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crucify him. It is not said that they took the crown of thorns from his temples; probably he died wearing it, that the title placed over his head might be the better understood by the spectators..

The ministers of Jewish malice we may suppose remitted none of the circumstances of affliction which were ever laid on persons condemned to be crucified. Accordingly, JESUS was obliged to walk on foot to the place of execution, bearing his cross; but the fatigue of the preceding night

having been hurried from place to place and obliged to stand the whole time without sleep, the sufferings he had undergone in the garden; his of his trials; the want of food and the loss of blood he had sustained, and not his want of courage on this occasion made him faint under the burden of his cross. The soldiers seeing him unable to bear the weight, laid it on one Simon, a native of Cyrene, in Egypt, the father of Alexander and Rufus, well known among the first Christians, and forced him to bear it after the great Redeemer of mankind. The soldiers did not this, however, out of compassion to the suffering Jesus, but to prevent his dying with the fatigue, and by that means avoiding the punishment designed for him."

In this journey to Calvary our blessed Saviour was followed by an innumerable multitude of people, particularly of women, who lamented bitterly the severity of his sentence, and shewed all the tokens of sincere compassion and grief. Jesus, who always felt the woes of others more than he did his own, forgetting his distress at the very time when it lay heaviest upon him, turned himself about, and, with a benevolence and tenderness truly divine, said to them, " Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For, behold, the days are coming in the which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck. Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us: and to the hills, Cover us. For if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?" As if he had said, Dry up these tears ye daughters of Jerusalem, which ye shed in compassion to me, and reserve them for the deplorable fate of yourselves and your children; for the calamities that will soon fall on you and your offspring, are truly terrible, and call for the bitterest lamentation. In those days of vengeance you will passionately wish that you had not given birth to a generation, (whose wickedness has rendered them the objects of the wrath of the Almighty to such a degree as was never before experienced in the world. Then shall they wish to be crushed under the weight of enormous mountains, and concealed from their enemies in the bowels of the earth. The thoughts of these calamities afflict my soul far more than the feeling of my own sufferings: for if the Romans are permitted to inflict punishments on me who am innocent, how dreadful must the vengeance be which they shall inflict on a nation whose sins cry aloud to heaven, hastening the pace of divine judgments, and rendering the perpetrators as proper for judgment as dry wood is for flames of fire.

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At the place of execution, which was called Golgotha, or the place of skull, from the criminal bones which lay scattered there, some of our Redeemer's friends offered him a stupifying portion, to render him insensible of the ignominy and excruciating pain of bis punishment; but as soon as he tasted the portion he refused to drink it, being determined to bear his sufferings, however sharp, not by intoxicating and stupifying himself, but by the strength of patience, fortitude, and faith.

Having therefore refused the portion, the soldiers began to execute their orders by stripping him quite naked, and in that condition began to fasten bim to his cross. But while they were piercing his hands and his feet with nails, instead of crying out with the sharpness of the pain, he calmly, though severely prayed for them, and for all those who had any hand in his death; beseeching the Almighty to forgive them, and excusing them himself by the only circumstance that t could alleviate their guilt; I mean,

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their ignorance.Father," said the compassionate Redeemer of mankind, forgive them for they know not what they do." This was infinite meekness and goodness, truly worthy of the only begotten Son of God; an example of forgiveness, which, though it can never be equalled by any, should be imitated by all, when suffering in a good cause.

Behold now the appointed soldiers dig the hole in which the cross was to be erected. The cross placed in the ground, and the blessed JESUS lies on the bed of sorrows; they nail him to it; they erect it; his nerves crack; his blood distils; he hangs upon his wounds naked, a spectacle to heaven and earth. Thus was the only begotten Son of God, who came down from heaven to save the world, crucified by his own creatures; and, to render the ignominy still greater, placed between two thieves: " Hear, O heaven! O earth, earth, earth hear! The Lord hath nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against him;" by rejecting the only Saviour, and the God of all their mercies.

