SERMON XXI. MESSIAH DERIDED UPON THE CROSS. PSAL. xxii. 7, 8. All they that fee me, laugh me to fcorn; they Shout out the lip, they shake the head, faying, He trufted in the Lord that he would deliver him; let him deliver him, feeing he delighted in him. FA ALLEN man, though alienated from the life of God, and degraded with respect to many of his propenfities and purfuits, to a level with the beafts that perifh, is not wholly deftitute of kind and compaffionate feelings towards his fellow-creatures. While felf-intereft does not interfere, and the bitter paffions of envy, hatred, malice, and revenge, are not roufed into exercise, he has a degree of instinctive fympathy with them in their But fufferings, and a difpofition to affift them, if he can do it without much detriment to himfelf. The fource of these focial feelings, we express, by the term humanity; which seems to imply a consciousness that they properly belong to our nature, and that we ought, at leaft, to be always, and univerfally affected in this manner, when occafions offer. while the heart is under the government of self, our humanity is very partial and limited. And it is to be afcribed to the goodness of God, rather than to any real goodness in man, that it is not wholly extinguished. Were this the cafe, and were the native evils of the heart left to exert themselves in their full strength, and without controul, earth would be the very image of hell, and there could be no fuch thing as fociety. But to prevent things from running into utter confufion, God mercifully preferves in mankind, fome focial difpofitions. They are, however, fo weak in themfelyes, fo powerfully' counteracted by the stronger principles of our depravity, and fo frequently fuppreffed by obftinate habits of wickedness; that in the prefent ftate of things, we may almost as justly define man, (whatever impropriety there there may feem in the expreffion) by faying, He is an inhuman creature, as by afcribing to him the benevolent properties of humanity. The rage, cruelty, and favage infenfibility, with which fin and fatan have poisoned our nature, never appear in fo ftrong a light, ast when they affume a religious form; when ignorance, bigotry, and blind zeal, oppose the will and grace of God, under a pretence of doing him fervice. By this infatuation, every hateful paffion is fanctified, and every feeling of humanity stifled. Thus, though the sufferings of the most atrocious malefactors, ufually excite pity in the fpectators, and often draw tears from their eyes; yet, the agonies of God's perfecuted fervants, under the most exquisite tortures which malice could invent, have frequently raised no other emotions, than thofe of derifion and fcorn. My text leads us to confider the highest inftance of this kind. The xxiid Pfalm, undoubtedly, refers to MESSIAH. It begins with the very words which he uttered upon the crofs; nor could David speak of himself, when he said, They pierced my hands and my feet. He was God's fervant in the most eminent sense, and the fervice he performed, was an uninterrupted courfe courfe of benevolence, to the fouls and bodies of men. He spent his life in going about doing good*; nor could his enemies fix a fingle ftain upon his conduct. Yet they thirfted for his blood; and, because he came into the world to fave finners, they accomplished their cruel designs. We have already feen how he was treated by the fervants and by the foldiers, when condemned by the Jewish council, and by the Roman governor. This prophecy was fulfilled when he hung upon the crofs. There have been perfons in our own days, whofe crimes have excited fuch deteftation, that the populace would probably have torn them in pieces, before, and even after their trial, if they could have had them in their power.-Yet when thefe very obnoxious perfons have been executed, according to their sentence, if, perhaps, there was not one fpectator who wished them to escape, yet neither was one found, fo loft to fenfibility, as to infult them in their dying moments. But when Jefus fuffers, all that fee bim, laugh him to fcorn; they shoot out the lip, they shake the bead; they infult his character, and his hope. The evangelifts furnish us with an affecting * Acts x, 38. comment upon this paffage. They inform us, by whom he was thus fcorned and derided -they mention fome circumftances, which strongly mark the peculiar and exceffive contempt, with which he was treated; and they take notice of the especial scope and object of their infults, namely, the gracious purpose he had often expreffed towards finners, and the ftrong confidence he had avowed in God his Father. I. The perfons who fcorned and derided him, were various, and of different characters. 1. The chief priefs, elders, and rulers of the people. When thefe who were held in ignorant admiration, by the multitude, fet the example, we do not wonder that it was generally followed. They had been his most avowed and determined enemies, they had long conspired to take away his life, and in the appointed hour their plots were permitted to fucceed. They now rejoiced in their fuccess. By their office as teachers and expounders of the law, they ought to have pointed him out to the people as the object of their reverence and hope; but having rejected him themfelves, they employed all their authority and |