" enter into " the temptation. This is what our Lord sets before His disciples.
42. — [This cup.] Doddridge says, of this expression, "It was customary among the ancients to assign to each guest at a feast a particular cup, as well as a dish, and by the kind and quantity of the liquor contained in it, the respect of the entertained was expressed. Hence the word ' cup' came in general to signify a portion assigned, whether of pleasure or sorrow." See Psalm XL 6 ; Ixxiii. 10 ; Ixxv. 8. Isai. li. 17. Jerem. xxv. 15. Matt. XX. 23.
[Not my will, but thine ^ he done.] In this expression, and in- deed throughout the verse, the great and mysterious truth that our Lord had two wills, a human and a divine will, is distinctly taught. In His Person the human nature and the divine were marvellously united. To use the words of the Article, "Two whole and perfect natures, the godhead and manhood, were Joined together in one Person, never to be divided." But still we must carefully remember that while the two natures were united, the two wills were not confounded. Our Lord had a will as perfect man, and He had also a will as perfect God. As God He had a will in entire harmony with the will of the Father, a will to suffer, to die, to bear our sins, and to provide redemption on the cross. But as man He had a will which naturally shrank from death and pain, as everything which has the breath of life instinctively does. This is the will which we hear speaking in the verse before us. " Man," says Theophylact, " naturally loves life." Our Lord was a man exactly like ourselves in all things, sin only excepted. His bodily constitution, His nei-vous system, His capability of suffering, were all precisely like our own. Therefore it is that He says, " Remove this cup from me, " and yet adds, " not my will, but thine, be done."
The subject is undoubtedly a very mysterious one. The mystery, be it remembered, arises necessarily from our utter inability to understand the union of two natures in one Person. It is a depth which we have no line to fathom. How the Lord Jesus could be at the same time God and man, as man weak but as God Almighty, — for what reasons we see Him sometimes in the Gospels speaking as God, and sometimes as man, — ^why we see Him sometimes veiling His divjipity, and sometimes ex- hibiting it most clearly, — all these are questions which it is more easy to ask than to answer. Enough for us to know that it is so, and to believe and admire what we cannot explain.
One thing, however, we may safely remark, that at no period of our Lord's earthly ministry does the reality of His manhood come out so clearly as in His agony in the garden, and His death on the cross. As man, He endured temptation for us, and overcame Satan. As man He showed the intensity of His