"he
'' John ii. 17. " John xv. 25. "^ Rom. xv. 3.
* John xix. 29. ' Acts i. 20. ^ Luke xii. 50.
" John xii. 27. with ib. ver. 23, 32, 33,
'Matt. xxvi. 37, 38. '' ib. ver. 39—44.
" he sweat great drops of blood" from every pore of his body^ To this period in particular we may suppose the petitions in our text to refer : for then " he offered up his supphcations with strong crying and tears" :" and such were the intenseness of his agony, and the ardour of his importunity, that " his throat was dried," " his eyes failed," his whole nature was exhausted"*, and he needed '^ an angel to be sent from heaven to strengthen him"." It must be remembered, that in all this time no man had approached to hurt him : and therefore we are sure that bis sorrows proceeded from *' the powers of darkness" who were now let loose upon him°, and from the hand of God himself, who now concurred to inflict upon him p the curse due to our iniquities 1, which by a covenant-engagement he had undertaken to sustain ■■.]
2. Those which he sustained during his trial— [It was no slight aggravation of his troubles that he was betrayed into the hands of his murderers by a kiss from one of his own Disciples, and that " one who had eaten bread with him lifted up his heel against him ^." And when he was seized and bound, he was yet further wounded in his soul by the intem- perate zeal of another of his Disciples, who, instead of submitting with meekness to the will of God, sought to destroy the adver- saries of his Lord*. From the garden he was hurried to the palace of the high priest, and, subsequently, from one tribunal to another, only to be treated with all manner of indignities, and to be denied that justice which his judges pretended to admi- nister. How inconceivably painful to his mind must it have been, to be arrayed in mock majesty, to be made an object of profane scoffing, to be smitten, and buffeted, and spit upon, and loaded with all manner of accusations, and all this time not to have so much as one of the many myriads whom he had healed to bear testimony in his favour" ; yea, even his own Disciples having for- saken him, one indeed excepted, whose presence only aggravated his sorrow, by his impious oaths, and pertinacious denial of his Lord. Even a measure that was adopted with a view to pre- serve his life, became a source of still more aggravated woe. Pilate hoped, that, by scourging him, he should pacify those who sought his life : and, the order being given, " the ploughers ploughed upon his back and made long their furrows'' :" but " the whole multitude with insatiate fury cried out, Crucify him, crucify him^ !" and demanded that Barabbas, who was a robber and a murderer, should be preferred before him. Thus was the
imma-
' Luke xxii. 44. " Heb. v. 7. "• ver. 3. " Luke xxii. 43.
" Luke xxii. 53. p Isai. liii. 10. ^ Gal. iii. 13.
■■ Ps. xI.6'^-8. ■ ' John xiii. IS. ' Matt. xxvi. 51,52.
" ver. 20. " Pi. cxxix. 3, ^ See ver. 4.