person, that so lived and died, was God as well as man ; and every action that he did, and every passion that he suffered, was done and suffered by him that was God as well as man. And hence it is that Christ of all the persons in the my Redeemer, mediator, and surety, because he alone is both God and man in one person. If he was not man, he could not undertake that office; if he was not God, he could not perform it: if he was not man, he could not be capable of being bound for me; if he was not God, he could not be able to pay my debt.-BEVERIDGE. fore the justice-seat of his father, under the imputed guilt of all our sins, and so eyeing him, and accounting his business to be chiefly with him, he did patiently bear the due punishment of all our sins at his father's hand, according to that of the Psalmist, "I was dumb, I open-world, is so fit, yea only fit, to be ed not my mouth; because thou didst it." Ps. xxxix. 9. And therefore the prophet immediately subjoins the description of his silent behaviour to that which he had spoken of the confluence of our iniquities upon him: "As a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth." Isa. liii. 7.-LEIGHTON. Tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God? Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said. What a strange mystery the work of man's redemption is, that God himself should become man! That he that was perfect God, like unto the Father in every thing, his personal properties only excepted, should also be perfect man, like unto us in all things, our personal infirmities only excepted; that he that made the world should be himself made in it; that eternity should stoop to time, glory be wrapt in misery, and the sun of righteousness hid under a cloud of earth; that innocence should be betrayed, justice condemned, and life itself should die, and all to redeem man from death to life. Oh wonder of wonders! How justly may we say with the Apostle, "Without controversy great is the mystery of godliness!" 1 Tim. iii. 16. He, by his life and death, merited so much for us, because the same Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.We have a telescope through which we can behold the glorious appearance of the supreme judge; the solemn state of his majestic person; the splendid pomp of his magnificent and vastly numerous retinue; the obsequious throng of glorious celestial creatures, doing homage to their eternal king; the swift flight of his royal guards, sent forth into the four winds to gather the elect, and covering the face of the heavens with their spreading wings; the universal silent attention of all to that loud sounding trumpet that shakes the pillars of the world, pierces the inward caverns of the earth, and resounds from every part of the encircling heavens; the many myriads of joyful expectants arising, changing, putting on glory, taking wing, and mounting upwards, to join themselves to the triumphant heavenly host; the judgment set, the books opened, the frightful and amazed looks of surprised wretches; the equal administration of the final judgment; the adjudication of all to their eternal states; the heavens rolled up as a scroll; the earth and all things therein consumed and burnt up.-HOWE. HYMN. Thou who for me didst feel such pain, Whose precious blood the cross did stain, Let not those agonies be vain! 68 Saying, "Prophecy unto us, thou Christ, Who is he that smote thee? 69 Now Peter sat without in the palace and a damsel came unto him, saying, Thou also wast with Jesus of Galilee. 70 But he denied before Thou who wast moved with Mary's grief, them all, saying, I know not what thou sayest. And by absolving of the thief Hast given me hope, now give relief! From that insatiable abyss Where flames devour, where Satan is, ROSCOMMON. § LXXXVII. CHAP. XXVI. 65-75. Christ condemned to death; and denied by Peter. 65 'Then the high priest rent his clothes, saying, He hath spoken blasphemy; what further need have we of witnesses? behold, now ye have heard his blasphemy. 71 And when he was gone out into the porch, another maid saw him, and said unto them that were there, This fellow was also with Jesus of Nazareth. 72 And again he denied with an oath, I do not know the man. 73 And after a while came unto him they that stood by, and said to Peter, Surely thou also art one of them; for thy "speech bewrayeth thee. 74 Then 'began he to curse and to swear, saying, I know not the man. And immediately the cock crew. 75 And Peter remembered the word of Jesus, which said unto him, 'Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice, And he went out, and wept | fering, not only mistakes and misbitterly. 12 Kin. xviii 87; & xix. 1.-m Lev. xxiv. 16. John xix. 7.-n Is. 1.6; & liii. 3. ch. xxvii. 30.-o Luke xxii. 63. John xix. 3.-1 Or, rods.-p Mark xiv. 65. Luke xxii. 64.-q Mark xiv. 66 Luke xxii. 55. 17, 25.- Luke xxii. 59.-s Mark xiv. 71.- ver. 34. Mark xiv. 30. Luke xxii. 61, 62. John xiii. 38. constructions, but bitter scoffings and reproaches. Why should not our minds ply and fold to this upon John xviii. 