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Indignant,

lion and the lamb dwelt together. when his Father's honour was profaned, or his temple defiled, he feared not to expose, rebuke, and condemn, the hypocritical Pharisee, and the powerful Scribe; yet, merciful when he was himself injured, insulted, and reviled,.. he breathed out his soul, in a prayer for his persecutors. Where, my brethren, shall we find, a resolution so unwearied, a fortitude so invincible, a courage so enlightened?

Redeemed by his blood, instructed by his precepts, encouraged by his example, and quickened by his spirit, may we diligently labour, to walk in the laws which he hath set before us, and to dedicate to his service, all our faculties, and all our powers: our reason, and affections; our souls and bodies; our time, and substance: thus exhibiting, in our persons, a genuine picture of true Christianity; sincere, without bigotry; and serious, without superstition.

332

NOTES TO LECTURE VII.

NOTE (1), page 307.

What Minucius Felix so beautifully says of those blessed martyrs, who humbly endeavoured to tread in the footsteps of their divine Master, is pre-eminently true of our Lord himself.

"How beautiful a spectacle, in the sight of God, is a Christian entering the lists with affliction, and confronting threats, punishments, and tortures; when, smiling with conscious superiority, he defies the bustle of death, and the terrors of the executioner; when, he asserts his liberty against kings and princes; and yields only to God, whose he is; when, victorious and triumphant, he can look down, on the very judge who condemns him. Victorious and triumphant: for he, only, is truly a victor, who gains the object for which he contends.

"What soldier is there, who will not, under the immediate eye of his general, more boldly bid defiance to danger; since, he only obtains the rewards of victory, who has given proof of his valour. Yet, after all, the general cannot bestow, what is not his to give; he may confer the honours of warfare, but he cannot preserve the warrior's life. Not so, is it with the soldier of God; in misery he is not abandoned, nor can death itself terminate his career. Thus a Christian may, indeed, seem,

but he never can be, miserable." Octavius. Edit. Gronov. xxxvii.

In the same spirit wrote the incomparable Barrow: "We might allege the sufferings of eminent philosophers, persons esteemed most wise by improvement of natural light, who have declared, that perfection of virtue can hardly be produced or expressed, otherwise, than by undergoing most sharp afflictions and tortures; and that God, therefore, as a wise father, is wont, with them to exercise those, whom he best loveth; we might also produce instances of diverse persons, even among Pagans, most famous and honourable in the judgment of all posterity, for their singular virtue and wisdom, who were tried in this furnace, and thereby shone most brightly; then, suffering by the iniquity and ingratitude, by the envy and malignity, of their times, in their reputation, liberty, and life; then, undergoing foul slanders, infamous punishments, and ignominious deaths; more than any other practices of their life, recommending them to the admiration and regard of future ages; although none of them, as our Lord, did suffer of choice, or on design to advance the interests of goodness, but on constraint, and irresistible force put upon them; none of them did suffer, in a manner so signal, with circumstances so rare, with events so wonderful; yet, suffering as they did, was their chief glory; whence it seemeth, that, even, according to the sincerest dictates of common wisdom, this dispensation was not so accountable; nor ought the Greeks, in consistency with themselves, and in respect to their over-admired philosophy, to have deemed our doctrine of the cross, foolish or unreasonable."-Barrow. Serm. on Creed, xxvi.

NOTE (2), page 310.

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John xix. 36. These things were done that the Scripture might be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken. Upon this, Dr. Whitby observes, "This is usually referred to the command touching the paschal lamb, Thou shalt not break a bone of it. Exodus, xii. 46. Numbers, ix. 12. where the Greek aq' aúrou. But David, being also a type of Christ, we may probably refer this to the words, Psalm, xxxiv. 20. He keepeth all their bones, ἓν ἐξ αὐτῶν οὐ συντριβήσεται, one of them shall not be broken: that promise, which respects all righteous persons, being more especially to be fulfilled, in this Just one."-Whitby. Annotations on John xix.

37 And again another Scripture saith, They shall look upon him whom they have pierced.

"The Scripture referred to, is Zech. xii. 10. where the Lord (Jehovah) is introduced, saying, They shall look upon ME whom they have pierced. The person pierced is Jehovah, and the same person is Christ: wherefore, by necessary construction and implication, Christ is Jehovah. The fact being thus plain and clear, we are next to consider the inference from it. The import of the name Jehovah, (according to the best critics, ancient and modern,) is eternal, immutable, necessary existence. The Greek v, or rò ov, taken from it, or answering to it, has been interpreted, to the same sense, by Jews, Gentiles, and Christians. It would be tedious, here to enter into any further detail, of that matter. It shall suffice to observe, how the one true God insists on his being Jehovah, in opposition to all other gods; glorying, in a manner, and triumphing in it, as the distinguishing

character, by which he would be known to be infinitely superior to all the gods of the nations."-Waterland. Lady Moyer's Lectures, Serm. i.

Thus, as Erasmus remarks," Although these things seemed to be done by chance or casualty, that is to say, that, instead of breaking his legs, as the others were, his chance was to have his side thrust through; yet, for all that, were they done by the foresight and providence of God, and as his divine counsel disposed; that, in this point also, the effect and conclusion of the thing, might answer and agree with the prophecies of the prophets." Erasmus. Paraphrase on John, fol. cci.

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NOTE (3), page 311.

They were called the Docetæ. The ring-leader of this sect, according to Valesius, (see his notes on Eusebius, lib. vi.) was one Julius Cossianus, as Clemens Alexandrinus tells us, in the 4th book of his Stromata.

NOTE (4), page 312.

"I do not pretend," says the judicious Dr. Doddridge, "to determine whether this was, as Dr. Drake, (in his Anatomy, vol. i. p. 106.,) supposes, the small quantity of water enclosed in the pericardium in which the heart swims; or whether the cruor was now almost coagulated, and separated from the serum; either way, it was a certain proof of Christ's death; for he could not have survived such a wound, had it been given him in perfect health." - Family Expositor, sect. cxcii.

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