the power to have instantly freed himself; for he had power to lay down his life, and he had power to keep it if he pleased to pray his Father, legions of angels were instant at his command) than our limited perceptions could possibly discover. Their penetration would enable them to discover his inward struggles-discover his arduous conflicts, with an understanding of which we are utterly incapable. Our ideas can only be formed from exterior circumstances, the degree of sufferance we have ourselves endured, or the complainant disclosures of our fellow-creatures; and from such sources of information, through the kind indulgence of our heavenly Father, we have derived but little information, and therefore are most incompetent judges of what our blessed Saviour suffered. And none save himself could know in its extreme extent the agony he endured from deprivation of his Father's consolation; bereft of which it plainly appears he was in anguish left to struggle through the dismal scenes which immediately preceded his torturing crucifixion; as we know he was during the dreadful hours which occupied his barbarous execution. This was it which wrung from him, when hanging on the cross, the heart-rending exclamation, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" This was it which did alone extort that afflictive expostulation which no' corporeal torments could or did excite. Here he completely fulfilled the ancient prophecy, he was like a lamb led to the excruciating slaughter, and like a sheep before his cruel shearers, dumb, and opened not his mouth. In his mouth complaint was never found. The sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow, were those very things which, in the eternal purpose of almighty God, he purposed in Christ, to the intent that unto the angelic princedoms might be known, by the glory that should follow, the manifold wisdom of God. These were the very things which they desired with such intense desire to look into and fully comprehend. These high exalted beings doubtless contemplated, with an understanding admiration and adoration of which we are utterly incapable, the internal agonies endured by the glorious Son of God. While the shrewdness and sagacity of that infernal crew, who were such principal actors in this doleful scene, did most probably give them a complete insight of his internal misery, and increased their power to exasperate and augment it. But this was their hour and the power of darkness. (Luke xxii. 53.) This declaration the noble sufferer uttered in the garden of Gethsemane; a declaration powerfully confirmatory of the truth of our conclusion, by propounding additional proofs that the anguish he endured, from a deprivation of divine comforts, commenced at this juncture. For had he still remained in full possession of that unceasing source of support and consolation, it would most probably have counteracted the malice of the evil powers, which at this terrific crisis they to the uttermost began to exercise; and have totally baffled all their attempts to harass and appal him. "This tragical recital supplies a most reviving cordial unto those who are oppressed and bowed down (as the best of men, to exercise their faith and patience, sometimes are) with loads of grief, unsuccoured by spiritual consolation; who find, as the Psalmist expresses it, their flesh and their heart failing, and their spirits sinking within them; to reflect, that in this state even of extreme depression, there is no guilt; that it is no mark of God's displeasure, as even his beloved Son was no stranger to it." And had he not unto the uttermost endured this heaviest of afflictions, he could not have been tempted in all points like to what we have been. * Porteus. CHAPTER XI. Ir should not pass unremarked, that in the latter portion of our present research was involved an observation which proved that our blessed Saviour had illustriously triumphed over a trial not as yet specified, and which mortality has been sometimes doomed to suffer, namely, perseverance in virtue while enduring tortures, from which the sufferers possessed the power to have freed themselves by forfeiture of virtue. This power He eminently possessed high above all others. He had full power to lay down his life and He had full power to keep it. This victory the noble army of Christian martyrs often gloriously obtained. In many cases we read that they could have delivered themselves from the most acute sufferings, even by a temporary mental reservation and recantation of the truth. Some persons have had severe sufferings inflicted on them in the hope of extorting a confession of crimes which, it may be, they had not committed. And various are the instances which might be specified, as exercised for the intent of obtaining the forfeiture of innocence, and hope of future glory, by sinful acquiescence. But all trials of this nature were gloriously vanquished by our divine Redeemer. It is furthermore observable, that the fear of torture and of death has often been surmounted by passions quite at variance with pure and genuine virtue. It was on this account essential for the great Victor to demonstrate that the energies excited by pure and genuine virtue could and did, even in opposition to the combined force of every obstacle to such exemplification, prove equally triumphant over the fear of torture and of death, as those produced by spurious and turbulent passions. The love of fame, the desire of renown, does oft excite the most extraordinary courage in meeting, and fortitude while suffering, excruciating torments. These passions, when intermingled in a savage mind with the wish of disappointing their cruel and exulting foes, by proving all attempts to extort complaint from them ineffectual, does often stimulate the hardy sufferers even "to court an increase of torture, by boasting of their own exploits-insulting their tormentors for their want of skill-in avenging their friends and relations, warning them of the vengeance that awaited them on account of their deaths, and exciting their ferocity by the most provoking reproaches and threats.”* But He * Robertson's History of America. Dr. Robertson further observes upon this subject, "that the amazing steadiness with which the Americans endure the most exquisite torments, flows from a principle of honour instilled early, and cultivated with such care as to inspire man in his VOL. II. Ꮓ |