tossed with tempest, and not comforted;" come, build upon this rock, and you shall never fall.

Or the words may be rendered, “When his soul shall make an offering for sin." And in this sense it is sig nified that this was Christ's own voluntary act. He consented to the arduous undertaking: he consented to be our substitute, and offered himself a sacrifice for us. He was under no previous constraint; subject to no compulsion. This he tells us himself: "No man taketh my life from me; but I lay it down of myself:" John x. 18. Thus it was his own free choice; and this consideration prodigiously enhances his love. A forced favor is but a small favor. But Jesus willingly laid down his life when he had power to keep it. He voluntarily ascended the cross, when he might have still continued on the throne. He was absolute Lord and Proprietor of himself, under no obligations to any, till he assumed them by his own consent. When martyrs have died in the cause of righteousness, they did but what was their previous duty; their lives were not theirs, but his who gave them, his to whom they devoted them; and they had no right to them when he demanded them; nor were they able to protect them against the power of their enemies. But Jesus resigned what was his own absolute property; and he resigned his life when it was in his power to have retained it. All the united forces of earth and hell could not have touched his life, had not he consented. As with one word he spoke them into being, so with a word he could have blasted all their powers, or remanded them into nothing, as he found them. Of this he gave a specimen, when, by saying I am he, (John xviii. 6,) I am the despised Nazarene whom ye are seeking, he struck an armed company down to the earth; and he could as easily have chained them there, and never suffered them to rise more. Here was love indeed, that he should offer himself a voluntary, self-devoted sacrifice! and ff he made his soul an offering for sin when he was not obliged to it, will not you voluntarily love and serve him, when you are obliged to it; obliged by all the ties of author

The reason of this ambiguity is, that the original word is the second person masculine, and the third person feminine. If taken in the mas culine gender, it must be applied to God the Father; if in the feminine, to the soul of Christ, which is also feminine.

ity and gratitude, of duty and interest? Let me bring home this overture to your hearts: will you, of your own choice, devote yourselves to his service, who consented to devote himself a victim for your sins? Are you willing to live to him, when you are bound to do it; to him who died for you, when he was not bound to do it? You have the easier task of the two: to live a life of holiness, and to die upon a cross, are very different things; and will you not do thus much for him? Could there be such a thing as a work of supererogation, or an overplus of obedience, methinks this overplus of love might constrain you to it; and will you not so much as honestly attempt that which you are bound to by the most strong and endearing obligations? If you reject this proposal, make no pretensions to gratitude, a regard to the most sacred and rightful authority, or any noble disposition. You are sunk into the most sordid and aggravated degree of wickedness, and every generous and pious passion is extinct within you.

Now, what shall be the consequence, what the reward of all these sufferings of Christ? Shall he endure all this in vain? Shall he receive no compensation? Yes; for,

2. My text tells you he shall prolong his days. The self-devoted victim shall have a glorious resurrection. His days were cut off in the midst; but he rose again, and shall enjoy an endless length of happy and glorious days. That he was once dead he was not ashamed to own, when he appeared in a form of so much majesty to John. "Fear not," says he, "I am the first and the last: I am he that liveth, and was dead; and behold, I am alive for evermore: Rev. i. 17, 18. The man that hung on Calvary, and lay dead in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, where is he now? O! he has burst the bonds of death, triumphed over the grave, and enjoys an immortal life. And this immortal life he spends in a station of the most exalted dignity and perfect happiness for ever. See! Jesus, "who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour:" Heb. ii. 9. Because "he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, therefore God hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, and every tongue con

fess:" Phil. ii. 8-11. It was for this end that "Christ both died and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living: " Rom. xiv. 9. By his death he acquired universal government, and has the keys of the vast invisible world, and of death that leads into it: Rev. i. 18. This was a great part of that "joy which was set before him, for the sake of which he endured the cross, despising the shame:" Heb. xii. 2.*

And is the poor, despised, insulted, crucified Jesus thus exalted? Then I proclaim, like the herald before Joseph, when advanced to be prime minister to Pharaoh, Bow the knee! submit to him, ye sons of men. He has bought you with his blood, and has a right to your subjection; therefore yield yourselves to him. This day become his willing subjects, and swear allegiance to him at his table. To him let every knee bow in this assembly, and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord. And do you now feel your hearts begin to yield? Are your souls in the posture of humble homage? Are you ready to say, "Lord Jesus, reign over this soul of mine: see, I resist it as the willing captive of thy cross?" Or will you stand it out against him? Shall your hearts and practices, as it were, send a message after him, now when he is advanced to his heavenly throne, "We will not have this man to reign over us?" Then I proclaim you rebels, wilful, inexcusable rebels against the supreme, the most rightful, and the most gracious gov ernment of Christ; and if you continue such, you must perish for ever by the sword of his justice, without a possibility of escaping. You cannot rebel against the crucified Jesus with impunity, for he is not now dying on the cross, or lying senseless in the grave. He lives! he lives to avenge the affront. He lives for ever, to punish you for ever. He shall prolong his days to prolong your torment. Therefore, you have no alternative, but to submit to him or perish.

