Matthew 27

Matthew 27:1-25

We have in this chapter the affecting story of the sufferings and death of our Services Christ, which are the only foundation of every fallen sinner’s hope. We have here, 1. The delivering of him to Pilate, ver. 1, 2. 2. The despair of Yudas, ver. 3—10. 3. The arraignment and trial of Christ before Pilate, ver. 11—14. 4. The clamour of the people against him, ver. 15—25. 5. Sentence passed and executed upon him, ver. 26—33. 6. The indignities done him, and reproaches cast upon him, ver. 34—44. 7. Many remarkable signs stranded his death, ver. 45—58. 8. His horrid, and the unethical set on his grave, ver. 57—66.

1. WHEN the morning was come, “all the chief priests and elders of the people” took counsel against Jesus to put him to death. 2. And when they had bound him, “they led him away, and delivered him to Pontius Pilate the governor. 3. ¶ Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, “repented himself, and brought again” the thirty pieces of silver to the chief-priests and elders. 4. Saying, I have sinned, in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? See thou to that. 5. And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and ‘banged himself. 6. And the chief-priests took the silver pieces, and said, It is not lawful for to put them into the treasury, because it is the price of blood. 7. And they took counsel, and bought with them the potters field to bury strangers in. 8. Wherefore that field was called, “The field of blood unto this day. 9. (Then was fulfilled)” that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was valued, “whom they of the children of Israel did value: 10. And gave them for the potters field, as the Lord appointed me.)

Though they had condemned the innocent Jesus as worthy of death, they had not in their hands the power of capital punishments, and therefore must have him sentenced by the Roman governor before they could proceed to execution, the sceptre being now departed from Judah, and the country become a Roman province. Hereupon we are told,

1. On a second counsel held in the morning, in order effectually to get their bloody purposes executed of putting him to death, they determined to accult him before Pilate, at that time the Roman president, as an infamous malfeasor and incendiary; and accordingly, binding him as a criminal, they bid him ignominantly through the streets, from the house of Casaphas to the governor’s palace, and delivered him up, that sentence might be pronounced upon him, and that he might die the death of the crook, unwittingly fulfilling the predictions of Jesus, chap. xx. 19.

2. Remor’s had by this time seized on the conscience of Judas. When he saw that Jesus was condemned, and ready to be executed, filled with horror, and agitated with self-indignation, anguish, and despair, he ran to the temple, and there, in one of the chambers to which the council seems to have been adjourned, he brought the hated price of his wickedness, the thirty pieces of silver, and, publicly acknowledging the atrocious crime he had committed in betraying innocent blood, would have returned their wages of unrighteousness. But they, inflicted of being struck with conviction, treated his confession with contempt. He had answered their ends; and as to the means employed, or the guilt he had incurred, they cared not about it; as if it was nothing to them that they had bribed him to commit the villainy, and were that moment perlocuting to death the innocent person he had betrayed. Made desperate by such neglect, and the unavalaness of this attempt to stop the prosecution of Jesus, his life became a burden, and the devil urged him to put an end to it. Calling down the abhorred silver in the temple before them, and, flying to some solitude, he immediately hung himself, by self-murder finishing the measure of his iniquities. Note, (1.) The time will come when the sweetest sins will be turned into the poison of afar. (2.) There is no repentance without reliction of ill-gotten gods, and taking shame to ourselves before the accomplices of our guilt. (3.) When wicked men can bring the professors of religion to join them, indifferent to the remorse they afterwards behold in them, they only mock at the calamity, and at fin the cause of it. (4.) The love of money hath been the fatal snare to many a soul: for this they have plunged themselves into the gulph of perdition. (5.) Despair is among the greatest crimes, and often ends in self-murder, a remedy still worse than the disease. For the deepest guilt there is mercy to be hoped: but, when men fly from God to the devil for safe, they are undone for ever.

3. The money being left, they confitted how to dispute of it. Pretending conscience, they would not put it into the temple, treason, though probably it was taken from thence, because it was the price of blood; and therefore, with the slave of great piety and humanity, laid it out to purchase a small piece of ground which had been dug up by a potter, and was of little value, to buy strangers or professors; whereby they perpetuated their own infamy; the people, who knew what money made the purchase, calling it justly accidents, or the field of blood. And herein they exactly fulfilled what the prophet had foresaid, Zeal. xi. 12, 13. The words are said to be in Jeremy, though only found in Zechariah: concerning which there are many ways suggested to solve the difficulty. The most probable seems to be, either that, in the division of the sacred books, the last volume began with Jeremiah, and therefore, though containing all the later prophets, bore his name; or that Jeremiah had so prophesied first, but had not committed it to writing, and Zechariah confirmed and wrote it in his prophecy. The words, as they flared in the prophets, are, They weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver. And the Lord said unto me, Cuff it to the potter; a good price that I was prized at of them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver and cuff them to the potter in the back of the Lord. Thus did they, who rejected the Messiah, fulfill all the prophecies concerning him. Note, (1.) They who are bitter perfecutors of God’s people, still study to maintain the character of piety and humanity among men. (2.) Christ’s blood hath provided a resting-place for poor sinners after death. And though he was treated with such contempt, and his price so low, we fee in his humiliation peculiar glory; and the deeper his abatement was, it renders him in the eyes of all that believe more precious.

4. And Jesus stood before the governor; and the governor asked him, saying, Art thou the king of the Jews? And Jesus said unto him, Thou sayest. 12. And when he was accused of the chief priests and elders, he answered nothing. 13. Then saith Pilate unto him, “Heareth thou not how many things they witness against thee? 14. And he answered him to never a word, inasmuch that the governor marvelled greatly. 15. Now at that feast the governor was wont to release unto the people a prisoner, whom they would. 16. And they had

then a notable prisoner, called Barabbas. 17. Therefore, when they were gathered together, Pilate said unto them, Whom will ye that I release unto you? Barabbas, or Jesus, which is called Christ? 18. For he knew that for every they had delivered him. 19. When he was set down on the judgment-seat, his wife sent unto him, saying, Have thou nothing to do with that just man: for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him. 20. But the chief priests and elders persuaded the multitude that they should ask Barabbas, and destroy Jesus. 21. The governor answered and said unto them, Whether of the twain will ye that I release unto you? They said, Barabbas. 22. Pilate saith unto them, What shall I do then with Jesus, which is called Christ? They all say unto him, Let him be crucified. 23. And the governor said, Why, what evil hath he done? But they cried out the more, saying, Let him be crucified. 24. When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and wafted his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: for ye to it. 25. Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children.

