of thy guilty servant, and receivest the strokes which were due to my sins. Praised be thy name for every stripe thou didst receive; every drop of thy sacred blood, which was thus barbarously shed by the inhuman soldiers! But this thy heavenly Father has appointed to be the healing balsam for the wounds of my conscience. Whenever I am tempted to sin, let me think on these sufferings, and let mine eyes run down with penetential tears. And though thou dost not require that I should scourge and lacerate my body, as a punishment for my sins; yet enable me, that, according to thy precepts, I may by repentance daily crucify the flesh with its affections and lusts, break its stubborn will and mortify its deeds. But if, in following thee I should be honoured with stripes for thy name sake, enable me to receive the strokes with the same joy as thine Apostles did (Acts v. 41.) May our souls be healed by thy meritorious stripes, (Pet. ii. 24.)

The second painful insult offered to the Son of God, was the crowning him with thorns. The rage and cruelty of the soldiers was not satisfied by the bloody furrows, which they had plowed on our Saviour's back. They do not spare his sacred head, but make a wreath of thorns, and press it on his head, so that the prickles were forced into his temples among the veins with which those parts abound, and the blood ran down his face in purple streams.

Here a faithful soul may say, Fresh fountains of blood are opened to wash away the stains and pollutions, which I have contracted. It was the order of my Creator, that, after the Fall, the ground should bring forth thorns and thistles, as a token of the curse.Here therefore, I now see him who is crowned with thorns as it were clothed in my curse, to procure me the blessing. Here I see the ram that was to be offered in my stead, as it were, caught in a thicket (Gen. xxii. 13.) Alas! the wild uncultivated-soil of my heart naturally bears nothing but thorns and this

iles. O my Saviour! how many seeds of thy divine truths have been choaked with the thorns of worldly solicitudes, which I have suffered to take root in my soul, so that they could not grow up to bear fruit in due season. As thy head was here stuck with thorns, so would my soul have been incessantly tortured with the goads of an evil conscience, and torn, as it were with thorns and briars (Judges viii. 7, 16.) How amazing is thy love, O my Saviour! When a regat grown was offered thee by the Jewish people, thou didst fly from it; but thou didst willingly bow thy sacred head under a crown of thorns, hereby confirming the testimony that thou hast given, that thy kingdom is not of this world.

The third painful indignity which our blessed Saviour endured was likewise from the soldiers, whose frequent blows bruised his sacred face and head, and drove the thorns deeper into his temples; so that it would have been no wonder, if under such inexpres sible pains, embittered by insult, he had fainted away. This must naturally have been the case, had not the divinity within him supported him, and reserved him for still greater tortures.

O my Saviour, these insulting blows were to have fallen on me. It was I that should have been eter nally under the buffetings of Satan; but thou, my blessed representative, didst take them on thee, and sufferedst thyself to be beaten, like a despisable slave. Alas! how can a poor worm be inflamed with anger at the least blow, and account it an affront which must be avenged by the blood of the offender? where as thou, who art King of kings, and the Lord of glo ry, hast with the greatest patience and serenity suf fered these repeated indignities. Thanks be to thee, O blessed Jesus, who by all these painful kinds of suffering didst sanctify my pains! if thou shouldest be pleased to afflict my body with painful sufferings, O impart to me that patience and resignation which thou didst shew on this occasion! Alas! Tam ashamed

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of my impatience and want of courage, when I consider how many martyrs, and many of them of the weaker sex, have for thy sake, undergone the acutest pains, and the most cruel tortures which infernal malice could invent, not only with patience, but even with joy and triumph. * Did these unresisting innocent sheep patiently suffer such inhuman barbarities for thy sake, O thou crucified Saviour, and am I so fond of myself, that I can scarce bear an insulting look or opprobrious name? O strengthen me with thy spirit, and arm me with thy courage, constancy, and patience, that I may be able, if called upon, to glorify thee by painful sufferings.

II We now proceed, in the next place, to consider the ludicrous indignities which were offered to the immaculate Lamb of God; and these mockeries consist partly in actions, and partly in words.

