408 SECT. CXC. John The chief priests and rulers mock and deride him. Now when this inscription was drawn up, the 21 Then said the chief priests of the Jews were very much offend- chief priests of the ed at the form in which it was expressed; and not, The king of the Jews to Pilate, Write XIX. 21 therefore objected against it, and said to Pilate, Jews; but that he said, Do not write, The king of the Jews; for we I am king of the Jews. entirely disown him under that character, as thou well knowest; but rather write, that he 22 said, I am the king of the Jews. But Pilate, who was very much displeased at the importu- I have written, nity by which, contrary to his inclination and judgment, they had extorted from him the sentence of death he had passed upon Jesus, answered with some warmth, What I have written, I have written, and, whoever may object against it, I am determined it shall stand as it is. Mat. XXVII. 39 22 Pilate answered, What I have written, When therefore they were unable to procure MAT. XXVII. 39. any alteration, they were determined publicly to And [LUKE, the peoturn it into a jest; and therefore some of them and] they that passed ple stood beholding went in person to Calvary to insult and scoff at by, reviled him, wagJesus even in his last moments. And the comging their heads,mon people, that stood beholding the execution, LUKE XXIII. 35.-] [MARK XV. 29. reviled him; and even they that passed by on the road blasphemed him, shaking their heads at him, 40 in an upbraiding scornful manner; stroyest the temple, days, save thyself; [and] if thou be the down from the cross. Son of God, come [MARK XV.-29, 50.] 41 Likewise also the and the rulets also with And say- 40 And saying, ing, Ah thou vain boaster, that wouldest destroy [Ah] thou that dethe temple, and build it again in three days let and buildest it in three us now see if thou canst save thyself; and if thou art indeed the Son of God, give us a proof of thy power now, and come down from the cross; for in thy present circumstances that will be the most proper miracle thou canst work in confir41 mation of thy pretended mission. And in like manner also the chief priests, together with the scribes and elders, and the rulers also themselves, the malice of whose hearts had made them to forget the dignity of their characters, and to attend among the mob upon this base and barba- scribes and elders, rous occasion, joined with them in their scoffs, and with a scornful sneer derided him; [and] 42 mocking, said one to another, that saved others, and undertook to give them if he be [LUKE, Christ, Ay, this is he 42 He saved others, perfect deliverance and everlasting happiness; the chosen of God,] [but] now you see he cannot save himself from the most infamous execution: if he be really the jesty of the Roman empire; in Greek, for true chief priests, [LUKE, them derided him, and] [mocking, said among themselves,] with the LUKE XXIII.-35.] himself he cannot save: the gar language of the place. Thus the in- the king of Israel, let him now come down have him: for he said, I am the Son of God. LUKE XXIII. 36. And the soldiers also him vinegar, 37 And saying, If thou be the king of the Jews, save thyself. One of the malefactors reviles him, 409 SECT. CXC. true Messiah, the Elect of God, and in conse- And the soldiers also, who kept guard at that Luke mocked him, coming time, joined with the rest of the spectators, and XXIII. to him, and offering mocked him; coming to him, and offering him 36 vinegar to drink in the midst of his agonies; (compare John xix. 29, p. 416.) And saying, 37 as the rulers and people had done, I thou art really, as thou hast frequently pretended, the King of the Jews, before thou undertakest to deliver them, save thyself from our power, and so begin to assert thy claim to a supreme authority. 39 And one of the malefactors [also which were hanged, And one of the malefactors also, who hung on 39 the cross with him, regardless of that innocence and dignity which Jesus manifested under all his sufferings, and unaffected with a sense of his him, saying, If thou own aggravated guilt, upbraided him with the [or crucified with him, cast the same in his teeth, and] railed on be f He saved others, &c.] Nothing could be baser than thus to upbraid him with this saving power, which was not a vain pretence, but had produced so many noble and stupendous effects. And it was equally unreasonable to put the credit of his mission on his coming down from the cross: a vigorous spring might possibly have forced the nails from the hands and feet of a crucified person, so that he might What Christ have leaped from the cross. had so lately done before their eyes, and in part on themselves in the garden, was a far more convincing display of a divine power than merely to have descended now could have been. And though they promise upon this to believe him, there is no