now attend to this weighty subject, and learn the riches of his grace and everlasting love to us, from the doctrine of his salvation.

In the text there are three things to be considered:

First, To shew who this person is, of whom all these things are spoken.

Secondly, What is meant by the travail of his soul. And,

Thirdly, What must we understand by his being satisfied.

We frequently meet with expressions of this kind among the prophets; thus in Daniel we read, "He shall be cut off, he shall finish iniquity." In others, "He shall redeem Israel; he shall dip his cloaths in the blood of grapes, and wash his garments in wine. He shall live; and unto him shall be given of the gold of Arabia. Prayer shall be made ever unto him ; and daily shall he be praised. He shall sprinkle many nations; he shall be a man of sorrows;" and in the text, "He shall see of the travail of his soul." All these, and many more, certainly relate to the same person; and all the scripture, the law, and the prophets, point to him in every place. This is the glorious He, of whom all have testified and spoken ! The Desire of all nations! The Hope of Jacob! The Messiah! The King of Israel! He, for whom the twelve tribes waited two thousand years, and who was daily expected in his temple to help and save his people. But who is he? and what is his name?

He is the Lord from heaven; his name is Jesus Christ; or, as Luther sung,

"Tis Jesus Christ indeed;

And there's no God beside.

I do not wonder that the Jews had such confused

ideas of the Deliverer; for often he was promised as a man, as the seed of the woman, and son of David, and often as the Most High, as the only God and Saviour; and of no other person can all that is said of the Messiah be true; but only of that God and Man Christ Jesus, who was before all things, and made heaven and earth with all their hosts; and shall again roll up the heavens, and create all new; and who once in the form of a servant, lived and died in this sinful world, to reconcile us to himself by his own blood, and save us for evermore.

Let the sage scan, and pry, and weigh, and after all be in suspense about the matter as he will: Let the naturalist scorn as he please; and the Jew and Jewish-hearted men blaspheme and mock, it is yet true, Jesus is God. He is the everlasting Lord, the Maker and Saviour of all. This is the foundation and corner-stone of all the prophets, apostles, and martyrs. This is the doctrine of all the scriptures, and of every church of God and this shall be universally acknowledged when once more the Son of Man shall appear: "Then every eye shall see him, and every knee bow to him, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus is the Lord."

In this matter let us follow the cloud of witnesses, and trust Jesus, and confess and believe him, as he indeed is our Lord and our God. It is a good foundation, and other can no man lay. It is a firm rock, where a soul may build safely, and no storm shall make it fall; "the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." It is a tried stone. How many millions have tried it, and found it true and sure! Who have died in assurance, who did not believe in Jesus? Who have gone joyful and fearless into eternity, who had not him for their God? Who have denied him, and departed happy? O none in any age! No soul that scorns his blood and divinity;

no creature who has not him for his Lord, shall be blessed in time or in eternity. They shall live in darkness and die in darkness, and are without God in the world.

But now let me come to speak of the second part of the text, and treat of the travail of his soul. This is what raises so many doubts in the infidel, and makes him so often argue, If God could travail-if the Lord could die and be a sufferer.-And because he cannot believe this, or in his carnal understanding comprehend it, he counts the preaching of the cross foolishness; and chuses rather to trust his own morality, than the obedience and precious death of the Lord that bought him. Foolishness it will seem to every soul till taught of God, and then this doctrine raises in the heart the deepest thanksgivings, and reverence, and adoration, and love to our Saviour, and which increases daily till we shall see him; and then we shall cast our crowns at his feet, and prostrate ourselves before his throne, who so. loved and valued us, that he once, for our sakes, humbled himself, and was obedient to the death of the cross.

I need not say, that the cause of all the humiliation and sufferings of God's eternal Son, was our fall, and to save us by the sacrifice of himself, for this is every where taught in the Bible, and implied in this doctrine of his becoming a man of sorrows especially; and, if our own hearts have the least feeling or life, we know the cause of all the Redeemer's travail.

Before

Before ever our Saviour was incranate, yea long ere the worlds were made, or the heavens or earth formed, he saw how all things would go with us; and even when in Adam all died, and lost and forfeited his image, and sunk as slaves into the hands of the enemy, his eyes saw it, and his heart had compassion upon us. He knew (humanly speaking) it would have been easier to make a new world and create new souls, than to recover us, now lost and ruined; and in strict justice he might have left us, cursed and spoiled as we were, to feel the vengeance of eternal fire, and begin a new creation for his pleasure; but he loved us too dearly. He valued us far, far too highly to forsake or give us up. No, he knew we were gone from him and in the Devil's arms. He understood our captivity, and well saw what it would cost him to get us back, and save us from perishing to eternity; but it did not avail; all he foresaw he should undergo to ransom us, could not prevail with him to resolve to leave us unhelped. "He saw the travail of his soul," understood what bitter pains he must bear to redeem us, but he was satisfied; he loved us with everlasting love, and so became the Saviour. He determined, cost what it would, to have us; and neither did he grudge all he should pay down for us, all he should endure or suffer in body and soul, so his poor dear people could but thereby be saved; and with this view, with this aim, in the fulness of time, he arose from his throne, took leave of all his glory, forsook all his majesty and ease, and came down from heaven in the sight of all the angels, and was made lower than they all for the suffering of death; and thus God, the most high God, was made a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. It would not be amiss here to speak a little of the nature of the travail of his soul, and consider our Saviour in his sufferings.

sufferings. But O who is fit to undertake this! who can shew forth his sorrows, or worthily tell of his pain? I am ashamed to open my mouth in this matter, because I believe an angel would fall short in describing it; how much more I who am a worm? However, I will say a little, and pray the Lamb to forgive me that I fail so much in shewing forth his travail. I will pass over his mean birth and poor entertainment when he came into the world, as well as the suspicious manner of his conception, and all the miseries of his infancy and tender years; his painful circumcision, and labours, and travails, till his shewing forth unto Israel in the last few years before he made his soul an offering for

sin.

In the time of his temptation when for forty days he did eat nothing, but was left to be tried and tempted as we are, that he might be a merciful and compassionate High Priest to us, we may think a little what he went through, hurried and afflicted by Satan, affrighted by the wild beasts, and pinched with hunger and want. We may not think his divinity kept him from suffering by any of these, but as deeply as any poor man can be tempted, as much as any soul can be assaulted and amazed, so was he, and assisted only by his Godhead to go through all the hurried trials, hunger, want, and distresses, which possibly could befal a fallen creature. We need not doubt, but he has felt all what we can feel, and has gone through the fire and water before us. He knows the strength of every temptation, and the great weakness of flesh; and as he was the seed of the woman alone, so he had not the strength of a man, but was weak and like a woman in her pangs, and poorer and meaner than any one. In those days I do not doubt, but had we been present, we might have seen him wander dejected and discouraged