Such must have been the end, if the Son had not consented to stand in the stead of our guilty race, and said, "Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. I am content to do it." And then could God say, "Deliver them from going down into the pit, for I have found a ransom.' He was a sufficient ransom, who being without sin, could atone for man's guilt; he was our ransom, who taking our nature upon him, could die our death, suffer our penalty. "His human nature did put a price into his hands to lay down for the redemption of our souls: and his divine nature did put a value upon that price, and made it sufficient and responsible for all the purposes of God."5

Thus, he who was without transgression, came to be numbered with the transgressors. And God permitted, nay, decreed it, that he might show himself at the same time just, in punishing sin, and merciful, in pardoning the penitent. This was the design from the beginning, that justice and mercy might agree together that God might display to all the world the heinousness of sin, and yet might remit its penalty.

And heavy indeed must be the penalty from which man was delivered, if we judge of it from that which Jesus endured. Many things conspired to render the cross which he bore unusually severe. In other cases, it often happens that the pity, if not the favour of the multitude, is directed towards those who die by public execution. The two malefactors with whom he was numbered, were assailed by no popular fury. But all the malice which Satan

4 Job xxxiii. 24.

5

Manton, Ser. on John i. 29.

could suggest or man employ, was turned against Him who was now "bearing our sins in his own body." He was delivered to a party of soldiers, too often inured to scenes of cruelty; of Roman soldiers, who would despise the Jewish criminal, and heap upon him the contempt which they felt towards his nation. He whose description it was, that he was "meek and lowly in heart," was treated as if he had been ambitious and aspiring, claiming honour to which he was not entitled, and assuming to himself royal robes and a royal crown. He whose character

it was that a bruised reed he would not break, nor quench the smoking flax, was insulted as if he had ruled the nations with a rod of iron, and forced all men to bow the knee before him. The very patience with which he yielded himself up to die, was made a subject of mockery and reviling; alleged as proof that he could not deliver himself, as often he had delivered others. And one at least of those that were crucified with him, "cast the same in his teeth," challenging him to save himself and them, if he were indeed the Christ. Surely the prophetic lamentation was realised, "Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? Look and see, if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow?" 7

29. And they that passed by railed on him, wagging their heads, and saying, Ah, thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days,

30. Save thyself, and come down from the cross.

8

31. Likewise also the chief priests mocking said among themselves with the scribes, He saved others; himself he

cannot save.

* See the account as given by St. Luke, xxiii. 39-42.

7 Jerem. Lament. i. 12.

Matt. xxvii. 39-43.

32. Let Christ the King of Israel descend now from the cross, that we may see and believe. And they that were crucified with him reviled him. 9

We know not whether most to wonder at the hardness of heart displayed by these spectators of such a scene, or to admire the heavenly patience which could say of them, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!"

Yet, after all, it was not to the Roman soldiers, it was not to the chief priests or scribes, it was not to Caiaphas or Pilate that we must ascribe these sufferings of Jesus. He was bearing the punishment of sin. The burthen of the world's sin, of our sin, was upon him. Had not "sin entered into the world, and so death had passed upon all men, for that all had sinned," the Son of man would not have been condemned, or insulted, or scourged, or buffeted, or reviled, or crucified. That indignation, therefore, which we naturally feel towards the authors and instruments of these sufferings, we should turn against ourselves, and our own transgressions. It should increase alike our feelings of thankfulness and of penitence, to reflect within ourselves, If we had not been sinners, the Saviour would not have died.

66

But we must not stop here. Because of our sinful nature, Christ died. He was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities," that he might "bring us to God," as his penitent, and reconciled, and obedient children. "He gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity,

9

See Luke xxiii. 35-43.

21 Pet. iii. 18.

1

Rom. v. 12.

3

and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." He "is the propitiation for our sins," to the end that we may "present ourselves, our souls and bodies, a holy and willing sacrifice unto God," and "glorify him in our body and our spirit, which are his." + And to "continue in sin," whilst we profess the faith of him who came to save us from our sins, would be to "crucify the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame." 5

LECTURE XCIII.

THE DEATH OF JESUS.

MARK XV. 33-39.

33. And when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.

34. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? 1

And yet the darkness which was over the whole land proved that He who commands the darkness and the light, had not forsaken his beloved Son, but Rom. xii. 1. 1 Cor. vi. 20.

3 Tit. ii. 14.

From Ps. xxii. 1.

chaldaic dialect, not as

5 Heb. vi. 6.

But written here, according to the Syroin Matthew, in the pure Hebrew.

was mindful of all that was passing at Jerusalem. We are not told what was the degree of darkness: only that it was no ordinary cloud: something to be remarked as supernatural. As if the heavenly bodies themselves, and the whole celestial firmament which the Son of God had made, were sensible of the agony which he underwent, and sympathised with his sufferings.

Those sufferings were extreme. Not to insist upon the wrath of God against sin, and the hiding of his countenance from him who was now bearing its punishment: not to insist upon what are called in an ancient Liturgy, his unknown sufferings:yet to speak only of the agony in the garden of Gethsemane, the torture of the scourge, the crown of thorns, and the cruel violence of the soldiers; together with the gradual extinction of life by the anguish of the cross: all these make up an actual accumulation of sufferings from which our minds recoil which we are unwilling to contemplate. We had rather not "look and see, whether there has been any sorrow like unto his sorrow."

Yet God permitted this; who wills not the misery of any; for "God is love." He permitted it in the case of one most dear to him: for Jesus was his "beloved Son, in whom he was well pleased."

An inference may be drawn from this, in which those may find comfort who labour under protracted and severe affliction. It assures us that such things may be allowed for wise though mysterious purposes, and are not a sign that they are forgotten who suffer 2 See Bp. Andrews, Serm. on Passion.