2dly. He is white in the beauty of his innocency and holiness, and ruddy in the blood of his oblation. Whiteness is the badge of innocence and holiness. It is said of the Nazarites, for their typical holiness, “They were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk,” Lam. iv. 7. And the prophet shows us that scarlet, red, and crimson, are the colours of sin and guilt; whiteness of innocency, “Alii candidum exponunt esse puris et probis, rubrum et cruentum reprobis ad eos puniendos ut Isaia, cap. lxiii. dicitur, מַדּוּעַ אָדֹם לִלְבוּשֶׁךָ. Cur rubet vestimenta tua? quod nostri minus recte de Christi passione exponunt.” — Mercer. in loc. Isa. i. 18. Our Beloved was “a Lamb without blemish and without spot,” 1 Pet. i. 19. “He did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth,” 1 Pet. ii. 22. He was “holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners,” Heb. vii. 26; as afterward will appear. And yet he who was so white in his innocence, was made ruddy in his own blood; and that two ways:— Naturally, in the pouring out of his blood, his precious blood, in that agony of his soul when thick drops of blood trickled to the ground, Luke xxii. 44; as also when the whips and thorns, nails and spears, poured it out abundantly: “There came forth blood and water,” John xix. 34. He was ruddy by being drenched all over in his own blood. And morally, by the imputation of sin, whose colour is red and crimson. “God made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin,” 2 Cor. v. 21. He who was white, became ruddy for our sakes, pouring out his blood an oblation for sin. This also renders him graceful: by his whiteness he fulfilled the law; by his redness he satisfied justice. “This is our Beloved, O ye daughters of Jerusalem.”