Been slowly working through Daniel Campbell's Sacramental Meditations on the Sufferings of Christ. Previously worked through Willison's Sacramental Meditations. These go out every week to our church to aid preparation for the Lord's Supper. I may combine the two for publication; not sure; this was undertaken without that primarily in view. As someone said, if you observe the sacrament weekly, prepare weekly.
Sacramental Meditations on the Sufferings of Christ, Chapter Five, Of Christ’s Sufferings After His Death
It might be expected that Christ's sufferings were now at an end; and indeed, the greatest part is so; for after death his soul went immediately to paradise, and not down to hell, as some maintain (Luke 23:43), and so his soul suffered no more. But yet there remain some few steps of Christ's sufferings after his death.
I. They pierced him with a spear. The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath day (for the Sabbath was a high day), besought Pilate their legs might be broken, that they might be taken away; but when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already they brake not his legs, but one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water (John 19:31–34). Such was their malice against Christ, though they saw him dead, yet they will not believe their own eyes, but to put the matter out of all question, they pierced his side, from whence came blood, and his pericardium, or film about the heart, whence came water. “This was the fountain of both the sacraments (Isaac Ambrose, Looking unto Jesus, p. 377; vide etiam Par. Comment. in Matth. 27. Smith on the Creed, page 268).[1] The fountain of all our happiness.” Here is blood for our justification, and water for our sanctification. Here is water, the element of baptism, and blood; one of the things represented in the Lord's supper.
It is not my intent to handle everything contained in the history of Christ's passion, and all their circumstances and consequents, as the rending of the veil of the temple, the earthquake, rending rocks, which fell out at his expiring, with several curious questions about the nature of this blood and water, and the mysteries which some suppose to be signified by the same; I only intended to speak of Christ's sufferings, and therefore I designedly omit several things contained in the history of Christ's death and passion.
Behold! How our Savior suffered in his birth, in his life, before his death, at his death, and after his death. They insult over his dead body, after his soul had taken wing to paradise. They pierced his heart, when alive, with reproaches; they pierced his heart, when dead, with the spear.
O believer, be persuaded of Christ's love to thy soul; see how he has opened a window into his heart, that by the eye of faith, thou mightest look into his heart and see his affection and thoughts of love to thy soul. Here is the fountain opened to the house of David, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin, and for uncleanness (Zech. 13:14). What more could Christ do unto his vineyard? He shed all his blood for them; some of his blood in his circumcision, some in the garden, with the bloody sweat, some with the scourging, some with the thorny crown, some with the nails that pierced his hands and feet, and the rest with the spear. Not one drop of blood was left in Christ's body; and after all the blood was spent, the water which some physicians say is about the heart to cool it, was forced out with the spear. O! what a full ransom is paid for our sins! Here is all the blood of the Son of God shed for the remission of our sins and satisfaction to offended justice. Fear not then, doubting believer, there is enough of ransom given for thee.
II. He was buried. Joseph of Arimathea begged the body of Christ from Pilate (John 19:3; Matt. 27:57).
And when he had obtained it, then he pulled the nails and spikes out of the hands and feet of Christ, takes his body down and gets it on his back; then Nicodemus brought a hundred pounds of sweet odors of myrrh and aloes to embalm his body; then Joseph gets a handkerchief and ties it on his face and wrapped up his wounds and sores with fine linen, and laid him in a fair sheet, and wrapped him in it. Next, they laid him into the earth, the one at the head the other at the feet, and then they rolled a stone upon the grave, that none might hurt the dead body of Christ (Smith on the Creed, p. 280).[2]
Here Christ's body was no doubt lacerated, and torn afresh, with the pulling out of the nails out of his hands and feet, and the pulling the crown of thorns off his head.
Behold Joseph taking the dead, naked, wounded, lacerated, torn, and broken body of Jesus on his shoulders, and in his arms, and carrying him into his own garden, and laying him in his own grave, which was hewed out of a rock where never man was laid before. Christ was so poor in his life, that he had not a house, nor an ass of his own; and in his death, so poor is he, that he has no grave of his own, but must lie in another man's grave. He was buried to assure us he was dead, and that he might conquer death in his strongest hold, and might bury our sins in everlasting forgetfulness, and to sanctify and sweeten the grave to us. He was buried in a garden, that, as the first Adam sinned in a garden, so the second Adam might bury sin and utterly destroy it in a garden.
Behold now the Lion of the tribe of Judah lying dead, without breath, or motion, in the prison of the grave, in the womb of the earth, covered with a stone! Christ is shut up in the grave for a time because we deserved to be shut up in the prison and bottomless pit of hell forevermore. The wages of sin is death, natural, spiritual, and eternal (Rom. 6:23). Christ suffered pains equivalent to hell-pains, and to eternal death on the cross, and now he suffers the natural death for our sins. And all to save us from wrath and damnation.
