notwithstanding the state of pain and agony in which He Himself was; and in this affecting manner commended to her his beloved disciple, desiring her to consider him thenceforth as her own son; and commended her to the care of John, intimating that he was to look upon her as his mother. Thus He showed His affectionate concern for His earthly parent in His last extremity. It seems that John at once persuaded her to accompany him to his own home; where she doubtless from that time took up her abode.

When the sixth hour was come, or it was noon, a supernatural darkness covered the face of the sky, and continued for three hours, or until three o'clock in the afternoon. During this time, in an especial manner, the wrath of God fell upon the victim of Divine justice. When first lifted up on the cross, our Redeemer was manifested to be despised and rejected of men.48 He was now forsaken of God. God spared not His own Son. Then indeed His visage was marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men.48 Then the fierce wrath of God went over1? Him, the poison whereof did drink up His spirit. Then the terrors of God set themselves in array against Him. But the darkness that covered the earth hid from mortal eye the agonies which then transfixed the soul of Him who was made sin

47 Mark xv. 33. 49 Isa. liii. 3, lii. 14. 49 Ps. lxxxviii. 16. 50 Job vi. 4.

for us; who was then dealt with as a sinner, and drank up the cup of trembling, the dregs of the

51

cup of fury, that He might deliver us from the wrath to come. What had passed in His own mind during the time of this horror of great darkness, we learn from the exceeding great and bitter cry which He uttered at the close of it: My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?5% and from the drought that parched and withered His frame in consequence of it.

Respecting the latter our Evangelist records, that after this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst. Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar; and they filled a sponge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to His mouth. When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, He said, It is finished. And when He had thus cried with a loud voice, He bowed His head, and said, Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit, and having said thus, He gave up the ghost,53 He expired. And behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent, and the graves were opened. Such were the circum

stances that attended the crucifixion and death of the adorable Redeemer of mankind; all showing that this was no common occurrence, like

51 Isa.li.22. 52 Mark xv. 34. 53 Luke xxiii.46. 54 Mat. xxvii.5 1-54.

the decease of other individuals. Our attention is now, in the

Second place, to be directed more particularly to the words contained in the text, which our Saviour uttered with such a loud voice, as excited the astonishment of the centurion, who was watching on guard at the time, and led him to exclaim, Truly this was the Son of God! He said, IT IS FINISHED. These words have been considered as denoting the accomplishment of the prophecies of the Old Testament concerning our Lord Jesus Christ; and the fulfilment of the typical ordinances of the ceremonial law. Time would fail us to enter into so extensive a field as either of these subjects presents to us. The number of prophecies of the Old Testament which were fulfilled in our Lord Jesus Christ is truly surprising. Many of them are recorded by the Evangelists. The numerous minute circumstances which were foretold, and which then received their accomplishment, afford a powerful testimony to the truth of the word of God, and demonstrate that Jesus was indeed the Christ, the true Messiah. The remarkable coincidence of the typical observances of the ceremonial law with the antitype, would also afford a fund of most interesting and useful observations.

But I conceive that our adorable Redeemer, in uttering the words contained in the text, more

particularly referred to the completion of His sufferings; and the accomplishment of the work of the redemption of mankind for which He came into the world.

With regard to the completion of His sufferings; when the darkness had passed off, His bodily frame was so exhausted, that life was just extinct. How intense the sufferings of the Son of God were, when He His ownself bare our sins in His own body on the tree, can neither be expressed nor conceived. Then indeed He might take up the language of the prophet, and say, Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? Behold and see, if there be any sorrow like unto My sorrow, which is done unto Me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted Me in the day of His fierce anger. The extreme thirst which His sufferings induced, was described by the Psalmist, when he said, My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws, and Thou hast brought me into the dust of death. When He complained of this thirst, they gave Him vinegar to drink; as it was also foretold they would do. Our Saviour knew that His sufferings were just at their close, that the fierce wrath of God, which had fallen upon Him, had passed over His head, and He was about to breathe His last; and therefore when He had suffered His lips to be moistened with the vinegar, as if to enable Him to give a more distinct utterance to His words, He cried

with a loud voice, the triumphant shout of victory, IT IS FINISHED; and then breathing out His soul into the bosom of His Father, He expired. By crying at the last with a loud voice, He showed that His giving up the ghost was a voluntary act; that He laid down His life of His own accord, as a sacrifice for sin; which He had said that He should do. By the words which He uttered, He manifested His joy that His sufferings were completed; a joy which might well be expressed, when we consider that the sufferings which He underwent in body and soul were such as no other human being ever did or could endure in this world. The wrath of God due to sin which fell upon Him affected Him in like manner as the torments of hell affect those who die in their sins. From the bitter pains of eternal death may the good Lord deliver us, for Christ's sake.

But this triumphant exclamation of our everblessed Redeemer intimated most especially the full accomplishment of the work of redemption for fallen man. He had before said to His heavenly Father, I have glorified Thee on the earth; I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do; for His obedience to the holy law of God was then completed; He had magnified it, and made it honourable, by His perfect obedience to its righteous commands throughout His life. But when He uttered the words in the text, He had also suffered the penalty due to