266 Tisse NEW and COMPLETE LIFE of Òulr BLESSED TARD thyfelf. Ifthou art the great Meflialr ex- peited by the Jews, defcerfd from the crofs by miracle, and deliver thyfelf from thefe excruciating torments, inflicted by thy ene< mies. One of the thieves could not forbear mocking the great Lord of heaven and earth, though labouring himfelf under the moil racking pains, and flrugglingwith the agonies of death t but the other exercifed a moll extraordinary faith, at a time when our great Redeemer was deferted by his Father, mocked bymen, and hanged upon the crois, as the moll ignominiousof male- faaors. This Jewifh' criminal teems to have entertained a chore rational and ex- alted notion of the Meffiah's kingdom, than even the difciples themfelves ; they expeQ- ed nothing but a fecular empire : he gave flrong intimations of his having an idea of CHRIST'S fpiritual dominion; for at the very time when Jésus was dying on the crois, he begged to be remembered by him when he came into his kingdom : Lord, raid he, remember me when thou comb into thy kin dove, Nor did he make his requef in vain : the great Redeemer of mankind anfwered him, Verily, I fay unto thee, to- day'halt those be with me in paradife: there- by evidencing the immediate happinefs of the righteous after death. Let us now attentively confider the hit- tory of our bleffed Saviour's paffion, as it offers to our view events abfolutely alo- nithing: for when we remember the per - fecl innocence of our great Redeemer, the uncommon love he bore to the children of men, and the many kind and benevolent offices he did for the fops and daughters of affliftion ; when we refleEt on the efleem in which he was held all along by the com- mon people, how cheerfully they followed him to the remotefl corners of the country, nay, even into the defolate retreats of the wildernefs, and with what pleafure they liftened to his difcourfes ; when we confider thefe particulars, I fay, we cannot help being alonifhed to find them at the con- elution, rufhing all of a fudden into the oppofite extremes, and every individual as it were combined to treat him with the moft barbarous cruelty and intuit. Pilate having anted the people, if they defired tohave Jesus releafed, his difciples, though they were very numerous, and might have made a great appearance in his behalf, remained abfolutely filent, as if they had been fpeechlefs or infatuated. The Roman foldiers, notwithflanding their general had declared him innocent, infulted him in the mol inhuman manner; the Scribes and Pharifees ridiculed him; the common people, who had received him with Hofannas a few days before, wagged their heads at him as they paffed by, and railed onhim as a deceiver : nay, the very thief on the crois reviled him, in the midft of his fufferings. Though this fudden revolution in the minds of the whole nation may feem unaccountable; yet if we could align a proper reáfon for the hence of the dif- ciples, the principles which influenced the reff might be difcovered in their feveral fpeeches. The followers of the bleffed JESUS had attached themfelves to him, in expectation ofbeing ráifed to great wealth and power in his kingdom, which they ex- peEted would have been eflablifhed long before this time ; but feeing noappearance at all of what they had fo long hoped for, they permitted him to be condemned, perhaps, becaufe they thought it would have obliged him to break the Roman yoke by fome miraculous ail of divine power. The foldiers were angry that any one fhould pretend to royalty in Judea, where Cæfar had eftablifhed Isis authority; hence they intuited our bleffed Saviour with the title of King, and paid him, in mockery, the honours of a fovereign: and as for the common people, they feemed to have loft their opinion of him, probably be- caufe he had neither convinced the coun- cil, nor refcued himfelf when they con- demned him. They began, therefore, to confider the Rory of his pretending to deflroy
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