Christ, it was foretold that his enemies would con- spire against him, and vindicate their conduct towards him from this consideration, that God himself had pointed him out by his judgments as deserving every thing that could be inflicted on him : " All that hate me whisper together against me, against me do they devise my hurt. An evil disease, say they, cleavetk fast unto him : and now that he lieth, let him rise up no more f." And again, " Mine enemies speak against me, and they that lay wait for my soul take counsel together, saying, God hath forsaken him ; persecute and take him ; for there is none to deliver*." This vile imputation on his character therefore becomes, in this view, a testimony on his behalf; since it was ordained that such indignities should be offered to the Messiah ; and in this, as well as in a thousand other instances, the Scriptures were literally accom- plished in him.
But God provided a further antidote to this im- pression in the occurrences of his life. Even while his enemies were conspiring to take away his life, our Lord appealed to them respecting his own innocence, " Which of you convinceth me of sinh ? And the very judge who pronounced the sentence of death against him, was constrained no less than three times to acknowledge publicly, that he could find no fault in him1.
The supposed cause of our Lord's sufferings being thus evidently founded in misapprehension and pre- judice, we shall point out,
II. The real cause —
This is stated in general as originating in our wretchedness and misery.
St. Matthew, quoting the first words of the text, says, that they were accomplished when our Lord healed the multitudes of those who flocked around himk. And this was true, inasmuch as the maladies under which men groan, are the consequences of sin ;
' Ps. xli. 7, 8. 8 Ps. lxxi. 10, 11. h John viii. 40,
i Lukexxiii. 4, 14, 22. k Matt. viii. 16, 17.