SERM. had as much reason to apply this place, as any other, to LXXVI. him, and thence to acknowledge that he was defigned to be an eminent fufferer. And indeed divers of the ancient Targumifts and moft learned Rabbins did expound this place of the one Meffias, which was to come; as the Pugio fidei, and other learned writers, do by feveral express teftimonies declare. This place also discovereth the vanity of that figment, devised by fome later Jews; who, to evade it, and to oppose Jefus, have affirmed there was to be a double Meffias ; one, who should be much afflicted; another, who should greatly profper; fince we may obferve, that here both great afflictions and glorious performances concurrently are ascribed to the same person.

14.

Ifa. xlix. 7.

men.

The fame things are by parts also clearly foretold in other places of this Prophet, and in other prophetical Scriptures; by Isaiah again in the chapter immediately Ifa. lii. 13, preceding, Behold, faith God there, my fervant shall deal prudently; he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high there is God's fervant (he, who in way of excellency is fuch, that is, in the style of this Prophet, the Meffias) in his real glorious capacity. It followeth concerning his external appearance; His vifage was fo marred more than any man's, and his form more than the fons of And again, in the 49th chapter; Thus faith the Lord, the Redeemer of Ifrael, and his Holy One, to him whom man defpifeth, to him whom the nation abhorreth, to a fervant of rulers, Kings shall fee and arife, princes also fhall worship. What can be more express and clear, than that it is fignified here, that the Meffias, who should fubject the world, with its fovereign powers, to the acknowledgment and veneration of himself, was to be despised by men, to be detefted by the Jewith people, to appear in a fervile and base condition? The fame Prophet doth again, in the 50th chapter, bring him in speaking thus: I gave my back to the fmiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair; I hid not my face from Shame and Spitting. His offending the Jews, fo as thereby to aggravate their fins, and accelerate their punishments, is also thus exIfa. viii. 14. preffed by the fame Prophet: And he shall be for a fanc(Pfal. ii. 2.)

Ifa. 1. 6.

tuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of of- SERM, fence to both the houses of Ifrael, for a gin and for a fnare LXXVI, to the inhabitants of Jerufalem,

The Prophet Zechariah doth also in several places very roundly exprefs his fufferings, his low condition in those

words; Behold, thy King cometh unto thee; lowly, and Zech. ix. 9. riding upon an ass; (that is, pauper, mean and sorry to His manner of death in those words:

appearance.)

Awake, O fword, against my Shepherd, and against the Zech. xiii. man that is my fellow, faith the Lord of hofts: fmite the". Shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered. And again; 【Zech. xii. will pour upon the houfe of David, and upon the inhabit-10. ants of Jerufalem, the Spirit of grace and of fupplications ; and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn, &c. The Prophet Daniel alfo in that place, from which probably the name Meffias was taken, and which most exprefsly mentioneth him, faith, that after fixty-two weeks the Meffias fhall be cut off, but not Dan. ix. 26. for himself. Now from all these paffages of Scripture (befide divers others to the fame purpose, obfervable by those, whose industry is affifted by divine illumination) we may well conclude with our Lord, Ὅτι ἔτω γέγραπται, καὶ Luke xxiv. ὕτως ἔδει παθεῖν τὸν Χριςόν That thus it was written, and thus (according to the Prophet's foreshewing) it was to happen, that the Chrift should fuffer; suffer in a life of penury and difgrace, in a death of forrow and shame,

46,

That it was to fall out thus, might also be well inferred by reasons grounded upon the qualities of the Meffiah's person, and upon the nature of his performances, fuch as they are described in prophetical Scripture: he was to be really, and plainly to appear, a person of most admirable virtue and goodness; but never (as even Pagan philofo- Plato, Se phers have obferved) was, or can there be any fuch with- neca, &c, out undergoing the trial of great affliction. He was to be an universal pattern to men of all forts (especially to the greatest part of men, that is, to the poor and afflicted) of all righteousness; to exemplify particularly the most difficult pieces of duty; (humility, patience, meekness, charity, felf-denial, entire refignation to God's will:) this

doti Orat.

