Justin Martyr'. Venerable Bede saithm, that the descending of these drops of blood upon the earth, besides the general purpose, had also a particular relation to the present infirmities of the apostles, that our blessed Lord obtained of His Father, by the merits of those holy drops, mercies and special support for them; and that effusion redeemed them from the present participation of death. And St. Austin meditates that the body of our Lord, all overspread with drops of bloody sweat, did prefigure the future state of martyrs, and that His body mystical should be clad in a red garment, variegated with the symbols of labour and passion, sweat and blood; by which Himself was pleased to purify His church, and present her to God holy and spotless. What collateral designs and tacit significations might be designed by this mysterious sweat, I know not; certainly it was a sad beginning of a most dolorous passion: and such griefs which have so violent, permanent, and sudden effects upon the body, which is not of a nature symbolical to interior and immaterial causes, are proclaimed by such marks to be high and violent. We have read of some persons, that the grief and fear of one night hath put a cover of snow upon their heads, as if the labours of thirty years had been extracted, and the quintessence drank off, in the passion of that night; but if nature had been capable of a greater or more prodigious impress of passion than a bloody sweat, it must needs have happened in this agony of the holy Jesus, in which He undertook a grief great enough to make up the imperfect contrition of all the saints, and to satisfy for the impenitencies of all the world. 7. By this time the traitor Judas was arrived at Gethsemane, and being in the vicinage of the garden, Jesus rises from His prayers, and first calls His disciples from their sleep, and by an irony, seems to give them leave to "sleep on;" but reproves their drowsiness, when danger is so near, and bids them "henceforth take their rest;" meaning, if they could for danger, which now was indeed come to the garden doors. But the holy Jesus, that it might appear He undertook the passion with choice and a free election, not only refused to fly, but called His apostles to rise that they might meet His murderers, who came to Him "with swords and staves," as if they were to surprise a prince of armed outlaws, whom without force they could not reduce. So also might butchers do well to go armed, when they are pleased to be afraid of lambs by calling them lions. Judas only discovered his Master's retirements, and betrayed Him to the opportunities of an armed band; for he could not accuse his Master of any word or private action that might render Him obnoxious to suspicion or the law. For such are the rewards of innocence and I Justin Mart. Dial. Tryph. [§ 103. p. 199.] Athanas. de Beat. Fidei, lib. vi. [tom. ii. p. 620.] Aug. de Consens. Evang. [lib. iii. cap. 4. tom. iii. par. 2. col. 106.] Hier. de Trad. Heb.-Iren. [cont. hær., lib. iii. cap. 22. p. 219.] Idem aiunt Dionys. Alex. [De martyr., cap. ix. p. 39.] Aymonius [vid. in Ps. xxi. p. 49.] Epiphan. [Ancorat. § 31. tom. ii. p. 36.] et alii. m In Luc. cap. 22. lib. vi. [tom. v. col. 429.] prudence, that the one secures against sin, the other against suspicion and appearances. 8. The holy Jesus had accustomed to receive every of His disciples after absence with entertainment of a kiss, which was the endearment of persons, and the expression of the oriental civility: and Judas was confident that his Lord would not reject him, whose feet He had washed at the time when He foretold this event, and therefore had agreed to signify Him by this sign"; and did so, beginning war with a kiss, and breaking the peace of his Lord by the symbol of kindness; which because Jesus entertained with much evenness and charitable expressions, calling him 'friend,' He gave evidence, that if He retained civilities to His greatest enemies in the very acts of hostility, He hath banquets, and crowns, and sceptres for His friends, that adore Him with the kisses of charity, and love Him with the sincerity of an affectionate spirit. But our blessed Lord, besides His essential sweetness and serenity of spirit, understood well how great benefits Himself and all the world were to receive by occasion of that act of Judas: and our greatest enemy does by accident to holy persons the offices of their dearest friends; telling us our faults, without a cloak to cover their deformities, but out of malice laying open the circumstances of aggravation; doing us affronts, from whence we have an instrument of our patience; and restraining us from scandalous crimes, lest we "become a scorn and reproof to them that hate us." And it is none of God's least mercies, that He permits enmities amongst men, that animosities and peevishness may reprove more sharply, and correct with more severity and simplicity, than the gentle hand of friends, who are apter to bind our wounds up than to discover them and make them smart; but they are to us an excellent probation, how friends may best do the offices of friends, if they would take the plainness of enemies in accusing, and still mingle it with the tenderness and good affections of friends. But our blessed Lord called Judas 'friend,' as being the instrument of bringing Him to glory, and all the world to pardon, if they would. 