mon 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 1. The first attention, and which of itself no longer spoken, and no more than a single is fully sufficient to establish this point, is volume in it be preserved, we may well con- that of Judas. He was one of the twelve ceive that posterity might differ as to the apostles who attended our Lord's person, and sense of many expressions, notwithstanding who were admitted to a nearer and more frethe assistances they might obtain by com- quent intercourse with him than the rest of paring the English with the French, Dutch, his disciples. Though our Lord knew that and other languages, which were in use at his heart was corrupt, and that he would prove the same period. Such assistance we derive a traitor, he does not appear to have treated from the Chaldee, Syriac, Greek, and other him with peculiar reserve, or to have kept ancient versions of the Old Testament, suf- him more at a distance than the other aposficient to confirm us in the true sense of the tles; for when he told them, "One of you whole, and to throw light upon many pas-shall betray me," they had no particular sussages 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 I less at a loss than the vulgar.

An acquaintance with the Hebrew will

shall therefore consider at present the testimonies given to his innocence. Though he was cut off from the land of the living, it was only as a substitute for others. He was stricken for the transgressions of his people.

picion 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 fre- . quently present when Jesus conversed most freely in private with his select followers, had ' known any thing amiss in his conduct, we may be sure he would gladly have disclosed! it, for his own justification. Christian socie ties 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 aggravated, and many things often laid to. their charge which they knew not.. But I

das, 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," Matt. xxvii. 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.

through the persuasion of the Jews, the apostle Paul was stoned and left for dead, (Ácts xiv. 12, 19,) by the very people, who, a little before, could with difficulty be restrained from paying him divine honours.

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 2. Though Pilate likewise condemned Mes- sun withdrew his shining; the sanctuary was siah to death, to gratify the importunity of laid open by the rending of the vail of the the Jews, he repeatedly declared his firm per- temple from the top to the bottom; the earth suasion of his innocence; and he did it with trembled greatly; the rocks were rent; the great solemnity. "He took water and wash-graves opened, and the dead arose. These ed his hands (publicly) before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person," Matt. xxvii. 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 of the light and conviction of his conscience. And from him we learn, that Herod, (Luke xxiii. 15,) notwithstanding he mocked him and set him at nought, considered the accusations of his enemies to be entirely groundless. 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, "Hosannah 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,

events, in connexion with what had passed before, extorted an acknowledgment 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 innocency 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 excellency of his character as the Son of God, made him meet, 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 vail, in the presence of God for us, and ever living

to make intercession for all who come unto | ten by plain and unlearned men, as we have God by him, he is proposed in the gospel as for any fact recorded in history. How could the author of eternal salvation to all who obey such men invent such a book? and how him. In him, all the seed of Israel shall be should they without seeming directly to dejustified, and shall glory, Is. xli. 17, 25. In sign it, but incidently as it were, represent, him the true Israel, the partakers of the faith that persons of such various characters, who of Abraham, shall be saved, saved to the ut- concurred in putting Jesus to death, should termost, saved with an everlasting salvation; all equally concur in establishing the testhey shall not be ashamed, nor confounded, timony of his innocence. world without end.

