2. The death of Christ was the act of Satan and the fallen angels.

The character and history of Satan, previous to the advent of Christ, would lead us to conclude that he would prove a vigorous and important actor in the life and death of Christ. It was, indeed, predicted at the beginning that there would be bitter enmity and severe conflict between him and Christ. He was to bruise Christ's heel, and Christ was to bruise his head. We accordingly find, that no sooner did Jesus begin to attract attention as the sent of God, than he became obnoxious to the machinations of Satan and he himself undertook personally to commence the conflict by meeting Christ, and, as the acknowledged sovereign of the world, endeavoring to purchase him off from his great work, by offering him all the kingdoms of the world. This is evidently the design of the temptation of Christ in the wilderness. Failing in this, we find him henceforward in determined and unceasing conflict with Christ. How far the acute and powerful intellect of Satan was enabled to discover the mysteries of the plan of salvation, we are unable to say. Whether he knew nothing of it, or was only acting on the principle that he must oppose in every way the wishes of Christ, or whether his malice sometimes got the ascendency of his wisdom, we know not; but there certainly was in the conduct of Satan towards Christ an appearance of indecision, as though either his wisdom were at a loss, or his dread of him made him uncertain how to act. He knew Christ; he feared him, and he wished Christ to let him alone. Thus far we are expressly told, but his actions seem characterized by indecision. At one time we find him trying, through the love and regard of Peter, to induce him not to die; then again, by entering Judas and prompting him to betray his Master into the hands of those who sought his life, it would seem that he had changed his plans, and desired to have him put to death.

There is, however, one principle discoverable through the whole course of Satan, so far as his agency is made known to us. He knew that sin was the only thing which God hated, and his idea seems to have been, when he found that he could not make Christ sin, that while he must do every thing to annoy and oppose him, he must also endeavor to make men act so much like fiends, and so treat their incarnate God, as to disgust Christ with them, and thus induce him to leave them to perish with the fallen spirits whom they so closely resembled. Hence we trace the desertion of his disciples, the denial of Peter, the betrayal by Judas, and the general ingratitude of the shouting throng. It is your hour, and the power of darkness, says Christ to those who came to take him; and it is certain that Satan ruled in that hour. He knew Christ, as I remarked, and he seems to have imagined that if he could only succeed in inducing the beings whom he came to save

to reject and murder their Saviour, reject and murder the Son of God, clothed in human nature and on a visit of mercy, he would make them guilty of a crime which devils never committed, and thus make them, as he did our first parents, their own self-destroyers; and that the mercy of God, thus treated, would be chased from the world to return nevermore, and that man would henceforth be left under the dominion of hell. But the development of Satan's agency, through the instrumentality of man, is without doubt the smaller part of that agency. As I have remarked, Christ expressly declares, at the time when the soldiers seized him, that it was the hour of the power of darkness; the omnipotent arm which had hitherto set bounds to the malice of the fallen spirits was withdrawn, and these dreadful powers allowed full liberty. It is also worthy of note, that when our Saviour entered that night into the garden of Gethsemane, he thrice exhorts his disciples to watch lest they enter into temptation; as though the garden at that hour was filled with the tempters, and could our eyes have looked into the spiritual world, we would doubtless have seen the thrones and principalities of darkness all gathered in that garden and clustering around the cross, and hurling down on the uncomplaining sufferer their fiery darts, secking to add to his mental agonies. Yes, we should have seen Jesus in the hands of him who is said to have the power of death, and death and Satan apparently triumphing. Satan prompted the death of Christ; Satan instigated and aided in the cruel deed.

3. The death of Christ must also be viewed as the act of

man.

The truth of this position can never be disputed. The only instrumentality in the overt act was that of man. Him, says the apostle to the Jewish Sanhedrim, have ye taken, and with wicked hands have crucified and slain. And again, in Acts iv. 27, the apostle says: "For of a truth, against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together." Instead then of dwelling on this point, I would only have you notice what care the sacred historians have used to unite both Jews and Gentiles in this act. We have been too much inclined to regard the Jews as the only persons who were to bear this guilt; and their crime was indeed the greater: they were the cruel instigators, and shouted the exciting cry, "Crucify him, crucify him;" they urged the Roman governor until he did not dare to refuse his assent; they were the persons who, with fiendish malice, taunted him on the cross with his godlike deeds, . and mocked his dying agonies. But let us also remember, that from the hour in which he was delivered to the soldiers by Pilate, the only hands laid upon him were Gentile hands. It was a Gen

tile governor who gave him up; it was we Gentiles who platted the crown of thorns; we Gentiles who mocked him with the purple robe and the reed sceptre; it was one of us Gentiles who nailed his sacred body to the cross, placed him between the malefactors, and thrust the spear into his side and heart. Jews and Gentiles did it; it was their united act; it was man, guilty man, who did the wicked deed.

4. The death of Christ must also be viewed as his own act.

On this assertion I need not dwell. Jesus, we all know, died willingly; he placed himself in the hands of his enemies; he foreknew and predicted his death; he again and again declared that he came for the express purpose of dying; that he desired to die for man; that he himself laid down his life, and that no one took it from him. There never was a moment when he could not have stopped in his work and returned to heaven; but he steadily and unwaveringly pursued his path to the cross, rejoicing and thanking God when the hour came. No; no one can doubt that Jesus died of his own free will, came to die, gave himself up to die. It was most clearly his own act.

