should be done too, not by the inconsiderate vulgar, but by the rulers themselves, and by the priests and ministers of God's sanctuary ? This shews what human nature itself is, even under the greatest possible advantages : and humiliating is the picture which it exhibits to us.
But the desert also of the world is manifested to us in the death of Christ: for Christ suffered the penalty due to sin: " to redeem us from the curse of the law, he became a curse :" and all the misery that he endured both in body and soul as our surety and substitute, was our deserved portion. He indeed, by reason of his office, could endure it but for a time : but the soul that perishes in sin, must endure it to all eternity. Death, which to him was the period of his release, will be to the condemned soul the commencement of its sorrows, of sorrows that shall endure to all eternity. The hidings of God's face and the sense of his wrath will be co-existent with the soul itself.]
2. The prince thereof would be cast out —
[Satan is called the prince, and the god, of this world, because he exercises an universal government over men who are his willing subjects a. That which has given him this power is sin : on account of sin, God has delivered men into his hands as their jailor and their executioner. But Jesus Christ has "finished transgression and made an end of sin, and brought in everlasting righteousness ;" and has thus rescued from the hands of Satan a countless multitude, who shall be eternal monuments of his electing love and his redeeming power. Whilst yet he hanged on the cross, the Lord Jesus "bruised the serpent's headb;" yea, " he spoiled principalities and powers, triumphing over them openly upon the cross0." At that moment did " Satan fall from heaven as lightning:" and though he still retains a sway over the children of disobedience, yet he is forced continually to give up his vassals to the Lord Jesus, and is made to flee from those d whom he lately " led captive at his will." Moreover, the time is shortly coming, (yea, in the Divine purpose it was, as it were, then present,) when he shall be bound in chains of everlasting darkness, and be cast into that " lake of fire " whicli has from the beginning been " prepared for him and for his angels."]
Next, our Lord predicts, II. The triumphs of his grace —
By being "lifted up from the earth" was meant,
a Eph. ii. 2. 2 Cor. iv. 4. 2 Tim. ii. 20. i» Gen. hi. 15.
L' Col. ii. 15. a Jam. iv, 7.