SERMON XXII. MESSIAH UNPITIED, AND WITHOUT COMFORTER. PSAL. Ixix. 20. Reproach [Rebuke] hath broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none. THE HE greatness of suffering cannot be certainly estimated by the single consideration of the immediate apparent cause; the impression it actually makes upon the mind of the sufferer must likewise be taken into the account. That which is a heavy trial to one person, may to another be much lighter, and perhaps no trial at all. And a state of outward prosperity, in which the eye of a by-stander can see nothing wanting to happiness, may be, and I doubt not often is, a state of torment to the possessor. On the other hand, we know that the consolations with which it has sometimes pleased God to cheer his suffering servants, have enabled them to rejoice in the greatest extremities. They have triumphed upon the rack, and while their flesh was consuming by the fire. The Lord has had many followers, who, for his sake, have endured scourgings, and tortures, and terrible deaths, not only without reluctance or dismay, but without a groan. But he himself was terrified, amazed, and filled with anguish, when he suffered for us. Shall we say, The disciples, in such cases, have been superior to their Master; when yet they acknowledged that they derived all their strength and resolution from him! This difference cannot be well accounted for by those who deny that his sufferings were a proper atonement for sin, and who can see no other reason for his death, than that by dying he was to seal the truth of his doctrine, and to propose himself to us as an example of constancy and patience. But the great aggravation of MESSIAH'S sufferings, was the suspension of those divine supports which enable his people to endure the severest afflictions to which he calls them. Perhaps some persons who acknowledge our Lord's true character, may, upon that ground, think his agonies less insupportable, since he was not a mere man, but God in the human nature. It was, indeed, the dignity of his person, that gave influence and efficacy to all that he did and suffered for sinners. It is likewise true, that the weight laid upon him was more than any mere creature could sustain. I would speak with reverence and reserve upon a point which is too high for our weak minds fully to comprehend. But in whatever way the nature of man, which he assumed, was upheld by his eternal power and Godhead, we may venture to affirm, that he derived no sensible comfort from it. For we have his own testimony, that in this sense "God had forsaken him." The divine nature could neither bleed nor suffer. He and as a man he sufMany of his servants was truly and properly a man; fered, and he suffered alone. have rejoiced while they were tormented, because God overbalanced all they felt with the light of his countenance; but the Saviour himself, deprived of this light, experienced, to the uttermost, all that sin deserved, that was not inconsistent with the perfection of his character. My text expresses, so far as human words and ideas can reach, his exquisite distress, when "he bore our sins in his own body, upon the tree: Reproach "broke his heart, and when he looked for pity and "comfort, he found none." 1. "Reproach hath broken my heart." We must not confine our thoughts here to the reproach of his enemies. The passage in the Messiah expresses it agreeably to the version of the Psalms used in our Liturgy, "Thy rebuke." Though "he knew no sin, "he was made sin for us." He was accounted and treated as a sinner. Now a sinner is deservedly the greatest object of contempt in the universe, and indeed the only object of deserved contempt. Thus he incurred the reproach of the law and justice of God.The Holy Father, viewing the Son of his love in this light, as charged with the sins of his people, forsook him. God infinitely hates sin, and will have no fellowship with it; and of this he gave the most awful proof, by forsaking his beloved Son, when he took upon him to answer for the sins of men. Then the sword of the Almighty awoke* aganist him, and he spared him not. This rebuke broke his heart. Let broken-hearted sinners look by faith upon a broken hearted Saviour. The phrase denotes wo and dejection inconceivable, with a failure of all resource. Any thing may be borne while the spirit, the heart, remains firm; but if the heart itself be broken, who can endure? "A wounded spirit who can beart?" It is not, therefore, surprising that he says, "I am "full of heaviness." In the evangelists we read, that "he began to be sore amazed, and very heavy‡," and he said to his disciples, "My soul is exceeding "sorrowful, even unto death." Zech. xiii. 7. The most emphatical + Prov. xviii. 14. Matth. xxvi. 37, 38.; Mark xiv. 33. 253 words are used to describe his sensation of the bitter conflict of his soul in the garden of Gethsemane, when as yet the hand of man had not touched him. He began to be "amazed*" or astonished. It properly signifies, to be struck with terror and surprise by some supernatural power, such as Belshazzar felt when he saw the hand-writing against him upon the wall; and to be very heavy" sated with grief, full, so as to be incapable of more. Some critics explain the word, as importing such an oppression of mind as quite unfits a person for converse or society, [compare Job xxx. 29.] He said, "I am exceeding sorrowful§"-surrounded, encompassed with sorrows. It is added, he was in an agony "-a consternation of mind, such as arises from the prospect of some impending, unavoidable evil; like the suspense of mariners upon the point of shipwreck, who tremble equally at the view of the raging waves behind them, and the rocky shore before their eyes, on which they expect in a few moments to be dashed. The evils he was to bear, and to expiate, were now collecting to a point, and formed a dark tremendous storm just ready to break upon his devoted head; and the prospect filled his soul with unutterable horror; so that his sweat was, as it were, great drops of blood falling down to the ground. Many have sweat under extremity of pain or terror; but his agonies, and the effect of them, were peculiar to himself: his sweat was blood. This is not a subject for declamation. It rather becomes us to adore in humble silence the manifestation " of the goodness and severity of God**," in the Re * ἑκθαμβεῖσθαι. Ο περίλυπος. + Dan. v. 6. aywna. Luke xxii. 44. Η αδημονείν. ** Rom. xi. 22. deemer's sufferings, than to indulge conjecture and the flights of imagination. What is expressly revealed we may assert, contemplate, and admire. "His soul was "made an offering for sin*." We know but little of the extreme malignity of sin, because we have but faint views of the majesty, holiness, and goodness of God, against whom it is committed. Yet a single sin, if clothed with all its aggravations, and the guilt of it brought home with power to the heart, is sufficient to make the sinner a terror to himself. Adam had sinned but once, when he lost all comfort and confidence in God, and sought to hide himself. We have but slight thoughts of the extent of sin. Not only positive disobedience, but want of conformity to the law of God, is sinful. Every rising thought which does not comport with that reverence, dependence, and love, which is due to God, from creatures constituted, furnished, and indebted, as we are, is sinful. The sins of one person, in thought, word, and deed, sins of omission and commission, are innumerable. What then is contained in the collective idea, in what the Scripture calls, "the "sin of the world?" What then must be the atonement, the consideration, on the account of which, the great God is no less righteous than merciful, in forgiving the sins, which his inviolable truth, and the honour of his government, engage him to punish. And they are punished, though forgiven. They were charged upon Jesus, they exposed him to a rebuke which broke his heart. They filled him with heaviness. When, therefore, we are assured that the justice of God is satisfied, with respect to every sinner of the race of nankind, who, in obedience to the divine command, Isa. liii. 10. |