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happiness than his salvation? O! what trifles and vanities, what dreams and shadows are men pursuing, while they neglect the important realities of the eternal world! If crowns and kingdoms, if all the riches, glories, and pleasures of the world were insured to you as a reward for making light of Christ, you would even then make the most foolish bargain possible; for what are these in the scale to eternal joy or eternal tempest ? and what shall it profit a man if he gain even the whole world, and lose his own soul? Matt. xvi. 26. But you cannot hope for the ten thousandth part and will you cast away your souls for this? You that think it such a great thing to live in riches, pleasures and honours, consider, is it such a mighty happiness to die rich? to die after a life of pleasure and honour? Will it be such a great happiness to give an account for the life of a rich sensualist, rather than of a poor mortified creature? Will Dives then be so much happier than Lazarus? Alas! what does the richest, the highest, the most voluptuous sinner, what does he do, but lay up treasures of wrath against the day of wrath? O how will the unhappy creatures torture themselves forever with the most cutting reflections for selling their Saviour and their souls for such trifles! Let your sins and earthly enjoyments save you then, if they can; let them then do that for you which Christ would have done for you if you had chosen him. Then go and cry to the gods you have chosen; let them deliver you in the day of your tribulation.

VI. Your making light of Christ and salvation is a certain evidence that you have no interest in them.-Christ will not throw himself and his blessings away upon those that do not value them. "Those that honour him he will ho nour; but they that despise him shall be lightly esteemed," 1 Sam. ii. 30. There is a day coming, when you will feel you cannot do without him; when you will feel yourselves perishing for want of a Saviour; and then you may go and look for a Saviour where you will.; then you may shift for yourselves as you can; he will have nothing to do with you; the Saviour of sinners will cast you off forever. I tell you, Sirs, whatever estimate you form of all these things, God thinks very highly of the blood of his Son, and the blessings of his purchase; and if ever you obtain them, he will have you think highly of them too. If you continue to make light of them, all the world cannot save you. And can you find fault with God for denying you that which was so little in your account?

VII. And lastly, the time is hastening when you will not think so slightly of Christ and salvation. O, Sirs, when God shall commission death to tear your guilty souls out of your bodies, when devils shall drag you away to the place of torment, when you find yourselves condemned to everlasting fire by that Saviour whom you now neglect, what would you then give for a Saviour? When divine justice brings in its heavy charges against you, and you have nothing to answer, how will you then cry, "O if I had chosen Jesus for my Saviour, he would have answered all !" When you see that the world has deserted you, that your companions in sin have deceived themselves and you, and all your merry days are over forever, would you not then give ten thousand worlds for Christ? And will you not now think him worthy of your esteem and earnest pursuit? Why will ye judge of things now quite the reverse of what you will do then, when you will be more capable of judging rightly!

And now, dear immortal souls! I have discovered the nature and danger of this common but unsuspected and unlamented sin, making light of Christ. I have delivered my message, and now I must leave it with you, imploring the blessing of God upon it. I cannot follow you home to your houses to see what effect it has upon you, or to make application of it to each of you in particular; but, O may your consciences undertake this office! Whenever you spend another prayerless, thoughtless day, whenever you give yourselves up to sinful pleasures, or an over-eager pursuit of the world, may your conscience become your preacher, and sting you with this expostulation: "Alas! is this the effect of all I have heard? Do I still make light of Christ and the concerns of religion? Oh what will be the end of such a conduct!" I cannot but fear after all, that some of you, as usual, will continue careless and impenitent. Well, when you are suffering the punishment of this sin in hell, remember that you were warned, and acquit me from being accessary to your ruin. And when we all appear before the supreme Judge, and I am called to give an account of my ministry: when I am asked, "Did you warn these creatures of their danger? Did you lay before them their guilt in making light of these things;" you will allow me to answer, "Yes, Lord, I warned them in the best manner I could, but they would not believe me; they would not regard what I said, though enforced by the authority of thy awful name, and confirm

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ed by thine own word." O Sirs, must I give in this accusation against any of you? No, rather have mercy upon yourselves, and have mercy upon me, that I may give an account of you with joy, and not with grief.

SERMON 8.

THE COMPASSION OF CHRIST TO WEAK BELIEVERS.

MATT. XII. 20. A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench.