This sentence," He shall prolong his days," is otherwise translated by some, and applied, not to Christ, but to his seed: "He shall see his seed, who shall prolong their days;" or, " He shall see a long-lived seed," 25, a long succession of posterity." So the Seventy-This translation gives a stricter connection and uniformity to the words with the preceding and following sentences. And in this sense it is undoubtedly true: for Jesus has always had, and ever will have, some spiritual children on our guilty globe; and neither earth nor hell shall ever be able to extinguish the sacred race.

I may also propose the immortality and exaltation of Christ to you, as an encouragement to desponding souls. So the apostle uses it, "He is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth." Heb. vii. 25. In trusting your souls to him, you do not commit them to a dead Savior. It is true, he was once dead, above 1700 years ago; but now he is alive; and behold he liveth for evermore. He lives to communicate his Spirit for your sanctification; he lives to look after you in your pilgrimage through this wilderness; he lives to send down supplies to you according to your exigencies; he lives to make perpetual intercession for you (which is the thing the apostle had in view) to plead your cause, to urge your claims founded on his blood, and to solicit blessings for you. He lives for ever to make you happy for ever. And will not venture to trust your souls in his hand? you may safely do it without fear. He has power and authority to protect you, being the Supreme Being, Lord of all, and having all things subjected to him; and consequently, nothing can hurt you if he undertakes to be your guard. Ye trembling weaklings, would it not be better for you to fly to him for refuge than to stand on your own footing, afraid of falling every hour? He can, he will support you, if you lean upon him.

you

And does not he appear to you as an object of love in his exalted state? He is all-glorious, and deserves your love; and he is all benevolence and mercy, and therefore self-interest, one would think, would induce you to love him; for to what end is he exalted? Isaiah will tell you, "He is exalted, that he may have mercy upon you.' Isa. xxx. 18. He has placed himself upon his throne, as upon an eminence, may I so speak, that he may more advantageously scatter blessings among the needy crowd beneath him, that look up to him with eager wishful eyes, like the lame beggar on Peter and John, expecting to receive something from him. And shall not such grace and bounty, in one so highly advanced above you, excite your love? Certainly it must, unless that the principle of gratitude be lost in your breasts.

Finally, May I not propose the exaltation and immortality of the Lord Jesus, as an object of congratulation to you that are his friends? Friends naturally rejoice

in the honors conferred upon one another, and mutually congratulate each other's success. And will not you that love Jesus rejoice with him, that he is not now where he once was; not hanging on a painful and ignominious cross, but seated on a glorious throne; not insulted by the rabble, but adored by all the heavenly armies; not pierced with a crown of thorns, but adorned with a crown of unfading glory; not oppressed under loads of sufferings, but exulting in the fulness of everlasting joys? Must you not rejoice that his sufferings for you had so happy an issue with regard to himself? O! can you be sunk in sorrow while your Head is exalted to so much glory and happiness, and that as a reward for the shame and pain he endured for you? Methinks a generous sympathy should affect all his members; and if you have no reason to rejoice on your own account, yet rejoice for your Head; share in the joys of your Lord.

Thus you see Jesus Christ has obtained the richest reward in his own person. But is this all? Shall his sufferings have no happy consequences with regard to others; in which he may rejoice as well as for himself? Yes, for,

3. My text tells you, that He shall see his seed. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied; and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. What an emphatical variety of expressions are here to signify the pleasure which Christ takes in observing the happy fruits of his death, in the salvation of many of the ruined sons of men!

He shall see his seed. By his seed are meant the children of his grace, his followers, the sincere professors of his religion. The disciples or followers of a noted person, for example, a prophet or philosopher, are seldom denominated his seed or children.-These words are parallel to those spoken by himself, in the near prospect of his sufferings; "Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground, and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." John xii. 24. So unless Jesus had fallen to the ground and died, he would have abode alone; he would have possessed his native heaven in solitude, as to any of the sons of Adam: but now by his dying, and lying entomb