50

They are not the words of complaint as implying reluctance to suffer, but as expressive of deep internal agony, internal desertion of sensible support and consolation; in a word, the completion of what was begun in the garden, the drinking of the last dregs of bitterness out of the cup of wrath, when he having placed himself voluntarily in the room and stead of the guilty, was dealt with as though he were really such. Yet was there no distrust in God; for he almost immediately adds, "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit." The Socinian looks only for that magnanimity in Christ which makes him superior to bodily pain : we see all regard to bodily pain absorbed in the deeper sorrows of a pierced spirit, pressed with the weight of human transgression, laid upon him; the effect of which was manifested in this pathetic cry, that we might be convinced that a sinless mind could not suffer thus on its own account, and yet that we might equally witness the strength and majesty of him who could sustain the load, conquer in the awful conflict, maintain his trust in an unparalleled trial, and finally with calmness resign his pure spirit into the hands of God. The peculiar character of Christ's sufferings, and his equally peculiar demeanour under them, are among the strongest presumptive evidences of his VICARIOUS and ATONING death. It is scarcely necessary to say, that, in the language of scripture, God is said to FORSAKE any one when he leaves him without aid and comfort.

-This arose from our Lord's having used the term Eli, "my God." Either the Hellenistic Jews, who were not familiar with the language, mistook the word, or in the crowd some heard indistinctly, or, what is more probable, the whole was a continuance of the raillery exercised upon his claim as the Messiah; for a common notion among the Jews was, that Elias would precede the Messiah.

Verses 48, 49. And put it on a reed, and gave him to drink.—Jesus had previously said, as we learn from John, "I thirst;" so that this might be an act of relenting compassion in the individual, who would find the vinegar or posca used by the Roman soldiers placed hard by in a vessel, as we learn from the same evangelist. He ran probably to obtain the reed, or the sponge. But the rest seem to have interrupted this act of kindness; for they said, still in the same obdurate spirit, Let be, let us see whether Elias will come and save him. St. John says, the sponge was put upon hyssop, meaning the STALK of that herb, which there might be long enough for the purpose, as the crosses were not lofty. This stalk might be called a reed, as καλαμος was used metonymically for a rod, a staff, &c.

Verse 50. When he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.—The words he thus loudly uttered were, “ Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit," Luke xxiii. 46; and with that he yielded up the ghost, apnкe to zvevua, “he dismissed his spirit." The notion which

hopes, and privileges, so that our confiding approach to God is encouraged by all those views which the death of Christ unfolds to the eye of faith. God is our Father; his throne is a throne of grace, his justice is satisfied, and as he is able to show mercy consistently with the rectitude of his government, so he delights in its exercise, and admits the most unworthy, when they are truly penitent and "draw near " with "faith," into the immediate enjoyment of his friendship and blessing.

The earth did quake, and the rocks rent. -Here was a third miracle resulting from the immediate interposition of the divine power, designed to attest his approbation of the Sufferer, and his anger against his persecutors. The symbolical import of the earthquake was probably the destruction of the Jewish state; for as the rending of the veil intimated the abolition of the religion of the Jews, by the bringing in of a "better hope," and the opening of a "new way" to God, so, as earthquakes in prophetic language signify the subversion of kingdoms, this shaking of the earth was not rhetorical, but a real symbol of those convulsions which should entirely destroy their civil polity, and overwhelm them in inevitable destruction. Earthquakes, it is true, occur in the course of events produced by natural causes. Yet even these vast, and often destructive, commotions of the globe cannot, by any true Christian, be supposed left to themselves, and not to be under both the control and DIRECTION of Providence. In this case the hand of God was strikingly manifest in the production of this earthquake, at the time of our Lord's death, and on the place; leaving, as travellers still observe, marks of an extraordinary convulsion in the fissures and po

sitions of the rocks near the site of the crucifixion

Verses 52, 53. And the graves were opened, &c. This was the most extraordinary prodigy of all, and the moral is equally obvious: the death of Christ gives life to the very dead, and the first-fruits of the general resurrection appear visibly among men! That the earthquake was the instrument employed in opening the sepulchres, is clear from the narrative; that it could not give life to the bodies contained in them, is certain; so that in this we have another instance of the direct employment of the power of God, marking the death of his Son with such events as never occurred at the death of a mere mortal, or the holiest martyr, or the most useful apostle. The earthquake opened the tombs, which could not be closed again, because the Sabbath was at hand; and in this state they remained until after our Lord himself had risen from the grave: then many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of their graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, the current appellation of Jerusalem, though then most unworthy of it, and appeared unto many. They rose not before Christ, for he was the "firstborn from the dead," and the "first-fruits of them that slept;" but they followed as the proof that he was, according to his own profession, "the Resurrection and the Life;" and in fulfilment of his own words, John v. 25, "The hour is coming, and now is," is at hand, or near, "when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live." On this miracle we may remark, 1. That, like the other prodigies, it was manifestly emblematical: it showed that the power of death and the grave was vanquished by the death and resurrection

3.

