pers of God would be instructed, enabled, and encouraged to worship him in spirit and in truth; no more as servants, but in the temper of adoption, as the children of God by faith in the son of his love. There is a considerable analogy to this difference between the Law and the Gospel, as contradistinguished from each other, in the previous distress of a sinner, when he is made sensible of his guilt and danger as a transgressor of the law of God, and the subsequent peace which he obtains by believing the Gospel. The good seed of the word of grace can only take root and flourish in a soil duly prepared. And this preparation of the heart*, without which all that is read or heard concerning MESSIAH produces no permanent good effect, is wholly from the Lord. The first good work of the Holy Spirit, upon the heart of fallen man, is to convince of sint. He gives some due impressions of the majesty and holiness of the God with whom we have to do, of our dependence upon him, of our obligations to him as our Creator, Lawgiver, and Benefactor; then we begin to form our estimate of duty, of sin and its desert, not from the prevalent maxims and judgment of mankind around us, but from the unerring standard of Scripture. Thence new and painful apprehensions arise-the lofty looks of man are humbled, his haughtiness is brought low, his mouth stopped, or only opened to confess his guilt and vileness, and to cry for mercy. He now feels himself, under the law; it condemns him, and he cannot reply; it commands him, and he cannot obey. He has neither righteousness nor strength, and must sink into despair, were it not that he is now qualified to hearken to the Gospel with other ears, and to read the Scriptures with other * Prov. xvi. 1. John xvi. 9. eyes, (if I may so speak,) than he once did. He now knows he is sick, and therefore knows his need of a physician. This state of anxiety, conflict, and fear, which keeps comfort from his heart, and perhaps slumber from his eyes, is often of long continuance. There is no common standard whereby to determine either the degree or the duration. Both differ in different persons; and as the body and the mind have a strong and reciprocal influence upon each other, it is probable the difference observable in such cases may in part depend upon constitutional causes. However, the time is a prescribed time, and though not subject to any rules or reasonings of ours, is limited and regulated by the wisdom of God. He wounds, and he heals in his own appointed moment. None that continue waiting upon him, and seeking salvation in the means which he has directed, shall be finally disappointed. Sooner or later he gives them, according to his promise, beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness*. This warfare is accomplished, when they rightly understand, and cordially believe the following clause: "Her iniquity is pardoned." Though the sacrifices under the law had an immediate and direct effect to restore the offender for whom they were offered, to the privileges pertaining to the people of Israel considered as a nation or commonwealth, they could not of themselves cleanse the conscience from guilt. It is a dictate of right reason, no less than of revelation, that it is not possible, that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sint. For this purpose the blood of Christ had a retrospective efficacy, and was the only ground of consolation for a convinced sinner from the beginning of the world. He was proposed to our first parents as the seed of the woman who should bruise the serpent's head*. In this seed Abraham believed, and was justified; and all of every age who were justified were partakers of Abraham's faith. Therefore the apostle teaches us, that when God set him forth as a propitiation through faith in his blood, he declared his righteousness in the remission of sins that were pastt. For though we may suppose God would have declared his mercy in forgiving sin upon any terms, no consideration but the death of his Son could have exhibited his righteousness—that is, his holiness, justice, and truth, in the pardon of sin. True penitents and believers were pardoned and saved under the law, but not by the law. Their faith looked through all the legal institutions to him who was represented and typified by them. But the types which revealed him, in a sense concealed him likewise. So that though Abraham saw his day, and rejoiced, and a succession of the servants of God foresaw his glory and his sufferings, and spake of him; yet in general the church of the Old Testament rather desired and longed for, than actually possessed, that fulness of light and knowledge concerning the person, offices, love, and victory of MESSIAH, which is the privilege of those who enjoy and believe the Gospelt. Yet great discoveries of these things were vouchsafed to some of the prophets, particularly to Isaiah, who, on account of the clearness of his views of the Redeemer and his kingdom, has been sometimes styled a fifth Evangelist. The most evangelical part of his prophecy, or at least that part in which he prosecutes the subject with the least interruption, begins with this chapter and with this verse. And he proposes it for the comfort of * Gen. iii. 15. VOL. IV. † Rom. iii. 25. Heb. xi. 39, 40. the mourners in Zion in his day. We know that the Son of God, of whom Moses and the prophets spake, is actually come*; that the atonement for sin is made, the ransom for sinners paid and accepted. Now the shadows are past, the vail removed, the night is ended, the dawn, the day is arrived, yea, the Sun of Righteousness is arisen with healing in his beamst. God is reconciled in his Son, and the ministers of the Gospel are now authorized to preach comfort to all who mourn under a sense of sin, to tell them all manner of sin is forgiven for the Redeemer's sake, and that the iniquity of those who believe in him is freely and abundantly pardoned. II. Though the last clause of the verse does not belong to the passage, as selected for the Oratorio, it is so closely connected with the subject, that I am not willing to omit it. "She has received at the Lord's hand dou"ble for all her sins." The meaning here cannot be, that her afflictions had already been more, and greater, than her sins had deserved. The just desert of sin cannot be received in the present life, for the wages of sin is death and the curse of the law, or in the apostle's words, everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and the glory of his powert. Therefore a living man can have no reason to complain under the heaviest sufferings. If we acknowledge ourselves to be sinners, we have likewise cause to acknowledge, that he hath not dealt with us according to our iniquities. Nor can the words be so applied to MESSIAH as to intimate, that even his sufferings were more than necessary, or greater than the exigence of the case required. The efficacy of his atonement is indeed greater than the actual application, and sufficient to save the whole race of mankind if they truly † Mal. iv. 2. * 1 John v. 20. 2 Thess. i. 9. believed in the Son of God. We read, that he groaned and bled upon the cross, till he could say, It is finished, but no longer. It becomes us to refer to infinite wisdom, the reasons why his sufferings were prolonged for such a precise time; but I think we may take it for granted that they did not endure an hour or a minute longer than was strictly necessary. The expression seems to be elliptical, and I apprehend the true sense is, that Jerusalem should receive blessings, double, much greater than all the afflictions which sin had brought upon her; and in general to us, to every believing sinner, that the blessings of the Gospel are an unspeakably great compensation, and over-balance, for all afflictions of every kind with which we have been, or can be exercised. Afflictions are the fruit of sin, and because our sins have been many, our afflictions may be many. "But where sin has " abounded, grace has much more abounded*." Before our Lord healed the paralytic man who was brought to him, he said, Be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven theet. His outward malady rendered him an object of compassion to those who brought him; but he appears to have been sensible of an inward malady, which only Jesus could discern, or pity, or relieve. I doubt not but his conscience was burdened with guilt. An assurance, therefore, that his sins were forgiven, was sufficient to make him be of good cheer, whether his palsy were removed or not. To this purpose the Psalmist speaks absolutely and without exception. "Blessed is the man," however circumstanced, "whose "transgression is forgiven, whose iniquity is coveredt." Though he be poor, afflicted, diseased, neglected or despised, if the Lord imputeth not his iniquity to him, he *Rom. v. 20. + Mark ii. 5. Psal. xxxii. 1. |