Lord turned, and looked upon Peter, and Peter went out and wept bitterly. If that look taught Peter to repent, it may teach us to believe the fraud, and the folly which we witness, has no such singleness of heart, and such plain majesty of action; whenever we behold such signs as these, we hail them as the shepherds did the star in the East, they are the marks which God has put upon truth, and good faith; premeditated sophistry may destroy the first burst of nature, but in reading the history of Christ's death, the fresh, and sudden, feelings of the heart all acquit him, all praise him, all believe in him; we all feel as Pontius Pilate his judge, felt, who, when he had looked at him, and heard him speak, broke from the judgment seat, and bathed his trembling hands in the water, saying, "I call you all to witness, I am guiltless of the blood of this innocent man."

In the trial, and death of Christ there was no symptom of fear; he encountered all his miseries with decent, yet unyielding courage; nor did he evince the smallest disposition to recede from those high pre

tensions which he had advanced, or disown that awful character which he had supported. When the multitude came out to seize Jesus of Nazareth, he said, "I am he!" When the high priest asked him of his disciples, and his doctrines, Why askest thou me ? (is his reply.) " I spake openly to the world; "I have ever taught in the Synagogue, and "the temple where the Jews resort, and in

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secret have I said nothing; why askest "thou me? Ask them which heard me, what "I said unto them; behold they know "what I said." Then comes that memorable answer, which was the immediate cause of his condemnation. I adjure thee (says the high priest) tell me if thou art the Christ, the son of the blessed?" And Jesus answered, "thou hast said it. I am the Son "of God; hereafter thou shalt see me, sitting on the right hand of power, and coming on the clouds of Heaven." Thus far, then, there is identity, and consistency, in the character of our Saviour; deserted, and disowned, by his followers; buffeted, smitten, and mocked, by an angry multitude; judged by enemies; at the eve of death, he said all that he had said before, when the N 2

multitude strewed branches in his road, and cried, Hosanna to the highest." The gospel has all that corroboration which it can possibly receive from uniformity of character in its founder,-a character, after the intense light thrown upon it, by adversity, and prosperity, found to be without blemish or spot. Such evidence, though not of itself conclusive, assists the stronger proofs of the gospel, and spreads upon its minutest parts the genuine colour of truth. And this is the peculiar importance of that species of death which our Saviour died, that it leaves nothing to conjecture; that it developes fully his sacred character; and displays him in every variety of difficult situation Without the test of a persecuting death, something would have been wanting to the proof; for death must surely be considered as the strongest of all proofs, and the most certain of all tests; he who dies for calling himself the Son of God, must, at least, believe himself to be so ; it is impossible to add anything to this evidence of internal conviction; and, had it been wanting to the history of Christianity, the whole argument, on which this sacred cause

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depends, would have been much less complete than it now is; but that which St. Paul tells us was to the Jews folly, and to the Greeks a stumbling block, is, to us, the strongest, and most irresistible lesson of the true glory, and greatness of the founder of our religion.

We must observe, in speaking of our Saviour's firmness, that it was the firmness of reason, not of passion; there was nothing in it which could in the remotest degree evince an heated, and disordered imagination;-nothing was ever so far removed from enthusiasm ; he was mute under the crown, and the robe, and reviled not again when he was reviled; he bore every species of indignity with calm. resignation, and died, meekly, and mutely, as a victim. Those upon whom such facts make no impression,must believe, that an human being, of the calmest passions, and the simplest mind, imagined himself to be the Son of God; that, in consequence of this madness, he preached the purest virtue, and the soundest reason; that he lived in wretchedness for that doctrine, and that character; then died for them, in the flower of his age, not only

without the smallest symptom of fear, or of enthusiasm, but with the cool display of every great quality; I will not say such a fact is impossible, but I may say it is contrary to all human experience: Imposture and enthusiasm have never come down in such a shape to us; such opinions may suit those who believe greater improbabilities than they refute; but no sound judge of the human mind will adopt them, and no fair reasoner advance them.

Another proof of the excellence of our Saviour's death, and of its consistency with his former history, is the tender, and forgiving disposition which it uniformly evinces. His first prayer to Heaven is, that his murderers may be forgiven :-" Father, forgive them; they know not what they do." While he is on the cross, and in the agonies of a painful death, he sees his mother, and his favourite disciple,” When Jesus, therefore, saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved, he said unto his mother, woman, behold thy son! And, to the disciple, behold thy mother! And from that hour the disciple took her unto his own