what are all the benefactions of creatures, nay, what are all the bounties of the divine hand itself within the compass of time, when compared to these astonishing, unparalleled, immortal, infinite, God-like favors? They all dwindle into obscurity, like the stars of night in the blaze of noon. And now I am almost afraid to turn your thoughts to inquire, what return you have made for all these favors, lest you should not be able to bear the shock. You know you have a thousand times repeated Hezekiah's offence. I need not be particular. Your conscience accuses you, and points out the particulars; and I shall only join the cry of conscience against you. O! the ingratitude! O! the base, vile, unnatural, horrid, unprecedented ingratitude! From you your God might have expected better things; from you, whom he has so peculiarly, so infinitely obliged, and whose hearts he has made capable of generous sensations. But O! the shocking, horrid ingratitude!-Let our hearts burst into a flood of sorrows at the thought. They may be justly too full to allow us to speak much upon it; but, O! they can never be too full of shame, confusion, and tender relentings for the crime. Methinks the thought must break the hardest heart among us. Let me now add a consideration, that gives an astonishing emphasis to all that has been said. All this profusion of mercy, personal and relative, temporal and spiritual, is bestowed upon creatures that deserve not the least mercy; creatures that deserve to be stripped naked of every mercy; nay, that deserve to be made miserable in time and eternity; creatures that deserve not to breathe this vital air, to tread the ground, or drink the stream that runs waste through the wilderness, much less to enjoy all the blessings which the infinite merit of Jesus could purchase, or the infinite goodness of God can bestow; creatures that are so far from deserving to be delivered from the calamities of life, that they deserve to have them all heightened and multiplied, till they convey them to the more intolerable punishments of hell; creatures that are so far from making adequate returns, that they are perpetually offending their God to his face; and every day receiving blessings from him, and every day sinning against him. O! astonishing! most astonishing! This wonder is pointed out by Jesus Christ himself, who best knows what is truly marvellous. “The Most High," says he, "is kind to the unthankful and to the evil." Luke vi. 35. "Your heavenly Father maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." Matt. v. 45. It need afford you no surprise, if my subject so overwhelms me, as to disable me from making a formal application of it. I leave you to your own thoughts upon it. And I am apt to think they will constrain you to cry out in a consternation with me, "O! the amazing, horrid, base, unprecedented ingratitude of man! and O! the amazing, free, rich, overflowing, infinite, unprece dented goodness of God! Let these two miracles be the wonder of the whole universe!" One prayer, and I have done. May your divine Benefactor, among his other blessings, bestow upon us that of a thankful heart, and enable us to give sincere, fervent, and perpetual praise to his name, through Jesus Christ, his unspeakable gift! Amen. SERMON XXVI. THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST, AND THEIR CONSEQUENT JOYS AND BLESSINGS. ISAIAH LIII. 10, 11.- When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied.* THIS chapter contains a most lively and moving account of very tragical sufferings; and, if we have but a small share of humanity, we cannot hear it without be • The sermon is dated Hanover, (a county in Virginia,) July 11, 1756; and is evidently a Sacramental Discourse. ing affected, even though we did not know the person concerned. Here is one so mangled and disfigured, that he has "no form or comeliness; one despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; one wounded, bruised, oppressed, afflicted; one brought as a lamb to the slaughter; one cut off out of the land of the living." And who is he? Were he an enemy, or a malefactor, we could not but pity him. But this was not his character; "for he had done no violence, neither was there guile found in his mouth." And he was so far from being our enemy, that "he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; he was wounded for our transgressions; he was bruised for our iniquities," not for his own. Were he a child or a friend that had suffered such things, it would raise all our mournful and sympathising passions to hear the history. -But what if this should be the man that is God's fellow, the Redeemer, to whom we are bound by the most endearing obligations! a person of infinite dignity and perfect innocence, our best friend, and only Savior! What if it should be he? Would not this move your hearts, and raise all your tender passions? Or shall he die in such agonies unpitied, unlamented, unbeloved, when even a dying criminal excites our compassion? What do you think would be the issue, if I should make an experiment of this to-day? If I should make a trial, what weight will the sufferings of Jesus have upon your hearts? Do you think the representation of his sufferings and love would have any effect upon you? That they may have this effect, is my design in the prosecu tion of this subject; for that it is Jesus who is the hero of this deep tragedy, or the subject of these sufferings, we may learn from the frequent application of passages quoted from this chapter to him in the New Testament. This chapter has been a successful part of the scriptures; and there are some now in heaven who were brought thither by it. This is the chapter the Ethiopian eunuch was reading, when he asked Philip, "Of whom speaketh the prophet this? of himself, or some other man? and Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus: and he believed with all his heart and was baptized; and went on his way homeward (and heavenward) rejoicing." Acts viii. 32. 