ON THE DOCTRINE OP ATONEMENT IN RELATION TO THE DEATH OF CHRIST.

If the view above taken of the immediate cause of the death of Christ is correct, it ought to be in perfect harmony with all the representations made on the subject in Scripture, whether in the form of types, prophecies, narratives, symbols, doctrines, or precepts. To show that this is really the case, and that it not only agrees with all the inspired statements, but also affords them new and valuable illustration, thereby acquiring, if that were necessary, additional evidence for itself, is the object of the remaining part of this treatise.

Had it pleased God to proclaim atonement by the blood of Christ as a matter of simple revelation, it would have been the duty of mankind to accept the testimony without further inquiry. Since, however, he has chosen that it shall be not only declared as a doctrine, but also demonstrated as a fact, it becomes at once their duty and their privilege to examine with devout attention the evidence whereby he proves that he pardons sin without clearing the guilty, and — "is just even in justifying him that believeth in Jesus."¹ — That sinful beings could not be thus justified by an arbitrary act of grace, but only through the medium of an atonement, that is, by a competent victim suffering in their stead the penalty due to their sins, is the dictate both of reason and of revelation. The laws of God, like the divine essence itself, are immutable, and constantly in action. Their claims are imperative and inviolable. To pardon transgression without demanding compensation would render the judge an accomplice with the criminal; and in no other way can the bolt of vengeance be averted from the head of the guilty, than by falling on that of a suitable substitute. Yet, it may naturally be asked, How can these things be? The penalty due to sin is nothing less than the divine malediction. Was it either just or possible that this malediction should fall on the beloved Son of God, in whom the Father was ever well pleased, and never more so than when he was thus achieving by his death the salvation of mankind? To elucidate in some degree this point, without pretending to fathom all the depths of a subject which in its full comprehension exceeds the capacity of the human mind, it may be observed that the primitive character both of sin and of its punishment is negative. In violating moral principle the sinner abandons God, and, by a necessary reaction, God, who is as it were moral principle personified, abandons him; not indeed totally, for that would be annihilation, but to the precise extent prescribed by consummate equity and wisdom. His outward support he withdraws in part, the enjoyment of his friendship and the sanctifying influence of his Spirit he withdraws entirely; but still retains the prerogative of providing an atonement in harmony with all his attributes, and of thereby restoring the sinner, otherwise without hope and without God in the world, to grace and succour, and consequently to rectitude and happiness. The misery inseparable from sin depends primarily on loss of the divine favour and protection, and not on any positive infliction from that adorable Being whose work is perfect, whose nature is love, and who cannot be directly the author of evil, either physical or moral. It depends more immediately on bereavement of the conditions necessary to happiness; on disorder internal and external, producing anguish, disease, and death; and on exposure to the assaults of other depraved beings, more especially, Satan and his angels. In sustaining the divine malediction, the impenitent sinner is distressed by those evils only which are its remote result. In reference to God, his desperate enmity prompts him to say, — "Depart from me, for I desire not the knowledge of thy ways;" — but, could such an infliction befall a pure and perfect human being, his language would be, — "Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thy Holy Spirit from me."² — As such a being could not however thus suffer on his own account, but only as the substitute of others, it will here be proper to inquire what are the conditions requisite to constitute an atoning victim, capable of propitiating divine justice, and of making reconciliation for transgressors.

The Scriptures, which in such an inquiry must be our principal guide, represent the atonement as having regard not only to the intrinsic nature of God, but also to his relative character, as the moral governor of the universe. Hence it was necessary that it should be both adequate and exemplary, for an insufficient and clandestine transaction, under the name of an atonement, would have been rather an insult than a satisfaction. In a work planned and executed by the Deity, it might be expected that the three sacred persons would perform their respective and appropriate offices; and they are accordingly found harmoniously co-operating in every step of the process. To constitute a suitable mediator between God and man, it was requisite that the two natures should be intimately associated, and that the human nature thus adopted, although derived from a fallen race, should be pure and perfect. Hence the necessity for that special interposition of the Holy Spirit in the conception of Christ, which is so plainly described in Luke's gospel. By means of this mysterious union, the sufferings and death which the human nature alone could sustain, were invested with that transcendent dignity and value which the divine nature alone could impart.³ To render an atonement for human guilt, it was necessary that the victim thus provided should endure the penalty incurred, namely, the divine malediction, which in such a case could assume no other outward form than that of a public execution, wherein all parties concerned should in some measure concur in acknowledging the innocence of Christ, and at the same time in subjecting him to a cruel and ignominious death, such as that of crucifixion. It was further necessary to show that he died not merely as a martyr, but as a victim. For this purpose the ordinary sufferings of the cross would not have been sufficient, but those which he actually endured were conclusive, by exhibiting the awful spectacle of an innocent human being dying of grief under the divine malediction. The discharge of such an office was an act which, although requiring the sanction of the Deity, could not even by the Deity be commanded, but must have been purely voluntary; implying a virtual compact between the parties, securing to the meritorious sufferer a commensurate reward, namely, the salvation of all who should embrace the atonement which he thus accomplished. The well-known statement of prophecy is, — "It pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief. When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities."⁴ — To such a being the divine malediction must have been productive of the severest mental anguish; and, although from a regard to the object in view this infliction would be sustained with the most dutiful submission, yet in reference to his own personal feelings it must have been endured with the greatest horror and repugnance. This conflict of opposite motives, far from indicating, as some have imagined, any defect of character or of cordiality, implied on the contrary the highest moral excellence; since the strong aversion of Christ to incur the malediction, and his still stronger resolution to bear it with all its consequences, were alike expressive of the most exalted piety and benevolence. With the utmost reluctance to lose his habitual enjoyment of the divine communion, he nevertheless submitted to abandonment in compliance with the gracious purposes of God towards mankind, which could no otherwise have been fulfilled. The natural effect of such a struggle on the body of Christ must have been, not a simple extinction of vitality, as might have happened from mere sorrow or consternation, but violent excitement and excessive palpitation, occasioning in the first degree bloody sweat, and in the second sudden death from rupture of the heart.⁵ That the Saviour's death was actually thus induced, has already it is presumed been demonstrated; it now appears that such a mode of death was not only in full accordance with the principle of atonement, but also its necessary expression and result; and it will next be shown, rather more distinctly than before, that the agony which ruptured the heart of Christ was really occasioned by his pious endurance of the divine malediction due to human depravity.

To render this atonement complete and effectual, it was indispensable that it should be both real and public; in other words, that the malediction should be borne truly, in order to satisfy the claims of divine justice, and conspicuously, in order to produce on the human race, and perhaps also on other classes of intelligent beings, a salutary and indelible impression. In accomplishing this design, notwithstanding difficulties seemingly almost insuperable, the wisdom, power, and goodness of the Deity were strikingly displayed. — "This thing "— said the apostle Paul, — "was not done in a corner." — On the contrary, nothing was omitted which could attract attention to the crucifixion of Christ, and mark it as an event unparalleled in the history of the world. The place, the time, the season, the agents, the circumstances, were all admirably adapted to the purpose. The place was Jerusalem, then in the perfection of its strength and beauty, the centre of revealed religion, the city of the living God, and the only spot on earth where sacrifice could be lawfully offered; — the time, the latter period of the Mosaic dispensation, shortly about to be superseded by the new and better covenant, a period long before predicted, when Judah, deprived of his sceptre, had become tributary to the Roman empire, then in the zenith of its power;⁶ the season, the passover, that solemn festival, typical of human redemption, to which millions of worshippers from all quarters of the world zealously resorted; — the principal agents, the Israelitish nation, once the favoured people of God, but now in a low and degenerate state, and evidently labouring under his displeasure; seconded in their hostility to Christ by their Roman masters, but headed by their own civil and ecclesiastical rulers, who throughout the whole transaction took a prominent and official part; — the circumstances, the crucifixion of a holv and mysterious person charged with the most atrocious crimes, but whom all parties virtually acquitted, and who died on the cross suddenly and prematurely, after first complaining of abandonment by the Deity, and finally claiming his acceptance. To render this extraordinary person an object of universal attention, divine providence employed all possible and suitable means. After a long succession of types, prophecies, and other preparatory measures, he appeared in the world as the heir of David, and of the throne of Israel. His birth, which occurred in a supernatural manner at Bethlehem, the city of David, had been announced by a star or meteor; his claim to be the Messiah had been recognised by the usurper Herod, who commanded an indiscriminate massacre of all the male children in Bethlehem below a certain age, in the vain hope of destroying amongst their number the new born king of the Jews.⁷ After passing thirty years in humble and laborious privacy, Christ at length shone forth as a sacred person, introduced by John the Baptist, the greatest of preceding prophets, raised up for the express purpose of proclaiming his title, and preparing his way. During his own ministry of three years in the capital and provinces of Palestine, he exercised the prophetical office with equal dignity and meekness, speaking as never man spake, and doing works which no other man ever did, teaching the sublimest truths of morality and religion with original authority, and confirming them by numerous and splendid miracles of beneficence. So unexampled a display of goodness and power excited the admiration, if it did not win the affections of the people of Israel, and his name was celebrated not only throughout his native land, but also in the neighbouring countries, whence many — "came to hear him, and to be healed of their diseases." — Far from courting retirement, he showed himself freely to the world, delivered discourses and performed miracles — "in synagogues, and in the temple, where all the Jews assembled,"⁸ — addressed vast multitudes in the open air, disputed publicly with the scribes, Pharisees, and priests, and became still more conspicuous by the very opposition which they raised against him, as well as by the marvellous wisdom with which, until his hour was come, he defeated all their efforts to subvert or destroy him. As that hour approached, his celebrity rapidly increased, and attained its highest development within a few days of his death on the cross, whereby, as before stated, the necessary conditions of atonement, namely, a real and public endurance of the divine malediction, were fulfilled.

