4. Look forward to his second coming —
[Ere long he will surely come again, according to his word; and " every eye shall see him, and they also who pierced him." But with what eyes will his enemies behold him then ! How glad would they then be, if they could hide themselves from his presence under rocks and mountains! Not so his believing people : they will rejoice and welcome his arrival as the commencement and consummation of all their joys. Thus saith the prophet : " Hear the word of the Lord, ye that trem- ble at his word ; your brethren that hated you, that cast you out for my name's sake, said. Let the Lord be glorified : but he shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed^." And to the same effect, only in far more awful language, is the testimony of the Apostle Paul': " It is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you ; and to you who are troubled, rest," &c. &c. Look forward then, I say, to that day ; remembering, that tribulation is the way to the kingdom, and that " all who have been partakers of his suirerings now, shall, when his glory shall be revealed, be glad before him with exceeding joy''." " Having suffered with him, ye shall also be eternally glorified together'."]
g Gal. ii. 20. ^ isai. Ixvi. 5. ^ 2 Thess. i. 0—10.
k 1 Pet. iv. 13. 1 Rom. viii. 17. 2 Tim. ii. 12.
Matt. xxvi. 67, 68. Then did they spit in his face, and buffeted him; and others smote him with the palms of their hands, saying. Prophesy unto us, thou Christ ; who is he that smote thee ?
THE sufferings of our blessed Lord were not con- fined to the garden or the cross ; but were continued through all the intervening period without inter- mission. Those which he experienced immediately after his condemnation by the Sanhedrim, may be considered in a twofold view ; I. As inflicted on him —
We cannot read tlie account given us by the different Evangelists, without being filled with utter astonishment at,
1. The impiety of his persecutors —
[In every civilized state condemned criminals are held as objects of compassion : when once the law is put in force against them, they are treated at least with outward decorum ;ind respect ; and every one would wish rather to alleviate, than to aggravate, their sorrows. But in the servants of the high- priest, if not in some of the Council also, we behold the most savage barbarity, and the most wanton cruelty. To spit in the face of a person was the greatest indignity that could be offered him: and to pluck ofl' his beard by force, must needs be attended with excruciating pain. Yet in this way, together with blows, did they insult and torment the victim of their malice.
To this cruelty they added the most horrid blasphemy. Our Lord was known to have professed himself the Christ ; and to have shewn himself " a Prophet, mighty in words and deeds." But they made the very offices which he sustained for our salvation a subject of profane derision : they blindfolded him, and then smote him with canes, and with the palms of their hands, saying unto him, "Prophesy unto us, thou Christ; Who is he that smote thee ? " They had accused him of blas- phemy : but another evangelist justly retorts the charge; and says, in reference to their present conduct, " Many other things blasphemously spake they against him."
Who would have conceived that human nature should be capable of such atrocities ?]