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vinced, he acknowledged his claim to be "the Immanuel," "the Christ," "the Son of God," promised to the Jews. Still viewing the promise, as it was most likely he should, through the false medium of Jewish prejudices, he must have conceived that this wonderful person, whose character and pretensions he had so far ascertained, was not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. What in the Jew was wilful blindness, in the Gentile was error that originated with his source of knowledge, and even savoured of humility. He believed, if he so believed, even to his own exclusion from the benefits purchased by the Son of God. But when called on to be baptized-to lead the way through the vail, which in God's new temple had been rent, who so ready as the good centurion? who so likely to be chosen for this honourable mark of distinction? Selected to guard the cross of Christ, because, probably, he was known to favour the Jews, " to have loved their nation, and to have built them a synagogue;" he was accidentally placed in a situation which enabled him to witness, as a point of duty, all that occurred. He placed himself opposite to Jesus. He read

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the superscription on the cross, and knew the penitent thief's assertion, that he died convinced of its truth; he saw the mysterious criminal reviled, and esteemed stricken of God; he felt the earth quake, and was conscious that the sun was turned into darkness; and he who had built a synagogue for the reading of the Jewish Scriptures, could scarcely have been ignorant that these were among the scriptural marks of the true Son of God. He saw too all these coincidences meeting in the case of one, whose demeanor and words corroborated the evidence of all these signs-who, if he had not raised one from the dead in his presence, had miraculously prevented his servant from dying. Conviction, under such circumstances, could have been prevented only by that prejudice and hardened state of heart, which characterised the majority of the spectators. While the enemies of Jesus saw in his last breath their triumph, and the confirmation of their views, the centurion's more just conclusion was, "Truly this man was the Son of God."

To some it is more pleasing to dwell on instances of conversion, in proportion as they bear

marks of being produced by a sudden and brief operation of grace on the heart. With these, the thief on the cross, and the centurion at the foot of it, are supposed to be the more striking instances of the efficacy of our Lord's miracles, and the more worthy specimens of conversion, because no gradual progress of faith is pointed out. But, if the foregoing remarks have any foundation, it is likely that the conversion of the centurion -of him whose faith surpassed any of the children of Israel-was the result of successive stages of evidence. In the case of the thief on the cross too, no notice is indeed taken of any passages in his previous history; and with the same hasty mode of inference it is concluded, that all his conviction was wrought on the cross. That he was once a sinner, a notorious violater of the laws of God and his country, his own confession on the cross proves; but it does not afford even a presumption that no interval had elapsed between his course of crime, and his hour of punishment. Like Mary, he might long have been acquainted with the friend of sinners; might have come forth from his robber haunts to listen to his lessons of salvation; might have

counted death itself gain in the pursuit of this instruction; nay, might have been more keenly searched out by the Jews, exposed to arrest, and finally brought to punishment through his attendance on Jesus. All this is not contrary to any thing on record; whereas to suppose a change of mind, from extreme vice to exalted piety and faith, the work of one hour, is. That the case was, in other respects, singular and unparalleled, may go far indeed to support the opposite opinion; but why make any unnecessary exception from the regular course of grace? The pardoned thief's case would still be singular and alone, if up to that moment his faith had been progressive, and was then only fully established; especially, if, as is probable, it then went beyond the extemporary faith of the apostles themselves, and embraced the doctrine, that Christ's death and reign were compatible and connected. And both in the case of the malefactor, and of the centurion, it can never be too strongly urged, that their faith, whether slow or sudden, was the result of evidence ; without which, faith was never required, commended, or rewarded by Christ.

CHAPTER XVI.

THE RESURRECTION.

ALTHOUGH each Evangelist's account of the resurrection is, by itself, clear and intelligible; yet the comparison of any two, suggests the need of such a thread to the narrative, as may reconcile apparent disagreement, and enable us to arrange the incidents in their proper order. The following summary exhibits that arrangement of the main events which is most probable, and best supported by a comparison of the several

narratives.

DAY OF THE RESURRECTION.

The earthquake; the rolling away of the stone from the sepulchre by an angel; and the terror and flight of the guard. Matt. xxviii. 2—4.

Visit of Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, Salome, Joanna, and other women to the sepulchre, for the purpose of embalming the body. Mark xvi. 1-5. Luke xxiv. 1-3. John xx. 1.

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