The malediction borne by Christ consisted, as has been suggested, in a partial loss of God's protection, and a temporary loss of his communion, voluntarily sustained by an innocent human being, as the just retribution of human guilt. Up to this time he had constantly enjoyed both those blessings, but now began to be deprived of them, and consequently to be abandoned to the power of his malignant enemies, the chief of whom, it is lamentable to reflect, were the Jewish hierarchy. Enjoying the highest religious privileges, these priests ought to have been the most pious and virtuous of mankind; but their extensive degeneracy, and more especially their inveterate hatred to Christ and the gospel, practically demonstrated the desperate nature of human depravity; whilst this very character, in conjunction with their sacred office, peculiarly qualified them to take a principal, although an unconscious part in accomplishing the atoning sacrifice, which on account of that depravity he was about to render.⁹ Had they declared in his favour, the intended sacrifice could not have been properly effected, and it might with some plausibility have been alleged that it was not necessary; since mankind were not so completely fallen as had been supposed, and did not therefore stand in need of so costly and transcendent a remedy for their restoration. The Jewish hierarchy were, moreover, the only earthly tribunal competent to try the cause now at issue, namely, whether Jesus of Nazareth was, or was not the predicted Messiah; and, if he were condemned, to pronounce against him the divine malediction, as a false pretender to so sublime and sacred a character. The result proved that with all their superior religious advantages, with the Scriptures in their hands, and with a perfect knowledge of the facts concerned, they were destitute of true piety, alienated from the life of God, and bitterly opposed to his plan of salvation. Slaves to their passions, and idolaters of wealth and power, they despised the claims of a lowly and suffering Messiah, and openly declared that they would not have such a man to reign over them. Abhorring the gospel, which they soon perceived tended to the overthrow of their own temporary institution, they were anxious to crush at one blow both the person of Jesus, and his cause; and therefore resolved that his death should be the result of a judicial sentence from the Sanhedrim, the supreme council of the nation, condemning him as a blasphemer and an impostor. In the execution of this project, they had however great difficulties to encounter. Deprived by their political condition of the authority to inflict capital punishment, they had no other means of obtaining the fulfilment of their sentence than, either by soliciting the consent of the Roman procurator, or, as in the case of Stephen the first martyr, by instigating the people to an act of lawless and sanguinary violence.¹⁰ The former of these expedients was humiliating, the latter was dangerous, and both were uncertain. During the preceding visit of Jesus to Jerusalem, about three months before, the people were indeed so far influenced by their rulers, that they twice attempted to stone him in the very courts of the temple; and nothing less than an exertion of supernatural power, and a speedy retreat from the capital, was sufficient to preserve his life. So confident, in consequence, were the Sanhedrim of their success on the next occasion, that they issued an edict for his apprehension whenever he should again appear in the city.¹¹ But in this expectation they were completely disappointed; for, by seasonably interposing the miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead, a miracle which Christ himself stated was performed to promote his own glory, the tide of popularity was entirely turned in his favour; and, instead of being seized and arraigned as a criminal, he entered Jerusalem a few days before the passover in peaceful triumph, amidst the plaudits of his disciples, and the acclamations of the multitude, who hailed him with hosannas as the son of David, and the king of Israel. Instead of hiding himself in obscurity, he boldly encountered his powerful enemies on their own ground, in the courts and porticos of the temple, where he freely exposed their ignorance, reproved their vices, baffled all their attempts either to take him by force, or to lower him in public estimation, and displayed the true dignity and authority of a prophet, by healing the sick, instructing the people, and for the second time expelling the traders in victims from the sacred precincts. No better means could have been devised to raise the celebrity of Christ, to attract attention to his person, and to render him an object of universal interest and admiration. Accordingly, on his arrival — "the whole city was moved, saying, Who is this? The multitudes replied. This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee." — Early every morning they thronged to the temple to hear his discourses, and seemed to hang on his words. Even Greek proselytes, who had come up to worship at the festival, expressed a desire to see him; and the two disciples, travelling to Emmaus on the day of his resurrection, thought it incredible that there should be a single stranger in Jerusalem, who had not heard of — "the prophet mighty in word and deed, before God and all the people."— The Sanhedrim were now sorely perplexed. They had a little before asked themselves the question,— "What are we doing? for this man worketh many miracles. If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our place and nation." — They observed with dismay that this prediction seemed to be on the point of fulfilment, and with undissembled vexation said to each other, — "Do ye see that your efforts are un" availing? Behold! the [whole] world is gone after him."¹² — Fully aware of the evils of delay, they still more apprehended the perils of precipitation. They were sensible that the cause of Christ must rapidly advance, if they suffered the passover to terminate without carrying into effect their loudly-proclaimed threatenings against him, and permitted the great body of Israelites, assembled at Jerusalem from all parts of the world, to return to their homes with the intelligence of his triumph, and of their defeat; yet on the other hand they feared that, in the actual state of affairs, any attempt to seize him publicly and bring him to trial, might provoke resistance and insurrection. Only two days before the passover they consequently held a special council, and came to the resolution that it was expedient to postpone the execution of their design to a more convenient season. They said — "Not during the festival, lest there be a tumult amongst the people."¹³ — Of the danger to be dreaded from such tumults they were sufficiently apprized. From an estimate taken by the chief priests at the request of Cestius Gallus during the reign of Nero, it appears that the number of persons of both sexes who celebrated the passover was at one particular time nearly three millions. Supposing only half that number to have been males, the presence in Jerusalem of more than a million of zealous Israelites, conscious of their own strength, and animated by civil and religious enthusiasm, furnished a sufficient ground of anxiety and apprehension both to the Jewish and the Roman governors; and it was but a few years before that, on occasions like the present, the most appalling scenes of bloodshed and devastation had been witnessed. At the commencement of the reign of Archelaus a sedition broke out during the passover, and was not suppressed until three thousand of the people had been slain by the royal troops, many of whom likewise were stoned in the first assault. Soon afterwards, owing to the avarice and audacity of Sabinus, a procurator of Augustus, another sedition arose during the pentecost, wherein a great number both of Jews and Romans perished, and a considerable portion of the outer colonnades of the temple was destroyed by fire.¹⁴ Whatever might be the result of a popular insurrection at the moment, the more prudent and intelligent amongst the Jews were well persuaded that the Roman domination must ultimately be promoted by such outrages, and were therefore more disposed to pursue a pacific and temporizing policy, than to provoke the exertion of a hostile force which they felt themselves unable permanently to resist. In pursuance of this policy, the chief priests and the other members of the Sanhedrim determined to postpone their designs against the life of Jesus; but a higher power, which looked down with supreme contempt on all their projects, had otherwise ordained.

It is one of the peculiar prerogatives of the Deity, by an administration of inscrutable wisdom, to render the motives and actions of depraved beings subservient to his own purposes, without in the slightest degree restricting their freedom, diminishing their responsibility, or participating in their crimes. The evil passions and culpable delusions of the Jewish hierarchy were thus overruled, in a manner which they neither intended nor understood, to accomplish the great atoning sacrifice which God had announced from the beginning, and by which their typical and temporary priesthood was shortly to be abolished. The Scripture had long before declared of them, and of their Gentile allies, — "He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh, the Lord shall have them in derision." — It was through such a secret, yet effective interposition of providence that, at the very moment when they were on the point of abandoning their prosecution of Christ, Judas Iscariot was thrown in their way.¹⁵ Without stopping to analyze the character or circumstances of this wretched apostate, whose treachery had been predicted more than a thousand years before, it is obvious that, with the opportunities and facilities which as one of the apostles and companions of Jesus he enjoyed, it was completely in his power, under divine permission, to fulfil the promise which he now made them, to deliver him into their hands without tumult, and in the absence of the multitude. Overjoyed at so gratifying and unexpected a proposal, of which they at once perceived the practicability and advantage, the Sanhedrim instantly reversed their previous decision, and closed with the offer; but, doubting perhaps whether Judas would really accomplish so infamous an undertaking, they at first agreed to give him no higher a reward than thirty shekels, the price of a slave, until by his fidelity and success he should have proved himself worthy of their further patronage and liberality.

They now saw their way clear, and their plan of operation was soon fixed. Having been foiled in all their attempts to excite the people against Christ, they determined to convert his popularity into a crime, and to denounce him to Pontius Pilate as a dangerous demagogue, whom it was expedient to arrest without delay, in order to prevent a general insurrection of the nation against the Roman government, to which at this juncture they affected to be warmly attached. Although such an application is not described by the evangelists, it is evidently implied, since without the consent of the governor the aid of the garrison could not have been obtained. Were Jesus once a prisoner in their hands, and branded with their official censure, the Jewish rulers easily foresaw that the multitude, disappointed in their expectations of him as a temporal Messiah, would speedily exchange their admiration for abhorrence, and zealously join with themselves in demanding his crucifixion as an impostor. The great point was to make themselves quietly masters of his person, and the means of doing this seemed to be now within their reach. To prevent suspicion, and avoid unnecessary danger, Jesus was in the habit of retiring from Jerusalem every evening, and of passing the night either at Bethany, or on some part of the Mount of Olives. Without the assistance of a partizan, his enemies found it difficult to discover his place of retreat. They were also uncertain what auxiliaries he might have at command, and fearful of provoking public indignation by openly pursuing him with a civil or military force. Besides which, to whatever source they might choose to ascribe his miraculous powers, they were firmly convinced of their reality, and apprehensive that by their means he might, as on former occasions, escape from their view, and elude their pursuit. But they had now, as they supposed, an unexpected opportunity of surmounting all these difficulties at once. By the help of a disciple who had voluntarily abandoned his master's cause, they calculated that they should be able to surprise him in his retirement at a short distance from Jerusalem, a little before midnight, during the approaching paschal festival, when the whole Jewish people would either be engaged in that solemnity, or retired to rest. All this they probably represented to Pilate, with a view to prejudice his judgment, and gain his concurrence, at the same time requesting that, in order to be provided against every chance of resistance, he would on this occasion grant them the aid of the Roman cohort. Such at least was their mode of proceeding on the following day, when they were anxious that the tomb containing the body of Christ should be effectually secured.¹⁶ From the conduct of Pilate throughout the whole affair, it may be inferred that he regarded Jesus as a harmless and benevolent enthusiast, whose popularity excited the envy of the Jewish priests, but was not of a nature to occasion the slightest alarm to himself. But although, such might he his private opinion on the subject, he could not with propriety refuse the application of so dignified a body as the Sanhedrim, more especially when they merely urged him to sanction a precautionary measure, the neglect of which might have been dangerous, whilst its execution would, as he imagined, be free from inconvenience, and leave him at perfect liberty to dispose of the case afterwards as he might think proper. He therefore gave the necessary orders, and at the appointed hour of the night the assembled force, guided by the traitor Judas, and furnished with lanterns and torches, apparently on account of the darkness caused by the lunar eclipse then in progress, silently issued from Jerusalem for the purpose of seizing Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane.

