this, dost thou dare to increase thy crimes with thy dying breath, and to behave thyself so insolently in the immediate view of God's righteous tribunal? and we indeed are justly thus condemned; for we receive no more than what is due for the notorious crimes we have committed, but this man has done nothing by any means amiss, nor is there the least insolence or absurdity in that high claim which he has made, though appearances be for the present so much against it. His heart thus touched by the immediate operation of the Holy Ghost, resisting not his hallowed inspiration; and having rebuked his blasphemous companion, and testified his full persuasion of the innocence of Jesus, he then directed his discourse to him, and said to Jesus, looking upon him with the humblest and the most contrite regard, Lord, though this wretch derides thy mission, I firmly believe it, and I beg that thou wouldst graciously remember me when thou comest into that thy kingdom; to which, I doubt not but God will raise thee, in spite of death and hell.* And Jesus turning

* " (When thou comest into thy kingdom.) Some have inferred from hence that this malefactor had learnt something of Christ in prison, and have urged the possibility of his having exercised perhaps a long and deep repentance there, against the supposition of the sudden change that most have supposed in this case. But Christ's kingdom was now the subject of so much discourse, that he might on that day, and indeed in a few minutes of it, have learnt all that was necessary as the foundation of this petition. I cannot therefore but look on this happy man (for such, amidst all the ignominy and tortures of the cross, he surely was) as a glorious instance of the power, as well as sovereignty of divine grace, which, (as many have observed,) perhaps

towards him, said to him, with a mixture of the greatest dignity and mercy, Verily I say unto thee, and solemnly assure thee of it, as a most certain truth, that this very day thou shalt be with me in Paradise”-in, as we conceive it has been fully proved, the holy place above—“ sharing in the holiness and delightful entertainments of that garden of God, the abode of happy spirits when separated from the body; and there shall thy departing soul, as soon as thou hast breathed thy last, immediately begin to reap the fruits of that faith which breaks through so dark a cloud, and honours me in the midst of this infamy and distress." Thou shalt be with me this very day in Paradise; and though absent from the body, be ever with thy Lord.

taking the first occasion, from the preternatural darkness, wrought so powerfully, as to produce, by a sudden and astonishing growth, in his last moments, all the virtues that could be crowded into so small a space, and which were eminently manifested in his confessing his own guilt, in his admonishing his companion for a crime which he feared would prove fatal to him, in his vindicating the character of Christ, and reposing his confidence in him as the Lord of a kingdom beyond the grave, when his enemies were triumphing over him, and he himself, abandoned by most of his friends, was expiring on a cross. The modesty, as well as the faith of his petition, may also deserve our attentive remark."

* "Thou shalt be with me in Paradise.) Bos has shown (in his Exercit. Philol. pp. 49, 50) that this expression, per' epov eon, Thou shalt be with me, was the language used when inviting guests to an entertainment; and the word Paradise originally signifies a garden of pleasure, such as those in which the eastern monarchs made their magnificent banquets. See Raphel Annot. ex Xenophon, p. 119."

"How great and glorious does the Lord Jesus Christ appear in the midst of all those dishonours which his enemies were now heaping upon him! While these rapacious soldiers were dividing the spoil, parting his raiment among them, and casting lots for his vesture, God was working in all to crown him with a glory, which none could take from him; and to make the lustre of it so much the more conspicuous by that dark cloud which now surrounded him. His enemies upbraided him as an abandoned miscreant, deserted both by God and man; but He (though able to have come down from the cross in a moment, or by one word from thence to have struck these insolent wretches dead on the place, and to have sent their guilty spirits to accompany the fiends under whose influence they were,) yet patiently endured all, and was as a deaf man, who heard not their reproaches, and as a dumb man, that openeth not his mouth. (Psal. xxxviii. 13.) But as soon as the penitent thief addressed him with that humble supplication, the language of repentance, faith, and hope, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom, he immediately hears and answers him and in how gracious and remarkable a phrase! This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise!" Thus clearly proving that Christ, on his separation from his mortal body, ascended into Paradise, and that we shall do so also. Likewise that Paradise and the holy place above were one and the self-same region; a fact which is, as heretofore ascertained, distinctly made known by Scripture. The heavens were fore-ordained, and

must receive their Lord, until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began. (Acts iii. 21.) Jesus the Son of God is passed into the heavens, (Heb. iv. 14.) For he is not entered into the holy places made with hands, the figures of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us. How illustrious, in this instance, was his glorious triumph! No agony of either mind or body for one single moment did abate his perfect love, or damp the ardour of his pure benevolence.

"And while he suffered all the insults and sorrows just recorded, there stood near the cross of Jesus, Mary his mother,* and his mother's sister, (whose name was also Mary,) who was the wife of

"(His mother.) Neither her own danger, nor the sadness of the spectacle, nor the reproaches and insults of the people, could restrain her from performing the last office of duty and tenderness to her divine Son on the cross. Grotius justly observes, that it was a noble instance of fortitude and zeal. Now, a sword, according to Simeon's prophecy, Luke ii. 35, struck through her tender heart, and pierced her very soul; and perhaps the extremity of her sorrows might so overwhelm her spirits, as to render her incapable of attending the sepulchre, which we do not find that she did; nor do we indeed meet with any thing after this concerning her in the sacred story, or in early antiquity, excepting that she continued among the disciples after our Lord's ascension; which Luke observes (Acts i. 14.) Andreas Cretensis, a writer of the seventh century, does indeed tell us she died with John at Ephesus, many years after this, in an extreme old age; and it appears from a letter of the Council of Ephesus, in the fifth century, that it was then believed she was buried there. But they pretend to show her sepulchre at Jerusalem; and many ridiculous tales are forged concerning her death and assumption, or being taken up into heaven."

Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene, and with them also John, his intimate friend, the relater of this story.

"Jesus therefore seeing his mother, and John, the disciple whom he peculiarly loved, standing near, his affectionate care and regard to both, so wrought in his benignant heart, in the midst of all his agonies, that with a tenderness no tortures could diminish, he said unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son-behold in that beloved friend of mine one that will ever treat thee with the same filial care and love as I have ever done. Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother; words which the affectionate heart of St. John instantly explained,-from that hour that disciple took her unto his own house-joyfully conducted the precious charge, so solemnly bequeathed to him by the dying breath of his adored Lord, and ever behaved towards her with the utmost filial tenderness, kindness, and respect.

"And Jesus having hung upon the cross about three hours, it was now near noon, or according to the Jewish manner of expressing the time, it was about the sixth hour; and from the sixth hour t her was an amazing and supernatural darkness over the whole land of Judea, till the ninth hour.* And this darkness with which the face of nature seemed overspread, was a lively emblem of the darkness and distress of spirit with which the Lord of nature was then overwhelmed, and with which He strug

* That at the time when our Saviour died, there was a mivaculous darkness and a great earthquake, this is recorded by Phlegon the Traillian, as already observed, vol. i. p. 39.