c. I would add, that when I express the duty enjoined under the metaphor of looking, I hope it will not lead any of you into gross corporeal ideas, since the import of it has been so fully shewn.

The arguments to enforce this important evangelical duty can never be exhausted; and therefore I must confine myself to those which this copious text furnishes us with, which, when resolved into particulars, will stand thus :

It is salvation we are called upon to pursue-It may be obtained upon the easiest terms, without any personal merit, viz. by a look-It is Immanuel, the incarnate God, that commands and invites us to look-and he is the glorious and affecting object to which we are to look-and our looking shall not be in vain, for he is God, who engages to save those that look to him ;-and it is in vain to look elsewhere for salvation, and needless to fear his grace should be controlled by another; for as he is God, so there is none else—and we in particular are invited, being especially meant by the ends of the earth.

1. It is salvation that is here offered. Look, and be saved. Salvation! O most propitious, transporting sound? Amazing! that ever it should be heard by our guilty ears! Sin, my brethren, has exposed us to the curse of the divine law, to the loss of heaven, and all its joys, yea, and of earth too, and all its entertainments; for death, the consequence of sin, will rend us from them. We have no title to any good to satisfy our eager pantings; and must languish and pine through an endless duration without a drop of bliss, if punished according to our demerit. We are also subject to the torturing agonies of a remorseful conscience, to be cut off from the earth by the sword of justice, and swept away by the besom of destruction into the regions of horror and despair, there to consume away a long, long eternity in inextinguishable flames, in remediless, intolerable torments, in the horrid society of devils and damned ghosts, who shall mutually promote and join in the general roar of torture and desperation. This, Sirs, is our just, our unavoidable doom, unless we obtain an interest in the salvation of the Lord. But salvation brings us a complete remedy, equal to our misery. It contains a title to the divine favour, and consequently to all the joys of heaven; it contains a perfect deliverance from all the torments of hell and shall we not then regard and obey the voice that cries, Look unto me, and be ye saved! Is it not fit

those should perish without remedy who hear the offer of such a salvation with indifference? How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation? Were we now under a sentence of condemnation to death by an earthly court, and were going out one after another to the place of execution, and should some welcome messenger with a general pardon in his hand come with joyful speed into this assembly, and proclaim, salvation! salvation! to all that would accept it on the easiest terms, what a shout of general joy would burst from this assembly! What changed faces, what tears of general joy, would appear among us! In this agreeable character, my brethren, I have the honour and the happiness of appearing among you this day. I proclaim salvation from the Lord to dying men; salvation to all that will look to him for it. And I would not make the offer to the air, or to the walls of this house, but to rational creatures, capable of consenting and refusing. I therefore request you to look upon it as a proposal made to you; to you men, to you women, to you youth and children, to you negroes, demanding a speedy answer. Will you look to Jesus? or will you hide your faces from him? Will you not think him and his salvation worth a look? Which leads me to observe,

2. This salvation may be obtained upon low terms. It may be obtained by a look. Look and be saved: and this metaphor implies that no merit is required in us to procure this salvation. It is as cheap a cure as that which the Israelites obtained by looking to the brazen serpent. The salvation is wrought already; Christ would not separate his soul and body, and put an end to his pains, till he could say, it is finished, and all required of us is a cheerful acceptance and what terms can be easier? It is true we are required to abstain from sin, and be holy, in order to enjoy this salvation; but can this be looked upon as a hard term? It is impossible in the nature of things you should be saved in a course of sin; for one great part of the salvation consists in deliverance from sin. This is the deadly disease which must be healed, in order to your happiness. And how then can you expect to be saved while you indulge it? Would you not think your physician made easy prescriptions to you, if he assured you of recovery, when you were sick, upon condition that you would abstain from poison, and confine yourselves to a wholesome diet? Holiness is as necessary to happiness as temperance to VOL. II.

31

health; and though sinners, like drunkards, think this a hard imposition, yet it cannot be altered, without a change in the immutable Deity. Therefore submit to the terms of salvation; they are as low, as easy as the nature of things will permit. They are not the rigid arbitrary impositions of an austere being, but the mild, unavoidable requisitions of an indulgent and wise God, acting according to the reason of things. If salvation was offered to you, upon condition of your making an infinite satisfaction for sin, you might start off from the proposal; for even almighty grace could not enable you to do this: for this you could not do without being advanced above the rank of creatures, and endowed with infinity, which you are physically incapable of. But grace can dispose you to consent to the terms of the gospel; grace can turn your eyes to look to Jesus, for you are only morally incapable of this; that is, you are unwilling, you are sinfully The lowness of the averse to it. Come then, look and live.

terms aggravates the guilt of a non-compliance with them. What do those deserve who do not think of a salvation purchased with the blood of God worth a look? What drudgery do you endure, what hardships do you voluntarily undergo, to procure some of the specious toys of this world? What a difficult regimen will you submit to, what nauseous potions will you take, for the recovery of the health of your mortal bodies? And will you not take the trouble of a look for the salvation of your immortal souls? How eagerly will you accept the offer of any temporal advantage! and will you neglect this invitation to look and live? Especially, when,