Of the number and strength of this force it is probable that, owing to the brevity and simplicity of the evangelical narrative, few persons have an adequate notion. From that narrative it may however be collected that it was extremely numerous, and consisted of a Jewish and a Gentile party. The Jewish party, chiefly described by Luke, comprised a large body of the officers attendant on the Sanhedrim, supported by several members of the supreme council itself, as well as by some of the leaders of the temple guard, and followed by many of their servants or slaves.¹⁷ The Gentile party which, although intimated by the other evangelists, is expressly named by John only, was the Roman cohort, under the orders of its prefect, or commander. These were armed with swords, and if they were merely an ordinary legionary cohort, their number must have been from four to six hundred; but if, as has been suggested by Biscoe and others, an independent body, they amounted to a thousand men. It is by no means unlikely that some of the guards of Herod Antipas, the tetrarch of Galilee, who had come up to Jerusalem to keep the passover, and took a conspicuous part in the proceedings of the following day, were likewise added, with a view to obviate any difficulty which might have arisen from the circumstance of Jesus being a subject of that government, and more especially to suppress any resistance which might have been apprehended from his Galilean followers.¹⁸ Well therefore might the apostles, when they afterwards reflected on this marvellous transaction, thus acknowledge in their prayer to God its minute and accurate fulfilment of ancient prophecy: — "Lord! thou art God, who madest heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that is in them; who by the mouth of thy servant David saidst, — 'Why did the Gentiles rage, and the people project vain things? The kings of the earth came forth, and the rulers were assembled in a common purpose against the Lord, and against his Christ.' — For in truth against thy holy Son Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were assembled in this city, to accomplish the things which thy hand and thy counsel had fore-appointed to take place." — The final sufferings of Christ, which terminated the next day in his death on the cross, had now commenced. For the first time in his life the protection of Providence was withdrawn from him. The scriptural promise which had always hitherto been realized, — "He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways," &c., — no longer applied to him; for he was delivered into the hands of his enemies, including not only evil men, but evil spirits, as appears from his previous intimation, — "The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me;" — and from his remark to the chief priests, elders, &c., who came forth to seize him, — "This is your hour, and the power of darkness."¹⁹

The explanation of this change is easy and obvious. His public ministry had now closed, and he was about to offer the atoning sacrifice which had been so long predicted, and of which the essential conditions were, that a pure and perfect human being should, by his own free will and consent, suffer the divine malediction due to the sins of mankind. It is a most remarkable circumstance, that the innocence of Christ was attested by the same parties who were concerned in his death. The Deity had more than once proclaimed by a voice from heaven, — "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." — Satan liad often acknowledged by the mouth of demoniacs, — "I know who thou art, the holy one of God;" — His wretched agent, Judas Iscariot, had scarcely completed the treachery which he had been bribed to commit, when he was overwhelmed with remorse and despair; and having thrown back to the priests in the temple the thirty shekels, with the spontaneous confession, — "I have sinned by betraying innocent blood," — went away, and hanged himself; — Pontius Pilate, although a cruel and unprincipled man, was by his conversation with Christ impressed with such a respect for his character, that he repeatedly declared him to be guiltless, earnestly pleaded his cause, made strong efforts for his release, and did not pronounce sentence against him till his own life seemed to be endangered by his refusal. Then, in the presence of the assembled people he took water, according to the custom of the Jews and other eastern nations, and washed his hands, saying — "I am innocent of the blood of this righteous man: See ye to it." — Herod Antipas, in whose dominions Jesus had passed the greater part of his life, ridiculed his claim to a kingdom which was not of this world, but tacitly agreed with Pilate in acquitting him of all blame.²⁰ — The penitent malefactor crucified with him confessed his own delinquencies, and those of his accomplice, but affirmed of Jesus with out contradiction, — "This man never did anything amiss." — The centurion who attended at the crucifixion, struck with astonishment on beholding the manner of his death, and the prodigies by which it was accompanied, exclaimed — "Certainly this man was a son of God;" — and even the multitude, who had recently clamoured for his destruction, were seized with compunction, and retired from the scene smiting their breasts.²¹

Lastly, his inveterate enemies the Jewish hierarchy, bore unintentionally a similar testimony. Had they been well disposed, all of them would at once have adopted the language of Nicodemus, one of their number; — "Rabbi! we know that thou art a teacher come from God, for no one can do these miracles which thou doest unless God be with him;" — and, in fact, but a few days before his death, they publicly addressed him in language nearly equivalent, — "Rabbi! we know that thou speakest and teachest rightly, and dost not accept persons, but teachest the way of God truly." — Nevertheless, so bitterly opposed were they to this way of God which they affected to approve, that on his raising Lazarus from the dead, and thereby gaining many proselytes, they held a council; and at the suggestion of Caiaphas their president, resolved that, for the safety of the nation, it was expedient as soon as possible to put Jesus to death. To term such an act expedient, was in effect to acknowledge it to be unjust. By the evangelist John, who alone records the transaction, it is intimated that, however unworthy of such an honour, Caiaphas, as high-priest, spoke on this occasion under a divine impulse, when he predicted that Christ would die for the Israelitish people; — "and not for that people only," — adds the evangelist,— "but also that he might gather together in one [body] the children of God who were scattered abroad." — On their own admission, the death of Christ was therefore regarded by the Jewish hierarchy as a public sacrifice, and they unintentionally proceeded to accomplish it in a manner exactly corresponding to this view. Before offering any victim at the altar, it was their duty as priests carefully to examine it, in order to ascertain that it was pure and perfect. Thus, during the last few days of the life of Jesus, they subjected him to every possible trial; being indeed provoked to do their worst by his severe, yet merited denunciations against themselves; but with all their efforts, were unable to detect in him the slightest fault. When at length he was delivered into their hands, and placed at their bar, they could not, even with the aid of false witnesses, convict him of any offence; and to effect their purpose had no other resource than, by a previous and arbitrary compact among themselves, to pronounce him guilty of blasphemy, and deserving of death, merely for declaring himself to be the Christ; although by an overwhelming display of miraculous and other evidence, which they could neither refute nor deny, he had fully established his claim to that character.²² By so doing, they virtually proclaimed what was actually the case; namely, that he was an innocent victim, who for the benefit of others was unjustly treated as a malefactor, and devoted to a cruel and ignominious death. They at the same time exhibited in their own persons the desperate nature of human depravity, the insufficiency of all the means hitherto employed for its correction, and the consequent necessity of that atoning sacrifice which they were now unconsciously labouring to fulfil.

It was requisite however to show that, on the part of Christ, this sacrifice was spontaneous and intentional; and that, although abandoned for a while to the power of his enemies, he was neither surprised by fraud, nor subdued by force, but voluntarily submitted to a violent death, which, had he been disposed, he might at any moment have declined. In proof of this, he publicly declared at Jerusalem a few months before, — "Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life to take it again. No one taketh it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and authority to take it again. This commandment I have received from my Father."²³ — He had also repeatedly predicted to his disciples all the particulars of his capture, crucifixion, death, and resurrection; and, by his recent institution of the Lord's Supper, distinctly apprized them that he was about to offer himself as an atoning sacrifice for the sins of mankind, and to ratify by his blood a new covenant of reconciliation with God, whereof that sacrifice was to be the basis. Having soon afterwards intimated to Judas Iscariot that he was aware of his intended treachery, he dismissed him from the table, with an injunction to execute speedily what he had undertaken. But a more complete and public proof of his self-dedication was given a little later at Gethsemane, where he had scarcely recovered from his deadly agony, and resumed his usual energy and composure, when the formidable band above described, conducted by Judas, came forth to apprehend him. To prevent, as they supposed, any mistake or disappointment, they halted at the entrance of the garden, whilst their infamous guide went forwards, and executed the preconcerted signal by which, amidst the darkness and confusion of the night, the person of Christ was to be made known to his pursuers. But in this case artifice and violence were alike superfluous; for Jesus, as is stated by the evangelist John, — "knowing all that was about to befall him,"— was fully prepared to surrender himself into their hands. To the salutation of his treacherous disciple he therefore calmly replied, — "Companion! for what purpose art thou come? Judas! dost thou betray the Son of Man by a kiss?" — Then advancing with consummate dignity towards the armed band, who stood waiting for his appearance, he asked them whom they sought; and on their answering — "Jesus of Nazareth,"' — replied — "I am he." — These few and simple words were accompanied with a supernatural influence which, like a shock of earthquake, prostrated the whole adverse party to the ground, whence, but for the permission of him whom they regarded as their victim, they would never again have risen.²⁴ As however he came into the world, not to destroy men's lives but to save them, they were merely admonished, not injured by a miraculous interposition, which in extent and moral value exceeded that displayed by the prophet Elijah who, on a somewhat similar occasion, had called down fire from heaven against his assailants. Elated by this achievement, and imagining that nothing more was requisite for his master's deliverance from his adversaries than a suitable exhibition of zeal and courage on the part of his friends, the apostle Peter, ever foremost both in word and deed, drew his sword, and wounded one of the hostile band, who happened to be a slave of the high-priest. Far from rendering any service, this rash and unwarrantable act seriously endangered his own life, as well as the cause which he meant to sustain; but, by a wise and energetic interference, Christ at once protected his disciple, and vindicated his own character. He severely reproved the offence, healed the wounded slave, disclaimed all recourse to violence, and stated that his surrender to the constituted authorities was voluntary and predetermined. Remonstrating with Peter without naming him, he asked, — "The cup which the Father hath given me, shall I not drink it? Thinkest thou that I cannot even now request my Father, and he would send to my aid more than twelve legions of angels? [but] how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled, [which declare] that thus it must be?"²⁵ — Then turning towards his Jewish opponents, he strongly exposed their injustice in attacking him by night with a military force, designed to intimate that he was the chief of a political faction; whereas, had there been any real ground for apprehending him, he was during several preceding days completely in their power, whilst preaching the gospel in the courts and porticos of the temple. By this touching and unanswerable appeal, he drew the attention of all the Jews present to the accomplishment of the ancient prophecy concerning him, which announced that, although he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth, he was ranked with transgressors.²⁶ Having thus demonstrated that he was an innocent and willing victim, led as a lamb to the slaughter, and about to lay down his life, the just for the unjust, to fulfil the divine purpose, he resigned himself into the hands of his obdurate enemies, whilst his terrified apostles, concluding that all was lost, forsook him and fled.

After a long and anxious struggle, the Sanhedrim seemed at length to have gained a triumph over Christ, by which they were enabled on the following day to bring him to an ignominious death, tending, as far as human influence could avail, to brand with perpetual infamy both his character and his cause. For, although his death was executed by Gentiles, who were then the political masters of Judea, it was virtually the act of the Israelitish people, headed by their civil and ecclesiastical rulers. The consent of Pilate, necessary for the attainment of their wishes, was so manifestly extorted from him by importunity and intimidation, that he loudly protested against the injustice of the sentence which he was in a measure compelled to pronounce. Abandoned to the malice of his enemies, Christ was now subjected to every kind of cruelty and outrage. By the multitude, who had previously favoured him, in the hope that he would shortly appear as their temporal sovereign and deliverer, he was pursued with a savage animosity, expressive of their bitter disappointment and mortification. By the Jewish hierarchy, the highest religious authority on earth, he was condemned for blasphemy; by the Roman government, the highest temporal authority, for sedition. Excommunicated by the one, degraded by the other, and rejected by all, he was mocked, and buffeted, and scourged, and finally led forth, laden with the cross, to suffer without the walls of Jerusalem the death of a miscreant and a slave. Stripped as a criminal, and crowned with thorns as an impostor, he was crucified between two malefactors, in the room of their leader Barabbas who, although guilty of sedition and murder, was by the special request of the Jewish people rescued from deserved punishment, in order that Jesus, the model of every virtue, might be numbered with transgressors.²⁷ Nor was the malignity of his adversaries yet satisfied. Whilst he hung on the cross, a spectacle to men and angels, and an object, it might have been supposed, of commiseration even to the most hostile of his persecutors, they barbarously continued to revile and insult him. Approaching in quick succession, Jews and Gentiles, priests and soldiers, rulers and populace, down to the hardened criminal crucified by his side, vied with each other in deriding his pretensions, and exulting in his disgrace. Forgetful of their rank and station, many even of the chief-priests, scribes, and elders, joined with the multitude in swelling the note of execration. Whilst thus unwittingly fulfilling the prophecies of Scripture by rejecting their own Messiah, and avowing themselves in their official character the principal authors of his death, they proved how incapable they were of contriving or conceiving the sublime plan of human redemption; and, although esteemed the holiest of mankind, how absolutely, and even more than others, they stood in need of its succour. Not less blind, however, than depraved, they remarked with peculiar satisfaction that Christ was now evidently abandoned by God, of whom he had proclaimed himself the beloved and only -begotten Son, and triumphantly appealed to the divine rejection of him, as justifying and confirming their own. — "He saved others, [but] cannot save himself. If he is the Christ, the chosen of God, the king of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, that we may see and believe. He trusted in God, let [God] now deliver him, if he will have him, for he said, I am the Son of God."²⁸

