Satan, methinks, exulted now in having accomplished the final destruction of Jesus: but little did he imagine, that, whilst he was thus " bruising the heel" of the Messiah, his own head should receive a deadly blow, which he should never to all eternity recovere: and that the Messiah's kingdom should be immoveably established, by the very means used to root it out from the earth f.]
We now pass on to suggest,
II. Some reflections suited to the occasion —
Amongst the multitude of thoughts which such a subject must bring to the mind, we will fix on two or three of the most important :
1. How awful is the depravity of the human heart!
[This we can see in reference to the Jews : but we make a very defective improvement of Scripture history, if we do not use it as a glass wherein to see human nature in general, and our own hearts in particular.
What was the principle by which the priests and elders were actuated on this occasion ? It was envy : " He knew that for envy they had delivered him." And is not that principle in our hearts? Are we not told that "the spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?" Have Cain, and Ishmael, and Joseph's brethren, none resembling them amongst us? It is true, that men are less conscious of that principle than perhaps of any other: but this arises from its so destroying the characters of those who are exposed to its malignant shafts, as to make them appear deserving of all the evil that it inflicts upon them. But though we see not this principle in ourselves, we discover it easily enough in others; and are constrained to confess its odiousness.
And, as the same principle exists in us, so, if Jesus Christ were now to come into the world again, and demean himself precisely in the same manner as he did before, he would excite the same inveterate hatred in us as he did in them. Suppose a poor man laying open the pride, the worldliness, the hypocrisy of all ranks of people, as well among the Clergy as the Laity, and drawing myriads after him from every quarter of the land; would this provoke no enmity : would it beget no murderous rancour in the hearts of those whose hypocrisy was detected, and whose influence was destroyed ?
We may go further, and ask, whether the same impious choice be not made at this day as in the days of old ? What is the preferring of the ungodly to the godly, and sin to holiness, but a preferring of Barabbas to Christ? Yes; and so common
e Gen. iii. 15. Heb ii. 14, lo.