villany from his Master and the disciples, he walked bastily, and, without waiting for the band, went up directly and saluted him; feigning, perhaps, to apprize him of his danger. But JESUS did not fail to convince him that he knew the meaning and intent of his salutation, saying, " Betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss?" Judas certainly concealed his treachery so well, that Peter did not suspect him, as it is probable, he would have struck at him rather than at Malchus, the high priest's servant, if he had.

Our Lord's appointed time for suffering being now come, he did not, as formerly, avoid his enemies; but, on the contrary, on their telling him they sought Jesus of Nazareth, he replied, "I am he:" thereby insinuating to them, that he was willing to put himself, into their hands: at the same time, to shew them that they could not apprehend kim without his own consent, he in an extraordinary manner exerted his divine power, he made the whole band fall back, and threw them to the ground: Jesus, therefore knowing all things that should come upon him, went forth, and said unto them, Whom seek ye? They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus saith unto them, I am he. And Judas also, which betrayeth him, stood with them. As soon then as he had said unto them, I sin he, they went backward, and fell to the ground," But the soldiers and the Jews imagining, perhaps, that they had been thrown down by some dæmon or evil spirit, with whom the Jews said he was in confedeFacy, advanced towards him a second time: "Then asked he them again, Whom seek ye? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus answered, I bave told you, that I am he;" expressing again his willingness to fall into their hands: "If therefore ye seek me, let those go their way." If your business be with me alone, suffer my disciples to pass; for the party had surrounded them also. He seems to have made this request to the soldiers, that the saying might be fulfilled which he spake, Of them which thou gavest me have I lost none." For as he always proportions the trials of his people to their strength; so here he took care that the disciples should escape the storm, which none but himself could bear.

Some of the soldiers, more daring than the rest, at length rudely caught JESUS, and bound him: upon which Peter drew his sword, and smote eff the ear of the high priest's servant, who probably was shewing greater forwardness than the rest in this business: "Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it. and smote the high priest's servant, and cut off his right ear ; the servant's name was Malchus." The enraged apostle was was on the point of singly attacking the whole band, when JESUS ordered him to sheath his sword, telling him, that his unseasonable and imprudent.defence might prove the occasion of his destruction: " Then said Jesus unto him, put up again thy sword into it's place; for all they that take the sword, shall perish with the sword." He told him likewise, that it implied both a distrust of the Divine Providence, which can always employ a variety of means for the safety of good men, and also his ignorance in the Scriptures: "Thinkest thou," said he, "that I cannot now pray to my Father, ar, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?" Matt. xxvi. 53, 54.

Legion was a Roman military term, being the name which they gave to a body of five or six thousand men: wherefore in regard that the band which now surrounded them, was a Roman cohort, our Lord might make use of this term by way of contrast, to shew what an inconsiderable thing the cohort was, in comparison of the force he could summon to his assistance; more than twelve legions, not of soldiers, but of angels. He yet was tenderly inclined to prevent any bad consequences, mhich might have flowed from Peter's rashness, by healing the servant, and adding, in his rebuke to him, a declaration of his willingness to suffer: "The cup which my Father has given me, shall I not drink it?"

Our Lord's healing the ear of Malchus, by touching it, seems to imply, that he created a new one in the place of that which was cut off; but though he performed the care some other way it equally demonstrates. both his goodness and his power. No wound or distemper was incurable in the hand of JESUS; heither was any injury so great that he could not forgive. It seems somewhat surprising that this evident miracle did not make an impression upon the chief priests, especially as our Lord put them in mind mind at the same time of his other miracles; for having first said,

Suffer ye thus far; and he tonched his ear, and healed him;" he added, "Be'ye 'come out, as against a thief, with swords and staves? When 1 was daily with you in the temple, ye stretched forth no hands against me: but this is your hour, and the power fof dariness." Luke xxii. 51, 52, 53.

as

They had kept at a distance during the attack, but drew near, when they understood that JESUs was in their power; for they were proof against all conviction, being costinately bent on putting him to death. And the disciples, when they saw their Master in the hands of his onemies, forseok him and fled, according to his prediction: notwithstanding they might have fo'lowed him without any danger, the priests had no design against them: Then all the disciples forsook him, and fled. Then the band, and the captain and officers of the Jews, took Jesus, and bound him." But it was not the cord which held him; his immense charity was by far a stronger bani; he could, with more ease than Sampson. have broken those werk tes, and exerted divinity in a more wonderful manner; he could have stricken them all dead, with as much ease as he had before thrown them on the ground; but he patiently submitted to this, as to every other indignity which they pleased to offer him; so meek was he under the greatest injuries. Having thus secured him, they led him away. And there followed him a certain young man, having a linnen cloth cast about his naked body; and the young man laid hold on him; and he left the linnen cloth, and fled from them naked." This, per. haps, was the proprietor of the garden; who, being awakened with the noise, came out with the linnen cloth, in which he had been lying, cast "round his naked body; and forgetting the dress he was in, and having a respect for JESUS, followed him.

He was first led to Annas, father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was highpriest that year. Annas having himself discharged the office of high Priest, was consequently a person of distinguished character, which, together with his relation to the high-priest, made him worthy of the respect they now paid him; but he refused singly to meddle in the affair; they, therefore, carried JESUS to Caiaphas himself, at whose place the chief priests, elders, and Scribes were assembled, having staid there all night to see the issue of their stratagem. This Caiaphas was he that advised the council to put Jesus to death, even admitting he was innocent, for the safety of the whole Jewish nation. He was advanced to the sacredotal dignity by Valerius Gratus, Pilate's predecessor, and was divested of it by Vitellius, governor of Syria, after he had deposed Pilate from his procuratorship; and therefore seems to have enjoyed it during the whole course of Pilate's government.

see thee in the garden with him! Peter then denied again, and immediately the cock crew." The words of Malchus's kinsman bringing to Peter's remembrance what he had done to that servant, threw him into such a panic, that when those who stood by repeated the charge, he impudently tly denied it: He even began to curse and to swear, saying, I know not this man of whom ye speak." For, when they heard Peter deny the charge, they supported it by an argument drawn from the accent with which he pronounced his answer. Surely, thou art one of them, for thou art a Galilean, and thy speech agreeth thereto; so that, being pressed on all sides, to give his lie a better colour, he profaned the name of God, by imprecating the bitterest curses on himself, if he was telling a falsehood perhaps, he hoped, by these acts of impiety, to convince them effectu ally, that he was not CHRIST's disciple.

