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have triumphed over the impotent malice of my enemies: but now, since that eternal decree must be accomplished, my mercy must be approved, mankind must be ransomed; and this cannot be done without my suffering. Thy well-meant valour is no better, than a wrong to thyself, to the world, to me, to my Father."

O Gracious Saviour, while thou thus smitest thy disciple, thou healest him, whom thy disciple smote. Many greater miracles hadst thou done; none that bewrayed more mercy and meekness, than this last cure: of all other, this ear of Malchus hath the loudest tongue, to blazon the praise of thy clemency and goodness to thy very enemies. Wherefore came that man, but in a lrostile manner to attach thee? Besides his own, what favour was he worthy of for his master's sake? And if he had not been more forward than his fellows, why had not his skin been as whole as theirs? Yet, even amidst the throng of thine apprehenders, in the heat of their violence, in the height of their malice, and thine own instant peril of death, thou healest that unnecessary ear, which had been guilty of hearing blasphemies against thee, and receiving cruel and unjust charges concerning thee.

O Malchus, could thy car be whole, and not thy heart broken and contrite with remorse for rising up against so merciful and so powerful a hand? Could thou chuse but say, "O Blessed Jesu, I see it was thy Providence, that preserved my head, when my ear was smitten; it is thine Almighty Power, that hath miraculously restored that ear of mine, which I had justly forfeited: this head of mine shall never be guilty of plotting any further mischief against thee; this car shall never entertain any more reproaches of thy name; this heart of mine shall ever acknowledge and magnify thy tender mercies, thy Divine Omnipotence?" Could thy fellows see such a demonstration of power and goodness, with unrelenting hearts? Unthankful Malchus, and cruel soldiers! ye were worse wounded, and felt it not. God had struck your breasts with a fearful obduration, that ye still persist in your bloody enterprise. And they, that had laid hold on Jesus, led him away, &c. John xviii.

CHRIST BEFORE CAIAPHAS.

THAT traitor, whom his own cord made, soon after, too fast, gave, this charge concerning Jesus, Hold him fast. Fear makes his guard cruel they bind his hands, and think no twist can be strong enough for this Sampson. Fond Jews and soldiers! if his own will had not tied him faster than your cords, though those manacles had been the stiffest cables or the strongest iron, they had been but threads of tow.

What eyes can but run over, to see those hands, that made heaven and earth, wrung together and bruised with those merciless cords; to see Him bound, who came to restore us to the liberty of the sons of God; to see the Lord of Life contemptuously dragged through the streets, first to the house of Annas, then from thence

to the house of Caiaphas, from him to Pilate, from Pilate to Herod, from Herod back again to Pilate, from Pilate to his Calvary: while, in the mean time, the base rabble and scum of the incensed multitude runs after him with shouts and scorns? The act of death hath not in it so much misery and horror, as the pomp of death.

And what needed all this pageant of cruelty? Wherefore was this state and lingering of an unjust execution? Was it, for that their malice held a quick dispatch too much mercy? Was it, for that, while they meant to be bloody, they would fain seem just? A sudden violence had been palpably murderous: now, the colour of a legal process gilds over all their deadly spite; and would seem to render them honest, and the accused guilty.

This attachment, this convention of the innocent was a true night-work; a deed of so much darkness was not for the light. Old Annas and that wicked bench of grey-headed Scribes and Elders, can be content to break their sleep to do mischief. Envy and malice can make noon of midnight.

It is resolved he shall die; and now pretences must be sought, that he may be cleanly murdered.

All evil begins at the sanctuary, The Priests and Scribes and Elders are the first in this bloody scene. They have paid for this head; and now long to see, what they shall have for their thirty silverlings.

The bench is set in the hall of Caiaphas. False witnesses are sought for, and hired : they agree not, but shame their suborners. Woe is me, what safety can there be for innocence, when the evidence is wilfully corrupted? What State was ever so pure, as not to yield some miscreants, that will either sell or lend an oath? What a brand hath the wisdom of God set upon falsehood, even dissonance and distraction! whereas truth ever holds together; and jars not, while it is itself. O Saviour, what a perfect innocence was in thy life, what an exact purity in thy doctrine, that malice itself cannot so much as devise what to slander!

