3. That death which he died was a sad bloody death, the saddest death that any man could die. He was weakened with the agonies in the garden: ' They pierced his hands and his feet,' Ps. xxii. 16. The sinewy parts of his body were pierced with nails, his life dropping out by degrees ; the irons opened a passage for his soul. And, which was more than all, he suffered under the wrath of God : Mat. xxvii. 46, ' My God ! my God ! why hast thou forsaken me ? '
4. It was a shameful death ; he suffered as a malefactor : Isa. liii. 12, ' He was numbered with the transgressors.' He was crucified between two thieves, in medio latronum, tanqiiam latronum maximus, as if he were the greatest of them. He was treated as a sinner ; we are made the sons of God. Job was called hypocrite by his friends^ but he would maintain his righteousness till death : Job xxvii. 6, 'My righteousness will I hold fast, and will not let it go ; my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.' Eusebius Vercellensis chose rather to starve in prison than that it should be said he had eaten with the Arians. Christ takes it patiently to die as a thief, an impostor, a traitor : John xviii. 30, ' If he were not a malefactor, we would not have delivered him up unto thee.' The high priest charged him with blasphemy : Mat. xxvi, G5, ' Then the high priest rent his clothes, saying. He hath s})oken blasphemy ; what further need have we of witnesses ? Behold now ye have heard his blasphemy.' The disciples began to doubt of him, and to look on him as an impostor : Luke xxiv. 21, ' We trusted that it had been he that should have redeemed Israel.'
SERMON UPON JOHN XIX. 30. 47
By God himself, when he had taken our sins upon hini, he was dealt with as a transgressor : 1 Peter iv. 1, ' He that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin,' He was as a sinner before : Heb. ix. 28, ' So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many,' An ingenuous man valueth his good name above all enjoyments ; there was enough to clear Christ's innocency, yet in the repute of the world he suffered as a malefactor. Oh, how unlike is Christ to the men of the world ! Christ is innocent, and accounted a transgressor ; they are transgressors, yet would fain be accounted innocent ; as Saul said to Samuel, 1 Sam, xv. 30, ' I have sinned, yet honour me now, I pray thee, before the elders of my people, and before Israel,' We are more careful of credit than conscience, and would not be accounted sinners, yet do not fear to be so. What a comfort is this to believers, that Satan cannot lay more to your charge than his instruments did to Jesus Christ,
5. He submitted to this death most willingly. He thirsted, and longed to pay the ransom for us ; here was not so much pain and shame as there was willingness : Gal. i. 4, ' Who gave himself for our sins,' There was not only the acts of the Father in giving Christ, but a peculiar act of Christ : ' He gave himself.' How freely did Christ empty his veins, and let out his soul ! It was no more to Christ to pour out his soul than for the minister to pour out the wine. We pray as if we were afraid to be heard ; we hear as if we were loath to be saved ; we serve God as if we were loath to please him ; there is a grudging in our acts of duty ; but Christ was free, and willing to die for us.
6. His blood was spilt in malice ; it might have cried for vengeance, yet it crieth for pardon ; it had the perfume of an infinite merit : Heb. xii. 24, ' The blood of sprinkling speaketh better things than that of Abel,' As to Abel's blood, that crieth for vengeance : Gen. iv. 10, ' The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground.' Christ's blood cries for pardon. As to the actors, his blood would not liave been a curse to them if they had hearkened to the voice of the gospel. But to speak of ourselves ; we by our sins had made our Lord to serve and die, yet doth not his blood speak against us, as Abel's did against Cain ; but it speaks to God, to pacify his wrath and to pardon us. Our sins cry, Lord, forgive not : Isa. ii. 9, ' The mean man boweth down, and the great man humbleth himself ; therefore forgive them not.' They speak in our conscience, Ye deserve death ; but Christ's blood speaketh words of peace and comfort to cleanse it, and make it quiet. When wrath is ready to break out from justice, it still crieth, Father, it is finished ; Christ's blood yet speaketh. When the awakened conscience lies in fear of the offended judge, and is vexed with the restless accusations of Satan, the blood of Christ speaketh better things, viz., It is all forgiven ; it is all expiated by my merit.