9. Jesus himself begins the enquiry, and leads them into their errand, and tells them He was Jesus of Nazareth whom they sought. But this also, which was an answer so gentle, had in it a strength greater than the eastern wind or the voice of thunder; for God was in that still voice,' and it struck them down to the ground. And cramentum.-Aug. [Serm. cl. § 1. tom. v. append. col. 264.] n O signum sacrilegum, o placitum fugiendum, ubi ab osculo incipitur bellum, et per pacis indicium pacis rumpitur sa Si honoras, o dulcis Domine, Houdemius de Passione [Christiad. ii. 10.] • Πάντες ἐπ' ἀλλήλοισι μαχήμονες ἀσπιδιῶται Nonn. [in Joann. xviii. 6. p. 163.] yet they, and so do we, still persist to persecute our Lord, and to provoke the eternal God, who can, with the breath of His mouth, with a word, or a sign, or a thought, reduce us into nothing, or into a worse condition, even an eternal duration of torments, and cohabitation with a never-ending misery. And if we cannot bear a soft answer of the merciful God, how shall we dare to provoke the wrath of the almighty Judge? But in this instance there was a rare mix ture of effects, as there was in Christ of natures; the voice of a man, and the power of God. For it is observed by the doctors of the primitive ages, that from the nativity of our Lord to the day of His death the divinity and humanity did so communicate in effects, that no great action passed but it was like the sun shining through a cloud, or a beauty with a thin veil drawn over it; they gave illustra tion and testimony to each other. The holy Jesus was born a tender and a crying infant; but is adored by the magi as a king, by the angels as their God. He is circumcised as a man; but a name is given Him to signify Him to be the Saviour of the world. He flies into Egypt, like a distressed child, under the conduct of His helpless parents; but as soon as He enters the country, the idols fall down', and confess His true divinity. He is presented in the temple as the son of man; but by Simeon and Anna He is celebrated with divine praises for the Messias, the Son of God. He is baptized in Jordan as a sinner; but the holy Ghost descending upon Him proclaimed Him to be the well-beloved of God. He is hungry in the desert as a man; but sustained His body without meat and drink for forty days together by the power of His divinity: there He is tempted of Satan as a weak man, and the angels of light minister unto Him as their supreme Lord. And now a little before His death, when He was to take upon Him all the affronts, miseries, and exinanitions of the most miserable, He receives testimonies from above which are most wonderful; for He was transfigured upon mount Tabor, entered triumphantly into Jerusalem, had the acclamations of the people; when He was dying, He darkened the sun; when He was dead, He opened the sepulchres; when He was fast nailed to the cross, He made the earth to tremble; now when He suffers Himself to be ap prehended by a guard of soldiers, He strikes them all to the ground only by replying to their answer: that the words of the prophet might be verified, "Therefore My people shall know My name; therefore they shall know in that day that I am He that doth speak; behold! it is I.s" 10. The soldiers and servants of the Jews having recovered from their fall, and risen by the permission of Jesus, still persisted in their 4 S. Cyril. [Hierosol. passim. e. g. fragm. quod in Act. v. Concil. Lat. extat, tom. iii. col. 883 E. Item S. Cyril. Alex. passim. ibid. col. 861.] S. Athanas. [passim, e. g. Epist. iv. ad Serap. § 14. Cont. Apoll., lib. i. § 4, 5. tom. ii. pp. 705, 924.] S. Leo, [e. g. De quadrag. Serm. viii. p. 42.] &c. r [Vid. p. 148. not. z. sup.] s Isa. lii. 6. enquiry after Him, who was present, ready, and desirous to be sacrificed. He therefore permitted Himself to be taken, but not His disciples for He it was that set them their bounds; and He secured His apostles to be witnesses of His suffering and His glories; and this work was the redemption of the world, in which no man could have an active share'; He alone was to tread the wine-press; and time enough they should be called to a fellowship of sufferings. But Jesus went to them, and they bound Him with cords; and so began our liberty and redemption from slavery, and sin, and cursings, and death. But He was bound faster by bands of His own; His Father's will, and mercy, pity of the world, prophecies, and mysteries", and love, held Him fast: and these cords were as "strong as death":" and the cords which the soldiers' malice put upon His holy hands were but symbols and figures, His own compassion and affection were the morals. But yet