whilft he was under the reproaches, and buffetings, and whippings, and thorns, he was not without a terrible and confufed fadness and heavinefs within, which, though they did not mitigate the torments of his body, yet did infinitely exceed them: the spirit and the foul is moft exquifitely fenfible, and it is that which feels the pains inflicted upon the body. Certainly, therefore, the wound of the fpirit itself, the fountain of fenfe, muft needs be exceedingly grievous and hence it was, that though all the injuries and torments of our Saviour could fcarce wring a complaint from him, yet the weight of that wrath that lay upon his foul, now made an offering for fin, did wring from him thofe bitter and terrible cries, that one would wonder should proceed from him, that was one with the Father; My God, my God, why haft 'thou forfaken me1? From the fixth hour to the ninth, darkness was over all the land 2, fuch a darknefs as bred an astonishment even in firangers and other countries. The darknefs of the world, though a fuitable dress for fuch a time, wherein the Son of God muft die, and the fun of righteousness must be eclipfed; yet it was nothing in comparison of that difmal fhadow that covered our Saviour's foul all this time. About the ninth hour, our Saviour cried that cry, My God, my God, why haft thou forfaken me?' Manifefting the depth of his forrow, and the perfect fense he had of it. C Why haft thou forfaken me?' More could not have been fuffered, or been faid; every word carries in it an accent of horror. Thou, 'that art the great God, from whom, and in whom, every thing hath its being and comfort; surely if in thy prefence is fulness of joy, in thy withdrawings must be fulness of horror and confufion; and yet it is thou that haft forfaken me. Forfaken; hadft 'thou never been with me, as I had not known the bleffedness of thy fruition, fo I could not have mea

Matth. xxvii, 46.

2 Matth. xxvii. 45,

• fured

'fured the extremity of my lofs; the excess of the 'happiness that I had in thy prefence, adds to the ex'cefs of my mifery in the fuffering of thy abfence. Forfaken me; not withdrawn thyfelf to a diftance, but forfaken me; and forfaken me at fuch a time as 'this, when I ftand more in need of thy prefence than ever; when I am forfaken of my countrymen, of my 'kindred, of my difcip'es, then to be forfaken of 'thee, when I am under the fhame and pains of a cruel ' and curfed death; under the fcorns and derifions of 'those that hate me; under the weight and preffure ' of all the fins of the world; under the ftrugglings 'with terrors in my foul, fent from thy mighty hand, ' under the vifible approach of death, the king of terrors; under a veil of darknefs without, and the feeming triumph of the power of darkness within then to be forfaken, and forfaken of thee, whom I 'had only left to be my fupport. Forfaken me it is 'not a ftranger that thou forfakeft; it is thy Son; thy only Son, in whom thou didft heretofore proclaim 'thyself well pleased; that Son whom though thou ' now forfakeft, yet forgets not his duty unto thee, 'nor dependance upon thee; but ftill lays hold on thee; and though thou fhakeft me off, yet I mult 'ftill call upon thee, with the humble confidence of 'My God, my God, ftill, Why haft thou forfaken 'me? To be forfaken, and to be forfaken of God, of my God; of him that is not only my God, but my 'Father, and that at fuch a time; and yet not to 'know why.' Oh bleffed Saviour, the prophets that fpake by thy own fpirit did tell thee why; and that very pfalm, out of which thou takeft this bitter cry, doth tell thee why; and thou thyfelf within fome few days, or hours before, didft tell us why; and dost thou now afk us why? Didft thou not choose even that which thou now groaneft under? and wert willing to put thy foul in our fouls ftead, and bear the fin of those which are now thy burden? Certainly we

