5. God is serious and in earnest in these offers and publications of Christ to all. Tliat he mocketh no man you shall see : do but try him, accept him, and he will be as good as his word. It is not made to you fraudulently, and with an intent to deceive, but God is serious. God is bound to no man, and wicked men refuse him out of their own perverseness. And indeed we should rather admire his mercy that he giveth Christ to any, than quarrel at his justice that he doth not give him to all.
That God is serious and in good earnest in these offers, appeareth —
1. By his entreaties. He beseecheth you to take him as well as offereth him : Ezek. xxxiii. 11, ' As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways ; for why will you die, 0 house of Israel ?' 2 Cor. v. 20, ' Now then we are ambas- sadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us.' So God useth all these entreaties to show that he is sincere and in earnest with all men.
2. Because it suiteth more with his delight that you should take liold of tbese offers and not refuse them. God bindeth himself with a strong oath : Ezek. xxxiii. 11, ' As 1 live, saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked.' Merely as it is the destruction of the creature, so God doth not any way apj)rove of it, though, as a just punishment, he delightelh in it. If you look to God's appro- bation or delight, your accepting grace more suiteth with it than your refusal.
ISA. LIII. 7.] THE FIFTY-THIRD CHAPTER OF ISAIAH. 335
3. Because he is angry that 3^011 do refuse : John v. 40, ' Ye will not come to me that you may have life.' He is grieved that men, through their own folly, neglect that which should do them good : Mat. xxiii. 37, ' 0 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee ! how often would I have gathered thy chil- dren together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not ? ' He meant by his outward ministry, though not inward call. He was mighty solicitous and earnest in that. So though God use all the means with us, and give us all the light that possibly can be into his will, except saving light, we turn unto our own way.
THE SEVENTH VEESE.
He was oppressed, and he tvas afflicted ; yet he opened not his mouth : he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth.
The main drift of the prophet in this chapter, as I have showed, is to remove the stone of stumbling and the rock of offence which lay in the way of the Jews because of Christ's meanness and sufferings. They looked for a Messiah to come fluttering with the pomp and royalty of an earthly prince ; and therefore, when they found nothing but a mean outside, a despised branch, and a withered root in a dry ground, a man of no splendour, but of much sorrow, they did easily dash the foot of their faith, and split all their hopes upon this rock, as if there were nothing worthy of the arm of God to be found in Jesus. Against this scandal the prophet maketh many defences, and showeth the several reasous why the excellency of Christ was to be hid under the veil of meanness and miseries ; and therefore what a slender ground there was why it should be turned to the blemish and disrepute of Christ.
1. His first argument was, because it was for our good, and for our sakes that he did put on this disguise ; and so being found in appear- ance like us, he might be taken in our stead : ' Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.' And what foul ingratitude were this, not to know a friend because he hath put on a disguise of mean- ness and misery for our sakes ! Having fully traversed this argument in the fourth, fifth, and sixth verses, he proceeds to another, a second defence against the scandal , and that is—
2. The voluntariness and willingness of Christ to undergo these sufferings. He was not compelled to it unless by his own spirit. He might have come in the lustre and glory of the Godhead. Or if not so, yet being a man, he might have hid himself secretly from the malice of his adversaries ; or, when seized upon and taken, he might then have vouched his innocency, and have pleaded the matter with them ; or have made a party among the people, and so, one way or another, rescued himself from the ignominy and bitterness of that death that he
336 A PRACTICAL EXPOSITION UPON [ISA. LIII. 7,
was to snfFor. No, saith the prophet, here is nothing but patience and a williui;: subjection to his Father's dosi<j^n : ' He was oppressed, and he was afllicted, yet lie opened not his mouth.' And, indeed, you had need observe these words, for they were the occasion of the eunuch's conver- sion ; for he was reading this very place in Isaiah : Acts viii. 32,' And the place of the scripture which he read was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and like a lamb before the shearer, so opened he not his mouth.' And God sent riiilip to join with him. And usually such scriptures have been of greatest account that have proved effectual to the converting of a sinner ; as that place in Kom. xiii. 11, ' And that knowing the time, that it is high time to awake out of sleep ; for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.' This scripture was the occasion of Austin's conversion, as John I. was of Junius's con- version, and this of the eunuch's. God sendeth the same Spirit to speak to you as to Philip, and you are to hear with the same affection. These words are the second argument to take off the scandal of Christ's death and bitter sufferings. And it is taken from the willingness and ready |)atience wherewith he underwent those sufferings. 1 may ob- serve in the verse two parts : —