accomplished, except by one who should be God manifested in the flesh.

Great mysteries, indeed, are here on all sides: for, on the one hand, if they believed not Moses and the prophets, neither would they have believed though one had risen from the dead.

On the

other hand, had they all believed Moses and the prophets, those very prophets and Moses had been belied: for, had they known it, certainly never would they have crucified the Lord of glory; nay, they would never even have objected that Jesus ever once spake one syllable against that fundamental truth, "Hear, O Israel, Jehovah our God is one Jehovah :" he had spoken else against himself. And, on all hands, confessedly, great is the mystery of godliness, that ever God should be manifested in the flesh! Here it is that belief itself may almost wonder how it doth believe. These are mysteries (these sufferings of Christ, and the glory to follow), which beings of far higher capacity than ourselves desire to explore: and yet, it is not so much even our understanding that is perplexed; it is our imagination rather that is swallowed up in the immensity of such a mercy: a fact, indeed, this, which is no great wonder, since even the works of his hand, and their immensity, whether in the vast or the minute, are no less unimaginable by us.

Howbeit, even so the omnipotence of Jehovah was to be seen, subduing his own glory to the possibility of human converse. The wisdom of Jehovah was to be discerned, contriving the expiation of sin, infinite as was its demerit: contriving, that not by a penalty, paid unwillingly in the person of the culprit (for that must have been of an infinite duration), but by a penalty willingly paid, once for all, in the person of a Surety, of infinite dignity and merit; even so should the infinite demerit of sin find perfect expiation; and, at the same time, his own infinite justice and mercy should find perfect satisfaction. And the goodness of Jehovah, thus condescending to become man, and executing his own purpose, in the person of his own Son; how ought it to have been felt? And how has it been received? By converting his very condescension into an argument against his prerogative! By denying that he ever could have done such a thing; by asserting, when he did it, that he was, after all, no more than a man. What all men acknowledge for sublime, when the great Muscovite became a shipwright, to create an empire, and thereby became himself so much the more a thousand-fold an Emperor; a similar condescension, but magnified to infinitude, until it became an object too vast for eye of man to see, or heart to conceive, or tongue to tell; this, at

which principalities and powers stand abashed, by man how has it been received? With utter contempt! Is not this the carpenter's son? And still the heavens do stand, nor have not yet rushed down upon such an earth!

Transfer your thoughts now to the foot of the cross; and confess, that wonderful as was the prophecy itself, no less wonderful was its fulfilment.

Jesus had just expired. Then came the soldiers, and brake the legs of the first, and of the other which was crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs: but one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came thereout blood and water. And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe. For these things were done, that the Scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken. And again another Scripture saith, They shall look on him whom they pierced." (John xix. 32-37.)

The evangelist, observe, quotes the prophecy, as being, in his day, an acknowledged prophecy of the Messiah. How, indeed, is it possible that the writers of the New Testament should have ventured, or how could it even have served their purpose, to distort the prophecies which they

quoted from their received sense? You observe, also, that he records the fact, as a perfect accomplishment of the prophecy; the spear-head had reached even the pericardium; upon which, had he not been dead already, he must have died instantly; and thence the water flowed, mingled with blood. Observe, lastly, that he makes a great point of it, and with reason. The prophecy had been public, and of ancient date; the circumstance itself was too particular and minute, as well as too distant, for any seer, with an unaided eye, ever to have foreseen; yet that very circumstance occurred, and the prophecy was fulfilled. We, as we read with indignation that one of the common soldiers, probably without orders, and certainly without necessity, thus wantonly violated that sacred shrine, even now when the holocaust was over-almost are we ready to exclaim, "What, was there never angel there, to cry through the dark, Hold!" No, they dared not; for had that execrable insult not been permitted, this prophecy had not been fulfilled; as, on the other hand, had his legs been broken, as those of the other two were, he could not have been the very paschal lamb; the one profanation must be peremptorily prevented, but the other must as absolutely be permitted. And, after all, had he not been buried

before the stars appeared, the type of Jonah, which he had himself adopted, would not have been verified.

The Jews have a legend, that when Moses smote the rock in the wilderness, there came forth blood before the water flowed. But this is no legend; that "when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats with water, (with scarlet wool and hyssop), and sprinkled both the book and all the people, saying, This is the blood of the covenant, which God hath enjoined unto you." Thus, the former covenant was not struck and firmly sealed, but by the sprinkling of blood mingled with water; nor was the better covenant. "This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood." The twofold sacrament which followed the point of the Gentile spear was a fountain opened, that day, for sin and for uncleanness; and we, both the natural and the spiritual seed of Abraham, have only to approach, to wash, and be clean.

Lay all this together, and confess a wonder. His whole life was one infinite wonder. The accusation against him, was true; that being a man, be made himself equal with God: he did, indeed, by his wonderful works. Of his own most