maintained by such means. Our Lord has declared that " they who take the sword shall perish with the sword :" and has shewn us, by his own example, that we are rather to " possess our souls in patience ;" and to conquer, not by shedding the blood of others, but by suffering our own to be poured forth with meekness and resignation.
These observations naturally arise from the reproof which our Lord gave to Peter, when, with well-meant, but unhallowed zeal, he had attempted to withstand his enemies with the sword. Our Lord tells him that such exertions were both unlawful and unnecessary : they were unlawful, because they were quite contrary to the spirit of his religion; and unnecessary, because, if he judged it expedient, he could in one moment have legions of angels sent to rescue him from their hands. But as, for the exemplifying of his religion, he forbade his disciples to fight ; so, for the fulfilling of the Scriptures, he forbore to deliver himself, though he might have done it in a way that was both easy and legitimate.
We propose to shew you,
L How easily our Lord could have rescued himself from their hands —
God has been pleased on many occasions to effect his purposes by the ministration of angels —
[Angels have been employed by him sometimes for the destruction of men, and sometimes for their preservation : and in either case they have always proved mighty and irresistible.
By the sword of an angel God destroyed the Egyptian first- born both of man and beast'\ By an angel he smote seventy thousand of David's subjects, for the pride and creature-con- fidence which he manifested in numbering the people*^. By an angel he slew an hundred and eighty-five thousand of Sennacherib's army in one single night*^.
Nor have angels proved less mighty to save than to destroy. The Hebrew Youths were kept unhurt in the fiery furnace*^:
^ Numb. XX. 16. with Exod. xii. 23. Where the Lord who pro- tected Israel is distinguished from "the destroyer" who smote the Egyptians.
'• 2 Sam. xxiv. 16. " Isai. xxxvii. 36. ^ Dan. iii. 28.
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Daniel was preserved in a den of hungry lions ^ : the twelve Apostles were brought forth from a prison to which they had been committed^: and Peter, when chained and guarded in an inner prison with all imaginable care and safety, was, on the very night previous to his intended execution, liberated from his dungeon, and restored to the embraces of his praying friends^. These things are effected by the ministration of angels " who excel in strength."]
Of these our blessed Lord might have had any number to deliver him —
[He had given abundant proof indeed that he could, if he pleased, deliver himself: for on former occasions he had repeatedly withdrawn himself from his enemies, when they thought they had him in their power ^; and, but a few minutes before, he had beaten them all to the ground by a word', shew- ing thereby that he could as easily have struck them dead, after the manner in which the armed bands were smitten when they were sent to apprehend Elijah'^. But, if he had needed assistance, he could have had legions of angels for his support. He needed only to ask of his Father, and it would be done : above seventy thousand of those powerful beings ' would be with him in an instant : and if one single angel was sufficient to destroy a hundred and eighty-five thousand warriors in a single night, what could not such a host of them effect, if he chose to employ them in his service ?]
If then to deliver himself would have been so easy, it will be proper to inquire,
II. Why he forbore to do so —
The Scriptures had spoken much respecting the
Messiah —
[They contained not only many predictions relative to his death in general, but some which referred to the very circum- stances in which he was now placed. It had been foretold, that he should be assaulted by a tumultuous mob, composed of Jews and Gentiles °', rich and poor": that he should be betrayed into their hands by one of his own Disciples " : that he should give himself up to them, when he had power to