REDEMPTION OF SINNERS. IT is undoubtedly possible, that at this very day the manifestation of a man such as Adam might be exactly repeated. Then would he and his descendants, if they continued upright, have the power of themselves to work out their own salvation; but human reason tells us, first, that since Adam, with all things propitious, fell in Eden, a soul so formed and placed amidst the additional temptations of the present time would yet more certainly be found irresolute; and, secondly, even were he to stand, he and those of his descendants only who continued innocent would inherit salvation. But such a limited scheme of reconciliation is not in harmony with infinite wisdom and goodness. By Omnipotence, other means of recovery have been provided. "God so loved the world, that he hath given his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him may not perish, but enjoy everlasting life." He " submitted himself to death, even a a John, iii. 16. the death of the cross; "" a and having been "delivered for our offences, was raised again for our justification;" the propitiation for the sins of the whole world." "By him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name; "d" which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge;" who" also suffered for us, the just for the unjust; who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth; who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously who his ownself bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sin, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes we are healed." f Thus "call to mind, O sinful creature! and set before thine eyes, Christ crucified. Think thou seest his body stretched out in length upon the cross, his head crowned with sharp thorns, and his hands and his feet pierced with nails; his a Ph. ii. 8. c 1 John, ii. 2. e 2 Cor. ii. 14. b Rom. iv. 25. d Heb. xiii. 15. f 1 Pet. ii. 21-24. heart opened with a long spear, his flesh rent and torn with whips, his brows sweating water and blood: think thou hearest Him now crying in an intolerable agony to his Father, and saying, My God! my God! why hast Thou forsaken me?" Mark And these sufferings of our Redeemer, we must remember, were in all probability, in their nature, far more intense than those borne by many of the earlier and late martyrs. "When He was at Gethsemane, the evening on which He was betrayed, the evangelist Matthew says, 'He began to be very sorrowful, and full of anguish, and said to his disciples, My soul is very sorrowful, even unto death' (Matt. xxvi. 37, 38.). in like manner says, 'He began to be greatly astonished, and to be full of anguish' (Mark, xiii. 33, 34.). Indeed, the original language employed by Mark conveys a stronger sense than that in this translation; for ἐκθαμβεῖσθαι imports the most shocking mixture of terror and amazement, and epios, in the next verse, intimates that He felt on every side surrounded with sorrow, and pressed down with despondency. While thus drinking of the brook by the way' (Ps. 1810. Second Homily on the Passion, p. 359.; Oxford edition, เ cx. 7.), thrice did He pray to his Father to take away the bitter cup;' and though it was in the cool of the evening, 'the sweat' occasioned by the agony of his mind was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground' (Luke, xxii. 44.). And when hanging on the cross, his piteous and heart-rending exclamation, My God! my God! why hast Thou forsaken me?' (Matt. xxvii. 46.) doubtless arose from the want of a comfortable sense of God's presence. "Now, whence arose this agony, this interruption of the sense of God's presence, this intense feeling of destitution during our Lord's great extremity, but from the necessity that He should suffer? Bodily pain might have been lost in enjoyment even during crucifixion (as has been manifested in the delights of some martyrs in the midst of their tortures); but in that case thesoul' of the Messiah could not have been an offering for sin,' as Isaiah predicted it must be. To this end it was that it 'pleased Jehovah to crush him with affliction;' and it is next to impossible to meditate upon his pathetic exclamations amid his severe sufferings, without adopting again the . . . language of the same prophet, 'Surely OUR infirmities He hath borne, . Compare his behaviour under suffering with that of other martyrs; many, for example, in the third century. He suffered for the space of a few hours only; they were made to sustain sufferings for days, weeks, months, nay, in some cases, years. He suffered the punishment of the cross; they have agonised under boiling oil, melted lead, plates of hot iron, or have been broiled for days over a slow fire, or shut up in fiercely glowing brazen bulls, or have had their members cut and torn off one after another in tedious and barbarous succession. Yet He lamented and they triumphed. Is not this infinitely astonishing upon any other theory of religion than ours? Is it not incomprehensible that the Master of our faith, 'the Captain of our salvation,' should be abashed and astounded at the sight, or even the contemplation, of death, and that his servants and followers should triumph in the midst of unequalled torments? The one is seized with sorrow even unto death; the others are transported with joy. The one sweats, as it were, drops of blood at the approach of death; the others behold a divine hand wiping off their |