BOOK 6. THE DEATH.
CHAPTER 1.
6.1.5. Of the Dolours and Agonies that Christ there suffered.
Of the Dolours and Agonies that Christ there suffered.
Christ's passion in the garden was either before, or at his apprehension; his passion before is declared. 1. By his sorrow. 2. By his sweat.
1. For his sorrow; the evangelists diversely relate it, "He began to be sorrowful, and very heavy," saith Matthew, Matt. xxvi. 37. "He began to be sore amazed, and to be very heavy," saith Mark, Mark xiv. 33. "And being in an agony, he prayed more earnestly," saith Luke, Luke xxii. 44. "Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say! Father, save me from this hour, but for this cause came I unto this hour," saith John, John xii. 27. All avow this sorrow to be great, and so it is confessed by Christ himself; "then saith he unto them. My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death," Matt. xxvi. 38. Ah Christians! who can speak out this sorrow? "The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity, but a wounded spirit who can bear?" Prov. xviii. 14. Christ's soul is sorrowful; or if that be too fiat, his soul is sorrowful, exceeding sorrowful; or if that language be too low, his soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death; not only extensively, such as must continue for the space of seventeen or eighteen hours, even until death itself should finish it; but also intensively, such and so great, as that which is used to be at the very point of death; and such as were able to bring death itself, had not Christ been reserved to a greater and an heavier punishment. Of this sorrow is that especially spoken, "Consider, and behold if ever there was sorrow, like unto my sorrow," Lam. i. 12. Many a sad and sorrowful soul hath, no question been in the world, but the like sorrow to this, was never since the creation; the very terms of the evangelists speak no less; he was sorrowful and heavy, saith one; amazed and very heavy saith another; in an agony, saith a third: in a soul trouble, saith a fourth. Surely the bodily torments of the cross were inferior to this agony of his soul; the pain of the body is the body of pain. Oh! but the very soul of sorrow and pain is the soul's sorrow, and the soul's pain. It was a sorrow unspeakable, and therefore I must leave it, as not being able to utter it.
2. For his sweat, Luke only relates it, "And his sweat was as it were, great drops of blood falling down to the ground," Luke xxii. 44. In the words I observe a climax.
(a). His sweat was as it were blood; Ethymius and Theophilact interpret those words as only a similitude, or figurative hyperbole; an usual kind of speech to call a vehement sweat a bloody sweat; as he that weeps bitterly is said to weep tears of blood; Augustine, Jerome, Epiplianius, Athanasius, Ireneus, and others, from the beginning of the church, understand it in a literal sense, and believe it was truly and properly a bloody sweat; nor is the objection considerable, that it was Sicut guttae sanguinis, "as it were drops of blood; for if the Holy Ghost had only intended that sicut for a similitude or hyperbole, hhie would rather have expressed it, as it were drops of water, than as it were drops of blood. We all know sweat is more like to water than to blood; besides, a sicut in scripture phrase doth not always denote a similitude, but sometimes the very thing itself, according to the verity of it; thus we "beheld his glory, the glory, as it were of the only begotten Son of the Father," John i. 14. "And their words seemed to them as it were idle tales, and they believed them not," Luke xxiv. 11. The words in the original (hosei leros) are the same; here is the first step of this climax , his sweat was a wonderful sweat, not a sweat of water, but of red gore blood.
(b). Great drops of blood, (thromboi aimatos.) There is, sudor diaphoriticus, a thin faint sweat; and sudor grumosus, a thick, concrete and clotted sweat; in this bloody sweat of Christ, it came not from him in small dews, but in great drops, they were drops, and great drops of blood, crassy and thick drops; and hence it is concluded as preternatural, for though much may be said for sweating blood in a course of nature; Aristotle (Arist. L. III. de Hist. Animal, c. 29.) affirms it; Augustine (August. L. XIV. de Civit. Dei. c. 24.) grants, "That he knew a man that could sweat blood, even when he pleased:" in faint bodies, a subtile thin blood like sweat, may pass through the pores of the skin; but that through the same pores, crassy, thick and great drops of blood should issue out, it was not, it could not be without a miracle; some call them grumes, others globes of blood; certainly the drops were great, so great, as if they had started through his skin, to outrun the streams and rivers of his cross.
(c). Here is yet another climax, in that these great drops of blood did not only distillare drop out: but decurrere, ran the stream down so fast as if they had issued out of the most deadly wounds; they were great drops of blood falling down to the ground: here is magnitude and multitude; great drops, and those so many, so plenteous, that they went through his apparel, and all streaming down to the ground; now was it that his garments were died with crimson-red; that of the prophet, though spoken in another sense, yet, in some respect, may be applied to this; "Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the wine fat?" Isa. lxiii. 2. Oh what a sight is here! his head and members are all on a bloody sweat; this sweat trickles down, and bedecks his garments, which stood like a new firmament studded with stars, portending an approaching storm: nor stays it there, but it "falls clown to the ground:" O happy garden, watered with such tears of blood! how much better are these rivers "than Abana, and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus," yea, than all the waters of Israel, yea, than all those rivers that waters the garden of Eden?
Use.
