By way of improving this subject, we may further observe,
1 Isai. lxvi. 7 — 13.
u Rev. vii. 17. and Ps. xvi. 11. and xxxvi. 8.
414 ISAIAH, Lin. 11. [974.
1. How must the Lord Jesus be grieved when he sees sinners utterly regardless of him !
Surely if a mother, after all her pain and anguish, behold a lifeless corpse, where she had expected a living child, her disappointment must be great. And must not Jesus be grieved, when he beholds " those, for whom he died, perishing" in their sins ? If when the Jews alone were offered him as the fruit of his travail, he so regretted the loss of the Gentile world, that he exclaimed, " Then have I laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nought,, and in vainx," doubtless it must be painful to him, after having had a promise of the heathen also for his inheritance, to see myriads, even of his professed followers, as un- concerned about him, as if he had never come into the world. And are there not many such amongst us ? many, whose voice he never yet heard in fervent prayer? many, who have never yet expressed any desire after him, any concern about him? The Apostle Paul could appeal to God that he had " great heaviness, and continual sorrow in his heart for his brethren's sake :" and Jeremiah, in the view of the troubles that were coming on his nation, cried out, " My bowels, my bowels ! I am pained at my very heart ! " much more therefore must the compassionate Jesus, who wept and prayed for his very murderers, be afflicted at the guilt and danger of the unbelieving world. It is true, that, strictly speaking, he is incapable of sorrow in his present state : but the Scripture, to accommodate itself to our feeble appre- hensions, represents him as exercising human pas- sions, because, with respect to us, he will act as if he were either gratified by our attention, or grieved by our neglect. Careless sinners are spoken of as grieving and vexing his Holy Spirit, yea, moreover, as crucifying him afresh, and trampling under foot his precious blood. Let not then such aggravated guilt be found in us. Let us not so requite our gra- cious and adorable benefactor. He yet waiteth to be gracious unto us : he seeks us, as he did the
x Isai. xlix. 4.
974.] Christ's satisfaction in his people. 415
Samaritan woman, that vile notorious adulteress, that he may turn us from the error of our ways, and save our souls alive. And, as on that occasion " he had meat to eat which the world knew not of y," so will his soul be refreshed and comforted with the first prospect of delivering us from sin and death.
2. What obligations lie on all of us to repent and turn to God !
There is one way, and only one, in which we can afford any satisfaction to our blessed Lord ; and that is, by going to him for his benefits, and receiving at his hands the blessings he has purchased for us. And shall we hesitate to do this ? shall not a sense of gra- titude impel us, strengthened as it is, and confirmed by a concern for our eternal interests ? If our Lord had required some great thing of us, ought we not to do it ? How much more then when he only says, Wash, and be clean ! Had he required that we should spend our whole lives in such a state of pain and travail as he himself endured, we ought gladly to comply with his will, and account ourselves happy in such an op- portunity of testifying our love to him. But when he desires only, that we should seek our own truest interests, and declares, that he finds his happiness in making us happy, we should turn to him without delay, and give ourselves up to him without reserve. Hear his own word ; " The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in them that hope in his mercy." Now if you cannot love him as you would, yet if you can fear him ; if you cannot rejoice in an assurance of his mercy, yet if you can only hope in it, you will thereby afford him pleasure. And will you think this too much to do for him who travailed, as it were, in birth for you ? Repentance indeed must precede a sense of favour and reconciliation with God. But the deeper our contrition, the more exalted will be the joy that follows it. Let us then look on him whom we have pierced, and mourn, and be in bitter- ness for our manifold transgressions. So shall Jesus