But, their inference was as fallacious as their conduct was execrable. The outward dispensations of God's providence are no certain tests of his estimation; and thus far all the load of suffering accumulated on the head of Jesus, grievous as it was, yet being the result of malignity and violence, and entirely opposite to his desert, was neither sufficient to overwhelm his spirit, nor to prove him the object of divine malediction. On the contrary, he had himself taught his disciples, — "Happy are they who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Happy are ye, when for my sake men shall hate you, and excommunicate you, and reproach you, and persecute you, and utter all manner of calumny against you. Rejoice and exult in that day, for behold! great is your reward in heaven, for in like manner did their fathers to the prophets who [came] before you." — The apostles and their associates seconded this doctrine, both by precept and example. In his address to the Sanhedrim, Stephen the first martyr indignantly exclaimed, — "Ye stiff-necked, and uncircumcised in heart and ears! ye always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers [did,] so do ye. "Which of the prophets did your fathers forbear to persecute and slay? even those who foretold the coming of that righteous person, of whom ye have now been the betrayers and murderers."²⁹— Paul assured both the Jewish and Gentile churches that their persecutions, like his own, far from implying God's displeasure against them, were a proof of his confidence and favour, and secured to them an eternal reward so infinitely outweighing their temporal sufferings, that it was their privilege not" merely to endure, but even to glory in tribulations. The language of Peter is precisely similar: — "If any one suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but [rather] glorify God on that account: . . . . . . Let those who suffer by the will of God commit their souls to him in well-doing, as to a faithful creator."30 — The whole deportment of Christ under his outward sufferings served to show that, considered in themselves alone, he regarded them without dismay, and endured them without distress. That the captain of salvation should have evinced less courage than many of his humble followers, or failed to exemplify his own precepts, would be an incredible supposition. The annals of most nations afford numerous instances in which torments still greater than those of crucifixion have been borne, even by youths and women, with the most invincible constancy and patience. Several have been already mentioned; and were it necessary, others to an almost unlimited extent might be adduced. It may be sufficient to quote the account given by Josephus of the fortitude of the Essenes, who, in addition to the Pharisees and the Sadducees, constituted the third religious sect amongst the Jews, — "They contemn" — says that historian, — "the miseries of life, and are above pain by the generosity of their mind. And as for death, if it will be for their glory, they esteem it better than living always. And, indeed, our war with the Romans gave abundant evidence what great souls they had in their trials; wherein, although they were tortured and distorted, burnt and torn to pieces, and went through all kinds of instruments of torment, that they might be forced either to blaspheme their legislator, or to eat what was forbidden them, yet could they not be made to do either, no, nor once to flatter their tormentors, nor to shed a tear; but they smiled in their very pains, and laughed those to scorn who inflicted the torments upon them, and resigned up their souls with great alacrity, as expecting to receive them again,"

The evangelical narrative accordingly shows that, on the very evening when Christ was betrayed, instead of brooding in solitary apprehension over the doom which awaited him, and of which he had the most distinct anticipation, he affectionately joined his apostles at the paschal supper, which he superintended as the head of the family, and employed several of the few remaining hours of his life in consoling, instructing, and praying for them. — "Jesus, knowing before the feast of the passover that his hour to depart from this world to the Father was arrived, having [hitherto] loved his disciples who were in the world, continued to show his love for them to the end."³¹ — The calm and dignified manner in which he surrendered himself to his enemies at Gethsemane, after giving them sufficient proof that, had he been disposed, he possessed abundant power to deliver himself from their hands, has been noticed. Both before the Sanhedrim, and at the tribunal of Pilate he displayed similar firmness, made the noble profession recommended by the apostle Paul to the imitation of Timothy, and of course of all other Christians subjected to persecution, and declined the repeated opportunities offered him by the Roman governor, to save his life by lowering his pretensions. When on his way to Golgotha his fate was bewailed by a number of compassionate Jewish women, he turned towards them, and replied with the majesty of a prophet, and the benevolence of a martyr, — "Daughters of Jerusalem! weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children." — In like manner, whilst suffering the very act of crucifixion, he prayed for his executioners, — "Father I forgive them, for they know not what they are doing;" — assured the penitent malefactor, — "I tell thee truly, this day thou shalt be with me in Paradise;" — and with kind and provident consideration for his afflicted mother, committed her to the care of his beloved apostle, John. He refused the cup of medicated wine, usually taken by crucified persons in order to mitigate their bodily sufferings; and, in uttering the only complaint of this kind which fell from his lips, the same apostle intimates that it was not so much with a view to his own relief, as to the accomplishment of prophecy that he exclaimed,— "I thirst." — A similar representation is given by Paul, when encouraging the persecuted Hebrew Christians of his time to imitate the fortitude and perseverance of their divine master: — "Let us run with patience the race set before us, fixing our attention on Jesus, who in the [conflict of] faith led and overcame; who for the sake of the joy proposed to him endured [the] cross, despising [the] shame, and has [in consequence] sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."³² — In this passage it is remarkable that the apostle alludes only to "the shame" of the cross, as if, under ordinary circumstances, that was the only part of the punishment capable of distressing a mind of superior dignity; and as if the mere bodily pains of crucifixion, on which some authors have so profusely descanted, were scarcely deserving of notice.

Thus far, therefore, it is impossible to trace in the sufferings of Christ any evidence of the divine malediction, under which it was necessary that he should die, both really, in order to make an adequate atonement for the sins of the world, and manifestly, in order to demonstrate to all intelligent beings, that in the work of human salvation the justice of God was not less glorified than his mercy. Thus far, Christ appeared only as a martyr to the cause which he had undertaken; and had this been all, would doubtless have maintained to the end the same calmness and patience which he had evinced from the beginning; nor would the manner of his death have varied in any material respect from that of many of the early Christian martyrs, who, when condemned to the cross or the stake, employed themselves as long as breath and strength remained, either in acts of devotion to God, or in religious exhortations to the surrounding multitude. But a different scene now claims our attention. He who sustained every other suffering with unshaken firmness, was destined to endure an infliction of overwhelming severity, in which the very perfection of his nature was to prove the principal source of his distress. To advance the divine glory, to magnify the law and make it honourable, and to accomplish the redemption of mankind, Christ voluntarily consented to bear in his own person the retribution due to human depravity, and in that capacity to lose for a time all sense of God's friendship, and all enjoyment of his communion, although conscious that the misery thence arising would occasion his death. From this internal and actual abandonment, all the outward manifestations of malediction to which he was exposed derived their significancy and effect. The Jewish Sanhedrim, including the hierarchy, who by virtue of their sacred office were really invested with the power of blessing and cursing, had judicially condemned him to death on a charge of blasphemy. The punishment of this offence, according to the law of Moses, was stoning by the people without the city, followed by the suspension of the corpse on a gibbet, or tree. — "The Hebrews" — says Kipping, — "first put to death, either by strangling or stoning, those criminals whom they hanged. The dead bodies were afterwards exposed to view, suspended from a tree, not by the neck, but by the arms; and this kind of suspension was not so much a punishment itself, as a consequence of punishment. The Rabbi Solomon Jarchi cites as a common rule amongst the Hebrews, — "All those who are stoned are [subsequently] hanged." — Salmasius gives a similar account, and adds from the rabbinical writings, that only blasphemers and idolaters were wont to be thus suspended.³³ Had the people of Israel at that time possessed political independence, this would have been the punishment inflicted on Christ, but as they were subjects of the Roman empire, it was commuted for that of crucifixion. In this change they acquiesced the more readily because, together with an equal, or even a greater share of ignominy and torture, the Roman punishment bore, like their own, the stamp of divine malediction, agreeably to the declaration of the Old Testament quoted by the apostle Paul, — "Cursed [is] every one that hangeth on a tree;" — and it was in accordance with the same law that they were so anxious for the despatch and removal of the crucified persons before sunset. On the occasion of an act of blasphemy having been committed by one of the mixed multitude, soon after the departure of the Israelites out of Egypt, — "the Lord spake unto Moses, saying; Bring forth him that hath cursed without the camp, and let all that heard [him] lay their hands upon his head, and let all the congregation stone him. And thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel, saying. Whosoever curseth his God shall bear his sin; and he that blasphemeth the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death, [and] all the congregation shall certainly stone him." — It was further commanded, — "If a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be to be put to death, and thou hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day; (for he that is hanged [is] accursed of God,) that thy land be not defiled, which the Lord thy God giveth thee [for} an inheritance."³⁴ — Amongst other outward signs of malediction were the earthquake, which at the same time rent the rocks; and the extraordinary darkness, owing perhaps, as already suggested, to a shower of volcanic ashes, which for three hours during the middle of the day obscured the sun and the air, and overspread the whole of Palestine, To discuss the subject at large in this place would be unsuitable, but both reason and Scripture seem to intimate that, during the present period of the world, these terrific convulsions of nature are results of the primeval curse which the fall of man entailed on the earth, exhibiting a partial return towards the original chaos whence it was produced by the Deity, when he beheld everything which he had made, and declared it to be very good; and affording a fearful presage of the general conflagration, preparatory to a new and happier arrangement, which it is ultimately destined to undergo. In all other parts of the sacred writings, when volcanic movements are noticed, they are represented as tokens of God's displeasure, and there is therefore the less ground to doubt that they were intended to have the same import on this solemn occasion.

The external signs of divine malediction which accompanied the death of Christ were necessary for the purpose of public impression, a purpose which has ever since been fully accomplished; although, owing to the perverseness of the human mind, too often with an unfavourable effect. — '* The doctrine of the cross" — says the apostle Paul, — "is to them that perish foolishness, but to us who are saved it is the power of God; . . . . . . for the Jews require signs, and the Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews an offence, to the Gentiles foolishness, but to them that are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the' wisdom of God." — The apostle Peter, writing concerning the Saviour to the Jewish converts of Asia Minor, remarks in like manner, — "To you that believe [he is] precious, but to them that are disobedient the stone which the builders disallowed has [nevertheless] become the corner stone, and [at the same time] a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence."³⁵ — The extreme repugnance of unconverted Israelites, for the reason here stated, to the doctrine of the cross, is well displayed in the interesting conference, whether real or imaginary, between Justin Martyr and Trypho the Jew. Towards the conclusion of the discussion the latter observes, — "Respecting the ignominious crucifixion of Christ we hesitate, for the law declares that a crucified person is accursed, and of this point I cannot therefore easily be persuaded. That Christ is doomed to suffer, the Holy Scriptures plainly announce; but whether to suffer in a manner which by the law is connected width a curse, we wish, if you have any proof, to learn [from you] . . . . . . That he is to suffer, and to be led as a sheep [to the slaughter] we know; but show us whether he is also to be crucified, and to die in so base and ignominious a manner, under a punishment which by the law is devoted to malediction; for of such an indignity we cannot even entertain the thought."³⁶ — To expect salvation from one who suffered the death of the cross, attended with every circumstance of infamy and contempt, has always appeared to the unbelieving Gentile the height of folly, and to the unbelieving Jew not only absurd but impious, in consequence of the death of the cross being by the law of Moses indelibly stamped with the divine malediction; and yet it is to this very malediction, really but vicariously endured, that it owes all its efficacy and glory.

