first to last, be received as a free gift of God for Christ's sake1.
This is not pleasing to the proud heart of man ; because we are ever looking for something within ourselves, as a ground of self-preference or self- complacency. But, what if God had waited till Israel had done something to merit the heavenly food with which he supplied them ? It was a free gift which they needed : and it is that which we also need, and which renders the Gospel altogether suit- able to fallen man.
Next, the Gospel communicates its blessings to us fully. There is not a want in man which it does not supply. Are we " wretched and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked ?" " It gives us gold tried in the fire, that we may be rich ; and white raiment to cover us, that the shame of our nakedness may not appear ; and it anoints our eyes with eye- salve, that we may seek." This is a feature of the Gospel which the Prophet Isaiah portrays in very lively colours : " The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me ; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings to the meek : he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound ; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God ; to comfort all that mourn ; to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness ; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified1." Now, this passage pecu- liarly illustrates the point before us ; because it takes a view of mankind in a vast diversity of conditions, and represents the Gospel as adapting itself to every different state, and as supplying the precise wants of every individual. And it is the more to be noticed, because our blessed Lord, in the first public dis- course that ever he delivered, turned to that very
1 Eph. ii. 8, 9. k Rev. iii. 17, 18. ' Isai. lxi, 1—3.