Divers sermons of Master John Calvin, concerning the divinity, humanity, and nativity of our…Diuers sermons of Master Iohn Caluin, concerning the diuinitie, humanitie, and natiuitie of our…

Now, this was a death which God cursed: and he was not only disfigured with buffeting, spitting on, & crowned with thorn but also was accursed, being hanged between two thieves, as if he had been the most horrible villain that ever was known or ⟨p. 101⟩heard of. And this was a terrible kind of death, because it was accursed by the law. We see how foully he was disfigured: which was the very mean why he became a stumbling block unto the world. And therefore, the Prophet namely saith that they would not believe the Gospel: because the world could not conceive it to be a reasonable thing, neither yet •llow, that the only Son of God, the very glory of the Lord, should be put to such shame and rebuke: This eternal counsel of God, which was from the beginning, could never sink into their brain. And thus we see the meaning of the Prophet. Now it is hereupon said notwithstanding That he shall be exalted. Although at the first there is no show of it, yet God will increase him: and they shall see, saith he, even before their faces, that although he was miserable and bare, & a poor twig, yet that this was no let unto his advancement, nor to his glorious flourishing: because that God would put his hand & bring it to pass. And besides, he bringeth us back to our sins, that he might take away our conceived offence, by reason of the overthwartnes of our understanding. Wherefore, to the end we should not refuse to come unto our Lord Jesus Christ, by seeing him thus disfigured, the Prophet showeth us the cause why. For, to say truly, if we come once to the acknowledging of our sins, and forthwith conceive of the wrath of god for the same, then shall we come to our Lord Jesus Christ, & desire him to help us, & be so much the more earnest to receive his death and passion: for we must understand, that it is the most necessary remedy that may be, for the evil that is in us, Thus in sum we see here the proceeding of the Prophet. Now, when he maketh comparison between our Lord Jesus Christ, and a small twig or branch & a root in a dry and barren ground it is to show, that the beginnings should be base & of no valour, so that all the world should scoff & laugh at them. In the eleventh Chapter he compareth him unto a sorry twig or branch saying that he should come of the stock of Isai David his father.

Now, this was a death which God cursed: and hée was not only disfigured with buffetting, spitting on, & crowned with thorne but also was accursed, being hanged betwéene two théeues, as if hée had béene the most horrible villaine that euer was knowne or