Let us now see what they did to Christ when he had declared the extremity of his thirst : ' Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar, and they filled a spunge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth,' ver. 29. This fact of theirs is diversely construed ; some say, they did it out of kindness, and that it was usual to provide a vessel of vinegar, and to have it at hand under the cross of those that were executed ; this is probable : others think it an act of spite
SERMON UPON JOHN XIX. 30. 31
and malice, partly because it is made an exaggeration of calamity : Ps. Ixix. 21, ' Iti my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink ; ' and partly because their courtesy to the dying was to give wine and myrrh, and therefore it is said : Prov. xxxi. 6, ' It is not for kings to drink wine, nor for princes strong drink ; ' and ver. 6, ' Give strong drink unto him tha:t is ready to perish, and wine to those that be of an heavy heart ; ' that is to say, it is not for the judge, but the condemned ; and they mingled it with myrrh and hot spices, partly to attenuate the blood, and so to despatch them the sooner, and partly to cause giddi- ness, that their senses might be the sooner gone. But now, instead of wine and myrrh they gave Christ vinegar and gall to increase his misery ; and they prepared it in readiness in case he called for the usual refreshment. And the conjecture of the Carthusian is not amiss, ■who imputeth it to the malice of the soldiers to change the wine pre- pared by the charitable women into vinegar, for the greater spite and mockage. And it is said, ' They filled a spunge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop.' The other evangelists say, ' They put it upon a reed ; ' and it is hard to conceive then how they could put it upon hyssop. It is probable that hyssop in these countries was tall, as mustard-seed is said to grow up into a tree ; and Pliny saith they made staves of mallows in Arabia, which with us is but a slender herb ; but hyssop is put for a shrub. Solomon wrote of all herbs, from the cedar to the hyssop, but that is wall-hyssop, which is dwarfish and tender, as ours is.
Observe, when Christ stood in our stead, no comfort was granted to him but what was devised to augment his grief. When his strength was dried up like a potsherd, and his tongue cleaved to his jaws, ' They gave him vinegar to drink,' when he was providing for us a cup of blessings, a torrent and a river of pleasure, of which we might drink : ver. 30, ' When he had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished ; and he bowed the head, and gave up the ghost.' When he had received it, that is, tasted it, for they put it into his mouth with a spunge on the top of a reed, then he said, ' It is finished ; ' that is, as much as was necessary for his humiliation, God's glory, and man's salvation ; as much as was decreed, as much as was foretold. And he saith, ' It is finished,' because he was now upon the last work, death, which was coming upon him ; and therefore foldeth it in the expres- sion with what is past, ' It is finished,' because the last act was at hand : Mat. xxvi. 28, ' This is my blood of the new testament, which is shed ;' that is, which is about to be shed : John xvii. 4, ' I have finished the work thou gavest me to do.' All the sufferings were now completed at death, which he was to suffer for our sins.
Doct. Christ closed not his sufferings till all was finished which he had to do for us.
1. In what sense it is said, * It is finished.'
2. The evidences and reasons thereof.
3. What comfort this is to the faithful.
I. Ifi what sense it is said, * It is finished.'
1. All the scripture prophecies which spake of Christ's death and sufferings were now fulfilled and accomplished ; as that he should make his entrance into Jerusalem upon an ass in all humility ; this
32 SERMON UPON JOHN XIX. 30.