were not sufficient. For, supposing that Jesus had spoken these words of their temple, the greatest guilt he could have incurred, if he failed in the work, would have been that of an arrogant temerity; which is by no means punishable with death. But if he had made good his words, and within three days rebuilt them another temple, where would have been the great damage? What loss would they have sustained? Must they not have acknowledged this to be a proof of his supernatural and Divine power? Lastly, to allege such a crime against Jesus would have proved of no effect before Pilate, the Roman governor, who would have made a jest of it. Thus the Jewish rulers were preplexed in their wicked machinations, and confounded and baffled by their own witnesses, the tools they employed to compass their impious designs.— Having thus considered the depositions of these false witnesses, we come,

Secondly, To consider the glorious confession made by Christ, the true and faithful witness.

In the mean time, the High Priest, who, like a ravenous wolf, thirsted after innocent blood, grew impatient; and as his witnesses were of no avail to him, he goes about to extort a subject, on which he might found a capital sentence, from our blessed Lord's own mouth. Hitherto the Lamb of God, having with a silent mildness and serenity heard all these wicked accusations which confuted themselves, and the falsity of which was manifest to the judges own consciences, had retured no answer in justification of himself. Thus, by his silence, he expiated the sinful apology of the first Adam, (who was for vindicating himself against God's just accusations) and, at the same time, manifested his willingness to suffer death. At length the High Priest adjures him by the living God to declare, whether he is the Christ, the Son of the Most High. By this behaviour his design was, as it were, to bring the conscience of the accused to the torture, in order to come at the truth; not that he in

tended to believe and acquiesce in his confession, but that he might make use of it for compassing his impious and bloody design. For it had long before been declared by the great council, that Jesus was not the Messiah or Christ, but a mover of sedition; and a decree had been passed by that assembly, to excommunicate all that acknowledged him as the Messiah or Christ, (John ix. 22.) Alas! how must the heart of the Lord Jesus been affected at this adjura-. tion! He is here accounted a sly dissembler, who concealed the truth. He hears the sacred name of his heavenly Father scandalously abused; that awful name for which he had so profound a reverence.

·

And now, our blessed Saviour, the faithful and true witness, no longer thought proper to be silent; but made a good confession, though he well foresaw what a storm of wrath and indignation it would raise in the council. For being asked this question: "Art thou the Christ the Son of God?' he shewed himself to be the person, who was come into the world to bear witness to the truth, (John xviii. 37.) and had said by the mouth of the Psalmist, I have not refrained my lips, O Lord, thou knowest; I have not concealed thy truth from the great congregation.' (Psalm x. 9.) He acknowledges and owns the truth. And as John the Baptist, his forerunner, had said, 'I am not the Christ,' (John 1. 20. iii. 28.) Jesus, on the contrary, answers to the High Priest, in these words: Thou hast said, I am,' i. e. It as you say, I am the Saviour of the world promised by God, the true and only begotten Son of my Father. 'Hereafter, continues our blessed Lord, shall ye see the Son of Man, sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.' The import of these words seems to be this: "I now stand, indeed, before your tribunal, as a despised son of man; and, on this account, instead of giving credit to my confession, you exclaim against it as blasphemous. But I declare unto you before it comes to pass (so that you will not. Ggg

VOL. II.

be able to plead ignorance) that in a few days, I shall be quite in a different situation from that in which I appear at present. For, after I am risen again from the dead, I shall seat myself on my Father's right hand, and jointly with him, hold the reins of universal dominion. My Father, for whose honour you blindly imagine yourselves so zealous, and suppose that in condemning me to death you do him an acceptable service; He, I say, after all my sufferings and disgrace, will again glorify me as his Son, will exalt me above all angels and created beings, and commit all power to me both in heaven and in earth. After that, I shall appear in the clouds of heaven, as on my triumphal car, and will set up my spiritual kingdom, and manifest my power, before my friends and enemies. This coming of the Son of Man in his kingdom, some of you shall live to see, (Matt. xvi 28.) and shall feel and experience such proofs and tokens of my exaltation, as (unless you obstinately persist in your unbelief) will fill you with unspeakable terror and amazement." By this answer, our blessed Saviour refers his judges to a passage in the Psalms, (Pslm cx. 1.) and another in the prophecy of Daniel, (Daniel vii. 13, 14.) where the Messiah is described as sitting on the right hand of God, and coming in the clouds of heaven.