16, that very reason which he so reasonably presses again and again on his disciples? "The servant is not greater than his master." And, in reference to this very thing he adds, "If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household ? LEIGHTON. READER. Then the high priest rent his clothes, saying, He hath spoken blasphemy. Reproaches are often mentioned amongst and beyond other trials, and accounted persecution. See Mat. v. 10, 11. In the history of the casting out of Hagar and her son, Gen. xxi. 9, all we find laid to Ishmael's charge is "Sarah saw him mocking." And as "he that was born after the flesh," did then, in this manner, "persecute him that was born after the spirit," even so it is now. Gal. iv. 29. And thus are reproaches mentioned amongst the sufferings of Christ in the Gospel, and not as the least; the railings and mockings that were darted at him, are mentioned more than the very nails that fixed him. And so Heb. xii. 2, "the shame of the cross though he were above it, and despised it, yet that "shame" added much to the burden of it." Consider him who endured the contradiction of sinners. دو Now this is the lot of Christians, as it was of Christ. And why should they look for more kindness and better usage, and think to find acclamations and applauses from the world which so vilified their Lord? Oh no! The vain heart must be weaned from these, to follow Christ. If we will indeed follow him, it must be tamed to share with him in this point of suf them! Mat. XX. 24, 25. Then did they spit in his face, and buffeted him; and others smote him with the palms of their hands, saying, Prophecy unto us, thou Christ, who is he that smote thee? What dreadful sins doth brutish ignorance lead men to commit! Sins that, were their eyes open, open, would affright Had these wretches known who it was they abused thus, it would have precipitated them into the gulf of sorrow and despair! O my soul, how is it thou dost not tremble to think of the sins thou didst commit in thy ignorance? How didst thou laugh at sins which have made other good men weep rivers of tears! How bold hast thou been in thy affronts of the Divine Majesty! Affronts, at the thoughts of which some saints have fainted, and yet thou canst think of them at this time without indignation! Thou wouldst indeed, it is likely, commit them no more; but how should the very remembrance of them strike terror into thy mind, and make thee wish for fountains of water to bewail them!-HORNECK. He denied before them all—And again he denied with an oath-Then began he to curse and to swear, saying, I know not the man. Here we have a sad instance of human frailty, when left to itself. St. Peter had declared, over and over again, that he would lay down his life for his master; but when he saw his master in this danger, and was charged with being one of his disciples, he denied it after a manner the most weak and scandalous; which was, no doubt, a great addition to our Lord's affliction. This ought to be a warning to the best of us, not to trust in ourselves, without the grace and help of God, which we ought never to forget to pray for. We have in us the seeds of all manner of wickedness, ready to spring up, and break out into sinful actions upon the first occasion, if not restrained by the grace of God. We are all of the same race and make with St. Peter, who denied his Lord and Saviour-with Judas, who betrayed him,—with Pilate who condemned him against his conscience, with the Jews who crucified him,-with Herod who murdered the innocent children,with the men of Sodom, whose sin was punished with fire and brimstone, and with those of the old world who brought upon themselves an universal destruction. Though the corruption of our nature has not discovered itself in such wickedness as these, yet we have the root and seed of all these, and all other, sins in us; and we ought to know this, and to know that on this account we are utterly unfit for the favour of God, and should certainly feel his everlasting displeasure, but that Jesus Christ has purchased our redemption by his most precious blood, and has put us into a way of regaining the favour of God, and of attaining everlasting salvation, if we are not wanting to ourselves. It is absolutely necessary that we should know and feel our miserable estate and condition, to the end that, seeing our misery, we may more earnestly look out for help, and embrace it when offered to us. St. Peter had, perhaps, as much natural courage as most men, as appears by his behaviour in the garden; and he had positively given his Master his word, 'If I should die with thee, I will not deny thee in any wise';-and yet within twelve hours after, he swears that he knows him not! What account can be given of this? Why, this was the cause of such a strange alteration in the Apostle,-He trusted to his own strength, and God for that time left him to himself, and you see what followed. And so it will ever be when God, for our sins, leaves us to ourselves. There is not the vilest thing we now abhor, nor the basest vice which we may not be guilty of, if ever the Spirit of God gives us up to the government of our own wills.-WILSON. And immediately the cock crew. And Peter remembered the word of Jesus, which said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. And he went out and wept bitterly.— St. Luke adds, "And the Lord of the people took counsel turned, and looked upon Peter." Our Lord had pity on him, otherwise he might have gone the length of Judas' sin: the cock had spoken to his outward ears without any effect, till Jesus, with a most gracious and powerful look, touched his heart with a true sense of his crime, and melted it into tears of repentance.-May the same eye of mercy look upon us whenever we shall do amiss, that we may be sensible of our fault, and return out of the way of ruin !-WILSON. CHAP. XXVII. 1-10. against Jesus to put him to death: 2 And when they had bound him, they led him away, and delivered him to Pontius Pilate the governor. b C 3 Then Judas which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders. 4 Saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? see thou to that. 5 And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself. 6 And the chief priests took the silver pieces, and said, It is not lawful for to put them into the treasury, because it is the price of blood. 7 And they took counsel, and bought with them the potter's field, to bury strangers in. 8 Wherefore that field was called, The field of blood unto this day. 9 Then was fulfilled that Christ is delivered bound to Pilate. which was spoken by Jeremy Judas hangeth himself. the prophet, saying, And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was valu |