him any comfort ; on the contrary, he was betrayed by one, denied by another, and forsaken by all. All orders and degrees of men were alike inveterate and devoid of mercy. Of this he himself complains by the prophet, " I looked for some to take pity on me, but there was none ; and for comforters, but I found none ; they gave me also gall for my meat, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink g." When, in the depth of his dereliction he cried, " Eli, Eli ! lama sabacthani? My God, my God! why hast thou forsaken me?" so far from pitying, they, with unexampled cruelty, played or punned, as it were, upon his words, and mocked him as idolatrously calling upon Elias, instead of upon God; and, when he complained of thirst, they gave him vinegar, to increase his anguish, instead of a draught calculated to assuage it. Nor did he receive consolation from God, any more than pity from men. On the contrary, his heavenly Father now hid his face from him, and thereby extorted from him that bitter complaint which we have just recited. The united efforts of men and devils could not shake his constancy : but the hidings of his Father's face seemed more than he could endure ; so painful was it to find an estrangement there, where he could alone look for comfort and support. There were many things also which concurred to aggravate his sufferings beyond measure. It is not improbable that the perfection of his nature rendered him more sus- ceptible of pain than other men : but however this might be, certainly his zeal for God must have given a tenfold poignancy to all his anguish. Consider that immaculate Lamb tempted by Satan to distrust his Father's care, and turn the stones into bread for his support ; then to presume upon his Father's care, and cast himself down from a pinnacle of the temple ; and then to deny his Father altogether, and to worship the devil in preference to him ; how horrible must such suggestions be to his holy soul ! Peculiar stress is laid on this by the Apostle, who says, " He suffered, being tempted :" and we are told, he was
s Ps. lxix. 20, 21.
964.1 THE DEPTH OF OUR SAVIOURS HUMILIATION. o27
so distressed by the conflict, that an angel was sent from heaven to strengthen him. The dereliction also before mentioned, must have been afflictive in proportion to the regard which he bore towards his heavenly Father. His love for men must also have been a source of inconceivable trouble to his mind. If " Lot vexed his righteous soul from day to day ;" and David had " rivers of waters running down his eyes ;" and Isaiah exclaimed, " Look away from me, I will weep bitterly, labour not to comfort me ;" and Jeremiah cried, " My bowels, my bowels ! I am pained at my very heart ; " on account of the ungodliness they beheld, and the consequences they foresaw ; what must Jesus have felt when he saw, not only the wickedness of men's actions, but all the enmity of their hearts against God, and knew the full extent of those judgments which were soon to come upon them ? How must the pride of the Pharisees, the unbelief of the Sadducees, the cruelty of the Hero- dians, and the stupidity of his own disciples wound his soul ! The foresight which he had of his own sufferings must have been a still further aggravation of them. In many instances the expectation of pain is even worse than the pain itself; what then must he have endured, when, from the very beginning, he foresaw every thing that should come upon him ! To complete the whole, the accumulation of all his sorroxos at once must have added so greatly to their weight, that, if he had not been God as well as man, he could never have sustained the load.