Behold the Son of God a prisoner at a human bar, and He, to whom every knee must bow, and meet him as their eternal Judge, now appears as a criminal before Pilate: having condescended to bear our sins, he submits to suffer in our stead as a transgressor. We have,

1. The charge laid against him. Knowing the jealously of the Roman government, the chief priests, his accusers, had sugged that, in affirming the character of the Messiah, he meant to raise an insurrection, and make himself a king. Pilate therefore interrogated him on this head, whether he presumed to arrogate the title of King of the Jews? and Jesus acknowledged the charge; though he affirmed no such temporal dominion as they sugged; his kingdom was not of this world: for John xviii. 26. The chief priests and elders were hereupon very loud and clamorous in their accusations, as if he was a perverter of the people, a tower of sedition, forbidding to give tribute to Celar, and affecting the sovereignty of the country. To all which Jesus, with astonishing patience, made no reply. What they said was indeed notoriously false, as themselves knew: but he wanted not to defend himself; his hour was come, and he stood prepared to answer the demands of divine justice, and to bear our sins in his own body on the tree. Therefore, when Pilate urged him to reply to the charges, and clear himself of these accusations, he observed a profound silence, to the great astonishment of the governor, who could not account for so unusual a behaviour in a person whose life was at stake, and depended on that moment. Note, (1.) It hath been usual with the enemies of the servants of Jesus to dress them up so as to render them suspected by the civil government, and to intimate ill designs against the State, in order the more easily to oppress them. (2.) Silence is often the best answer to the accusations of malice; and when we know our defence is sure to be over-ruled, it is fruitless to contend.

2. Pilate, convinced of the innocence of Jesus, and well knowing the motive of the virulence: Bower, against him by the chief priests, who were flung with envy at the excellence of his character, and the high reputation he held with many, which eclipsed their own, wished for a pretext to release him. And hereunto he was yet more induced by a message from his wife, who just at that time, whilst the trial was going on, sent to retreat him to do nothing against that just man before him: for she had that morning been terrified by a very uncommon dream concerning him, which bore strong marks of a divine original; and therefore conjured him to discharge the prisoner, left he should bring down the wrath of God upon himself and family by condemning the innocent. Therefore, as it was an established custom at that feast to gratify the people with the release of any prisoner whom they chose, Pilate thought he could not fail of succeeding by proposing to the people their choice, whether of Barabbas or Jesus. The infamous character of Barabbas, who for sedition and murder, and other villainies, was held in greatest detestation, left him no room to doubt that the people would prefer Jesus, whom they had so lately ushered with hoffannas into the city, and whose excellencies all must have been. Note, (1.) God hath accost to the spirit, and can speak to our souls when our senses are locked up in deep repose. (2.) Sinners have sometimes solemn warnings; but they are too apt to slight the heavenly admonition. (3.) The never and dearer any person is to us, the more are we obliged to watch over them for good.

3. The multitude, instigated by the craft of their wily priests, who represented Jesus in every black and disological colour, engaged them to prefer Barabbas before him; and, to the astonishment of Pilate, they demanded the murderer, and rejected the Lord of life and glory: and, not content with this, when the

governor,

governor, willing to release Jesus, enquired of them what they wished he should do with him whom many regarded as the Christ, or Messiah; they with one consent cried out, Let him be crucified, a death the most painful, ignominious, and accursed. Shocked at such a demand, Pilate remonstrates with them on the injustice and cruelty of such an action, Why, what evil hath he done? On several scrutiny, his judge could see no fault in him, his adversaries prove none, nor did even the traitor fuggish the shadow of a crime. A glorious testimony of the avowed innocence of Jesus. But notwithstanding, this tumultuous assembly, wrought up to a pitch of fury by their malignant priests and rulers, with louder cries demanded his crucifixion, determined to extort the governor’s consent, and bear down reason and justice with rage and clamour. Now, (1.) How little dependance is to be placed on popular applause. They who one day cried, Holanna to the Son of David, now cry, Crucify him, crucify him. (2.) The unipotent innocence of the Lamb of God evidently shews, that he bore not his own sins, but the sins of others: he voluntarily submitted to die as a criminal, that he, though just, might suffer the punishment due to the unjust, and thereby bring us unto God.

4. Pilate, unable to prevail with them, and not having resolution to deny their request, so importunately and clamorously urged, for fear of an uproar; yet conscious of the innocence of Jesus, and shocked at the thought of murdering a just man; he thought himself of a miserable expedient to pacify his conscience without disobliging the people: and therefore, though yielding to their importunity, he protests against the fact; and, asking water before them all, he washed his hands, that by this significative action he might appear clear from all the guilt which should ensue, declaring himself innocent of this righteous blood; and therefore, since they compelled him to condemn the innocent, he lays it wholly upon them to answer for the crime before God and the world. An absurd procedure indeed in a judge, whom nothing should have been done, and the administration of impartial justice. And it but the more aggravated his guilt, thus avowedly to aid against his own conscience, and to do the very thing against which he protested. But such contradictions must follow, where men’s convictions are strong, but their corruptions stronger.

5. They hesitate not to subject themselves to all the consequences which might ensue; and, since Pilate formed scrupulous, they are very ready to quiet his conscience by solemnly transferring all the guilt upon their own, madly imprecating on themselves, and their latest posterity, the vengeance, if any were due, His blood be on us, and on our children. So daring do presumptuous sinners grow: so little are they apprehensive of the consequences of their impiety. But these murderers soon found the vengeance they impressed terribly lighting on their devoted heads in the utter destruction of themselves and families; such multitudes being crucified by Titus during the siege, that the cradle stood so thick around the walls, that there was no more room for them; five hundred in a day thus miserably expiring. And to this hour the effects of that imprecation are visible upon this miserable people; and will be, till, returning to the Lord whom they once rejected, the wrath shall be removed, and their iniquity be forgiven.

6. ¶ 1 Then released he Barabbas unto them: and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. 27. 2 Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall, and gathered unto him the whole band of soldiers. 28. And they stripped him, and put on him a scarlet robe. 29. ¶ And when they had planted a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand; and they bowed the knee before him, and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews. 30. And they spit upon him, and took the reed, and smote him on the head. 31. And after that they had mocked him, they took the robe off from him, and put his own raiment on him, and led him away to crucify him. 32. And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name: him they compelled to bear his cros.

Matthew 27:26-32

The matter being thus determined:

1. Pilate, having released Barabbas, that most infamous criminal, delivered Jesus over to their will, having first scourged him severely, in hopes of moving their compassion, John xix. 1. but finding it all ineffectual, and that they were bent on his destruction, he appoints his immediate execution on the cros, as they inflicted. And herein we may observe, (1.) The fulfilment of the Scriptures, Pf. cxxix. 3. Ife. l. 6. liii. 5. where these stripes had been foretold. (2.) In the release of Barabbas we have an emblem of our own deliverance through Jesus Christ. As guilty are we as this notorious prisoner: we have robbed God of his glory, and often laboured to murder our own and others souls. For which we must all have perished without hope, had not our divine Substitute yielded up himself that we might go

free, and that the chief of sinners might find in him plentious redemption. (3.) Bloody as the stripes of Jesus appear, we need his God for them, since by these stripes we are healed.

2. Being delivered into the hands of the infamous soldiers, they dragged him into the common hall, and, to make themselves merry in his miseries, and in the view of the character he assumed as a king, they stripped off his cloaths, arrayed him in a scarlet robe in mockery, and platting a crown of thorns, in derision placed it on his head, giving him a reed, or hollow cane, for a scepter, and, gathering the whole band around him, they, with inflicting homage, bowed the knee, and addressed him with the deriding title of King of the Jews; whilst some spit in his face in contempt of his majesty, and others snatched the cane out of his hand and smote him on the head, that the thorns might wound the deeper his sacred temples. With horror, indignation, and astonishment, whilst we reflect on their wickedness, let some measure thereof be transferred to our own. They were but the instruments, we the cause, of all his torment. And when we see the innocent Lamb of God submitting to these indignities, and look on that face, marred more than any man’s, defiled with fighting, black with buffetings, and dyed with blood streaming from his temples, what emotions of love and gratitude should glow in our bosom towards him who endured such things for us, that we might not be the mockery of devils, the scorn of angels, and abhorred of God!

