what was ministered unto him, so, when in his private life, he lived by his labour. Those who knew his education, and for whom haply he might have wrought, those of his own country, who, ver. 3, are said to have known his brethren and sisters, and himself particularly-those did not only call him the carpenter's son, but more expressly, the carpenter; so Mark vi. 1-3. And it is noted that, at twelve years old, he disputed with the doctors, which was God his Father's business;' so that afterwards he was obedient to his parents,' Luke ii. 51, that is, doing their business, and helping them in their trade of carpentering; this 51st verse, relating to what the evangelist before had said, ver. 49, thereby intimating, that as in that other work of disputing he had been about his heavenly Father's business (which ver. 49 shews), so that now he was answerably employed in his earthly father's work (which the 51st verse declares, saying, he was obedient to his parents').

2. For sad occurrences and events befalling him from the dispensation of providence, and the enmity of the creatures, there were more befell him than ever befell any man. He was vir dolorum, a man of sorrows,' which did all wear and waste him, as griefs use to do us, so that in the judgment of those that saw him, he looked nearer fifty years old than thirty, as that known speech may seem to import. Furthermore, we never read that he once laughed in his lifetime. And,

(1.) For the enmity of the creatures,-besides that in a literal sense the earth might be said to bring forth thorns and briars to him, to such a purpose as scarce ever befell any man, namely, to crown his temples with them; —at his birth, he is denied a lodging in a common inn; then, the wilderness denies him bread for forty days, the fig-tree affords him no fruit, and the sun withdraws its light from him. The fathers have many pretty interpretations of that great eclipse, but more witty than solid. The truth is, it was an evidence of God's anger, and of the enmity of all the creatures. Is it in the sunbeams to afford some glimmering comfort to a man in misery? They are denied him. Can darkness add to one's distress, and render it more horrid? Why, he is enveloped with a Cimmerian darkness, and that in the very meridian and mid-day. Yea (the which was never denied to any but to a man in hell), a drop of water to quench his thirst may by no means be granted him, but instead thereof, sharp vinegar, which their cruelty and scorn do hand unto him.

The sea and winds were once arising up in arms against him, but that he made use of his prerogative and extraordinary power to quell their fierceness. And then at the last he was by all left, and by one of his disciples betrayed, which how it grieved him the psalmist foretold. Then,

(2.) For sad and cross events from the dispensation of God's providence. He met with those which great spirits account the most sad and heavy. He was crossed ere he was crucified, even through his whole life; as,

[1.] By a mean and poor birth and breeding, which was often cast in his teeth: Is not this the carpenter's son ?'

[2.] By a poor outward condition. He was not a beggar indeed, for then he had not fulfilled the judicial law, that there should be no beggar in Israel; but poor he was for our sakes he became poor.' It appears his parents were poor; for at the purification of Mary, they offered only a pair of turtles, which (according to the law) were to be the offering of the poorer sort. Again, he wrought daily; surely, therefore, it was for his living. And further, he had nothing at his death to leave his mother, and therefore it was that he bequeathed the care of her unto John. Now, how heavy a

clog is poverty to a great spirit, and how does it keep him under; it puts a contempt upon the greatest virtue, and prejudices the most solid wisdom against esteem. No man regarded that poor wise man.'

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[3.] By a mean calling. Thirty years lived he in a mechanic trade, and that no better than of a carpenter. Now, for him to be hid under chips, who was born to sit upon the royal throne of Israel; for those hands to make doors and hew logs that were made to wield the sceptre of heaven and earth; and that he who was the mighty counsellor' should give his advice only about squaring of timber; what an indignity, what a cross is this! Do but think with yourselves what an affliction it would be to a professor of divinity in an university, to a privy councillor, or (much more) to a prince, for thirty years together to be put to cart and plough.

[4.] By company unsuitable to him, which to a great and noble spirit is as great a burden as anything else whatsoever. For him who from everlasting enjoyed the sweet society of his Father in heaven, and might there have for ever had it; for him to leave such company, and come down to earth, and here converse with sinners; how harsh and unpleasing must it needs be to him. And therefore the apostle might well say, 'Christ pleased not himself,' Rom. xv. 3, meaning it of his company. To a man wise and holy, there is nothing more burdensome than the company of men ignorant and sinful; and the best company he had were his apostles, who, how ignorant were they! Even so far, that they lay as a burden upon his spirits, insomuch that once he cries out, 'How long shall I suffer you, men of little faith,' or wisdom? Mat. xvii. 17. They being so incapable of what he said or taught, that most would have been lost, had not his Spirit afterwards brought all unto their remembrance. And, besides their ignorance, they were men clothed with infirmities and sins, and more gross corruptions of foolish ambition and contention. What a burden, therefore, must they needs have been to him who was holiness itself! Yea (to conclude), every man was a briar and a thorn unto him (as the prophet speaks), and he went through the world against the stream of a perverse and crooked generation, and was a contention to the whole land where he came, which therefore contradicted, opposed, and reviled him, &c. And therefore it is reckoned among his sufferings, that he endured the contradictions of sinners,' Heb. xii. 3, which was so heavy unto Jeremiah, that it made him weary of his life: 'Woe is me,' says he, 'my mother hath born me a man of contention to the whole earth,' Jer. xv. 10. So Elias complains that he was 'left alone,' &c., and thus was it with Christ in his times; yea, all the sins he saw or heard became crosses to him, and went to his heart; so Rom. xv. 3, where those words are applied to Christ, the reproaches of them that reproached thee' (speaking of God) ' are fallen upon me.' All the blows that blasphemers at any time gave his Father, he takes upon his spirit. And what a life then must he needs live, whose soul was so righteous? If Lot's soul were vexed, how must his needs be, whose spirit was so tender of his Father's glory?