may with all humility and reverence conceive, that at the time of this bitter cry, our Saviour's foul was, for the prefent, overfhadowed with so much astonishment and forrow, that it did for the present over-power and cover the actual and diftinct fenfe of the reafon of it; atleast in that measure and degree in which he fuffered. This cry of our Saviour was about the ninth hour, a little before his death, and having fulfilled one prophecy in this terrible cry, contained in the very words of Pfalm xxii, he fulfils another; he faith, I thirst 1,' and presently they give him vinegar to drink. And between this and his death there intervene these paffages. 1. His proclaiming to the world, that the work of our redemption was finifhed,' when he received the 'vinegar, he said, it is finished 2.' 2. A fecond cry with a loud voice 3. The words are not expreffed of his fecond cry; only both Evangelifts, Matthew and Luke, teftify it was a cry with a loud voice; to evidence to the world that in the very article of his giving up of the ghoft, the ftrength of nature was not wholly spent, for he cried with a loud voice. 3. The comfortable refignation of his foul into the hands of his Father Father, into thy hands I commend my fpirit 4' And although, but even now, the black ftorm was upon his foul, that made him cry out with that loud and bitter cry, yet the cloud is over, and with comfort he delivers up his foul into the hands of that God, whom he thought, but even now had forfaken him. It is more than probable, that that bitter cry was uttered at the very zenith of his pains; and when he had taken the vinegar, and proclaimed that it is finished; though they were all wrapt up in a very fmall time, about the end of the ninth hour, yet now there remained no more, but for him to give up his fpirit, which he instantly thereupon did: He faid, it is finifhed, he bowed the head, and gave up the 'ghoft 5. Now the things wonderfully obfervable in

2

4

John xix. 28. Johnxix. 30. Matth. xxvii. 50. Luke xxiii. 46. John xix. 30.

the

1. That it was a

the death of our Saviour are many. voluntary delivering up of his fpirit; this is that which he faid, No man taketh it from me, but I lay it 'down: I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again; this commandment have 'I received of my Father'.' And truly this voluntary delivering up of his foul, was well near as great an evidence of his divinity, as his refuming it again; fo that this very delivering up of his foul, converted the centurion. When he faw that he fo cried and gave up the ghost, he said, truly this man was the fon of 'God. Now that he thus voluntarily gave up his fpirit, is evident; 1. By the ftrength of nature that was yet upon him, in the very article of his death, he cried with a loud voice. 2. That the thieves who were crucified at the fame time, died not till there was a farther violence ufed by breaking their legs 3, but he expired to prevent the violence of the foldiers, and to fulfil the type and prophecy, Not a bone of him fhall be broken 4.' 3. That the fuddennefs of his death caufed admiration in thofe that well knew the lingering course of fuch a death; in the Centurion 5, in Pilate 6, which might probably be the cause that the infolent foldier, to fecure the affurance of his death, pierced his fide with a spear 7, and thereby fulfilled that other fcripture which he never thought of 8.

Now the wonderful occurrences that accompanied our Saviour's death were very many, and confiderable. 1. A ftrange and particular fulfilling of the prophecies and types, that were concerning our Saviour's death, and the very individual circumftances that attended it ; and all to confirm our faith, that this was indeed the Meffias, and that he was thus delivered over to death, by the most certain and pre-determinate counsel of God; the time of his death fo exactly predicted by Daniel 9, the parallel circumftances with the pafchal lamb, in

the nature of him, a lamb without spot 1; in the time of his delivery over to death, at the feast of the paffover, and the very evening wherein the paffover to be eaten In the manner of his oblation, not a bone to be broken 2: Again, the manner of his death, by piercing his hands and his feet; the very words ufed by him; the words ufed of him 5; the crucifying of him between malefactors 6; the whippings 7; the dividing of his garments, and cafting lots upon his vesture 8; the thirit of our Saviour upon the cross, and the giving him vinegar and gall 9.

2. A ftrange and miraculous concuffion of nature, giving teftimony to the wonderful and unheard of diffolution of our Saviour's body and foul, darkness from the fixth hour until the ninth hour. And it is obfervable in the night wherein he was born, by a miraculous light the night became as day 10; but at his death a miraculous darkness turned the day into night for three hours 11. At his birth a new star was created to be the lamp and guide unto the place of his birth 12; but at his death the fun in the firmament was masked with darknefs, and yielded not his light, while the Lord of life was paffing into the vale of death. Again, another prodigy that accompanied the death of Chrift, was an earthquake, that rent the rocks and opened the graves, and ftruck amazement and conviction into the centurion that was watching him 13. When our Saviour was entering into the earth by death, the earth trembled; and fo it did when he was coming out of it by his refurrection 14.

3. Again, the graves were opened, and the dead bodies of the faints arofe: As the touch of the bones of Elifha caufed a kind of refurrection 15; fo our Saviour's body, new fallen to the earth, did give a kind of particular refurrection to the faints' bodies, to teftify