This zealous apostle thus denied his Master three distinct times, with ouths and asseverations, totally forgetting the vehement protestations he had made a few hours before, that he would never deny him. He was permitted to fall in this manner, to teach us two lessons; first, that whatever a person's attainments might have been formerly, if once he passes the bounds of innocence, he commonly proceeds from bad to worse, one sin naturally drawing on another, for which reason the very least appearances of evil are to be avoided, && the greatest humility & self-diffidence maintained: in the second place, we may learn, that no sinner who repents, and has confidence in the goodness of God, should ever despair; for he no sooner denied his Master the third time, than the cock crew, and awakened in him the first conviction of his sin: "And the Lord turned, and looked upon Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had,. said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. And Peter went out, and wept bitterly." St. Luke is the only evangelist who has preserved this beautiful circumstance of CHRIST's turning and looking on Peter. The members of the council who sat on Jesus, were placed at the upper end of the hall; in the other, were the servants with Peter at the fire; so that Jesus being probably placed on some eminence, that his judges, who were numerous, might see and hear him, could easily look over towards Peter, and observe him denying him, and in passionate terms, loud enough to be heard, perhaps over all the place. The look pierced. him, and, with the crowing of the cock, brought his Master's prediction fresh into his mind. He was stung with deep remorse; and, being unable to contain himself, he covered his face with his garment to conceal the confusion he was in, and going out into the porch wept very bitterly. All this passed while the priests examined Jesus with many taunts and revilings; & while the most zealous of CHRIST's disciples was denying him with oaths and imprecations, the others insulted him in the most inhuman injuries, insults, and indignities, was at one time heaped npon the blessed Redeemer, the meek and mild JESUS. the suffering and wonderfully-patient Son of the adorable Majesty of heaven.

manner.

The Trial of JESUS before the Sanhedrim, or grand Council of the Jeros. THE band of soldiers having seized Jesus, led him to the high priest's house, where all the chief priests, the Scribes, and the elders were assem

bled: " And as soon as it was day, the elders of the people, and the chief priests, and the Scribes came together, and led him into their council."Probably the trial did not begin immediately on our Lord's arrival; for though many of the Judges were at the high-priest's before him, some persons of distinction might be absent, whose coming, the rest were out of respect, inclined to wait for; but as the passover was at hand, they had no time to lose; so that as soon as the council was fully met, the trial was begun: "And the high priest asked Jesus of his disciples, and of his doctrine." They enquired of him what his disciples were, and for what end he had gathered thein, whether it was to make himself a king, and what the doctrine was which he taught them? In these questions there was a great deal of art; for as the crime laid to our Saviour's charge was, that he had set up for the Messiah, and deluded the people, they expected he would claim that dignity in their presence, and so would on his own confession, have condemned him, without any further process. This was unfair, as it was artful and ensnaring: to oblige a prisoner on his trial to confess what might might take away his life was a very inequitable method of proceeding; and Jesus expressed his opinion thereof with very good reason, and complained of it, bidding them prove what they had laid to his charge by witnesses: "Jesus answered him, I spake openly to the world; I ever taught in the synagogue, and in the temple, whither the Jews always resort; and in secret have I said nothing. Why asketh thou me? Ask them which heard me, what I have said unto them: behold they know what I said." It was greatly to the honour of our blessed Redeemer, that all his actions were done in public, under the eye of all his enemies; because, had he been carrying on any imposter, the lovers of goodness and truth had thus abundant opportunities of detecting him with propriety: he therefore, in his defence appealed to that part of his character; yet his answer was construed disrespecful: for, "when he had thus spoken, one of the officers which stood by, struck Jesus with the palm of his hand, saying, answerest thou the highpriest so?" To which he meekly replied with the greatest serenity " If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil; but if well, why smitest thou ane?" Shew me, prove before the court, wherein my crime consists, or record it in the evidence on the face of my trial; which if thou cannot, how can thou answer this inhuman treatment to a defenceless prisoner, standing on his trial before the world, and in open court, and striking me undeservedly ?

In this instance, Jesus became an example of his own precept; and if a man smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. Matt. v. 36. bearing the greatest injuries with an unprovoked patience, worthy of the meek lamb of God.

JESUS having declined answering the questions, whereby the council expected to have drawn from him an acknowledgment of his being the Messiah, they proceeded to examine many witnesses to prove his having assumed that character; as they considered such a pretension as blasphemy in his mouth, who being only a man, according to their opinion, could not without the highest affront to the Divine Majesty, pretend to the title of the Son of God, as it belonged only to the Messiah. But in this examination they acted like enraged persecutors, rather than impartial judges, forming the questions in the most artful manner, in order if possible, to draw expressions from them which they might pervert into suspicions of guilt, as some foundation of condemning JESUS, who had so long and faithfully laboured for their salvation. Their witnesses however disappointed them, some disagreeing in their story, and others mentioning things of no manner of importance.

At last two persons agreed in their depositions, namely, in hearing him say, that he was able to destroy the temple of God, and to raise it in three days. But this testimony was absolutely false; for our great Redeemer