218 SERMON XI. ISAIAH lvii. 21. There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked. ISAIAH may properly be called the harbinger of the gospel. The whole of his prophecies present a distant, though bright and certain, prospect of that salvation, which, through the merciful dispensation of God, was ordained, from the foundation of the world, to be brought down from heaven by Jesus Christ. To the people of the Lord he speaks comfort; to the Gentiles, who sate in darkness and the shadow of death, he promises light, and life, and the revelation of the glory of God. The acts of mercy which the Messiah was to perform, he distinctly enumerates; proclaiming healing to the sick, sight to the blind, strength to the lame, and speech to the dumb: he promises peace to the afflicted, and pardon to the repentant sinner. Nor is this all; he further foretells the establishment of the kingdom of the Messiah; that glorious kingdom of love. and peace which shall be perfected when "he shall have put all enemies under his feet; "1 when "the Lord God shall have given him the throne of his father David," upon which "he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever. Such is the general tenor of the prophecies of Isaiah. In the chapter before us, he details the particular mercies of God towards. the humble and penitent; assuring them that" He who dwelleth in the high and holy place, will revive the spirit of the humble, and revive the heart of the contrite ones; that he will not contend for ever nor be always wroth." That is, that high as he is exalted above heaven and earth, though he 2 Luke i. 32, 33. 11 Cor. xv. 25. macred enemy, and dwelleth in the high MI MẶT ZURE. Te does he not disdain to coners vide lowly and meek, and such is à umbie themselves oder his hand; the Jarzen if whose sins he will remove, and vise irong and cratite spirit he will song, ut le a compassion upon the vas if is hands, and dealeth not with men averting a the roar of his justice, but # 2 1000 ther renouncing their sins, cease Som is anger and let go his wrath; that ie w tell the penitent, and "lead him ise, and restore comforts to him and to his zoumers.” - Feace," exclaims the inspired prophet― peace to him that is afar off, and to him that is tear, saith the Lord, and I will heul liz-peace to the Gentiles, who were far removed by sin and transgression from God-peace to the Jew, whom he had retained rear him till the gracious purpose of redemption should be accomplished by Jesus Christ, through whom, as St. Paul says in reference to this text, both Jew and Gentile "have access by one Spirit to the Father." $ Eph. ii. 18. Yet, while these joyful hopes and glorious promises are held out to the humble and penitent; while the prophecies teem with blessed expectation, and the gospel gives the full assurance of peace, and pardon, and eternal life to those who turn unto the Lord; who loathing the vile husks of sin upon which they have been feeding, come back to their Father's arms, and cast themselves upon his mercy-awful indeed, and tenfold awful, is the sentence denounced against the careless and impenitent; against such as refuse to hear the voice of the charmer, and, like the deaf adder, stop their ears against warning and admonition--who, hardened in sin, or reckless of religious impressions, and living without God in the world, are therefore termed in scripture, the wicked. "But the wicked are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt; there is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked." - The text, then, contains an awful admonition to us, Christian brethren, to make a profitable use of the blessings revealed in the gospel, and so to regulate our conduct, that we fail not finally to attain them: that while we cherish a sincere and lively faith in Christ, acknowledging that we have neither peace nor salvation but through his meritswe do not so blindly rely upon those merits, as to suppose that they are absolute and unconditional; that we are to let Christ alone work out our salvation, and lay no hand upon the plough ourselves; that his sorrowful pilgrimage upon earth, his agony and travail of soul, his cruel humiliation and most painful death, were endured that we might sit at ease, taking no part in his sorrows, no share. in the pains and labour of the Christian warfare. Christ, indeed, came to bring redemption to the sinner, but he came also to call the sinner to repentance; and he who refuses to obey that call, can hope for no benefit from his sacrifice and atonement. "The Redeemer is come to Zion;" but he is come to those alone "that turn from transgression."4 While, then, the gospel promises pardon 4 Isa. lix. 20. |