The nature of those mental sufferings of Christ which depended on this cause has been much misrepresented, both by the adversaries and the advocates of the gospel. By some of the former they have been ascribed to the disappointment and despair of a deluded enthusiast, convinced too late of the folly of his expectations, and the vanity of his pretensions; by some of the latter they have been either exaggerated, as denoting an infliction of divine wrath identical with that which is supposed to attend final condemnation; or underrated, as not exceeding the natural and moderate sorrow which might be felt by any virtuous and benevolent man, on contemplating the painful spectacle of human vice and misery, more especially if persecuted to death, on account of his well-meant but unsuccessful endeavours to promote reformation and happiness. Of hostile sentiments thinly covered by a veil of affected candour, a striking instance occurs in the celebrated work of Gibbon, from which the following are extracts. — "The familiar companions of Jesus of Nazareth conversed with their friend and countryman, who in all the actions of rational and animal life, appeared of the same species with themselves. His progress from infancy to youth and manhood was marked by a regular increase in stature and wisdom; and after a painful agony of mind and body, he expired on the cross. He lived and died for the service of mankind, but the life and death of Socrates had likewise been devoted to the cause of religion and justice; and although the stoic or the hero may disdain the humble virtues of Jesus, the tears which he shed over his friend and country may be esteemed the purest evidence of his humanity . . . . . . The heretics abused the passionate exclamations of — 'My God! my God! why hast thou forsaken me?' — Rousseau, who has drawn an eloquent but indecent parallel between Christ and Socrates, forgets that not a word of impatience or despair escaped from the mouth of the dying philosopher. In the Messiah such sentiments could be only apparent, and such ill-sounding words are properly explained as the application of a psalm and prophecy."³⁷ — More chargeable with forgetful ness than Rousseau, Gibbon omits to mention that these ill-sounding words, as he terms them, were followed by others of a more auspicious nature, and that immediately before his death Christ triumphantly exclaimed, — [" All] is accomplished: Father! into thy hands I commit my spirit." — Even such disparaging remarks may, however, have their use, by deterring better-disposed persons from inadvertently following a similar course, and making injudicious attempts to extenuate the Saviour's mental sufferings, as if they implied despondency or pusillanimity, and tended to throw discredit on his character and cause. It is remarkable that, owing no doubt to want of due consideration, several pious and learned authors, and even reverend prelates, have fallen into this error, of which the subjoined passage from Bishop Home's excellent Commentary on the Psalms furnishes an example: — "In the language of this divine book" — he remarks, — "the prayers and praises of the church have been offered up to the throne of grace from age to age. And it appears to have been the manual of the Son of God in the days of his flesh, who at the conclusion of his last supper is generally supposed, and that upon good grounds, to have sung a hymn taken from it, (Psalms 113 to 118 inclusive,) who pronounced on the cross the beginning of the twenty-second psalm, — 'My God! my God! why hast thou forsaken me?' — and expired with a part of the thirty-first psalm in his mouth, — 'Into thy hands I commend my spirit.' — Thus he who had not the Spirit by measure, in whom were hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, and who spake as never man spake, yet chose to conclude his life, to solace himself in his greatest agony, and at last to breathe out his soul, in the psalmist's form of words rather than his own. No tongue of man or angel, as Dr. Hammond justly observes, can convey a higher idea of any book, and of their felicity who use it aright."³⁸ — This style, of exposition is singularly defective and objectionable. More importance is apparently attached to the prophecy than to its fulfilment. It seems to be for-. gotten that the psalms were not mere human compositions, but indited by the same Holy Spirit which was bestowed on Christ without measure; and he is improperly represented as solacing himself by citations from them when, in reality, he was giving expression to the spontaneous and overpowering emotions of a heart bursting with grief. The remarks of Paley on the same subject, in his valuable work on the evidences of Christianity, are liable to similar censure. — "Our Saviour" — he observes,— "uttered no impassioned devotion. There was no heat in his piety, or in the language in which he expressed it, no vehement or rapturous ejaculations, no violent urgency in his prayers. The Lord's prayer is a model of calm devotion. His words in the garden are unaffected expressions of a deep indeed, but sober piety. He never appears to have been worked up into anything like that elation, or that emotion of spirits, which is occasionally observed in most of those, to whom the name of enthusiast can in any degree be applied." — Under the influence of such sentiments, it is not remarkable that Paley should have disliked the term agony employed by Luke, and have endeavoured to explain it away. — "The three first evangelists" — says he, — "record what is called our Saviour's agony, i. e.,his devotion in the garden, immediately before he was apprehended."— The best refutation of such lowering statements is furnished by the words of the sacred writers themselves. Luke's description of the awful scene at Gethsemane is, — "And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. Then, falling into an agony he prayed most earnestly, and his sweat became as it were clots of blood dropping to the ground." — The apostle Paul in like manner declares, that — "in the days of his flesh, [the Saviour] offered prayers and supplications, [accompanied] with tears and loud cries, to him who was able to save him from death, and was heard on account of [his] pious fear: [and that thus,] although he was a son, he learnt obedience from his sufferings."³⁹ — That his language and conduct were perfectly rational and unaffected, is undoubtedly true; but if the narrative of which this is a part does not describe the most vehement and impassioned devotion; if a state of mental distress which threatened to destroy his life, and brought an angel to his aid, does not imply strong emotion; if agony and bloody sweat did not exhibit heat in piety; and if earnest and reiterated supplications, attended with tears and cries, did not express urgency in prayer, it is difficult to imagine what can. The palpable contradiction of Scripture in this instance, by so acute and talented an author, plainly shows that his views on the subject, like those of many others, were erroneous, and that further explanation was required.

There is a different class of theologians who readily admit that on this occasion Christ suffered profound grief, but are willing to ascribe it to natural and ordinary causes, such as his abhorrence of the depravity, and compassion for the misery of mankind, more particularly of his countrymen the Jews, his foreknowledge of the awful doom which awaited them, his dejection on account of their almost universal opposition to himself, and his dissatisfaction at the ill success of his laborious efforts for their conversion and salvation. But these and similar causes which have been alleged, supposing them to have been real, which is not always the case, are quite inadequate to explain the sorrows of Gethsemane and Calvary, which lasted but a few hours, and were evidently of a very peculiar and personal nature. The influence of such causes, whatever might have been its amount, was not limited to those periods, but must have operated more or less uniformly throughout the whole course of his life, or at least of his ministry; and yet, as will presently be shown, his habitual state of mind was far from being unhappy. Any sufferings of this kind to which he was liable must have been greatly alleviated by his complete knowledge of the divine purposes, and his cordial acquiescence in them, by the satisfaction which he derived from pursuits of active usefulness and benevolence, by the soothing intercourse of friends and disciples, and by the spontaneous tendency of eminent piety and virtue to produce serenity and joy. It should also be remembered that the humanity which he assumed was perfect in all points, and therefore not less endued with energy and courage, than with kindness and humility. In this and other respects the apostle Paul closely imitated his divine master, and, as before remarked, recommended the persecuted Hebrew Christians of his time to follow the example of him, — "who for the sake of the joy proposed to him endured [the] cross, (as well as the contradiction of sinners against himself,) despising [the] shame, and had [in consequence] sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." — With all his meekness and compassion, Christ could on proper occasions severely rebuke the vices of men, and predict their punishment. He exhorted his followers to bear persecutions and afflictions not only with patience, but with exultation, as proofs of the divine confidence, and pledges of future reward; and his addresses to his apostles at the last supper, a few hours only before his death, were full of consolation and encouragement. — "Peace I impart to you, my peace I give to you: not as the world giveth give I to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid . . . . . . These things I have spoken to you that my joy in you may continue, that your joy may be complete, . . . . [and] that in me ye may have peace. In the world ye have affliction, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."⁴⁰

The sorrow which caused his sudden death must consequently have had a deeper source than that here suggested; but, in avoiding one error, some caution is necessary to avoid falling into the opposite one. By an improper use or interpretation of figurative language, some of the older theological writers represent Christ as having suffered a positive infliction of divine wrath. Thus the celebrated President Edwards observes: — "Christ never so eminently appeared for divine justice, and yet never suffered so much from divine justice, as when he offered up himself a sacrifice for our sins. In Christ's great sufferings did his infinite regard to the honour of God's justice distinguishingly appear, for it was from regard to that, that he thus humbled himself; and yet, in these sufferings Christ was the mark of the vindictive expressions of that very justice of God. Revenging justice then spent all its force upon him, on account of our guilt . . . . . . And this was the way and means by which Christ stood up for the honour of God's justice, viz., by thus suffering its terrible executions: for when he had undertaken for sinners, and had substituted himself in their room, divine justice could have its due honour no other way than by his suffering its revenges."⁴¹ — The erroneousness, not to say the absurdity of such views, has been exposed by several judicious authors, amongst others by Dr. Moses Stuart, in his Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, whose words are as follows: — "The sentiment of the clause [Heb. ix. 28] clearly is, that Jesus by his death, (which could, take place but once,) endured the penalty that our sins deserved, or bore the sorrows due to us. But this general expression is not to be understood as if the writer meant to say with philosophical precision, that the sufferings of Jesus were in all respects, and considered in every point of view, an exact and specific quid pro quo, as it regards the penalty threatened against sin. A guilty conscience the Saviour had not; eternal punishment he did not suffer; despair of deliverance he did not entertain. It is altogether unnecessary to suppose that the writer meant to be understood here with metaphysical exactness. But that vicarious suffering is here designated seems to be an unavoidable conclusion, as well from the usus loquendi of the Scriptures, as from the nature of the argument through the whole of chapters ix. and x." — A similar view of the matter is taken by Outram, Whitby, Doddridge, Dr. Pye Smith, and other commentators. So far indeed was Christ on the cross from having been the object of God's wrath that, as he himself often declared, he was on that very account the object of his highest approbation and complacency. — "Therefore"— said he, — "doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life to take it again."⁴²

