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A title, deriding his royal descent and dignity, was placed on the cross to which he was fixed. He was crucified between two malefactors; and, probably while the nails were piercing his hands and feet, when the sense and feeling of his ignominious sufferings were strongest, he thus prayed and pleaded for his murderers; “1 Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do."

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In this situation, which might have excited the pity of the most unfeeling spectator, and of the bitterest enemy, our Lord was reviled and mocked, his power was questioned, his prophecies perverted, and his dignity blasphemed, by the Jewish people, by the Roman soldiers, and by the Chief Priests, Scribes and Elders; the rulers mixing themselves with the throng, to feast their eyes with his sufferings, and to insult him under them.

But such conduct served only to display the greatness of the sufferer. The patience of Jesus remained unmoved. Here, as when he stood before his judges, he left his life and doctrine, his prophecies and miracles, the supernatural knowledge displayed by him, and the voices from heaven which bear him witness, to speak for him a stronger language than words could convey. As Origen P observes, his silence, under all the indignities and reproaches which he met

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Might raise compassion in an enemy.

PL. 7. § 54, 5, 6, p. 568, 9, Lardner's Testimonies ii. 317.

with, shewed more fortitude and patience than any thing said by the Greeks under their sufferings.

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And again, when one of the malefactors reproached him, he answered him not: but when the other said, "Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom," he thus acknowledged himself to be a king, and one who had the keys of heaven and hell, "Verily, I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise;" in the state of those who are separated, as in a garden of delight, for God's acceptance.

It is a remarkable instance of our Lord's composure, that, in the midst of his exquisite pains, he recommended his mother to that most benevolent apostle St. John.

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The next circumstance in the order of events is, that about the ninth hour our Lord cried with a loud voice, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" As the words in the original' psalm do not import a dereliction of the Deity, they cannot be thus understood when used by our Lord. In this strong language the Psalmist described imminent "distress and danger from the " sword of scornful and mighty enemies. He did not mean that he was totally forsaken by Jehovah, whom he afterwards entreated not to be far from him, whom he called his strength, whom he characterized as not hiding his face from the afflicted, and to whom he promised * praise and thanksgiving in return for the mercies

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which he implored. In the same terms our Lord
expressed the greatness of his anguish; when, in the
prophetic words of the psalm, which is sometimes
applicable to David and sometimes to the Messiah,
"he
was poured out like water, his bones were
separated from each other, his heart was like wax, it
was melted within him." Our Lord's language, I
say, was dictated by extreme suffering, and not by
distrust. In the style of the Hebrew scriptures,
when God permitted individuals or nations to be op-
pressed and afflicted, he was said to hide his face from
them, to forget, reject, or forsake them. Our Lord
could not suppose that God had cast him off, because
immediately before and after these words he reposed
an entire confidence in him. During his crucifixion
he twice called God his f Father, he declared his as-
surance that he should enter into a state of happi-
ness, and accordingly he resigned his departing spirit
into his Father's hands. He likewise saw, during
the space of three hours before he expired, that God
miraculously interposed in his behalf, by diminishing
the light of the sun and shedding a comparative dark-
ness over the whole land, or, at least, that part of it
which was adjacent to Jerusalem. When Jesus had
thus poured forth his sorrows, in the words of a sacred
hymn which foretold many circumstances of his death,
God, who had, as it were, hidden his face from
him for a moment, had mercy on him with everlast-
ing kindness, and speedily closed the scene of his

d Psal. xxii. 14. 10, 21, 22. xlii. 9. Luke xxiii. 34, 46.

See Job xx. 19. Psal. xxxvii. 25. xxxviii; xliii. 2. lxxi. 11, 12, 18. Isai. xlix. 14. liv. 7, 8.

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sufferings. For, immediately after this, “* Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst.” This thirst was the natural consequence of his pains, and of that effusion of blood which was occasioned by piercing his hands and his feet. But, unless it had remained that the prophecy of the Psalmist should receive its " full completion, it was a circumstance on which he would have observed a majestic silence : such was his command over himself, and so attentive was he that not one jot or tittle of the prophets should pass away. "Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar ;" the mean drink of the Roman soldiers; and one of the bystanders filled a sponge with vinegar, and placed it upon a bunch of hyssop, and by means of a reed advanced it to his mouth. "When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished :" The prophecies concerning me, antecedently to my death, have had their accomplishment: I have finished my laborious and painful course I have thus far performed thy will, O God. Immediately after this, he expired with words expressive of a perfect reliance on God, and a firm persuasion of his acceptance: " Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit."

Thus did our Lord appear as great in his sufferings as in his actions, in his death as in his life; and thus did he exhibit a wonderful example of forgive

* John. xix. 28.

I See Lardner's Test. ii. 303, § 24. where Origen objects that Jesus was unable patiently to endure thirst. m See Psal. Ixix. 21. Matt. xxvii. 34.

D

John xix. 29. and p. p.

• ib. v. 30.

P Luke xxiii. 46.

ness and composure, of magnanimity and conscious dignity, of filial love and pious resignation, in the midst of the most horrid tortures that human nature is capable of sustaining.

SECTION IX.

OF OUR LORD'S VERACITY.

WHEN Jesus is said to have "dwelt among us full of grace and truth," the evangelist may either mean to characterize him as sincere, faithful and true, or to oppose the solid and substantial truths of his doctrine to the types and shadows of the law.

Most justly did our Lord say of himself that "he told the Jews the truth which he had heard from God;" and that, "because he told them the truth,” however contradictory to their prejudices," they did not believe him." He paid a constant regard to the virtue of veracity; it was a prevailing principle with him, and a constituent part of his character: and therefore, when he had fearlessly acknowledged his regal dignity to Pilate, he added, "For this cause was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness to the a truth :" that in fit circumstances I should acknowledge my high office, and should preach and confirm the religion which I am sent to found, whatever danger I may incur by such a conduct.

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