5. Once more: The death of Christ is to be viewed also as the act of God.

The Bible is equally explicit as to this truth: indeed, this is the great theine of revelation. If this be not truth, no truth ever came from God. God sent him for the express purpose of dying on the cross. He so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotton Son for this end. "Forasmuch," says Paul, "as the children were partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself took part of the same, that through death he might destroy death." He was the Lamb slain by God's own appointment, from the foundation of the world. "Him," says the apostle, "being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and with wicked hands have crucified and slain ;" and how determinate that counsel was, may be seen all along the pages of the Bible. It was predicted soon after the fall of man. It was shadowed forth in a variety of types. The paschal lamb represented it, and it was prefigured by the daily sacrifices. God had before determined every minute particular respecting it: the price which should be paid for his blood, the scourging, the mocking, the nailing to the cross, the thrust of the spear, the hidings of the Father's face, all had been foretold. Nay, the prophet says, "it pleased the Lord to bruise him.”

Thus clear and undeniable is the evidence that, as Peter declares, he was delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. God did it. It was his act.

II. We are next led to inquire into the nature of the act, as viewed in this manifold light. We have seen that in the transaction

the holy angels, Satan and the fallen angels, men, Christ and God were joint participators. All the intelligent beings in the universe thus represented among the actors, we should therefore expect that all intelligent beings will be in some way affected by it; nor should we be surprised to find that the cross of Jesus becomes the touchstone by which the character and destiny of every created intelligent being will be judged and decided. This is foreshadowed in the point now before us-the nature of the

act.

You will see, on a moment's reflection, that the nature of the act, as to its moral character, depends upon the state of heart with which it is regarded.

1. Look at the death of Christ as the act of the holy angels, and what a beautiful exhibition have you of the holiness, loveliness and amiability of these bright and holy intelligences. The scenes of Calvary must have been to them most mysterious. They saw their Lord, before whom they were wont to bow, humbled, insulted, treated with cruelty and indignity; and yet so unwavering was their confidence in the power and wisdom of God, that they aided with joyful alacrity in the strange work, and sympathized with Jesus in every trial. Around him they ever flocked, either praising God in song, or strengthening and administering to his necessities. How great also their sympathy, their compassion and love, for the fallen sons of men! We need not

wonder at the announcement, that there is joy in heaven among the angels of God over a single penitent; their whole conduct presents them in a most amiable light. How wide the difference between them and Satan!

2. Look at the death of Christ as the act of Satan, and what a terrific display have you of the malignant nature of this fallen spirit, and of course of that sin which has reduced him to this state. You see in his conduct perfect malevolence. How entirely must sin have changed his once loving nature! He knew Jesus. He knew that the Being who stood before him in human form was in fact his Creator; the same before whom he had once bowed in adoring love and gratitude. Yet finding him by his assumption of human nature apparently in his power, he seeks to sweep him from his own world. He knows that he is the Holy One of Israel-God, all good, all kind, all wise; and yet such is his malignent nature, he determines to injure him to the utmost of his power, and if possible to destroy him. He knew also that his mission in this world was to redeem man from sin, and make him holy and happy, and he only hated the more, and determined to oppose the more bitterly.

The cross of Christ then, while it displays to the universe the loveliness of the holy angels, exhibits the inveterate malice of Satan and the fallen spirits, and shows that our utter ruin is the real

object of these wicked spirits, in seeking to retain that dominion over the hearts of men which sin has given them, and which we, alas! allow them to hold.

3. Look next at the nature of the act as performed by man. Allow me to recall to your minds the fact distinctly noticed, that the death of Christ was the combined act of Jew and Gentile. The Jews, you will remember, tried and condemned him in their own court, for declaring himself to be the Son of God; a title which they justly understood as claiming equality with God. But desiring to inflict upon him the shameful death of the cross, which was a Roman punishment, they bring him before the judgment-seat of the Gentiles. There, though repeatedly declared to be innocent, he found no protection, and was given up to be crucified. Thus as it were the whole world, both Jews and Gentiles, concurred in rejecting and murdering him.

What a striking display have we here of the ignorance and depravity of the human heart! Christ claimed to be God. He was God manifest in the flesh. He declares that his works are the Father's works, and that those who had seen him had seen the Father. The idea is, that if the Father, God over all, had become incarnate instead of the Son, he would act just as the Son had done. Christ's character and life were thus the moral character of Jehovah, mapped out and reduced in its dimensions, to the comprehension of our feeble faculties. I could wish that I had time to dwell upon his life in this view for a few moments, but you are all more or less acquainted with his path. It was a quiet path, and always even; it was full of blessedness, he went about doing good; he not only gave the richest and fullest instruction as to duty to those around him, but he ministered to their wants and relieved their sufferings. The sick he healed; to the blind he gave sight; to the deaf hearing; the lame he made to walk, and in more than one instance he raised the dead to life, and converted tears of sorrow into those of joy. In one word, while he trod our earth, with the calm, conscious dignity of a sovereign, and the winds and waves made haste to obey him, he rendered himself the servant of every one who sought his aid; and to the bowed down child of sorrow, he proffered it unsought. Nay, he was willing to die to save and bless man. And yet this, this was the man, the impersonation of all excellence, with not a shadow of a fault or a weakness, with not even a virtue out of place, a living incarnation of Divine Providence, this God marifest in the flesh, God acting as a man-this was the man against whom Herod, and Pontius Pilate, and the Gentiles, and the people of Israel were gathered together. They knew not God-could not estimate his character. They came out against him as against a thief, with swords and staves, to take him. They bound those kind and holy hands, which had wrought so many deeds of