How then, it may be asked, did Christ suffer the divine malediction, not in appearance only but in reality, in order to make atonement for the sins of the world? In order to answer this question, it is necessary to consider the absolute perfection of his human nature, and his constant and beatific communion with the Father, up to the period immediately preceding his death; for to suppose that his whole life was one continued scene of sorrow and distress is a great, although not an uncommon mistake. It is true that he stripped himself of his primeval glory, assumed the form of a servant, submitted to poverty, opposition, and contempt, and was painfully affected by contemplating the depravity and misery of mankind; but all this was compensated by that happy and intimate friendship with God which he uninterruptedly enjoyed, in a degree of which the most pious and virtuous of men cannot form any adequate conception. That such was the fact might reasonably be presumed from the dignity of his person, the superlative excellence of his character, and his peculiar relation to the Deity; but it is also fully stated in Scripture, and abundantly proved by his own declarations, his frequent acts of private and public devotion, his unexampled power of performing miracles, and the remarkable tokens of divine protection and distinction which he repeatedly received. Even as a child, it is recorded of him that — "he became strong in spirit, being filled with wisdom, and that the grace of God was upon him." — When at the age of twelve years he first went up to the paschal festival at Jerusalem, he was unexpectedly found in the temple, which he claimed as his Father's house, discoursing with the doctors of the law, and astonishing them by his early proficiency in religious knowledge. After his return to Nazareth, he continued — "to grow in wisdom, and in stature, and in favour with God and man." — At the age of thirty years he was baptized by his precursor John, and at the same time installed into his own prophetical office. On this important occasion he received the most distinguished attestation which the Deity could bestow, for the Holy Spirit descended on him in a visible form like a dove, and a voice from heaven proclaimed, — "Thou art my beloved Son: in thee I am well pleased."⁴³ — A similar recognition took place about three years afterwards at his transfiguration, when, says the apostle Peter, one of the three select witnesses of that august scene, — "he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the majestic glory. This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." — Both on his first and last official visits to Jerusalem he was evidently sustained by supernatural influence, when, amidst the immense multitudes assembled at the passover, and notwithstanding the formidable hostility of the civil and ecclesiastical rulers, he went boldly into the temple, and expelled from its outer courts those who, by establishing therein a market for victims, had rendered the sacred place a scene of extortionate and unhallowed gain, or as he emphatically termed it, — "a den of thieves." — Throughout the whole of his brief ministry he was under the special care of divine providence; and the prediction quoted by Satan, during the severe temptation with which immediately after his baptism he was permitted to assail him, was not on that account the less applicable, — "He will give his angels charge concerning thee to guard thee thoroughly, and they will support thee on their hands, lest thou shouldst strike thy foot against a stone." — Agreeably to this prediction, holy angels, who had doubtless been unseen spectators of the temptation, appeared at the end of it, and ministered to him. In the garden of Gethsemane an angel was despatched to strengthen him, when in danger of sinking under consternation and grief; and, had it been compatible with the great object which he was pursuing, he could at that or at any time have summoned more than twelve legions of those mighty spirits to his aid.⁴⁴ When on his first evangelical visit to Nazareth his life was in imminent peril from the rage of its inhabitants, who were hurrying him to the brink of a precipice, with the intention of casting him down headlong, it was manifestly by divine assistance that, — "passing through the midst of them, he went his way." — In a similar manner he was repeatedly preserved from the violence of his enemies at Jerusalem, particularly in one instance when, on the multitude proceeding to stone him, he was suddenly concealed from their sight, — "and, going through the midst of them, passed by." — The evangelist John, who alone records these latter interpositions, also furnishes their explanation, namely, that — "his hour was not yet come;" — in other words that, until the hour of his final suffering arrived, he was under the peculiar protection of Providence.

The unlimited amount of miraculous power with which Christ was invested, more especially when viewed in connexion with the attendant circumstances, affords conclusive evidence of his having possessed in the highest degree the friendship of his heavenly Father. — "God" — says the apostle Peter, — "anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit, and with power, who went about doing good, and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him." — To this decisive test of divine cooperation he himself often appealed. Thus, on defending himself from the prosecution of the Sanhedrim for restoring on a sabbath-day the infirm man at the pool of Bethesda, he said, — "My Father worketh thus far, and I work . . . . . . The Father loveth the Son, and showeth him all things which he himself doeth, and will show him greater works than these, to your astonishment; for as the Father raiseth and reviveth the dead, so likewise the Son reviveth whomsoever he chooseth;" — a miracle beyond all others stupendous, and which he afterwards repeatedly displayed. Both to his enemies and to his disciples he addressed the cogent argument, — "If I do not the works of my Father, beheve me not; but if I do [them,] although ye believe not me, believe the works, that ye may know and believe that the Father is in me, and I in him." — When at the last supper the apostle Philip inconsiderately requested, — "Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us," — he replied with some warmth, — "Have I been so long with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father. How [then] sayest thou. Show us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and [that] the Father is in me? The words which I speak to you I speak not of myself, but the Father who dwelleth in me doeth the works;" — and the unanswerable charge which he brought against his adversaries was, — "If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have had sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. He that hateth me, hateth my Father also. If I had not done amongst them such works as no one else ever did, they would not have had sin; but now they have both seen and hated both me and my Father."⁴⁵ — His constant and intimate friendship with God was further proved by his repeated declarations, and his frequent acts of devotion both private and public. During his ministry in Galilee he often retired from the multitude, and even from the society of his relatives and disciples, to some solitary place, where he might more freely and uninterruptedly pour forth his adorations and thanksgivings; and previously to the election of the twelve apostles, ascended a mountain near Capernaum, and passed a whole night in secret prayer. To his public devotions he twice subjoined the assurance,— "All things are delivered to me by my Father, and no one knoweth the Son but the Father, neither knoweth any one the Father but the Son, and [he] to whom the Son will reveal [him.]" — Immediately before raising Lazarus from the dead, — "he lifted up his eyes and said, Father! I thank thee that thou hast heard me. I know indeed that thou hearest me always, but because of the multitude who stand by I said [it,] that they may believe that thou hast sent me;" — and after another public address to the Father, during his last visit to Jerusalem, was answered by a voice from heaven. His predecessor, John the Baptist, testified of him, — "He whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God, for the Father giveth [him] the Spirit without measure. The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand." — Christ, in like manner, said of himself to his disciples, — "My food is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work;" — and to his adversaries, — "He that sent me is with me. The Father hath not left me alone, because I always do the things which please him."⁴⁶ — Expressions of this kind abound, as might be expected, in his discourses to the apostles at the last supper, and in his sublime prayer at the end of it. The following are specimens: — "As the Father hath loved me so have I loved you: continue in my love. If ye keep my commandments ye shall continue in my love, even as I have kept my Father's commandments and continue in his love." — In his final address to God, which is a model of fervent devotion, he says of himself, — "I have glorified thee on the earth, I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do; and now, Father! glorify me in thy presence with the glory which I there enjoyed before the world existed;" — and of his apostles, — "The glory which thou gavest me I have given them, that they may be one even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be perfected in one, and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved me;" — and concludes with the important statement,— "I have declared to them thy name, and will declare [it,] that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them."⁴⁷

The preceding quotations may suffice to illustrate the close and endearing friendship with the Father which Christ must necessarily have enjoyed during the whole of his life on earth, down to its final scene, a friendship which enabled him to bear outward trials and troubles with patience and serenity, and yielded him a constant supply of the purest and most elevated happiness.' Of the intensity of this friendship it is impossible for any human being to form an adequate conception, but it must evidently have included the following conditions; — a vivid sense of the presence and favour of God, an ardent admiration of his character and works, a perfect conformity to his mind and will, an implicit confidence in his plans and arrangements, and a cordial devotedness to his service and glory. This is in fact a brief description of true religion, as suggested both by reason and revelation, a state of mind which may be realized to a considerable extent on earth, but of which the full attainment constitutes the peculiar felicity of heaven. By profane persons it is regarded with incredulity and contempt, as a fallacy or a fraud; but since they are confessedly ignorant of the qualification which they presume to deny, their objections are entitled to no greater respect than would be those of persons born blind or deaf to the alleged capacity of others to perceive beautiful sights or melodious sounds. Religion, or friendship with God, is nevertheless the indispensable basis of human happiness. To promote it, both by precept and example, is the grand object of the Scriptures, wherein it is accordingly depicted in the most splendid colours, and represented by the most attractive images, sometimes by the conjugal relation in its highest perfection, sometimes by a fountain of living water springing up in the human heart, as an inexhaustible source of joy and satisfaction, extinguishing its morbid thirst for inferior gratifications, and flowing onwards to eternal life. Of the emphatic language in which its blessings are celebrated by those who have experienced them, the following are well-known specimens. — "How excellent [is] thy loving-kindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings. They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house, and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures. For, with thee [is] the fountain of life; in thy light shall we see light . . . . . . [There are] many that say. Who will show us [any] good? Lord! lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us. Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time [when] their corn and their wine increased. . . . . . . Because thy loving-kindness [is] better than life, my lips shall praise thee . . . . . . I [am] continually with thee: thou hast holden [me] by my right hand. Thou shalt guide with thy counsel, and afterwards receive me [to] glory. Whom have I in heaven [but thee?] And [there is] none upon earth [that] I desire besides thee. My flesh and my heart fail, [but] God [is] the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever . . . . . . Thou wilt show me the path of life. In thy presence [is] fulness of joy. At thy right hand [are] pleasures for evermore."⁴⁸ — Not less energetic, on the other hand, is the language in which pious persons are represented in Scripture as bewailing their loss of the light of God's countenance, and expressing the intolerable anguish and desolation of heart occasioned by a sense of his abandonment. Thus the Psalmist complains, — "Unto thee will I cry, O Lord, my rock! Be not silent to me, lest, [if] thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit . . . . . . Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps. Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted [me] with all thy waves Lord! why castest thou off my soul, [why] hidest thou thy face from me? I [am] afflicted and ready to die from [my] youth up: [whilst] I suffer thy terrors, I am distracted. Thy fierce wrath goeth over me: thy terrors have cut me off." — Thus Job laments, — "Oh that I knew where I might find him, [that] I might come [even] to his seat! . . . . . . Behold, I go forward, but he [is] not [there,] and backward, but I cannot perceive him; on the left hand where he doth work, but I cannot behold [him;] he hideth himself on the right hand that I cannot see [him.] . . . . . . Oh that my grief were thoroughly weighed, and my calamity laid in the balances together! for now it would be heavier than the sand of the sea, therefore my words are swallowed up; for the arrows of the Almighty [are] within me, the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit: the terrors of God do set themselves in array against me."⁴⁹

