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SERMON III.

ON THE CRUCIFIXION.

MATTHEW xxvii. 35.

" And they crucified him."

We have here the record of the most awful and atrocious deed ever perpetrated by man, or permitted by Almighty God: the murder of the Prince of Life. I mean, by God's assistance, to take a general view of the history; and if it shall appear, as it cannot fail to do, a thing marvellous and very extraordinary, all circumstances considered, that the wickedness of man should go so far as to do this deed; and more extraordinary, and more marvellous still, that God should allow of its being donewe will then examine into the actuating principle on both sides. We will consider, I mean, what led mankind to deal as they did by the Son of God; and, as far as Scripture will warrant us, and, as with reverence we may, what led God to leave his Son in their hands.

Such an enquiry may lead us, through the divine blessing, into fuller knowledge both of God, and of our own natural hearts, and so may yield us what may be useful for humiliation, for instruction, and for comfort.

First then, let us look to the history of this most marvellous transaction.

When the Lord Jesus Christ made his appearance upon earth, he came to a people who, in a peculiar sense, are called "his own." He came to that nation, which of all nations ought, in reason, to have been the best disposed to receive him; which ought to have known best how to treat him; and which had every advantage for judging of his pretensions, whether he was indeed the Saviour he called himself or not. He came to the Jews, who, being the chosen people of Jehovah, distinguished by him beyond every people, by many peculiar and invaluable privileges, ought, with a correspondent eagerness and earnestness, to have embraced and reverenced his Son; and who, being the keepers of the lively oracles of his word, had been led by a long series of prophecy to look for his Son. To look for him, at that very time when Jesus Christ did actually appear; to look for him as springing from that very family from which Jesus sprang; as born in that very place in which he was born; as to do what he did and be what he was; as characterized and discoverable by a vast number of clear marks and special indications, which did all unite and meet in Him, but which never did meet or can meet in any other. So that if they had been candidly disposed in judging of him, or rather if they had not been resolutely predetermined to shut their eyes against the light in his case; they could not, but have come to the conclusion: "This is he of whom our venerated Moses in the law, and all the prophets did write." * And accordingly many did come to this conclusion; and even among those who took part against him many actually did believe on him;"† that is, were persuaded, in spite of themselves, that he really was that deliverer whom God had so long and so often promised to their nation.

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Observe further, the miracles which Jesus did; more ten times over, than are recorded of all the Old Testament prophets put together. What a variety of them to demonstrate that all things were possible to him alike; that it mattered not to him whether he were solicited to cleanse the leper, or to raise the dead; to give sight to the blind, or to cast out devils; to create food for a hungry multitude, or to command the winds and waves. Recollect how infallibly and instantly, his word was always executed; how openly and in the face of all men, for the most part, his mighty works were done: so that his adversaries, if they could strive to account for his miracles without acknowledging the finger of God in them, or to draw away the people from being convinced by them; yet could they not deny the fact. "He casteth out devils through Beelzebub," * they could say, but they could not deny it, that he had cast them out. "This man is a sinner," they tell the blind man, "because he keepeth not the sabbath day, †" but they could not disprove, with all their sifting and questioning, the fact that he had indeed opened that man's eyes. And when they sought to lay hands upon Lazarus and to kill him; † it was for this very reason, because they had been certified of it and knew it for a truth, that Jesus whom they rejected, had raised this Lazarus from the dead. So that in their contempt of him, and in their malice towards him, they were constrained all along, to fight up hill against their own unconquerable convictions.

* Luke xi. 15.

† John ix. 16, 24.

‡ John xii. 10.

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Again, this same Jesus, whom this nation, with such unrelenting enmity, did persecutewhat had he done to excite their ill will? or what just cause of offence had he given to any, either by word or deed? Assuredly his life was nothing else, from first to last, but a labour of self-denying love. Whilst his demeanour was all amiableness, and patience, and meekness, and humility, and submission to every lawful ordinance of man;-He was all active service also. All that he had was at the disposal of those who followed him. His miracles were all miracles of mercy, and he never sent any away empty. In weariness and painfulness he held on his course. Any honest inquirer, however weak, might at any time break in upon his retirements. He went about doing good-nothing else but good, and that in such measure as makes the utmost beneficence of man to sink into less than nothing in comparison. Then if he failed to draw all men unto him, and to win their hearts, surely there was nothing which any man could have to say against him. And so, in fact, it proved. His foes bribed one of his immediate followers to betray him. Why did not that traitor come forward and be his accuser also? If his conduct had been different in private from what it was in public, he was