they were to surprise a prince of armed outlaws, whom without force they could not reduce. So, also, might butchers do well to go armed, when they are pleased to be afraid of lambs, by calling them lions. Judas only discovered his master's retirements, and betrayed him to the opportunities of an armed band; for he could not accuse his master of any word or private action, that might render him obnoxious to suspicion or the law. For such are the rewards of innocence and prudence, that the one secures against sin, the other against suspicion and appearances. 8. The holy Jesus had accustomed to receive every of his disciples after absence with entertainment of a kiss, which was the endearment of persons, and the expression of the oriental civility: and Judas was confident that his Lord would not reject him, whose feet he had washed at the time, when he foretold this event, and therefore had agreed to signify him by this sign1; and did so, beginning war with a kiss, and breaking the peace of his Lord by the symbol of kindness; which, because Jesus entertained with much evenness and charitable expressions, calling him "friend"," he gave evidence, that if he retained civilities to his greatest enemies in the very acts of hostility, he hath banquets, and crowns, and sceptres for his friends, that adore him with the kisses of charity, and love him with the sincerity of an affectionate spirit. But our blessed Lord, besides his essential sweetness and serenity of spirit, understood well, how great benefits himself and all the world were to receive by occasion of that act of Judas: and our greatest enemy does, by accident, to holy persons, the offices of their dearest friends; telling us our faults, without a cloak to cover their deformities, but, out of malice, laying open the circumstances of aggravation; doing us affronts, from whence we have an instrument of our patience; and restraining us from scandalous crimes, lest we "become a scorn and reproof to them that hate us." And it is none of God's least mercies, that he 1 O signum sacrilegum! O placitum fugiendum! ubi ab osculo incipitur bellum, et per pacis indicium pacis rumpitur sacramentum. — Aug. Serm. 12. Si honoras, ô dulcis Domine, Inimicum amici nomine, Quales erunt, amoris carmine Qui te canunt et modulamine.- Hondem, de Passione, permits enmities amongst men; that animosities and peevishness may reprove more sharply, and correct with more severity and simplicity, than the gentle hand of friends, who are apter to bind our wounds up, than to discover them and make them smart; but they are to us an excellent probation, how friends may best do the offices of friends, if they would take the plainness of enemies in accusing, and still mingle it with the tenderness and good affections of friends. But our blessed Lord called Judas "friend," as being the instrument of bringing him to glory, and all the world to pardon, if they would. 9. Jesus himself begins the inquiry, and leads them into their errand, and tells them he was Jesus of Nazareth, whom they sought. But this also, which was an answer so gentle, had in it a strength greater than the eastern wind or the voice of thunder; for God was in that "still voice," and it struck them down to the ground'. And yet they, and so do we, still persist to persecute our Lord, and to provoke the eternal God, who can, with the breath of his mouth, with a word, or a sign, or a thought, reduce us into nothing, or into a worse condition, even an eternal duration of torments, and co-habitation with a never-ending misery. And if we cannot bear a soft answer of the merciful God, how shall we dare to provoke the wrath of the Almighty Judge? But in this instance there was a rare mixture of effects, as there was in Christ of natures; the voice of a man, and the power of God. For it is observed by the doctors of the primitive ages", that, from the nativity of our Lord to the day of his death, the divinity and humanity did so communicate in effects, that no great action passed, but it was like the sun shining through a cloud, or a beauty with a thin veil drawn over it; they gave illustration and testimony to each other. The holy Jesus was born a tender and a crying infant; but is adored by the magi as a king, by the angels as their God. He is circumsignify him to cised as a man; but a name is given him, to be the Saviour of the world. He flies into Egypt, like a distressed child, under the conduct of his helpless parents; but 1 Πάντες ἐπ ἀλλήλοισι μαχήμονες ἀσπιδιῶται Αὐτόματοι πίπτοντες ἐπεστόςνυντο κονίῃ, Πρήνεες, οιστρηθέντες ἀτευχέϊ λαίλαπι φωνῆς. - Nonn. m S. Cyril. S. Athanas. S. Leo, &c. as soon as he enters the country, the idols fall down, and confess his true divinity. He is presented in the temple as the son of man; but by Simeon and Anna he is celebrated, with divine praises, for the Messias, the Son of God. He is baptized in Jordan as a sinner; but the Holy Ghost, descending upon him, proclaimed him to be the well-beloved of God. He is hungry in the desert as a man; but sustained his body without meat and drink, for forty days together, by the power of his divinity: there he is tempted of Satan as a weak man, and the angels of light minister unto him as their supreme Lord. And now, a little before his death, when he was to take upon him all the affronts, miseries, and exinanitions of the most miserable, he receives testimonies from above, which are most wonderful; for he was transfigured upon Mount Tabor, entered triumphantly into Jerusalem, had the acclamations of the people; when he was dying, he darkened the sun; when he was dead, he opened the sepulchres; when he was fast nailed to the cross, he made the earth to tremble; now, when he suffers himself to be apprehended by a guard of soldiers, he strikes them all to the ground only by replying to their answer: that the words of the prophet might be verified, "Therefore my people shall know my name; therefore they shall know in that day, that I am he that doth speak; behold! it is I"." 