perusal may be advantageous to all whose minds it shall direct to the closer study of those mysterions, and affecting topics, which are connected with the redemption of mankind. Nothing can be finally useless which tends to animate our devotion, to increase our gratitude, and to confirm our humility." - P. vi.

The subject of these Lectures, the purpose for which they were composed, and the circumstances under which they are offered to the public, all combine in exciting a strong interest in their behalf. Whoever has seriously considered the several passages of the New Testament, selected in our Church for the service of the Passion Week, must know that they comprehend all the various details of that most affecting and interesting history of the cross and passion of our Lord. It is the purpose of Bishop Sandford to arrange these several details in a methodi. cal and harmonious narrative, and to intersperse such reflections, whether practical or expository, as may tend to improve the understanding and to mend the heart in the contemplation of them. The Lectures are constructed in conformity with "the Harmony of the Passion Week," in Doctor Hales's Analysis of Chronology, which is prefixed to the volume, and appears to have been circulated among the congregation, at the time of their delivery. "The History of the Passion Week," arranged principally from Doctor White's Diatessaron, is annexed, and the Bishop has "reason to believe that this portion of the work will be useful and acceptable to many of his readers."

There are seven discourses in the Volume which were preached in the several days of the Passion Week, commencing with the Sunday before Easter, and ending with Easter-eve. The Lectures are not, however, occupied with the peculiar events, as they happened on each succeeding day of the week, for it will be obvious to any one who considers the scriptural history of this period, "that the three days subsequent to REMEMBRANCER, No. 30.

the Tuesday in Passion Week furnish many more subjects of contemplation, than the three first days of the week." The events of the three first days are therefore comprehended in the first Lecture. The second Lecture embraces the history of the fourth day or the Wednesday of the Passion Week, and the discourses which our Lord delivered upon that day. The third Lecture is devoted to the early part of the fifth day, or Thursday, and especially to the celebration of the Passover, the institution of the Lord's Supper, and the delivery of the new commandment of mutual love.

In the fourth Lecture are considered the discourse of our Lord with his disciples as he passed to the Mount of Olives, and his intercession (John xvii.) delivered on the last awful night, which closed the fifth day of the Passion Week. The fifth Lecture follows up the occurrences of the same night; our Lord's agony in the garden, his apprehension through the treachery of Judas, his accusation before Annas and Caiaphas, the denial and repentance of Peter, and the exemplary patience of our Lord under the contradiction of sinners. The sixth Lecture enters into the proper events of the day, Good Friday; the accusation of our Lord before Pilate, the conduct of Pilate, the fate of Iscariot, the crucifixion of our Lord, with all its circumstances of pain, and grief, and woe. The seventh Lecture on Easter-eve, derives from the method of our Lord's death and burial, proof illustrative and corroborative of his resurrection.

The substance of these Lectures might have been anticipated from the title without this summary of their contents, but to this brief view of the order and occasion of the publication, it will be proper to add some specimens of the execution. The general style of the matter and the manner may be easily conjectured from the character of the congregation for whose use they were

Z z

originally prepared. They are plain and unembarrassed, for the hearers were young: they are at the same time elegant in the language and allusions, for the hearers were accomplished; and they abound with reflections calculated to interest the attention, and confirm the faith, and exalt the piety both of those who heard, and of those who shall read them.

It is a principal purpose of these Lectures to methodize the history of our Lord at this awful period, and especially to trace the order and connection of his Discourses, and to throw new light upon them, by pointing out the circumstances to which he may be supposed to have alluded. It is thus that his words concerning the admission of the Gentiles into the house of prayer, receive increased force, from ascertaining the spot upon which they they were delivered, and the authority with which he acted.

a direct affirmation of his claim to the
an assertion
character of the Messiah:
repeated by him in another quotation from
Holy Scripture, when the chief priests and

scribes, offended at the acclamations of the
children, vented their spleen in the ques-
tion, 'Hearest thou what these say?' and
he replied by referring them to the eighth
Psalm, which we have the authority of St.
Paul for considering as a prediction of the
Christ," P. 21.

It was the peculiar practice of our Lord to draw his instructions from the subject before him, and the circumstances under which he foretold the fall of Jerusalem are exhibited by Bishop Sandford in that manner of composition which is the distinguishing character of Livy, and has been properly called graphic; or painting by words, which they who read may imagine themselves to be present at the scene which is placed before them.

