and those so many, so plenteous, as that they went through his ap- parel, and all streamed down to the ground ; and now was the time that his garments were dyed with crimson red. That of the prophet, though spoken in another sense, yet in some respect may be applied to this, ' Wherefore art thou red in thy apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth the wine-fat ? ' Isa. Ixiii. 2. Oh, what a sight was here 1 His head and members are all on a bloody sweat, and this sweat trickles down, and bedecks his garments, which stood like a new firmament, studded with stars, portending an approaching storm; nor stays it there, but it falls down to the ground. Oh, happy garden that was watered with such tears of blood ! Oh, how much better are these rivers than Abana and Pharpar,^ rivers of Damascus, yea, than all the waters of Israel ; yea, than all those rivers that water the garden of Eden ! i So great was Scanderbeg's ardour in battle,2 that the blood burst out of his lips ; but from our champion's, not lips only, but whole body, burst out a bloody sweat. Not his eyes only were fountains of tears, or his head waters, as Jeremiah wished, Jer. ix. 1, but his whole body was turned, as it were, into rivers of blood. A sweet comfort to such as are cast down for that that their sorrow for sin is not so deep and soaking as they could desire.
Christ's blood is put in Scripture by a synecdoche of the part, for all the sufferings which he underwent for all the sins of the elect, especially his bloody death with all its concomitants, so called. First, because death, especially when it is violent, is joined with the effusion of blood : ' If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets,' Mat. xxiii. 30. And so again, Pilate said, ' I am innocent of the blood of this just person,' that is, of his death, Mat. xxvii. 24. Secondly, Herein respect is had to all the sacrifices of the law, whose blood was poured out when they were offered up. ' Almost all things are by the law purged with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission,' Heb. ix. 22 ; so that the blood of Christ is the antitype aimed at in the blood of those sacrifices that were slain for sinners' sins. But,
2. Secondly, as the death of Christ on the cross, was a bitter death, a bloody death, so the death of Christ on the cross was a lingering death. It was more for Christ to suffer one hour than for us to have suffered for ever ; but his death was lengthened out, he hung three hours on the cross, he died many deaths before he could die one : ' from the sixth till the ninth hour ' — that is, from twelve till three in the after- noon— ' there was^ darkness over all the land,' Mat. xxvii. 45. About twelve, when the sun is usually brightest, it began now to darken, and this darkness was so great that it spread over all the land of Jewry ; yea, some think over all the world. So we translate it in Luke, ' And there was darkness over all the earth,' Luke xxiii. 44, to show God's dislike of their horrid cruelty. He would not have the sun give light to so horrid an act. The sun as it were, hid his face that he might not see the Sun of righteousness so unworthily, so wickedly handled. It was dark : 1. To show the blindness, darkness, and ignorance of the Jews in crucifying the Lord of glory ; 2. To show the detestation of the fact ; 3. To show the vileness of our sins. This darkness was not a natural eclipse of the sun ; for, first, it cannot be so total, so general ;
^ Bernard, * Bucholcer.
88 OF THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST IN HIS BODY.
nor secondly, it could not be so long, for the interposed moon goetK swiftly away. Certainly this was no ordinary eclipse of the sun, seeing the passover was kept at the full moon, when the moon stands right opposite to the sun on the other side of the heaven, and for this cause cannot hinder the. light of the sun, but a supernatural work of God coming to pass by miracle, ' like as the darkness in Egypt,' Exod. x. 22. The moon being now in the full, it being in the midst of the lunar month when the passover was killed, and so of necessity the body of the moon — which useth to eclipse the sun by its interposition, and being between us and the sun — must be opposite to and distant from the sun the diametrical breadth of the hemisphere, the full moon ever rising at the sun's setting, and therefore this eclipse could never be a natural eclipse. Many Gentiles besides Jews observed this dark- ness as a great miracle. Dionysius the Areopagite, as Suidas relates, could say at first sight of it, ' Either the world is ending, or the God of nature is suffering of this darkness.! Amos long before had prophe- sied : * And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day,' Amos viii. 9. The opinion of authors concerning the cause of this darkness are various. Some think that the sun by divine power, withdrew and held back its beams ; others say that the obscurity was caused by some thick clouds which were miraculously produced in the air, and spread them- selves over all the earth ; others say that this darkness was by a won- derful interposition of the moon, which at that time was at full, but by a miracle interposed itself betwixt the earth and sun. Whatsoever was the cause of this darkness, it is certain that it continued for the space of three hours as dark as the darkest winter nights.
About three, which the Jews call the ninth hour. Mat. xxvii. 46, the sun now beginning to receive his light, Jesus cried with a loud voice, ' Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ? ' And then, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, he said ' I thirst ; ' and when he had received the vinegar, he said, ' It is finished,' John xix. 28, 30 ; and at last, crying with a loud voice, he said, ' Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit ; ' and having said thus, ' he gave up the ghost,' Luke xxiii. 46. Christ's words were ever gracious, but never more gracious than at this time. You cannot find in all the books and writ- ings of men, in all the annals and records of time, either such suffer- ings or such sayings as were these last words and wounds, sayings and sufferings of Jesus Christ. ' And having said thus, he gave up the ghost ; ' or as John relates it, ' He bowed his head and gave up the ghost,' John xix. 30. Christ would not off the cro*ss till all was done that was here to be done. 2 Christ bowed not because he was dead, but first he bowed and then died ; that is, he died freely and willingly without constraint, and he died cheerfully and comfortably without mur- muring or repining. Oh, what a wonder of love is this, that Jesus Christ, who is the author of life, the fountain of life, the lord of life, that he should so freely, so readily, so cheerfully lay down his life for us ! &c.