3. It is Immanuel, our incarnate God, that invites and commands you to look to him, and be saved. You may trifle with the commands of an usurper, and reject the treacherous invitations of an enemy; but dare you trifle with the injunctions, dare you refuse the gracious invitations of our supreme King and heavenly friend?-That it is Christ who here calls us to look to him, is evident from the application of this context to Christ by the apostle To this end Christ both died and rose, and revived, For it is that he might be the Lord both of the dead and living. written, as I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and Which every tongue shall confess to God. Rom. xiv. 9-11. words, according to the Hebrew, you find in the verse following my text. See also Phil. ii. 9--11. Moreover the characters here predicated concerning the Lord Jehovah, most properly be

long to Christ, according to the dialect of the New Testament; Surely shall one say, in the Lord have I righteousness and strength. Now we know that Christ is every where represented as our righteousness and strength, In the Lord shall the seed of Israel be justified, verse 24, 25, which is spoken most properly of Christ, through whom alone we can be justified. It is therefore the voice of our Immanuel that sounds so delightfully in our text. It is his voice which spoke this goodly universe into being out of its original nothing; which said, Let there be light; and there was light; and dare we disobey his voice by whom all things were created? Col. i. 16. He spoke us into being, and we obeyed; and shall we, when blest with existence, resist his almighty call? It is his voice whom angels obey; Gabriel, and all his flaming ministers, fly at the first hint of his sovereign pleasure. Nay, universal nature hears his awful mandate, and all her laws are observed, or cancelled according to his pleasure. Events natural and supernatural are equally easy to him. And is this the majestic voice which sinners hear sounding in the gospel, and yet disregard? Is this he whom they make so light of, as not to vouchsafe him a look? Amazing presumption! And further, It is his voice which shall pronounce the final sentence upon the assembled universe. He now sits exalted upon a throne of grace, scattering blessings among his subjects, and inviting a dying world to look to him and live; but ere long he will put on majesty and terror, and ascend the throne of judgment. From thence he will speak, and omnipotence will attend his word to execute it. From thence he will pronounce, come, ye blessed, on all that hear his call now; and neither earth nor hell can repeal the joyful sentence. And on those that will not now look to him, he will pronounce, depart from me ; away, away from my blissful presence, ye cursed creatures, never, never to see me̱ more." And though they can now resist the voice of mercy, yet then they must obey the dreadful orders of justice, and shrink confounded from his face, and sink to hell. We, my brethren, must mingle in that vast assembly, and hear our doom from his lips; and can we, in the serious expectation of that day, refuse his call to look to him now? Behold, he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him; and how shall we stand the terror of his face, if we now treat him so contemptuously?— These considerations shew, that the call in my text is the command of authority, and therefore that our neglect of it is disloy

alty and rebellion.-But O! there is a more melting, a more endearing consideration still. It is the voice of our Beloved, it is the gracious invitation of love: it is his voice who heard the cry of our helpless misery; who, though equal with God, and possessed of infinite, independent happiness, emptied himself, and took upon him the form of a servant. He often looked up to heaven with strong cryings and tears in the days of his flesh for us. For us he spoke many a gracious word, still upon record; for us he wrought many a miracle; for us he travelled many a fatiguing journey and endured hunger and thirst, and all the calamities of poverty. For us he was reproached, belied, persecuted; and O! for us he sweat and groaned in Gethsemane ; for us his back was furrowed with scourging, his face defiled with spitting, his head bruised with buffettings, and pierced with thorns. For us he was nailed to the cross; for us be hung in ignominy and torture; for us he shed his blood, he breathed out his life; for us his side was pierced; and for us the Lord of life lay in the dust of death. And O! blessed Jesus! after all this love, after all these sufferings, will not the sons of men afford thee one affectionate believing look, when thou exhibitest thyself in the gospel, crying with a loud and loving voice, "Behold me, behold me; look unto me, and be ye saved?" O Sirs, can you reject the invitation of such a Saviour? are you capable of such horrid ingratitude? He bespeaks your attention with dying groans; his wounds preach from the cross and cry, Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth. There he was lifted up, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness; that whosoever believeth in him, though in the agonies of death, should not perish, but have everlasting life; and can we neglect the invitation of such a Saviour in such circumstances? Shall a guilty world always find something else to look upon, so that they cannot spare a glance to the blessed Jesus? With what pious horror must angels behold such a sight! And may not the earth shudder to support such impious ingratitude!

4. It is Immanuel we are to look to. Look unto me. He that issues the command is the glorious and attractive object we are called to behold. The adorable glories of a God, and the milder beauties of a perfect man, meet in his person. His glories at. tract the admiring gaze of angels, and charm the attention of the happy immortals above. The survey of his perfections is the source of all their bliss, and will furnish all their powers with