said, I have told you that I am He: If, therefore, ye seek me, let these, meaning his disciples, go away.

Then JESUS delivered himself into their hands; and they bound him, and led him away to Caiaphas the High Priest. And the Chief Priests hired false witnesses against JESUS; but they could prove no crime against him. Then the Scribes and Rulers asked him, Art thou the CHRIST? Art thou the SON OF GOD? And he said unto them, Ye say that I am. Then the High Priest said, He hath spoken blasphemy; and they cried out, He is deserving of death. And the men who held JESUS mocked him, and spat in his face, and buffeted him;

and others smote him with the palms

of their hands.

While JESUS suffered these things, Simon Peter followed him; but when he was questioned, whether he was one of the disciples of JESUS, he denied him; and when Peter had denied his LORD the third time, the cock crowed: and JESUS looked on him, and Peter remembered the words that JESUS had said unto him; Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice and he went out and wept bitterly; for he loved his LORD, though he had in his fear denied him.

Our SAVIOUR crowned with Thorns.

As the Jewish Rulers could not put any one to death, unless he was condemned by the Romans, they sent JESUS to Pontius Pilate, the Roman Governor, under pretence that he had

I

set himself up as King of the Jews, against the authority of the Emperor. Then Pilate examined CHRIST, saying, Art thou a King? CHRIST replied, Thou sayest that I am;- my kingdom is not of this world: and to all Pilate's questions which he chose to answer, our LORD made such answers, that Pilate told the Jews he could find no fault in him; yet this wicked judge, to please the Jews, sent JESUS to King Herod; and on the Chief Priests accusing him violently, as wanting to be King of the Jews in his stead, Herod dressed him, by way of derision, in a scarlet robe, and sent him back to Pilate, who once more told the Jews he could find no cause

for condemning CHRIST; but they all cried out, Crucify him! Crucify him! At length Pilate, to please the Jews, though he knew that CHRIST was innocent, commanded him to be scourged; and the soldiers who scourged him platted a crown of thorns, and put it on his head, and they put a reed in his right hand; and they put on him a purple robe, and bowed the knee before him, mocking him, and saying, Hail, King of the Jews! Then Pilate brought JESUS forth, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, and said to the Jews, I am innocent of the

man; see ye to it.

blood of this just

And they said, His

blood be upon us and on our chil