now so penitent and pious, had been equally wicked and hardened all along with the other, who remained the same and unaltered; and that the happy change in him, was wrought all at once, as he hung upon the cross, by an act of sovereign grace, being instantly transformed from a great sinner, into a holy and godlike person, and fixed in the divine favour for ever.

No one will question the extraordinary power of God, when there are just grounds of evidence given that he really does exert it. But we ought not to make such suppositions, and multiply miraculous interpositions, when we can account for things in a natural manner, and in the ordinary way of the divine ment and dealings with mankind.

govern

And the history of this man, so far as we can make it out from the imperfect hints afforded, will satisfy us, that he had not been originally, nor was at the last, the bad character he is by some supposed to have been.

St. Luke calls the two men, who were condemned to suffer death at the same time with our Lord, malefactors. But Matthew and Mark denote them by a word which we trans

late

late thieves; but which does by no means convey an exact idea of their criminality.

This we shall best learn from Josephus, the famous Jewish historian, who was of that country, and lived in the apostles' days: and he informs us, that there were at that time in Judea a great number of outlaws, whom he styles norai, the same word used by the two evangelists, who took up arms out of a religious principle; maintaining that the government of the Romans over them was illegal, and not to be submitted to. Under this mask of religion, in which there are always some mistaken enthusiasts, but which has been oftener a pretext for the worst of crimes, they made no scruple of robbing any of the Romans that inhabited the country who fell in their way; and as acts of violence rarely stop at the principle with which they began, they not seldom proceeded to rifle and injure their countrymen. We find from the incidental mention of some things, in the Gospel-history, that these seditious risings among the Jewish people were very rife at that period.

And the punishment of crucifixion inflicted on these two men points out that they had

been

been concerned in some practices against the state, as that was the Roman punishment for such crimes, and the same which our Saviour himself underwent; who suffered under such an imputation, and accusation from the Jewish rulers, though most unjust; as a disturber of the public peace.

Now persons, who were very far from being wicked characters, of which number this man may well be reckoned, might be drawn into such parties as these; especially as their divine law forbad them to take a foreigner to reign over them, which they might apply to their present subjection. And it is also acknowledged that the Roman governors of Judea, acting under the emperors, were often most cruel and oppressive; and, as a good man observes on this very case, "how far they were to bear ill usage, was not altogether so clear a case, in which an honest man might not mistáke."

So much for the cause which brought this person to so untimely an end; in which we find nothing to mark him as having been a bad man, however unfortunately drawn into the seditious act for which he suffered.

It

It is no unreasonable supposition further to be made, that he may have been probably for many months confined in prison, and during that space had leisure to reflect upon his past life, and this his insurrection against the government, and the many injuries and cruelties he might have been led into by his associates, and have truly repented of them.

His behaviour at his death confirms this character: not hardened like the other unhappy man, but vindicating the holy and innocent Jesus, and acknowledging the justness of his own punishment: not ruffled or disturbed, as one who had been going on in a sinful course, but calm and penitent, with a patient and humble resignation to his deserved fate. Moreover, by his earnest defence of our Lord's innocence, he shows he had some knowledge of him. He might have seen, he had undoubtedly heard of his miraculous works, the proofs of his authority from God: for they were things not done in a corner. Nay, he might have mixed, at times, among the crowd of his hearers, and listened to his heavenly discourses, and improved by them: though they did not prevent his engaging in the rash attempt

against

against the Roman power, which cost him his life. There is nothing in the history, that makes against such suppositions, but what tends rather to confirm them. Nor any thing to lead us to conclude, but that if the man had had his life spared, he might have been a virtuous and faithful disciple of Christ, and willing for the truth to lay down his life, which he now acknowledges justly taken from him on another account.

"And one of the malefactors, which were hanged, railed on him, saying, If thou be the Christ, save thyself and us. But the other answering, rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly: for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss."

III.

There is, therefore, no ground to conclude, that there was any sudden, extraordinary change made in this man's mind and disposition, by which he became qualified for heaven's happiness, which he was not before he was hung upon the cross.

But