997.

SERM. he should not have had opportunity or advantage of doing, LXXVI. fhould he have been high, wealthy, fplendid, and prof perous in fecular matters: he was to exercife great pity and fympathy toward all mankind; toward the doing which it was requifite that he fhould himfelf taste and feel the inconveniences, troubles, pains, and forrows inciVide Theo- dent to us. He was to advance the repute of fpiritual goods and eternal bleffings, depreffing the value of these Concil. p. corporeal and temporal things, which men do fo fondly admire and dote on the most compendious and effectual way of doing which was by an exemplary neglect or rejection of worldly glories and enjoyments; refufing the honours, profits, and pleasures here, adjoined to a high state. He was by the most kindly, gentle, and peaceable means to erect a spiritual kingdom; by pure force of reafon to fubdue the hearts and confciences of men to the love and obedience of God; by wife inftruction to raise in us the hopes of future recompenfes in heaven; to the accomplishment of which purposes temporal glory (working on the carnal apprehenfions and affections of men) had rather been prejudicial than conducible. He was to accomplish and manage his great defigns by means fupernatural and divine, the which would furely become more confpicuous by the vifible meannefs and impotency of his ftate. He was alfo moft highly to merit from God, for himfelf, and for us; (to merit God's high approbation of what he did, God's favour and grace to us;) this he could not perform so well, as by willingly enduring, for God's fake, and in our behalf, the most hard and grievous things. He was, in fine, defigned perfectly to fave us, and confequently to appease God's wrath, to fatisfy divine juftice, to expiate our fins; whereto it was requifite, that he fhould undergo what we had deferved, being punished and afflicted for us.

Now that Jefus our Lord did most thoroughly correfpond to whatever is in this kind declared by the Prophets concerning the Meffias, we need not, by minutely relating the known hiftory of his life and death, make out any farther, fince the whole matter is palpably notorious, and

no adversary can deny it: I fhall therefore conclude, that SERM. it is a clear and certain truth, which St. Peter in our text LXXVI. affirmeth, that thofe things which God before had fhewed

by the mouth of all his prophets, that Chrift fhould fuffer,

he hath fo fulfilled.

Now, Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our Rev. i. 5, 6. fins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests

unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever.

Amen.

Bleffing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him Rev. v. 13. that fitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever. Amen.

SERMON LXXVII.

A WHIT-SUNDAY SERMON OF THE GIFT OF
THE HOLY GHOST.

LXXVII.

Efth. ix.
Deut, xvi.

ACTs ii. 38.

And ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghoft. SERM. AMONG the divers reasonable grounds and ends of the observing festival folemnities, (fuch as are comforting the poor by hofpitable relief, refreshing the weary labourer by ceffation from ordinary toil, maintaining good-will among neighbours by cheerful and free converfation, quickening our fpirits and raising our fancies by extraordinary representations and divertisements, infufing and preferving good humour in people a; fuch as are also the decent confpiring in public expreffions of special reverence to God, withdrawing our minds from fecular cares, and engaging them to spiritual meditations,) the two principal defigns of them feem to be these.

1. The affording occafion (or rather impofing a constraint upon us) with a competent frequency to attend unto, to confider upon, to inftruct ourselves and others in the mysterious doctrines and inftitutions of our religion.

2. The engaging us seasonably to practise that great

2 Θεοὶ δὲ οἰκτείραντες τὸ τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἐπίπονον πεφυκός γένος, ἀναπαύλας τε αὐτοῖς τῶν πόνων ἐτάξαντο, τὰς τῶν ἑορτῶν ἀμοιβὰς τοῖς θεοῖς. Plato 2. de Leg. Legum conditores feftos inftituerunt dies, ut ad hilaritatem homines pub. lice cogerentur, tanquam neceffarium laboribus interponentes temperamenSen. de tranq. an. 15.

tum.