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himself could have used. "He was wounded for our transgressions; the chastisement of our peace was upon him." Our peace with an offended God is obtained solely at the price of the very stripes, at which unbelieving, ungrateful man presumes to take offence. Those sufferings are described as exactly and particularly as if Isaiah had stood with the beloved disciple at the foot of the cross, and had witnessed the last pious duties paid by rich Nicodemus to the Redeemer's corpse. We are next told what to us Christians is too plain to need explanation, and yet before the event was unfolded, must have been an inexplicable mystery to the pious Jew, who "searched diligently what the Spirit of Christ did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow." Isaiah's words are, "when thou shalt make his soul," or his life," an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days." And again, "I will divide him a portion with the strong, because he hath poured out his soul unto death." Here, in the words of an Apostle, "we see Jesus for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour 2" The glories and the happiness of Christ's mediatorial kingdom, all depend on the fact of his having been crucified; the grave and gate of death prove to him and to all his redeemed, an entrance into a new era, under which all things shall at length be restored to

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the perfection which the Creator first impressed on them, and has promised to create again.

In the 54th chapter, Isaiah rejoices in the number of those blessed persons, who constitute the Church, in the gifts of the Spirit which will be poured out on it, and by which God will teach his children, will bestow great peace on them, and will make them more than conquerors over every foe. He then proceeds in my text to invite all without exception to a participation in these blessings; of which he speaks under the favourite emblem of a feast. Both Jew and Gentile are pressed to partake of it. No previous qualification is required, except only this one, that he who comes is earnestly desirous to be thus fed with heavenly food. No poverty is to be pleaded as an excuse: it is the very reason for coming. The hungry shall be filled with good things; while the rich shall be sent empty away. "Ho! every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price."

In discoursing on this truly evangelical invitation, I shall, in humble dependance on his blessing, who has given me authority and command to address it in his name to every one of you who are here present, attempt to show, 1st, That this free and unconditional character of the Gospel invitation is necessary; and, 2dly, That it perfectly harmonizes with the holiness of God, and his abhorrence of sin. You

will thus, I trust, be confirmed in the determination willingly and thankfully to accept it.

I. In demonstrating that Gospel blessings must of necessity be given us without the payment of any price whatever on our part, I must begin with stating what those blessings are. What is it, on looking inwards, and contemplating our present wants, our future hopes and fears, of which we stand in need? First, we find, that wilful and repeated sin has made a dreadful breach between us and the favour of our God-as sinners, then, we need pardon. Next, we are conscious, that a pure and holy God never can love any man whose affections are set on those objects which God hates, who seeks for any portion of his happiness in the desires and practices which are not conformed to his own most pure and holy will; we are also conscious, that these are in a very criminal degree the tendency of our own corrupt likings and passions-we need then the transforming power of the Spirit of God to awaken in our souls new and heavenly desires, to bring our hearts to God, and to habituate us to love what he loves, and hate what he hates; we need a regenerating grace, without which heaven itself, were it possible to enter it, would be no heaven, no happiness to us. And when this life-giving Spirit has begun to move in the dark chaos of the soul, and to reduce it to light and order and loveliness, we perpetually need protecting grace to guard us from the powerful assaults of our unseen foe, to strip the

mask from the alluring enchantments of a false world, to steel us against the terror of its frown, and to check the solicitations of that evil nature, which will dwell within us till the day of death give a final victory over the body of sin. And even when that day of solemn, holy joy has arrived, when the deliverance of the genuine Christian is fully accomplished, he further needs the grace which shall throw open the everlasting doors, and introduce him triumphantly where the King of righteousness has passed before. An immortal soul, endued with taste and desire for happiness, which no earthly good has ever satisfied, demands an eternal, unchangeable state; and can only rest with perfect content on the boundless love and goodness of him, who called it into existence, and gave it the faculties, which he alone knows how to fill and satisfy. These then are our wants: we want pardon; we want converting and strengthening grace; we want eternal life.

Now seriously tax yourself, as in the presence of God, with the question, What can you propose as a price to purchase any of these mighty blessings ? or if it be instantly felt that this is impossible, what can you propose as worthy to purchase the smallest portion of them? This is no mean, no trifling question. Your eternal salvation depends primarily on the temper and spirit with which you approach God-whether you come before him as a purchaser or as a beggar. The two characters are too distinct ever to be blended together; the Bible

never unites them; you cannot take part of both; you must be either the one or the other; either the Pharisee or the Publican; either the sick or the whole; either the "rich who hath need of nothing," or "the poor and miserable and naked," either the righteous or the sinner 2.

Produce then your strong reasons: let us take the most plausible. We begin with the blessing of pardon-and you offer as the price of it repentance. God forbid, that I should disparage repentance; no man can come to God, unless he repent from the bottom of his soul; but we are now inquiring, not with what qualification a man must come, but what he can pay as the price of pardon? Try then this vaunted repentance in the scale of human reason. Apply it to worldly matters. The Scriptures represent sin both as a debt to God, and as an offence against God's laws. As a debt then; will man be satisfied with your repentance as a payment of debt? will he accept in lieu of the smallest portion of his just demand, your deep sorrow at the folly that tempted you to indulge in expenses which you had not the means of sustaining? Or let sin be regarded as a breach of God's law: will the earthly judge, when the criminal stands trembling before him, and begs a life forfeited to the injured laws of his country, will he accept his tears, and barter the claims of justice, the honour of the laws, the necessity of

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