* Nil habit infelix paupertas durius in se,

Quam quod ridiculos homines facit.'-Juvenal, Sat. 3, v. 153.

CHAPTER VI.

What were the sufferings of Christ, as bearing the curse of our sins, more immediately foregoing his crucifixion, described in an exposition of the first 21 verses of the 18th chapter of John's gospel.-A garden was the place where he had his first agonies, and was apprehended.—The reasons why such a place was appointed and chosen by him.-The first 9 verses explained, and observations raised from them.

The eighteenth chapter of John's gospel, and that which follows, do continue the story of the sufferings of our Lord and Saviour Christ, as they are recorded by that apostle, who, writing after all the other evangelists were dead, or at least the last of them all, he inserteth divers things which they had omitted, as by comparing the one with the other will easily

appear.

Christ, you know, had three offices: he is the prophet, he is the priest, he is the king of his church. His prophetical office he exercised in his doctrine while he was here below, in those sermons and prayers which John and the other evangelists record. Which, when he had finished, he goes forth to his sufferings, to exercise his priestly office also, to offer himself up a sacrifice for his people. And now being ascended into heaven, he there exerciseth his kingly office, in ruling his church, and in ruling the nations in order to his church, and so he will do to the end of the world.

John xviii. ver. 1, 'When Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth with his disciples over the brook Cedron, where was a garden, into the which he entered, and his disciples.

When Jesus had spoken these words. Which hath a more special relation to that last prayer of his, and that last sermon which he made, recorded by John. When he had fortified his own heart by prayer, and prepared himself to die; when he had instructed his disciples, and spoken all those truths that he came into the world to speak, and laid a foundation of comfort for them, and had put up prayers for them, and confirmed and strengthened their hearts; when he had fully done his duty; when he had spoken these words, he cheerfully goes forth to the place his Father had appointed him to be taken in, and giveth himself up to be sacrificed, and to lay down his life for them.

He went forth. And he went forth with his disciples. What was the reason that Christ went forth, to be taken abroad? Why would he not be taken in the city, in Jerusalem, in the chamber where he ate the passover, where he might have stayed if he would?

He went forth, first, that he might give his enemies the more free scope to take him, for they feared the people, which was always the great objection against their laying hold on him; therefore, that that impediment might be removed, he chose to go out of the city, to a place in the fields, in a garden, where they might have full opportunity to apprehend him and to carry him away in the night, without the knowledge of any. And, secondly, he did it that his disciples might the better escape; for had he been in the city, there might have been a hurly-burly, and so his disciples might have been in danger.

And he went forth also with his disciples. First, to teach them this lesson, that they are likewise to leave this world and to give themselves up as

men that are to suffer with him and for him; that as he himself suffered without the gate (for the beginning of his sufferings, those sufferings that were the sufferings of his soul, his inward sufferings, when he first encountered with his Father's wrath, they were in the garden, which was without the gate, as well as those upon mount Calvary, which were eminently the sufferings of his body), so they also were to go forth with him: Heb. xiii. 12, 13, Jesus, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate. Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach. For here have we no continuing city,' &c. And likewise he carried his disciples with him, that they might be witnesses of his passion and sufferings more or less, as well as of his resurrection. And he would have his disciples with him too, that he might shew his power the more in preserving them; for as it follows afterwards, he doth but speak the word, 'Let these go,' saith he, (which was a word of command from Christ, as he was a king), and there was none that so much as offered to lay hands on them. He carried them out with him also that they might see their own weakness and inability to suffer (for they all forsook him and fled), that so they might depend the more upon his strength; for so oftentimes God doth, he brings us into danger on purpose, as to shew his power in delivering us, so to teach us to depend upon him for ability to suffer. And lastly, he went forth with his disciples, that he might shew them an example that one day they must suffer with him and for him, as they did all afterwards more or less; only John indeed escaped martyrdom, yet he suffered much, for you know he was banished into the isle Patmos.

