66 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. But afterwards, speaking of fools, of base men, of the vilest of the earth, he adds, "Now am I their song, yea, "their by-word. They abhor 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." 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." A 2. Was there ever so innocent a sufferer? When Aaron lost his two sons, he held his peace. 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.§ The malefactor upon the cross submitted to his sentence, because he was a malefactor, saying, "And we * Job, xxix. 8. 11. + Lev. x. 3. + Job, xxx. 8—14. indeed justly."* It is thus with all who know themselves. Under their severest afflictions, they admit the propriety of the prophet's question, 66 66 Why should a living man complain?" And they acknowledge, "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."§ 66 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." 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 Luke, xxiii. 41. § Isa. liii. 7. + Lam. iii. 39. ↑ Lam. iii. 22. || Psal. ciii. 10. 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 consterna→ tion, 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 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.* 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 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! It is stronger than death. It + 2 Cor. v, 14, overcomes the world. And "we thus love him, "because he first loved us; because he loved us, "and gave himself for us."* 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, 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 gracious promise), "that if they "suffer with him, they shall also reign with him."t 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 * 1 John, iv. 19.; Gal. ii. 20. ↑ John, xii. 26.; Rom. viii. 18. "shall appear with him in glory ;"* 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." SERMON XXIV. MESSIAH'S INNOCENCE VINDICATED. ISAIAH, liii. 8. He was taken from prison and from judgement: 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. 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, 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 If we suppose, that a time should come, sense. * Col. iii. 4. + Acts, xx. 24. |