the one blackened, and in how much brighter colours does the forbearance of the other appear!

In the course of this history, our attention has frequently been directed to the conduct of Peter; to a melancholy instance of which it is once more called. We lately left him sitting among the servants in the hall of the palace of the high priest; hoping, probably, not to be known or discovered in the croud that surrounded him. But the damsel who kept the door, looking earnestly on Peter, as he sat by the fire warming himself, went up to him, and challenged him with being a disciple of JESUS. To her abrupt question he instantly answered, that he was not, and turning away, as if he was of fended at the charge, he went out into the porch, and at that instant the cock crew. This circumstance perhaps did not engage his attention, otherwise he might have been more upon his guard against a second attack: for not long after he was gone into the porch, another maid said in the same manner to them that stood by, This is one of them: upon which they put the question to him plainly, Art not thou also one of his disciples? Here he not only denied any knowledgeof JESUS; but also, to avoid suspicion,

denied it with an oath. He now perhaps thought himself secure from any further molestation on the subject; but he was mistaken: for, about an hour after, a third person, being his kinsman whose car Peter cut off, who with others suspected him to be a disciple of JESUS by his speech, which discovered him to be a Galilean, said unto him, Did 'I not see thee in the garden with him? Upon which Peter denied it more vehemently than before. The first was a simple denial; the second was accompanied with an oath; but the third time he began to curse and to swear, saying, I know not the man. The second crowing of the cock immediately after brought to his recollection all that had past, for now he remembered the word that JESUS had said unto him, Before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice. The tender compassionate look too of his Master, who at that very instant turned and looked on Peter, had such an effect, that he whose heart seemed before to be hardened, now melted into tears, and he went out and wept bitterly. Happy, happy tears! which thus fell, the effect of true contrition of heart, for a deed ungenerous, base, and ungrateful. May such tears flow from every sinner, touch

ed with a due sense of the enormity of his guilt and may such blessed fruits follow them, as afterwards followed the repentance of Peter.

From this melancholy fall and happy rising again of Peter, we return to the blessed JESUS, whom we left standing bound before the Sanhedrim, the great council of the Jewish nation: who being determined to put him to death, wished however to do it with, at least, some appearance of justice: they therefore sought for false witnesses against him, but found none to answer their purpose. Yea, tho' many false witnesses came, and bore testimony against him, yet they found none sufficient for conviction. At last two false witnesses came, who, upon their oaths, declared that they heard this fellow, as they called JESUS, say, I am able to destroy the temple of GOD, and to build it in three days. They perverted. the expression of JESUS, which was, De-stroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up, meaning thereby his own body, and referring to his own death and resurrection, not to the magnificent structure at Jerusalem; to speak contemptuously of which was by the Jews considered as blasphemous. But neither

so did their witness agree together, one having affirmed that he said, I am able to destroy, the other, I will destroy the temple of GOD*. Hereupon the high priest, hoping that this might lead to some further discovery, and fearing that it was not sufficient of itself to convict him, stood up in the midst of the council, and asked JESUS what reply he had to make to these witnesses, and what he had to say in his own defence.

JESUS despising such malicious and groundless accusation, held his peace, and answered nothing; and in this not sullen, but dignified, silence, he persisted; till the high priest at last determined to adjure, that is to question him upon his oath; when JESUS, in compliance with the demands of lawful authority, thought fit to answer. I adjure thee, suid the high priest, by the living GOD, that thou tell us, whether thou be the

*This in all probability is the difference intended by St. Mark. Doddridge has a pertinent remark on this testimony, that the words, thus misrepresented, were spoken by CHRIST at least three years before. Their going back so far to find matter for the charge they brought, was a glorious, though silent, attestation of the unexceptionable manner in which our LORD had behaved himself during all the course of his publick ministry.---Doddridge's Fam. Exp.

CHRIST, the Son of the blessed GOD. JESUS, thus put to his oath, answered in express terms, I am*, nor will I ever recede from that claim; and though you may now pass the sentence of condemnation upon me, yet you shall hereafter see me, who now, as the Son of Man, am thus despitefully arraigned at the bar of justice, sitting on the right hand of the power of Gop, and coming in the clouds of heaven, to condemn those who are about to condemn met.

The high priest hearing this, indignantly rent his clothes, and said, He hath spoken blasphemy in declaring himself to be CHRIST the Son of GOD.What farther need have we of witnesses? Behold now ye have heard his blasphemy: what think ye? They all agreed, that there was no occasion for farther evi

dence, since they themselves had heard him, out of his own mouth, convict himself of a capital crime: and they all rea

* In St. Mark's narrative these words are expressly assigned to our Saviour. The same assent to the question of the high priest is implied by the answer in St. Matthew, Thou hast said; and by that in St. Luke, Ye say that I am. It was by

the same form of expression according to each of the four evangelists, that he affirmed himself to be the King of the Jews, when interrogated by Pilate. + Knowles.