faid, It is finished; and he bowed his facred head, and yielded up his fpirit. At the inftant of this great catastrophe the elements of the world were fhaken; the awful gloom which over. fpread the heavens, the crash of the rending rocks, the difmal portents as of expiring na. ture, alarmed the attending multitude: they fmote their breasts, and returned in filent horror and difmay.

Let us now attend to the fubfequent events, and follow to his grave the body of him who was numbered with tranfgreffors in his death. By permiffion of Pontius Pilate, it was committed to the care of Jofeph of Arimathea; but before it was taken down from the cross, one of the foldiers with a fpear pierced his fide, and blood and water iffued from the wound: This was done to put his death beyond all doubt, whatever intereft either friends or foes might take in that event. The body, wrapped in a fhrowd, and embalmed with fpices and perfumes according to the cuftom of the country, was conveyed to an adjacent garden, and laid in a new fepulchre hewn out of the folid rock, which having been fo recently formed, was not yet provided with a gate; this defect was fupplied by a ponderous ftone, of fuch dimenfions as wholly to close up the entrance when rolled to it by the ftrength of men.

Thus the hiftory of Jefus of Nazareth feemed to be finally concluded. This was a fad termination of fuch hopes as had been entertained of him. He faved others; could he

not

not fave himfelf? He who could check the winds and the feas, and they were hushed at his rebuke; he who could difmifs the difeafes of mortality with his word; who could reftore the dead to life; who could difarm the multitude which once attempted to cut him off, and quietly pafs through the midft of them; and who, but the evening before, in the garden of Gethsemane, by only faying, I am he whom ye feek, had arrested the armed band which was advancing to feize him, and made them fall proftrate at his feet: Is he now ftript of all his power? Have his enemies at last prevailed, fince thus his body is configned in filence to the grave?

Let not this mournful event alarm you, as if the counfel of God had been thus defeated; it was only thus fulfilled. Ought not Chrift to have fuffered these things? Confider what is written by the prophets from the times of old; and mark how, by his fervants, the Spirit of God had difclofed the arrangements of Providence, the fate of our leader, and the behaviour of men, as they were known unto God from the beginning. (a) He is a man of for rows, and acquainted with grief; he is defpifed and rejected of men. (b) He was oppreffed and afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. (c) He was taken from prifon and from judgement: and who fball declare his generation? (d) He is

(a) Ifaiah Jiii. 3. (b) Verf. 7. (c) Verf. 8. (d) Verf 7.

brought as a lamb to the flaughter. (a) He was wounded; he was bruised.

(b) They weighed for my price thirty pieces of filver. A goodly price that I was valued at of them. (c) They pierced my hands and my feet. (d) In my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. (e) They part my garments among them, and caft lots upon my vesture. (f) My God, my God, why haft thou forfaken me? (g) I am a reproach of men, and defpifed of the people. All that fee me, laugh me to fcorn: they fboot out the lip, and fbake the head, faying, He trufted on the Lord, that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, feeing he delighteth in him. (h) He was cut off from the land of the living. They fball look on him whom they have pierced. (k) For he was numbered with tranfgreffors.

(i)

Such are the express declarations of ancient prediction recorded in the books of the prophets for the edification of the world; and thus far in the minuteft circumftances of the great event, all that God had spoken hath been with wonderful exactnefs accomplished. But the prophets had likewife announced the Meffiah's reign, as a fcene of joy and triumph: A life of glory and immortality was declared to be decreed for him, and the affurance of

victory was fuperadded to the tidings of death. The truth of God was pledged to men to reconcile thefe oppofite defcriptions; and to unveil in its feafon the mystery of Heaven.

The prophets had declared the decree in fuch terms as thefe.

(a) Thou wilt not leave my foul in the grave, nor give thine holy One to Jee corruption. (b) When thou shalt have made his foul an offering for fin, he shall prolong his days, the pleasure of the Lord profpering in his hand. He fhall fee of the travail of his foul, and fball be fatisfied. (c) Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he fhall divide the Spoil with the ftrong: because he poured out his foul unto death, and bare the fin of many, and (even in these circumstances) made interceffion for the tranfgreffors. (d) Come, fays the prophet Hofea, Let us return unto the Lord; for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath fmitten, and he will bind us up: After two days be will revive us, in the third day he will raife us up, and we shall live in his fight.

Our Lord, before his fufferings, had repeatedly inftructed his difciples in the application of the prophecies refpecting the whole scene through which he was deftined to pafs. The Son of man must suffer many things, and must be put to death, but on the third day he shall arife. Yet they understood not this saying, though

(a) Pfal. xvi. 10. (d) Hof. vi. 1. 2.

(b) Ifa. liii. 10. 11. (c) Verf. 120

A 3

fufficiently

fufficiently plain; for as yet they knew not the fcriptures, that he muft rife from the dead. More obfcurely he had intimated the fame thing to the Jewish nation at large, when after the performance of many beneficent miracles they ftill demanded a fign from heaven: expecting, as it appears, that the Meffiah fhould. exhibit before them that glory of the Lord, or celeftial light, which, in ancient times, had accompanied the manifeftations of the Angel of the covenant; the fame great meffenger who was to come to his own in the later days. For they overlocked all the affurances which the prophets had given, that at his coming in the character of Meffiah, he fhould have no form or comeliness, no exterior difplay either of his divine glory, or of regal magnificence, for which he fhould be defired of men. On occafion of this demand of the fign from heaven, Jefus ftood forth in the midst of the court of the temple, and laying his hand upon his breast, or by fome fuch fignificant action pointing to his own body, Ye will deftroy THIS temple, faid he, and in three days I will raise it up. This fhall be the great and decifive fign. There fball no fign be given to this evil generation, but the fign of the prophet Jonas: for as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, fo fall the Son of man be in the heart of the earth. He that hath ears to hear let him bear.

The various intimations which Jefus gave of