1. This may inform us of the weight and burden of sin, that thus presseth Christ under it till he sweat and bleed: when the first Adam had committed the first sin, this was the penalty, "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread," Gen. iii. 19. but now the second Adam takes upon him all the sins of all believers in the world; he sweats not only in his face, but in all his body; O then how was that face disfigured, when it stood all on drops, and those drops not of a watery sweat, but of a gore blood? we see in other men, that when they are disquieted with fear or grief, the blood usually runs to the heart, indeed that is the principle member, and therefore leaving the other parts, it goes thither as of choice to comfort that; but our sweet Saviour contrariwise (because he would suffer without any manner of comfort) he denies to himself this common relief of nature; all the powers of our souls and parts of our bodies were stained with sin, and therefore he sweat blood from every part; we sin, and our eyes will scarce drop a tear for sin: but his eyes, and ears, and head, and hands, and feet, and heart, and all run rivers of tears of blood for us even for, our sins. Let Jesuits and Friars in meditating of Christ's sufferings cry out against the Jews: In this bloody sweat of Christ, I see another use; alas! here is no Jew, no Judas, no Herod, no Pilate, no Scribe, no Pharisees, here is no tormentors to whip him, no soldiers to crown his head with thorns; here is neither nails, nor spear to fetch his blood out of his body; how comes it then to pass? is there any natural cause? Ah no! the night is cold, which naturally draws blood inwards; in the open air he lies grovelling on the ground, and there "he sweats and bleeds," 2 Sam. xii. 5. "O my heart, who hath done this deed?" "As the Lord liveth, the man that hath done this thing, shall surely die," verse 7. So saith David, when Nathan replied upon him, "Thou art the man," O my heart! my sinful heart! O my sinful, deceitful, abominable heart! thou art the murderer; thy sin sat upon the heart of Christ as heavy as a mountain of lead or iron, when none was near, but a few dull, heavy, sleepy disciples; then all the sins or believers (and amongst them thy sins) fell upon the soul of Christ, as so many murderers, and squeezed blood, and made him cry out, "My soul is heavy, heavy unto death." Go thy ways now and weep with Peter, and say with David, "I have sinned against the Lord," verse 13. O how should these eyes of mine look upon Christ thus sweating, bleeding, streaming out blood, clouds of blood, great drops of blood, from all the parts and members of his body, but I must "mourn over him, as one that mourneth for his only son; but I must be in bitterness, as one that is in bitterness for his first born," Zech. xii. 10.
2. This may inform us of the extraordinary love of Christ. It is said of the Pelican, that when her young ones are struck with the tail of some poisonous serpent, she presently strikes her breast with her beak or bill, and so lets out her own blood as a medicine for them, that they may suck and live; even so Christ seeing us struck with the poison of sin, he is impatient of delay, he would not stay till the Jews let him blood with their whips, and thorns, and nails; "I have a baptism to be baptized with, (saith Christ) and how am I straitened till it be accomplished?" Luke xii. 50. He is big with love; and therefore he opens all his pores of his own accord, he lets blood gush out from every part, and thereof he makes a precious balsam to cure our wounds, O the love of Christ! as Elihu could sometimes say, "Behold, my belly is as wine which hath no vent, it is ready to burst like new botties," Job xxxii. 19. so the heart of Christ was full, even full of love, so full, that it could not hold, but it burst out through every part and member of his body, in a bloody sweat. I will not say, but that every drop of Christ's blood was very precious, and of sufficient value to save a world; but certainly that blood which was not forced by whips, or thorns, or spear, is to be had in singular honour; as the myrrh, that by incision of the tree flows out, is very precious, yet that which drops out of its own accord, is accounted as the first and choice; and as the balsam which way soever it come, is sweet, yet that which falls of its own accord is held the most pure and odoriferous; to this alludes that apocryphal saying in Ecclesiasticus, "I gave a sweet smell like cinnamon, and I yielded a pleasant odour like the best myrrh," Eccl. xxiv. 25. The vulgar translates it thus; Quasi libanus non incisus vaporavi , as the myrrh-tree that is not cut, I evaporated; as if Christ should have said, Without any lancing, cutting, pruning, out of mere love I poured out my blood upon the earth: This is certain, at this time, no manner of violence was offered him in body, no man touched him or came near him, in a cold night (for they were fain to have a fire within doors) lying abroad in the air, and upon cold earth, he casts himself into a sweat of blood; surely love is hot, he had a fire in his breast that melts him into this bloody sweat! O wonderful love!
3. This may inform us of the design of Christ in these very sufferings; "Christ (Bern. Serm. in dom. Palm.) weeps, (saith Bernard) not only in his eyes, but in all his members, that with the tears of his body he might wash and purify his body, which is the church." Or Christ weeps blood, that he might give us a sign of the enemies ruin; sweat in sickness is as a crisis, or promising sign, that nature with all her force, hath strove against the peccant humour, and hath now overcome it; so this bloody sweat is a blessed crisis, or argument of sin decaying, and that the Lamb hath overthrown the Lion. As Christ sometimes said, "Now is the judgment of this world: Now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me," John xii. 31, 32.
Thus far of Christ's passion, before his apprehension. And now we may suppose it about midnight, the very time which Christ called "the hour, and power of darkness," Luke xxii. 53. What followed from twelve till three at night, we shall discover in the next section.