3. Glutted with cruelty, and fatated with such inhuman mirth, they stripped off his robes of mock majesty; and put on him again his own seamless garment, the perquisite of those who should be more immediately employed in his execution. Then, binding his cros upon him, John xix. 17. they led him, as a lamb to the slaughter, a spectacle through the city, to suffer without the gate. But, it seems, wearied out with his sufferings, his strength failed him, and they were obliged to release him of his load, lest they should be disappointed of their cruelty in nailing him alive to the tree. Seizing on one who was passing by, known probably to have been a disciple of Jesus, and therefore treated with such indignity, they compel him to bear the cros after Christ to the place of execution. Nate, Every faithful soul must expect his cros, and be content to go to Jesus without the camp, bearing his reproach.

4. 1 And when they were come unto a place called Golgotha, that is to say, a place of a skull. 34. ¶ They gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall: and when he had tafted thereof, he would not drink. 35. And they crucified him, and parted his garments; casting lots: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, 2 They parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots. 36. And sitting down, they watched him there: 37. And set up over his head, his acridation written, THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS. 38. Then were there two thieves crucified with him: one on the right hand, and another on the left. 39. ¶ And they that passed by carried him, 1 wagging their heads, 40. And saying, 1 Thou that destroyeth the temple, and buildeth it in three days, save thyself: 2 if thou be the son of God, come down from the cros. 41. Likewise also the chief priest’s mocking him, with the scribes and elders, said, 42. He saved others, himself he cannot save: If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cros, and we will believe him. 43. 1 He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him: for he said, 1 I am the Son of God. 44. 1 The thieves also which were crucified with him, cast the same in his teeth. 45. Now 2 from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour. 46. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, Iama tabachthani? that is to say, 2 My God, my God, why had thou forsaken me? 47. Some of them that stood there, when they heard that, said, This man calleth for Elias. 48. And straightway one of them ran, and took a sponge, and 2 filled it with vinegar, and put it on a neck, and gave him to drink. 49. The rest said, Let be, let us see whether Elias will come to save him.

Matthew 27:33-49

We have here an account of the crucifixion of Jesus.

1. The place where he suffered was called Golgotha, signifying the place of a skull; either from the form of the hill, or because the multilobors executed them, were buried on the spot. Where death therefore erected his trophies, there Christ, who tafted death for every man, erected his cros, that he might in triumph look down upon his vanquified foe, as it was said, O death, I will be thy destruction.

2. Before

3. Before they nailed him to the tree, they offered him a bitter cup of vinegar mingled with gall, infused of the poison usually given to malefathers to thuply their sense of pain; striking thus by every malicious contrivance to sharpen his sufferings, and make his death peculiarly bitter. He tailed it, but refused to drink. He wanted not to prolong his life, nor would do ought to discompose his mind, prepared to feel every misery before him, and desiring not to be excused the sensation of any one painful pang he must endure. The gall of that cup our sins supplied; had he not atoned for them, we must eternally have drunk to the dregs the cup of bitterness and trembling.

4. They crucified him, which was done by threshing the arms on the wood as it lay upon the ground, and nailing them; then they followed the feet to a piece of wood fixed to the body of the crofs, and lifting it up, stuck it fall in a hole prepared to receive it, the shock of which dislocated the bones of the criminal; and there hanging upon the nails, in convulsions and torments inoperable, he expired. Thus did the Son of God humble himself to death, even the death of the crofs. Whall angels with wonder and amaze behold him, what sentiments of transcendent admiration and love should glow in our bosoms, when we for him dying on the scourled tree, for us men and for our salvation!

5. As he was hung up naked to bear our shame, who by sin had lost the robe of innocence, the executioners divided his garments as their feet; and whall they sat down and watched him, that no refuse might be attempted, should the people now relent, they cast lots for his outer garment, which was without feam, and must have been spoiled if cut to pieces; thus in the most exact manner fulfilling the prophetic word, Pj. xii. 18. They parted my garments among them, and upon my welfare did they cast lots.

6. On the crofs a tablet was hung, importing the crime for which he suffered, as was usual on these occasions. But this bespoke his honour, rather than reproach: This is ‘Jesus the King of the Year’. Such indeed he really was; and whatever intention they had who wrote it, God designed even here that a testimony should be born to his Messiah.

7. Two thieves were crucified with him, and he placed in the midst, as if to stamp the most indelible infamy upon him, as the vilett of all malefactors. Thus was he numbered with trumpetgers, and with the wicked to his death. Though he had done no violence, yet, bearing the sins of many, divine justice treated him as a criminal, and he died under the curse of our iniquities.

8. On the crofs he endured the greatest contradiction of sinners against himself.

[1.] From the common people, and passengers who went by as he hung on the tree. Unmoved at his sufferings, unaffected with the astonishing patience wherewith he bore them, they vented their blasphemies against him, wagging their heads, as insulting over his miseries, (Pj. xxii. 8.) and triumphing in his torments; upbraiding him with his pretended ability of defamaging the temple, and raising it in three days; and holding him now put forth some of that power of which he boasted, in coming down from the crofs to which he was nailed, and thus at least prove the truth of the high pretensions he made, as being the Son of God. Note, (1.) When a man is run down, and cast out by the great and the rulers, every one is ready to join in the cry. (2.) If Christ was thus reviled and ridiculed, let us not think it strange, if the mouth of the ungodly be opened upon us in bitter words.

[2.] From the chief priests, scribes, and elders. They came to feast their eyes with this sight of misery, and, inflicted of being at their devotions in the temple, (Lev. xxiii. 7.) meanly mixed with the rabble around the crofs, to gravity their misery, and spit their venom; mocking at him, and saying, He found others, himself he cannot save. His present state they suggest evidently proved the abolition of the miracles to which he pretended, and the impossibility of his being the Saviour of the world; whereas in fact, the very reason why he cannot save himself, is because it would not then be possible for him to save others, since on his sufferings their salvation depended. As he assumed the honour of Israel’s King, they upbraided him with his arrogance, and hid him exert his authority, and loose himself from the crofs; then they profess they will believe in him, though, after what he had done, this was a mere fatteridge for their infidelity. Had he complied with their proposals, they would instantly have found new objections, and would suppose some trick had been played, that he had never been nailed to the tree, as they afterwards evaded the evidence of his resurrection, by the absurd presence that his disciples stole away the body by night. Because Jesus had professed such unshaken confidence in God, and claimed so near a relation to the Most High, they now hid him put it to the proof; intimating, that God’s not delivering him in his distress, shewed him a deceiver; and whall they thus vilified him in the eyes of the people, they hurled a fiery snow against the faith of the Redeemer, to terrify his innocent soul, as if those was on hope for him in his God, (Pj. xxiii. 8.) Unmoved the Saviour heard in silence their blasphemies, and perished patiently in accomplishing his own glorious work. Note, (1.)

