them. The sufferings of Jesus were ordained for a reason known to us now, and known to be most merciful, though understood not then even by the apostles, and misinterpreted by others, who presumed that God would have delivered him, if he had a favour unto him. Therefore we may feel the same assurance in other cases, and may find in it a consolation to alleviate similar trials, when the people of God are placed, as frequently they are placed, under the pressure of long-continued distress, or pain, or poverty.

A second inference should also be deduced from the reality and the extremity of the sufferings which Jesus underwent. It may console and tranquillise the fears of those who suffer in mind, not in body; who labour under a dread of God's anger, and painfully feel their habitual sinfulness, or their actual transgressions. Those that 66 weep now," and "mourn," ought not to be objects of wonder or censure. Who can blame, or be surprised at any whose heart is disquieted within them, when they look back upon their negligences and ignorances, their omissions of known duty, or their presumptuous sins? But they who have this deep sense of their own unworthiness, are the very persons who may be safely encouraged and comforted. And here is the comfort. However heavy the burthen of sin may be, it has been removed. However large the debt, it has been paid. Here, on the cross, the penalty of sin was exacted; and here it was undergone. Why was all the suffering which has been related, consented to by Christ, and why was it en

7

forced by God, except to give the penitent debtor his discharge, and to make the "satisfaction for his sins full, perfect, and sufficient?" So that "there is now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus;" whose faith has applied to their hearts the sprinkling of that "blood which cleanseth from all sin." "Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows." "It pleased the Lord to bruise him, and to put him to grief," for this very purpose, that the broken heart might be bound up, and the spirit of the contrite ones revived.

And now nothing was wanting except the fulfilment of one remaining prophecy, when it should be made manifest in the sight of men and angels that God had not forsaken his beloved Son. Jesus had exclaimed in the Syriac tongue, not well understood by those around, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?

35. And some of them that stood by, when they heard it, said, Behold, he calleth Elias.

36. And one ran and filled a sponge full of vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink, saying, Let alone; let us see whether Elias will come to take him down.

37. And Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up the ghost.

38. And the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom.

39. And when the centurion, which stood over against him, saw that he cried and gave up the ghost, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God.

He truly was, what he declared himself to be, and what the Jews denied him to be. The cen3 The Apostle's inference, Rom. viii. 1.

turion was brought to this conviction, by all that he had heard and witnessed: not by his last words only, but by the whole scene: the supernatural darkness, the earthquake which rent the veil of the temple, and all the circumstances which attended the crucifixion. Thus he adds a further testimony to the "grace and truth" which distinguished Jesus to the end. His life had been a life of active benevolence, his death was a death of meekness, and patience, and forbearance, and forgiveness: his whole deportment such as even a heathen soldier could not contemplate without emotion.

Truly

He has left us a truth to meditate upon. this was the Son of God, "who for us men, and for our salvation, came down from heaven." Truly this was the Son of God, "who bore our sins in his own body on the tree," that we being dead unto sin, might live unto righteousness: "being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit ;" "who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him." 4

1 Pet. iii. 18-22.

LECTURE XCIV.

THE BURIAL OF JESUS.

MARK XV. 40-47.

40. There were also women looking on afar off: among whom was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the less and of Joses, and Salome;

41. (Who also, when he was in Galilee, followed him, and ministered unto him ;) and many other women which came up with him unto Jerusalem.

These faithful women could not defend their Lord, nor avert the malice of the chief priests, nor soften the cruelty of the soldiers. But neither could they forsake him whom they had so long followed, and ministered unto: at whose feet they had so often sat, and heard his word; when he blessed their children, healed their diseases, and led them in the way of peace. So they stood looking on afar off: Mary of Magdala, whom he had delivered from the power of unclean spirits, Mary wife of Cleopas, and Salome, mother of John and James, who now learnt what before she had so much mistaken, the real nature of Christ's kingdom. She now understood

1

3

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1 Luke viii. 2. Tradition makes her to have been "the woman who was a sinner," mentioned Luke vii. 36: but we know nothing of this from scripture.

2 As is supposed, from John xix. 25.

3 Matt. xx. 20.

what cup her two sons must drink, and what baptism they must be baptized with, if they desired a place in that kingdom.

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With these were many other women which came up with him unto Jerusalem. His mother, perhaps, who had stood by his cross weeping, had left the dreadful scene, unable to endure its agony, and retired with her adopted son. But surely the sisters of Lazarus would be there, the last with whom he had held social intercourse, when leaving Jerusalem at evening he "went out to Bethany, and lodged there." 5 They who whenever they looked upon their brother Lazarus, beheld the proof of his goodness and his power, would certainly be found amongst these who followed afar off, and bewailed the anguish which they could not mitigate, and which would be so much the more grievous to them, because as yet they knew not its mysterious purpose, or its blessed consequences.

These would now bethink themselves concerning the body from which the spirit had departed: and were fearful, no doubt, lest he who whilst living had been mocked and reviled, should be exposed to fresh indignities when dead. The body, they knew, would be taken down from the cross, both because it was the preparation for the sabbath, and because the law forbade its remaining exposed until another day. They would be glad to perform the last remaining duty, and commit the lifeless body to the ground. And what they had not sufficient influence to effect, was effected in the way of God's own ordering.

+ See John xix. 26.

6 Deut. xxi. 22, 23.

3

Matt. xxi. 17.