SERMON IX.

"I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and as a cloud thy sins: return unto me, for I have redeemed thee.”—ISAIAH, xliv. 22.

THESE words were first addressed to the children of Israel. For the prophets and apostles, and also our blessed Saviour himself began their preaching at Jerusalem : and this dispensation of God's mercy, was continued even after our Lord's ascension. As the apostle St. Peter thus declares to the Jews, "Unto you, first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities."

But the glad tidings of mercy and salvation were not to be exclusively confined to this one nation;-they were to be extended as wide as the wants of mankind; our Saviour commanded "his gospel to

be preached in all the world, to every creature."

The exhortation in our text, (so far as it related to the Israelites,) seems to have been intended for their encouragement at the close of their captivity in Babylon : this appears from the concluding verse of the chapter, where the name of the monarch is mentioned, who was the appointed instrument of God's mercy, in restoring his people to the land of their forefathers.

Now my brethren, as the temporal deliverances of the Israelites were shadows of that great and eternal deliverance of our souls, which is offered to us in the Gospel of Christ, this merciful exhortation is equally applicable to us. * "For whatever things were written afore time, were written for our learning, that we, through patience and comfort of the Scriptures, might have hope." We are naturally in a state of slavery, led captive by Satan at his will; and if we live and die in the bondage of corruption, our slavery must be eternal.

We learn three things (that are of great importance to us) from our text.

First, the nature of sin; second, the

Romans, xv. 4.

mercy of God; third, the duty, (I might almost say) the whole duty of man.

It is very probable, that we are already acquainted with these things, and have heard them frequently, but they cannot be repeated too often, for we have not yet a saving knowledge of them, if they have not a suitable influence on our dispositions and our characters. Sin is compared to a cloud-to a thick cloud: when a thick cloud covers the earth, it obscures the light of heaven, and forewarns us of a rising tempest, or a violent fall of rain. Thus the guilt of sin cuts off the communication between heaven and earth, cuts off the sinner from the light of God's countenance, and darkens his soul: it also forewarns him of the raging tempest of God's avenging justice, and those floods of wrath that shall be poured down upon a guilty world. When a thick cloud rests above our heads, and shrouds us in darkness, nothing on the earth, nothing below it, can remove it: it can only be dispersed by that which is above it, by the rays of the risen sun:-Thus nothing on earth can remove the thick cloud of our sins ; were all the good works that were ever performed by the sinful descendants of Adam, and all the sufferings that were ever endured by them, to be done and suffered by

one individual, they could not remove the guilt of the smallest sin he had committed: nothing can remove the guilt of sin, but that which is above it: the rays of the sun of righteousness shedding his healing influence on the soul of the sinner; nothing can blot out the thick cloud of our transgressions and our iniquities, but the precious blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.

"There is no salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved."

Secondly, we learn from our text, the unbounded mercy of God. He does not invite the Israelites to return to him, with any doubtful promise of mercy-he does not say, as any earthly monarch might: that if they returned to him, and conducted themselves properly after their return, and continued to observe his laws, that he would then pardon them: no, my brethren, he says "I have blotted out as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and as a cloud thy sins." Their pardon was already granted, it was signed and sealed, and they are invited to return to God, and receive it without money, and without price. But, the Israelites might possibly imagine,

*Acts, iv. 12.

that although God had pardoned them, so far as to bring them back to their native land, yet that they should still suffer some punishment for their sins after their return, that the sword of vengeance would still hang over their heads, until the divine justice was fully satisfied. But the God of their salvation removes this unworthy suspicion, by the declaration which follows his merciful invitation, "return unto me, for I have redeemed thee." To redeem any person is to pay their ransom, to pay a price sufficient to deliver them from slavery or condemnation, without infringing on that justice, by which they were enslaved or condemned. Such, my brethren, is the pardon which the mercy of God offers to every one of us, in his glorious Gospel: it is a full, and a free pardon, for the Lord has redeemed our souls: he has paid their ransom; he has paid it by the sufferings and death of his Eternal Son.

"God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us;" +"he bore our sins in his body on the tree," "he was wounded for our transgression, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him: and with his stripes

* Romans, v. 8. † Peter, ii. 24. Isaiah, liii. 5.