SERMON

XII *.

The fufferings of Chrift compared with thofe which fall out in life to other men, with a suitable improvement of the fubject.

By JOHN OGILVIE, D. D.

LAM. i. 12.

Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? Behold and fee, if there be any forrow like unto my forrow, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.

N the melancholy book of which the text makes a part, we behold one of thofe objets by which the human heart is moft powerfully impreffed; a good man mourning over the ruins of his country; and struck every moment, while he wandered along the ftreets of a defolated city, with fomething that recalled to his memory the idea of its former magnificence, breaking into the language of pathetic complaint. It ought to be obferved, that the prophetic character with which we fuppofe the old and venerable mourner to have

Preached on the Saturday before the celebration of the Lord's fupper.

been.

been invested, inexpreffibly heightens the diftrefs upon the prefent occafion. By placing. before our minds, at the fame time, the affliction of the prophet, and the defolation of the holy city, we find, that each of these objects illuftrates the other; and the heart is ir refiftibly penetrated by the concurrence of two circumstances fo well adapted to awake its fenfibility. On this occafion let us paufe a little, till I have recounted a story which is naturally fuggefted by the present subject, and which is recorded in the history of Ancien✩ Rome.

At the time when thofe civil commotions Began which brought on the decline of the Roman republic, we are told, that one of the: confuls of Rome, who had been fix times invested with the fupreme magiftracy of his country, as the reward of his victories, and distinguished ability; that this great man ha ving been defeated in his old age by a fucceff ful competitor, was driven from Rome; that a price was fet upon his head; and that all per fons were forbidden, under a capital penalty, to afford him fhelter throughout the extent of the Roman empire. The venerable exile,. after having been hunted by his enemies from place to place through the Italian provinces ;; worn out at last with watching, and finking. beneath the united preffure of age and forrow, wandered to the fea-fhore, found a fhip, and prevailed upon the mariners to land him upon the oppofite coaft, which was that

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1. To counerite de principal of thofe . cartes from wich human miery derives its orga; and to how in what manner thefe concurred to render the whole life of the Divice Author of cur religion more unhappy than that of any other man.

2. From the confideration of his last fufferings, as rendering it indisputable, that never was forrow like unto his forrow, we fhall pafs to the advantages which he has procured for his people, and to an application of the fub* ject to the prefent occafion.

I. WHAT then, cipal causes of th fubjected, pronou red writer, know hi

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peared, he grew indifferent with regard to his destiny, and gave himfelf up to defpair. When the meffenger however repeated his commiffion, and afked with impatience what anfwer he should return to his master, the aged general, lifting up his eyes, made him this thort reply only: "Go tell (faid he) "your mafter, that you have feen Caius "Marius fitting on the ruins of Carthage."

Such a fpectacle as this, my brethren, but one incomparably more affecting, does the prefent scene exhibit to your reflection. The peculiar people of God given up, as the punishment of their many rebellions, to the power of their enemies, were now hanging their harps upon the willows of the Euphrates; their country was defpoiled univerfally of its inhabitants; and Jerufalem, like Carthage, having now become the abode of Silence, gave a theme to the fong of the lamenting prophet: " How doth the city fit folitary "that was full of people!"

Thus far we may fuppofe Jeremiah to have been actuated only by the love of his country, and his ideas to have arifen from the fcenes that paffed immediately before him. The exclamation of the text, however, which is much more particular, cannot be fuppofed to regard this circumftance only. It is therefore fuppofed to have been uttered in confequence of his prefcience of future events. would feem, that at this inftant he compared. the prefent ruin of the holy city with that

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of Africa. Not far from the place at which Marius (for that was the name of this perfonage) touched the fhore, had stood, not many years before, the celebrated city of Carthage, the rival of Rome for many ages, which had obftinately maintained the struggle with her for dominion, and had not yielded until fhe had brought this laft to the brink of deftruction. Now, however, a place fo lately the feat of empire, exhibited only a fcene of defolation; and the yet recent ruins of its palaces, that had refounded to the voice of feftivity, recalled the idea of what it once had been. The Hero, deeming these facred remains a kind of temporary afylum, fat down in melancholy contemplation among the ruins; indulging moft probably fuch thoughts as the objects around him muft naturally have poured upon his mind. He remained not however undisturbed even in this retreat. The news of his arrival foon reached the governor of the province; who, embarraffed as he was betwixt the commands of the fenate, and his reluctance, in the prefent inftance, to carry thefe into execution, endeavoured to purfue a middle courfe; and fent private orders to Marius, to leave, without delay, the place where he was, and the province itfelf where he prefided, as he would not forfeit his life. The old warrior heard this meffage, and remained fome time without making any reply. Probably buried in thought, and overcome by a fucceffion of calamities to which no end ap peared,