The Jewish temple was divided into several parts; the most facred was called the Holieft, or the Holy of Holies, into which none but the high-prieft might enter, and that only once in a year. It was confidered as a type of heaven; and was separated from what was called the holy place, or the place where divine worship was celebrated, by a curtain of rich tapestry, which is here called the vail of the temple. This vail, when our Saviour expired, was rent in twain, from the top to the bottom; by which was fignified the abolition of the whole Mofaic ritual, the removal of the partition between Jew and Gentile, and the admiffion of the latter (on the terms of the Gospel covenant) into heaven, or the Holy of Holies. earth did quake, and the rocks rent." "And the is mentioned by heathen authors as having, in the reign This earthquake of Tiberius, deftroyed twelve cities in Afia*. the graves were opened, and many bodies of the faints "And which flept arofe, and came out of the graves after his refurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many." Who the holy perfons were which then. arofe from their graves must be matter of mere conjecture; but most probably fome of those who had believed in Chrift, fuch as old Simeon, and whofe persons were known in the city.

Now when the centurion, and they that were with him watching Jefus, faw the earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared greatly, faying, "Truly this man was the Son of God."

The centurion here mentioned was the Roman captain, who, with a guard of foldiers, was ordered to attend the crucifixion of Jefus, and fee the fentence executed. He placed himself, as St. Mark informs us, over against Jesus. From that ftation he kept his eye conftantly fixed upon him, and observed with attention every thing he said or did. And when he faw the meeknefs, the patience, the refignation, the firmness, with which our Lord endured the most excruciating torments; when he heard him at one time fervently praying for his murderers, at another Suet. in Tib. vi. 448. Plin. Nat.

• Taciti Annal. 1. ii. c. 47. Hift. 1. ii. c. 84.

difpofing with dignity and authority of a place in paradife to one of his fellow fufferers; and at length, with that confidence which nothing but confcious virtue and confcious dignity could at fuch a time inspire, recommending his spirit into the hands of his heavenly Father; he could not but conclude him to be a most extraordinary perfon and fomething more than human: But when morcover he obferved the astonishing events that took place when Jefus expired; the agitation into which the whole frame of nature feemed to be thrown; the fupernatural darkness, the earthquake, the rending of rocks, the opening of graves; he then burft out involuntarily into that striking exclamation, "Truly this was the Son of God."

Here then we have a testimony to the divine character of our Lord, which must be confidered as in the highest degree impartial and incorrupt: the honeft unfolicited teftimony of a plain man, a foldier and a heathen; the teftimony, not of one who was prejudiced in favour of Chrift and his religion, but of one, who, by habit and education, was probably strongly prejudiced against them.

And it is not a little remarkable, that the contemplation of the very fame scene which fo forcibly ftruck the Roman centurion, has extorted a fimilar confeffion from one of the moft cloquent of modern fceptics, who has never been accused of too much credulity, and who, though he could bring himself to refift the evidence both of prophecy and of miracles, and was therefore certainly no bigot to Christianity, yet was overwhelmed with the evidence arising from the character, the fufferings, and the death of Jefus. I allude to the celebrated comparison between the death of Socrates and the death of Jefus, drawn by the mafterly pen of Rouffeau. The paffage is probably well known to a large part of this audience; but it affords fo forcible and fo unprejudiced a teftimony to the divinity of Christ, and bears so striking a resemblance to that of the centurion, that I fhall be pardoned, I truft, for bringing it once more to your recollection, and introducing it here as the conclufion of this Lecture.

"Where, (fays he,) is the man, where is the philofopher, who can act, fuffer, and die, without weakness and without oftentation? When Plato defcribes his imaginary juft man, covered with all the opprobrium of guilt, yet at the fame time meriting the fublimeft rewards of virtue, he paints precifely every feature in the character of Jefus Christ. The resemblance is so striking that all the fathers have obferved it, and it is impoffible to be deceived in it. What prejudice, what blindness muft poffefs the mind of that man, who dares to compare the fon of Sophroniscus with the Son of Mary! What a distance is there between the one and the other! The death of Socrates philofophizing calmly with his friends, is the most gentle that can be wifhed; that of Jefus expiring in torments, infulted, derided, and reviled by all the people, the moft horrible that can be imagined. Socrates taking the poifoned cup, blesses the man who prefents it to him; and who, in the very act of presenting it, melts into tears. Jefus, in the midst of the most agonizing tortures, prays for his enraged perfecutors. Yes, if the life and death of Socrates are those of a fage, the life and death of Jefus are those of a GOD."

LECTURE XXIII.

MATTHEW xxvii.-xxviii.

IN the preceding Lecture we clofed the difmat

scene of our Lord's unparalleled fufferings; on which it is impoffible to reflect without astonishment and horror, and without asking ourselves this question, Whence came it to pass that so innocent, fo excellent, fo divine a person as the beloved Son of God, in whom he was well pleased, fhould be permitted by his heavenly Father to be exposed to fuch indignities and cruelties, and finally to undergo the exquifite torments of the crofs? The answer is, that the occafion of all this is to be fought for in our own sinful nature, in the depravity and corruption of the human heart, in the extreme wickednefs of every kind which overspread the whole world at the time of our Lord's appearance upon earth, and which muft neceffarily have fubjected the whole human race to the feverest effects of the Divine difpleasure, had not fome atonement, fome expiation, fome fatisfaction to their offended Maker, been interpofed between them and the punishment fo juftly due to them. This expiation, this atonement, the Son of God himself voluntarily confented to become, and paid the ransom required for our deliverance by his own death upon the crofs." He gave himself for us, as the Scriptures exprefs it, an offering and a facrifice to God. He was the Lamb flain from the foundation of the world. for fin, the juft for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. He was wounded for our tranfgreffions, he was bruised for our iniquities; with his ftripes we were healed. In his own blood he washed us from our fins; in his own body he bore our fins upon the tree, that we being dead unto fin might live unto righteousness*." This is that great doc1 Pet. iii. 18. Ifa. liii. 5. Rev. i. 5.

Ephes. v. 2. Rev. xiii. 8. 1 Pet. ii. 24.

He fuffered