A SERMON

.ON

GOOD FRIDAY.

ZECHARIAH, xii. 10.

They shall look upon me, whom they have pierced.

"THE testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy;" or, rather, by inverting the terms of the proposition, the spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus; and the words will admit of three interpretations, either that the prophecies of the Old and New Testament together bear the most ample testimony to Jesus, as the Messiah;* or that the predictions of Jesus himself, to whom God gave the spirit without measure, which are contained in the Revelation of St John, and relate to the state of his church from its beginning to the end of the world, are the strongest proofs of his divine mission;† or, lastly, that the several prophecies of the holy men of old, who have been since the world began, and who spake as the spirit gave them utterance concerning Christ, having had their exact completion in the person of Jesus, carries with

it an incontestible evidence that he is the Son of God.* If any, the minutest, particular, relating to this great personage, had not received. its accomplishment in the Son of Joseph, that question of the chief priests and the scribes, Art thou the Christ? could never have been answered satisfactorily. But when every circumstance, predicted by Moses and all the prophets respecting the character and office, the nature and person, the precise time of his appearance, the place of the nativity, and the death and passion, of the Messiah, attended with so many extraordinary events, was so punctually fulfilled in the Lord Jesus, none but fools, and slow of heart to believe, can doubt whether this is the very Christ. Amongst all of which, not the least remarkable, or rather perhaps the most remarkable, is that made mention of by the prophet, in the words of the text; " They shall look upon me, whom they have pierced." For, though there is no part of the whole course of our Saviour's life or death but is well worthy our looking on,. this last part of his piercing is more particularly commended to our view by the prophet, as an avowal of an act of grace, and by the apostle also, who calls upon us to "look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who, for the joy (of our salvation) set before him,† endured the cross, and despised the shame," i. e. in this spectacle, when he was pierced.

Spiritus prophetiæ, i. e. qui per prophetas locutus est, est testimonium Jesu, h. e. testatur de Jesu, Act. iii. 21, 24, et.x. 43. Ipsum unicum esse Dominum, non autem angelos, Heb. ii. 5, &c. quippe qui ipsum adorant et ministrant ipsi. Christiani ergo non debent angelis se subjicere" Cocceius. “Quand un seul homme auroit fait un livre des prophéties de Jésus Christ, pour le tems et pour la manière, et que Jésus Christ seroit venu conformement à ces prophéties, ce seroit une force infinie. Mais il y a bien plus ici. C'est une suite d'hommes durant quatre mille ans, qui constamment et sans variation viennent, l'un ensuite de l'autre, prédire ce même avènement. C'est un peuple tout entier qui l'annonce, et qui subsiste, pendant quatre mille années, pour rendre en corps témoignage des assurances qu'ils en ont, et dont ils ne peuvent être detournés par quelques menaces et quelques persécutions qu'on leur fasse. Ceci est tout autrement considé rable." Pascal, Pensées.

The words of the prophet point out two things to our consideration; the sight itself, i. e. the thing to be seen; and the sight of it, i. e. the act of seeing of looking. Whom they have pierced is the object; they shall look upon me is the act or duty enjoined.*

That by the person whom they have pierced is meant Christ, not only some of the Jews themselves acknowledge,† but St John, in his Gospel, c. xix. 37, and the Revelation, c. i. 7, has put out of all doubt; and the reason for the prophet's making use of this distinctive mode of ex-: pression, was the better to specify and particularize the person of Christ, by the most peculiar circumstance of his death. Isaiah had prophecied that he should die, and lay down his soul an offering for sin; but does not say whether it should be a natural or violent death. But Daniel expressly informs us, c. ix. 26, that he should be cut off, but not for himself. Now there are many sorts of violent deaths. The psalmist therefore describeth it more particularly thus; "They pierced my hands and my feet," Ps. xxii. 17; which is only proper to the death of the cross. He was to die then, to be slain, and to be crucified; but so had

* See Bishop Andrews.

been

"Referunt hæc vulgò Rabbini ad Davidem, (diceret forsan, Messiam,) filium Josephi, quem occubiturum aiunt in prælio contra Gog. At Hadarsan, in Gen. xxviii. de Messia filio David intelligit." Grotius.

" dicitur de fatalibus flagitiorum pœnis, sive a Deo sive a magistratu inflictis, Levit. xviii. 29. Psal. xxxvii. 34, unde vox nɔ apud R. R. capitate supplicium et latam ejus sententium sign. Significat ergo mortem Christi fuisse execrabilem, tum hominibus, sive Judæis sive Gentilibus, qui illum tanquam sceleratum et blasphemum justè interfectum putabant, tum etiam Deo, Gal. iii. 13,' cujus consilium erat ipsum atterere, idque ob peccata, non quidem sua, sed nostra." Grasérus, &c. But he likewise gives this sense, et non erit ei opem ferens, which Wintle and others follow.

