and to give occasion to his enemies to triumph over him. While the people of God, when they cried unto him had been heard and delivered, his prayers were not heard in the same way; because he suffered for the guilty in a state of seclusion from the habitation and favour of God. He was treated as a leper, whose lamentations, instead of meeting with condolence, could only be made in a state of excommunication *, and whose malady was viewed as resulting from the immediate visitation of God. The people treated him thus; because they could not account for his unparalleled sufferings in any other way, than that of his being an unparalleled sinner; and he himself acted as one unclean in the eye of the law, because he had devoted himself to be a sacrifice for sint. The higher our views are of the perfect purity and holiness of his character, the more deeply impressive will be our views of his condition when separated from all delightful fellowship with God, and treated as a polluted victim. This was prefigured by the animals offered under the law, which were to be the purest and most perfect in themselves, while, in consequence of being substituted in the room of the guilty, they were treated as unclean. From all this legal impurity was our Lord delivered by his expiatory death. Connected with this was the shame to which he was subjected. Shame forms a part of the curse due to sint. This arises from the nature of sin, which in Lev. xiii. 45, with Num. v. 1-3. + Isaiah liii. 3-5. Isaiah lxvi. 24. cludes in it the contempt of excellence and opposition to all that is good-the perverse abuse of the faculties of the mind; of the bounties of Providence and the ways of God-which involves in it the most wicked rebellion and the basest ingratitude; and which manifests the government of the most despicable and hateful propensity. A principle inducing such a character and conduct, must merit the most decided reprobation and the most marked contempt. The conviction that this contempt is deserved, must torment the condemned in that world where the clearest light shall be united with the most deep-rooted hostility to all that is good. The Saviour having appeared in the cause of sinners, was exposed to the keenest reproach and the most galling shame. We ought not to look upon this as a slight part of his woes; for shame is a most painful emotion, which has driven many from the haunts of men, and to offer violence to nature itself. The Redeemer often speaks of the shame and the scorn he endured, and says that "reproach had broken his heart.” These bitter consequences and effects of sin account for the manner of our Lord's death. It was necessary not only that he should die, but that he should die in circumstances shameful and degrading: He accordingly died the death of the cross, that being the most shameful death then known among men. He indeed knew that he merited not reproach, but praise; but his circumstances of shame and contempt forcibly impressed him with the baseness and malignity of sin, and the unworthiness of those for whom he suffered. It is of importance to observe farther, that our Lord's sufferings were increased by the assaults of the powers of darkness *. The serpent bruised his heel, as had been early foretold. There are times when the mind is in a situation very susceptible of trouble and anguish; and this was the case with the Saviour, when the prince of darkness attacked him. Every fresh calamity laid his mind more open to pain from another; and at this time calamity came after calamity, and deluged his soul with the most bitter and complicated distress. No wonder then that he was filled with a shocking mixture of terror and amazement—of dejection and sorrow. I may add, that a number of inferior causes contributed to increase his sufferings. All the evils which sin hath introduced seemed to conspire against him. While his soul was overwhelmed with bitter sorrow, and his body racked with the tortures of the cross, he had to endure the mockery of the Jews-the conduct of his own disciples, and numerous other circumstances of the most painful nature+. All of these, however, the Redeemer traced to God, as well as what came immediately from him. When apprehended by the officers sent to take him, he said, "The cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?" The things which led to his death, as well as the death itself, he considered as the effects of the Divine wrath against sin; and viewing them in this light, he must have had the bitterness of his cup exceedingly in John xiv. 30. Psal. xxii, 6-18. xix. 7-12 19-21, Isaiah 1. 6. liii. creased. It is this view of the many events and circumstances in the death of the Redeemer which makes them illustrative of the nature and the causes of his sufferings, and leads us to perceive the glory of his character. Thus did the Son of God endure the curse of the Divine law, in suffering that sorrow, dejection, and consternation—that shame and degradation, which marked his career. He suffered under the frown of the Lawgiver and the Judge of all; and that in such circumstances, that in the prime of life he died of a wounded spirit. Thus sin was expiated-the Divine law magnified and made honourable-the character of God vindicated and fully displayed—and the salvation of the guilty completely secured. "It is finished!" said the wondrous Sufferer. Resigning himself into the hands of his God, he exclaimed, "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit!" and "bowing his head, he gave up the ghost." Thus died he at once as a sacrifice for sin, and as "the Prince of Life." Let the philanthropy of God our Saviour expand our minds and enlarge our hearts. Into his views let us enter, his character let us imitate, and thus his bliss we shall ultimately possess. Praying that He who knows all our afflictions, and hath taken their bitterness away, may be with you and bless you, I remain, My Dear Friend, Yours, &c. LETTER II. ON THE GLORY OF CHRIST. General remarks on the glory of Christ as illustrated by his sufferings. His glory a striking manifestation of the Divine character-Appears in his resurrection-In his ascension-The completion of the atonement-The Divine approbation of his work-And his ministrations and bliss in the heavenly sanctuary. Was the subject of his prayer and conversation on earth. Demonstrates the perfection of his sacrifice -Is the source of peace before God-of sanctification-of consolation under affliction, and in the prospect of death and eternity. MY DEAR FRIEND, HAVING in my last letter made some observations on the sufferings of Christ, I shall now direct your attention to the glory which followed. These two subjects mutually illustrate each other, and formed the great topics of prophetic teaching*. That we may understand the true nature of the glory of the Saviour, it is necessary to advert again to the character in which he viewed God in the time of his sufferings. He then contemplated him chiefly as the Lawgiver and the Judge of all, highly displeased with the violation of his authority, and as in the act of executing the sentence of the law. He viewed death as the wages of sin, and as the infliction of the curse of Jehovah. The wrath of God, as revealed in the cross of Christ, gives the most awful display of Divine justice; and in the death of the Redeemer, we receive the deepest impressions of the moral character of God. Here we are 1 Peter i. 11, |