My request is fervent, because my fuffering is extrémé; but my fenfe of refignation is still more powerful than my averfion to pain. Can language exprefs what he felt, or defcribe the fubmiffion of his foul? Let humanity here drop a tear, and the heart formed for the admiration of fuffering virtue revere his refignation.

A very short time after, he exhibits another ftriking inftance of the fame temper. When the zeal of Peter induced him to draw his fword in his mafter's defence, and to smite the servant of the high-priest; he defires him to put his fword up again into its place, and in the ftrongest terms expreffes his entire acquiefcence in the fufferings destined for him by the counfels of the Almighty. The cup, fays he, that my Father has given me to drink, fhall I not drink it? The evangelift Matthew likewife records another faying of his upon this occafion, which equally proves the calm refignation of his foul. Thinkeft thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he fhall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels? But then how fall the fcriptures be fulfilled, that

thus

thus it must be? The fame spirit is also fhewn in that severe reproof which our Saviour gave to Peter upon a former occafion. For when he foretold his fufferings, this difciple faid to him, Be it far from thee, Lord; this fhall not be unto thee. But instead of approving an answer that, in fome measure, discovered affection, he turned to him, and faid, Get thee behind me, Satan, thou art an offence unto me, for thou favoureft not the things that be of God, but thofe that be of And to mention only one other par ticular inftance which accompanied the last scene of his life: A little after, having borne with incredible patience the tortures of his body, and the anguish of his mind, he still preserved the union betwixt foul and body; and it was not till he perceived all the counfels of God accomplished, that he cried out, It is finifhed, and then bowed his head and refigned his foul into the hands of that God to whom he had commended it.

men P.

3dly: Let us consider the fortitude which our Saviour always difcovered under the preffure of the severest afflictions. Fortitude

is

Matth, xxvii. 53, 54:

P Matth. xvi. 22, 23.

is fo much allied to refignation, that though, perhaps, we fometimes obferve the latter in people of a foft and tender caft, who can not properly be faid to poffefs the former; yet the triumph and perfection of refignation always fuppofes an unfhaken fortitude and intrepidity of mind. Accordingly, all the illustrations I have used upon the former topic of difcourfe, might with propriety be produced as proofs of the fortitude of our Saviour's mind. The coincidence of the fentiments of fortitude and refignation, with refpect to his character, appears the more unqueftionable from this confideration, that he was able to have avoided the fufferings he endured by an exertion of that intrinfic power which was permanent in him; and that the fole caufe of his fuffering the greatest load of calamities which ever fell to the lot of one man, arofe from his own native fuperiority of mind, and his unlimited. fubmiffion to his father's will. Thus he tells us himself.

No man taketh No man taketh my life from me; I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. And he who could

:

have obtained more than twelve legions of angels from his father, was able to have ftruck dead with a word, that armed, lawlefs multitude which came out of Jerufalem to apprehend him. The endurance, therefore, of calamities, proves a degree of fortitude in our Saviour's mind, in fome measure diffimilar, and in every refpect fuperior to that which was ever exhibited by any other perfon and from what has now been remarked, it will appear how plain an example of this virtue is difcovered to us in the hiftory now before us. Fortitude by no means implies an infenfibility to the evils which befal us: on the other hand, wherever this infenfibility takes place, the exercise of fortitude must be entirely excluded. It is no lefs indifputable, that the greater fhare of fenfibility we poffefs, the greater merit arises from a conduct decent and proper under diftrefs and affliction. Now it appears to me, that this paffage equally fhews the fenfibility of our Saviour's mind, the height of his difirefs, and his refolution of enduring the utmost extremity, rather than counteract the ends, or diminish the dignity of his obedience.

I fhall

I fhall but just mention two or three other inftances, which fhew, in a striking light, the virtue now under our confideration. Fortitude not only discovers itself in the actual bearing of afflictions, but in the general turn of our behaviour to those who poffefs power and fuperior influence, and in whose hands are the means of inflicting punishments, and taking vengeance for fuppofed injuries. In this view, the manner of our Saviour's behaviour to the scribes and pharifees, who were the most powerful and popular leaders of their time, and whofe principal object was evidently the prefervation of their power, ftrongly indicates this difpofition. Inftead of foliciting their favour by direct praises, or even by dubious filence, there is no fet of men, against whom he uses the feverity of cenfure with equal keennefs. Every reader tolerably acquainted with the history of the gospel will perceive the justice of this remark. I fhall only appeal to the twelfth and twenty-third chapters of Matthew's gofpel, and the correfponding places in the other evangelifts. In the fame light we must confider that fevere reply which our Saviour gives to the pharifees, when certain