# Etsi probabile est psalmum hunc a Davide fuisse compositum in gravi aliquo periculo, &c. dubium tamen non est quin omnis ejus cogitatio a Spiritu Sancto longius fuerit abducta, ut cum sua calamitate simul etiam Christi, cujus se typum gerere cognoscebat, dolores contemplaretur, sicque præsentium ærumnarum sensum leniret. Quis tam cæcus, qui non videat hîc ea dici, quæ soli Christo conveniunt, ut, foderunt manus, &c. diviserunt vestimenta, &c." Muis, Limb. &c. Graviter et præclare Lutherus, "Nos, inquit, Christiani non rem gestam e Scripturarum mysteriis, sed scripturarum mysteria e re gesta, h. e. veterem scripturam evangelio illustramus, et non, è contra, ad illius sensum hujus sensum comparamus. Cum ergo certum habeamus, tum Christi ma

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been many others at different times, and some, even, at the same time with him; to distinguish him, therefore, from all the rest with as great a particularity as possible, the prophet here adds, that he should not only be crucified, but thrust through with a spear; not only have his hands and his fret, but even his heart, pierced too: expressing unto us the piercing, not with the whips and scourges, not with the nails and thorns, but with the spear point, which went through his very heart itself.* And this piercing of his side was in consequence of his immediately gi ving up the ghost, after having cried, with a loud voice, "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit ;" which was so ordained by the divine counsel to prove what he had before asserted, "I have power to lay down my life and I have power to take it again ;" and likewise to accomplish two very singular predictions concerning his death: for, when the soldiers came to him, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs, a circumstance usually attending the crucifixion of malefactors the more speedily to put an end to their lives, whereby that eminent prophesy was verified, a bone of him shall not be broken. But,

one

nus et pedes in cruce perfossos fuisse, tum hunc psalmum in Christum quadrare, sensumque mire consentire, omnino legendum, føderunt, &c. Et cum circumstantiæ crucifixionis Christi a prophetis pleræque omnes exacte designatæ fuerint, quis credat rem præcipuam, Calovius anti Grot. Illud, foderunt manus, &e. nusquam alibi impletum quam in cruce." Bochart.

* See Bishop Andrews..

+ "Multa erant quæ Christum admodum debilitaverant, summa animæ tristitia, nox insomnis, longa et varia itinera, flagra, crucis bajulatio, sanguinis effusio, pœna crucifixionis, quibus crucia tibus jam naturaliter confectus erat, et mori coactus. Clamorem ergo hunc edidit humanis viribus majorem, divina Christi naturá ipsum roborante, ut declararet se non necessitate, aut infirmitate, mori, sed voluntate, quia mortem, quum posset, noluit tamen prohibere." Brugensis, Mackn. &c. "Ad accelerandam mortem." Vossius, &c.

#Exod. xii. 46. "Sie in Christo impletum quod de Agno Paschali lex edixerat." Vossius, &c. And the Paschal Lamb was a type of Christ." Ego vero in ea sententia sum, hanc rem (de osse Messia non confringend») non tantum hoc typo primitus fuisse adumbratam; sed et prædictam quoque de Messiâ alicubi inter oracula prophetica, idque disertis verbis: arbitror etiam fore, ut unius vocabuli in Psal. xxxiv. correctione factà, primum hoc testimonium a Johanne allatum, æque vindicari possit ac alterum. In com. 20 memoratur justus, quidem individuus, py, justus vir, vel justus ille; quo quidem nomine, ut omnibus notum est, celebratur Messias. De illo igitur hic dictum

est!

one of them, still doubting whether it was really so, pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.* What need we, therefore, any farther witness of the certainty of his death?

But we should do an injury to the sufferings of our Saviour if we should conceive that, by this piercing, no other but that of the spcar is meant; for, not only his heart was stabbed, but his very spirit wounded too, and that in two ways, by sorrow and by reproach. If it could be truly said of the blessed Virgin, by way of prophecy, that a sword should go through her soul for sorrow, at the time of her son's passion,+ what great searchings of heart must he himself have endured, when he was about to make his soul an offering for sin? Only conceive what he must have suffered, when he cried out, in the anguish of his mind, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death." See the sweat, as it were great drops of blood, issuing forth from every pore of his body, when no manner of violence had been offered to it;

com. 21.

and hear him, in

est: multæ sunt afflictiones justi, sed ex omnibus iis JEHOVA eum liberat. Sequitur immediate, in Custodit omnia ossa ejus; ne unum quidem ex iis confringetur. In commate proximo justus ille iterum introducitur; eoque modo, ut vox de alio quam Messiâ intelligi non possit. Addendum, in citatione evangelicâ reperiri currgibnottai, quod ipsissimum est vocabulum in Græcâ versione Psalmi respondens Hebraico nawa." Kennicott.

Blood and water. "Mysterium sapuit hæc effluxio potius quam naturam; et si præænaturaic quid in ea non fuisset, vix credo evangelistam triplicatam illam asseverationem de veritate rei, adhibuisse velle, et qui vidit testatur. Dicitur vulgò, quod effluxerunt duo Sacamenta novi fœderis. Aqua baptismum, sanguis Eucharistiam, representat. Significat insuper sacramenta vim efficaciamque habere, ad nostri regenerationem, expiationem, et sanctificationem, ex sanguine. Jesu, qui illis conjunctus est." Lightfoot, &c.

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↑ A sword, &c. Ingentem dolorem senties animo tuo, quòd ita illi contradicetur; præsertim cum illum in cruce pendentem videris." Brugensis, Mackn. &c. "Al. gladius hic denotat martyrium, quod Beata Virgo Christi causà subivit; ut refert Epiphanius, hæres. 3, lxxviii. 23.” Lightfoot, &c.

"Ayane maxime sudant, inquit Aristot. de sudore." Hammond. Sed illud, quasi, non significat hunc non fuisse verum sanguinem, sed non fuisse vere guttas sanguinis, sed guttas aqueas mistas sanguine, quod etiam fieri possit per naturam vim intus patientem, ac proinde per poros ejicientem unâ cum aqua sanguinem; præsertim ubi corpus rarum est ac delicatum, et sanguis subtilis, ut in Christo indubie erat." Brugensis, &c. "Et Meadus a Galeno observat contingere interdum, poros multo aut fervedo spiritu usque adeo dilatari, ut etiam exeat sanguis per eos, fiatque sudor sanguineus." Pearce.

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