provision of rich grace, you, with proud disdain, rejected it all. We beseech you to reflect seriously on the deeply aggravated sin of rejecting or neglecting so great a salvation. What, humanly speaking, what more could have been done than has been done to raise you from the ruins of human nature, and to enrich you with a heavenly inheritance? Shall the divine Being expend, if we may so speak, the vast treasures of his love and wisdom, his grace and mercy, in designing and executing a plan "for your sakes," and to enrich you; and all this, as far as you are concerned, and for aught you care, altogether in vain? O! that the love of Christ, so richly manifested on your behalf, would but constrain you to yield up yourselves to his service and glory! All things necessary for your salvation from sin and wrath, and for your eternal glorification, are now ready; and you are invited to receive them "without money and without price."

But if you have happily discovered, and if it is your settled conviction, that the Lord Jesus, who searcheth all hearts, in describing the Laodicean church, is describing you; "thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked,”s -you are prepared to accept with gratitude the riches which Jesus has purchased for you, and which he counsels you to receive. Viewing his great

8 Rev. iii. 17.

salvation in all its parts and in all its provisions, you may say as holy David said, "This is all my salvation, and all my desire."9 If you "know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ," it will teach you to deny "ungodliness and worldly lusts;" to "live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world”!' It will constrain you to live the rest of your time to him who redeemed you with his precious blood. It will affect your hearts with regard to others also. It will exhibit to you an example of compassion and benevolence which you may and which you ought to exercise on others, whether they be destitute of the grace of God, or of those things which are necessary to supply their temporal wants.* It will teach you to "draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul," to distribute according to your means for the alleviation of human woe; and thus to show that you have not received "the grace of God in vain." And were this subject, "the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ," more frequently contemplated, than we fear it is by even those who profess to "have tasted that the Lord is gracious," it would in some measure destroy that unchristian selfishness which closes up both the heart and the purse of many a professor

92 Sam. xxiii. 5.

* This sermon was preached for a charitable institution

1 Titus ii. 12.

2 Isa. lviii. 10.

of religion, who "shutteth up his bowels of compassion from" a poor brother; and who, by his manifested covetousness, avarice, and apathy, comes under the suspicion contained in the apostle's question, "How dwelleth the love of God in him ?"

31 John iii. 17.

SERMON XXI.

ON THE LIMITED EXTENT OF MINISTERIAL

SUCCESS.

ISAIAH liii. 1.

"Who hath believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?"

THE chapter before us presents a prophetical description of the sufferings and death of the Lord Jesus; and so accurately are those sufferings pourtrayed, that a comparison of this chapter with the narrative of Christ's life and death, has convinced some hardened infidels of the truth of Christianity.

In the text the prophet appears to represent the ministers of God's word, as complaining and mourning over the small success of their labours. "Who hath believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?" Our design is to explain and apply the questions propounded in this verse.

I. "WHO HATH BELIEVED OUR REPORT ?"

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Report" here means, we presume, the doctrine or instruction of God's holy word, as preached by his ministers. It means especially the preaching of Christ crucified. "Our report." So the apostle says of the gospel, " our gospel," though the gospel of God.

We have here the persons who complain: the ministers of God, "who labour in the word and doctrine."

1. The prophets and holy men of old who were called, and commissioned to communicate to the people the will of the Lord. They had to execute the high office of "ambassadors" from the King of kings, to a wayward and rebellious people. Their message, delivered with all the solemn sanction of heaven, was frequently disregarded, and their lives were jeopardied. Yea, they "had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: they were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword."

2. Our Lord Jesus Christ. The messengers of God had indeed met with little encouragement from the people; but surely the Son of God would be very differently entertained; surely, "they will reverence my Son." If the ambassador meets with no courtly reception, the King's Son, his only and

1 Heb. xi. 36, 37.