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SERMONS.

SERMON I.

EMMANUEL, GOD WITH US.

MATT. i. 23. Behold a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son; and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.

THIS is the first prophecy recorded in the New Testament, among those which went before concerning Jesus, and declared to be fulfilled at his birth. It is taken from the prophet Isaiah, and, as it stands there, is a remarkable instance of the manner in which the great promise of salvation by the Redeemer is made the sign and pledge of deliverance from worldly enemies. The history of the ancient people of God being at once a record of His continual interposition in directing their affairs, and a representation of His dealing with the Church in the latter days, it becomes often difficult to say whether the word spoken has reference in the first instance to the one or the other: whether it be a gracious promise of present deliverance, therein shadowing out a

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future spiritual blessing; or a foretelling of mercies under the Gospel covenant, giving assurance of favour and protection from worldly enemies. The latter of these is to be seen in the

passage before us. The wicked king Ahaz, being hard pressed by the confederate powers of Israel and Syria, had been guilty of the greatest abominations, sacrificing, and burning incense in the high places, and even making his children to pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the heathen. "Wherefore the Lord his God delivered him into the hand of the king of Syria, who smote his people, and carried away a great multitude of them captive; and he was also delivered into the hand of the king of Israel, who smote him with a very great slaughter; slaying an hundred and twenty thousand in one day, and carrying away captive two hundred thousand women, sons and daughters, and much spoil." And" again the Edomites came and smote Judah, and the Philistines took their cities and dwelled in them." And the king of Assyria, from whom they sought for help, "came and distressed him, but strengthened him not." And in the time of his distress he transgressed yet more against the Lord, and sacrificed unto the gods of Damascus, which smote him, and cut in pieces the vessels of the house of God, and shut up the doors of the

house of the Lord: so that the sacred historian says, "This is that king Ahaz," pointing at him with the finger of scorn, or marking him as a well-known abettor of idolatry and crime. So "the Lord brought Judah low, because of Ahaz king of Israel, for he made Judah naked, and transgressed sore against the Lord." *

At such a time of distress, and to a prince who had so entirely forsaken God, was the promise in the text made by a special message from Jehovah, for assurance of deliverance from the enemies who had invaded the land. "The Lord himself shall give you a sign, Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Emmanuel." God would teach his people, when sunk very low in vice and misery, to look to Him for deliverance from worldly distress; He being bound, by his everlasting purpose and covenant, to save them from the enemies of their souls, to give them everlasting salvation. It was a beam of the Sun of righteousness, shining upon the dark places of the earth. And being, when delivered by the prophet, a sign of the patience and long-suffering of God, and of his readiness to succour those who were "fast bound in misery and iron," even though they had cast him off; so, being recorded for the instruction of * 2 Kings, xvi.; 2 Chron. xxviii.

his people in every age, it gives a sure token and pledge of his extending grace to them that sit in darkness and the shadow of death; of "being found of them that sought him not, and manifested to them that asked not after him;" "all day long stretching forth his hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people."

We will not dwell longer upon the sign, or the person to whom it was given, except to say, that as this prophecy is one of the most important in Scripture, it will be time well bestowed to read attentively the history of king Ahaz in the books of Kings and of Chronicles, together with these chapters of Isaiah; bearing in mind what has been just now said, that it pleased the Holy Spirit to point to the great and ancient promise of salvation by God, for an assurance of his unceasing care and love.

We will now turn to a consideration of the text, and our own part in the promise there made.

"Behold:"God himself points out a strange sight, or two in one; the virgin conceiving, and the divine nature of the Son that shall be born of her. It is remarkable that, in the original, both of Isaiah and of St. Matthew, the expression is properly and necessarily, "The Virgin ;" which must probably refer to an expectation originating

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