The happiness derived from the friendship of God, •and the misery occasioned by its privation, are thus powerfully felt by pious persons, and by them alone; but even such persons cannot suitably appreciate the intensity of these emotions, as they were experienced by the pure and perfect humanity of Christ. Hence the difficulty of conceiving, in a manner at all adequate to the dignity of the subject, the mental sufferings which he endured from the temporary, but complete interruption of his hallowed communion with the Father; a privation which, attended as it was with a partial loss of protection, and with all the subordinate manifestations and inflictions thereon depending, constituted the divine malediction which he had undertaken vicariously to sustain. The nature of these sufferings, as distinguished from all others, is indicated by their limitation with respect to time, place, and circumstances, by their extraordinary intensity and fatality, and by his own explicit declarations. His earliest anticipation of them seems to have occurred at the conclusion of his ministry in Jerusalem, when he publicly acknowledged, — "Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say? Father! save me from this hour? Yet, for this [purpose] am I come to this hour. Father, glorify thy name!" — This was, however, merely an anticipation, and not the reality; for a voice from heaven immediately replied, — "I have both glorified [it,] and will glorify [it] again;" — and he remarked to the surrounding multitude, — "This voice came not for my sake, but for yours." — His peculiar mental sufferings commenced in the garden of Gethsemane, and were renewed and completed at Calvary. Their identity on the two occasions was proved by their proceeding from the same cause, and producing similar effects: by the abruptness of their commencement and conclusion, and the shortness of their continuance; by the similar language which he applied to each, and by his comparative calmness and composure during the intervening period. A transition more sudden or violent than that which took place from the seraphic discourses and devotions of Christ after the paschal supper, to the horrors of Gethsemane, can scarcely be conceived. That he was about to suffer from the immediate hand of God, is implied by his prediction to the apostles on the way. In the absence of all external infliction, the cup of trembling which was then presented to him by the Father, and which he so earnestly petitioned might if possible be withdrawn, could have been none other than the cup of the wrath of God, — "the poison whereof drinketh up the spirit."⁵⁰ — It was piety which prompted his reluctance to receive this cup, and piety which urged him to drain it to the dregs; and the deadly struggle between these powerful and opposite emotions occasioned that agony and bloody sweat, the natural prelude to rupture of the heart, which without the interposition of miraculous aid, would apparently have realized his own previous declaration,— "My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death." — In reference to the dependence of these physical effects on mental causes, it is rather singular that whilst, as was formerly shown, a majority of the older theological writers proposed explanations which are unsatisfactory and inadmissible, r, few of them adopted views which, with the exception of some extravagant expressions and errors of detail, nearly resemble those above stated. Thus Gisbert Voetius, about the middle of the seventeenth century, speaking of Christ's bloody sweat observes, — "Like the flow of blood and water from his side, I regard it as natural in reference to its proximate cause, although marvellous, a miracle of nature, and even supernatural, if we regard the efficient, remote, and final causes. The proximate cause is, I think, to be found in the passions and their conflict, that is, partly in the passions of grief and fear, which draw the blood and animal spirits from the external parts towards the heart, and partly in those of love, desire, and zeal, which propel the blood and spirits from the heart towards the external parts. Hence it happened that the blood, driven backwards and forwards like the sea in the straits of Euripus, and thereby attenuated, burst forth from the veins, in conjunction with serous liquid through the skin. That such a circumstance may actually take place, especially when the texture of the body and skin is thin and porous, is testified by philosophers and physicians, suggested by reason, and taught by experience."⁵¹ — Bartholomew a Medina, after remarking that Christ was young and vigorous, gives a similar explanation of his bloody sweat. — "For," — says he, — "through the fervour of his prayer, and his fear and horror of death, his blood at first collected about the heart; but afterwards, his strong love and ardent desire of accomplishing his Father's will and of redeeming mankind, intervening like a mighty force, overcame his fear and sensitive affection, and drove the blood powerfully outwards. Hence, owing to the sudden violence occasioned by this glorious victory, blood mixed with common sweat burst forth abundantly through all the pores of the skin, dilated by the excessive effort, and flowed to the ground." — On experiencing at Gethsemane for the first time the terrors of divine abandonment, Christ appears to have been seized with such consternation and distress, as threatened to destroy him by the simple extinction of vital power. Falling prostrate on the earth — "he prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him;" — meaning by that expression, not as the above and other authors have supposed, the ordinary sufferings and death of the cross then comparatively distant, but the peculiar mental sufferings of the hour which he was now encountering.⁵² The favour so earnestly solicited could not however be granted. To his reiterated supplications no direct answer was returned; but, after a fearful interval, an angel was despatched to restore his sinking strength, and thereby to save him from immediate death. This partial relief supplied by a subordinate agent was itself a humiliation, and proved that the principal source of comfort, the light of God's countenance, was still withheld. He accordingly availed himself of his renovated energy to pray with increased importunity, till the violent effort forced a bloody sweat from his body, a natural sign and result of the corresponding conflict of his soul. At length — "he was heard on account of [his] pious fear." — The hour of preliminary malediction came to an end, and when the hostile band drew near to apprehend him, it was evident from his conversation and conduct that he had recovered all his usual dignity and self-possession. That he should again enjoy a sense of the divine friendship, at the very time when — "all the disciples forsook him and fled," — he had himself not long before predicted, when he said to them — " Do ye now believe? Behold the hour cometh, and is now come, when ye will be dispersed each one to his own [home,] and will leave me alone; and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me."⁵³ — That God was really with him appeared, amongst other indications, by his renewed exercise of miraculous power, both in overthrowing the party that went forth against him, and in healing the slave wounded by Peter; and, until the hour of noon on the following day, the internal support which he thus enjoyed enabled him to bear with firmness all the sufferings of mind and body, which the powerful and malignant enemies into whose hands he was delivered were permitted to inflict. These ordinary sufferings were, however, only the outward manifestations and effects of that divine malediction, which he was now again actually to endure.

The second period of Christ's abandonment, like the former one, began and ended abruptly. During the first three hours of his crucifixion he had calmly conversed with those around him, and by his benevolent concern for the penitent malefactor, for his afflicted mother, and even for his ferocious executioners, as likewise a little before for the women who bewailed his fate, and for his fellow-countrymen generally, had shown himself more attentive to the feelings and interests of others than to his own. But at noon a sudden change occurred, accompanied by a preternatural darkness, expressive of a second hiding of God's countenance, which overspread Jerusalem and the whole land for three successive hours. During the interval no intercourse took place between Christ and the bystanders, and a solemn pause in the evangelical narrative concurs with other circumstances, to intimate that he was again enduring the peculiar sufferings of Gethsemane, which not even inspired writers felt themselves competent to describe. The following remarks of the excellent Rambach are perhaps as suitable as any which merely human faculties could suggest. — "With regard to our blessed Lord himself, this outward darkness was an emblem of the inward darkness in which his sacred soul was then involved. For, as the light of the natural sun was then withdrawn from the inhabitants of the earth, so the light of the divine consolation and inward joy was at that time withdrawn from the soul of Jesus Christ; and, as cold and darkness then prevailed throughout the whole region of the air, so the soul of our blessed Saviour was to experience something of the terrors of eternal darkness, which now overwhelmed his conscience from a sense of the imputation of all the sins of the whole world, and threw it into the utmost anguish and consternation . . . . . . The only begotten Son of the Father here laments that he is forsaken of God, and this not in mere idea, but in reality. For as Christ had taken our sins upon him, and become a curse for us, so was he forsaken by God, not only outwardly, by withdrawing his protection from him and giving him up to his enemies, but likewise inwardly, the Deity suspending his blissful operations on his understanding, will, conscience, and affections, and permitting all the power of the devil and the agonies of death jointly to assault him. As in quality of our surety he was to feel our pains, to bear our griefs, and carry our sorrows, so was his soul to be deprived for a while of the brightness of God's countenance, and the enjoyment of the supreme good, by which the inward sensation of the pain would have been very much abated, if not totally extinguished. On the other hand, he was to suifer all the floods of the divine wrath to pass over him; which would have overwhelmed our Saviour's human nature, had not the divinity within him supported it in this terrible trial."⁵⁴ — On this occasion his demeanour was widely different from that at Gethsemane. He uttered neither prayers nor lamentations, which would now have been not only unavailing, but in the presence of an immense and hostile multitude unsuitable, and liable to misinterpretation. Having as it were learnt to suffer, and become acquainted with grief, he was not as before overwhelmed with consternation. His outward sufferings, abstractedly considered, were not indeed difficult to support; and yet, regarded as intimations of the divine abandonment on account of human depravity, appreciated by a mind of exquisite moral sensibility, they no doubt contributed to his distress. But the principal and immediate cause of his sorrow was the abandonment itself. His human, and perhaps also his spiritual enemies had done their worst, and having exhausted every torment which malice could suggest, or cruelty execute, were reduced to sullen inaction. He had been despised, rejected, insulted, scourged, and crucified, and had borne all this with patience and fortitude; but the sufferings of malediction, now superadded, were of a different nature, and occupied a distinct period of time. Lacerated in body, and still more wounded in spirit, he hung for three hours longer on the cross, enveloped in darkness, deprived of divine communion, and destitute of comfort from any other source. Nothing less than his unspeakable love to God and man induced and enabled him thus to endure from both an infliction, alike tremendous and undeserved, and to persist till the last moment in fulfilling the fatal task, which he had undertaken without compulsion, and might have declined without reproach. If one hour of such suffering at Gethsemane had nearly been destructive to him, its renewal for three hours at Golgotha might well prove actually so, more especially as he had now no prospect of relief except from a violent death, and this only to be effected by draining the cup of malediction to the dregs. — "Christ" — says the apostle Paul,-7-" hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, by being cursed on our behalf; for it is written, Cursed [is] every one that hangeth on a tree, . . . . [God] made him who knew not sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God by him."⁵⁵ — The natural and necessary result at length took place. For three hours he sustained unutterable agony, in a deadly and incessant struggle between two opposite passions, each indicative of the most ardent piety, and the most consummate moral excellence; — an intense desire to recover that divine communion which was essential to his existence, and a still stronger desire, by resigning it at the expense of his life, to fulfil the gracious purposes of God towards mankind. The latter ultimately prevailed, but the mental conflict, the continuance of which depended every moment on his own voluntary yet reluctant concurrence, occasioned the rupture of his heart; a little before which he publicly revealed the true cause of his sufferings, by uttering the loud and bitter cry, — "My God! my God! why hast thou forsaken me?" — Here, however, his sufferings ended, and his sorrow was turned into joy. The victory for which he had so energetically contended was won, in proof of which the preternatural darkness cleared away, the evening sun shone forth with renewed splendour, and the Saviour's dying words were those of exultation and triumph; — ["All] is accomplished: Father! into thy hands I commit my spirit."

The sudden occurrence, the peculiar manner, and all the affecting circumstances of Christ's death, point to one only conclusion, and admit of no other explanation, than that it was the death of an atoning victim vicariously enduring the divine malediction, for which purpose no other mode of death would have been adapted. An incompetent or sinful being would have perished by some of the remote consequences of this malediction; but an adequate and innocent victim must have been destroyed by the malediction itself, and in the manner here represented. It was the only death worthy of him to suffer, who was — "the lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world," — and of him to accept, who had intimated, — "The sacrifices of God are a broken and contrite heart." — It was the death of a pure and perfect human being sustaining and discharging the penalty due to human depravity, and thereby acquiring an equitable claim to — "see of the travail of his soul and to be satisfied," — by becoming the author of eternal salvation to all that obey him.⁵⁶ If in this inquiry the mysterious association of the divine with the human nature of Christ, which is so plainly revealed in Scripture, has hitherto received little notice, it has been for the obvious reason that with the Saviour's sufferings and death his human nature alone was directly concerned. It may now however be appropriately remarked, that the happiness which he enjoyed from divine communion, and the misery which he endured from its loss, must both have been unspeakably augmented by this association, which moreover imparted an infinite dignity and value to his atoning sacrifice. The demonstration of the immediate or physical cause of the death of Christ which has now been given serves, therefore, to illustrate and confirm the scriptural doctrine of atonement; which, when rightly understood, is evidently worthy of universal acceptance, demanding alike the homage of the understanding, and the adoration of the heart.

1) Exodus, chap. 34, v. 5-7;— Rom. chap. 3, v. 23-26.