Jesus became a king by suffering the crofs; he went from thence to reign. Let us not forget then the way to his kingdom; if we suffer with him, we shall also reign with him. (2.) Many pretends want of evidence as a reason for their unbelief, but were Christ to indulge them with the grant of what themselves propose, they would be as far from faith in him as ever. The fault is in the heart: they who believe not Moses and the prophets, will be proof against every other method of conviction.

[3.] From the thieves who were crucified with him. Some suppose, that only one of them reviled him, (See Luke xxiii. 39.) and say this is a Hebrew way of speaking, as if they were afraid of ascribing too much to the Sovereign grace of God herein displayed. But I own I see no reason for doubting, that both at first joined in the same blasphemy and abule; though one of them, struck with the behaviour of Jesus, and consumed of his own wickedness in this, as well as all his former conduct, afterwards cast his eyes of faith on the expiring Saviour; and if so, this tended only to make the triumphs of bountiful mercy, and the riches of the redemption of Jesus, appear the more illustrious in his salvation.

8. A dreadful darkness now came on over all the land. The sun miraculously withdrew his light, as if terrified to behold his Maker’s agony, and testifying his abhorrence of such transcendently atrocious wickedness; affording an emblem of that judicial blundred to which this devoted people were now abandoned. It might be intended also to represent the dreadful conflict with the rulers of the darkness of this world, which Jesus maintained on the crofs, when by dying he destroyed him that had the power of death, that is the devil. And this eclipse of the great luminary of heaven was also but a faint image of the darker eclipse in the Redeemer’s soul, when every cheating beam of confusion was withdrawn, the light of his Father’s countenance withheld, and a sense of this dereliction, arising from the wrath of an offended God, complacated the measure of his sufferings. Three such hours had never passed since darkness was upon the fate of the deep.

9. After a long and silent conflict, about the ninth hour, his agony being now at the summit, with a loud but lamentable voice Jesus cried, Eli, Eli, lama fahachhian! My God, my God, why hell thou forsaken me? Strange secrets from him whom God had repeatedly owned for his beloved Son, and in whom he had testified himself so well plodied! We never hear one complaint from these sacred lips of all his inhuman treatment, or bodily torment; what he then felt was infinitely more insuperable, and extracted this exceeding bitter cry. Not that the hypocrisy union was disloyal, or that there was any real abatement of the Father’s love towards him; never did he as Mediator appear more amiable than now, when by the eternal Spirit he offered himself without spot unto God. But since he took upon himself all the sins of his people, he was given for a while into the enemy’s hands, and all the powers of hell let loose upon him; every divine support was withdrawn, and the terrors of wrath due from an offended God seized on his soul, and sunk him in the lowest deep. Despair excepted, I question much, whether the spirits of the damned have felt the wrath of God in this in utmost depth of bitterness; yet, though forsaken, firm and unshaken Jesus hangs left on God, and in this deepest dereliction still can say, My God.

Lately, The by-Standers, whether wilfully or ignorantly mistaking his words, said he called for Elias, as if he wanted his help, and that it was too late for him to cry now. And hereupon one ran and killed a young with venage, and with a stone lilted it to his lips, which might be a suggestion of comparison, since his pains must have created intolerable thrift; though usually it is supposed to be done to knock and tease him, and add to his anguish; whall the rest deciding said, Let be, let him alone; let us see whether Elias will have to give him, since he is to be the forerunner of the Messiah; but no such help they presume will be afforded him, alike abandoned by heaven and earth.

50. ¶’ Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. 51. And behold the veil of the temple was rest in twain, from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent. 52. And the graves were opened, and many bodies of saints which slept, arose. 53. And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many. 54. Now when the contrivance, and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying, ‘Truly this was the Son of God.’ 55. And many women were there (beholding ‘afar off’) which followed Jesus from Galilee, ministrying unto him. 56. Among which was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee’s children.

Matthew 27:50-56

u. 50—56. The conflict is now over, the victory compleat, sin around for, Satan’s head bruised, justice satisfied, death vanquished, hell shut up, the kingdom of heaven opened for all believers, and all this by the death of Jesus here recorded; concerning which we are told,

1. The manner in which he expired. Having finished the work the Father had given him to do, he cried, not as a dying man, exhausted and spent, but with a loud voice, the those of victory over all his conquered foes, and thus in his full strength yielded up the ghost; freely resigned his soul into his Father’s hands, and his body to death, the threatened wages of sin, which he had consented to bear. Thus fell the spiritual Samplon, feuding prerequisites and powers, and triumphing over them on his cross. Thus died the great Redeemer, just at the time when the evening sacrifice of the lamb was slain, the figure of him who in the evening of the world appeared to take away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

2. The miracles which attended his death.

[1.] Behold, the will of the temple was rent in twain, which separated the holy of holies from the outer tabernacle, where the table of incense stood, and the golden candlelück; and this at the very time probably when the priests were there ministry, and burning the sacred incense before it. Whereby was light-fed, (1.) The abolition of the Mofacial services, the darkness of that dispersion being now removed, and its))) thirteenth, which is that with open face we now behold the glory of the Lord. (2.) The demolition of the partition-wall between Jews and Genshin, who are alike called into the fellowship of the gospel, and partakers of the same privileges. (3.) The free access which every sinner hath to God; is that he may now come boldly to a throne of grace, and, when death shall rend the val of flesh, to a throne of glory, by that new and living way which Jesus hath perforated for as through the will, that is to joy, for flesh. Heb. iv. 16. x. 19. 20.

[2.] The earth did quake, and the rocks were rent by it; marks of God’s wrath against their murderers, and of that fury he would pour out upon them, when their rocky hearts should be broken in pieces. Hereby also was signified the destruction of Satan’s kingdom, and the wondrous changes now about to be wrought in the world, when the most flood-hearted flowers should tremble before the Lord, and feel their souls rent with deepest conviction when led to look up to a crucified Jesus.

[3.] The graves were opened, immediately by the earthquake, and many bodies of the faints which slept, arose, and came out of the graves after his reformation, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many: a glorious proof of Christ’s victory over death and the grave, and an assurance to all his saints of a joyful re-formation.

Who these faints were, whether the patriarchs, or such as had seen Christ in the flesh; whether they kept their bodies, and ascended with their Lord into glory, or afterwards returned into the state of the dead; to whom they appeared; what they had or did; these and the like enquiries, being matters of mere curiosity, the Holy Ghost hath not thought fit to reveal to us. All that is needful for us to know, is told us, and therein we should thankfully acquiesce, not coveting to be wise above what is written.

3. The elect which the death of Christ and subsequent miracles had on the contration and soldiers who kept guard at the place of execution. Though soldiers, savage and cruel; brothers, and strangers to the true God, yea, the very persons who had treated Jesus with such indignity; had dragged him to that place, and sailed him to the tree; these strange lights, the darkness, earthquake, and expiring cry of the Redeemer, filled them with con-formation. Their shout hearts trembled for fear, lest they should be swallowed up in righteous vengeance; and these amazing effects of divine power and interposition excised from them that noble testimony to the Saviour’s divine mission and character, Truly this was the Son of God.