The same noble confession is repeated by our blessed Lord the following morning, when he is again brought before the great council, and asked the same question, namely, Art thou the Christ tell us?' Now as Jesus had before signified to the Jewish rulers the injustice of their proceedings against him, since they were determined to put him to death, whatever defence he might make to clear himself from their accusations. He a second time tells them, that 'Hereafter they should see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of God, and receiving power to shed abroad his Holy Spirit on his Apostles, and to set up his kingdom among Jews and Gentiles all over the world; but, at the same time, to punish and destroy his enemies.'

Hence, on the High Priest's asking him this question a second time, 'Art thou the Son of God?' he again answered, Thou sayest it, I am.'

O faithful Saviour! thus with thy silence hast thou atoned for our unnecessary words, and with thy candid confession our prevaricating evasions, if we duly repent of them, and believe in thy name! At the same time, thou hast left us an illustrious example confidently to declare the truth whatever may be the consequences, and to fear no dangers, nor even death itself, when we are called upon to bear witness to the truth. Thus I have shewn you what preceded the condemnation of our blessed Saviour.

PART. II.

LET us now, my beloved, in the second place, take a view of the circumstances which accompanied the sentence of death passed on our blessed Lord. In order to pronounce sentence of death, it was necessary first to prove the prisoner guilty of some capital crime, that deserved such punishment. We must therefore here enquire,

First, Into the crime laid to the charge of our Saviour, and,

Secondly, The sentence passed in consequence of that charge.

The crime, of which our great High Priest stood accused, was blasphemy. For when he had openly confessed that he was Christ, the Son of the most high God, and that, within a short time, he would sit on the right hand of his Father, and come in the clouds of heaven, as his triumphal car; Caiaphas cried out, 'He hath spoken blasphemy, what further need have we of witnesses? Behold, now ye have heard his blasphemy.' The sin of blasphemy consists either in speaking irreverently and contemptuously of God, or in appropriating to ourselves what essentially belongs to God; a robbery and presumptuous audaciousness, not to be thought of without horror. Now

as the High Priest took Jesus for a mere man, and yet heard him give himself out to be the Son of God, and, by assuming a seat on God's throne, make himself equal with God; he concluded that he blasphemed, and consequently deserved to die. That this dreadful accusation might have the more specious appearance, and make the stronger impression on the other members of the great council, the High Priest rent his clothes. This was customary among the Jews, as a token of extreme grief, or to testify their abhorrence of any blasphemous expressions they happened to hear. Thus Jacob rent his clothes on hearing of Joseph's death, (Gen. xxxvii. 34.) and Hezekiah did the same, when he was informed of Rabshakeh's blasphemous expressions against the God of Isreal. (2 Kings xix. 1.) This hypocritical behaviour bore an appearance of a singular zeal for God's honour; and the High Priest intended by it to signify, that his heart was pierced, and, as it were, rent with grief and indignation, by the horrible blasphemy which he had just heard. But in reality, this extravagant rending his garment was an outward act of the most wicked grimace and hypocrisy; for this iniquitous and blood-thirsty judge was inwardly glad at his heart, that he had got some foundation to pass sentence of death on the innocent Jesus.

Reflect, my brethren, whether our blessed Saviour was not in these circumstances to atone, on condition of our faith and repentance, for the hypocrisy of joining in the outward ceremonies of Divine worship, without the real devotion of the heart; of feigning seriousness and contrition, and strictly to keep fast-days, &c. when at the same time the heart, instead of being duly affected, with all this outward show remains depraved, corrupt, and unbroken; basks in the love of the world, and its sinful pleasures; and notwithstanding all these outward formalities, by new sins crucifies the Son of God afresh. Oh, that every one here, who finds this to be his own case, may humble