THE Lord Jesus possesses all those virtues in the highest perfection, which render him infinitely amiable, and qualify him for the administration of a just and gracious government over the world. The virtues of mortals, when carried to a high degree, very often run into those vices which have a kind of affinity to them. แ Right, too rigid, hardens into wrong." Strict justice steels itself into excessive severity; and the man is lost in the judge. Goodness and mercy sometimes degenerate into softness and an irrational compassion inconsistent with government. But in Jesus Christ these seemingly opposite virtues centre and harmonise in the highest perfection, without running into extremes. Hence he is at once characterised as a Lamb, and as the Lion of the tribe of Judah : a lamb for gentleness towards humble penitents, and a lion to tear his enemies in pieces. Christ is said to judge and make war, Rev. xix. 11. and yet he is called The Prince of Peace. Isa. ix. 6. He will at length shew himself terrible to the workers of iniquity; and the terrors of the Lord are a very proper topic whence to persuade men; but now he is patient towards all men, and he is all love and tenderness towards the meanest penitent. The meekness and gentleness of Christ is to be the pleasing entertainment of this day; and I enter upon it with a particular view to those mourning desponding souls among us, whose weakness renders them in great need of strong consolation. To such in particular I address the words of my text, A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench.

This is a part of the Redeemer's character, as delineated near three thousand years ago by the evangelical prophet Isaiah, Isa.

ii. 1-4. and it is expressly applied to him by St. Matthew : Behold, says the Father, my Servant whom I have chosen for the important undertaking of saving the guilty sons of men ; " my Beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased;" my very soul is well pleased with his faithful discharge of the important office he has undertaken. I will put my spirit upon him; that is, I will completely furnish him by the gifts of my spirit for his high character; and he shall shew judgment to the Gentiles: to the poor benighted Gentiles he shall shew the light of salvation; by revealing the gospel to them; which, in the style of the Old Testament, may be called his judgments. Or he will shew and execute the judgment of this world by casting out its infernal prince, who had so long exercised an extensive cruel tyranny over it. He shall not strive nor cry, neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets; that is, though he enters the world as a mighty prince and conqueror to establish a kingdom of righteousness, and overthrow the kingdom of darkness, yet he will not introduce it with the noisy terrors and thunders of war, but shall shew himself mild and gentle as the prince of peace. Or the connexion may lead us to understand these words in a different sense, namely, He shall do nothing with clamorous ostentation, nor proclaim his wonderful works, when it shall answer no valuable end. Accordingly the verse of our text stands thus connected: Great multitudes followed him; and he healed them all, and charged them that they should not make him known. That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying,-He shall not cry, neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets; that is, he shall not publish his miracles with noisy triumph in the streets, and other public places. And when it is said, He shall not strive, it may refer to his inoffensive passive behaviour towards his enemies that were plotting his death. For thus we may connect this quotation from Isaiah with the preceding history in the chapter of our text: Then the Pharisees went out, and held a council against him, how they might destroy him. But when Jesus knew it, instead of praying to his Father, for a guard of angels, or employing his own miraculous power to destroy them, he withdrew himself from thence ;—that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet Isaiah, sayingHe shall not strive.

The general meaning of my text seems to be contained in this observation : "That the Lord Jesus has the tenderest and most compassionate regard to the feeblest penitent, however oppressed

and desponding; and that he will approve and cherish the least spark of true love towards himself.

The bruised reed seems naturally to represent a soul at once feeble in itself, and crushed with a burden; a soul both weak and oppressed. The reed is a slender frail vegetable in itself, and therefore a very proper image to represent a soul that is feeble and weak. A bruised reed is still more frail, hangs its head, and is unable to stand without some prop. And what can be a more lively emblem of a poor soul, not only weak in itself, but bowed down and broken under a load of sin and sorrow, that droops and sinks, and is unable to stand without divine support? Strength may bear up under a burden, or struggle with it, till it has thrown it off; but oppressed weakness, frailty under a burden, what can be more pitiable? and yet this is the case of many a poor penitent. He is weak in himself, and in the mean time crushed under an heavy weight of guilt and distress.

And what would become of such a frail oppressed creature, if, instead of raising him up and supporting him, Jesus should tread and crush him under the foot of his indignation? But though a reed, especially a bruised reed, is an insignificant thing, of little or no use, yet, a bruised reed he will not break," but he raises it up with a gentle hand, and enables it to stand, though weak in itself, and easily crushed in ruin.

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Perhaps the imagery, when drawn at length, may be this: "The Lord Jesus is an almighty Conqueror, marches in state through our world; and here and there a bruised reed lies in his way. But instead of disregarding it, or trampling it under foot, he takes care not to break it: he raises up the drooping straw, trifling as it is, and supports it with his gentle hand." Thus, poor broken-hearted penitents, thus he takes care of you, and supports you, worthless and trifling as you are. Though you seem to lie in the way of his justice, and it might tread you with its heavy foot, yet he not only does not crush you, but takes you up, and inspires you with strength to bear your burden, and flourish again.

Or perhaps the imagery may be derived from the practice of the ancient shepherds, who were wont to amuse themselves with the music of a pipe of reed or straw; and when it was bruised they broke it, or threw it away as useless. But the bruised reed shall not be broken by this divine Shepherd of souls. The music of broken sighs and groans is indeed all that the broken reed can

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