4. To the honour of the weaker sex, mention is made of several women, and three of their names are recorded, who, though the disciples in general had forsaken their Master, and died, continued their attendance in his last moments; and having followed Jesus out of Galilee, and ministered to him of their substance, now stood afar off, perhaps not daring to approach nearer, and with broken hearts and spools of tears beheld and lamented their dying Lord, unable to minister to him either help or comfort. Note, (1.) The longer and the farther we have followed Christ, the more should it engage us to cleave to him, even to the end. (2.) They who love the Lord Jesus in their hearts, will be happy to employ their substance in his service.

5. When the even was come, there came a rich man of Arimathea, named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus’s disciple; 58. He went to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus: then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered. 59. And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, 60. And laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in

the rock: and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre, and departed. 61. And there was Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary, sitting over-against the sepulchre. 62. ¶ Now the next day that followed the day of the preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate, 63. Saying, Sir, We remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, ‘After three days I will rise again. 64. ‘Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night, and steal him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead: So the last error shall be worse than the first. 65. Pilate said unto them, Ye have a great, go your way; make it as sure as you can. 66. So they went and made the sepulchre sure, ‘sealing the stone, and setting a watch.

u. 57—66. It was foretold, that the Messiah should make his grave with the wicked, and with his rich in his death; and we here see it fulfilled in the honourable interment given him by Joseph of Arimathea, after he had died as a malefactor, and suffered in our stead the wages of sin. Several circumstances concerning this burial are here taken notice of.

1. The time. The evening of the day on which he suffered, which was Friday, some time before the Jewish Sabbath commenced.

2. The person who charged himself with the care of the burial. Joseph of Arimathea, a man of wealth and distinction, one of the Sambadism, and a secret disciple of Jesus, though through fear he had not publicly avowed it; but now, when Christ seemed deserved of all, he dared they forth, boldly went in to Pilate, and begged the corpse, that he might inter it with due respect, which was granted immediately, and an order sent to deliver the body to him. Note, (1.) There are more secret disciples than we are often aware of. (2.) The possession of worldly wealth and honour is usually a grievous check to the faithful and open profession of Jesus and his cause. (3.) In times of trial, when the boldest are ready to shrink, we sometimes see those who were scarce numbered among disciples before, come forth with unexpected courage and fidelity, and make a noble confession before many victories.

3. The manner of it. He took down the body from the cross, and wrapped it in clean linens, according to the custom of the Jews; and he himself attended, and performed their last kind offices to his dear Master.

4. The place where Joseph laid the corpse. In his own new tomb, hewn out in a rock, and closed with a great stone at the mouth; which when Joseph had done, he departed in silence for a period of time. So Divine providence ordered the circumstances, that none having lain there before, there could be no doubt, when Christ arose, concerning the person; and the solid rock out of which the sepulchre was hewn, prevented the possibility of suspicion of any secret access to the body, except by the entrance, and that was sufficiently guarded. Note, (1.) He who when alive had not a house to cover his head, when dead, wanted a grave: so destitute was the Lord of glory; who then after him dares complain? (2.) Since Jesus hath lain in the grave, he hath perfumed the noxious shock; and in this bed of dust, as the phoenix in her fabled nest, we now lie down, only to rise in brighter array, and take our flight to mansions of eternal glory.

5. The care Christ’s enemies took to have the sepulchre secured. The chief priests and Pharisees, who were such scrupulous observers of the Sabbath, had not patience to wait the evening till it was over, but assembled, and went in a body to Pilate, to petition him for a guard, in order to secure the body against the following day, because they fuggish, that Jesus, that deceiver, (so do they call him who is the truth itself) had said, while he was yet alive, so that they admit he was now certainly dead, after three days I will rise again. We find not indeed he had ever expressly said so to them; and if they founded their suggestion upon what they had heard, (John ii. 19.) then their own barefaced wickedness was yet more evident, since on this very passage, which they applied to the temple, they formed great part of their accusation against him. Pretending therefore to fear, lest his disciples should come by night, and steal him away, and say he is risen, they desire to be furnished with a band of soldiers, to prevent all such attempts; lest, if such a trick should be played, the consequences of this last error, in not properly guarding the sepulchre, should be worse than the first, in suffering him to preach and live so long; for should this be once believed, the character of Jesus would then be established, and his doctrines spread with greater rapidity than ever. Pilate readily gratified them in granting their request, though no doubt he regarded their fears as absurd and ridiculous, and presumed they had little now to apprehend from a dead man. They had a body of soldiers in the tower of Antonis, for the service of the temple, and he permits them to detach what number they pleased to guard the sepulchre, and to use every other method to make

5 U

the place as sure as they could. Nor did they fail to take every step to prevent the possibility of an imposture; setting a guard of soldiers, in whom they could confide, to watch the body that night, and feeling the flame with the public seal, either of Pilate or the Sanhedrim, that none might presume to enter, till the next day they should return themselves, and producing the dead couple undeceive the people, and detest the impostor. Thus by the gracious providence of God was every circumstance so ordered, respecting the resurrection of Jesus, that our faith in that grand event might have the most unshaken grounds of evidence indisputable, and be more strongly confirmed by all the methods his enemies took to guard the body from the possibility of being clandestinely removed. Indeed it can scarce be supposed, that his disciples, who all so hastily forsook him and find when he was alive, would ever return to steal him away when he was dead: and they could have no end to answer by it; for to endeavour, by saying he was risen, to impose on the people, would be inconceivable madness and folly in them, since they must thereby expose themselves to every suffering for their testimony, and be of all men the most miserable in this world; conscious of dying with a lye in their right hand, and having no hope in the next. But had they desired or designed to execute such a scheme, they must have been now effectually prevented. In the face of a body of armed soldiers, placed as centinels on the sepulchre, and whose lives depended upon their watchfulness, to suppose they would ever have attempted to break the public seal, roll back a ponderous stone, descend into the tomb, and carry off the body by stealth, is an absurdity too glaring to be conceived. So far as human, as diabolical power could go, Christ’s enemies went; but counsel and might are alike can against the Lord. They who oppose his kingdom, will find their attempts not only basified, but turned to their own confusion; their guilt but the more aggravated, and their eternal ruin more dreadful.

Matthew 27:69-75

confunds: Firstly if you were due. He knew Peter better than Peter knew himself. Now, The forwarders to hoeft are usually the first and, finally, to their first.

4. Peter will perish in his vain confidence, though warned by him who could not cry, and with increasing vehemence, unable to hear the suspicion of denying his Master, solemnly affirms that he will sooner die than be guilty of such baseness. And all the disciples joined his assertion, unwilling to be outdone by Peter, and equally confident of their own and for their Lord. Note, (1.) When death and danger are at a distance it is only to hold great things; but, when they come, how many bigger! (2.) It is among the follies bound up in the human heart, this we are all apt to think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think; and for experience is in general needful to bring us to a more humbling view of our weakness and wickedness.

