Which that we Which that we search into our

enough, one would think, to make us out of love with sin as long as we live, and to hate it with a perfect hatred, and ourselves also for the commission of it. may do, let us hearts, review our lives, and bethink ourselves what sins we have commited against the eternal God; and remember these men, they which put our Saviour to so much grief and pain. These are they for which the Son of God was betrayed, apprehended, derided, accused, arraigned, condemned, and crucified. -BEVERIDGE.

Forthwith he came to Jesus, and said, Hail master! and kissed him.And have we never thus betrayed him, even with a false and counterfeit devotion? Have we not too often pretended God's glory, when we have sought our own? And seemed to be zealous for religion, when it was only our own private interest we aimed at? Have we not professed love to the holy Jesus when at the same time we have most basely affronted him? Have we not drawn nigh unto him with our lips, when in conversation we have denied him? Have we not sometimes told him that we repented, when we have been loath to part with our darling bosom sin? Have we not sometimes kneeled under his cross, to express our veneration to him, when, in good truth, we have conspired against him with his cnemies? Have we not maintained a league with sin, while we have pretended, by bowing to the Son of God, that that league was

broken and dissolved? What perfidiousness, what treachery, what dissimulation, have we been guilty of? Can we think of it, and not be concerned?-HORneck.

And Jesus said, Friend, wherefore art thou come? Then came they, and laid hands on Jesus, and took him.— Let us ponder and weigh the cause of his death, that thereby we may be the more moved to glorify him in our whole life. Which if you will briefly comprehend in one word, it was nothing else on our part but only the transgression and sin of mankind. When the angel came to warn Joseph that he should not fear to take Mary to his wife, did he not therefore will the child's name to be called Jesus, because he should save his people from their sins? When John the Baptist preached Christ and shewed him to the people with his finger, did he not plainly say unto them, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world? When the woman of Canaan besought Christ to help her daughter which was possessed with a devil, did he not openly confess that he was sent to save the lost sheep of the house of Israel, by giving his life for their sins? It was sin, then, Oman, even thy sin, that caused Christ, the only Son of God, to be crucified in the flesh, and to suffer the most vile and slanderous death of the cross. If thou hadst kept thyself upright, if thou hadst observed the commandments, if thou hadst not presumed to transgress the will of God in thy first father Adam, then

Christ, being in form of God, needed not to have taken upon him the shape of a servant; being immortal in heaven, he needed not to have become mortal on earth; being the true bread of the soul, he needed not to hunger; being the healthful water of life, he needed not to thirst; being life itself, he needed not to have suffered death. But to these and many other such extremities was he driven by thy sin, which was so manifold and great, that God could be only pleased in him and none other.-HOMILY OF THE PAS

SION.

And behold, one of them that were with Jesus stretched out his hand, &c. What preposterous means and ways do men make use of to effect their deliverance! These poor men hope to do wonders by smiting with the sword; a way neither warranted by any command of God, nor profitable. So the Jews, in the time of Jeremiah, thought that there was no way for them to escape but by fleeing into the land of Egypt.-And have not Christians very often, out of mistrust of God's Providence, made use of wrong means to compass their safety?-But what comfort can we take in deliverance compassed by sin? Or what satisfaction in a rescue effected by the devil's means, or, at least, by doing things acceptable to him?-HORNECK.

But how then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled that thus it must be ?-Who can consider the grievous debt of sin, which could none otherwise be paid but by the death of an innocent, and will not hate sin in his heart?

If God hateth sin so much, that he would allow neither man nor angel for the redemption thereof, but only the death of his only and wellbeloved Son, who will not stand in fear thereof? If we consider this, that for our sins the most innocent lamb was driven to death, we shall have much more cause to bewail ourselves that we were the cause of his death, than to cry out against the malice and cruelty of the Jews, which pursued him to his death. We did the deeds for which he was thus stricken and wounded; they were only the ministers of our wickedness. edness. It is meet then that we should step low down into our hearts, and bewail our own wretchedness and sinful living. Let us know for a certainty, that if the most dearly beloved Son of God was thus punished and stricken for sins which he had not done himself,-how much more ought we to be stricken for our daily and manifold sins which we commit against God, if we earnestly repent us not, and be not sorry for them? No man can love sin, which God hateth so much, and be in his favour. No man can say that he loveth Christ truly, and have his great enemy (sin, I mean, the author of his death) familiar, and in friendship with him. So much do we love God and Christ as we hate sin. We ought therefore to take great heed that we be not favourers thereof, lest we be found enemies to God, and traitors to Christ. For not only they which nailed Christ upon the cross are his tormentors and crucifiers, but all

