3. He hath made promises of sustentation and preservation : Ps. Ixxiii. 23, ' Nevertheless I am continually with thee; thou hastholden me by my right hand.' Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down, for God upholdeth him with his hand. If God hath promised to preserve that grace which he hath once given, should not we pray for the continuance of it with the more encouragement ?
4. The experience of the saints : Ps. xciv. 18, ' When I said my foot slippeth, thy mercy, 0 Lord, held me up,' God's manutenancy is there asserted.
Use. Is to press us at all times to look up to God for establishment ; but especially in two seasons : —
1. When w^e begin to decline, and grow more remiss and indif- ferent in the practice of godliness. If grace be weak, you must get it strengthened. When you grow bolder in sin, and more strange to God and Jesus Christ, and have little converse with him in the Spirit, oh ! it is time to be instant and earnest with God, that he would re- cover you. Though you have embezzled your strength, yet you have to do with a merciful God; go to him for help : Ps. xvii. 5, ' Hold up my goings in thy path, that my footsteps slip not' You have for- feited the more plentiful aids of grace ; but beg him not to forsake you utterly. You must confess the sin, but God must remedy the evil : Ps. cxix. 133, ' Order my steps in thy word, and let not any iniquity have dominion over me.' Lord, I am apt to be led away with worldly allurements ; my spiritual taste is distempered with car- nal vanities : but, ' let not iniquity have dominion over me.'
186 THE EIGHTEENTn SERMON. [2 TilES. II. 17.
2. In nnsettlocl limes, when we are full of fears, and think we shall never hold out in a holy course. God, that kee})eth us in times of peace, will hold us up in times of trouble : Ps. xvi. 8, ' I have set the Lord always before me ; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.'
A PRACTICAL EXPOSITION
FIFTY-THIRD CHAPTEE OF ISAIAH.
TO THE READER.
The character of Dr Manton is so generally known by his celebrated preaching so many years in this city, and by the numerous collections of excellent discourses published since his death, that I cannot think it needful to give any account of him here, as I do not pretend to add anything to the accounts already given by those excellent persons that published his former works. It will be sufficient to remark, that his works have been esteemed by some of the best judges one of the most valuable collections of scriptural and practical divinity, and to have been as generally serviceable to the world as most that have appeared in these latter ages, and in many respects no way inferior to some of the ancient monuments of the Christian church.
I shall reckon myself concerned only to give some account of this treatise.
As to the subject of it, I shall only observe, that as the prophecy of Isaiah contains the clearest revelations of the Messiah, and is writ in the loftiest style of any part of the Old Testament, so tliis excellent chapter is an eminent instance of both, containing an exact descrip- tion both of his sufferings and his glories, represented in bright and lively colours, and in a phrase, though somewhat difficult and obscure, exceeding lofty and sublime. The veil of the temple seemed to have been drawn aside, though not yet rent asunder, and the light of the gospel shone forth with a brighter glory than ever it had appeared be- fore. Upon those accounts this chapter has exercised the thoughts and employed the diligence of several eminent persons in former and later times ; though, through some or other misfortune, they have been buried with their authors, and have never seen the light. Perhaps this is the only thing that can pretend to a just discourse now extant.
It would not be proper, in the preface to a practical discourse, to undertake the defence of this chapter, and to rescue it from the violence offered it in the posthumous annotations of a learned critic, who, with a great deal of force, and frequent absurdity, has applied this whole chapter to the prophet Jeremiah ; not only cross to the brightest evidence of truth, and the general consent of Christian in- terpreters, but in flat contradiction to himself in two very accurate and elaborate treatises published by himself, — in the onei of which, arguing against the Jews, he has these remarkable words, ' That the Messiah was to pass through sufferings and death in the way to his kingdom, and in order to bestow invaluable blessings on his seed, there
^ Grotius de Relig. Cliris., cap. v., sec. 19.
190 TO THE READER.
is no man can doubt that carefully considers Isaiah liii.' And after- wards he adds, * To wliom of all the kings and jirophets can this agree ? To none.' In the other ^ he settles the true sense of the place, and exposes the perverse glosses of Socinns.
As to tiiese discourses themselves, they bear the lively signatures of the excellent author, and are of a piece with the rest of his works. There is a judicious choice of pertinent matter, disposed in a regular method, expressed in a plain and native elegance, quickened and en- livened with proper images, and tinctured throughout with a deep savour of true piety. And though they may be thought neither so polished nor correct as his riper years and his last hand could easily have made them, or as were necessary to gratify the nice and the curious ; yet they seem, however, excellently fitted to a better end, — to promote saving know- ledge and real godliness, to move and to instruct the mind, and give en- tertainment as well as profit to the serious and the wise, and are par- ticularly suitable to sacramental occasions.