room to think they would have yielded to conviction; but all they meant was to insult him by it, as thinking it impossible he should escape out of their hands. same If thou art the king of the Jews.] As this claim seemed to them the most derogatory to the Roman authority, it is no wonder that the soldiers grounded their insults on this, rather than on his professing himself the Son of God. hOne of the malefactors also.] We are told indeed by Matthew, in the plural number, that the thieves cast the same in his teeth; and Mark also says, that they that were crucified with him reviled him; and hence some infer that he who afterwards proved penitent, at first joined in the blasphemy: but had that been the case, surely Luke, in so particular a narrative as his, would not have omitted it. I therefore rather conclude, with most critics, that it is what is commonly called an enullage of numbers, the plural being (as elsewhere) put for the singular (See note f on Mark xiv. 5, sect. cxlv. p. 151, and note a on Mark i. 21, sect. xxxv. Vol. VI. p. 190.) i When 410 The penitent thief is told he should be that day in paradise. CXC. and us. [MAT. XXVII. 40 But the other rebuked him, saying, Dost not SICT. same [reproach, and] scornfully blasphemed him be Christ, save thyself as an impostor, saying, If thou art the Messiah, 44. MARK XV.—32.] Luke why dost thou not save thyself and us, who are XXIII. now dying with thee? But the other, awaken40 ed to a sense of his sin, and convinced in his answering, heart that Jesus was indeed the promised Mes- thou fear God, seeing siah, answered his companion, and rebuked him, thou art in the same saying, Dost thou not fear God, even now when condemnation? thou thyself art in the same condemnation? In such an awful circumstance as this, dost thou dare to increase thy crimes with thy dying breath, and to behave thyself so insolently in the imme the due reward of our 42 And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember into thy kingdom. me when thou comest 41 diate view of God's righteous tribunal? And 41 And we indeed we indeed are justly thus condemned; for we re- justly; for we receive ceive no more than what is due for the notorious deeds: but this man crimes we have committed: but this [man] has hath done nothing adone nothing by any means amiss, nor is there the miss. least insolence or absurdity in that high claim which he has made, though appearances be for 42 the present so much against it. And, having thus rebuked his companion, and testified his full persuasion of the innocence of Jesus, he then directed his discourse to him, and said to Jesus, looking upon him with the humblest and the most contrite regard, Lord, though this wretch derides thy mission, I firmly believe it; and I beg that thou wouldest graciously remember me when thou comest into that thy kingdom, to which I doubt not but God will raise thee in spite of 43 death and hell 3. And Jesus, turning towards him, said to him, with a mixture of the greatest dignity and mercy, Verily, I say unto thee, and solemnly assure thee of it as a most certain truth, that This very day thou shalt be with me in paradise, sharing the entertainments of that garden of God, the abode of happy spirits when i When thou comest into thy kingdom.] Some have inferred from hence, that this malefactor had learnt something of Christ in prison, and have urged the possibility of his having exercised, perhaps, a long and deep repentance there, against the supposition of the sudden change that most have supposed in this case. But Christ's kingdom was now the subject of so much discourse, that he might, on that day, and indeed in a few minutes of it, have learnt all that was necessary, as the foundation of this petition. I cannot therefore but look on this happy man (for such, amidst all the ignominy and tortures of the cross, he surely was) as a glorious instance of the power as well as sovereignty of Divine grace, which (as many have observed) perhaps, taking the first occasion separate 43 And Jesus said unto him, Verily, I say unto thee, To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise. from the preternatural darkness, wrought so powerfully as to produce, by a sudden and astonishing growth in his last moments, all the virtues which could be crowded into so small a space, and which were eminently manifested in his confessing his own guilt, in his admonishing his companion for a crime which he feared would prove fatal to him, in his vindicating the character of Christ, and reposing his confidence in him as the Lord of a kingdom beyond the grave, when his enemies were triumphing over him, and he himself, abandoned by most of his friends, was expiring on a cross. The modesty as well as the faith of his petition may also deserve our attentive remark. & Thou Reflections on the mercy of Christ to the penitent thief. 