as a man, he was eminently distinguished above all the human race as " a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief." He suffered much in his body, from labours, watchings, fastings ; from the want even of a place where to lay his head ; from the wounds made in it from head to foot, by the thorns, the scourges, and the nails. We may judge of this by what is said of him in the Psalms ; " I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint : my heart is like wax, it is melted in the midst of my bowels : my strength is dried up like a potsherd ; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws ; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death6." The troubles of his soul were yet greater still. Of these he himself frequently complained : " Now is my soul troubled ; my soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death." To such a degree was he agitated by internal conflicts, that, before he was even apprehended by his enemies, he was in an agony, and sweat great drops of blood from every pore of his body. Moreover, as his sufferings were thus various, so did they also spring from a variety of sources, from men, from devils, and from God himself. Men laboured to the utmost to tor- ment him by calumnies and reproaches, by taunts and revilings, and by all the cruelties that the most inveterate malice could devise and execute. Satan assaulted him with fiery temptations in the wilder- ness ; and all the powers of darkness conflicted with him at the close of life. His heavenly Father too hid his face from him in the hour of his greatest extre- mity, and " bruised him" for the iniquities of his people, and called forth the sword of vengeance to slay " the man that was his fellow f."
Together with this variety of sufferings, let us take a view also of their intenseness. In drinking this bitter cup, he found nothing to mitigate his sorrows, but every thing to aggravate them to the uttermost. If we except the sympathy of a few women, he met with nothing but scorn and contempt from all who beheld him. Not even his beloved disciples afforded
e Ps. xxii 14, 15. f Zech. xiii. 7.