270 The NEW and COMPLETE LI i L+, ßf am, BLESSED Loan prieft who burnt incenle in the holy place, and who doubtlefs publi(hed the account when he came out : for our bleffed Saviour expired at the ninth hour, the very time of offering the evening facrifice. Nor was this the only miracle that happened at the death of the great Mefíah ; no, the earth trem- bled from it's very foundations, the flinty rocks buriiafunder, and the fepulchres hewn in them were opened, and many bodies of faints depofited there, awaked after his re- furreilion from the fleep of death, left the gloomy chambers of the tomb, went into the city of Jerufalem, and appeared unto many. In all probability there faints were difciples of our bleffed Saviour, who had but lately paffed through the valley of the fhadow ofdeath ; for when they went into the city, they were known to be faints by the perlons who faw them, which could not well have happened if they had not been co-temporaries with them. As the rending of the vail of the temple intimated, that the entrance into the holy place, the type of heaven, was now laid open to all nations ; fo the refurreafion ofa numberof faints from thedead demonflrated, that the power of death and the grave was broken : the fling was taken from death, and the victory wrefted from the grave.. In fhort, our dear Redeemer's conqueffs over the enemies of mankind, were fhewn to be complete, and an earneft was given of the general refurreetion. The remarkable events which attended that awful period when JESUS gave up the ghoft, didnot only affea the natives ofJudea, but the Roman centurion, who was placed near the crofs, to prevent diforders of any kind, glorified the Almighty, and cried out, Truly this man was the Son of God. And all the people, when they beheld heaven itfelf bearing witnefs ofthe truth ofour great Redeemer's million, fmote their breaffs and returned. Theyhad been inflant with loud voices to have himcrucified ; butwhen they faw the face of the creation wrapt in the gloomy mantle ofdarknefs during his cru- cifixion, and found his death accompanied with an earthquake, as if nature had been in agony when he died, they rightly inter- preted thefe prodigies to be fo many tell- monies from the Almightyof his innocence; and their pallions which had been inflamed and exafperated againft him, became quite calm, or exerted in his behalf. Some were angry with themfelves for neglefting the opportunity the governor gave them of Paving his life.; fome were flung with remorfe for having been aélive in procuring Pilate to condemn him, and even offering the moll bitter infults, while he laboured under the cruellefl of fuflèrings; and others were deeply of gilled at behold- ing the pains he fuflered, which were as revere as theywere undeferved. Thefe va- rious . pallions being vifibly painted in their countenances, afforded a melancholy fpec- tacle ; the whole multitude returning from the cruel execution with their eyes fixed upon the earth, penfive and filent; their hearts ready toburfl with grief, groaning deeply within themfelves, {bedding floods of tears, and fmiting on their breath, to teftify their forrow. It is obfervable that the grief they now felt for the bleffed JESUS was diflinguithed from their former rage againfi him by this remarkable particular, that their rage was entirely owing to the artful inlnuátions of the priefis ; whereas their grief was the ge- nuine, the natural feeling of their own hearts, greatly affelled with the truth and innocence of him who was the objea of their commiferation : and as flattery had no £hare in this mourning, fo the expreffions of their forrow was fuels as became a real, an unfeigned paffion. Nor was this unaf- felled mourning (hewn by only a few per- fons, who might have been reprefented as the particular friends of the fufferingJesus; no,itwas the general condition ofthe people whohad repaired to Calvary, in order to be- hold the crucifixion ofour dear Redeemer, that when theypartedafter he hadgiven up the ghoff, they covered the roads, and, as it were, darkened all the furrounding coun- try. CI-IAPTER
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