Now

with them after those days, saith the Lord: I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; and having an high priest over the house of God; let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.

CHRIST'S EJACULATION ON THE CROSS.

The words uttered by our Saviour on the cross are from the beginning of the twenty-second Psalm. Of all the Scriptures the Psalms were apparently most used by our Lord; and it is probable by that class of hearers with whom he was most conversant. The Psalms, as has been before remarked, held in the Jewish literature that place, which national songs and works of mere amusement occupy in the literature of all other nations. They were probably familiar to the lowest class of Jews-to those whose knowledge of the other Scriptures was scanty. Nor is it unlikely that in the sanction of many of the

Psalms, (the remark applies still more to the Song of Solomon,) the Holy Spirit provided for that cultivation of mind, which might enable the Jews at large to be competent hearers of the Messiah. The Jews had no literature besides sacred; and it would seem, that by these portions of Scripture, the minds of all were stored with a certain class of images, out of which the Christian instruction was conveyed when the Messiah came.

Our purpose at present however is not with our Saviour's use of the language and images of the Psalms for the end here supposed, but with his application of David's complaint, under some great distress, to his own case on the cross. Literally the words imply a desertion by the Almighty of the complainant, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" nor can there be any reason for attempting to force on them a less obvious exposition, and to make them merely expressive of great distress. Indeed, there is, if we consider, much reason against adopting this view. Christ throughout his min

'See Bishop Porteus's Lectures on St. Matthew, Lecture

xxii.

istry is found maintaining his divine nature. He is also found speaking of God as "his God;" e. g. "I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God." Here in like manner he addresses Him most emphatically, "My God, my God," as if implying, that some divine assistance, which was not afforded, might have saved him from that hour. In short, Christ sometimes speaks as if God were speaking, on other occasions his language is that of a man.

As to the general object obtained by this contrariety, it seems pretty obvious on reflection, Had he, (making use of the miraculous evidence employed by him,) had he always spoken as God, he might have awakened in his hearers and in us that natural propensity to ascribe locality to the Deity, which, even as it is, and after so many ages of Christianity, is by no means subdued in the world. His person, his visible and corporeal substance, and much more the nobler qualities of his human mind, might have been conceived to be a part of the Divine nature, and man himself, to a certain extent, the literal image and counterpart of his Creator. It does certainly seem, as if

• John xx. 17.

the continual assertions of the Son of God's human nature were made with a view to guard us against this misapprehension; which indeed we are now the less competent to consider in its most perilous aspect, because that caution has generally preserved us from it.

On the other hand, had Christ only delivered the good tidings of God, speaking of Him all the while as his God as well as ours, he might have appeared to us only like any other inspired messenger of God. His character as the Immanuel; the union of the divine with the human nature which rendered the latter perfectly good and holy, and fitted it for its part in the great mystery of the redemption, all this would have been concealed under a vail. And all this we are sure it is requisite for us to have known, whatever parts of the wonderful scheme of grace may be hidden from us in this our stage of trial and earthly darkness.

But beyond this general purpose, which it is reasonable to attribute to the occasional declarations made by Christ of his human nature, it seems as if a specific object were gained by the ejaculation on the cross, My God, my God,

why hast thou forsaken me?" The doctrine of the atonement wrought for us in that great hour is, that "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself." What if the weakness or misguided piety of the Christian world had led them to contemplate the divine nature alone in this act presented to them on the cross? What if they had supposed God was suffering in Christ? These words at once silenced such a thought. The disciples knew from all the course of the Saviour's ministry that in Him God had been manifested. They were at the same time continually assured, as well by their own reason, as by Christ's language, that the manhood of Christ made no part of the divine nature. It was this that seems to have perplexed Philip, "Lord, shew us the Father and it sufficeth us." Philip," our Lord replied," he that hath seen me, hath seen the Father." But here was a scene, which stood alone in its import, and its greatness; a scene in which the other passages of Christ's career scarcely afforded ground for a clear and satisfactory view; a scene, in which, however awful the spectacle exhibited, more than could possibly John xiv. 8, 9.

2 Cor. v. 19.