The ludicrous actions all tended to ridicule the Kingly office of the Lord Jesus. As his Prophetic office had been ridiculed in the house of Caiaphas, by blind-folding him, striking him with the palms of their hands, and then saying to him, Prophecy unto us, who is it that struck thee; so here in the house of the civil judge, his Regal office is mocked and ridiculed; and thus the good confession which he made of his kingdom before Pilate, and of which these scoffers had got some hint, was made matter of laughter, and insulting mirth.

*The Author here enumerates the variety of tortures which were afflicted on the primitive Martyrs; but as they resemble those refiaements of cruelty which were lately practised in France on the wretched Damien. I have omitted them as too shocking to English readers, hose humanity will readily excuse me for drawing a veil over such horrid scene. Whoever has a mind to see an account of these inhuman barbarities may consult KORTHOLT's Tractus de persecutione Eccl. primave, GALLONIOUS & SAGITTARIUS De Cruciatibus Martyrum,

How sensibly must this prophane mockery have affected our blessed Saviour! If a pious Christian, who has a due esteem for the honour of God's word, is pierced to the heart when he hears divine truths abused by the ludicrous tongues of prophane scof fers; O how was the soul of the blessed Jesus pierced, at hearing these miscreants exercise their raillery on this sacred decree of his heavenly Father, 'I have set my King upon my holy hill of Sion,' and striving who could make the most ludicrous sarcasms on his glorious confession, that he was a King! Here we may observe two circumstances, which render this mockery of our blessed Lord the more criminal.

First, It was acted in the very hall of judgment; in the palace of the Imperial governor. It gives a keener edge to abuse and injustice, when it is offered in a place where one may naturally expect to find protection and succour.. How must he, who loveth righteousness and hateth iniquity,' (Psalm xlv. 7.) be grieved to see a court of judgment which ought to be the asylum of persecuted righteousness, and oppressed innocence, changed into a theatre of prophane mockeries and brutal insolence?

Secondly, The whole cohort of the Roman soldiers, which consisted of several hundreds, was here got together; for we are informed, that they called together the whole band. The affronts, the vexation and sorrow which ten inhuman reprobates may cause to a good man, when they are left at liberty to use him at discretion, are inexpressible: how great then must have been the outrages committed by five or six hundred rude soldiers, instigated by the spirit of malice and cruelty! The Roman soldiers were generally the most abandoned among that people, and openly committed all sorts of crimes, without so much as the shadow of a natural modesty or virtue. They were trained up in their natural licentiousness, and immersed in all kinds of wickedness. Was the

pious Job grieved that he should be mocked by those whom he would have disdained to have set with the dogs of his flock? (Psalm xxx. i.) How must it have affected the blessed Jesus, to be given up to the outrages of such a swarm of riotous soldiers! Here the meek Lamb of God stood surrounded with ravening wolves. Here, for our sake, the only begotten Son of God was delivered into the hands of sinners.

O my Saviour, may a pious Christian say, thy love to mankind must have been infinite, which could bring thee to a resolution of undergoing such numberless abuses, and horrid outrages, for thy sake! Endless thanks be ascribed to thee for humbling thyself so low, that I might in due time be exalted.Praised be thy name, for suffering thyself to be reviled and insulted by the very refuse of mankind, that I might be glorified with thy saints. Unfeigned thanks be to thee, for suffering thyself to be brought into the council of the ungodly, that I might be delivered from their company, and advanced to the assembly of the first-born, whose names are written in heaven. Make me also willing, through the knowledge of this thine inconceivable love, to submit for thy sake to abuse, and to be mocked and insulted for thy name, not only by my superiors, but even by the meanest of the people. Arm me with thy spirit of patience, when the undiscerning world insolently mocks that hidden glory which I have in thee, and treats me as a despised laughing-stock. Thou hast sanctified my reproach; grant therefore that I may bear it with joy, and infinitely prefer it to the sinful pleasures and honours of the world.

But let us particularly consider the several kinds of ludicrous indignities which the Lord Jesus endured.

1. The rude soldiers, instead of a golden crown, or a wreath of laurel or ivy, which generals and conquerors in those times used to wear, contemptuously