Crimes committed by malefactors were usually written on a white board with black, and placed over their heads on the cross. In conformity to this custom, Pilate wrote a title in the Hebrew, Greek & Latten languages, that all foreigners as well as natives, might be able to read it, and fastened it to the cross, over the head of JESUS; and the inscription was JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS. But when the chief priests and elders had read this title they were greatly displeased; because, as it represented the crime for which JESUS was condemned, it insinuated That he had been acknowledged for the Messiah: besides, being placed over the head of one who was dying by the most infamous punishment, it implied that all who attempted to deliver the Jews, should perish in the same manner. The faith and hope of the nation, therefore, being thus publicly ridiculed, it is no wonder that the priests thought themselves highly affronted; and, accordingly came to Pilate begging that the writing might be altered; but as he had intended the affront in revenge of their forcing him to crucify Jesus, contrary both to his judgment and inclination, he refused to grant their request: "What I have written," said he, "I have written;" and persisted in his resolution not to alter the inscription.....

The soldiers, having nailed the blessed JEsus to the cross, and erected it, divided his garments amongst them; but his coat, or vesture, being without seam, woven from the top throughout, they agreed not to rend it, but to cast lots for it, that the prediction of the prophet concerning the death and sufferings of the Messiah might be fulfilled: "They parted my garments amongst them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots." A sufficient indication that every circumstance of the death and passion of the blessed JESUS was long before determined in the court of heaven; and accordingly, his being crucified between two malefactors was expressly foretold," And he was numbered with the transgressors."

When the common people, whom the vile priests had ineensed against the blessed JESUS, by the malicious falsehoods they had spread concerning him, and which they pretended to found on the deposition of witnesses, saw him hang in so infamous a manner upon the cross, and reading the inscription that was placed over his head, they expressed their indignation against him by sarcastical expressions: "Ah, thou," said they, "that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days save thyself, and come down from the cross."

The multitude were not the only persons who mocked and derided the blessed JESUS, while he was suffering to obtain remission of the sins of all mankind. The rulers, who now imagined they had effectually destroyed his pretensions to the character of the Messiah, joined the populace in ridiNeuling him, and with a meanness of soul which many infamous wretches would have scorned, mocked him, even while he was struggling with the agonies of death: they scoffed at the miracles by which he demonstrated imself to be the Messiah, and promised mised to believe in him, on condition of his proving his pretensions by descending from the cross: " He saved others," said they," himself he cannot save. If he be the King of Is rael, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him," not knowing what they said.

* Nothing could be more false and hypocritical than this pretension of the stiff necked Jews; for they continued in their unbelief, notwithstanding they well knew that he raised himself from the dead; a much greater miracle than his coming down from the cross would have been, a miracle attested by witnesses whose veracity they could not call in question: it was told them by the soldiers whom they themselves placed at the sepulchre to watch the body, and who they were obliged to bribe largely to conceal the trath. It is therefore abundantly evident, that if the blessed Jesus had descended from the cross, the Jewish priests would have continued in their infidelity; and consequently that their declaration was made with no other intention than to insult the Redeemer of mankind, thinking it impossible for him now to escape out of their hands. The soldiers also joined in this general scene of mockery, "If thou be the King of the Jews," said they, "save thyself." If thou art the great Messiah expected by the Jews, descend from the cross by miracle, and deliver thyself from these excruciating torments, inflicted by thy enemies.

One of the thieves could not forbear mocking the great Lord of heaven & earth, though labouring himself under the most racking pains, and strug. gling with the agonies of death: but the other exercised a most extraordinary faith, at a time when our great Redeemer was deserted by his Father, mocked by men, and hanged upon the cross, as the most ignominious of malefactors. This Jewish criminal seems to have entertained a more rational and exalted notion of the Messiah's kingdom than even the disciples themselves; they expected nothing but a secular empire: he gave strong intimations of his having an idea of CHRIST's spiritual dominion; for at the very time when JESUS was dying on the cross, he begged to be remembered by him when he came into his kingdom: "Lord," said he, "remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom." Nor did he make his request in vain: the great Redeemer of mankind answered him, "Verily, I say unto thee, to day shalt thou be with me in paradise: Thereby evidencing the immediate happiness of the righteous after death.

