Part 33

I see your hearts affected, I see your eyes weep. (And indeed, who can refrain weeping at the relation of such a story?) But, behold, I shew you a mystery, hid under the sacrifice of _Abraham_’s only son, which, unless your hearts are hardned, must cause you to weep tears of love, and that plentifully too. I would willingly hope you even prevent me here, and are ready to say, “It is the love of GOD, in giving JESUS CHRIST to die for our sins.” Yes; that is it. And yet perhaps you find your hearts, at the mentioning of this, not so much affected. Let this convince you, that we are all fallen creatures, and that we do not love GOD or CHRIST as we ought to do: for, if you admire _Abraham_ offering up his _Isaac_, how much more ought you to extol, magnify and adore the love of GOD, who so loved the world, as to give his only begotten Son CHRIST JESUS our LORD, “that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life?” May we not well cry out, Now know we, O LORD, that thou hast loved us, since thou hast not withheld thy Son, thine only Son from us? _Abraham_ was GOD’s creature (and GOD was _Abraham_’s friend) and therefore under the highest obligation to surrender up his _Isaac_. But O stupendious love! whilst we were his enemies, GOD sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, that he might become a curse for us. O the freeness, as well as the infinity, of the love of GOD our Father! It is unsearchable: I am lost in contemplating it; it is past finding out. Think, O believers, think of the love of GOD, in giving JESUS CHRIST to be a propitiation for our sins. And when you hear how _Abraham_ built an altar, and laid the wood in order, and bound _Isaac_ his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood; think how your heavenly Father bound JESUS CHRIST his only Son, and offered him upon the altar of his justice, and laid upon him the iniquities of us all. When you read of _Abraham_’s stretching forth his hand to slay his Son, Think, O think, how GOD actually suffered his Son to be slain, that we might live for evermore. Do you read of _Isaac_ carrying the wood upon his shoulders, upon which he was to be offered? Let this lead you to mount _Calvary_ (this very mount of _Moriah_ where _Isaac_ was offered, as some think) and take a view of the antitype JESUS CHRIST, the Son of GOD, bearing and ready to sink under the weight of that cross, on which he was to hang for us. Do you admire _Isaac_ so freely consenting to die, though a creature, and therefore obliged to go when GOD called? O do not forget to admire infinitely more the dear LORD JESUS, that promised seed, who willingly said, “Lo, I come,” though under no obligation so to do, “to do thy will,” to obey and die for men, “O GOD!” Did you weep just now, when I bid you fancy you saw the altar, and the wood laid in order, and _Isaac_ laid bound on the altar? Look by faith, behold the blessed JESUS, our all-glorious _Emmanuel_, not bound, but nailed on an accursed tree: see how he hangs crowned with thorns, and had in derision of all that are round about him: see how the thorns pierce him, and how the blood in purple streams trickle down his sacred temples! Hark how the GOD of nature groans! See how he bows his head, and at length humanity gives up the ghost! _Isaac_ is saved, but JESUS, the GOD of _Isaac_, dies: A ram is offered up in _Isaac_’s room, but JESUS has no substitute; JESUS must bleed, JESUS must die; GOD the Father provided this Lamb for himself from all eternity. He must be offered in time, or man must be damned for evermore. And now, where are your tears? Shall I say, refrain your voice from weeping? No; rather let me exhort you to look to him whom you have pierced, and mourn, as a woman mourneth for her first-born: for we have been the betrayers, we have been the murderers of this LORD of glory; and shall we not bewail those sins, which brought the blessed JESUS to the accursed tree? Having so much done, so much suffered for us, so much forgiven, shall we not love much? O! let us love Him with all our hearts, and minds, and strength, and glorify him in our souls and bodies, for they are his. Which leads me to a second inference I shall draw from the foregoing discourse.