SERMON UPON JOHN XVIII. 11.
The cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drinh it ? John xviii. 11.
These words are part of Christ's rebuke to Peter, who, when the high priest's servants came to attack Christ, draweth his sword, and cuts off Malchus' ear, which our Lord first healeth, and then reproveth his disciple for this temerarious action : ' Put up thy sword into the sheath.' He reproveth him, partly because it becometh no private man by oppo- sition to resist authority ; but the chief reason was, our Lord would not be hindered in performing the great act of his mediation, his dying for sinners. You shall see in another place, when Peter counselled him against his sufferings, he rebuked him with the same severity that he doth the devil tempting him to idolatry : ' Get thee behind me, Satan,' Mat. xvi. 23, compared with Mat. iv. 10. And here this rash and unseasonable interposition, to save his master by force, is again reproved. In Peter's temerity, take notice of the difference between military valour and christian fortitude. He that faltered and was blown down by the weak blast of a damsel's question hath now the courage with a single sword to venture upon an whole band of men. Military valour is boisterous, and dependeth upon the heat of blood and spirits, and is better for a sudden onset than a deliberate trial ; but christian fortitude dependeth on the strength of faith, and lieth in a meek subjection to God, and will enable us to endure the greatest torments rather than encroach upon the conscience of our duty to God. A man of a military forward spirit may outbrave dangers when they are sudden, but faileth or fainteth in weaker trials, that are managed rather in a way of charge and accusation than force. But in Christ's rebuke, take notice of his obedience to God and love to men. Obedience to God : Shall I not suffer patiently, without resisting, what my Father hath determined me to suffer ? And love to men ; it was the cup which God had given him to drink for the good of his people, and therefore he would by no means decline it.
In the words take notice of — (1.) The notion by which affliction is expressed ; it is ' a cup.' (2.) God's ordering of it, ' Which my Father hath given me.' (3.) Christ's submission, ' Shall I not drink it ? '
1. For the term or notion whereby Christ's sufferings are expressed, *a cup.' We read of a threefold cup in scripture — (1.) A cup of tri-
4 SERMON UPON JOHN XVIII. II.
bulation ; (2.) A cup of consolation ; (3.) A cup of salvation and thanksgiving.
The first of these is often mentioned : Ps. xi. 6, ' Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire, and brimstone, and an horrible tempest ; this shall be the portion of their cup.' So the prophet Jeremiah is bidden, chap. XXV. 15, * Take the wine-cup of this fury at my hand, and cmise all the nations to whom I send thee to drink it.' So Ps. Ixxv. 8, 'For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup, and the wine is red ; it is full of mix- ture : and he poureth out the same ; but the dregs thereof, all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out, and drink them.' Thus God's dispensations are ordinarily expressed by a cup poured out and given to men to drink. And therefore our Lord Christ himself usetli this form of speech, not only here, but elsewhere ; as Mat. xxvi. 39, ' Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.' It was a dread- ful cup that he was to drink of.
The second cup, the cup of consolation, is spoken of Jer. xvi. 7, * Neither shall men give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or for their mother ; ' taken from the Jewisli custom of sending it to them that mourned, or to condemned persons. The same is spoken of Prov. xxxi. 6, 7, ' Give strong drink to him that is ready to perish, and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts ; let him drink and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more ; ' Amos ii. 8, ' They drank the wine of the condemned.'
The third was the cup of salvation, spoken of Ps. cxvi.,13, 'I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord.' Or the cup of deliverance, used more solemnly in the temple by the priests, or more privately in the family. Sometimes called the drink-offering of praise; and to which the 'cup of blessing,' 1 Cor. x. 16, used in the Lord's supper, hath a great respect ; for it was always used with cer- tain expressions of commemoration and praise. The first is plainly here intended, the cup of tribulation, so called because our afflictions are measured out by God, both for quantity and quality, either by his justice or by his wisdom and mercy.
2. God's ordering of it, ' Which my Father hath given me.' Christ mentioneth not the malice of his enemies, but the will of God and his Father. His hand in Christ's sufferings is often asserted in scripture : Isa. liii. 10, ' It pleased the Father to bruise him ; he hath put him to grief;' Acts ii. 23, 'Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain ;' Acts iv. 28, 'For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.' God did not excite and instigate those wicked wretches to that cruelty which they exer- cised upon Christ, yet it was predetermined by God for the salvation of mankind.