disposed to me; that I may know no desires but his commands, and his will; and that in all afflictions I may fly thither for mercy, pardon, and support; and may wait for deliverance in such times and manners, which the Father hath reserved in his own power, and graciously dispenses, according to his infinite wisdom and compassion. Holy Jesus, give me the gift and the spirit of prayer; and do thou, by thy gracious intercession, supply my ignorances, and passionate desires, and imperfect choices; procuring and giving to me such returns of favor, which may support my needs, and serve the ends of religion and the Spirit, which thy wisdom chooses, and thy passion hath purchased, and thy grace loves to bestow upon all thy saints and servants. Amen.

II. Eternal God, sweetest Jesu, who didst receive Judas with the affection of a Savior, and sufferedst him to kiss thy cheek, with the serenity and tranquillity of God; and didst permit the soldiers to bind thee, with patience exemplary to all ages of martyrs: and didst cure the wound of thy enemy, with the charity of a parent, and the tenderness of an infinite pity; O kiss me with the kisses of thy mouth, embrace me with the entertainments of a gracious Lord, and let my soul dwell and feast in thee, who art the repository of eternal sweetness and refreshments. Bind me O Lord, with those bands which tied thee fast, the chains of love; that such holy union may dissolve the cords of vanity, and confine the bold pretensions of usurping passions, and imprison all extravagancies of an impertinent spirit, and lead sin captive to the dominion of grace and sanctified reason; that I also may imitate all the parts of thy holy passion; and mày, by thy bands, get my liberty; by thy kiss, enkindle charity; by the touch of thy hand and the breath of thy mouth, have all my wounds cured, and re

stored to the integrity of a holy penitent, and the purities of innocence; that I may love thee, and please thee, and live with thee for ever, O holy and sweetest Jesu. Amen.

SECTION XV.

Considerations upon the Scourging and other Accidents, happening from the Apprehension till the Crucifixion of Jesus.

THE house of Annas stood on the mount Sion, and in the way to the house of Caiaphas; and thither he was led, as to the first stage of their triumph for their surprise of a person so feared and desired; and there a naughty person smote the holy Jesus upon the face, for saying to Annas, that he had made his doctrine public, and that all the people were able to give account of it: to whom the Lamb of God showed as much meekness and patience in his answer, as in his answer to Annas he had showed prudence and modesty. For now that they had taken Jesus, they wanted a crime to object against him, and therefore were desirous to snatch occasion from his discourses, to which they resolved to tempt him, by questions and affronts: but his answer was general and indefinite, safe and true, enough to acquit his doctrine from suspicions of secret designs, and yet secure against their present snares: for now himself, who always had the "innocence of doves," was to join with it the prudence and wariness of serpents; not to prevent death, (for that he was resolved to suffer,) but that they might be destitute of all appearance of a just cause on his part. Here it was that Judas received his money; and here that holy face, which was designed to be that object, in the beholding of which much of the celestial glory

doth consist; that face which the angels stare upon with wonder, like infants at a bright sunbeam, was smitten extrajudicially by an incompetent person, with circumstances of despite, in the presence of a judge, in a full assembly, and none reproved the insolence and the cruelty of the affront: for they resolved to use him as they use wolves and tigers, with all things that may be destructive, violent, and impious and in this the injury was heightened, because the blow was said to be given by Malchus, an Idumæan slave, and, therefore, a contemptible person; but far more unworthy by his ingratitude, for so he repaid the holy Jesus for working a miracle and healing his ear. But so the Scripture was fulfilled; "He shall give his body to the smiters, and his cheeks to the nippers," saith the prophet Isaiah; and "They shall smite the cheek of the judge of Israel," saith Micah. And this very circumstance of the passion Lactantius affirms to have been foretold by the Erythræan sibyl. But no meekness, or indifference, could engage our Lord not to protest his innocence and though, following his steps, we must walk in the regions of patience, and tranquillity. and admirable toleration of injuries; yet we may represent such defences of ourselves, which, by not resisting the sentence, may testify that our suffering is undeserved: and if our innocence will not preserve our lives, it will advance our title to a better; and every good cause ill judged shall be brought to another tribunal, to receive a just and unerring

sentence.

Annas, having suffered this unworthy usage towards a person so excellent, sent him away to Caiaphas, who had formerly, in a full council, resolved he should die; yet now, palliating the design with the scheme of a tribunal, they seek out for witnesses, and the witnesses are to seek for allegations: and when they find them, they are to seek for proof, R

and those proofs were to seek for unity and consent, and nothing was ready for their purposes; but they were forced to use the semblance of a judicial process, that, because they were to make use of Pilate's authority to put him to death, they might persuade Pilate to accept of their examination and conviction without farther inquiry. But such had been the excellency, and exemplar piety, and pru dence, of the life of Jesus, that, if they pretended against him questions of their law, they were not capital in a Roman court: if they affirmed, that he had moved the people to sedition and affected the kingdom, they saw that all the world would convince them of false testimony. At last, after many attempts, they accused him for a figurative speech, a trope which they could not understand; which, if it had been spoken in a literal sense, and had been acted, too, according to the letter, had been so far from a fault, that it would have been a prodigy of power; and it had been easier to raise the temple of Jerusalem, than to raise the temple of his body. In the mean time, the Lamb of God left his cause to defend itself, under the protection of his heavenly Father; not only because himself was determined to die, but because if he had not, those premises could never have inferred it. But this silence of the holy Jesus fulfilled a prophecy, it made his enemies full of murmur and amazement, it made them to see that he despised the accusations, as certain and apparent calumnies; but that himself was fearless of the issue, and, in the sense of morality and mysteries, taught us not to be too apt to excuse ourselves, when the semblance of a fault lies upon us, unless by some other duty, we are obliged to our defences; since he, who was most innocent, was most silent and it was expedient, that, as the first Adam increased his sin by a vain apology, the si

lence and sufferance of the second Adam should expiate and reconcile it.

But Caiaphas had a reserve, which he knew should do the business in that assembly; he adjured him, by God, to tell him if he " were the Christ." The holy Jesus, being adjured by so sacred a name, would not now refuse an answer, lest it might not consist with that honor which is due to it, and which he always paid, and that he might neither despise the authority of the high priest, nor, upon so solemn occasion, be wanting to that great truth, which he came down to earth to persuade to the world. And, when three such circumstances concur, it is enough to open our mouths, though we let in death. And so did our Lord, confessed himself to be "the Christ, the Son of the living God." And this the high priest was pleased, as the design was laid, to call "blasphemy;" and there they voted him to die. Then it was "the high priest rent his clothes;" the veil of the temple was rent when the passion was finished; the clothes of the priests at the beginning of it and as that signified the departing of the synagogue, and laying religion open; so did the rending the garments of Caiaphas prophetically signify, that the priesthood should be rent from him, and from the nation. And thus the personated and theatrical admiration at Jesus, became the type of his own punishment, and consigned the nation to deletion: and usually God so dispenses his judgments, that when men personate the tragedies of others, they really act their own.

While these things were acting concerning the Lord, a sad accident happened to his servant Peter: for, being engaged in strange and evil company, in the midst of danger, surprised with a question without time to deliberate an answer, to find subterfuges, or to fortify himself, he denied his Lord shamefully, with some boldness at first, and this grew to a licen