10. The soldiers and servants of the Jews having recovered from their fall, and risen by the permission of Jesus, still persisted in their inquiry after him, who was present, ready, and desirous to be sacrificed. He, therefore, permitted himself to be taken, but not his disciples: for he it was that set them their bounds; and he secured his apostles to be witnesses of his suffering and his glories; and this work was the redemption of the world, in which no man could have an active share°; he alone was to tread the wine-press; and time enough they should be called to a fellowship of sufferings. But Jesus went to them, and they bound him with cords; and so began our liberty and redemption from slavery, and sin, and cursings, and death. But he was bound faster n Isa. lii. 6. • Semovit à periculo discipulos, non ignorans ad se solum certamen illud et opus salutis nostræ pertinere. Regnantis enim, et non servientis, naturæ opus est. S. Cyril. - by bands of his own; his father's will, and mercy, pity of the world, prophecies, and mysteries, and love held him fast: and these cords were as " strong as death ;" and the cords, which the soldiers' malice put upon his holy hands, were but symbols and figures, his own compassion and affection were the morals. But yet he undertook this short restraint and condition of a prisoner, that all sorts of persecution and exterior calamities might be hallowed by his susception; and these pungent sorrows should, like bees, sting him, and leave their sting behind, that all the sweetnesses should remain for us. Some melancholic devotions have, from uncertain stories, added sad circumstances of the first violence done to our Lord; that they bound him with three cords, and that with so much violence, that they caused blood to start from his tender hands; that they spate then, also, upon him, with a violence and incivility like that, which their fathers had used towards Hur, the brother of Aaron, whom they choaked with impure spittings into his throat, because he refused to consent to the making a golden calf. These particulars are not transmitted by certain records. Certain it is, they wanted no malice, and now no power; for the Lord had given himself into their hands. 66 11. St. Peter seeing his master thus ill-used, asked, Master, shall we strike with the sword?" and before he had his answer, cut off the ear of Malchus. Two swords there were in Christ's family, and St. Peter bore one; either because he was to kill the paschal lamb, or, according to the custom of the country, to secure them against beasts of prey, which in that region were frequent, and dangerous in the night. But now he used it in an unlawful war; he had no competent authority; it was against the ministers of his lawful prince, and against our prince we must not draw a sword for Christ himself, himself having forbidden us; as his "kingdom is not of this world," so neither were his defences secular: he could have called for many legions of angels for his guard, if he had so pleased; and we read that one angel slew 185,000 armed men in one night; and, therefore, it was a vast power, which was at the command of our Lord; and he needs not such low auxiliaries as an army of rebels, or a P Dominum omnium mysteria, non arma, tenuerunt. — - S. Amb. in Lucam. navy of pirates, to defend his cause: he first lays the foundation of our happiness in his sufferings, and hath ever since supported religion by patience and suffering, and in poverty, and all the circumstances and conjunctures of improbable causes. Fighting for religion is certain to destroy charity, but not certain to support faith. St. Peter, therefore, may use his keys, but he is commanded to put up his sword; and he did so; and presently he and all his fellows fairly ran away: and yet that course was much the more Christian; for though it had in it much infirmity, yet it had no malice. In the mean time, the Lord was pleased to touch the ear of Malchus, and he cured it; adding to the first instance of power, in throwing them to the ground, an act of miraculous. mercy, curing the wounds of an enemy made by a friend. But neither did this pierce their callous and obdurate spirits; but they led him in uncouth ways, and through the brook Cedron, in which it is said the ruder soldiers plunged him, and passed upon him all the affronts and rudenesses which an insolent and cruel multitude could think of, to signify their contempt and their rage. And such is the nature of evil men, who, when they are not softened by the instruments and arguments of grace, are much hardened by them; such being the purpose of God, that either grace shall cure sin, or accidentally increase it; that it shall either pardon it, or bring it to greater punishment: for so I have seen healthful medicines, abused by the incapacities of a healthless body, become fuel to a fever, and increase the distemperature, from indisposition to a sharp disease, and from thence to the margent of the grave. But it was otherwise in Saul, whom Jesus threw to the ground with a more angry sound than these persecutors: but Saul rose a saint, and they persisted devils; and the grace of God distinguished the events. THE PRAYER. O holy Jesus, make me by thy example to conform to the will of that eternal God, who is our Father, merciful and gracious; that I may choose all those accidents, which his Providence hath actually disposed to me; that I may know |