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hard things easy, and bitter things sweet.

"The love

"of Christ constraineth them*." They look to him and are enlightened. And when they consider who he is, in what way, and at what a price, he redeemed them, and what he has prepared for them; when they attend to his gracious word, "Fear none of those things which "thou shalt suffer: be thou faithful unto death, and I "will give thee a crown of lifet:" they, out of weakness, are made strong; they are inspired with fresh courage; they take up their cross with cheerfulness, and can adopt the language of the apostle, "None of "these things move me, neither count I my life dear, so that I may finish my course with joy."

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SERMON XXI.

MESSIAH DERIDED UPON THE CROSS.

PSALM Xxii. 7, 8.

All they that see me, laugh me to scorn; they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, He trusted on the Lord, that he would deliver him; let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him.

FALLEN man, though alienated from the life of God

and degraded, with respect to many of his propensities and pursuits, to a level with the beasts that perish, is not wholly destitute of kind and compassionate feelings towards his fellow-creatures. While self-interest does not interfere, and the bitter passions of envy, hatred, malice, and revenge, are not roused into exercise, he + Rev. ii. 10. † Acts xx. 24.

* 2 Cor. v. 14.

has a degree of instinctive sympathy with them in their sufferings, and a disposition to assist them if he can do it without much detriment to himself. The source of these social feelings we express by the term humanity; which seems to imply a consciousness, that they properly belong to our nature, and that we ought, at least to be always and universally affected in this manner, when occasions offer. But while the heart is under the government of self, our humanity is very partial and limited; and it is to be ascribed to the goodness of God, rather than to any real goodness in man, that it is not wholly extinguished. Were this the case, and were the native evils of the heart left to exert themselves in their full strength and without control, earth would be the very image of hell, and there could be no such thing as society. But, to prevent things from running into utter confusion, God mercifully preserves in mankind some social dispositions. They are, however, so weak in themselves, so powerfully counteracted by the stronger principles of our depravity, and so frequently suppressed by obstinate habits of wickedness, that, in the present state of things, we may almost as justly define man, (whatever impropriety there may seem in the expression,) by saying, He is an inhuman creature, as by ascribing to him the benevolent properties of humanity.

The rage, cruelty, and savage insensibility, with which sin and Satan have poisoned our nature, never appear in so strong a light as when they assume a religious form; when ignorance, bigotry, and blind zeal, oppose the will and grace of God, under a pretence of doing him service. By this infatuation, every hateful passion is sanctified, and every feeling of humanity stifled. Thus, though the sufferings of the most atrocious malefactors usually excite pity in the spectators, and often draw tears from their VOL. IV. 2 I

eyes; yet the agonies of God's persecuted servants, under the most exquisite tortures which malice could invent, have frequently raised no other emotions than those of derision and scorn. My text leads us to consider the highest instance of this kind. The 22d Psalm undoubtedly refers to MESSIAH. It begins with the very words which he uttered upon the cross; nor could David speak of himself, when he said, " They pierced my hands and my feet." He was God's servant in the most eminent sense; and the service he performed, was an uninterrupted course of benevolence to the souls and bodies of men. He spent his life in "going about doing "good";" nor could his enemies fix a single stain upon his conduct. Yet they thirsted for his blood; and, because he came into the world to save sinners, they accomplished their cruel designs. We have already seen how he was treated by the servants and by the soldiers, when condemned by the Jewish council, and by the Roman governor. This prophecy was fulfilled when he hung upon the cross. There have been persons in our own days, whose crimes have excited such detestation, that the populace would probably have torn them in pieces, before and even after their trial, if they could have had them in their power.-Yet, when these very obnoxious persons have been executed according to their sentence, if, perhaps, there was not one spectator who wished them to escape, yet, neither was one found so lost to sensibility, as to insult them in their dying moments. But when Jesus suffers, "all that see him, 'laugh him to scorn; they shoot out the lip, they shake the head;" they insult his character, and his hope. The cvangelists furnish us with an affecting comment upon

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*Acts x. 38.

this passage. They inform us by whom he was thus scorned and derided; they mention some circumstances, whichstrongly mark the peculiar and excessive contempt with which he was treated; and they take notice of the especial scope and object of their insults, namely, the gracious purpose he had often expressed towards sinners, and the strong confidence he had avowed in God his Father.

I. The persons who scorned and derided him, were various, and of different characters.

1. The chief priests, elders, and rulers of the people. When these, who were held in ignorant admiration by the multitude, set the example, we do not wonder that it was generally followed. They had been his most avowed and determined enemies; they had long conspired to take away his life, and in the appointed hour their plots were permitted to succeed. They now rejoiced in their success. By their office, as teachers and expounders of the law, they ought to have pointed him out to the people as the object of their reverence and hope; but, having rejected him themselves, they employed all their authority and influence to make him the object of general contempt. And, lest the extremity of his torments should awaken sentiments of commiseration in the multitude, they were the first, and the loudest, in reviling him as he hung upon the

cross.

2. The populace derided him. They had been instigated by the priests to demand his death of Pilate, when he was desirous of dismissing him, and rather to insist that Barabbas should be spared. The populace, though no less ignorant, were less malicious than their leaders.

* Matth. xxvii. 20,

At different times, when they heard his public discourses, and saw his wonderful works, they had been staggered, and constrained to say, "Is not this the son of David ?" and not many days before the popular cry had been strongly in his favour*; though quickly after it was, " Cru"cify him, crucify himt." As the sea, though sometimes smooth, is always disposed to obey the impulse of the wind; so the common people, though easily roused to oppose the truth, would perhaps be quiet, if they were left to themselves; but there are seldom wanting artful and designing men, who, by a pretended regard for religion, and by misrepresentations, work upon their passions and prejudices, and stir them up to a compliance with their purposes. The priests by degrees wrought the populace up, first to reject MESSIAH, and then to join their leaders in mocking and deriding him.

3. The Roman soldiers, who had contemptuously clothed him with a scarlet robe, and bowed the knee before him in derision, continued to mock him when hanging upon the cross. The Romans, to whom many monarchies were become subject and tributary, affected to despise the name of king; and they held the Jewish nation in peculiar contempt. The title, therefore, of King of the Jews, affixed to his cross, afforded them a subject for the keenest sarcasm.

4. Yea, such is the hardness of the human heart, that one of the malefactors, who was crucified by his side, unaffected with his own guilt, and insensible of the just judgment of God, and of the account he was soon to render at his awful tribunal, seemed to seek some relief, in the midst of his agonies, by joining with the priests and people in railing on the innocent Jesus, who was

* Matth. xxi. 10, 11.

Luke xxiii. 21.

Luke xxiii. 39.

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