Over the brook Cedron. This brook divided Jerusalem and mount Olivet, as Josephus saith. It was on the east part of the city, as mount Calvary was on the west, the two places of sufferings: his taking was in the one, and his crucifying was in the other. He suffered in the east and in the west; and so indeed the gospel hath reigned, as the sun doth, from east to west. It is called the field of Cedron, 2 Kings xxiii. 4, and the valley of Cedron, because it was an obscure, darksome, shady place, and not because that cedars did grow there, as olives did upon mount Olivet (which is a mistake of some), but it had its name from the darksomeness of the place.

Why did God in his providence order it that Christ should go over this brook Cedron? It is a circumstance which only John records, for all the other evangelists omit it; and as interpreters observe, John doth seldom mention any particular circumstance, upon which any emphasis is put, but there is a mystery in it.

We read in 2 Sam. xv. 23, that David and his men went over this brook Cedron, mourning and lamenting, when Ahithophel, his familiar friend, had betrayed him, and Absalom his son sought his life.

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Now our Lord and Saviour Christ, whose type David was, this very thing is fulfilled in him; for Ahithophel typified out Judas: that you have in Ps. xli., 'The man,' saith he, that did eat with me, that was mine equal, we took sweet counsel together,' &c. David spake this of Ahithophel in this very journey of his, and it is applied unto Judas in John xiii. 18. Now as David's life was then sought after, so was Christ's now; and as David went over with his companions, so did Christ with his disciples. As Ahithophel betrayed him, so did Judas betray Christ; and as David went over with a sad heart, so Christ tells his disciples, that his soul was heavy unto the death.

And that you may see the allusion to be yet more full, in Ps. cx. 7, (which is plainly and clearly a psalm of Christ), it is said, 'He shall drink

of the brook in the way, therefore shall his head be lifted up.' He was to sit at God's right hand till his enemies were made his footstool, as you have it ver. 1; but before he cometh to be thus exalted, he must drink of the brook in the way, he must go over this Cedron with a sad soul: for the truth is, all the while he was a-going his heart was heavy, and it increased in his going much more. He shall drink of the brook in the way; not that he drank of the water of this brook Cedron, but it typified out those sufferings which lay in his way to heaven.

Where was a garden. This was the place where he had that sad encounter with his Father's wrath, which made him sweat drops of blood. The soulsufferings of Christ we eminently read of to have been in this place. Now the fields that adjoined to this Cedron, and that which did border upon this place of the garden (which Matthew calls Gethsemane), was that place which the Jews called Gehenna, or Gehinnom, or hell, because that Josiah had cursed that place, 2 Kings xxiii. 4, and because that there the great slaughter was done upon the Babylonians, and afterwards upon the Jews. And it was the place which they afterwards called Tophet, and it is the only word they had for hell after the Babylonian captivity. It was an execrable place; and into this place did Christ come; for indeed our Lord and Saviour Christ, he did, in his soul, in respect of the sufferings of it, descend into hell. Now there was a mystery also in this. Adam he was the most eminent type of Christ, so he is called, Rom. v. 13, and in 1 Cor. xv. And the type holds in this, for when we have a ground that such a thing is a type, we may apply it to such particulars as we find suitable. Adam's fall, you know, was in a garden; Satan there encountered him, and overcame him, led him and all mankind into captivity to sin and death. God now singleth out the place where the great redeemer of the world, the second Adam, should first encounter with his Father's wrath, to be in a garden, and that there he should be bound and led away captive as Adam was. He fighteth with Satan upon his own ground (it became him so to do); and here he gives the first great overthrow to his kingdom, and to the kingdom of sin and death. God did suit it so, as indeed he did suit many things in that particular of the first and second Adam. Because (says he, 1 Cor. xv. 21) by man came death, by man came also the resurrection.' Because by a temptation let in at the ear man was condemned, therefore by hearing of the word men shall be saved. 'Thou shalt eat thy bread in the sweat of thy brows,' that was part of Adam's curse; Christ he sweat drops of blood for this, it was the force of that curse that caused it. The ground shall bring forth thorns to thee;' Christ he was crucified with a crown of thorns. Adam his disobedience was acted in a garden, and Christ both his active and passive obedience also, much of it was in a garden; and at the last, as the first beginning of his humiliation was in a garden, so the last step was too; he was buried, though not in this, yet in another garden. Thus the type and the thing typified answer one another. Into the which he entered, and his disciples. Still there is an emphasis put upon this, that his disciples were with him. It is not only said, that he went forth with his disciples, but that he entered into the garden with his disciples, who were to be witnesses of what he suffered, and for the reasons mentioned afore, as also to shew that he had no other guard but them. So much for the first verse.

Verse 2. And Judas also, which betrayed him, knew the place; for Jesus ofttimes resorted thither with his disciples.'