they, saith St. Paul, crucify again the Son of God, as much as in them, who commit vice and sin, which brought him to his death. If the wages of sin be death, and death everlasting, surely it is no small danger to be in service thereof. If we live after the flesh, and after the sinful lusts thereof, St. Paul threateneth, yea, Almighty God in St. Paul threateneth, that we shall surely die. We can none otherwise live unto God but by dying unto sin. If Christ be in us, then is sin dead in us: and if the Spirit of God be in us, which raised Christ from death to life, so shall the same Spirit raise us to the resurrection of everlasting life. But if sin rule and reign in us, then is God, which is the fountain of all grace and virtue, departed from us; then hath the devil and his ungracious spirit rule and dominion in us. And surely, if in such miserable state we die, we shall not rise to life, but fall down to death and condemnation, and that without end. For Christ hath not so redeemed us from sin, that we may return thereto again; but he hath redeemed us, that we should forsake the motions thereof, and live to righteousness."-HOMILY OF THE PASSION.

HYMN.

By thy birth and early years,
By thy griefs, and sighs and tears;
By thy fasting and distress
In the lonely wilderness;

By thy vict'ries in the hour

Of the subtle tempter's power;
Jesus, look with pitying eye,
Hear and spare us when we cry.

By thy woe intensely great,
Agony, and bloody sweat;
By thy robe and crown of scorn.
Rudely offer'd, meekly worn;
By the scandal and the shame
Cast upon thy honour'd name;
Jesus look with pitying eye,
Hear and spare us when we cry.

By thy passion, cross, and cries;
By thy perfect sacrifice;

By thy power from death to save;
By thy triumph o'er the grave;
Jesus, Saviour of the lost,
Giver of the Holy Ghost;
Look on us with pitying eye,
Hear and spare us when we cry.

§ LXXXVI.

GRANT.

CHAP. XXVI. 57–64.

Christ is carried to Caiphas.

laid hold on Jesus led him away 57 And they that had

to Caiaphas the high priest, where the scribes and the elders were assembled.

58 But Peter followed him afar off unto the high priest's palace, and went in, and sat with the servants, to see the

end.

59 Now the chief priests, and elders, and all the council, sought false witness against Jesus, to put him to death;

60 But found none: yea, though many false witnesses came, yet found they none. At the last came two false witnesses,

61 And said, This fellow said, "I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to build it in three days.

62 And the high priest arose, and said unto him, Answerest thou nothing? what is it which these witness against thee?

63 But Jesus held his peace. And the high priest answered and said unto him, I adjure thee by the living God, that

thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God.

64 Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, 'Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.

*

6 Mark xlv. 53. Luke xxii. 54. John xviii. 12, 13, 24.

- Ps. xxvii. 12; & xxxv. 11. Mark xiv. 55. So Acts vi.

13.- Deut. xix. 15.-e ch. xxvii. 40. John ii. 19.f Mark xiv. 60.-g Is. liii. 7. ch. xxvii. 12, 14.- Lev. v. 1. 1 Sam. xiv. 24, 26.-i Dan. vii. 13. ch. xvi. 27; & xxiv. 30. Luke xxi. 27; & xxv. 31. John i. 51. Rom. xiv. 10. I Thes. iv. 16. Kev. i. 7.—k Ps. cx. I. Acts vii. 55.

READER. And they that had laid hold on Jesus led him away, &c. When you hear how our blessed Lord was betrayed, and used, and crucified by the merciless Jews, you are naturally led to wonder, and to blame that people's malice, their wickedness, and injustice. For example; we are moved with indignation when we are informed that one of his disciples, who had been with him for so long a time, had seen his miracles and heard his blessed discourses, could be tempted to betray him for any consideration whatever;

that so great a number of men of learning and supposed piety should meet and contrive how to take away the life of an innocent person, -to encourage false witnesses, and to persuade the people to pray for the life of a murderer, instead of the life of one who had done so much good among them ;then we are led to blame his judge, who had declared over and over again, that he found no fault in him, and yet at last condemned him;

and, lastly, we are amazed that any people could be so cruelly barbarous

as to mock a man, and use him so spitefully, who had never done them harm, and at a time when his life was at stake, or when he was suffering a most painful death. These thoughts are, perhaps, much in our

minds when we read the mournful

account of our Saviour's sufferings.

After all, this was not the great design of leaving these things upon record: but to let us see what treatment our sins deserve; how abominable sin is in the sight of an holy and just God, who suffered his own Son to be thus treated when he had put himself in the place of sinners, in order to procure their pardon ;and, lastly, to convince sinners what they must expect, whose sins are not pardoned by the merits and sufferings of Jesus Christ.-WILSON.

But Peter followed him afar off unto the high-priest's palace.-Peter follows afar off, loath to run himself into danger. Such has been, too often, our following of Christ; cowardly, afar off, trembling, with fear and pusillanimity. If Christ deserves