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 noble

True christians, when they suffer unjustly, But who that knows these things can suf- may learn, from the example of their Lord, ficiently commiserate the fatal effects of that to suffer patiently. The apostle presses this unbelief which blinds and hardens the hearts argument upon servants, (1 Pet. ii. 18, 20,) of multitudes! especially that more learned who in those days were chiefly bond serand informed, and therefore more inexcusable vants, or slaves. He, therefore, evidently unbelief, which characterizes the modern supposes, that the knowledge of the gospel patrons of scepticism. They read and admire was sufficient to qualify people in the lowest ancient history. There is no old story so situations of human life, with a fortitude and frivolous or improbable, but it is sufficient to magnanimity of spirit of which philosophy engage their attention, and to exercise their could scarcely reach the conception. In ef acumen, if it be found in Herodotus or Livy. fect, to be much taken up with the interests They spare no pains, they perplex them- of self, to live upon the breath of others, to selves, and weary their readers with their be full of resentment for every injury, and attempts to decypher an ancient inscription, watchful to retaliate it; these are the proper or to fix the date, or reconcile the circum-ties and tokens of a little and narrow mind. stances of a supposed event, which, after all, perhaps never had 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 of description in others; the justness and discrimination of charac-ness of soul. And to this we are called by our ters; the views it unfolds of the workings of profession: for thus Christ suffered. He did the human heart, and the springs of action, so no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth; exactly conformable to experience and ob- yet he was reviled, but he reviled not again. servation, might surely recommend it to their He suffered, though innocent; but he threatnotice. And possibly, if it did claim no ened not. He was crucified by wicked men : higher authority than a human composition, but he prayed for them while they were men who have any just pretensions to taste, nailing him to the cross. This was an emiwould admire it no less than they now un-nent branch of the mind that was in Christ; dervalue it. But because it does not flatter and it ought to be a distinguishing feature in their pride, nor give indulgence to their cor- the character of his people. For, is the disrupt propensities, they are afraid to study it, ciple above his Lord? or should the conduct lest the internal marks of its divine original of the disciple contradict that of his Lord? should force unwelcome convictions upon Undoubtedly, so far as we are partakers in the their minds. Therefore they remain wil- doctrine of his sufferings, and have real fellingly ignorant of its contents, or the know-lowship with him in his death, we shall reledge they discover of it is so very super- semble him. If we say we abide in him, we ficial, 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 actually have 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 writVOL. II. 2 P

ought to walk, even as he walked, 1 John ii. 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 v. 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.

SERMON XXV.

MESSIAH RISING FROM THE DEAD.

For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thy Holy One to see corruption.-Psalm xvi. 10.

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 xii. 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.

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 THAT the gospel is a divine revelation, resurrection from the dead. The text before may be summarily proved from the character us, if there were no other, is a sufficient of its Author. If an infidel was so far divest-proof of this, to those who acknowledge the ed of prejudice and prepossession, as to read authority of the New Testament, since it is the history of Jesus Christ recorded by the expressly applied to him by the apostles Peevangelists, with attention, and in order to ter and Paul. form his judgment of it, simply and candidly, The word in the Hebrew text rendered, as evidence should appear, I think he must in our version, soul, is used in different observe many particulars in his spirit and senses. According to the connexion in conduct, so very different from the prevailing which it stands, it signifies breath, life, soul, sentiments of mankind, as to convince him, or spirit, and sometimes the dead body. The that man, in his present state, could not pos- corresponding Greek word, where the apossibly have conceived the idea of such a cha- tle quotes this verse, (Acts ii. 27,) has likeracter. Poets and historians have often em-wise various significations. And the original ployed their powers in delineating what ap- words answering to hell, signify both the inpeared to them the great and the excellent visible world, or the state of the dead, and in human conduct. But how different are the sometimes the grave. Notwithstanding this pictures of their admired heroes, sages, and seeming diversity, we are at no loss here for legislators, from the portrait of the Saviour, the precise sense. Scripture is the best inas it is drawn with the utmost simplicity by terpreter of itself. It is evidently the apos plain unlettered men, who, without art or af- tle's design to prove that the psalmist forefectation, only describe what they profess to saw, and foretold, the resurrection of that have seen and heard. I fix at present upon body which was taken down dead from the a single consideration, which perhaps cannot cross, and laid in Joseph's tomb. With this be expressed more properly or forcibly, than body our Lord arose on the third day, acin the words of an ingenious writer now cording to the scriptures. living. "He 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 (John xviii. 36) every object 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

* Jenyn's Internal Evidence of the Christian Religion, p. 33, 34. edit. 3.

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," Rom. i. 4.

The apostle expounds "thine Holy One" by the word flesh, Acts ii. 29. 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 i. 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, Matt. xx. 28. Whatever was necessary on the behalf of sinners, to render their forgiveness consistent with the honour of the law, justice, truth, and go