III. They counted him an impostor. The chief priests and Pharisees said to Pilate, “Sir, we remember, while this deceiver was alive, that he said, After three days I will rise again” (Matt. 27: 63). And to prevent his disciples stealing Christ out of the grave, and causing the people to believe that he rose by his own power, they sought and obtained a guard of soldiers from Pilate, to watch the grave: which guard of soldiers became thereafter witnesses of Christ's resurrection to them that employed them. But that all men might esteem Christ as an imposter, they hired the soldiers with money to say that his disciples stole him out of the grave, albeit they had sufficient evidence of the contrary. Thus, in life and death, they murder his name. Men ordinarily speak to the commendation of the dead, even though they care not much for them while alive. Alas! but Christ's enemies will speak no good of him, either dead or alive. They will give him no better style than a deceiver. And such is their malice that they hire the soldiers to tell a lie to confirm the world that Christ was an imposter, and a deceiver in every deed.
IV. He continued in the grave till the third day. He was crucified on our Friday and buried that same day before sun set; all the Saturday, or Jewish sabbath, he continued in the grave, and from midnight till the dawning of the day, on Sunday, or the Lord's day, so called from the Lord's rising on that day, he was a part of three days, but not the whole three days in the grave.
Our Lord not only died, but continued under the power of death for a time; he continued till the third day in the grave, that all might know he was dead, but he continued no longer, lest he should see corruption.
See, how low our sins brought the Lord Jesus Christ! Not only must he be laid in the grave, but also remain prisoner there for a time; now the Son of God is at the last step of his humiliation; now was the sign of the prophet Jonas given to the Jews. O! how did angels marvel to see Christ dead and continuing so long in the prison of the grave! And how did the disciples stand amazed, how was their faith shaken at this consideration!
I will not meddle here with Christ's resurrection, ascension—I confine myself to his sufferings and humiliation, synecdochically included in these words, This my body which is broken for you; for his death, humiliation, and sufferings, are the proper object of sacramental meditations. We shall now make some practical inferences from the whole of Christ's sufferings and death.
[1] Isaac Ambrose, Looking unto Jesus, in Compleat Works (1680), p. 377. Paræus, In Matthæi Evangelium commentarius (1641), p. 1165. John Smith, An Exposition of the Creed (1632), p. 268.
[2] Smith, An Exposition of the Creed (1632), p. 280. Campbell is somewhat paraphrasing.
Sacramental Meditations on the Sufferings of Christ, Chapter Five, Of Christ’s Sufferings After His Death
It might be expected that Christ's sufferings were now at an end; and indeed, the greatest part is so; for after death his soul went immediately to paradise, and not down to hell, as some maintain (Luke 23:43), and so his soul suffered no more. But yet there remain some few steps of Christ's sufferings after his death.
I. They pierced him with a spear. The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath day (for the Sabbath was a high day), besought Pilate their legs might be broken, that they might be taken away; but when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already they brake not his legs, but one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water (John 19:31–34). Such was their malice against Christ, though they saw him dead, yet they will not believe their own eyes, but to put the matter out of all question, they pierced his side, from whence came blood, and his pericardium, or film about the heart, whence came water. “This was the fountain of both the sacraments (Isaac Ambrose, Looking unto Jesus, p. 377; vide etiam Par. Comment. in Matth. 27. Smith on the Creed, page 268).[1] The fountain of all our happiness.” Here is blood for our justification, and water for our sanctification. Here is water, the element of baptism, and blood; one of the things represented in the Lord's supper.
It is not my intent to handle everything contained in the history of Christ's passion, and all their circumstances and consequents, as the rending of the veil of the temple, the earthquake, rending rocks, which fell out at his expiring, with several curious questions about the nature of this blood and water, and the mysteries which some suppose to be signified by the same; I only intended to speak of Christ's sufferings, and therefore I designedly omit several things contained in the history of Christ's death and passion.
Behold! How our Savior suffered in his birth, in his life, before his death, at his death, and after his death. They insult over his dead body, after his soul had taken wing to paradise. They pierced his heart, when alive, with reproaches; they pierced his heart, when dead, with the spear.
O believer, be persuaded of Christ's love to thy soul; see how he has opened a window into his heart, that by the eye of faith, thou mightest look into his heart and see his affection and thoughts of love to thy soul. Here is the fountain opened to the house of David, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin, and for uncleanness (Zech. 13:14). What more could Christ do unto his vineyard? He shed all his blood for them; some of his blood in his circumcision, some in the garden, with the bloody sweat, some with the scourging, some with the thorny crown, some with the nails that pierced his hands and feet, and the rest with the spear. Not one drop of blood was left in Christ's body; and after all the blood was spent, the water which some physicians say is about the heart to cool it, was forced out with the spear. O! what a full ransom is paid for our sins! Here is all the blood of the Son of God shed for the remission of our sins and satisfaction to offended justice. Fear not then, doubting believer, there is enough of ransom given for thee.
