that we can feel no hesitation in interpreting it as relating to Christ.
In this beautiful description then of our Lord's compassion to man, we may observe, I. Its boundless extent —
The calamities with which the human race are afflicted are very numerous ; nor is there any trouble which the Lord will not either remove or sanctify, if we call upon him. But as the remedying of our spi- ritual maladies was the principal end of his coming, we shall direct our attention more immediately to them. In the words before us then we may notice his regards,
1. To the blind and willing slaves of sin —
[The world at large are in bondage to their lusts, and to that wicked one who leads them captive at his will ; and they are shut up under a sentence of condemnation for their num- berless violations of the law of Godp. Yet, so blind are they to their real state, that they cannot see, and will not believe it. Their cunning adversary has undertaken to be their guide, but has led them into the heart of the enemies' country, and, if mercy do not interpose, into the very jaws of destruction*1. But the Lord Jesus is not an unconcerned spectator of their misery: he is ready to weep over them as over the murderous Jerusalem : and even while they reject him, he " would gladly gather them, as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings." He would give them an eye-salve, whereby they should be enabled to see clearly r : he would cause their chains to fall off, and would say to them, go forth, and shew yourselves s : yea, so desirous is he to exercise mercy towards them, that nothing but a determined rejection of his grace can involve them in final ruin.]
2. To penitents "bowed down" under a sense of
sin —
[Whatever be the afflictions under which we groan, we may carry them all to him, with an assured expectation of sympathy and succour, since he is at all times " a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress*." But if sin be our burthen, if a sense of guilt lie heavy on our conscience, if our indwelling corruption be to us as a putrid carcass from which we cannot get loose11, and which causes us to lothe and abhor
p Gal. iii. 23. i Alluding to 2 Kings vi. 18 — 21.
r Kev. iii. 18. s Isai. xlix. 9. with Acts v. 18—20.
1 Isai. xxv. 4. " This is the idea alluded to Rom. vii. 21.