2) Job, chap. 21, v. 14, 15; — Psalm 51, v. 11.

3) Matt. chap. 1, v. 18-25;— Luke, chap. 1, v. 26-38; — 1 Tim. chap. 2, v. 5, 6; — Heb. chap. 2, v. 9-18; chap. 4, v. 14-16; chap. 7, v. 13-17, 23-28; chap. 9, v. 11-15.

4) Isaiah, chap. 53, v. 10-12; — Luke, chap. 24, v. 25-27; — Heb. chap. 12, v. 1-3; — 1 Peter, chap. 1, v. 10-12.

5) Matt. chap. 26, v. 36-44, 53, 54; — Mark, chap. 14, v. 32-39; — Luke, chap. 22, v. 39-44; — Heb. chap. 5, v. 5-10.

6) Genesis, chap. 49, v. 8-10; — Daniel, chap. 2, v. 40-45; — Acts, chap. 26, v. 24-26.

7) Matt. chap. 1, 2; — Luke, chap. 1, v. 26-38; chap. 2, v. 1-38.

8) Matt. chap. 4, v. 23-25; — Luke, chap. 6, v. 17-19; — John, chap. 1, v. 28-36; chap. 18. v. 19, 20.

9) John, chap. 15, v. 18-25; chap. 18, v. 33-35.

10) The reduction of Judea several years before to a Roman province under the government of a procurator, without whose sanction capital punishment could not be inflicted, is accurately described by the Jewish historian. — Whiston's Josephus, vol. iii,, pp. 55, 56, 373. John, chap. 11, v. 47-53; chap. 18, v. 28-32; chap. 19, v. 8-11.

11) John, chap. 8, v. 59; chap. 10, v. 31—33, 39; chap. 11, v. 55 —57.

12) Matt. chap. 21, v. 10, 11;— Luke, chap. 19, v. 47, 48; chap. 21, v. 37, 33; chap. 24, v. 17—19; — John, chap. 11, v. 45—48; chap. 12, v. 17—23.

13) Matt. chap. 26, v. 1-5; — Mark, chap. 14, v. 1, 2. The expression in the authorized version, — "Not on the feast-day," — is incorrect; since the original terms, — "Μὴ ἐν τῇ ἑορτῇ,“’" — are not restricted to the paschal day, but equally include the seven following days of the feast of unleavened bread, during the whole of which the same danger was to be dreaded.

14) Whiston's Josephus, vol. iii. pp. 33, 34, 39, 40; vol. iv. pp. 231, 232.

15) The resolution of Judas Iscariot to betray his master was evidently formed at Bethany on the preceding Saturday evening; but, by the unexpected popularity of Christ, its execution was providentially restrained until four days afterwards. Matt. chap. 26. v. 1-16; — Mark, chap. 14, v. 1-11; —Luke, chap. 22. v. 1-6; — John, chap. 12. v. 1-8; — Psalm 2, v. 1-4.

16) Matt. chap. 27, v. 62-66.

17) Matt. chap. 26, v. 47; — Mark, chap. 14, v. 43; — Luke, chap. 22, v. 47-53; — John, chap. 18, v. 1-3, 10-12.

18) Biscoe, Sermons on the Acts of the Apostles, vol. i. pp. 328, 329, 335; — Whiston's Josephus, vol. iv. p. 8; — Luke, chap. 23. v. 5-12. The statement of John, chap. 18, v. 12, is, ἡ σπεῖρα,καὶ ὁ χιλίαρχος, καί οἱ ὑπηρέται τῶν Ἰουδαίων: that of Matt. chap. 26, v. 47, and of Mark, chap. 14, v. 43, is ὄχλος πολῦς·

19) Psalm 2, v. 1-3; Psalm 91, v. 9-12; — Matt chap. 4, v. 5, 6; — Luke, chap. 22, v. 52, 53; — John, chap. 14, v. 30, 31; — Acts, chap. 4, v. 23-28. — ἐν τῇ πόλει ταύτῃ, added by Griesbach, in v. 27.

20) Deuteron, chap. 21, v, 1-9; — Psalm 26, v. 6; — Matt. chap. 3, v. 16, 17; chap. 27, v. 3-5, 24, 25; — Mark, chap. i. v. 23, 24, 34; chap. 3, v. 9-12; chap. 5, v. 6— 8; — Luke, chap. 8, v. 27-29; chap. 9, v. 34, 35; chap. 23, v. 6-15; — 2 Peter, chap. i. v. 16-18.

21) Matt. chap. 27, v. 54; — Mark, chap. 15, v. 39; — Luke, chap. 23, v. 39-41, 47, 48.

22) Matt. chap. 26, v. 62-66; — Mark, chap. 14, v. 60-64; — Luke, chap. 20, v. 19-22; — John, chap. 3. v. 1, 2; chap. 11. v. 47-53; chap. 15. v. 22-25; chap. 18, v. 12-14.

23) John, chap. 10, v. 17, 18.

24) Matt. chap. 26, v. 47-50; — Luke, chap. 22, v. 47, 48; — John, chap. 13, v. 1-3; chap. 18, v. 1-6.

25) 2 Kings, chap. 1, v. 1-15; — Matt, chap, 26, v. 51-54; — Luke, chap. 9, v, 51-56; — John, chap. 18, v. 10-11.

26) Isaiah, chap. 53, v. 9, 12; — Mark, chap. 15, v. 28; — Luke, chap. 22, v. 37.

27) In the provinces of the Roman empire crucifixion was the punishment usually inflicted on robbers, murderers, and persons guilty of sedition or rebellion against the government. For examples, see Whiston's Josephus, vol. iii. pp. 45, 120, 169, 172, 173, 367, 368; vol. iv. pp. 171, 172.

28) Matt. chap. 27, v. 41-43; — Mark, chap. 15, v. 31, 32; — Luke, chap. 23, v. 35.

29) Matt. chap. 5, v. 10-12; — Luke, chap. 6, v. 22, 23; — Acts, chap. 7, v. 51, 52.

30) Romans, chap. 5. v. 1-5; chap. 8, v. 16-18; — Philipp. chap. 1, v. 27-30; — 2 Thess. chap. 1, v. 3-7; — 1 Peter, chap. 4, v. 12-19.

31) The authorised version of this passage is ambiguous, and tends to countenance the error committed by Lightfoot and other commentators, that Christ either did not partake of the paschal supper at all, or not at the same time with the Israelitish people generally. John, chap. 13, v. 1; — Whiston's Josephus, vol. iii. pp. 377, 378.

32) Luke, chap. 23, v. 27-34, 39-43; — John, chap. 19, v. 28; — 1 Tim. chap. 6, v. 12-14; — Heb. chap. 12, v. 1-3; — Revel, chap. 3, v. 21.

33) Kipping, De Cruce, et Cruciariis, pp. 18, 19, (freely translated). — Salmasius, De Cruce, &c., pp. 620, 621. — Poole, Synopsis Criticorum, &c.; Note on Luke, chap. 23, v. 33.

34) Levit. chap. 24, v. 10-16; — Deut. chap. 21, v. 22, 23; — Joshua, chap. 8, v. 28, 29; chap. 10, v. 26, 27; — Galat. chap. 3, v. 13.

35) Rom. chap. 9, v. 30-33; — 1 Corinth, chap.l, v. 17-25; — Galat. chap. 5, v. 11; —1 Peter, chap. 2, v. 6-8.

36) Justinus, (Martyr,) cum Tryphone Judseo Dialcgus, pp. 271, 272; — Bosius, Crux triumphans, &c., p. 47.

37) Gibbon; Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol, viii. pp. 261, 262, 270, 271.

38) Bishop Home; Commentary on the Book of Psalms; vol. i. Preface, pp. 3, 4.

39) Paley, View of the Evidences of Christianity, vol. ii. pp. 59, 60, 118; — Luke, chap. 22, v. 39-44; — Heb. chap. 5, v. 5-10.

40) John, chap. 14, v. 27; chap. 15, v. 11; chap. 16, v. 33; — Hebrews, chap. 12, v. 1-3; — See also the Treatises of Moore, and Harwood, on the agony of Christ.

41) President Edwards, Works, vol. vi. pp. 413, 414,

42) Dr. Moses Stuart; Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, vol. ii. pp. 445-447; — John, chap. 10, v. 17, 18.

43) Luke, chap. 2, v. 40-52; chap. 3, v. 21-23.

44) Psalm 91, v. 9-12; — Matt., chap. 4, v. 5, 6, 11; chap. 26, v. 51-54; — Mark, chap. 1, v. 12, 13; chap. 11, v. 15-18; — Luke, chap. 4, v. 9-11, 28-30; chap. 9, v. 28-36; chap. 22, v. 43; —John, chap. 2, v. 13-17; chap. 7, v. 30; chap. 8, v. 20, 59; chap. 10, v. 31, 39; — Acts, chap. 10, v. 37, 38; — 2 Peter, chap. 1, v. 16-18.

45) John, chap. 5, v. 17-21, 36; chap. 10, v. 37, 38; chap. 12, v. 44, 45; chap. 14, v. 8-11; chap. 15, v. 22-24.

46) Matt, chap. 11, v. 25-27; — Mark, chap. 1, v. 35; — Luke, chap. 5, v. 16; chap. 6, v. 12, 13; chap. 10, v. 21, 22; — John, chap. 3, v. 34, 35; chap. 4, v. 31-34; chap. 8, v. 16, 29; chap. 11, v. 41, 42; chap. 12, v. 27-30.

47) John, chap. 15, v. 9, 10; chap. 17, v. 4, 5, 22, 23, 26.

48) Psalm 4, v. 6-8; Psalm 16, v. 11; Psalm 36, v. 7-9; Psalm 63, v. 3; Psalm 73, v. 23-26.

49) Job, chap. 6, v. 1-4; chap, 23, v. 3, 8, 9; — Psalm 28, v. 1; Psalm 88, v. 6, 7, 14-16.

50) Job, chap. 6, v. 4; — Isaiah, chap. 51, v. 17; — Zechar. chap. 13, v. 7; — Matt. chap. 26, v. 30-42; — Mark, chap. 14, v. 26-36; — Luke, chap. 22,v.39-44; — John, chap. 12, v. 23-33;chap. 18, v. 11; — Heb. chap. 5, v. 5-10; — Rev. chap. 14, v. 10; chap. 16, v. 19.

51) Kipping, De Cruce, et Cruciariis, pp. 199, 200; — Matt. chap. 26, v. 38; — Mark chap. 14, v. 34.

52) Julius Cæsar Baricelli, De Hydronosa Natura, &c. pp. 156-158; — Mark, chap. 14, v. 35.

53) Matt., chap. 26, v. 56; — Luke, chap, 22, v. 43, 44; — John, chap. 16, v. 31, 32; — Heb. chap. 5, v. 7-9.

54) Rambach, on the Sufferings of Christ, vol. iii., pp. 183, 184, 187, 188.

55) 2 Corinth, chap. 5, v. 20, 21; — Galat. chap. 3, v. 13.

56) Psalm 51, v. 16, 17; — Isaiah, chap. 53, v. 10, 11; — John, chap. 1 v, 29, 35, 36; — Heb. chap. 5, v. 9,