MESSIAH:

FIFTY EXPOSITORY DISCOURSES,

ON THE SERIES OF

SCRIPTURAL PASSAGES,

WHICH FORM THE SUBJECT OF THE CELEBRATED

ORATORIO OF HANDEL.

PREACHED IN THE YEARS 1784 AND 1785,

IN THE PARISH CHURCH OF ST. MARY WOOLNOTH, LOMBARD-STREET!

-Ah!

Tantamne rem tam negligenter agere! TER.

Unum pro multis dabitur caput. VIRG.

For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead; and that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.

2 COR. v. 14, 15.

Oh, that they were wise, that they understood this! DEUT. xxxii. 29.

TO THE PARISHIONERS

OF

ST. MARY WOOLNOTH AND ST. MARY WOOLCHURCH HAW,

LONDON,

THESE SERMONS

ON

THE MESSIAH,

ARE AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED BY

THE AUTHOR;

TO REMAIN

AS A TESTIMONY OF HIS RESPECT FOR THEIR PERSONS,

AND

HIS SOLICITUDE FOR THEIR WELFARE,

WHEN HIS PRESENT RELATION TO THEM,

AS THEIR MINISTER,

SHALL BE DISSOLVED.

MESSIAH.

SERMON I.

THE CONSOLATION.

ISAIAH xl. 1, 2.

Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received at the Lord's hand double for all her sins.

THE particulars of the great mystery of godliness, as

enumerated by the apostle Paul, constitute the grand and inexhaustible theme of the Gospel Ministry, "God "manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory*." It is my wish and purpose to know nothing among you but this subject; to preach nothing to you but what has a real connexion with the doctrine of Jesus Christ and him crucified, and with the causes and effects of his obedience unto death, even the death of the cross. But a regard to the satisfaction and advantage of my stated hearers, has often made me desirous of adopting some plan, which might lead me to exhibit the principal outlines of the Saviour's character and mediation in a regular series of discourses; so as to form, if not a picture, at least a