411 exc. separate from the body; and there shall thy SECT. IMPROVEMENT. XIX. 23, 24 How great and glorious does the Lord Jesus Christ appear in John the midst of all those dishonours which his enemies were now heaping upon him! While these rapacious soldiers were dividing the spoils, parting his raiment among them, and casting lots for his vesture, God was working in all to crown him with a glory which none could take from him, and to make the lustre of it so much the more conspicuous by that dark cloud which now surrounded him. xxvii. 39--43 His enemies upbraided him as an abandoned miscreant, deserted Mat. both by God and man; but he (though able to have come down from the cross in a moment, or by one word from thence to have struck these insolent wretches dead on the place, and to have sent their guilty spirits to accompany the fiends under whose influence they were), yet patiently endured all, and was as a deaf man, who heard not their reproaches, and as a dumb man that openeth not his mouth; (Psal. xxxviii. 13.) But as soon as the penitent thief addressed him with that humble supplication, the language of re- Luke pentance, faith, and hope, Lord, remember me when thou comest xxiii. 42. into thy kingdom, he inmediately hears and answers him and in how gracious and remarkable a phrase! This day shalt thou be with 43 me in paradise! What a triumph was here, not only of mercy to the dying penitent, but of the strongest faith in God, that when to an eye of sense he seemed to be the most deserted and forgotten by him, and was on every side beset with the scorn of them that were at ease, and with the contempt of the proud, he should speak from the cross as from a throne, and undertake from thence, not only to dispense pardons, but to dispose of seats in paradise! Most ungrateful and most foolish is the conduct of those who take encouragement from hence to put off their repentance perhaps to a dying moment: most ungrateful in perverting the grace of the Redeemer into an occasion of renewing their provocations against him, and hardening their hearts in their impieties and 412 CXC. Jesus's mother and other women standing near the cross. SECT. most foolish to imagine that what our Lord did in so singular a circumstance is to be drawn into an ordinary precedent. This Luke criminal had, perhaps, never heard of the gospel before; and now xxiii. 42. how cordially does he embrace it? Probably there are few saints in glory who ever honoured Christ more illustriously than this dying sinner, acknowledging him to be the Lord of life, whom he saw in the agonies of death; and pleading his cause when his friends and brethren forsook him, and stood afar off. (Compare Mat xxvi. 56, and Luke xxiii. 49.) But such is the corruption of men's hearts, and such the artifice of Satan, that all other views of him are overlooked, and nothing remembered, but that he was a notorious offender, who obtained mercy in his departing moments. The Lord grant that none who read this story here may be added to the list of those who, despising the forbearance and long-suffering of God, and not knowing that his goodness leads to repentance, have been emboldened to abuse this scripture, so as to perish, either without crying for mercy at all, or crying for it in vain, after having treasured up an inexhaustible store of wrath, misery, and despair; (Rom. ii. 4, 5.) SECT. exci. John XIX. 25. SECT. CXCI. Jesus, having recommended his mother to the care of John, and suf- LUKE XXIII. 44—48. John XIX. 25–30. JOHN XIX. 25. ND while he suffered all these insults and a His mother.] Neither her own danger, nor the sadness of the spectacle, nor the reproaches and insults the people, could restrain her from performing the last office of duty and tenderness to her Divine Son on the cross. Grotius justly observes that it was a noble instance of fortitude and zeal. Now a sword (according to Simeon's prophecy, Luke ii. 35) struck through her tender heart, and pierced her very soul; and perhaps the extremity of her sorrows might so overwhelm her spirits, as to render her incapable of attending the sepulchre, which we do not find that she did; nor do we indeed meet with any thing after this concerning her in the sacred story, or in early antiquity; except that she continued name among the disciples after our Lord's ascension, which Luke observes, Acts i. 14. Andreas Cretensis, a writer of the seventh century, does indeed tell us she died with John at Ephesus, many years after this, in an extreme old age; and it appears, from a letter of the council of Ephesus, in the fifth century, that it was then believed she was buried there. But they pretend to shew her sepulchre at Jerusalem, and many ridiculous tales are forged concerning her death, and assumption, or being taken up into heaven, of which the best Popish authors themselves appear heartily ashamed. See Calmet's Dictionary, Vol. II. p. 141. b His |