of Christ, and that he had obtained by his submission to death, "the keys," the supreme dominion, " of death and hades," or the place of separate spirits, whom he commanded to resume their bodies laid down by death, and quickened into life for that purpose. 2. That it is a proof of the divinity of our Lord; for the life which was imparted to them was given by him, so that to him belong the words ascribed to Jehovah in the psalms, "For with thee is the fountain of life;" and this doctrine is intimated also by himself in the verse which follows his own prediction of the event, just quoted from John v. 25, "For as the Father hath life IN HIMSELF, so hath he given to the Son to have life IN HIMSELF." That it was a strong confirmation of the resurrection of Christ, vouchsafed probably to some of the disciples to whom our Lord did not himself appear. The witnesses were many; they went into the holy city, the burial-places of the Jews being all without the walls; and they appeared unto many. That they were the bodies of saints but recently deceased may be gathered from this, that their appearing unto those who never knew them could convey no proof of their being raised from the dead; they might be persons assuming the names of those who had long ago died, for any thing the persons who saw them could determine; but by showing themselves to their acquaintance the proof was complete. To the question, "What became of them?" there is no reasonable reply; but that, as our Lord existed in secret until his ascension, so were they also hidden; and that they returned with him to heaven, and are there as the pledges, to angels and to us, that the general resurrection of all the saints shall

most certainly take place in the fulness of time. The bodies of these saints, whilst yet they tarried upon earth, like the body of our Lord, wore not that glorious appearance which his body assumed after or at the ascension, and to the splendour of which the bodies of his people are to be conformed. There were obvious reasons, in each case, for the delay of this "glorification;" but doubtless, like his, their bodies were even then immortal. That we hear no more of them, indicates that they did not remain among men, and die a second time; which would have been an evil. On this event Eusebius, in his Ecclesiastial History, has a beautiful passage: "He descended into hades, and broke those bars that had hitherto remained firm and untouched, and raised up together with himself those who for many ages had slept. So that, though he came down from heaven alone, he ascended to his Father with a numerous train, and was honourably seated at his right hand."

Verse 34. Truly this was the Son of God.They were witnesses of the darkening of the sun, the tremendous earthquake, the demeanour of Christ, his meekness, his prayer for the forgiveness of his enemies, his conduct to the penitent thief; and though they saw not the veil of the temple rent, they might yet hear of it. The prodigies struck all the soldiers with fear; but the centurion, as of a more reflecting character, probably revolved all the circumstances in his thoughts, and at length exclaimed, Truly this was the Son of God; and with this testimony the soldiers themselves appear to have consented. According to St. Luke, his words were, 'Certainly this was a righteous man.” He might, and probably did, use both ex

pressions, as it is not likely that he restrained his strong emotions unto one exclamation; and the one implied the other. If Christ was the Son of God incarnate, he was also a righteous man, innocent of all guilt; and if a righteous man, he was then the Son of God, because he professed himself to be so, which, in the sense in which our Lord used the term, no mere man could profess and be righteous. It has been disputed in what sense the centurion, who was probably a pagan, and not a proselyte, as some have conjectured, used the term SON OF GOD; but this is clear, that he attributed it to Christ in the same sense in which Christ had claimed it, and in which the Jews had disputed it. This is indubitable. He had probably heard, that Christ had been condemned in the Jewish council, on a charge of blasphemy, "because he said, I am the Son of God;" and he had certainly heard the Jews who insulted him in his sufferings, taunt him with this profession, which according to them was blasphemy, or it could have been no crime. He knew therefore that it was a title implying a claim to a participation of the divine nature, the nature of that one supreme God, whom, as a man of education, he could not but know the Jews alone worshipped, to the exclusion of all belief in the existence of all inferior, subordinate deities. It follows therefore, that it must have been with reference to this claim, as understood by the Jews, and not with reference to any of the idolatrous notions of paganism, that he was convinced that God himself was the author of all these prodigies, and that they were all attestations in favour of the sufferer, or the exertions of his own power, and that he therefore acknowledged him emphatically to be that Son of God which the Jews denied. This is plain, not from the use of the mere phrase itself; but from the adverb aλnows, truly, certainly, indubitably, this was the Son of God, in manifest op

position to the criminality affixed by the Jews to his assumption of that title.

But the phrase used being vios Deov, without the article, some would render, a son of God; an expression, they think, suitable in the lips of a polytheist: but when the disciples in the ship, after Christ had quelled the storm, came to him and worshipped him, and said, "Truly thou art the Son of God," the article is wanting, and yet they, being Jews, cannot be charged with polytheistic notions; and even a Socinian critic has acknowledged, that the phrases vios Deav, and ο υιος του Θεου, Οι υιος του Θεον, mean exactly the same thing. As the centurion used the phrase "Son of God," with reference to what Christ had professed himself to be, so he adds what is recorded by St. Luke, "Certainly this was a righteous or just man," probably with reference to the message of Pilate's wife, which, being delivered to him "on the judgment-seat," might be known to others. She had said, "Have thou nothing to do with that JUST MAN;" and the centurion exclaims, "Truly this was a just man."

If not precisely the same, yet a powerful effect was produced by the extraordi nary events which occurred. Against the impression of the darkness many of the obdurate spectators of the crucifixion, buoyed up, it may be, by the effrontery of the chief priests, and scribes, and elders, maintained an indomitable stubbornness, and continued their mocking of our Lord; but the repetition of these "mighty signs" at length broke down the resolu tion of the multitude; for it is added by St. Luke, in connexion with the confession of the centurion, “And all the people that came together to that sight, be holding the things that were done, smote their breasts, and returned," Luke xxiii. 48,

Verses 55, 56. And many women were there, &c.-These heroic women appear to have been the only disciples, excep