which displayed itself in real and substantial proofs.

The Jews had for a long time been taught to look for a Saviour; but then in their worldly notions (as we have frequently had occasion to observe in our previous discourses) they conceived that this Saviour would be merely an earthly conqueror, who would deliver them from their earthly enemies. It was on account of the prevalence of this notion, that when Jesus Christ appeared in the humble situation in which it pleased him to be born, the rich and powerful among them rejected him with contempt; while they who followed him, who were gene rally poor and lowly, did it with the expectation of obtaining by his means, power, riches and superiority. But his seizure by the soldiers, his ignominious trial, his condemnation, and crucifixion, appear to have entirely destroyed all hopes. The triumph of his enemies, and the despair of his friends seem to have been, on both sides, beyond all bounds. The former in scorn desired him, if he

was the Christ, to come down from the cross; the others, in dismay, forsook him and fled. By both, his title to be the Saviour, the Christ, the Messiah, appears at this time to have been openly or tacitly denied. By both, the defeat of his pretensions was either assumed or allowed.

But at this time there was one man alone who did not fear to acknowledge him and his doctrine. It was his penitent fellow-sufferer. In spite of the taunts of his enemies, of the desertion of his friends, of the derision of his companion in guilt and in misery, in spite of all appearances against him, he heard, he saw our blessed Saviour, and he believed. Before the whole multitude he professed that he did so; before them all he acknowledged his own guilt, and the justice of his sentence; and before them all he prayed to his Saviour for mercy in the life to come; "Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom."

He seems, moreover, to have obtained a great deal of the true knowledge of our blessed Saviour, in a very short time, and

to have acquired a right apprehension of his character in a very brief period. It was his crucifixion which seemed, both in the eyes of his enemies and of his friends, for ever to have destroyed his pretensions. They believed in none but an earthly kingdom, in none but a mortal reign; and his death, they concluded, must put an end to all this. But the malefactor, even on the cross, obtained a clearer view, a purer and brighter sight of the Messiah's reign. "Lord," he said, "remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom." Though I see you departing out of this life, yet I believe in thy reign. The Son of God, whom I confess thee to be, cannot be contented with mere worldly grandeur. Thy kingdom must last for ever, and thy dominion from generation to generation. In that kingdom, O Lord, remember me, and receive me there to thy favour and protection." Here, then, was an instance of true faith, and of clear knowledge, at that time very remarkable, and deserving of peculiar regard.

He could have no worldly motive for his conduct, for he was then departing out of this life; he rather subjected himself to an increase of his misery, in the reproaches and derision which his declaration probably drew on him; he therefore did all which lay in his power, situated as he was, to express his faith, and to shew by his actions, that it was built on a true foundation; and this was, as we have shewn, probably the first time that ever he saw his Saviour; he therefore embraced this faith upon the first means offered him of conviction.

Now God, as we have before shewn, is just and unchangeable; and, in the fulness of his justice, he had declared that, "When the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness, and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive." Here, then, when a sinner, as soon as he was convinced of sin, did turn from his wickedness, when he did all which was in his power to shew his sincerity, even beyond the ordinary course which might be expected, and

when, had his life been prolonged, it would, we may well believe, have been consistent with his profession, according to God's laws, which are just and cannot change, he was pardoned, by that decree which is firm and inviolable.

This example, then, of the penitent thief, and the pardon which he received, is no deviation from the established laws of the Almighty; it only fulfilled that which he had spoken, and made good that which he had said. A man, when he first heard the word of truth, believed, confessed that he was a sinner, did all he could to shew his sorrow for it, and gave all the evidence in his power that, had his life been spared, it would have been conformable to his profession; in compliance, then, with the just decrees of God, who, in his wisdom, from the beginning of revelation, had pronounced it, he was pardoned through the merits of his Saviour, for his past offences, and admitted into favour for the future.

A blessed instance this, of God's all beneficent mercy; but it is abused by