The soldiers that spat upon Him, and mocked Him, met not with a reproachful expression from Him. He held His peace at their clamors, offered His back to their scourges, reviled them not when He lay under the greatest violence of their rage, was patient under His sufferings, while He was despised more than any man by the people. His calmness was more stupendous than their rage, and the angels could not but more inexpressibly wonder at the patience of the sufferer, than the unmercifulness of the executioners; He was more willing to die, than they were to put Him to death; He suffered not by force, He courted the effusion of His blood, when He knew that the hour which His Father had appointed, and man needed, was approaching. Neither the infamy of the cross, nor the sharpness of the punishment, nor the present and foreseen ingratitude of his enemies, could deter Him from desiring and effecting man's salvation. He went to it, not only as a duty, but an honor; and was content for a while to be the sport of devils, that He might be the spring of salvation to men.