He undertook this short restraint and condition of a prisoner, that all sorts of persecution and exterior calamities might be hallowed by His susception; and these pungent sorrows should, like bees, sting Him, and leave their sting behind, that all the sweetness should remain for us. Some melancholic devotions have from uncertain stories added sad circumstances of the first violence done to our Lord; that they bound Him with three cords, and that with so much violence that they caused blood to start from His tender hands; that they spate then also upon Him, with a violence and incivility like that which their fathers had used towards Hur, the brother of Aaron, whom they choaked with impure spittings into his throat because he refused to consent to the making a golden calf. These particulars are not transmitted by certain records: certain it is, they wanted no malice, aud now no power; for the Lord had given Himself into their hands. 11. St. Peter, seeing his Master thus ill-used, asked, "Master, shall we strike with the sword ?" and before he had his answer, cut off the ear of Malchus. Two swords there were in Christ's family, and St. Peter bore one; either because he was to kill the paschal lamb, or, according to the custom of the country, to secure them against beasts of prey, which in that region were frequent, and dangerous in the night. But now he used it in an unlawful war; he had no competent authority; it was against the ministers of his lawful prince, and against our prince we must not draw a sword for Christ himself, Himself having forbidden us; as His "kingdom is not of this world," so neither were His defences secular: He could have called for many legions of angels for His guard, if He had so pleased; and we read that one angel slew one hundred and eighty-five thousand Semovit a periculo discipulos, non ignorans ad se solum certamen illud et opus salutis nostræ pertinere; regnantis enim, et non servientis, naturæ opus est. -S. Cyril. [in Joann., lib. xi. cap. 12. tom. iv. p. 1015.] u Dominum omnium mysteria, non arma, tenuerunt.-S. Ambros, in Luc. [lib. x. § 65. tom. i. col. 1518.] T [Cant. viii. 6.] armed men in one night; and therefore, it was a vast power which was at the command of our Lord; and He needs not such low auxiliaries as an army of rebels, or a navy of pirates, to defend His cause: He first lays the foundation of our happiness in His sufferings, and hath ever since supported religion by patience and suffering, and in poverty, and all the circumstances and conjunctures of improbable causes. Fighting for religion is certain to destroy charity, but not certain to support faith. St. Peter therefore may use his keys, but he is commanded to put up his sword; and he did so; and presently he and all his fellows fairly ran away and yet that course was much the more christian; for though it had in it much infirmity, yet it had no malice. In the mean time the Lord was pleased to touch the ear of Malchus, and He cured it; adding to the first instance of power, in throwing them to the ground, an act of miraculous mercy, curing the wounds of an enemy made by a friend. But neither did this pierce their callous and obdurate spirits; but they led Him in uncouth ways, and through the brook Cedron, in which it is said the ruder soldiers plunged Him, and passed upon Him all the affronts and rudenesses which an insolent and cruel multitude could think of, to signify their contempt and their rage. And such is the nature of evil men, who, when they are not softened by the instruments and arguments of grace, are much hardened by them; such being the purpose of God, that either grace shall cure sin, or accidentally increase it; that it shall either pardon it, or bring it to greater punshment; for so I have seen healthful medicines, abused by the incapacities of a healthless body, become fuel to a fever, and increase the distemperature from indisposition to a sharp disease, and from thence to the margent of the grave. But it was otherwise in Saul, whom Jesus threw to the ground with a more angry sound than these persecutors; but Saul rose a saint, and they persisted devils; and the grace of God distinguished the events. THE PRAYER. : O holy Jesus, make me by Thy example to conform to the will of that eternal God who is our Father, merciful and gracious; that I may choose all those accidents which His providence hath actually disposed to me; that I may know no desires but His commands, and His will; and that in all afflictions I may fly thither for mercy, pardon, and support and may wait for deliverance in such times and manners which the Father hath reserved in His own power, and graciously dispenses according to His infinite wisdom and compassion. Holy Jesus, give me the gift and spirit of prayer; and do Thou by Thy gracious intercession supply my ignorances, and passionate desires, and imperfect choices; procuring * [2 Kings xix. 35.] ult. [Vid. Adrichom. in urb. Hierosol. descript., cap. ccvii. p. 97.] y De torrente in via bibet.-Ps. cx. |