It were hard, if hell should not find some factors upon earth. At last, two witnesses are brought in, that have learned to agree with themselves, while they differed from truth. They say the same, though false; This fellow said, I am able to destroy the Temple of God, and build it again in three days. Perjured wretches! Were these the terms, that you heard from that Sacred Mouth? Said he formally thus, as ye have deposed ? It is true, he spake of a teenple, of destroying, of building, of three days; but did he speak of that temple, of his own destroying, of a material building in that space ? He said, Destroy ye : ye say, I am able to destroy. He said, this Temple of his body : ye say, the Temple of God. He said, I will make up this Temple of my body in three days: ve say, I am able in three days to build this material Temple of God. The words were his, the sentence yours : the words were true, the evidence false. So, while you report the words and misreport the sense, ye swear a true falsehood, and are truly forsworn.

Where the resolutions are fixed, any colour will serve. Had those words been spoken, they contained no crime; had he been such as they supposed him, a mere man, the speech had carried a semblance of ostentation, no semblance of blasphemy: yet how vehement is Caiaphas for an answer! as if those words had already battered that sacred pile, or the protestation of his ability had been the highest treason against the God of the Temple.

That Infinite Wisdom knew well, how little satisfaction there could be in answers, where the sentence was determined; Jesus held his peace. Where the asker is unworthy, the question captious, words bootless, the best answer is silence.

Erewhile, his just and moderate speech to Annas was returned with a buffet on the cheek: now, his silence is no less displeasing. Caiaphas was not more malicious than crafty: what was in vain attempted by witnesses, shall be drawn out of Christ's own mouth; what an accusation could not effect, an adjuration shall; I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God. Yea, this was the way to screw out a killing answer. Caiaphas, thy mouth was impure, but thy charge is dreadful. Now, if Jesus holds his peace, he is cried down for a profane disregarder of that Awful Name; if he answer, he is ensnared an affirmation is death; a denial, worse than death. No, Caiaphas, thou shalt well know, it was not fear, that all this while stopped that Gracious Mouth. Thou speakest to him, that cannot fear those faces he hath made. He, that hath charged us to confess him, cannot but confess himself; Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said.

There is a time to speak, and a time to keep silence. He, that is the Wisdom of his Father, hath here given us a pattern of both.. We may not so speak, as to give advantage to cavils; we may not be so silent, as to betray the Truth.

Thou shalt have no more cause, proud and insulting Caiaphas, to complain of a speechless prisoner: now, thou shalt hear more, than thou demandedst: Hereafter shall ye see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of Heaven. There spake my Saviour; the voice of God, and not of man. Hear now, insolent high priest, and be confounded. That Son of Man, whom thou seest, is the Son of God, whom thou canst not see that Son of Man, that Son of God, that God and Man, whom thou now seest standing despicably before thy consistorial seat in a base dejectedness, Him shalt thou once with horror and trembling see majestically sitting on the Throne of Heaven, attended with thousand thousands of angels, and coming in the clouds to that dreadful Judgment, wherein thyself, amongst other damned malefactors, shalt be presented before that Glorious Tribunal of his, and adjudged to thy just torments.

Go now, wretched hypocrite, and rend thy garments; while, in the mean time, thou art worthy to have thy soul rent from thy body, for thy spiteful blasphemy against the Son of God.

Onwards, thy pretence is fair, and such as cannot but receive

applause from thy compacted crew; What need have we of witnesses? Behold, now ye have heard his blasphemy. What think ye? And they answered and said, He is guilty of death.

What heed is to be taken of men's judgment? So light are they upon the balance, that one dram of prejudice or forestalment turns the scales. Who were these, but the grave Benchers of Jerusalem, the synod of the choice Rabbies of Israel? yet these pass sentence against the Lord of Life; sentence of that death of his,. whereby, if ever, they shall be redeemed from the murder of their

sentence.

O Saviour, this is not the last time, wherein thou hast received cruel dooms from them, that profess learning and holiness. What wonder is it, if thy weak members suffer that, which was endured by so perfect a Head? What care we to be judged by man's day, when thou, who art the Righteous Judge of the World, wert thus misjudged by men?