5. 8. Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples, for ye here, while I go and pray ponder. 37. And he took with him Peter, and the two sons of Zebedee, and begged to be sorrowful, and I may heavy. 38. Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: may ye here, and watch with me. 39. And he went a little farther, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou said. 40. And he cometh unto the disciples and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, What, could ye not watch with me one hour? 41. Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. 42. He went away again the second time, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done. 43. And he came and found them asleep again: for their eyes were heavy. 44. And he left them, and went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words. 45. Then cometh he to his disciples, and saith unto them, Sleep on now, and take your rest; behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. 46. Still, let us be going: behold, he is at hand that doth betray me.

6. 36—40. With sacred reverence we are here called to approach the scene of the Redeemer’s agony. The storm of divine vengeance now arose, so discharged all its fury on him who bore our Son and carried our foreword.

7. The place whither he retired was called Gethsemane, an old-n-pity; for there it pleased the Lord to beride him and put him to grief. The companions he took with him were his disciples, all but Judas; and, leaving the others at a distance, with an injunction to fit them, He, with Peter, James, and John, retired into some more secluded part of the garden to pray. They who had seen his transfiguration are chosen to be witnesses of his deepest humiliation.

8. There his agony began: the forrows of death compelled him about, and distressed and condemnation unutterable feated upon his soul. The words in the original are most emphatic, expeftive of the heaviest load of grief, perplexity, dejection, and anguish. No outward cause appeared; the conflict was internal: the powers of darkness now rallied their once-defeated forces, and summoned up all their fury for this derelict blow. The wrath of an offended God, due to the sins of millions of mankind, all centred now on their Redeemer, and weighed him down under the intolerable burden. Death, with all its horrors of ignominy, shame, and torture, stood before him; and, worse than ten thousand deaths of the body, the pains of hell got hold upon his soul, the wages of our iniquities.

9. In this distress he acquaints his disciples with the forrows of his soul, that even now preyed him down to the gates of death, and only would end entirely with his expiring breach: forrows such as mortal never knew before, and perhaps beyond what even the damned ever felt. He rejoins them to tarry there and burial with him, observe his agony, and be on their guard against their own approaching temptations.

10. He humbly applies to him, whose terrors he suffered with a troubled mind. Being truly man, as well as God, he could not but with for relief from pain, from pain to agonising, and therefore poured out strong crying and tears, Heb. v. 7. He went a little farther, that alone he might tread the wiseress of the wrath of God, and there falling on his face, under a load of guilt and misery to the humanity indispensable, he poured out his complaints before his Father, O my Father, for with unshaken faith he still looked through the dark blood; if it be possible, he also rep pity from me; if, confident with the glory of the divine perfection and the redemption of his people, these tobaccos may be alleviated or removed, his nature craves relief:

nevertheless, if all I suffer is mindful to gladly close and to favor; their salvation, I am all resignation, I bow my neck, and fly; Not as I will, but as thou said; his human will, with perfect acquaintance, submits to the divine. Now, (1.) In all our forrows it is good to make God our refuge, and in prayer to pour out our griefs into his compassionate bosom. (2.) Humble desire to be delivered from our sufferings is perfectly confident with the most unfeigned resignation under them. (3.) Whether our troubles are removed or not, it is a sure taken for good when we can key. Not my will but thine be done.

5. Arising from the earth, he returned to his three disciples, and to! astonishing to tell, whilst their master was agonizing they were asleep. Oppressed with grief, their senses were flue-cured and their eyes closed: so weak and wretched in man, left for a moment to himself. But Christ rouses them from their slumbers, and gently chides their disobedience to his command, and inattention to his sufferings; and, directing his discourse to Peter, who lately appeared so forward in his projections of fidelity and zeal, he laid, What is it possible! asleep! and I overwhelmed with anguish. Could not ye, from whom I had such expectations, and whose plighted vows of confiency till death promised other conduct, could ye not watch with me one hour? So short the space, to little difficult the command. Watch and pray, you have need to be awake, if not to sympathize and join with me, at least to guard yourselves, that ye enter not into temptation, and by this flesh and drowsiness be exposed to fall more easily, when the approaching hour of your temptation comes. Yet, whilst he thus gently rebukes and admonishes, he also pits and kindly stewles them, the Spirit truly is willing; he knew their hearts were really attached to him, their love without disillusion, and that their desire was to serve him; but the flesh is usual; the corruptible body weighed down the soul, and the remaining corruption and indwelling evil hindered them from doing the things which they would; and he knew whereof they were made, forgave, and cast the mantle of love over the failings he could not but condemn. Note, (1.) Sloth-shinels, and neglect of prayer, in time of temptation, are the fore forerunners of a fall. We need always watch; but, when we are forewarned of danger near, we should double our guard, and be more importunate at a throne of grace. (2.) Whilst we dwell in these bodies of flesh and corruption we shall find led warnings within, and they whale souls are most sincere and sensible will groan most, being burdened with this body of sin and death, and but to get rid of it. (3.) We have a compassionate High-prief, who can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, and will not withdraw his love from us when we fall under temptation, but in mercy will restore our souls to paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

6. Our Lord again retires, repeats his fervent supplications, and submits to all his Father’s will. Again he returns, and finds his disciples sleeping; their heavy eyelids were involuntarily closed, and all his remonstrances were ineffectual to keep them awake and watchful. The third time he withdraws, redoubles his prayers, renews his self-resignation, and is heard: though the cup may not pass from him, he is strengthened to bear the load, and patiently to yield up his soul to God. Coming to his disciples, still they sleep, and now he consigns them to their repose, if they can or dare any longer indulge themselves when his foes and theirs are now at hand. It is high time to awake when the traitor is so near. And, let us be going, not to flee from the sufferings before him, but to meet them: since the hour, fixed in the divine decree, is come, Jesus is prepared, and resigns himself into the hands of his enemies. Note, (1.) Though we have not an immediate answer, we must pray and not faint. (2.) Repetition of the same requests in prayer is often far removed from the vain repetition which our Lord condemns. Re-iterated cries in the same words bequest the warmest opportunity of desire. (3.) When calls and warnings raise us not from spiritual slumbers, it is a mercy if Jesus finds heavier judgments or corrections, to route our flagish souls.

7. ¶ And while he yet spake, lo, ‘Judas, one of the twelve, came, and with him’ a great multitude, with words and slaves, from the chief priests and elders of the people. 48. Now he that betrayed him gave them a sign, saying, Whomlover I shall kiss, that same is he, hold him fast. 49. And forthwith he came to Jesus, and said, ‘Hail, master,’ and kissed him. 50. And Jesus said unto him, Friend, wherefore art thou come! Then came they and laid hands on Jesus, and took him. 51. And behold, ‘one of them which were with Jesus stretched out his hand, and drew his sword, and struck a servant of the high-priests, and smote off his ear. 52. Then said Jesus unto him, ‘Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword. 53. Thinketh thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels! 54. But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thou is must be? 55. In

that same poor said Jesus to the multitudes. Are ye come out as against a thief, with swords and slaves for to take me? 5 set daily with you teaching in the temple, and ye laid no hold on me. 56. But all this was none, 1 that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled. 2 Then all the disciples forsook him and fled.

7. 47—50. As the words dropped from his lips, his enemies appear to seize him.

