himself under all these trials, was also made known : " He should be led as a lamb to the slaughter ; and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so should he not so much as open his mouth"." The manner in which he should be put to death was to be by crucifixion0; though that was not a Jewish, but a Roman punishment. And yet he should be exempted from that which was a customary attendant on it — the breaking of his legs : for, though pierced in his hands, his feet, his side, " not a bone of him was to be broken p." Time would fail me to speak of the incidents which were foretold relative to his treat- ment whilst yet upon the cross, the insults they offered him'1, the giving him vinegar to drink1, the casting lots on his vesture5, their putting him to death between two malefactors1; or the mode of his interment in the tomb of a rich man, though in his death he was numbered with the most abject of the human race": — I will pass over these things, and only mention his resurrection, with the precise time it should take place, even the third day, before his body should have seen corruption x ; and his ascension, also, to the highest heavens y ; and his sending down of the Holy Spirit, to testify of him, and to qualify his Disciples for the work of propagating his Gospel, and establish- ing his kingdom in the world2. Let all these things be con- sidered ; and you will say, there was such a body of evidence relating to the Messiahship of Jesus, as, in any considerate mind, must preclude a possibility of doubt.]
The joy expressed at the finding of Jesus will lead me to shew,
II. What an acquisition He is to all who can truly say, " We have found him — "
A distant prospect of him, from the remotest ages, had been a ground of very exalted joy —
[We cannot doubt but that our first parents rejoiced much in the promise given them relative to " the seed of the woman ;" and that Abel also felt rich consolation in his soul, whilst offer- ing up a firstling of his flock, in token of his dependence on him. But in the case of Abraham we are not left to conjecture: we know infallibly, that he did foresee the day of Crmst; and that, in the prospect of it, he greatly rejoiced a. Indeed the designation given him by the prophet, as " the Desire of all Nations b," clearly shews in what light he was regarded by those who had any insight into his proper character.]
n Isai. liii. 7. ° Zech. xii. 10. p Exod. xii. AG.
i Ps. xxii. 7. r Ps. Ixix. 21. s Ps. xxii. 18.
4 Isai. liii. 12. u Isai. liii. 9. x Ps. xvi. 10.
y Ps. lxviii. 18. z Joel ii. 28, 29. a John viii. 56. b Hagg. ii. 7.