Now is the fury of thy malignant enemies let loose upon thee: what measure can be too hard for him, that is denounced worthy of death? Now, those foul mouths defile thy Blessed Face with their impure spittle, the venomous froth of their malice: now, those cruel hands are lifted up to buffet thy Sacred Cheeks: now, scorn, and insultation, triumphs over thine humble Patience; Prophesy unto us, thou Christ, who it is that smote thee. O Dear Jesu, what a beginning is here of a Passion! There thou stand est bound, condemned, spat upon, buffetted, derided by malicious sinners. Thou art bound, who camest to loose the bands of death; thou art condemned, whose sentence must acquit the world; thou art spat upon, that art fairer than the sons of men; thou art buffetted, in whose mouth was no guile; thou art derided, who art clothed with glory and majesty.

In the mean while, how can I enough wonder at thy infinite Mercy, who, in the midst of all these woeful indignities, couldst find a time to cast thine eyes back upon thy frail and ungrateful disciple; and in whose Gracious Ear Peter's cock sounded louder, than all these reproaches? O Saviour, thou, who, in thine apprehension, couldst forget all thy danger, to correct and heal his over-lashing; now, in the heat of thy arraignment and condemnation, canst forget thy own misery, to reclaim his error; and, by that seasonable glance of thine eye, to strike his heart with a need ful remorse.

He, that was lately so valiant to fight for thee, now, the next morning, is so cowardly as to deny thee: he shrinks at the voice of a Maid, who was not daunted with the sight of a band. O Peter, had thy slip been sudden, thy fall had been more easy. Premonition aggravates thy offence; that stone was foreshewed thee, whereat thou stumbledst: neither did thy warning more add to thy guilt, than thine own fore-resolution. How didst thou vow, though thou shouldst die with thy Master, not to deny him! Hadst thou said nothing, but answered with a trembling silence, thy shame had been the less. Good purposes, when they are not held,

do so far turn enemies to the entertainer of them, as that they help to double both his sin and punishment.

Yet a single denial had been but easy: thine, I fear to speak it, was lined with swearing and execration.

Whence then, Oh whence was this so vehement and peremptory disclamation of so gracious a Master? What such danger had attended thy profession of his attendance? One of thy fellows was known to the high priest for a follower of Jesus; yet he not only came himself into that open Hall, in view of the Bench, but treated with the Maid that kept the door to let thee in also. She knew him what he was; and could therefore speak to thee, as brought in by his mediation, Art not thou also one of this man's disciples? Thou also supposes the first acknowledged such; yet what crime, what danger was urged upon that noted disciple? What could have been more to thee? Was it, that thy heart misgave thee thou mightest be called to account for Malchus? It was no thank to thee, that that ear was healed; neither did there want those, that would think how near that ear was to the head. Doubtless, that busy fellow himself was not far off; and his fellows and kinsmen would have been apt enough to follow thee, besides thy discipleship, upon a bloodshed, a riot, a rescue. Thy conscience hath made thee thus unduly timorous; and now, to be sure to avoid the imputation of that affray, thou renouncest all knowledge of him, in whose cause thou foughtest.

Howsoever, the sin was heinous. I tremble at such a fall of so great an Apostle. It was thou, O Peter, that buffetedst thy Master, more than those Jews: it was to thee, that he turned the cheek from them, as to view him by whom he most smarted: he felt thee afar off, and answered thee with a look; such a look as was able to kill and revive at once. "Thou hast wounded me," mayest thou now say, "O my Saviour, Thou hast wounded my heart with one of thine eyes: that one Eye of thy Mercy hath wounded my heart, with a deep remorse for my grievous sin, with an indignation at my unthankfulness: that one glance of thine hath resolved me into the tears of sorrow and contrition. Oh that mine eyes were fountains, and my cheeks channels that shall never be dried!" And Peter went out, and wept bitterly. Matthew xxvi.

CHRIST BEFORE PILATE.

WELL worthy were these Jews to be tributary. They had cast off the yoke of their God, and had justly earned this Roman servitude. Tiberius had befriended them too well, with so favourable a governor as Pilate. Had they had the power of life and death in their hands, they had not been beholden to a heathen for a legal murder. I know not, whether they more repine at this slavery; or please themselves to think, how cleanly they can shift off this blood into another's hand. These great masters of Israel flock from their own consistory to Pilate's judgment-hall. The sen

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