that feeling of distinct responsibility which, in a great measure, detaches us from the actions of others, as if we had nothing to do with them. But Jesus had no human personality, He had the human nature under the personality of the Son of God. And so His hu

man nature was more open to the commonness of man, -for the divine personality, whilst it separated Him from sinners, in point of sin, united Him to them in love. And thus the sins of other men were to Jesus what the affections and lusts of his own particular flesh are to each individual believer. Every man was a part of Him, and He felt the sins. of every man,— just as the new nature in every believer feels the sins of the old nature with which it is connected,-not in sympathy, but in sorrow and abhorrence. This principle explains such passages as the following," Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of my head, therefore my heart faileth me." And thus He bare our sins on His own body on the tree, acknowledging God's righteous judgment, that the flesh which had so sinned should so suffer. And therefore He suffered as a willing victim." He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before his shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth." God never was rightly glorified by the penal suffering of the fallen nature, until that suffering was undergone in the spirit of holy love, by one who partook of the fallen nature, and felt for all its sins as if they had been His own, and yet had not personally partaken of them. And here that thing was done, and done by God in man's nature,— and thus God was glorified in man, and by man, and yet God had all the glory. Now this is the expiation, -this is that which put away sin. And thus it is that

God's glory and the sinner's peace agree in one, according to that heavenly song on the birth of Jesus, 'glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will to men.”

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The crucified head was the head of the whole body -the whole flesh; so he was in every part of it, just as the natural head is by its nerves in every part of the body. And thus in every part of the flesh there was that recorded sentence and execution which justified the forgiveness of God.

The divine person of Jesus, pervading the whole of this work, gives it an infinite glory. Not merely as giving a weight to suffering, but as giving its only true and equal declaration to the love and holiness of God, and to the sinfulness of sin. So that in fact God is only giving its proper glory to love and holiness, when He, through this transaction, proclaims Himself as having reconciled the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them. And the sinner who has confidence before God, through the knowledge of this transaction, even in the fullest sense of absolute unworthiness, is giving to God a glory that is dear to His heart, because, in that confidence, he avows that the manifestation of love in the gift of Christ, and of holiness in the sufferings of Christ, is enough for the gracious purpose for which God set it forth because, in that confidence, he gives a demonstration, that man needs only to know God, in order to rejoice in Him, and that he needs only to know God's holiness in order to give thanks at the remembrance of it; and because in that confidence, he recognises the value of the work of Christ in which God is well pleased, and in which He has revealed His own character as an ever-present

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ground of confidence, and an overflowing fountain of life to the very chiefest sinner of Adam's race.

There is something very wonderful, to see the same flesh suffering in Jesus, according to the will of God, and sinning in the Jews against the will of God, and to see that the sin should be the direct cause of the suffering, and the suffering the divinely inflicted penalty on the sin by the endurance of which the sin is expiated; and yet that the sufferer should be without sin, and that his sufferings should be most glorifying to God, whilst the inflictors of the punishment were dishonouring God, and sinning exceedingly against Him. We must see the absolute oneness of the whole flesh before we can rightly enter into this thing.*

CHAPTER III.

There were three things that took place in connexion with the death of Christ, which are recorded, to the end we might believe that man was indeed forgiven in consequence of this sacrifice. First, the rending of the veil of the temple; indicating that the way into the presence of God, which sin had barred, was now opened. Second, the opening of the graves, and the saints rising; indicating that the prison of the grave

* We also see in this that the will of God is quite distinct from the purposes which may be accomplished by his controlling power, through the means of human actions. It was against the will of God that the Jews should murder Jesus; but he accomplished the purposes of his own love through that murder, for it was according to His will that Christ should die "a ransom for all."

was broken, and that death was overcome, and could not keep his hold, which could not have been, unless sin were forgiven-for death was the sentence on sin. The third thing which I mention along with these, occurred before them, but is evidently one with them in meaning. Jesus died that men might have life. Well, was there any man whose life was actually saved by the death of Jesus? Yes, there was one man, and that man was an insurgent, and a murderer, and a robber-that man was Barabbas. He was a prisoner waiting for execution in Jerusalem at that time, along with many others who had made insurrection with him; his life was saved by Pilate setting Jesus and him up together as the two, out of whom the customary selection for liberation, granted to the people as a privilege at the time of the feast, was to be made. Now, why was it that Pilate set up this man as the single alternative of Jesus? It was just because Pilate "sought to release Jesus," knowing his innocence, and knowing that the jealousy of the priests was the true reason of the charge brought against him, and, therefore, he did not give the people a choice of all the prisoners, for so they might have fixed on some less offensive or some less known criminal, but he put Barabbas, a notable leading malefactor, as the single alternative of Jesus, ("whether of the twain shall I release unto you ?") that he might thus shut them in to save Jesus, conceiving doubtless that it was impossible that their feelings or consciences should be so poisoned and deadened as to prefer a man "notable" as a seditious murderous plunderer, to one whose whole life had been a continued action of benevolence, and against whom they could procure no witnesses whose witness agreed. But the people were themselves

filled with the spirit of murder, and so they desired the murderer to be released, and they killed the Prince of Life, murderers themselves, they had pleasure in him who murdered. Thus the life of Barabbas was saved. Had there been a general selection allowed, he never could have been chosen. But he was set up by Pilate as the alternative of Jesus, in order to ensure the release of Jesus. "Whether of the twain shall I release unto you?" He was the man supposed by Pilate to be the most hated, and the most justly hated individual of the nation. And for this reason he was set up along with Jesus-and thus he was saved. He, the chief of sinners, was saved from death by the death of Jesus. Surely this history has a solemn and important meaning in it, filling out the measure of the sin of the flesh, and, at the same time, typically shadowing forth the all-inclusiveness of the forgiveness declared through the Saviour's death. The holiest, it may be said, was laid open for those who would walk into it by the new and living way. The rising of the saints proves nothing with regard to sinners. But here is something for sinners, yea for the chief of sinners. Let this sign be connected with the conversion of the thief on the cross, and they will together illustrate that word, "God is the Saviour of all men, specially of those who believe."

Thus we have in these three things, shadows of the effects produced by the sacrifice of Christ. In the rending of the veil, we have the shadow of the removal of all barriers between God and man. In the rising of the saints, we have the proof that the gripe of death was relaxed, and the shadow of the first resurrection in the coming dispensation. And in the release of Barabbas, we have the shadow of the non-imputation