35. This was the chapter that opened to the penitent Earl of Rochester the way of salvation through the sufferings of Christ, which alone relieved his mind from the horrors of guilt, and constrained him to hope that even such a sinner as he might find mercy. O! that it may have the same effect upon you my brethren, to-day, that with the eunuch you may return home rejoicing! The design and method I have now in view, is only to illustrate and improve the several parts of my text, especially those that represent how pleasing and satisfactory the conversion and salvation of sinners, by the death of Christ, is to him. 1. "When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin." An offering for sin is when the punishment of sin is transferred from the original offender to another, and that other person suffers in his stead. Thus the Lord Jesus was made a sin-offering for us. The punishment of our sin was transferred to him, and he bore it in his own body on the tree. He became our substitute, and took our place in law, and therefore the penalty of the law due to us was executed upon him. It is in this, my brethren, that we have any hope of salvation; blood for blood, life for life, soul for soul: the blood, the life, the soul of the Son of God, for the blood, and life, and soul of the obnoxious criminal. Here, sirs, your grateful wonder may begin to rise upon our first entrance on the subject: and you will find the wonders will increase as we go along. You see Jesus presented an offering for sin; and what was it he offered ? "Silver and gold he had none," the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of heifers, would not suffice; and these too he had not. But he had blood in his veins, and that shall all go; that he will offer up to save our guilty blood. He had a soul, and that was made an offering for sin. His soul an offering for sin his pure, spotless soul! his soul, that was of more value than the whole universe beside! You • The particle here rendered when is more generally rendered if; and then the sentence will read thus: "If thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin ;" the consequence will be, that "he shall see his seed," &c. Or" when thou shalt make his soul sin." It is a common scripturephrase, whereby a sin-offering is called sin. And it is sometimes retained in our translation, particularly in 1 Cor. v. 21. "He hath made him to be sin ;" that is, a sin-offering for us, &c. 1 may find those that will give a great many things for the deliverance of a friend, but who would give his soul! his soul for his enemies!-This is the peculiar commendation of the love of Jesus. His soul here may signify his whole human nature; in which sense it is often taken in the sacred writings. And then the meaning is, that both his soul and body, or his whole human nature, bore the punishment due to us. Or his soul may be here understood properly for his rational and immortal part, in opposition to his body; and then the meaning is, that he suffered in soul as well as in body. His soul suffered by the foresight of his suffering; by the temptations of the devil; by an affecting view of the sins of men; and especially by the absence of his heavenly Father. Hence, when his body was untouched, in the garden of Gethsemane, he cries out, "my soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death ;" and elsewhere, now is my soul troubled." In short, as one expresses it, the sufferings of his soul were the soul of his sufferings. The sense of bodily pain may be swallowed up in the pleasing sensations of divine love. So some have found by happy experience, who have suffered for righteousness' sake. But Jesus denied himself that happiness which he has given to many of his servants. His soul was sorrowful, exceeding sorrowful, even unto death; and all this for such sinners as we. And shall this have no weight among the creatures for whom he endured all this? Make an experiment upon your hard hearts with this thought, and try if they can resist its energy," Thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin." Thou shalt make; that is, thou, the great God and Father of all. This sacrifice is provided by thy wisdom and grace, and appointed by thy authority, who hast a right to settle the terms of forgiveness; and therefore we may be sure this sacrifice is acceptable; this atonement is sufficient. This method of salvation is thy contrivance and establishment, and therefore valid and firm. Here, my brethren, is a sure foundation; here, and nowhere else. Can you produce a divine warrant for depending on your own righteousness, or any thing else? No; but this offering for sin is of divine appointment, and therefore you may safely venture your eternal all upon it. "Come, ye afflicted, |