8. Judas, who knew the place of his Master’s retirement, led the way; one of the twelve, and lamly dipping his land with him in the same dish, now the guide to this forage hand, composed of Roman soldiers, and the servants and officers of the chief priest, armed with swords and flaves, and under their authority pretending to seize Jesus as a criminal. Thus, whilst good men often sleep, unappelled of danger, the wicked are awoke, and plotting their destruction. It is well for us that one is our Guardian who neither numbers nor sleeps.

9. He had given them a signal before they sat out, left in the night they should mistake, by the glimmering of torches, the parion of Jesus; and this was, that whomsoever he should take, that was he, whom they should seize and bind. Accordingly, with the most hardened impudence, he no sooner dejected his well-known Master’s face, than he approached with the deepest protections of respect and warmest good wishes, and with a safe executed his traitorous design. Well knowing his villainy, Jesus rebukes his baseness, and with the piercing title of Friends, that should have spoke ten thousand daggers to his heart, restless, Wherefore art thou come? how doth thou be present? What I lost to all shame? adding such impudence to foul ingratitude? Now, The bitterest enmity lurks often under the most plausible protections and apparent civilities.

10. Christ is immediately arrested and bound as a malpractice. He quietly yielded up himself now his hour was come, and as a criminal submitted to the arrests of divine judgment for our transcriptions. Though wicked men indeed meant only to gratify their malice, they fulfilled the determinants counsel of God, Acts ii. 33.

11. Peter, fired with zeal at what he saw, instantly drew his sword, and, attempting a rescue, struck at one of the high-priest’s servants, who probably appeared very active on that occasion, and cut off his ear. His zeal in itself was commendable; but this exertion of it was neither eruptioned, nor discreet; and therefore.

12. Christ rebuked him for his rashness, and bid him thresh his sword; for they that take the sword shall perish with the sword. Resistance at present only exposed them to useless danger; but, ere long, they would see those who arrested their Master fall by the sword of the Romans, or in some civil tumult as their own executioners. As for them, the weapons of their warfare were not cured, but spiritual; patience and prayer were their best defence. Besides, Christ neither needed their help nor chose to be rescued; if he had, effectual forceness were even now at hand, more than twelve legions of angels, upwards of seventy thousand, were ready to appear, one of the least of whom could destroy a world. He had only to ask his Father, and these ministers of flame would attend his orders; but how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it may be? and their accomplishment, wherein also was involved the salvation of his people, was far dearer to him than his own safety. It must be that he should suffer, that he might redeem; and therefore he willingly resigned himself as a lamb to the Daughters, Ife. liii. 7. Note, (1.) God wants not our services: we mistake, when we think our feeble arm of importance to his cause. (2.) Christ’s sufferings were voluntary: he might, whenever he pleased, have been retarded; but his love to find so fouls bound him stronger than the cords of his persecutors. (3.) Surrounded as the people of God are with enemies, still more and mightier are those which are, for them than all who can be against them; the innumerable company of angels is their guard, and minister to the heirs of salvation.

13. Christ turns from his disciples to the multitude, and mildly expounders with them on their present conduct. What use was there in all this armed host? had he behaved as a desperate villain, who needed such force to overcome him? or had he fled from public justice, that at midnight, in this clandestine manner, they sought to arrest him? The gentlemen and innocence of all his conduct confided the one, and his public daily appearance in the temple the other; but the Scripture must be fulfilled, and God’s eternal counsels thus receive their accomplishment. Note, They who are the most inveterate enemies of Christ and his church, are only instrumental in God’s hand, which very wickedness he over-rules to bring about the counsels of his own will.

14. His disciples hereupon shamefully deserted him, and fled, Seeing him passively submits, fearing left Peter’s rafts, action should exasperate the guard, and that they should be murdered, or found with their Master, each endeavoured to shift for himself, and left him alone to bear his burdens. Their baseness and ingratitude herein were highly criminal: but thus it became him to tread the wingered sinner.

15. 4 And they that had laid hold on Jesus led him away to Caiaphas the high-priest, 1 where the scribes and the elders were assembled. 58. But Peter fathened him after off unto the high-priest’s palace, and went in, and sat with the servants to see the end. 59. Now the chief priests and elders, and all the council, 2 sought false witness against Jesus to put him to death, 60. But found none: yea, though many false witnesses came, yet found they none. At the last came two false witnesses, 61. And said, Thus follow said, “I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to build it in three days, 62. And the high-priest arose, and said unto him, Answered thou nothing? what is it which these witness against thee? 63. But Jesus held his peace. And the high-priest answered and said unto him, I adjure thee by the living God, that thou sell us whether thou be the Christ the Son of God. 64. Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said, nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the night hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven. 65. Then the high-priest sent his clothes, saying, He hath spoken blasphemy, what further need have we of witnesses? behold, now ye have heard his blasphemy. 66. What think ye? They answered and said, He is guilty of death. 67. Then did they put in his face, and buffeted him, and others swore him with ye the pains of their hands. 68. Saying, Prophets unto us, thou Christ, who is he that swore thee?

16. 57—60. One Lord, being found as a malfeaster, is dragged before the rulers, and his process begun.

17. His judges were his inveterate persecutors, the chief priests, scribes, and elders, who, though in the dead of night, waked to do him mischief, and were now assembled at the palace of Caiaphas the high-priest. Before this confederacy of treacherous men was he presented as a criminal, whilst they sat in judgment upon him. The lamb of God, now about to be offered for the sins of the world, was thus presented to the priest, Jo Leo. xvii. 5. before he bled up the altar.

18. Peter, whose fright began a little to share, solicitous about his master’s fate, followed at a distance the crowd, and, mingling with the servants in the hall, thought he might, unnoticed there, bear the offer of the trial, and see whether Christ would deliver himself by some miraculous act of power, or what punishment they would indict upon him. Thus, without a call, having thrust himself into temptation, he could not expect divine support; and his cowardly hypocrisy, of appearing among the crowd at one of those who had been employed to lease the prisoner, forebodied no good. For they who are ashamed to be known as Christ’s disciples, if brought to the trial, will, like Peter, solemnly disown him.

19. Having brought Christ to their bar, and previously determined his condemnation, the question was, where to procure evidence to furnish them with a pretext for putting him to death; nothing less than his blood being able to satisfy his meredicts and unjust judges: but though they endeavoured to procure accusations, and suborn witnesses against him, yet the falsehoods they advanced were to palpable and unconfident, that they carried their own confutation, and even before such partial judges could not furnish the shadow of a crime. At last two false witnesses appeared, and with virulence and insolence allotted they had heard him say, I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to build it in three days. He had laid no such things. His words were, Desirey ye this temple, not that made with hands, as they added, Mark xix. 58. but the temple of his body, John ii. 21. and his raising it up referred to his own resurrection, not the rebuilding of the material house of God. But by such a false quotation they meant to accuse him as an enemy to the holy place, and a blasphemer against God, as well as one that dealt in magic, from his presuming to say he could raise such a building in three days. A far-fetched accusation indeed! and too weak to support the bloody sentence they desired to ground thereon. Note, If false witnesses rose up against the innocent Jesus, laying to his charge things he knew not of, let it not appear strange if we meet with the like injurious treatment. The disciple is not above his Master.