"As Jesus proceeded to the Mount of Olives, on his return to Bethany, he paused, and from that commanding situation surveyed the pride and glory of the Jews. "Having pronounced this sentence on The Temple lay beneath him: his faithful the barren tree, Jesus proceeded to the followers yet uninstructed in the real nature city, and entering the Temple a second of their master's kingdom, and probably time, cast out those who polluted the outer court with their traffic, most indecently in their thoughts contemplating a time, when under his dominion Jerusalem should carried on within its sacred walls. This be mistress of the world and this its holy action was performed by our Lord as a Prophet. It was a significant token that ornament, the wonder of every eye, with exultation pointed to the edifice: Master, the-Gentiles, to the proselytes from whom see what manner of stones and what buildthis court was' appropriated, were hereafter to be admitted to an equal partici- ings are here!' was the natural effusion of a patriotic delight, and Jesus said unto pation of the Divine favour with the chosen people. "My house shall be called of all them, See ye all these things? Verily I nations the house of prayer." Significant say unto you, there shall not be left here one stone upon another, which shall not actions were often used by the prophets be thrown down! Alarmed at a denunciaunder the law; and it has been well obtion so awful in its language, and so fatal served that the chief priests and rulers must have considered our Saviour's casting to the hopes which they nourished, the the buyers and sellers out of the Temple disciples pressed for further information. in this light, and therefore made no resist-Tell us when shall these things be, and ance to him, although highly displeased at the evident purpose of his action, and at In the his influence with the people. present instance, Jesus was pleased, as St. Matthew relates, to produce from this the incontrovertible evidence of his prophetic mission by healing

many

blind and lame

who were brought to him in the Temple:" and it is to be remarked that this second exertion of his authority was accompa

nied with severe rebukes, uttered in the language of Isaiah, of which he asserted the accomplishment in himself, Here was

what shall be the signs of thy coming and of the end of the world." P. 48.

There was a peculiarity in the choice of the time selected for the delivery of these predictions, which cannot be reconciled with any notions of human policy and address, and which indirectly proves the divine origin and authority of our faith.

"Never man spake like this man.' It is very common in enumerating the proofs

1

of the credibility of the Gospel to recount the persecutions of worldly power, which assailed the new religion, and to argue its truth and divine origin from its success in the face of every difficulty, and by the use of instruments apparently disproportioned to the great effects they wrought, and entirely different from such as would have been selected for the purpose by the wisdom or policy of man. Permit me to remark that a similar conclusion may be drawn respecting the character and pretensions of our Blessed Saviour from the nature of the predictions, which we are here contemplating. In these predictions he 'spake not as man ever späke.' There is a discrepancy in all he said from what might have been the course of any mere human policy, that betokens in a striking manner the spirit which was in him.' His conduct in this instance is totally unlike the conduct of the children of this generation.' At the moment when his disciples were exulting in the splendour of their city did he forewarn them of its downfall. While their hearts, we know, were anxious to hear of the restoration of the kingdom to Israel, he discoursed to them of approaching persecution; bade them prepare themselves for obloquy, and hatred, and death for his name's sake; and instead of promising them earthly distinction and felicity, told them that the disciple was not above his master, and that as the world hated him, so would it hate and endeavour to destroy all that bare his name. considerations must arise in the mind on reading the account before us, and they well deserve every attention, as tending in the most efficient manner to confirm our faith in our holy religion. The Christian Church is not the work of man; and every proof that it is not so, strengthens our confidence in the Redeemer's promise that 'he will be with that Church to the end of the world, and that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Let me request you to pursue this subject in your private meditations." P. 53.

These

ference with his disciples, our Lord passed on to Bethany for the last time, and was received in the house of Simon, a man of considerable wealth and importance, whom Jesus, as I think cannot be doubted, had formerly recovered from that loathsome and ignominious disease, the leprosy and who had chosen, it would appear, to retain the appellation of the leper as a mark of his gratitude, and of his remembrance of the state from which our Lord's compassion had relieved him. At the house of Simon a tribute of respect similar to that which he had received on the first night of the week, from the sister of Lazarus, was paid him by a woman evidently of rank and consequence, who came with an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard, very precious, and brake the box and poured it on his head. Here the objection in which Judas Iscariot was formerly singular, was joined in by the rest of the disciples: a circumstance that arose perhaps from the state of irritation in which their minds were left by the late predictions of their Master, and the disappointment of all their worldly hopes, not yet exchanged for nobler views. Such is the only ground on which we can account for their acquiescence in an observation that had before called forth the reproof of Christ to Judas. Mortified pride and discontented feeling made them offended at what must otherwise have gratified them as a mark of homage to their Lord. In this case Jesus rebuked them with peculiar emphasis, adding that this act of the woman should be recorded as a memorial of her, whereever the Gospel should be preached and as before, asserting that the ointment was prepared for his embalmment. 'She hath anointed beforehand to the burying.'” P. 55.

In the third Lecture a succinct description of the Jewish method of celebrating the Passover is extracted from Dr. Hale's Analysis, and applied to illustrate the circumstances under which the Lord's Supper was instituted, and made to assist in arranging the transactions of that momentous period, and especially the conduct of the traitor Judas. In noticing the words of our Lord's assurance to the failing Peter, "I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not, and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren," the Bishop takes occasion to re"From the scene of this solemn con mark upon the peculiar benevolence

The minds of the disciples were not however at the time prepared to appreciate the manner of our Lord; and it is to the irritation which his predictions at this time produced, that Bishop Sandford im. putes the offence which they all agreed in expressing, when our Lord's body was a second time anointed.