II. He was buried. Joseph of Arimathea begged the body of Christ from Pilate (John 19:3; Matt. 27:57).
And when he had obtained it, then he pulled the nails and spikes out of the hands and feet of Christ, takes his body down and gets it on his back; then Nicodemus brought a hundred pounds of sweet odors of myrrh and aloes to embalm his body; then Joseph gets a handkerchief and ties it on his face and wrapped up his wounds and sores with fine linen, and laid him in a fair sheet, and wrapped him in it. Next, they laid him into the earth, the one at the head the other at the feet, and then they rolled a stone upon the grave, that none might hurt the dead body of Christ (Smith on the Creed, p. 280).[2]
Here Christ's body was no doubt lacerated, and torn afresh, with the pulling out of the nails out of his hands and feet, and the pulling the crown of thorns off his head.
Behold Joseph taking the dead, naked, wounded, lacerated, torn, and broken body of Jesus on his shoulders, and in his arms, and carrying him into his own garden, and laying him in his own grave, which was hewed out of a rock where never man was laid before. Christ was so poor in his life, that he had not a house, nor an ass of his own; and in his death, so poor is he, that he has no grave of his own, but must lie in another man's grave. He was buried to assure us he was dead, and that he might conquer death in his strongest hold, and might bury our sins in everlasting forgetfulness, and to sanctify and sweeten the grave to us. He was buried in a garden, that, as the first Adam sinned in a garden, so the second Adam might bury sin and utterly destroy it in a garden.
Behold now the Lion of the tribe of Judah lying dead, without breath, or motion, in the prison of the grave, in the womb of the earth, covered with a stone! Christ is shut up in the grave for a time because we deserved to be shut up in the prison and bottomless pit of hell forevermore. The wages of sin is death, natural, spiritual, and eternal (Rom. 6:23). Christ suffered pains equivalent to hell-pains, and to eternal death on the cross, and now he suffers the natural death for our sins. And all to save us from wrath and damnation.
III. They counted him an impostor. The chief priests and Pharisees said to Pilate, “Sir, we remember, while this deceiver was alive, that he said, After three days I will rise again” (Matt. 27: 63). And to prevent his disciples stealing Christ out of the grave, and causing the people to believe that he rose by his own power, they sought and obtained a guard of soldiers from Pilate, to watch the grave: which guard of soldiers became thereafter witnesses of Christ's resurrection to them that employed them. But that all men might esteem Christ as an imposter, they hired the soldiers with money to say that his disciples stole him out of the grave, albeit they had sufficient evidence of the contrary. Thus, in life and death, they murder his name. Men ordinarily speak to the commendation of the dead, even though they care not much for them while alive. Alas! but Christ's enemies will speak no good of him, either dead or alive. They will give him no better style than a deceiver. And such is their malice that they hire the soldiers to tell a lie to confirm the world that Christ was an imposter, and a deceiver in every deed.
IV. He continued in the grave till the third day. He was crucified on our Friday and buried that same day before sun set; all the Saturday, or Jewish sabbath, he continued in the grave, and from midnight till the dawning of the day, on Sunday, or the Lord's day, so called from the Lord's rising on that day, he was a part of three days, but not the whole three days in the grave.
Our Lord not only died, but continued under the power of death for a time; he continued till the third day in the grave, that all might know he was dead, but he continued no longer, lest he should see corruption.
See, how low our sins brought the Lord Jesus Christ! Not only must he be laid in the grave, but also remain prisoner there for a time; now the Son of God is at the last step of his humiliation; now was the sign of the prophet Jonas given to the Jews. O! how did angels marvel to see Christ dead and continuing so long in the prison of the grave! And how did the disciples stand amazed, how was their faith shaken at this consideration!
I will not meddle here with Christ's resurrection, ascension—I confine myself to his sufferings and humiliation, synecdochically included in these words, This my body which is broken for you; for his death, humiliation, and sufferings, are the proper object of sacramental meditations. We shall now make some practical inferences from the whole of Christ's sufferings and death.
[1] Isaac Ambrose, Looking unto Jesus, in Compleat Works (1680), p. 377. Paræus, In Matthæi Evangelium commentarius (1641), p. 1165. John Smith, An Exposition of the Creed (1632), p. 268.
[2] Smith, An Exposition of the Creed (1632), p. 280. Campbell is somewhat paraphrasing.