20. Unable longer to retain his rage, the high-priest in a fury arose, vested to be able to produce no more plausible an accusation; and out of all patience to behold the mechanics and silence of Jesus, dumb as the deep before her shavers, Ife. liii. 7. he bids him make his defence instantly, if he had ought to say why sentence should not pass upon him. But Jesus held his peace. He knew their designs, and that the clearest evidence of innocence would weigh nothing before such judges. The high-priest hereupon adjures and commands him upon oath to answer whether he were indeed the Messiah, God’s eternal Son, or not, that from his own mouth they might obtain a charge against him which they sought for from other witnesses in vain. Neth.

The silence of Jesus should teach us oneethness before our bitter-ish preferences.

5. To this solemn interrogatory Jesus makes a direct reply. He was apprised of their captious design; but his hour was come; therefore he professes himself to be that very Messiah concerning whom the high-priest Squire, though he knew the division with which they would treat his claim: nevertheless he made it before them all. And since they would admit no present proof of it, he would give them one hereafter, which should although them, Ye shall see the Sun of man sitting at the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven. Which would be fulfilled in the effusion of his Spirit after his ascension, in the ruin of their state and nation, and most eminently in the great day of his appearing and glory, when they, who now far as his judges, must stand as criminals at his bar, and perish under his nightmare vengeance. Note, Impairment fosters will one day be convinced, when it is too late, of the eternal ruin they have brought upon their heads by rejecting the Lord’s Christ.

6. Proceeding to be shocked at such blasphemy, in token of his abhorrence, the high-priest rent his clothes; and, appealing to the council for the evidence of the crime, now clear from the confession of Jesus, presumes further witnesses to be needless: and all concurred in the opinion that he deferred to die as a blasphemy, for arrogating to himself divine power and honours. Thus was he condemned, though innocent, that we might be acquired, though guilty.

7. No sooner was he thus unjustly condemned, than they began to treat him with all manner of instigation: none of the company, or the officers and servants, that on his face, in token of desertion and contempt; best and buffeted him with the palms of their hands, or with rods; and in ridicule of his prophetic character, having blindfolded his eyes, bid him tell who more him. To such insult and suffering did the holy Jesus fathom for our fakes: he hid not his face from shame and spitting, that our faces might not be covered with everlasting shame and contempt; he was bruised for our iniquities, that we might not be crushed for ever under the wrath of God. If we then, for his sake, are rendered contemptible, ridiculed and mocked by wicked men, let it be remembered how much more he bore for us; and let us never be ashamed of his reproach.

8. ¶ Now Peter “sat without in the palace: and a damlet came unto him, saying, Thou also waft with Jesus of Galilee. 70. But he denied before them all, saying, I know not what thou sayest. 71. And when he was gone out into the porch, another maid saw him, and said unto them that were there, This fellow was also with Jesus of Nazareth. 72. And again he denied with an oath, I do not know the man. 73. And after a while came unto him them that stood by, and said to Peter, Surely thou also art one of them, for thy speech bewareath thee. 74. Then began he to curse and to swear, saying, I know not the man. And immediately the cock crew. 75. And Peter remembered the words of Jesus, which said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. And he went out, and wept bitterly.

We have here the memorable event of Peter’s fall and recovery. A warning to us never to be self-confident, lest we should fall like him; nor, when fallen, however finally, to despair, since the same door of hope is open for us.

1. His sin, with all the aggravations of it, is faithfully recorded; and blessed be God for the simplicity of the sacred historians. Had they, in their account of God’s saints, like the histories of human biographers, blazoned the excellence and concealed the fruits and infirmities of their worthies, how many a dear child of God would have wrote bitter things against his soul? Whilst his Master was suffering within, Peter sat with the servants without. In bad company no good can ever be expected; in the devil’s palace we must not hope for protection; and, if we will associate with the crowd of his servants, the consequence naturally follows, we must be like them, or be laughed at. (1.) The temptation came first from one of the servant-mards; for the weakest instrument in the devil’s hands can do much mischief. She shrewdly suspected, perhaps by Peter’s melancholy looks, that he was a disciple of Jesus; or she had been him formerly among Christ’s attendance; and therefore charged him with her suspicions. Peter, quite disconcerted, shuffled out an answer, false, as he knew, and faithless, pretending not to understand her, and before them all denying the charge. Note, Many, who would hesitate at a direct for, stick not at an evasion; and will pretend not to understand what is said, when, in truth, it is because they are ashamed of their profession, and dare not know their knowledge of Christ: which is most false, cowardly, and criminal. (2.) The second temptation quickly followed, and from a similar quarter. With infinite contempt of Peter’s appearance, another maid servant came up to him as he stood in the porch, perhaps meaning to steal off for fear of further discovery, and, looking in his face, perfectly recollected

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his person among the followers of Jesus, and confidently asserted before those who stood by, that this fellow was certainly a disciple of Jesus the Nazarene: as if it was a reproach to admit such a fellow into their company. With such contempt and insolence are the disciples of Jesus often treated by those who know them not, beneath they know him not. To silence such a suspicion, he solemnly denies even his knowledge of the person of Jesus, as if he had never seen him; and, to gain credit, backs his assertion with an oath; a shrewd proof of the falsehood he urged: for they justly are to be suspected of making no conscience of a lie, who make none of such oaths. (3.) A little while after, one who, perhaps excited by what had been suggested, marked Peter more narrowly, and was convinced by his provincial dialects and accord that he must be a Galilese, concluded certainly he was a follower of Jesus, and asserted it to his face before the company, with this evident proof, the good knoweth thee. Quite in a consternation, and not knowing what to say or do, he thought with a resolute air to carry it off; and, as in a passion at being suspected of such a thing, he began to curse and to swear, affirming with most horrid imprecations, that he never had the least knowledge or acquaintance with the man they mentioned, nor had ever before in his life seen him. He could not indeed have taken a more effectual way to prove he did not belong to Jesus; his disciples never sited such language. Note, (1.) One lie generally paves the way for another, and then perjury becomes needful to support the falsehood. So dreadfully connected are the links of sin. (2.) A real disciple of Jesus may ever be known by his discourse; his speech will indeed be seen as a sign of the law. (3.) Whilst we look at such a fearful fall, we should tremble for ourselves, and dread the first step of deviation from the path of truth, lest with Peter we should be hurried down the precipice.

2. His recovery affords us as amazing an influence of divine grace as his fall hath done of human weakness and corruption. Immediately, as he spoke, the cast crown, a found in Peter’s ears more terrible than the hurts of loudest thunders: it is infirmly recalled to his memory what Jesus had foretold, and he had most guilty accomplished; his helmets, ingratitude, profaneness, perjury, all flared him in the face, and overwhelmed him with confusion. Unable to say there a moment longer, he went out to give vent, in some retired corner, to the burthing anguish of his soul, and with tears of bitterest sorrow and unfringed repentance bewailed his sin, and found mercy with a pardoning God. Note, (1.) Nothing so deeply affects the truly gracious heart as the sense of his ingratitude, and has its return for all the love of Jesus to his sinful soul. (2.) They who have never wept with Peter over their sins, it is to be feared have never felt their bitterness. (3.) It is never too late to return to God. None perish merely because of the greatness of their sins, but through their impenitence and unbelief.