Let us now attentively consider the history of our blessed Saviour's passion, as it offers to our view events absolutely astonishing: for when we remember the perfect innocence of our great Redeemer, the uncommon love he bore to the children of men, & the many kind & benevolent offices he did for the sons and daughters of affliction; when we reflect on the esteem in which he was held all along by the common people, how cheerfully they followed him to the remotest corners of the country, nay, even into the desolate retreats of the wilderness, and with what pleasure they listened to his discourse; when we consider these particulars, I say, we cannot help being astonished to find them at the conclusion, rushing all of a sudden into the opposite extremes, and every individual as it were, combined to treat him with the most barbarous cruelty and insult.

Pilate having asked the people, if they desired to have Jesus released, his disciples, though they were very numerous and might have made a great appearance in his behalf, remained absolutely silent, as if they had been speechless or infatuated. The Roman soldiers, notwithstanding their general had declared him innocent, insulted him in the most inhuman manner; the Scribes and Pharisees ridiculed him; the common people, who had received him with Hosannas a few days before, wagged their heads at him as they passed by, and railed on him as a deceiver: nay, the very thief on the cross reviled him, in the midst of his sufferings.

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asunder, and wrapped up like a scroll; when his Almighty arm shall ar'rest the sun in his career, and dash the structure of the universe to pieces; when the dead, both small and great, shall be gathered before the throne of his glory and the fates of all mankind hang on the very point of a final irreversible decision: then, if thou hast faithfully trusted in him, and made his precepts thy constant directors, thou shalt be owned and defended by him. O reader! may both thou that peruseth, and he who hath written this for thy soul's advantage, be covered at that unutterably important juncture, by the wings of his redeeming love: then shall we behold all the horrible convulsions of expiring nature with composure with comfort! we shall even welcome the consummation of all things, as the "times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord," and be eternally happy with him.

Behold the sun conscious of the sufferings of his Maker, and as it were to hide his face from this detestable action of mortals, is wrapped in the pitchy mantle of chaotic darkness! This preternatural eclipse of the sun continued for three hours, to the great terror and astonishment of the people present at the execution of our dear Redeemer. And surely nothing could be more proper than this extraordinary alteration in the face of nature, while the Sun of Righteousness was withdrawing his beams, not only from the promised land, but from the whole world; for it was at once a miraculous testimony given by the Almighty himself to the innocence of his Son, and a proper emblem of the departure of him who was the Light of the world, at least till his luminous rays, like the beams of the morning, shone out anew with additional splendour, in the ministry of his apostles, after his ascension.

The darkness which now covered Judea and the neighbouring countries, beginning about noon, and continuing till Jesus expired, could not be the effect of an ordinary eclipse of the sun. It is well known that these phænomena can only happen at the change of the moon, whereas the Jewish passover at which our dear Redeemer suffered, was always celebrated at the full; besides, the total darkness of an eclipse of the sun, never exceeds twelve or fifteen minutes, whereas this continued full three hours. Nothing, therefore, but the immediate hand of that Almighty Being which placed the sun in the centre of the planetary system, could have produced this astonishing darkness: nothing but Omnipotence who first lighted this glorious luminary of heaven, could have deprived it of it's cheering rays. Now ye scoffers of Israel, whose blood ye have so earnestly desired, and wished it might fall upon you and your children! behold all nature is drest in the sable veil of sorrow, and in a language that cannot be mistaken, mourns the departure of it's Lord and Master; weeps for your crimes, and deprecates the vengeance of heaven upon your guilty heads! Happy for you that this suffering Jesus is compassion itself, and even in the agonies of death, prays to his heavenly Father to avert from you the stroke of his justice, thereby opening the gate of mercy even to you his murderers !

The Heathens themselves considered this preternatural eclipse of the sun as a miracle, and one of them cried out, "Either the world is at an end, or the God of nature suffers!" And well might he use the expression'; for never since this planetary system was called from it's primitive chaos, was known such a deprivation of light in the glorious luminary of day. Indeed when the Almighty punished Pharaoh for refusing to let the children of Israel depart out of his land, the sable veil of darkness was drawn for three days over Egypt; but this darkness was confined to a part of that kingdom; whereas this that happened at our Saviour's crucifixion, was universal and not merely local.

The disciples naturally considered the darkness, when it began as a prelude to the deliverance of their Master: for though the chief priests, elders, and people, had sarcastically desired him to descend from the accurs

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